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going to write." But the Latins go further, and have a species of verbs, derived from others, which do the duty of these tenses, and are themselves for that reason called inchoatives or inceptives. Thus from Caleo, I am warm," comes Calesco, "I begin to grow warm;" from Tumeo, "I swell," comes Tumesco, "I begin to swell." These inchoative verbs are so peculiarly appropriated to the beginnings of time, that they are defective as to all tenses which denote it in its completion, and therefore have neither perfectum, plusquam-perfectum, or perfect future. There is likewise a species of verbs called in Greek peтixà, in Latin desiderativa, the desideratives or meditatives, which if they are not strictly inceptives, yet both in Greek and Latin have a near affinity with them. Such are roleμnoeiw, bellaturio, "I have a desire to make war;" ẞpwoelw, esurio, “ I long to eat. And so much for the inceptive tenses.

The two last orders of tenses which remain, are those we called the middle tenses," (which express time as extended and passing,) and the perfect or completive, which express its completion or end.

a

Now for these the authorities are many. They have been acknowledged already in the ingenious accidence of Mr. Hoadly, and explained and confirmed by Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his rational edition of Homer's Iliad. Nay, long before either of these, we find the same scheme in Scaliger, and by him ascribed to Grocinus," as its author. The learned Gaza (who was himself a Greek, and one of the ablest restorers of that language in the western world) characterizes the tenses in nearly the same manner. What Apollonius hints, is exactly consonant.d

C

y As all beginnings have reference to what is future, hence we see how properly these verbs are formed, the Greek ones from a future verb, the Latin from a future participle. From πολεμήσω and βρώσω come Toλeμnoelw and Bpwoeiw; from bellaturus and esurus come bellaturio and esurio. See Macrobius, p. 691. ed. Var. où wávu yé μe νῦν δὴ γελασείοντα ἐποίησας γελάσαι. Plato in Phædone.

Care must be taken not to confound these middle tenses, with the tenses of those verbs, which bear the same name among grammarians.

* Ex his percipimus Grocinum acute ad modum tempora divisisse, sed minus commode. Tria enim constituit, ut nos, sed quæ bifariam secat, perfectum et imperfectum: sic, præteritum imperfectum, amabam: præteritum perfectum, amaveram. Recte sane. Et præsens imperfectum, amo. Recte hactenus; continuat enim amorem, neque absolvit. At præsens perfectum, amavi: quis hoc dicat? De futuro autem ut non male sentit, ita controversum est. Futurum, inquit, imperfectum, amabo: perfectum,

amavero. Non male, inquam: significat enim amavero, amorem futurum et absolutum iri: amabo perfectionem nullam indicat. De Caus. Ling. Lat. c. 113.

b His name was William Grocin, an Englishman, contemporary with Erasmus, and celebrated for his learning. He went to Florence to study under Landin, and was professor at Oxford. Spec. Lit. Flor. p. 205.

The present tense (as this author informs us in his excellent Grammar) denotes τὸ ἐνεστάμενον καὶ ἀτελές, “ that which is now instant and incomplete;" the perfec tum, τὸ παρεληλυθὸς ἄρτι, καὶ ἐντελὲς τοῦ éveσT@TOs, "that which is now immediately past, and is the completion of the present;" the imperfectum, Tò пapareтaμévov Kai ¿Teλès тоû парwxnμévov, "the extended and incomplete part of the past;" and the plusquam-perfectum, td πapeλnλvods xáλai, κal évteλès toû napakeμévov, “that which is past long ago, and is the completion of the præteritum." Gram. 1. iv.

d ̓Εντεῦθεν δὲ πειθόμεθα, ὅτι οὐ παρε xnuérov σvytéλejav onμaines à tapakei

Priscian, too, advances the same doctrine from the Stoics, whose authority we esteem greater than all the rest, not only from the more early age when they lived, but from their superior skill in philosophy, and their peculiar attachment to dialectic, which naturally led them to great accuracy in these grammatical speculations.

Before we conclude, we shall add a few miscellaneous observations, which will be more easily intelligible from the hypothesis here advanced, and serve withal to confirm its truth.

And first, the Latins used their præteritum perfectum in some instances after a very peculiar manner, so as to imply the very reverse of the verb in its natural signification. Thus, vixit signified "is dead;" fuit signified "now is not, is no more." It was in this sense that Cicero addressed the people of Rome, when he had put to death the leaders in the Catalinarian conspiracy. He appeared in the forum, and cried out, with a loud voice, Vixerunt. So Virgil:

Fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium et ingens
Gloria Dardanidum.

μενος, τήν γε μὴν ἐνεστῶσαν: “ Hence we are persuaded that the perfectum doth not signify the completion of the past, but present completion." Apollon. 1. iii. c. 6. The reason which persuaded him to this opinion, was the application and use of the particle v, of which he was then treating, and which, as it denoted potentiality or contingence, would assort (he says) with any of the passing, extended, and incomplete tenses, but never with this perfectum, because this implied such a complete and indefeasible existence, as never to be qualified into the nature of a contingent.

* By these philosophers the vulgar present tense was called the imperfect present, and the vulgar præteritum, the perfect present, than which nothing can be more consonant to the system that we favour. But let us hear Priscian, from whom we learn these facts. Præsens tempus proprie dicitur, cujus pars jam præteriit, pars futura est. Cum enim tempus, fluvii more, instabili volvatur cursu, vix punctum habere potest in præsenti, hoc est, in instanti. Maxima igitur pars ejus (sicut dictum est) vel præteriit vel futura est. Unde Stoici jure hoc tempus presens etiam imperfectum vocabant (ut dictum est) eo quod prior ejus pars, quæ præteriit, transacta est, deest autem sequens, id est, futura. Ut si in medio versu dicam, scribo versum, priore ejus parte scripta; cui adhuc deest extrema pars, præsenti utor verbo, dicendo, scribo rersum: sed imperfectum est, quod deest adhuc versui, quod scribatur. Ex eodem igitur præsenti nascitur etiam perfectum.

Æn. ii.

Si enim ad finem perveniat inceptum, statim utimur præterito perfecto; continuo enim, scripto ad finem versu, dico, scripsi versum. And soon after, speaking of the Latin perfectum, he says, Sciendum tamen, quod Romani præterito perfecto non solum in re modo completa utuntur, (in quo vim habet ejus, qui apud Græcos Taрakelμevos, vocatur, quem Stoici Téλelov éveσtâta nominaverunt,) sed etiam pro dopíorov accipitur, &c. Lib. viii. p. 812, 813, 814.

So among the Romans, when in a cause all the pleaders had spoken, the cryer used to proclaim Dixerunt, i. e. "they have done speaking." Ascon. Pæd. in Verr. ii.

So Tibullus, speaking of certain prodigies and evil omens: Hæc fuerint olim. Sed tu, jam mitis, Apollo, Prodigia indomitis merge sub æquoribus. Eleg. ii. 5. ver. 19. "Let these events have been in days of old ;" by implication therefore, "but henceforth let them be no more."

So Æneas in Virgil prays to Phœbus:

Hac Trojana tenus fuerit fortuna secuta. "Let Trojan fortune (that is, adverse, like that of Troy and its inhabitants) have so far followed us." By implication, therefore, "but let it follow us no further." "Here let it end," Hic sit finis, as Servius well observes in the place.

In which instances, by the way, mark not only the force of the tense, but of the mood, the precative or imperative, not in the future but in the past. See next chapter.

And again,

Locus Ardea quondam

Dictus avis, et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen,
Sed fortuna fuit. h

Æn. vii.

The reason of these significations is derived from the completive power of the tense here mentioned. We see that the periods of nature, and of human affairs, are maintained by the reciprocal succession of contraries. It is thus with calm and tempest, with day and night, with prosperity and adversity, with glory and ignominy, with life and death. Hence, then, in the instances above, the completion of one contrary is put for the commencement of the other, and to say, hath lived, or hath been, has the same meaning with is dead, or is no more.

It is remarkable in Virgil, that he frequently joins in the same sentence this complete and perfect present with the extended and passing present; which proves that he considered the two, as belonging to the same species of time, and therefore naturally formed to coincide with each other.

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In the same manner he joins the same two modifications of time in the past; that is to say, the complete and perfect past with the extended and passing.

Inruerant Danai, et tectum omne tenebant.

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosæ
Addiderant, rutili tres ignis, et alitis austri.
Fulgores nunc terrificos, sonitumque metumque
Miscebant operi, flammisque sequacibus iras. J

Certus in hospitibus non est amor; errat, ut ipsi:

Cumque nihil speres firmius esse, fuit. Epist. Ovid. Helen. Paridi. ver. 190. Sive erimus, seu nos futa fuisse volent. Tibull. iii. 5. 32.

See also Spencer's Fairy Queen, book i. c. 3. st. 19; c. 3. st. 39; c. 8. st. 9.

He hath his shield redeem'd, and forth his sword he draws.

The intention of Virgil may be better seen, in rendering one or two of the above passages into English.

Tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens Scorpius, et cæli justa plus parte reliquit. "For thee the scorpion is now contracting his claws, and hath already left thee more than a just portion of heaven." The poet, from a high strain of poetic adulation,

Æn. ii.

Æn. viii.

supposes the scorpion so desirous of admitting Augustus among the heavenly signs, that though he has already made him more than room enough, yet he still continues to be making him more. Here then we have two acts, one perfect, the other pending, and hence the use of the two different tenses. Some editions read relinquit; but reliquit has the authority of the celebrated Medicean manuscript.

Illa noto citius, volucrique sagitta, Ad terram fugit, et portu se condidit alto. "The ship, quicker than the wind, or a swift arrow, continues flying to land, and is hid within the lofty harbour." We may suppose this harbour (like many others) to have been surrounded with high land. Hence the vessel, immediately on entering it, was completely hid from those specta

As to the imperfectum, it is sometimes employed to denote what is usual and customary. Thus surgebat and scribebat signify, not only "he was rising, he was writing," but upon occasion they signify "he used to rise, he used to write." The reason of this is, that whatever is customary, must be something which has been frequently repeated. But what has been frequently repeated, must needs require an extension of time past, and thus we fall insensibly into the tense here mentioned.

Again, we are told by Pliny (whose authority likewise is confirmed by many gems and marbles still extant) that the ancient painters and sculptors, when they fixed their names to their works, did it pendenti titulo, "in a suspensive kind of inscription," and employed for that purpose the tense here mentioned. It was 'Απελλῆς ἐποίει, Apelles faciebat, Πολύκλειτος ἐποίει, Polycletus faciebat, and never eπoinσe or fecit. By this they imagined that they avoided the shew of arrogance, and had in case of censure an apology (as it were) prepared, since it appeared from the work itself that it was once indeed in hand, but no pretension that it was ever finished.*

It is remarkable that the very manner in which the Latins derive these tenses from one another, shews a plain reference to the system here advanced. From the passing present come the passing past and future: Scribo, scribebam, scribam. From the perfect present come the perfect past and future: Scripsi, scripseram, scripsero. And so in all instances, even where the verbs are irregular, as from fero come ferebam and feram; from tuli come tuleram and tulero.

We shall conclude by observing, that the order of the tenses, as they stand ranged by the old grammarians, is not a fortuitous order, but is consonant to our perceptions in the recognition of time, according to what we have explained already.' Hence it is that the present tense stands first; then the past tenses; and lastly the future.

And now having seen what authorities there are for aorists, or those tenses which denote time indefinitely, and what for tors, who had gone out to see the ship-race, but yet might still continue sailing towards the shore within.

Inruerant Danai, et tectum omne tenebant. "The Greeks had entered and were then possessing the whole house;" as much as to say, "they had entered, and that was over," but their possession continued still.

* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. i. The first printers, (who were most of them scholars and critics,) in imitation of the ancient artists, used the same tense. Excudebat H. Stephanus. Excudebat Guil. Morelius. Absolvebat Joan. Benenatus, which has been followed by Dr. Taylor in his late valuable edition of Demosthenes.

See before, pages 148-150. Scaliger's

observation upon this occasion is elegant. Ordo autem (temporum scil.) aliter est, quam natura eorum. Quod enim præteriit, prius est, quam quod est, itaque primo loco debere poni videbatur. Verum, quod primo quoque tempore offertur nobis, id creat primas species in animo: quamobrem præsens tempus primum locum occupavit; est enim commune omnibus animalibus. Præteritum autem iis tantum, quæ memoria prædita sunt. Futurum vero etiam paucioribus, quippe quibus datum est prudentiæ officium. De Caus. Ling. Lat. c. 113. See also Senecæ Epist. 124. Mutum animal sensu comprehendit præsentia; præteritorum, &c.

those tenses opposed to aorists, which mark it definitely, (such as the inceptive, the middle, and the completive,) we here finish the subject of time and tenses, and proceed to consider the verb in other attributes, which it will be necessary to deduce from other principles.

E

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING MODES.

We have observed already," that the soul's leading powers are those of perception and those of volition, which words we have taken in their most comprehensive acceptation. We have observed also, that all speech or discourse is a publishing or exhibiting some part of our soul, either a certain perception or a certain volition. Hence then, according as we exhibit it either in a different part or after a different manner, hence, I say, the variety of modes or moods."

If we simply declare or indicate something to be or not to be, (whether a perception or volition, it is equally the same,) this constitutes that mode called the declarative or indicative.

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If we do not strictly assert, as of something absolute and certain, but as of something possible only, and in the number of contingents, this makes that mode which grammarians call the potential, and which becomes on such occasions the leading mode of the sentence.

Sed tacitus pasci si posset corvus, haberet
Plus dapis, &c.

Hor.

Yet sometimes it is not the leading mode, but only subjoined to the indicative. In such case it is mostly used to denote the end, or final cause; which end, as in human life it is always a contingent, and may never perhaps happen, in despite of all our

m See chapter ii.

n Gaza defines a mode exactly consonant to this doctrine. He says it is βούλημα, εἶτ ̓ οὖν πάθημα ψυχῆς, διὰ φωνῆς σημαινόμevov, "a volition or affection of the soul, signified through some voice, or sound articulate." Gram. 1. iv. As therefore this is the nature of modes, and modes belong to

verbs, hence it is Apollonius observes, Tois ῥήμασιν ἐξαιρέτως παράκειται ἡ ψυχική διά θεσις : "the soul's disposition is in an eminent degree attached to verbs.” De Synt. 1. iii. c. 13. Thus, too, Priscian : Modi sunt diversæ inclinationes animi, quas varia consequitur declinatio verbi. Lib. viii. p. 821.

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