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X. New method of modelling the Tenses of Verbs.

MR. URBAN,

MEN of polite learning have long complained, that Latin written by moderns, of whatever skill in the language, has something in it unlike that of the purest classics. This has generally been resolved, like taste, into the French Je ne sçai quoi; or attributed to the aukwardness of imitation. Bat certainly a defect that is universal must be in essentials. It may therefore be worth while to inquire, whether it may not, in a great measure, if not entirely, be owing to the use of wrong tenses in verbs; an error produced by defects in that case, common to all grammars ever yet published in our own or any other nation.

It is now about four years since I was appointed master of a free grammar school, when, though the classics had been the principal study of my life, it became necessary for me to be thoroughly versed in the true analysis of their language, in order to discharge that trust with fidelity. For initiating youth in the rudiments of grammar, I made use of Lilly, as revised by Ward: which, in perspicuity and regular disposition, far exceeds any compend of the art, I have been able to procure. But as this, as well as others, has its errors and deficiencies, I took the pains to collect, from the best writers on that subject, such remarks, for the use of my upper school, as I hoped, would, in some degree, perfect that grammar, make my youth acquainted with the grounds of the science, and put it in their power always to avoid a grammatical error. In the execution of this design, I found myself under the necessity of new modelling the tenses of the verbs; or rather indeed of restoring them to their most ancient form, that of Varro. From which, how all the grammarians in general came to vary, (in a case so plain, and supported by such authority) is to me matter of astonishment. The world has seen how much light has been thrown on Homer by Dr. Clark's revival of this form in the Greek; and why may not as much be done by it for the Latin?

The disposition of matter in Lilly, as I before observed, is extremely proper; and therefore, to make the formation of verbs easier to childhood, he begins with the present tense. But as youth of thirteen or fourteen are capable of thought and reflection, and must have learnt the formation long before; I there reduce time to its natural order, the past,

the present, and the future; each of which being conceived, as respecting the action or passion perfect or imperfect, constitutes two separate tenses or times. To explain this more. fully, I shall subjoin a paradigm,

MODI INDICATIVI.

Præteritum primum et secundum.

Tempus præteritum rei imperfectæ. (Præter-imperfect.) Amabam, as, at ; &c. I did love, or was loving.

Tempus præteritum rei perfectæ, (Præter-perfect.) Amaveram, as, at; &c. I had loved, or been loving.

Præsens primum et secundum.

Tempus præsens rei imperfectæ, (Present-imperfect.) Amo, as, at; &c. I love, or am loving.

Tempus præsens rei perfectæ, (Present-perfect.) Amavi, isti, it; &c. I have loved, or been loving.

Futurum primum et secundum,

Tempus futurum rei imperfectæ, (Future-imperfect.) Amabo, bis, bit; &c. I shall or will love, or be loving. Tempus futurum rei perfectæ, (Future-perfect.) Amavero, ris, rit; &c. I shall have loved, or been loving.

To such as ask my reasons for preferring this distribution of tenses, I answer, 1st. That it is both a natural, regular, and easy one; and what I am persuaded others, as well as myself, from observations on the usage of good authors, will find to be just. 2dly. Let them please to consider, whether the judgment of Varro and Dr. Clark, be not, in this case, equal, not to say superior, to that of all who have written on the subject besides. And, 3dly. Whether the four defective verbs (capi, memini, novi, and odi,) which, under the perfect form, retain also the sense of the imperfect, amount not to a demonstration, that it is right. To instance in one:

MODI INDICATIVI.

Præteritum primum et secundum.

Tempus præteritum rei imperfectæ et perfectæ. Noveram, as, at; &c. I did know, and I had known. Præsens primum et secundum.

Tempus præsens rei imperfecta et perfectæ,

Novi, isti, it; &c. I know, and I have known.

Futurum primum et secundum.

Tempus futurum rei imperfectæ et perfectæ. Novero, ris, rit; &c. I shall know, and have known.:

A thorough acquaintance with this true state of the tenses would, I believe, prevent the affixing wrong ideas of time in Latin compositions; a fault very much fallen into by moderns. It would also supersede several frivolous and false rules of grammar; such as, that Conjunctions join the same mood but different tenses. For, not to say (what however is true) that the business of conjunctions is not to join together either moods, tenses, or indeed single words, but sentences or clauses of sentences, those different tenses as the grammarians call them, are in reality the same. Witness that deservedly admired passage of Virgil:

Eriit ad coelum ramis felicibus arbos
Miraturque novas frondes; &c.

where any man, with half an eye, may see that exiit and miratur are both of the present tense: and that the former must be Englished is gone, not was gone; for so it must have been exierat.

But to proceed; to the imperative mood I found it necessary to add three new tenses; a present-perfect, a future-imperfect, common to this mood, with the indicative: and a future-perfect, common to all the moods, except the infinitive, MODI IMPERATIVI.

Præsens primum et secundum.

Tempus præsens rei imperfectæ, (Present-imperfect.) Ama, ato; et, ato; &c. love thou, or be thou loving.

Tempus præsens rei perfecta, (Present-perfect.) Amaveris, rit; &c. have thou loved, or been loving.

Futurum primum et secundum.

Tempus futurum rei imperfectæ, (Future-imperfect.) Amabis, bit; &c. Love thou hereafter, or be loving.

Tempus futurum rei perfectæ, (Future-perfect.) Amaveris, rit; &c. Have thou loved hereafter, or been loving.

Let Oderint, dum metuant; & adolescentes meminerint pudicitia, out of Tully, suffice as examples of the presentperfect of this mood; where the defective verbs, as has been already observed under the form of the perfect, include

the sense also of the imperfect. Examples of the first future of this mood occur so frequently, that it is needless to cite any; however, take this out of Qvid-Gradere et scitabere ab ipso. Met. Lib. I. line 775, where Dr. Friend and other editors, aware of the difficulty, but not knowing what to make of it, have put a colon stop, as a fence, to separate these two different moods, as they thought them, and to counterbalance the force of the copulative.

Of the latter future take this example out of Terence,

Nec tu eâ causâ minueris

Hæc quæ facis, ne is suam mutet sententiam.

And. Act. II. Scen. 3.

where the common resolution by fac and ut is a very harsh one, and, in my opinion, much better resolved this way; especially as, in all like cases, it must be rendered into other languages by the imperative.

Before I finish with this mood, I should be glad, if such as are studious of grammatical perfection, would, in their reading of classics of the best note, observe, whether the two defective verbs, salvebis and valebis, ever occur in the indicative sense. That they are of the first future of the imperative, above described, numbers of instances may be produced; but I much doubt whether it was not through ignorance, as this tense belonged also to the imperative, that the compilers of grammar have referred them to the indicative.

In the Optative, Potential, and Subjunctive Moods, the same ratio of tenses obtains, as in the Indicative; only it is to be observed, that the present and future are the same both in the perfect and imperfect. For instance,

MODI OPTATIVI, POTENTIALIS, ET SUBJUNCTIVİ.

Præteritum primum et secundum.

Tempus præteritum rei imperfectæ, (Preter-imperfect.) Amarem, res, ret; &c. I might, could, &c. love, or be loving. Tempus præteritum rei perfecta, (Præter-perfect.) Amavissem, ses, set; &c. I might, could, &c. have loved, or be loving.

Præsens et futurum primum et secundum.

Tempus præsens et futurum rei imperfectæ, (Present, and future-imperfect.)

Amem, es, et; &c. I may, &c. or shall love, or be loving.

Tempus præsens et futurum rei perfectæ, (Present and future-perfect.)

im

Amaver-ris, rit; &c. I may, should, &c. or shall have loved or been loving.

But in the infinitive mood, the past, and present are the same, both in the imperfect and perfect; and the future dis

tinct; as,

MODI INFINITIVI.

Præteritum et præsens primum et secundum.

Tempus præteritum et præsens rei imperfectæ, (Preter and present-imperfect.)

Me, te, illum; nos, vos, illos; amare: That I was, or am loving. Tempus præteritum et præsens rei perfectæ, (Preter and present-perfect.) Me, te, illum; &c. amavisse; That I have, or had been loving.

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Futurum primum et secundum.

Tempus futurum rei imperfectæ, (Future-imperfect.) Me, te, illum; &c. amaturum esse; That I am about to be loving.

Tempus futurum rei perfectæ, (Future-perfect.) Me, te, illum; &c. amaturum fuisse; That I was about to be loving.

This is the form to which I reduce the active voice; and the passive follows in like manner; only with some necessary alterations in those tenses, which are made up of the participle and auxiliary verb. Where the first form both of the past and present, by including both the imperfect and perfect sense, affords the same argument of the right distribution of tenses, in the above Paradigm, with the four defective verbs, before-mentioned; thus:

Præteritum primum et secundum.

Tempus præteritum rei imperfectæ et perfectæ, (Preter imperfect and perfect.)

Amatus, eram, ras; &c. I was, &c. had been, loved.

Præsens primum et secundum.

Tempus præsens rei imperfecta et perfecta, (Presentimperfect and perfect.)

Amatus sum, es, &c. I am, or have been loved;

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