feram? Why should I mention every Thing? Ovid. Likewise after Non est Quod? Non est (supple causa) quod eas, There is no Reason why you should go, or you need not go. Sometimes it is Englished by WOULD; as, In facinus jurâsse putes, You would think they had sworn to [commit] wickedness. Ov. 9. We have Englished the PERFECT of the Subjunctive in RIM by MAY HAVE; (as, Ne frustra ne tales viri venerint, That such Men as these may not have come in vain. Cic. Forsitan audieris, You may perhaps have heard of it; to distinguish it from the Present and Pluperfect, by the Signs of which it is also most frequently Englished; as, Út sic dixerim, That I may so speak. Ubi ego audiverim? Where should I have heard it? Unus homo tuntas strages dediderit? Could one man make so great a slaughter? Virg. Fortasse errârim, Perhaps I might be in an Error. Plin. Oratores quos viderim peritissimi, The ablest Orators I have seen [or could see.] Quintil. 10. This Perfect in RIM sometimes inclines very much to a future Signification, and then it is Englished by SHOULD, WOULD, COULD, CAN, WILL, SHÄLL; as, Citius crediderim, I should sooner believe. Juv. Libenter audiérim, I would gladly hear. Cic. Ciceronem cuicunque eorum facile opposuerim, I could easily match Cicero with any of them. Quintil. Non facile dixerim, I cannot well tell. Cic. Nec tamen excluserim alios, And yet I will not exclude others. Plin. Si paululum modo quid te fugerit, ego periêrim, If you but trip in the least, I shall be undone. Ter. But all those ways of speak. ing, though indeed they respect the Future as to the Execution, yet they seem also to look a little beyond it, to a time when their Futurity shall be past; and so come near in Signification to the Future in Ro. 11. The Perfect of the Subjunctive after Quasi, Tanquam, and the like may sometimes be Englished by HAD; as, Quasi affuerim, As if I had been present. Plaut. Perinde ac si jam vicerint, As if they had already overcome. Cic. 12. The PLUPERFECT in ISSEM is sometimes Englished by SHOULD; as Imperaret quod vellet, quodcunque imperavisset, se esse facturos, He might command what he pleased, whatever he commanded [should command] they would do. Cic. Fadus ictum est his legibus, ut cujus populi cives eo certamine vicissent, is alteri imperaret, An Agreement was made. on these Terms, that that People, whose Countrymen should be victorious in that Combat should have the Sovereignty over the other. Liv. And this happens when a Thing is signified as future at a certain past Time referred to; and commonly takes Place, when what was formerly said directly, is afterwards recited indirectly; as, Ne dubita, dabitur quodcunque optáris, Doubt not, whatsoever thou shalt choose shall be given thee. Ov. Sol Phaethonti facturum se esse dixit, quicquid opiásset, The Sun told Phaeton that he would do whatsoever he should. choose. Cic. Where it is worth noticing, that, what was the Future of the Subjunctive in the direct speech, becomes the Plus, perfect in the indirect Recital of it. See Turner's Exercises, h. 21. &c. But as we have said, p. 30. the Pluperfect notwithstanding its coming in the place of a Future, still retains its own proper compound Time, that is, it was prior to a Thing uow past at the Time of the Recital by Cicero, though it was. future when first spoken by the Sun. And therefore there is no Reason for making this Termination isssem a Future Tense, as Mr. Turner does. 13. Though the proper English of the FUTURE in RO be SHALL HÄVE, yet generally the HAVE or the SHALL, and frequently both, are omitted; as, Qui Antonium oppresserit, is bellum confecerit, He who shall cut off Antony, shall put an end to the War. Cic. Haud desinam donec perfecero hoc, I will not give over till I have effected this. Ter Si negaverit, If he denies it. Cic. Sometimes it is Englished by WILL; as, Dixerit fortasse aliquis, Somebody will perhaps say. Cic. Aut consolando, aut consitio, aut re juvero, I will assist you either by comforting you, or with Council, or with Money. Idem. But though we thus render the Future in RO in our Language, and though (which is more material) very frequently it and the Fu tare of the Indicative are used promiscuously, yet I cannot be persuaded that in any instance the formal Significations of these are the same as Mr. Johnson contends, p. 339. But still think with the great Vossius, that the Future in RO is always a Future perfect, that is, that there is a Time insinuated when a Thing yet Future shall be finished or past; and that even when a Future of the Indicative is joined with it, which in order of Time should be done before it ; as, Pergratum mihi feceris, si disputabis, You shall have done [shall do] me a great Favour, if you shall dispute. Cic. For what hinders that we may not faintly hint at the finishing of an Action yet Future, without formally considering the finishing of another Action on which it depends ; and on the contrary? But if the promiscuous Usage of Tenses, one for another, be sufficient to make them formally the same, then we shall confound all Tenses, and overthrow the very Argus ments Mr. Johnson makes use of against Sanctius, with respèc to the Tenses of the Infinitive. 14. The TO of the INFINITIVE is generally omitted after May, Can, Might, Would, Could, (which are sometimes Verbs themselves, and not the bare Signs of them,) also after Must, Bid, Dare, Let, Help, and Make. 15. But what is most to be regarded in the Infinitive is, that when it hath an Accusative before it, it is commonly Englished as the Indicative Mood, the Participle THAT being sometimes put before it, but oftener understood. And it is carefully to be remarked, that the same Tenses of the Infinitivè are differently Englished, according as the Verb varies its Tenses; as will appear in the following Scheme. He says [that] I write. He said [that] I was writing. He shall say [that] I am writing. He says [that] I wrote, or did write. [write. Dicit me scripsisse, It will be of great use to accustom the Learner to render the Infinitive after this Manner, both in English and Latin, especially after he has been taught something of Construction; and then to cause him to vary the Accusative me, into te, se, illum, hominem, feminam, &c. and these again into the Plural, nos, vos, se, illos, homines, feminas, &c. But he must be careful to make the Participles agree with them in Gender, Number, and Case. NOTE 1. That when the preceding Verb is of the Present or Future Tense, the Future of the Infinitive with esse, is rendered by SHALL or WILL; and when it is of the Perfect Tense, the Future of the Infinitive is rendered by Would, as in the Examples above; and sometimes by SHOULD; as, Dixi te sciturum esse, I said that you should know. NOTE 2. That when the preceding Verb is of the Imperfect or Pluperfect Tenses the English of the Infinitive is the same as when it is of the Perfect. 16. The Perfect of the Indicative and Subjunctive Passive, made up with Sum or Sim, are Englished by AM, ART, IS, ARE, instead of HAVE BEEN; when the thing is signified to be just now past; as, vulneratus sum, I am wounded; Opus finitum est, The work is finished; Cùm tempora mutata sint, Since the Times are changed. 17. When it is made up by fui, it is frequently Englished by WAS, WAST, WERE, WERT; as, Roma fuit capta, Rome was taken : as is also what is called the Pluperfect with eram and essem; as, Labor finitus erat, The Labour was finished; Si labor finitus esset, If the Labour were finished. II. REMARKS ON THE LATIN CONJUGATIONS. 1. A GREAT Part of the Passive Voice, and some of the Active is made up of two of its own Participles, and the Auxiliary Verb Sum (of which you have the full Conjugation, p. 62.) after this manner: 2. Having, p. 40, laid it down as a probable Opinion, that every Part of a Verb, with all its Participles, have a certain fixed time simple or compound, which they formally and of their own Nature signify, it will perhaps be here expected that I should account for that great Variety that is found in the Passive Voice. To put this matter in the clearest Light I am able, I must premise another division of the Tenses, viz. into PASSING and PAST; or into such as import the continuance of an Action or Thing, without regard to the ending or finishing of it; and such as import that the thing is finished (or to be finished) and done. Of the first sort are the Present, Imperfect, and Future-Imperfect, of the second sort are the Perfect, Pluperfect, and Future-perfect. See Page 29. From this Division of the Tenses, together with what we have formerly said, we are furnished with an easy Method of distinguishing all the Parts of the Passive. Thus, for Instance, let the Subject of Discourse be the building of a House. 1. When I say Domus ædificatur, I mean that it is just now a building, but not finished. 2. When Edificabatur, that it was then, or at a certain past Time, a building, but not then finished. 3. Edificabitur, that some time hence it shall be a building, without any formal regard to the finishing of it. But when I make use of the Participle perfect, I always signify a thing completed and ended; but with these Subdistinctions. 1. Ædificata est-i I mean simply, that it is finished, without any regard to the time when. 2. Adificata fuit; it is finished, and some Time since has intervened. 3. Edificata erat; it was finished at a certain past Time referred to, with which it was contemporary. 4. Edi ficata fuerat; it was finished before a certain past Time referred to, to which it was prior. 5. Ædificata erit; it shall be finished sometime hereafter, either without Regard to a particular time when, or with Respect to a certain Time yet future, with which its finishing shall be contemporary, 6. And lastly, Edificata fuerit; it shall be finished and past before another Thing yet future, to which its finishing shall be prior. And thus we have nine different Times or Complications of Times, without confounding them with one another. But then, how comes it to pass that these are so frequently used promiscuously? I answer, that this proceeds from one or more of these four Reasons.-1. Because it very frequently happens in Discourse that we have no occasion particularly to consider these various Relations and Complications of Times; andit is the same thing to our purpose whether the thing is or was done, or a doing; or whether it was done just now, or some time ago; or whether another Thing was (or shall be) contemporary with, or prior to it; and the matterbeing thus, we reckon ourselves at liberty to take several parts of the Verb at random, as being secure not only of being understood, but also that, in these circumstances, whatever we pitch on, even when examined by the Rules above, shall be found literally true. 2. It is usual with us to state ourselves as present with, and as it were eye witnesses of the things we relate, though really they were transacted long before; whence it is that we frequently use th Present instead of some Past Time. 3. It is to be remarked, that there are some Verbs, the Action whereof is in some sense finished when begun ; in which Case it will sometimes be all one whether we use the Passing or Past tenses. And 4. The Present Tense (which strictly speaking is gone before we pronounce it) is generally taken in a larger Acceptation, and sometimes used for the Future, when we signify that the Execution is very near, or (according to Perizonius) when, together with the action, we take in also the preparation to it. The brevity we are confined to, will not allow us to illustrate these Things by Examples. But by them I think we may account for the promiscuous Usage of the Tenses, in both Voices, and what cannot be reduced to these, seems to be an abuse of the Language, and being very rarely to be met with, and perhaps only among the Poets, ought not to be made a common Standard. I shall only |