Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/218

208 208 On certain Tenses complete possession of the field, so that every newcomer enlisted under it. Indeed as the method of forming the second aorist was by a change of the penultima, while the prin- ciple implied a modification of the theme, it could not well be applied to any but dissyllabic verbs. The comparison sug- gested by our ingenious correspondent with what has taken place in our own language holds in all its parts. Here too in early times the numbers of regular and so-called irre- gular preterites must have been pretty equally balanced : but as the adding ed was a simpler and easier task than modifying the theme according to analogies the principle of which was not very distinct, all our later preterites have been formed by the first of these processes; and in sundry instances the older form has been driven out of use by the more recent one. The comparison, I grant, is perfectly just. But is it a just inference from that comparison, that we ought to alter the system of our Greek grammars, which has been drawn up at the cost of so much learning and thought, for the sake of adapting it to the system, if system it can be called, of our own grammars, which are seldom remarkable for any- thing else than their slovenliness, their ignorance, and their presumption ? Is the higher to be brought down to the level of the baser ? is Apollo to be drest out in a coat and waistcoat? Rather might it be deemed advisable to remodel the system of our own grammars, to give them, so far as the character of our language will allow, a more orderly and shapely form, and to lessen the number of those irre- gularities of which they are pretty nearly made up. For it is a singular property of English grammars that they mostly consist of little else than a catalogue of exceptions. Some broad general rule is laid down ; and then we have a string of examples shewing how it has been transgrest, without any attempt to explain the principle of such deviations. For it is easy enough to lay down a rule, and then to assert that whatever contravenes it must be wrong: but if it be ever true that the exception proves the rule, it can only be where the exception is a rare one. Wherever the exceptions are numerous, they prove that the rule is faulty, and has been drawn up without a due consideration of the subject matter. Indeed, if allowance be made for the play on the