Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/377

 tense; rarely--and perhaps never properly--in any other. As this mood can be used only in a dependent clause, the time implied in its tenses is always relative, and generally indefinite; as,

"It shall be in eternal restless change,   Self-fed, and self-consum'd: if this fail,    The pillar'd firmament is rottenness."--Milton, Comus, l. 596.

PRESENT TENSE.

This tense is generally used to express some condition on which a future action or event is affirmed. It is therefore erroneously considered by some grammarians, as an elliptical form of the future.

Singular. Plural. 1. If I love,     1. If we love, 2. If Thou love,  2. If you love, 3. If He love;    3. If they love.

OBS.--In this tense, the auxiliary do is sometimes employed; as, "If thou do prosper my way."--Genesis, xxiv, 42. "If he do not utter it."--Leviticus, v, 1. "If he do but intimate his desire."--Murray's Key, p. 207. "If he do promise, he will certainly perform."--Ib., p. 208. "An event which, if it ever do occur, must occur in some future period."--Hiley's Gram., (3d Ed., Lond.,) p. 89. "If he do but promise, thou art safe."--Ib., 89.

"Till old experience do attain   To something like prophetic strain."--MILTON: Il Penseroso.

These examples, if they are right, prove the tense to be present, and not future, as Hiley and some others suppose it to be.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

This tense, like the imperfect of the potential mood, with which it is frequently connected, is properly an aorist, or indefinite tense; for it may refer to time past, present, or future: as, "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that an other priest should rise?"--Heb., vii, 11. "They must be viewed exactly in the same light, as if the intention to purchase now existed."--Murray's Parsing Exercises, p. 24. "If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."--Matt., xxiv, 24. "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?"--1 Corinthians, xii, 17. "If the thankful refrained, it would be pain and grief to them."--Atterbury.

Singular. Plural. 1. If I loved,    1. If we loved, 2. If thou loved, 2. If you loved, 3. If he loved;   3. If they loved.

OBS.--In this tense, the auxiliary did is sometimes employed. The subjunctive may here be distinguished from the indicative, by these circumstances; namely, that the time is indefinite, and that the supposition is always contrary to the fact: as, "Great is the number of those who might attain to true wisdom, if they did not already think themselves wise."--Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 36. This implies that they do think themselves wise; but an indicative supposition or concession--(as, "Though they did not think themselves wise, they were so--") accords with the fact, and with the literal time of the tense,--here time past. The subjunctive imperfect, suggesting the idea of what is not, and known by the sense, is sometimes introduced without any of the usual signs; as, "In a society of perfect men, where all understood what was morally right, and were determined to act accordingly, it is obvious, that human laws, or even human organization to enforce God's laws, would be altogether unnecessary, and could serve no valuable purpose."--PRES. SHANNON: Examiner, No. 78.

IMPERATIVE MOOD.

The imperative mood is that form of the verb, which is used in commanding, exhorting, entreating, or permitting. It is commonly used only in the second person of the present tense.