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    they have shades of difference , which jnodern grammarians have found it so difficult to reconcile to their rules ; and in Chaucer there is found what may be now thought a perpetual

    confusion of mood , tense and person . The English language , being indeed the Saxon , has but two tenses , the rest being made up of what are called auxiliaries , which are but fragments of original verbs . In truth , the various divisions and subdivisions of verbs into

    modal forms and variations of time , are the mere inventions of later grammarians ; and though they may be useful in expressing different modes of predication in different or the same modal

    terminations , and the occasions of mankind , as well as the various relations of things , may be sufficient reasons for the adoption of them , yet practice will be often found at variance

    with them ; the practice of even the purest -writers will exceed the grasp of the mere mechanical grammarian , and his exceptions to his own rules be often nothing but a return to original principles . What the greatest . Latin grammarian * says of the Latin

    Grammar , some years since almost generally taught in our schools , and on which most of our modern grammars are founded , is very remarkable : " The rules which it gives do not contain one half of what is necessary to be known in the Latin tongue . They are , besides that , in many things

    directly false , and contrary to the use of authors . " f What is more remarkable is , that in a series of animadversions , to which is prefixed the signatures of approbation of most of the masters of our public schools , what fie ventured roundly to assert he has fully proved .

    This j udicious writer held a different opinion in regard to moods and tenses from Sanctius—tliatthey were founded in the reason and nature of things : yet , though he maintained the use and expediency of them , he also shewed their rationale ; how , in simple senfences j there is enough to constitute a difference between an indicative and

    a potential or subjunctive mood ; and how , in some cases , they are indifferent . In reference to these ideas , he explains ? R . Johnson ' s Gram . Commentaries . -J- Ibid * Aitimadversion , Cty . viii .

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    all the differences of moods and tenses , according to the modal divisions of modern grammarians , and illustrates them by the clearest proofs . He remarks , after much deliberation , " The Latins themselves were at no small

    variance in the use of tenses , and the greatest French authors differ at this day in the use of theirs / ' ** I know nothing more material in all the whole subject ( of grammar ) than the doctrine of mood and tense * " Grammat . Comment , p . 292 . This observation is iti the main so true , that the very same tense occurs sometimes in the

    same line , yet with some nice shades of difference : Vitare ccelum Phaeton si viveret . Ovid . Trist . L . i . El . 1 . u Phaeton should avoid if he would live . ** And the result is , though he differs in some respects from his great predecessor Sanctius , he does in others confirm a great part of his theory , in proving , in numerous instances , the ambiguity and reciprocity of moods and tenses ; and the authors of the Port Royal Grammar , both Greek and JLatin , have fully admitted the same principle-It may be presumed , Sir , that Mr . R ., in his extensive course of reading , had not overlooked philosophical grammar ; and it is probable , that he understood common grammar full as well as your Correspondent ; and that , at all events , as a man of genius and taste , he had a feeling of nature and propriety : and a little more caution and

    self-respect should have been exercised by your Correspondent , lest the charge of misstating and grossly translating Tertullian on the subject of Baptism , should be found to fall elsewhere .

    It may be proper , Sir , for the present , j ust to add here a word , proving to young gentlemen that norint is not the imperative mood , for fear of consequences : From Paul ' s I went , to Eton sent ,

    To learn straitways the Latin phrase , Where fifty-three stripea given to me . At once I had ; For faults but small , or none at all , It came to pass , that beat 1 was : See Udal , see , tbe mercy of thee For me poor lad ! * — ~ ¦—*——— ¦ 1 ' k—* m ' V ~~~~ * See a Note in Pref . to Mr . Rogci AscTiam s Schoolmaster .

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    233 On Mr . Belskams " Plea for Infant Baptism ?

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/26/