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de nerf : sa plume perce comme Je bucjn * II a d * estranges famous de parler . " iPerroniana , p . m . p . 113 . He is thus characterized by a Latin writer : 4 € Cujus qtiot pene verba , tot sententiae
sunt ; quot sensus , tot victoriae * " To this boldness of Tertuilian ' s style , iu general , ( to say nothing of his Africanisms , ) must be referred his use of words that are found in no classic
writer , his frequent confusion of the several denominations of verbs , and of mood and tense , not only in that indiscriminate , promiscuous way , mentioned above , as agreeable to the practice of the best Roman writers , but in one , not conformable to the
. Latin idiom . In the passage which I gave from him , ( see a former Letter , XIII . 570 , ) Mr . R . ' translation of the word 1 have been referring to , was not certainly retained , because I was not satisfied that it was quite right ; and , by giving it as I . did , I
meant to go to the full length of the import ? which the mood and tense , ( foi which I supposed it was meant to be , ) would at least bear ; though without considering it as the imperative mood , as perhaps some persons may . In such a writer as Tertullian ,
the utmost precision , as to his use and meaning of a mood or tense , as hinted before , may not always be easily or immediately ascertained , however clear some persons may think it . For
the time , therefore , I left it as I did , that I might not oblige myself to enter on points foreign to those which I was then examining : what I have now been considering , are submitted with due deference to your readers .
On similar principles , I turned the word festino , freely , and according to what the sense of the word will bear . Btit I had brought no charge against a gentleman for changing mood and tense . And on examining the passage more attentively , and in connexion ,
and on considering that if Mr . R . had taken a liberty with mood and tense , Mr . B . had done the very same thing in the very next page , it seemed hiit right to remonstrate— " With what measure ye mete , it shall be measured to you again . " Though 41 hs letter , Sir , as well for its matter as its length , requires great apo ' ogy , the writer begs leave to add a Word or two more , by way of postscript .
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It has been observed , then , that Sanctius excludes moods and tenses from verbs . It is not necessary here to defend or to oppose his opinion , nor yet Mr . Johnson ' s . All that seemed necessary , was , to shew that
they give several examples from the best writers , Plautus , Terence , Cicero and others , of great ambiguity , at least in certain cases , of mood and tense . Sanctias gives several instances
where the praeterperfect tense is used for future time , and among others he gives norint . I shall add one line from Plautus , ( and many such passages might be produced , ) because the same verb occurs in different
moods and tenses , yet without the slightest shade of difference in the very same line ; it is sense , not termination , which always distinguishes mood and tense : " Sed cujiis jussti venioy et quamobrem venerimm Amphit . Prolog .
Here the verbs , vemo and venerim 9 might be transposed without any violation of grammar ; and a little lower down , vent is used when venerim would be equally correct . This
single prologue to the Amphitryon contains , within its narrow limits , several examples of the indiscriminate use of mode and tense , both in regular and irregular defective verbs .
Of this indiscriminate use of the prseterf . potent , in defective verbs , numberless examples might be produced from Tertullian . Thus , " Oderint : Eum ergo propterea oderint homines , quia ignorant quale sit quod oderunt : cur non liceat , ejusmoo ^
illud esse , quod non deheant odisse ?* { Apologet . Adversus Gentes . ) Thi ^ ambiguity occurs four times in this place ; oderint is in present time , and may be translated as a present tense ; oderint , too , and oderunt might correctly interchangep indeed , more
correctly . So again , in an irregular verb , two lines before the word uuder consideration , " Cum Christuua n 6 sse potuerint " . might be , noscwe poterunt , possent or even possunt . And as I have contended that Mr . TR / s translation is
elliptical , yet in the proper potential form , so may Tertullian ' s , ( Jubeto ut norint , ) Jnbe veniat , as fully expressed by Plautus . See Dr . Crombie ' s Gymnastum , IL 320 . Had your Gotrc-
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240 On Mr . Bvkhams " Plea for Infant Baptism * "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/28/
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