Dr. Latham admits three Impersonals: (1) methinks, (2) meseems, (3) me listeth. The word thinks in 'methinks' is from the Anglo-Saxon thincan, 'to seem,' and not from thencan, to think.' Hence 'methinks' and 'meseems' both signify it seems to me;' for me is here the old dative. See Latham, English Grammar, § 205.

But Dr. Adams, Elements of the English Language, § 276, will not allow that even these are Impersonals; for he argues that the subject is expressed in the words that follow or precede the verb. Thus in the sentence,

Methinks the lady doth protest too much, he would make the lady doth protest too much' a subjectnominative (noun-clause) to the verb 'thinks.'

It may be, as Dr. Lowth maintains, that there are no such things as Impersonal Verbs in any language. But the omission of it is more common with our older poets, than some of the grammarians seem to imagine :

So Chaucer:

Byfel that in that sesoun on a day
In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay.

and so Spenser:

Canterbury Tales, Prologue.

Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,

And by her in a line, a milk-white lamb she lad. (i.e. led.)

Faerie Queene, I. i. 4.

'Now,' saide the ladie, 'draweth toward night.'

ibid. I. i. 32.

May seeme the wayne was very evil ledd,
When such an one had guiding of the way,
That knew not, whether right he went, or else astray.

ibid. I. iv. 19.

CAUTIONS.

392. In no points of grammar do even good writers more frequently make mistakes than in the use of verbs.

I intended to have written last week' is a very common phrase; but it is certainly vicious. For how long soever it now is since I intended,' still the act of writing was then present to my mind, and must be considered as present when I recall that time, and the thoughts of it. Therefore, we should say, 'I intended to write last week.' Take the following examples:

I cannot excuse the remissness of those whose business it should have been, as it certainly was their interest, to have interposed their good offices.-Swift.

There were two circumstances, which would have made it necessary for them to have lost no time.-Id. History-painters would have found it difficult to have invented such a species of beings.-Addison, Dialogue on Medals.

In these passages, the infinitives should be to interpose, to lose, to invent.

So Goldsmith says:

I called on him, and wished to have submitted my manuscript to him.

This should be 'wished to submit.' For the meaning is, 'I wished then and there to submit my manuscript to him.' I wished to do something there, and did not then wish that I had done something before.

So here: 'I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished to have done.' The meaning intended is so well as I wished to speak.' The use of the auxiliary do is not elegant in such constructions; but if used at all, it should stand so well as I wished to do.'

On the other hand, in this sentence, 'I had not the pleasure of hearing his sentiments when I wrote that letter,' we ought to say having heard instead of hearing if we mean to imply that the hearing did not take place before the writing of the letter. See Lowth, English Grammar, p. 124; and Cobbett, English Grammar, § 249.

Sequence of Tenses.

393. The sequence of tenses should be carefully observed; so that the tenses in an accessory or subordinate clause may not be inconsistent with those of the principal sentence. Take this example:

Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life. In two clauses thus connected, when the principal verb is in the present or the future, the verb in the accessory clause cannot be in the past tense. The words, therefore, ought to have been translated that ye may have life.'

On the contrary, had the principal verb been in the past

tense, the verb in the accessory clause would be correctly put in the past tense also: as,

or,

but,

Ye would not come unto me, that ye might have life.

Ye did not come unto me, that ye might have life.

Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life. Dryden writes:

Some, who the depths of Eloquence have found, In that unnavigable Stream were drowned. Dryden, Juvenal, Satire x. The event mentioned in the first line is connected with present time by the present-perfect tense have found. But the fact stated in the second line is referred to past time, by the past tense were drowned. Now the last-mentioned event must be subsequent to the first, and therefore there is an inconsistency between the facts stated and the tenses employed. Therefore, we ought to have either

or,

(1) in the second line, 'are or have been drowned' in the present-indefinite or present-perfect, which would be consistent with the present-perfect have found in the first line;

(2) in the first line we ought to read had found in the past-perfect tense, which would be consistent with the past-indefinite were drowned in the second line.

Pope writes:

Friend to my life, which did you not prolong,
The world had wanted many an idle song.
Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot.

Here the construction is inconsistent. It ought to be, 'had you not prolonged . . . the world had wanted,' or 'did you not prolong. the world would want.'

394. Dr. Campbell thinks, that in expressing abstract or universal truths the present tense of the verb ought, according to the idiom of our language, and perhaps of every language, always to be employed. According to this view, the sentence 'He said that there was no God' is incorrect, because God always exists; and it ought to be, 'He said that there is no God.

Yet the Doctor admits that this peculiarity in the pre

sent has sometimes been overlooked, even by good authors, who, when speaking of a past event which occasions the mention of some general truth, are led to use the same tense in enunciating the general truth with that which has been employed in the preceding part of the sentence. See Campbell, Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 185.

Dr. Webster, in the preface to his English Dictionary, takes the same view, and condemns the following construction :'Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God,' 2 Chron. xxxiii. 13. In order to show the impropriety of the past tense was, he remarks that the present tense is that which is used to express what exists at all times: thus we say 'God is' or 'exists' whenever we speak of his permanent existence. The German version reads, 'Da erkannte Manasse, dass der Herr Gott ist,' and this, as far as it goes, corroborates the view taken by Dr. Campbell and Dr. Webster. But their reason

does not appear to be quite satisfactory. It is true, that in principal sentences the present is used to express general propositions, or what exists at all times.' But it is not quite so clear that the rule applies to the verb in a subordinate or accessory clause. The Latins, in a reported speech, throw the verbs of subordinate sentences into the subjunctive mood; and though in English we do not vary the mood in a reported speech, I am inclined to think that a variation of tense is agreeable to the idiom of our language. It is confessed that good authors use this construction; and in conversation most persons would express themselves thus:

He says, that there is no God.

He said, that there was no God.

To allege the permanent existence of God is nothing to the purpose, because this is merely a question of grammar, and most persons would expound these sentences in the following way:

1. He says, that there is no God He denies the existence of God.

2. He said, that there was no God He denied the ex

istence of God.

No one would interpret the second sentence as signifying a denial of past existence, in opposition to present or future existence.

395. In accordance with his theory, Dr. Webster undertakes to correct this passage:

If my readers will turn their thoughts back on their old friends, they will find it difficult to call a single man to remembrance who appeared to know that life was short [is short], till he was about to lose it.

Rambler, No. 71.

396. But beside this, we find the past tense used in accessory clauses where other languages would employ a future indicative, or some tense of the subjunctive mood. following examples, with Dr. Webster's corrections:

Take the

It was declared by Pompey, that if the commonwealth was [should be] violated, he could stamp with his foot and raise an army out of the ground.-Rambler, No. 10. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went [shall (or) should go] to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose [shall (or) should rise] from the dead.-Luke xvi. 30, 31.

Our verbs are very deficient in forms of the subjunctive mood; and were anyone to contend that went and rose are past tenses subjunctive, there is nothing in the form to contradict him. The verb was in the extract from Rambler, No. 10, is against that explanation; for was must be considered indicative. If I made any change at all, in that passage, I would read, 'It was declared by Pompey, that if the commonwealth were violated, &c.'

397. I have often thought, that the doctrine of the subjunctive might be used to defend a passage condemned as bad English, by some grammarians. It is this:

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness

of the Lord in the land of the living.-Psalm xxvii. 13. We are told, that this ought to be, 'I should have fainted.' But if had be taken as the past tense subjunctive (German hätte), the construction may be defended.

398. In the following sentence, there is an error in the use of mood:

If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee.-Matt. v. 23. The construction of the two verbs bring and rememberest

L