202 On certain Tenses elementary works, is at least but a display of mischievous in- genuity. The following quotation from Matthiae's elaborate work on Greek grammar is adduced as a confirmation of the foregoing statements. After giving an account of the formation of the tenses, he adds, p. 244 ; " There is no single verb which has all these tenses that can regularly be derived from it. It is very seldom that a verb has the two tenses, aor. 1. and aor. 2. active, as uTnjyyeiXa and airYjyyekov^ the aor. 1. and 2 pass, and perf. 1 and perf. 2 (middle) at the same time. When it has these tenses, they commonly belong to two dif. ferent dialects, or two different ages of a dialect, as eiridov only in the old Ionic, eTreicra in Attic and the rest : ctTr^yX- Xd'^Orjv^ crvveXeYOrjv in the older Attic dialect, aTrrjWayrjV'i crvveXeyrjv in the new ; or they have different significations, as ireirpaya in an active sense, irewpaya in a neuter sense.**^ The conclusion from the foregoing observations is, that the common analysis of the Greek verb, which ascribes to it a second future, a second aorist, and a perfect middle, as appertaining to its regular formation, is false and wrong; there being, in fact, no such tenses whatever, unless occasional re- dundancies, or irregularities of formation, are to be dignified with that title. Nor is this merely a speculative error, but one that introduces much difficulty, confusion, and even ulti- mate failure in sound Greek scholarship, into our schools and colleges : and it ought therefore to excite the serious attention of those who superintend the instruction of youth in this im- portant and interesting branch of learning. A charge of presumption may perhaps be thought to lie a gainst me for advancing such propositions in the face of the venerable sanctions which consecrate the prevailing system. I readily confess, that I make not the slightest pretension to vie in point of Hellenic lore with a hundred names by whom that system has, at least, not been blamed. My apology is this : The present question does not appear to be one of pro- found and exquisite scholarship. Whether a language has, or has not, certain tenses, in the common and regular declension of its verbs, must be a point on which even an ordinary scholar may feel himself entitled to an opinion ; nay, on which he is as competent to form one as though he had the honour to be
