A REFERENCE to time is inseparably connected with the narration of events, and therefore many parts of the verb arc so contrived as to indicate in their structure a connec tion with sonic portion of time, in contradistinction to another. The point of reference naturally first assumed is the instant in which the sentence itself is tittered. Hence the first general division of tenses is into present, past, and future. Points of reference may also be selected from the past and the future, and expeditious methods, suited to our various occasions, adopted for expressing relative prece dence or subsequence.
References to the division of time into definite portions, as hours, days, weeks, months, and years, are always made by means of nouns contrived for the purpose.
I. Tense of the Imperative.
Before proceeding to the tenses of the indicative, which are the most important and precise, that of the imperative claims some attention. The form most frequently used in Latin and in English has been called the present impe rative; but a little attention will sliew that imperatives are essentially future. The act to be performed must be sub sequent in time to the command. In many instances they may be separated by a considerable interval, without any alteration in the form of the verb employed ; as when we say, " come to this place to morrow." Though sensible of this circumstance,. grammarians seem not to have been aware of its importance in demonstrating the tense proper to this form of the verb. Perhaps a vague idea existed that the time of the giving of the command ought to fix its tense, but this is obviated by the slightest reflection on the subject, as the act performed by the speaker in every sort of sentence is present. Perhaps the immediate nature of the influence intended to be produced by the imperative on the mind of the person addressed has, though future, been considered as sufficient to entitle it to the appellation of present. But this influence is in no respect a proper foundation for a distinction of tense. All language is in tended to produce an immediate effect on the mind. It is therefore solely with the time of the action or event spe cified in the verb that philosophical grammar is concerned in tracing the different tenses. The future in English is
sometimes used instead of the imperative, as " thou shalt not kill ;" " thou shalt not steal." Perhaps grammarians who delight in distinctions would perceive in this phra seology, as compared to the common English imperative, some analogy to the varieties of imperatives in the Greek language, and would denominate the sentences last men tioned future imperatives, in contradistinction to the com mon form called the present. But in the meaning of the sentences the tense is equally future in both.
The Greek language has various imperatives, which grammarians arrange along with the different tenses, and distinguish by the names of the present, the aorist, and even the preterite imperatives. But this diversity of form can produce no corresponding diversity of tense, unless this should consist in discriminations in the portions of future time to which the commands refer. We may order a person to begin an action at a particular time ; or we may order him to be engaged in some occupation which is supposed to be previously begun ; or we may order him to have an action completed. But, with reference to the primary division of tenses into past, present, and future, the imperative must be regarded as essentially future.
2. The ?lorist and Present Indicative.
'Ali' Tooke has remarked that the part of the verb called the present indicative is a simple or general indicative, and •hat no tense is implied in it. When we say 44 the sun rises in summer much earlier than in winter," we assent a fact applicable to past, present, and future. Of the same nature are mathematical theorems and all general propo sitions. This form of the verb might therefore with respect to tense receive the appellation of a universal aorist. This indeed is the form of the verb used for describing present transactions. The idea of present time is on such occa sions attached to the sentence, in consequence of an in ference drawn from the nature of the subject.