“Excellent wretch! perdition seize my soul, but I do love thee.”
Cancel the auxiliary verb, and the expression becomes feeble and spiritless. This is one of those phraseologies, which it would be impossible to render in a transpositive language. Di me perdant, quin te amem, is an expression comparatively exanimate and insipid.
| Preterite, Indefinite, and Emphatic. | |||
| S. | I did write | Thou didst write | He did write |
| P. | We did write | You did write | They did write. |
as, “This to me in dreadful secrecy impart they did.” The emphasis here, however, may partly arise from the inverted collocation. The following example is therefore more apposite. “I have been told that you have slighted me, and said, I feared to face my enemy. You surely did not wrong me thus?” “I did say so.”
This tense is indefinite, in respect both to the time, and the completion of the action.
| Preter. Imp. &c. continued. | |||
| S. | I was writing | Thou wast writing | He was writing |
| P. | We were writing | Ye were writing | They were writing. |
This tense denotes that an action was proceeding, or going on, at a time past either specified or implied, as “I was writing when you called.”
| Preterperfect. | |||||
| S. | I have | Thou hast | He has | } | written. |
| P. | We have | You have | They have | } | |
This tense expresses time as past, and the action as perfect. It is compounded of the present tense of the verb denoting possession and the perfect participle. It signifies a perfect action either newly finished, or in a time of which there is some part to elapse, or an action whose consequences extend to the present. In short, it clearly refers to present time. This, indeed, the composition of the tense manifestly evinces. Thus, “I have written a letter,” means “I possess at present the finished action of writing a letter.” This phraseology, I acknowledge, seems uncouth and inelegant; but, how awkward soever it may appear, the tense is unquestionably thus resolvable.
1st. It expresses an action newly finished, as, “I understand that a messenger has arrived from Paris,” that is, “newly,” or “just now,” arrived.