| Its progress. | Its perfection, as |
| I am writing | I have written |
| I was writing | I had written |
| I shall be writing | I shall have written. |
I write I am writing I have written.
The first is indefinite as to time and action. If I say, “I write,” it is impossible to ascertain by the mere expression, whether be signified, “I write now,” “I write daily,” or, “I am a writer in general.” It is the concomitant circumstances only, either expressed or understood, which can determine what part of the present time is implied. When Pope introduces a letter to Lady M. W. Montague with these words, “I write this after a severe illness,” is it the tense which marks the time, or is it not the date of the letter, with which the writing is understood to be contemporary? If you and I should see a person writing, and either of us should say, “He writes,” the proposition would be particular, and time present with the speaker’s observation would be understood: but, is it not evident, that it is not the tense which defines the present now, but the obvious circumstances of the person’s writing at the time? And when the king, in Hamlet, says,
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go,”
what renders the two first propositions particular, or confines the tenses to the time then present, while the last proposition is universally true, and the tense indefinite? Nothing, I conceive, but the circumstances of the speaker. Nay, does it not frequently happen, that we must subjoin the word now to this tense, in order to define the point of time? Did the tense of itself note the precise time, this definitive would in no case be necessary. If I say, “Apples are ripe,” the proposition, considered independently on adventitious circumstances, is general and indefinite. The time may be defined by adding a specific clause, as, “in the month of October;” or, if nothing be subjoined, the ellipsis is supplied either by the previous conversation, or in some other way, and the hearer understands, “are now ripe.” This tense, therefore, I consider as indefinite in point of time. That it is indefinite in regard to action, there can be no question.
I am writing.
This tense also is indefinite in respect to time. It derives its character as a tense from the verb am, which implies affirmation with time, either now, generally, or always. Mr. Harris calls it the present definite, as I have already remarked; and in regard to action it is clearly definite. It is this, and this only, which distinguishes it from the other present, I write, the latter having no reference to the perfection or imperfection of the action, while I am writing denotes its continuation. Hence it is, that the latter is employed to express propositions generally or universally true, the idea of perfection or incompletion being, in such cases, excluded. Thus we say, The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but not, as I conceive, with equal propriety, The wicked are fleeing when no man is pursuing.
I have written.