ὤ, τάλᾱς ἐγώ· οὐδὲν διαγίγνεται μένον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τῷ κατὰ τὴν Καληδονίαν,
alas, alas! there is no continuity or permanence of weather in Scotland.
ἀληθῆ λέγεις· μόνον τὸ τῶν Καληδονίων ἦθος
σεμνύνεται ἐπὶ τῷ ἄγαν σταθερῷ καὶ ἀμεταβόλῳ· κρατερὸν
τὸ Καληδόνιον ἦθος ὡς ὁ γρανιτόλιθος, ὁ ἐν Ἀβερδονίᾳ,
true; only the character of the Scots boasts of
steadiness and permanence. The Scottish character
is strong as the Aberdeen granite.
χάριν οἶδα τῷ Θεῷ· αὐτὸς ἀλαζονεύομαι τῆσδε τῆς
ἐπιμόνου κράσεως οὐ σπανίως μεταλαμβάνεσθαι,
thank God! myself boast that I have a fair
share of this persistent temperament.
δικαίως γε· ἐγγυᾶται τὴν κατόρθωσιν ἡ ἐπιμονή.
ἔρρωσο,
and with good reason; perseverance is the pledge of success.
Farewell.
English Affinities
Didactic. Sophist. Study. New. Early. Vernal. Chronology. Grace. Hypertrophy. Idiosyncrasy. Orthography. Acme. Phytology.
LESSON XVIII
Participles
The Greek participle has a large range of idiomatic and significant usages, which can only be learned by reading. For a start, however, it may be enough to say that the participle follows the leading verb of the sentence in many cases where both Latin and English use the infinitive, and that when joined with the definite article the participle performs the function of a relative clause in a less formal style; as if in English, instead of the man who used such language is not a gentleman, we should say the man the having used, which no doubt sounds very clumsy, because we require an auxiliary verb to express the past participle, but in Greek ὁ ταῦτα λέξας is manifestly neater and more succinct than ὃς ταῦτα ἔλεξε.
οὐκ ἀνέχομαι οὕτω διαβαλλόμενος,
I cannot stand to be slandered in this way.