[§ 617]. It has been stated above that whilst the Latin and English have a succession of tenses, the Greek language
exhibits what may be called a succession of moods. This suggests inquiry. Is the difference real? If so, how is it explained? If not, which of the two grammatical systems is right?—the English and Latin on the one side, or the Greek on the other? Should τύπτοιμι be reduced to a past tense, or verberarem be considered an optative mood.
The present writer has no hesitation in stating his belief, that all the phænomena explicable by the assumption of an optative mood are equally explicable by an expansion of the subjunctive, and a different distribution of its tenses.
1. Let τύψω be considered a subjunctive future instead of a subjunctive aorist.
2. Let τύῶτοιμι be considered an imperfect subjunctive.
3. Let τετύφοιμι be considered a pluperfect subjunctive.
4. Let τύψαιμι be considered an aorist subjunctive.
Against this view there are two reasons:
1. The double forms τύψαιμι and τύψοιμι, one of which would remain unplaced.
2. The use of the optative and conjunctive in simple propositions, as—