Though I have thus animadverted a C. 12. little feverely upon the errors and defects of the Doctor's fyftem, I must allow him the merit of being the first of the moderns, fo far as I know, that has attempted to form any thing like a rational fyftem upon this fubject. And I must confefs likewife, that he was the first who fet me a-thinking upon it. He was a man of acute parts, and a good metaphyfician: but that was the occafion of his error; for it made him imagine that he could, without other affiftance, form a fyftem of grammar, or of any particular part of it; whereas, if he had been a man lefs ingenious, he would have taken, it is likely, the affiftance of the antient grammarians, whofe footsteps we cannot quit in fuch inquiries without the greatest hazard of going wrong; and then he would have avoided the errors he has fallen into verb çica, terreo, which is found in Homer, they formed the verb commonly in use, 46. And according to the fame analogy, from the præter-perfect cnxa, of the verb za, or, as it is now used, Cave, they formed a new verb, CC, of which 6 is the 3d perf. of the present; and therefore the Doctor might as well have made a pluperfect of exaYH, TETENXH, Sidne, which, by all grammarians, are allowed to be in the prefent. upon C. 12. upon this fubject of the tenses; and if he w had ftudied more diligently the antient commentaries upon Homer, he would have corrected feveral blundering translations, which he has given of different paffages of the Iliad * * As this cenfure of fo celebrated a Greek scholar, may appear to many not a little rafh, I will justify it by two inftances taken from the fame page of his tranflation of the first Iliad. Neftor fays, fpeaking to Aga memnon, ̓Ατράδη, σὺ δὲ παῖε τεὸν μένος, ἀυτὰρ ἔγωγε which Dr Clarke has tranflated thus, Atride, tu autem compefce tuam iram: verum ego in war. Every intelligent reader, though he do not understand Greek, may perceive that Neftor ufes a very improper argument, to perfuade Achilles to lay afide his anger, when he mentions that he was the bulwark of the Greeks If this were Homer's meaning, he would not, in this paffage at leaft, deferve the commendation which Ariftotle gives him, of excelling all other poets in fenfe and argument, as well as diftion, λεξει καὶ διανοίᾳ παντας izplanna. Poëtic. It is not therefore eafily to be believed, that fuch was Homer's meaning. But further, I fay, that the words will not bear this meaning, and that the Doctor has conftrued them improperly, when he has made to govern 'ax, and tranflated them precabor Achillem; for I deny that oμ, either in the ufe of Homer, or of any other Greek writer, governs the dative, dative, but always the accufative. And if this be fo, it C. 12, is impoffible that the Doctor can be right in his tranflation of the paffage. But what then is the meaning of it? A learned Greek profeffor, of my acquaintance, conftrues xoxo with A, and understands it to be a requeft to Agamemnon, to lay afide his anger against Achilles. And I obferve, that it is in this fenfe that Euftathius understands the passage. But there are two objections to this meaning of it, one arifing from the fenfe, and the other from the words. For, in the first place, it is faying the fame thing twice, Neftor having, just in the preceding verfe, exhorted Agamemnon to appease his anger; and accordingly Euftathius acknowledges that it is ITTоhoy. But a repetition. διττολογία. of the very fame thing, in the very next line, is not agreeable to the manner of Homer, nor of any fenfible writer. 2dly, I fay, that χόλον Αχιληϊ for χολον κατ' Αχιληος is not Greek, and cannot be justified by any good autho y. Rejecting therefore this interpretation likewife, I embrace one fuggefted to me by an ingenious gentleman of Glasgow, Mr John Young, who is yet no profeffor, but very well deferves to be one. He conftrues Axi with, and understands the meaning of the paffage to be, requesting Agamemnon to forgive Achilles for his paffion. That the words Αχιληϊ μεθεμεν χολον will bear this meaning, (and indeed I think they can bear no other), is evident from a paffage of Herodotus, whom I hold to be the best interpreter of Homer's language. It is where Mardonius fends a meffage to the Athenians, in the name of his master Xerxes, making him speak to them thus, ̓ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΙΣΙ ΤΑΣ ΑΜΑΡΤΑΔΑΣ τὰς ἐξ ἐκείνων ἐς ἐμε για νομένας ΠΑΣΑΣ ΜΕΤΙΗΜΙ. lib. 8. cap. 140. And the fenfe of the paffage, thus understood, is worthy of Homer: for Neftor first defires Agamemnon to appeafe his own anger, for I understand there is an emphasis in the word joined with vos, and then he befeeches him to for give Achilles his paflion; and to perfuade Agamemnon to do fo, he uses a very proper argument, viz. that Achilles was C. 12. was of fo great ufe to the Greeks. And in this sense the Brevia fcholia, afcribed to Mycelius, feem to understand the pallage, for they render μεθεμεν by συγχώρησαι. The other paffage in which the Doctor mistakes the fenfe of his original, juft follows, in the anfwer which Agamemnon makes to Nestor. ̓Αλλ' ὁδ ̓ ἀνὰρ ἐθέλει περὶ πάντων ἐμμεναι ἄλλων, Πάντων μὲν κρατέειν ἐθέλει, πάντεσσι δ ̓ ἀνάσσειν, Where the Doctor has tranflated the laft words in this Que minimè perfuafurum puto. Here there is a double error. For, in the first place, the Doctor fuppofes the perfon to be changed from the first to the third; for he understands it to be, Ego Agamemnon puto eum [i. e. Achillem] minimè perfuafurum. Now in Greek there never is a change understood of the perfon of the verb governing the infinitive; but if there be a change, it must be expreffed; fo that if the words were to be explained as the Doctor explains them, the pronoun of the third perfon fhould have been expressed, and they fhould have run thus, ἅτιν' & αυτον πείσεσθαι διω. 2dly, The verb eow, in the middle voice, never fignifies to perfuade, but to obey, which is agreeable to the reflective fignification of the middle voice, as if it were to perfuade one's felf to do any thing. The meaning therefore of the paffage is, I do not think that I shall obey him in thefe things, or, that I fhall be perfuaded by him to do thefe things. And I am the more furprised, that the Doctor has miftaken the fenfe of the word wait here, as he has rendered it rightly a few lines after, v. 296. where Achilles fays to Agamemnon, -ου γὰρ ἐγωγ' έτι σοι πείσεσθαι δΐων which the Doctor has tranflated Non enim ego amplias me tibi obtemperaturum puto. But the pronoun co, it would feem, in this paffage, directed him to the true meaning. CHA P. CHAP. XIII. Of the modes, perfons, numbers, and voices, of verbs.-Enumeration of the feveral things expressed by the verb. 'HE modes or moods of verbs, as they C. 13. THE are commonly called, are no other than thofe energies of the mind of the fpeaker, which I have faid are effential to the verb, expreffed by different forms or inflections of it. Of these I have only mentioned three; affirmation, expressed by the mood called the indicative; wishing, or praying, expreffed by the optative; and command, expreffed by the imperative. The interrogative is reckoned by fome among the moods; but as it is not expreffed by any different form of the verb, but only by particles, or by a certain arrangement of the words, I do not chufe to call it a mood and for the fame reafon I do not reckon a potential mood; which even in Greek is denoted by no inflection of the verb, but by the potential or contingent particle VOL. II. X |