198 On certain Te7ises ,But some will probably deem it an objection to the view here taken, that there are verbs in Greek, — many, they per- haps suppose, — in which both forms of the aorist are in use together. I admit that a few instances of this kind do occur; but even in this point we shall find that the analogy with our own language still holds good. Without rummaging in old authors^ we meet with many instances in which English verbs retain both forms of the preterite. Thus, for example, we may say, / hanged^ or / hung; I chid^ or / chode ; I spit^ or / spat; I climbed^ or / clonth ; I awaked^ or / awoke ; I cleft^ I clave^ or / clove ; and a score of others. Except in their greater abundance, wherein do these differ from the analogous duplicate forms of the Greek aorist, such as eKTeiva and eicTavov^ I killed; cTvyj/a and eTVTrov^ I struck; eOdfxfiyjrja and eTacpov-, I was astonished? Such duplicates in Greek are extremely rare : probably there is not one Greek verb in five hundred in which they can be met with. The form improperly called the second aorist is, indeed, common enough ; but then where it exists, that of the first aorist is almost always wanting. We have evpov^ eXajSov^ elSov^ r/yayoi^^ eXcTrov^ eSpajuov ; but the regular form is as much a nonentity in these verbs, as it is in the English verbs, / founds I took^ I saw, I led, I left, I ran. The first aorist in these would be sheer vulgarity ; it would be parallel to / Jinded, I taked^ I seed. Now if the circumstances of the Greek and Ensrlish, in regard to these two tenses, are so precisely parallel, a simple and obvious enquiry arises. Which are in the right, the Greek grammarians or our own ? For either ours must be wrong in not having fitted up for our verb the framework of a first and second preterite, teaching the pupils to say, 1st pret. IJinded, 2d pret. / found; 1st pret. I glided, 2d pret. I glode ; or the others must be so in teaching the learner to imagine two aorists for evpicjKw, as aor. 1. evpy^aa, aor. 2. evpov; or for aKovo), as aor. 1. rjKovo'a, aor. 2. tjkooi/. It is a custom with many masters, and on a better system it would be a good one, to ex- ercise their pupils in conjugating a variety of verbs, according to their Greek trees, as they are called. How hard it is to find verbs which can with any propriety be subjected to this process, is doubtless well known to all such masters ; and to
