OBS. 3.—­The tenses do not all express time with equal precision; nor can the whole number in any language supersede the necessity of adverbs of time, much less of dates, and of nouns that express periods of duration.  The tenses of the indicative mood, are the most definite; and, for this reason, as well as for some others, the explanations of all these modifications of the verb, are made with particular reference to that mood.  Some suppose the compound or participial form, as I am writing, to be more definite in time, than the simple form, as I write, or the emphatic form, as I do write; and accordingly they divide all the tenses into Indefinite and Definite.  Of this division Dr. Webster seems to claim the invention; for he gravely accuses Murray of copying it unjustly from him, though the latter acknowledges in a note upon his text, it “is, in part, taken from Webster’s Grammar.”—­Murray’s Octavo Gram., p. 73.  The distribution, as it stands in either work, is not worth quarrelling about:  it is evidently more cumbersome than useful.  Nor, after all, is it true that the compound form is more definite in time than the other.  For example; “Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was always betraying his unhappiness.”—­Art of Thinking, p. 123.  Now, if was betraying were a more definite tense than betrayed, surely the adverb “always” would require the latter, rather than the former.

OBS. 4.—­The present tense, of the indicative mood, expresses not only what is now actually going on, but general truths, and customary actions:  as, “Vice produces misery.”—­“He hastens to repent, who gives sentence quickly.”—­Grant’s Lat.  Gram., p. 71.  “Among the Parthians, the signal is given by the drum, and not by the trumpet.”—­Justin.  Deceased authors may be spoken of in the present tense, because they seem to live in their works; as, “Seneca reasons and moralizes well.”—­Murray.  “Women talk better than men, from the superior shape of their tongues:  an ancient writer speaks of their loquacity three thousand years ago.”—­Gardiner’s Music of Nature, p. 27.

OBS. 5.—­The text, John, viii, 58, “Before Abraham was, I am,” is a literal Grecism, and not to be cited as an example of pure English:  our idiom would seem to require, “Before Abraham was, I existed.”  In animated narrative, however, the present tense is often substituted for the past, by the figure enallage.  In such cases, past tenses and present may occur together; because the latter are used merely to bring past events more vividly before us:  as, “Ulysses wakes, not knowing where he was.”—­Pope.  “The dictator flies forward to the cavalry, beseeching them to dismount from their horses.  They obeyed; they dismount, rush onward, and for vancouriers show their bucklers.”—­Livy.  On this principle, perhaps, the following couplet, which Murray condemns as bad English, may be justified:—­