velatus tempora, having veiled his temples.

  a.  Occasionally finite forms of the verb are thus used; as,—­

    tunica inducitur artus, he covers his limbs with a tunic.

3.  Intransitive Verbs may be used impersonally in the passive; as,—­

    curritur, people run (lit. it is run);

    ventum est, he (they, etc.) came (lit. it was come).

TENSES.

TENSES OF THE INDICATIVE.

257. 1.  The Latin tenses express two distinct notions:—­

  a) The period of time to which the action belongs:  Present, Past, or
  Future.

b) The kind of action:  Undefined, Going on, or Completed.

The Latin with its six tenses is able to express each of the three kinds of action for each of the three periods of time (making practically nine tenses).  It does this by employing certain tenses in more than one way, as may be seen by the following table:—­

KIND OF PERIOD OF TIME. 
ACTION. 
PRESENT.  PAST. FUTURE. 
UNDEFINED Present:  Historical Future: 
scribo, I write.  Perfect:  scribam, I shall
scripsi, I write_.
wrote_. 
GOING ON.  Present:  Imperfect:  Future: 
scribo, I am scribebam, I was scribam, I shall
writing. writing_. be writing_. 
COMPLETED. Present Pluperfect:  Future Perfect: 
Perfect:  scripseram, I had scripsero, I
scripsi, I have written. shall have
written_. written_.

2.  It will be seen that the Present may express Undefined action or action Going on; so also the Future.  The Perfect likewise has a double use, according as it denotes action Completed in present time (Present Perfect) or Undefined action belonging to past time (Historical Perfect).

Principal and Historical Tenses.

258.  Tenses which denote Present or Future time are called Principal (or Primary) Tenses, those which denote Past time are called Historical (or Secondary).

The Principal Tenses of the Indicative are:  Present, Future, Present Perfect, Future Perfect.

The Historical Tenses are:  Imperfect, Historical Perfect, Pluperfect.

Present Indicative.

259.  Besides the two uses indicated in the table, the Present Indicative presents the following peculiarities:—­

1.  It is used to denote a general truth, i.e. something true not merely in the present but at all times (’Gnomic Present’); as,—­

    virtus conciliat amicitias et conservat, virtue establishes ties of
    friendship and maintains them (i.e. always does so).