B. HISTORICAL PERFECT.  The Historical Perfect is the tense of narration (as opposed to the Imperfect, the tense of description); as,—­

    Regulus in senatum venit, mandata exposuit, reddi captivos negavit esse
    utile, Regulus came into the Senate, set forth his commission, said it
    was useless for captives to be returned.

1.  Occasionally the Historical Perfect is used of a general truth (’Gnomic Perfect’).

Pluperfect Indicative.

263.  The Latin Pluperfect, like the English Past Perfect, denotes an act completed in the past; as,—­

    Caesar Rhenum transire decreverat, sed naves deerant, Caesar had
    decided to cross the Rhine, but had no boats.

  a.  In those verbs whose Perfect has Present force (Sec. 262, A), the
  Pluperfect has the force of an Imperfect; as,—­

    noveram, I knew.

Future Perfect Indicative.

264.  The Future Perfect denotes an action completed in future time.  Thus:—­

    scribam epistulam, cum redieris, I will write the letter when you have
    returned (lit. when you shall have returned).

  a.  The Latin is much more exact in the use of the Future Perfect than the
  English, which commonly employs the Present Perfect instead of the Future
  Perfect.

  b.  In those verbs whose Perfect has Present force (Sec. 262, A) the Future
  Perfect has the force of a Future; as,—­

    novero, I shall know.

Epistolary Tenses.

265.  In letters the writer often uses tenses which are not appropriate at the time of writing, but which will be so at the time when his letter is received; he thus employs the Imperfect and the Perfect for the Present, and the Pluperfect for the Present Perfect; as,—­

    nihil habebam quod scriberem, neque enim novi quidquam audieram et ad
    tuas omnes epistulas jam rescripseram, I have nothing to write, for I
    have heard no news and have already answered all your letters.

TENSES OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE.

266.  A. In Independent sentences.  See Sec. 272-280.

B. In Dependent Sentences.  In dependent sentences the tenses of the subjunctive usually conform to the so-called

Sequence of Tenses.

267. 1.  In the Subjunctive the Present and Perfect are Principal tenses, the Imperfect and Pluperfect, Historical.

2.  By the Sequence of Tenses Principal tenses are followed by Principal, Historical by Historical.  Thus:—­

PRINCIPAL SEQUENCE,—­

    video quid facias, I see what you are doing.

    videbo quid facias, I shall see what you are doing.

    videro quid facias, I shall have seen what you are doing.

    video quid feceris, I see what you have done.