BRIEF STRIGQTURES, &c. 
‘Tue three great objects in the acquifition of languages are 
the knowledge of grammar, of words and their fignification, and 
of idiom or phrafe. 
Without accurate grammatical knowledge 
the two laft will form a very imperfe& linguift; and in the pro- 
vince of grammar the dodtrine of tenfes or times is evidently 
one of the moft important. 
For how ‘is the meaning of the au- 
thor or fpeaker to be diftin@ly and definitely known, without 
knowing precifely the time of which he fpeaks, and’ to which 
-the ation is referred? Such enquiries, therefore, though lefs 
refpeted than formerly, perhaps becaufe rendered lefs neceffary 
by the immenfe labours of the two laft centuries, have a certain 
utility, and have within the prefent age obtained the attention, 
and employed the induftry, of three celebrated philofophers, and 
moft ingenious inveftigators of univerfal grammar, Dr. Clark, 
Mr. Harris, and Lord Monboddo. 
the moft philofophic and univerfal divifion 
Mr. Harris has given us 
of time, from 
whence he argues that there are in nature twelve tenfes or: 
times. . 
Paft, 
I wrote. 
Inceptive. 
I was beginning-to write. 
Three Indefinites. 
Prefent. 
I write. 
Three paft Definites. 
Imperfect. 
I was writing. 
Future. 
I fhall write. - 
Perfect. 
T had written. 
‘Three 
