OF THE TENSES OF THE GREEK VERB. 491 



gratuitous assumption of new Presents in -<ra and -<ropu.i, 

 to account for these forms, nor for supposing, with Dr Clarke, 

 that xuTufirio-zo is an imperative of the Future; nor for chan- 

 ging, as he has generally done, the 2d Aorists /3j?<raro, zutu- 

 fiyjo-tTo, &c. into regular first Aorists in -uro. We ought ra- 

 ther to restore the Homeric 2d Aorists in -era, recognised as 

 the genuine readings by the Grammarians of Alexandria, and 

 the Greek Scholiasts, and confirmed by the ancient MSS. of 

 highest authority, and the early editions. 



If the view which I have ventured to give of these Home- 

 ric Forms in -ero be well founded, it will hardly be neces- 

 sary to notice the canon of criticism attempted to be establish- 

 en by the learned Heyne', in his voluminous edition of the 

 Iliad, as to -sro and -«to, and the reasons for preferring 

 the one to the other in particular passages. See his 4th 

 vol. p. 506. Of the futility of that attempt, every classical 

 scholar, who will read with sufficient attention the last seventeen 

 verses of the 3d book of the Odyssey, will be fully convinced. 

 The learned German has adopted, without scruple or hesita- 

 tion, the explanation of these Homeric Forms given by the 

 Greek scholiasts ; and, in allusion, I presume, to the difficulty 

 felt by Dr Clarke, in admitting the existence of new Presents 

 in -<ra> and -<ro/*a<, he states his opinion, and the grounds 

 of it, with decisive confidence, in the following words : " Esse 

 " autem talem formam praesentis fiqiroy.ui dubitari nequit ; nam 

 " est V. C. 0. 105. AX A' ky ifAuv oyzwv ^/•^(rEO," p. 506. v. 4. 

 And on B. v. 35. he makes the following remark, not quite 

 consistent with itself: "Quid hoc loco intersit, non video; 

 " nisi quod ccKsfirjcriro antiquioris vocis speciem habet : novafor- 

 " ma subnata, ut (Wo^a/, idvtrofAqv, et alia." How the nova 

 forma should have antiquioris vocis speciem, I do not clearly 

 comprehend. But a gleam of truth will sometimes burst 

 through the darkness of inveterate prejudice- 



