M. Yes; when compared with the fixed time expressed in the respective sentences above mentioned; but deprived of this, they can no longer be considered present; if compared, then, with the present utterance of speech only, which embraces them as anterior, they become past tenses, and simply remain so: on this account, you may with propriety, as no determinate period is mentioned, use either of the following phrases:

"Les médecins portaient des perruques

"Les médecins portèrent des perruques Physicians wore wigs.

"Les médecins ont porté des perruques

I must observe also, that, by depriving the present-posterior of the determinate period, it becomes a real future.

S. I begin to understand the nervous simplicity of the new system, and already behold the strong light it has thrown on the use of the tenses you mention, by the introduction of the terms anterior, anterior-periodical, &c. which have been so fitly adapted to the subject. May these terms, however, be with equal propriety applied to the past tenses?

M. Equally; and this must finally reconcile you to our system, together with those who may first oppose it, on account of its apparent novelty and singularity. I shall have recourse to examples, to satisfy you in this respect.

When you tell me, for instance, J'avais écrit lorsque vous êtes entré; I had written when you came in: what idea do you wish to convey to me? Is it not, that your action of writing was completed when my coming took place? This coming-in of mine is anterior to your present utterance of speech to me, and of course past; it is, therefore, denominated, as expressing a double view of the mind, a past-anterior; it is called in many grammars a compound of the imperfect.

The past-anterior periodical, or compound of the preterite, is much the same with the above, except that it is periodical; that is to say, it expresses the existence of an action anterior to another action, transacted in a period entirely elapsed. It is exemplified in the following sentence: J'eus écrit hier à midi; I had written yesterday at twelve o'clock.

With regard to the past-posterior, or compound of the future, when you say, J'aurai fait mes affaires quand vous viendrez; I shall have finished my business when you come; your intention is to show, that the action of finishing your business is past, with regard to my coming, which is subsequently to take place; it is, therefore, with propriety, denominated a past-posterior?

S. What is the difference between je porterai (when without the determinate period it becomes a future), and je dois porter, which seems invariably a future, in your conjugation.

M. The difference is this: je porterai indicates a strong resolution

of performing the action expressed by the verb; je dois porter, signifies a free and duteous intention of performance: the former, in a strict sense, corresponds with the words shall carry, and the latter with the terms will carry. We have called it the future-indefinite.

S. What do you mean by the imperative, which, I think, you have curtailed; as it is conjugated with more persons, in the grammars I have perused, than are introduced by you?

M. Man, for the purpose of expressing his command, direction, or authority, which he could not do with the help of the indicative alone, through necessity devised a new mood (which is called the imperative) formed from the indicative, by despoiling its present tense of the pronouns. Thus was produced the imperative, a term energetically expressive of its use, and derived from the Latin word impero, I command. You perceive that it has no other persons than those I have already mentioned, since no one, in a rigid point of view, can command or give orders to himself. With respect to a third person, it is evident that no verbal intercourse can be held with an absentee.

The persons, which grammarians have so liberally bestowed on this mood, belong to the subjunctive, as the conjunction que, which is inseparable from it, fully evinces.

S. What is the conditional mood?

M. It denotes the performance of an action (either present or future) when circumstances favour the actor or actors; hence, it is called conditional, and differs essentially from the indicative and imperative moods, which entirely reject those circumstances or conditions. S. What do you mean by the subjunctive?

M. A mood always dependant on the indicative, and distinguished from it in French by the conjunction que, which connects it therewith, and from which the name of subjunctive is derived. EXAMPLE: Je désire que vouz portiez promptement ce billet; I wish that you would carry this note expeditiously. You must observe, that such verbs as express the feelings of the heart, or affections of the soul, are the only ones which, being in the indicative present, make the following verb assume the subjunctive form. The others, when in the indicative present, will not admit of it.

EXAMPLE.

J'apprends avec plaisir que c'est lui qui a obtenu cet emploi lucratif.

I learn with satisfaction that it is he who has obtained this lucrative employment.

Grammarians often mistake the conditional for the subjunctive. As a proof of their error, the latter is an entire dependant on the indicative, and by no means adequate to those functions, which the former (free from the incumbrance of any other mood) can, with propriety, perform.

CONVERSATION X.

FINAL REMARKS ON THE CONJUGATION OF FRENCH VERBS.

Scholar. What more have you to say on the conjugation of French verbs?

Master. I have to acquaint you with the remaining tenses that may be formed with the auxiliaries, venir, devoir, and aller (which we have introduced into the French conjugation), and to give you an idea of the tenses denominated comparative or double compound.

In order to avoid perplexity, and ease your memory, I have bitherto deferred the conjugation of these tenses, many of which, although seldom used in French, ought not to be withheld from the knowledge of the scholar*.

S. Please to let me know the tenses formed by venir, with which I am unacquainted.

M. There are six more past tenses just elapsed, which are as follow, viz.

PAST JUST ELAPSED.

Venir de porter, to have just carried.

INDICATIVE.

PAST ANTERIOR, OR IMPERFECT JUST ELAPSED.
Je venais de porter, &c. I had just carried, &c.

PAST POSTERIOR, OR FUTURE JUST ELAPSED.
Je viendrai de porter, &c. I shall have just carried, &c.

* I have met with many French students, who, after several years of instruction, were unacquainted with the past just elapsed, &c. je viens de, &c. (which occurs so often in speech, and is besides an idiom), and always translated it by I come from, &c. which is nonsense, in this case.

CONDITIONAL.

PAST JUST ELAPSED.

Je viendrais de porter, &c. I should have just carried, &c.

SUBJUNCTIVE.

PAST JUST ELAPSED.

Que je vienne de porter, &c. That I may have just carried, &c.

PRESENT ANTERIOR, OR IMPERFECT JUST ELAPSED. Que je vinsse de porter, &c. That I might have just carried, &c.

You may easily supply the persons not expressed in the above

tenses.

S. I should be happy to acquire the same knowledge of the other tenses, formed with devoir and aller.

M. Those tenses are all futures.

FUTURES EXPRESSED BY DEVOIR.

INFINITIVE.

Devoir porter, to have to carry.

PARTICIPLE.

Devant porter, having to carry.

INDICATIVE.

FUTURE ANTERIOR.

Je devais porter, &c. I was to carry, &c.

FUTURE POSTERIOR.

Je devrai porter, &c. I shall have to carry, &c.

CONDITIONAL.

FUTURE.

Je devrais porter, &c. I should have to carry, &c,

SUBJUNCTIVE.

FUTURE.

Que je doive porter, &c. That I may have to carry, &c.

FUTURE ANTERIOR.

Que je dusse porter, &c. That I might have to carry, &c.

FUTURES OF ALLER.

INDICATIVE.

INSTANT FUTURE ANTERIOR.
J'allais porter, &c. I was going to carry, &c.

SUBJUNCTIVE.

INSTANT FUTURE.

Que j'aille porter, &c. I must soon carry, &c.

INSTANT FUTURE ANTERIOR.

Que j'allasse porter, &c. I was obliged to carry, &c.

S. What are the comparative tenses?

M. They are all past tenses, but properly termed comparative, because they exhibit an anterior event, compared with an event which is also anterior, yet not so much so as the first. They are formed with the radical tenses of avoir, and its past participle eu, placed before the past participle of another verb.-EXAMPLE:

Quand j'ai eu fini mon ouvrage, votre frère est entré.
When I had just done my work, your brother came in.

In the above sentence, you perceive clearly that the comparative tense, j'ai eu fini, is used merely to acquaint you with the precise time at which your brother came in. It is of course supposed that you know when my work was done: for, otherwise, two unknown epochs, instead of one, would be presented to your view. The comparative tense may, therefore, with propriety, be compared to a kind of needle, which, on the dial of human actions, points out the very instant of the existence of an action till then unknown.

The comparative tenses are chiefly used in plays, epistolary corres pondence and novels. Eminent French writers, on subjects of general