ogy,
according to Horne Tooke, (see _Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 457,) is
no fitter than that of our ancestors, who for this purpose used the same
preposition, but put the participle in _ing_ after it, in lieu of the
radical verb, which we choose to employ: as, "Generacions of eddris, who
shewide to you to fle fro wraththe _to comynge?_"--_Matt._, iii, 7. Common
Version: "O generation of vipers! who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath _to come_?" "Art thou that art _to comynge_, ether abiden we
another?"--_Matt._, xi, 3. Common Version: "Art thou he that _should come_,
or do we look for another?" "Sotheli there the ship was _to puttyng out_
the charge."--_Dedis_, xxi, 3. Common Version: "For there the ship was _to
unlade_ her burden."--_Acts_, xxi, 3. Churchill, after changing the names
of the two infinitive tenses to "_Future imperfect_" and "_Future
perfect_," adds the following note: "The tenses of the infinitive mood are
usually termed _present_ and _preterperfect_: but this is certainly
improper; for they are so completely future, that what is called the
present tense of the infinitive mood is often employed simply to express
futurity; as, 'The life _to come_.'"--_New Gram._, p. 249.

OBS. 8.--The pluperfect tense, when used conditionally, in stead of
expressing what actually _had taken place_ at a past time, almost always
implies that the action thus supposed _never was performed_; on the
contrary, if the supposition be made in a _negative form_, it suggests that
the event _had occurred_: as, "Lord, if thou _hadst been here_, my brother
_had not died_."--_John_, xi, 32. "If I _had not come_ and spoken unto
them, they _had not had_ sin; but now they have no cloak for their
sin."--_John_, xv, 22. "If thou _hadst known_, even thou, at least in this
thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from
thine eyes."--_Luke_, xix, 42. The supposition is sometimes indicated by a
mere transposition of the verb and its subject; in which case, the
conjunction _if_ is omitted; as, "_Had ye believed_ Moses, ye would have
believed me."--_John_, v, 46.

"_Had I but fought_ as wont, one thrust
_Had laid_ De Wilton in the dust."--_Scott_

OBS. 9.--In the language of prophecy we find the past tenses very often
substituted for the future, especially when the prediction is remarkably
clear and specific. Man is a creature of present knowledge only; but it is
certain, that He who sees the end fr