ay."--_Genesis_, xxiv, 42. "If he _do_ not _utter_
it."--_Leviticus_, v, 1. "If he _do_ but _intimate_ his desire."--_Murray's
Key_, p. 207. "If he _do promise_, he will certainly perform."--_Ib._, p.
208. "An event which, if it ever _do occur_, must occur in some future
period."--_Hiley's Gram._, (3d Ed., Lond.,) p. 89. "If he _do_ but
_promise_, thou art safe."--_Ib._, 89.

"Till old experience _do attain_
To something like prophetic strain."--MILTON: _Il Penseroso_.

These examples, if they are right, prove the tense to be _present_, and not
_future_, as Hiley and some others suppose it to be.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

This tense, like the imperfect of the potential mood, with which it is
frequently connected, is properly an aorist, or indefinite tense; for it
may refer to time past, present, or future: as, "If therefore perfection
_were_ by the Levitical priesthood, what further need _was_ there that an
other priest _should rise_?"--_Heb._, vii, 11. "They must be viewed
_exactly_ in the same light, as if the intention to purchase _now
existed_."--_Murray's Parsing Exercises_, p. 24. "If it _were_ possible,
they _shall deceive_ the very elect."--_Matt._, xxiv, 24. "If the whole
body _were_ an eye, where _were_ the hearing?"--_1 Corinthians_, xii, 17.
"If the thankful _refrained_, it _would be_ pain and grief to
them."--_Atterbury_.

_Singular_. _Plural_.
1. If I loved, 1. If we loved,
2. If thou loved, 2. If you loved,
3. If he loved; 3. If they loved.

OBS.--In this tense, the auxiliary _did_ is sometimes employed. The
subjunctive may here be distinguished from the indicative, by these
circumstances; namely, that the time is indefinite, and that the
supposition is always contrary to the fact: as, "Great is the number of
those who might attain to true wisdom, if they _did not already think_
themselves wise."--_Dillwyn's Reflections_, p. 36. This implies that they
_do think_ themselves wise; but an indicative supposition or
concession--(as, "Though they _did not think_ themselves wise, they were
so--") accords with the fact, and with the literal time of the tense,--here
time past. The subjunctive imperfect, suggesting the idea of what is not,
and known by the sense, is sometimes introduced without any of the _usual
signs_; as, "In a society of perfect men, _where all understood_ what was
morally right, and _were determined_ to act accordingly, it is obvious,
that human laws, or even human organi