The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

were274 SYNTAX.—MOODS. § l4lrerum esse qua sciantur." Here, the leading verb in the direct form, is est,in the indicative mood, having no dependence on any previous word, andhaving its subject in the nominative case. In the oblique form, the- samaverb is in the infinitive, esse ; it is dependent on ait, and has its subject inthe accusative. In the first, the verb in the subordinate clause, is in theindicative, sciuntur ; in the last, it is in the subjunctive mood, sciantur.Hence, the following general principle.652.—In every unmixed example of oblique narration, twomoods only are admissible, the infinitive and subjunctive, andconsequently, as the relative is never employed but in thesecondary, and subordinate members of a sentence, it mustalways, in oblique statements, be followed by the subjunctive.653.— Obs. 5. In connection with this general principle, however, twothings must be noticed :1st. In oblique discourse, the narrator frequently introduces a remark ofhis own, for the purpose of explanation, but yet so closely interwovenwith the discourse he is reporting, as to seem to be a part of it. Suchremark is usually introduced with the relative, and the indicative, andmay be detected by this construction : Thus, Disseruit Casar, non quademsibi igndra quce de Sil cino vulg aba?itur, sed non ex rumore statuendum," Caesar replied that those things, indeed,' ' viz. : which were rumored'concerning Suanu.% not unknown to him,' " &c. Tac. Here, the clause,quce de Sildno vulgabautur, is not to be regarded as a part of wdiat Caesarsaid, but as a clause thrown in by the historian to inform his readers whaothings they were which Caesar meant. But if the verb had been vulgdreniur,it would have shown that it was a part of what Caesar said.2d. In animated oblique narration, the historian sometimes suddenlypasses from the oblique to the direct discourse, and, instead of reportingthe remarks of the speaker, introduces him, as it were, to speak for himself.This is always manifest by the transition, from the use of the infinitiveand subjunctive, to that of the indicative, and from the use of thethird person to denote the speaker, and the person addressed, to that ofthe first and second. The following is often quoted as an appropriateexample of this. (Oblique) " Sabince mulieres dirimere ivfestas acies,hinc patres, kinc viros orantex^ ne se sangmne nefcmdo, soceri, generiquerespergerent ; ne parriddjo maculdrent partus suos, nepdtum illi, liberumh> progemem. (Direct) Si pnget affinitdtis inter vox, si connubii piget, in?wx vertite Iras, nos causa belti, non vulnerum ac ccedhim viris ac parentlbussumus, melius periblmus, quam sine alteris vestrum viduce aut orbm vivemus,Liv I. 13.654.— Obs. 6. A verb in the Future-perfect indicative, in direct discourse, will always take the pluperfect subjunctive, when the same sentenceis thrown into the oblique form, whatever be the tense of the introductoryverb; thus, Dabitur quodcuv,oue optdris. Ov.; in direct discourse,is thus related by Cicero, in the oblique form : Sol Phosthonti jilio facturumesse dixit quidquid op> t a sset.655.— Obs. h i. To this construction may be referred the subjunctiveconnected by a relative or casual conjunction with the preceding verb in