Chapter 475Allen and Greenough's Latin GrammarDickinson CollegeChristopher Francese
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The Perfect is sometimes used of a
general truth
, especially with negatives (
Gnomic Perfect
):—
quī studet contingere mētam multa
tulit fēcit
que
(Hor. A. P. 412)
,
he who aims to reach the goal, first bears and does many things.
nōn aeris acervus et aurī
dēdūxit
corpore febrīs
(
id
. Ep. 1.2.47),
the pile of brass and gold removes not fever from the frame.
The gnomic perfect strictly refers to past time; but its use implies that something which never
did
happen in any known case never
does
happen, and never
will
(cf. the English “
Faint heart never
won
fair lady”
); or, without a negative that what
has once
happened will
always
happen under similar circumstances.
The Perfect is often used in expressions containing or implying
a negation
, where in affirmation the Imperfect would be preferred:—
dīcēbat
melius quam
scrīpsit
Hortēnsius
(Or. 132)
,
Hortensius spoke better than he wrote.
[Here the negative is implied in the comparison: compare the use of
quisquam
,
ūllus
, etc. (§§
311
, 312), and the French
ne
after comparatives and superlatives.]