acceptation of the second perfect rests, are those which are given at the top of page 235 of the grammar.

In some of these verbs the middle voice has rather a passive signification, as aya and 'épiwya I am broken, I am torn; which is also still more remarkably the case with some perfects active, as τέτευχα and ἑάλωκα. Some second perfects seem to fluctuate between a transitive and a neutro-passive meaning, as diétoga I have ruined, more rarely I am ruined, éжλnya I have struck, and in some writers have been struck, vapulavi, &c. As the few verbs in the list referred to are all, on which the common appellation of perfect middle rests, and as in the great majority of cases the true perfect middle, like the present and imperfect middle, is expressed by the perfect passive, there seems to be no reason for classing under the middle voice tenses, which are wholly active in their formation.*

There is even reason to think that the second perfect is the original form of the perfect tense active. The ingenious deduction of Mr Thiersch leads to this conclusion.t In the Homeric dialect, the most ancient form of the Greek language extant, though the aspirate is retained in the perfect, when it exists in the present, as τετευχώς, τέτροφα (from τεύχω, τρέφω,) yet no where in Homer is an aspirate assumed in the perfect, which does not exist in the root. Mr Thiersch has even gone further and in some degree suppressed the middle voice; and it may be doubted whether it would not be historically as correct and more convenient to the learner to refer the aorists and the future of

* Matthiæ in his Larger Grammar, page 681, has asserted without qualification, that the 2d Perfect never has the reflective signification of the Middle Voice.

† See page 13 of his tables, in Professor Patton's translation. See also his Grammar, page 115.

b

the middle voice to the passive, as the perfect is now done to the active, and leave to the lexicons to mark, in the individual words, the intransitive or reflective meaning of these tenses, in the verbs in which they actually occur.

In making use of this grammar for the purpose of elementary instruction, much must be left to the discretion of the judicious teacher. While it probably contains nothing, of which use may not be made in reading the Greek authors, usually studied in our schools and colleges, it is not designed of course to be committed to memory or studied at first without discrimination. It must be remembered that if the grammar be the first book put into the learner's hands, it should also be the last to leave them, and that it must therefore combine elementary principles with critical detail. A Greek accidence, which should embrace only that which it is absolutely necessary to commit to memory, in commencing the study of the language, would probably be found useful to beginners; and such a one it was the intention of the translator to compile from the grammar. He has for the present omitted it, from the consideration, that it is in the power of the judicious teacher, to attain nearly the same object, by marking the portions of the grammar, which it is necessary to commit to memory.

The translator trusts that he shall be thought to have rendered a service not wholly insignificant to the study of classical literature. The increased attention, which has lately been paid to this department, leads him to hope his labor will not be unacceptable. The translation of Mr Thiersch's tables by professor Patton, will be found a valuable contribution to the means of cultivating this study, and the English Greek lexicon, which is in preparation by Mr Pickering, will remove one of the obstacles

to the pursuit of the Greek in our schools. It is the design of the translator to adapt for use in this country the text-book of Mr Jacobs, a work of singular merit and of extensive use abroad, and which, as it refers throughout to the Grammar of Buttmann, will be particularly useful to those who are well grounded therein. THE TRANSLATOR.

Cambridge, Aug. 1822.

INTRODUCTION.

Of the Greek Language and its Dialects in General.

THE Greek, like all other languages, had various dialects which however may be all reduced to two fundamental dialects, the Ionic and Doric, belonging to the two great divisions of the Grecian race, which bore these names respectively.

The Dorian tribe was the most extensive, but its dialect was rough, and upon the whole less cultivated. A branch of this dialect was the Æolic, which early attained a considerable degree of improvement, particularly in the Eolian colonies of Asia Minor and in the neighbouring islands.

The Ionian tribe inhabited in earlier times for the most part what was afterwards called Attica; and sent out from this quarter its colonies to the coasts of Asia Minor. Inasmuch as these colonies attained a high degree of refinement, earlier than their mother country, or any other Grecian tribe, the appellations of Ionians and Ionic were appropriated to them and their dialect, while the original, Ionians in Attica were called Attics and Athenians. The Ionic dialect, from the multiplication of vowels, is the softest. But the Attic soon surpassed the others in refinement, by avoiding, in the ease peculiar to itself, the Doric harshness, and the Ionic softness. Although the Attic race, geographically speaking, was the original, the Ionic dialect of the colonies in Asia Minor is considered as the mother of the Attic dialect, because it attained a high degree of cultivation at a period, when it had least departed from the common source of both, the old tongue of the Ionian race.

As mother, however, of all the dialects, we must assume an original ancient Greek language. But of this it is only by