MSGID: 1:153/716.0 ed99f5d2   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 5ed2e91c   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi again, Anton!  This is a continuation of my previous message to you:   
      
   AS>  Addison in a psalm of his addresses God:   
      
   AS>       I knew thou wert not slow to hear,   
   AS>       Nor impotent to save.   
      
   AS>  I don't think that substituting `art' for `wert' would   
   AS>  harm the sound and rythm so much as to justify `wert',   
   AS>  were it ungrammatical...   
      
      
              No.  But I think you're referring to Joseph Addison, who lived from   
   1672-1719 & who wrote at least two hymns based on a rewording of Old Testament   
   psalms.  Bishop R. Heber said "... which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be"   
   WRT God in 1827.  I'm not sure how much to attribute to liturgical anachronism   
   ... as Fowler puts it... or how much weight to assign to the idea that when we   
   speak of an immutable truth the verb tenses should still be in agreement.  :-)   
      
      
      
   AH>  We've often had people say to us, in casual conversation,   
   AH>  "I didn't know you're a teacher."  I doubt they are the   
   AH>  only people who do this....  :-)   
      
   AS>  Hardly so, but such is the nature of causual conversation   
   AS>  that one has little time, and even less desire, to ensure   
   AS>  grammatical accuracy.   
      
      
              Agreed.  When folks are speaking extemporaneously they tend to make   
   grammatical errors they probably wouldn't have made if they'd had more time to   
   think about the wording.  In an otherwise fruitless search of my own reference   
   books, however, I found this description of something else:  "well established   
   but controversial".  I think the same might also be said of the above....  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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