Hi from Vancouver, BC!  Recently I heard the two of you saying to each other:

AK>  "This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist
AK>  answered. "But I wanted to show you that it was possible."

AK>  Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that
AK>  it IS possible." After all he spoke of universal truth,
AK>  at least he thought so.


          Yes, yes, and yes....  :-)



AK>  But may be
         |I'd say "maybe", or "it may be that"

AK>  English Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway


          English grammar allows... but does not necessarily require...
tense changes in reported speech, where the original wording may not be
cited as it was said.  I'd suggest looking up "reported speech"
vs. "direct speech".  :-)



MP>  I personally would have used IS, but maybe the author used
MP>  WAS because they used it in the first part of the quote.

MP>  I was always taught to use the active tense, when possible,
MP>  unless I am speaking of something that happened in the past.


          Basically, I agree with you there although I'd describe the
"is" as present tense & the use of the past tense in such
situations is not uncommon.

          I might say... in my own words... "The alchemist wanted to
show his student that xxx was possible" because I'm referring to past
events.  I would expect the alchemist to say "I wanted to show you
that it is possible" if his intention was to encourage the student to
complete his homework.

          I'm reminded of an incident in which I demonstrated to some kids
in grade eight who felt it took too long to use the dictionary that,
because I'd been practising this skill before they were born, I could find
words of their choice within fourteen seconds including the time I spent
picking up the book from my desk.  As one of my teachers often said,
"Genius is 10% inspiration & 90% perspiration."  In his youth
people thought Einstein was a dunce....  :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+