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+