ABSTRACT
The Perfect. THE system of tenses given above will probably have to meet the objection that it assigns no place to the perfect, have written, habe geschrieben, ai eerit, etc., one of the two sides of Lat. scripsi, and in Latin often called perfectum absolutum or "perfect definite." This, however, is really no defect in the system, for the perfect cannot be fitted into the simple series, because besides the purely temporal element it contains the element of result. It is a present, but a permansive present: it represents the present state as the outcome of past events, and may therefore be called a retrospective variety of the present. That it is a variety of the present and not of the past is seen by the fact that the adverb now can stand with it: "Now I have eaten enough." "He has become mad" means that he is mad now, while "he became mad" says nothing about his present state. "Have you written the letter ~ " is a question about the present time, "Did you write the letter ~ " is a question about some definite time in the past. Note also the difference of tense in the dependent clause in "He has given orders that all spies are to be shot at once" and" He gave orders that all spies were to be shot at once."-- We may perhaps figure this by means of the letters BA or B(A)- the letters A and B being taken in the sense shown on p. 257 above.
