contained in his statement!_"--_Principles
of E. Grammar_, p. 131. And the teacher is to ask questions as numerous as
the reasons! Such is the parsing of a text-book which has been pronounced
"superior to any other, for use in our common schools"--"a _complete_
grammar of the language, and _available for every purpose_ for which Mr.
Brown's can possibly be used."--_Ralph K. Finch's Report_, p, 12.

[63] There are many other critics, besides Murray and Alger, who seem not
to have observed the import of _after_ and _before_ in connexion with the
tenses. Dr. Bullions, on page 139th of his English Grammar, copied the
foregoing example from Lennie, who took it from Murray. Even Richard Hiley,
and William Harvey Wells, grammarians of more than ordinary tact, have been
obviously misled by the false criticism above cited. One of Hiley's Rules
of Syntax, with its illustration, stands thus: "In _the use of the
different tenses_, we must particularly _observe to use that tense_ which
clearly and properly conveys the sense intended; thus, instead of saying,
'After I _visited_ Europe, I returned to America;' we should say, 'After I
_had visited_ Europe, I returned to America."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 90. Upon
this he thought it needful to comment thus: "'After I _visited_ Europe, I
returned to America;' _this sentence is incorrect_; _visited_ ought to be
_had visited_, because the action _implied_ by the verb _visited_ WAS
COMPLETED _before_ the other past action _returned_."--_Ib._, p. 91. See
nearly the same thing in _Wells's School Grammar, 1st Edition_, p. 151; but
his later editions are wisely altered. Since "_visited_ and _was
completed_" are of the same tense, the argument from the latter, if it
proves any thing, proves the former to be _right_, and the proposed change
needless, or perhaps worse than needless. "I _visited_ Europe _before_ I
_returned_ to America," or, "I _visited_ Europe, _and afterwards returned_
to America," is good English, and not to be improved by any change of
tense; yet here too we see the _visiting_ "_was completed before_" the
return, or HAD BEEN COMPLETED _at the time_ of the return. I say, "The
Pluperfect Tense is that which expresses what _had taken_ place _at_ some
past time mentioned: as, 'I _had seen_ him, _when_ I met you.'" Murray
says, "The Pluperfect Tense represents a _thing_ not only as past, but also
as prior to some _other point of time_ specified in the sentence: as, I
_had finished_ my let