[114] So in the law stile. "If a man _die_ intestate;" "if a man _die_ seised of an estate in fee;" "if Titius _enfeoff_ Gaius," &c. are future; and in most such phrases used in translations from the Latin and French, the verbs in the original are future. But in law the same form is used in the present very frequently, agreeable to the ancient practice. The reason may be, the convenience and necessity of copying words and phrases with great exactness. But Blackstone, the most accurate and elegant law writer, uses the other form, "if a man _has_ heirs;" "if a good or valuable consideration _appears_;" and too often, when the sense requires the future. He generally gives _be_ its subjunctive form, as it is called, and most other verbs the indicative. [115] In some instances, the time is present, and the ellipsis may be supplied by _may_ or some other auxiliary. [116] In the original, the participle of the present time is employed: ~hina kai echontes gynaikas, hôs mê echontes~; and so in the other instances. The Greek is correct; "those _having_ wives as _not having_ them." The translation is agreeable enough to the English idiom; but the verbs represent the present time. [117] A similar use of the verb occurs after _wish_; "_I wish I had_ my estate _now_ in possession;" this would be expressed in Latin. _Utinam me habere_, using the present of the infinitive, or _Utinam ut haberem_; but this Imperfect tense of the Subjunctive, both in Latin and French, is used to convey the same ideas as English verbs after if; _if I had_, _si haberem_, _si j'aurois_, and whatever may be the name annexed to this form of the verb, it cannot, in the foregoing sense, have any reference to past time. The common phrases, _I had rather_, _he had better_, are said to be a corruption of _I would rather_, _he would better_, rapidly pronounced, _I'd rather_. I am not satisfied that this is a just account of their origin; _would_ will not supply the place of _had_ in all cases. At any rate, the phrases have become good English. [118] The following translation of a passage in Cicero is directly in point. "Vivo tamen in ea ambitione et labore tanquam id, quod non postulo, _expectem_."----Cicero ad Quintum. 2. 15. "I live still in such a course of ambition and fatigue, as if _I were expecting_ what I do not really desire."----Middleton, Life of Cicero, vol. 2. p. 97. Here _tanquam expectem_ are rendered very justly, "as if I _were_ expecting;" _now_, in present time, agreeable to the original. The words carry a negative: _if I were expecting_, implying, that _I do not expect_. [119] This tense is not admitted to be good English; yet is often used in speaking; the _have_ being contracted or corrupted into _a_, _had a written_, _if he had a received_.