had written, "Of the first disobedience of man, and that forbidden tree's fruit," his meaning would have been different from what it now is. He now calls on the Muse to sing of man's first act of disobedience as distinguished from all his other acts, and the fruit of that forbidden tree as distinguished from all other trees; whereas the other arrangement of the words would have laid the stress on man as distinguished from all other beings, and on the fruit as distinguished from the rest of the tree. The "Paradise Lost" of Milton is not in import exactly the same as Milton's "Paradise Lost." In the former, attention is called to the author; in the latter, to the work. SECTION CCLXIII.--COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY. The cases in the ancient languages were formed by varying the terminations, and thus expressing a few of the obvious and common relations. In the Latin language nouns have six cases; in the Anglo-Saxon, four. The Latin word pater is declined as follows: The Anglo-Saxon word ende is declined as follows: In the following example we have nine cases of the Laplandish language, expressed by variable terminations: Nom. Joulke, a foot. Abl. Joulkest, from a foot. Some of the Indian dialects, instead of using inflections or prepositions to express the different relations, employ post-positions; as, hhoda, a god; hhoda-ka, of a god; hhoda-ko, to a god. See Section CCCLXXIV. SECTION CCLXIV. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES. "There is nothing more certain than this, that the earlier we can trace back any one language, the more full, complete, and consistent are its forms; that the later we find it existing, the more compressed, colloquial, and business-like it has become. Like the trees of our forests, it grows at first wild, luxuriant, rich in foliage, full of light and shadow, and flings abroad in its vast branches the fruits of a youthful and vigorous nature; transplanted to the garden of civilisation, and trained for the purposes of com-` merce, it becomes regulated, trimmed, pruned; nature, indeed, still gives it life, but art prescribes the direction and extent of its vegetation. Always we perceive a compression, a gradual loss of fine distinctions, a perishing of forms, terminations, and conjugations in the younger state of the language. The truth is, that in a language, up to a certain period, there is a real indwelling vitality; a principle acting unconsciously, but perversively, in every part. Men wield their forms of speech as they do their limbs, spontaneously; knowing nothing of their construction, or the means by which these instruments possess their power. It may be even said that the commencement of the age of self-consciousness is identical with the close of that of vitality in language."-Lond. Phil. Society. QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER II.1 b 5. 1. Give the two definitions of a noun, and the derivation of the terms noun and substantive. 2 H 2. What are proper nouns, and what are common nouns ? 3. What is an abstract noun, and what is a concrete noun ?***** 4. What is a collective noun, and what is a correlative noun ? 5. What are participial nouns, and what are diminutive nouns, and what are material nouns? 6. In what case can the other parts of speech be made nouns ? 7. In what cases do proper nouns become common nouns? 8. In what case does common nouns become proper nouns? 9. What is gender, and what is the derivation of the term GENDER? 10. How many genders are there, and what do they severally denote ? 11. What are the three principal modes of expressing gender? 12. Of what gender are the names of males, and of what gender are the names of females? 13. What words have the same termination for both masculine and feminine, and of what gender are these words? 14. What words are used only in the feminine? 15. What masculine words are by extension applied to the whole species, and also what feminine words are in like manner applied to the whole species ? 16. What is said of the words infant, child? 17. In what cases are masculine terms employed in preference to the feminine, and in what cases is the feminine term employed? Give the examples. 18. How does it appear that English gender is philosophic ? 19. How does it appear that English gender is poetic? 20. What are the grounds for a choice of gender in personification? NUMBER. 21. What is number, and how many numbers are there, and what do these numbers severally denote? 22. In the spoken language, how is the plural number formed? Give examples. 23. In the written language, how is the plural number expressed? Give examples. 24. When nouns in the spoken language end with a sound that will not unite with that of s, how is the plural number formed? Give examples. 25. When nouns in the written language end in's, sh, ch, x, or z, how is the plural number formed? Give examples. 26. How do nouns ending in y, after a consonant, form the plural? Give examples. 27. How do nouns ending in i form their plurals? Give an example. 28. How do nouns ending in o, preceded by a consonant, form their plurals? Give an example. 29. How do certain nouns in ƒ and fe form their plurals; and how do other nouns in f and fe form their plurals? 30. Give an instance of a plural in n or en, and of a plural formed by a change of Vowel. 31. Give an instance of a double plural, and also of two plurals of the same word. 32. What do you say of the plurals of foreign words? 33. Give an instance of a noun that has no plural termination; and also of one that denotes plurality without a plural termination; and also of a noun that has the same form in both numbers; and also of a noun that has the plural termination only; and also of a noun that has the plural form, but is used in the singular. 34. Give an instance of a noun which has the same form for both numbers, and yet is sometimes used in a regular plural form. 35. Give the statement with respect to the plural form of compounds, and with respect to the plural form of proper nouns, and with respect to words used as mere words, and with respect to a title and a name used together. 36. What languages had the dual number? CASE. 37. What is case, and how many cases are there? 38. Give the definition of each of the three cases, and the origin of the term. 39. Give the declension of English nouns, and give the rules for the possessive form. 40. Describe the transition from the Anglo-Saxon genitive. 41. Give the statement with respect to the number of cases. 42. What is said of the import of the genitive? 43. How were cases in the ancient languages formed? 44. What is the difference between ancient and modern languages in respect to their forms? CHAPTER III. SECTION CCLXV.-THE ADJECTIVE. An ADJECTIVE is a word which cannot, by itself, form the subject of a proposition, but which, with the verb to be, can form the predicate of a proposition; as, "God is good," "Man is mortal." In the first proposition, good is the predicate; in the second, mortal is the predicate. Or, an ADJECTIVE is a word which qualifies or limits a noun; as, "A wise man; "" "Virtuous women; ""Seven children." Adjectives, from the Latin word adjectivus (added to), have been called attributives, because they denote qualities attributed to things. An adjective denotes a concrete quality of a noun, without any other circumstance. Thus, in the phrase "He is an eloquent man," the word eloquent withdraws the attention from every other circumstance and fixes it upon his eloquence. It is sometimes called a noun adjective, because it is the name of a quality. Like the substantive, it is, according to the classification of Becker, a notional word. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon, the English adjective preserves the same form in both numbers, and in all genders and cases. See Section CCLXXVII. SECTION CCLXVI.-CLASSIFICATION. I. A PROPER ADJECTIVE is one that is derived from a proper name; as, Roman, from Rome; English, from England. II. A COMMON ADJECTIVE is one that is not derived from a proper name, and expresses quality; as, useful, industrious, frugal. III. A NUMERAL ADJECTIVE is one that expresses a definite number. There are three kinds of numeral adjectives—namely, cardinal; as, one, two, three; ordinal; as, first, second, third; multiplicative; as, single, double, or two-fold, triple, or three-fold. See Section CCLXXX. IV. A PRONOMINAL ADJECTIVE is one that partakes of the nature of a pronoun and an adjective, being sometimes used as the one, and sometimes as the other. The following have been called pronominal 29 [ENG. LANG. 1L] adjectives: This, that, these, those; each, every, either; much, many, few, several; all, none, any, one, other, another, such, some, both; certain, divers, else; former, latter, first, last; neither, own, same, what, whatever, whatsoever, which, whichever, whichsoever, &c. These words are often classed with pronouns. Some of these are properly numerals. See Section CCCXIV. 99 66 V. A PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVE is one that has the form of a participle without the idea of time; as, “A pleasing person; "An amusing story." VI. A COMPOUND ADJECTIVE is one that is made up of two or more words, usually joined by a hyphen; as, "Sun-burnt hair;" "Love-lorn nightingale." SECTION CCLXVII.-OTHER CLASSIFICATIONS. Adjectives have also been divided into, I. DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES, which express some quality or condition of the noun; as, "A good man;' ." An open book." II. DEFINITIVE ADJECTIVES, which define or limit the meaning of the noun to which they are applied; as, "Several men;" "Those books." Another division has been proposed, by which adjectives have been distributed into two classes. The FIRST CLASS under this distribution are those which fix the attention on the quality or property which they describe, whether this property be an object of bodily sense, as green, loud, or of the mental perceptions and affections, as dear, kind, true. Among these, the most characteristic are those which are not obviously derived from any other word, as good, soft, bright. Words of this class do not contain in themselves any reference to any other word; but we have various derivatives formed from them, as goodness, wisdom, soften, brighten, redden. The SECOND CLASS under this distribution are those which have a manifest and distinct reference to some primitive, either a concrete substantive, as wooden, fatherly, or to a verb, as tiresome, seemly. These may be called ADJECTIVES OF RELATION. Various terminations are employed in the formation of such terms; some of Teutonic orign, as lovely, faithful, faithless, witty, sleepy, troublesome, sheepish, golden; others of Latin extraction, as gracious, ethereal, angular, adamantine, visionary, promissory, angelic, offensive, changeable, accessible, and others. The characteristic of the present class of adjectives is, that they have a distinctly felt reference to their primitives. When, for ins ance, we speak of a beechen bowl, of an insular climate, of fatherly duties, there is a reference, distinctly perceived, to the substantives from which the adjectives come, and we are conscious that we mean a bowl made of beech, the climate of an island, the duties of a father. Adjectives of this class often express the MATERIAL of which a thing is made, by the addition of n or en; as, golden, brazen. Formerly this mode of derivation was more common than it is now; as, cedarn alleys; treen platters = wooden plates. But, as many words do not admit of the termination en, we use the substantive adjec The analogy of such cases = t vely, without any change; as, an iron crown; a stone wall. leads us to do the same even where the adjective exists. Falstaff tells Prince Hal to Compound words and phrases are used in the same way. "Go hang himself in his own heir-apparent garters;" and Campbell uses similar forms in the line "Like angel visits, few and far between." SECTION CCLXVIII, THE DERIVATION OF ADJECTIVES. Adjectives are not derived from substantives only, but from other words, and especially from verbs. Of this kind we have but few English adjectives, unless we consider participles as such. In most cases we have the alternative between a Latin adjective and an English participle. We speak of hereditary rights, and of rights inherited from our ancestors; of native talents, or of talents born with a man; of derivative claims, or claims flowing from others; of striking or of impressive descriptions; of a radiant or a beaming countenance. Words like these, in pairs, of which one is of Latin and the other of Saxon origin, are not exactly synonymous. Thus, terrestrial is not precisely equivalent to earthy, nor sylvan to woody, nor feminine to womanly, nor timely to temporary. In a language which so much borrows its adjectives from another, their meaning is naturally liable to be mistaken by those whose learning does not extend beyond their mother tongue. Nothing is more common among uneducated writers than this confounding of the meaning of adjectives. Some adjectives of English form and origin have fallen into disuse in modern times, as Latin radicals and terminations have become more familiar. This process, however, like most of those which occur in the progress of language, seems to have gone on very capriciously. We use fatherly, motherly, brotherly, as readily as paternal, maternal, fraternal. Sisterly has no Latin equivalent. Sonly is never used, though filial does not fully represent it. Daughterly is not common. SECTION CCLXIX.-COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. Those adjectives which denote VARIABLE QUALITIES have three degrees of comparison, the Positive, the Comparative, and the Superlative. Variable qualities are those which are capable of increase or diminution. SECTION COLXX.-SIMPLE OR TERMINATIONAL COMPARISON. The POSITIVE degree of the quality is expressed by the adjective in the simple form; as, wise, cold. The COMPARATIVE degree of the quality is expressed by adding r or er to the positive form: as, wiser, colder. The SUPERLATIVE degree of the quality is expressed by adding st or est to the positive form; as, wisest, coldest. The comparative refers to two persons or things, and denotes a greater degree of a quality in the one than in the other. The superlative refers to more than two persons or things, and denotes the utmost degree of a quality. All monosyllables admit of r, st, or er, est, and dissyllables when the addition may be easily pronounced. When adjectives end in y after a consonant, the y is dropped and i substituted before er and est; as, lofty, loftier, loftiest. SECTION CCLXXI.-COMPOUND COMPARISON. Every adjective susceptible of comparison may also be compared by the use of the adverbs more and most; as, more wise, most wise. This mode of comparison is generally used in the case of |