frequently disregarded. attaching a more distinct idea of ownership to this case than is done in other languages, and therefore only using it when the notion of property is tolerably clear; or whether it springs from the same cause that prompts the omission of plural terminations to our adjectives, I cannot say. Our dislike of plural definitives is however so decided, that we sometimes suppress the sign of plurality in substantives, when thus employed, which otherwise have only the plural form. A bowel-complaint, a spectacle-maker, matin songs, vesper hymns, the oat-barn, the snuffer-tray, are instances of plural substantives thus employed; and as the genitive case terminates, like the plural number, in the letter s, it is not improbable that the suppression of a form so likely to be mistaken for the plural, and thus to produce uncertainty or error, may have originated in this

Whether this arises from our

cause.

The following sentences present examples of substantives defined by other substantives without the sign of the genitive; but if they were translated into another language, it would be necessary that the defining word should there be put into the genitive case; or into the form equivalent to it, where the peculiarity of case does not exist.

Ex.: The castle bell has rung. The kitchen door is open.
The park gates are handsome. The cottage chimney smokes.
The garden fence is green. The cellar key is bright. The
church steeple is lofty. The dairy shelves are clean.

EXERCISE.

LESSON 34.-Write twenty sentences in which the subject is defined, as in the last examples, by another substantive, to which the one defined may be considered as belonging.

Ex.: The farm buildings are substantial.

Our language contains many hundred substantives that, consisting originally of two distinct words, are now pronounced and written as a concrete word, by the union of the definitive with the word defined. The following are of this kind, in some of which the definitive still retains the

form of the genitive: sunshine, moonlight, chambermaid, postlad, fireplace, inkstand, lambswool, horsehair, candlestick, teapot, cowslip, henbane, landsman, coxcomb (cockscomb), &c.

This faculty of forming compound terms the English inherits from the Saxon. In German, however, the compound term is written as one word, or, when the sign of the genitive case is omitted, the defining substantive is always connected with the other by a hyphen, thus; cavalrybarracks, exhibition-room. It would be well were this usage general in English; but as it is not, I can only recommend the pupil to observe it carefully wherever custom sanctions it. By regarding such terms as compound substantives, we withdraw them from the operation of the grammatical canon, "One substantive governs another substantive, signifying a different thing, in the genitive case."

EXERCISE.

LESSON 35.-Let the pupil try to recollect fifty compound substantives now written as one word; a task which a little patience and perseverance will accomplish.

Ex.: Birdlime, staircase, housewife, dovecot.

IV. The following words serve to define objects within view of the speaker, or that have been already mentioned: this, that, these, those, same, such, other, yon, called DEMONSTRATIVES; and the, called the DEFINITE ARTICLE.

Ex.: The man is mad. This book will amuse. That child trembles. These roses are fragrant. Those swans are wild. Yon man is a lawyer. Such things are hurtful. The same swallows have returned. The other passengers escaped.

EXERCISE.

LESSON 36.-Write four sentences with each of the words just given used to determine the subject more precisely.

Ex.: The beggar approaches. This path is crooked.

V. Substantives are frequently defined by a peculiar class of words called POSSESSIVE or ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS, so named because in the character of

pronouns they indicate the person of the possessor; while as adjectives they agree in gender, number, and case with the substantive defined. They determine the substantive by an attribute of ownership, and are formed from the genitive cases of the respective Personal Pronouns. They are as follow:

Ex.: My book is handsome.

Thy will be done. His hair curls. Her eyes are hazel. Its tail is bushy. Our books Your linnet sings. Their fault was grave.

are torn.

The possessive pronoun of the second person singular, like the personal pronoun, is only used in devotional exercises or in poetry. In the third person singular the masculine and neuter possessive pronouns are identical in form with the genitive cases of the personal pronouns he and it; but this identity offers no difficulty if the student bear in mind that our possessive pronoun is never found without its substantive; while the genitive case of the personal pronoun cannot be employed to define a substantive, and, consequently, always stands alone. It is true that in our translation of the Scriptures, and even elsewhere, we sometimes find mine and thine standing as definitives before words beginning with a vowel, but this is a fault that is no longer common. Murray has fallen into a very palpable error when he says, that in English substantives govern not only substantives but pronouns also in the genitive case, and gives as an example of this rule “ every tree is known by its fruit." I have already remarked that the genitive case singular of the neuter pronoun is not used; and, if we change the number of the subject in the above proposition to the plural, we shall instantly perceive that it is not the genitive case of the personal pronoun, but the possessive pronoun, that is employed; for we should not say, "all trees are known by theirs fruits," which is the form of the genitive in the plural. The nature of our possessive

adjectives is not altered by the fact that they must sometimes be rendered in other languages by the genitive case of a personal pronoun.

EXERCISE.

LESSON 37.-Write three sentences, and define the subject by each of the possessive pronouns in both numbers : making in all twenty-four sentences.

Ex.: My head aches. Thy slate is dirty, &c.

REMARK.-An Englishman is generally puzzled, on commencing the study of another language, to find that the possessive pronoun must agree in gender with the thing defined, instead of agreeing with the possessor. It appears strange to him that, in such a phrase as 'my mother," he must make my agree with mother in the feminine gender; and this feeling is stronger in the case of the possessive pronoun of the third person, which in English has in the singular three distinct forms, his, her, its, indicating the gender of the possessor, a peculiarity that is not found in other languages. It must be borne in mind that though "his," for instance, as a pronoun, shows incidentally the gender of the possessor, it still, as an adjective, agrees in gender with the substantive that it defines, and, therefore, that in the phrase "his father," his is masculine singular, in "his mother," feminine singular; in “his hat," neuter singular; and that it becomes masculine plural if we change the number, and say, "his sons," &c.; and so with the other adjective pronouns. It is from the unchanging form of our adjective that springs the notion of incongruity which invariably strikes the English student when he first meets with the possessive pronoun in another language.

VI. Another manner of defining substantives of common gender, is to use either a substantive, an adjective, or a personal pronoun, indicating the sex of the object. This is the way in which, when requisite, gender is shown with those substantives that have no distinctive termination.

Ex.: Our man-cook is ill. The maid-servant laughed. A
he-goat is mischievous. A female elephant has arrived.
His male friend answered. A cock-pheasant is handsome.
The bull calf grows.

EXERCISE.

LESSON 38.-Write twenty sentences, in each of which the subject is defined by an attribute of gender.

Ex.: Your man-cook is fat.

VII. We have seen (Chap. I. Sect. II.) that number, grammatically considered, is limited to singular and plural. These two forms would however be wholly inadequate to convey our impressions in this respect, and therefore, to determine number and quantity with greater precision, certain words, called NUMERALS, are employed.

NUMERALS are of two kinds: DEFINITE, and INDEFINITE. DEFINITE NUMERALS point out a precisely determined number: they are one, two, three, ten, twenty, fifty, hundred, thousand, &c.

In written language the Definite Numerals are often represented by particular signs, instead of being expressed in words, which latter mode would render arithmetical operations tedious, if not impracticable. In ancient times notation was effected by peculiar arrangements of certain letters, as with the sections of this work, which are numbered after the Roman method; but the present method of writing numbers, which was introduced into Europe from Arabia, is infinitely more simple. Every possible number can be readily expressed, as the pupil is aware, by means of the ten figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

INDEFINITE NUMERALS indicate number or quantity in a manner more or less precise. The following words belong to this class: a, an, all, any, both, divers, each, either, enough, every, few, little, many, more, most, much, neither, no, several, some.

A, an, are called by our grammarians the INDEFINITE ARTICLE; but as their only use is to mark somewhat more emphatically the singular number of a substantive, they may be classed with those words whose sole function is to serve as attributes of number.

EXERCISE.

LESSON 39.-Write twenty sentences, determining more accurately the subject of each by an Indefinite numeral. Ex.: Little hope remains. Several pigeons escaped.