no such gender belonging to the language. The business of parsing can be effectually performed, without having recourse to a common gender. Thus we may say; Parents is a noun of the masculine and femine gender; Parent, if doubtful, is of the masculine, or feminine gender; and Parent, if the gender is known by the construction, is of the gender so ascertained.

Nouns with variable terminations contribute to conciseness and perspicuity of expression. We have only a sufficient number of them to make us feel our want; for when we say of a woman, she is a philosopher, au as ronomer, a builder, a weaver, we perceive an impropriety in the term nation, which we cannot avoid; but we can say, that she is a botanist, a student, a winess, a scholar, an orphan, a companion, because these terminations have not annexed to them the notion of sex.

SECTION 3.-Of Number.

We also frequently have occasion to designate whether the name we use is intended to signify one object, or more objects than one. This is generally done by adding an s to the name singular; and the variation (whatever it may be,) in the name, in order to mark that distinction, is called Number. In grammar, Number is that variation in the name, which denotes whether the name is in

tended to signify one or more. The term, Singular, means one; Plural means

more than one.

Some nouos, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the singular form; as, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, &c. others only in the plural form; as, bellows, scissors, lungs, riches, &c.

Some words are the same in both numbers; as, dcer, sheep, swine, &c.

Nouns which end in o, bave sometimes es, added in the plural; as, cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto potato, volcano, wo ;—and sometimes only s; as, folio, nuncio, punctilio, seraglio.

Nouns ending in f. or fe, are rendered plural by the change of those terminations into ves; as loaf, loaves; half, halves; wife, wives; except grief, relief, reproof, and several others, which form the plural by the addition of s. Those which end in ff, bave the regular plural; as, ruff, ruffs; except staff, slaves. Nouns which have y in the singular, with no other vowel in the same syllable, change it into ies in the plural; as beauty, beauties; fly, flies. But the y is not changed, where there is another vowel in the syllable; as, key, keys; delay, delays; attorney, attorneys.

Some nouns become plural by changing the a of the singular into e; as, man, men; woman, women; alderman, aldermen. The words, ox and child, form oxen and children; brother makes either brothers, or brethren. Sometimes the diphthong oo, is changed into ee in the plural; as, fool, feet; goose geese ; tooth, teeth. Louse and mouse make lice and mice. Penny makes pence, or pennies, when the coin is meant ;-die, dice (for play); die, dies (for coining).

It is agreeable to anology, and the practice of the generality of correct writers, to construe the following words as plural nouns; pains, riches, almɛ; and also, mathematics, metaphysics politics, ethics, optics, pneumatics, with other simi lar names of sciences.

Dr. Johnson says that the adjective much, is sometimes a term of number, as well as of quality. This may account for the instances we meet with of its associating with pains as a plural noun; as, "much pains." The connex on, however, is not to be recommended.

The word, news, is almost universally considered as belonging to the singular number.

The noun, means, is used both in the singlar and the plural number.
As a general rule for the use of the word, means, as either singular or plural

it would render the construction less vague, and the expression, therefore, less ambiguous, were we to employ it as singular, when the mediation or instrumentality of one thing is implied; and, as plural, when two or more mediating causes are referred to. "He was careful to observe what means were employed, by his adversaries, to counteract his schemes." Here means is properly joined with a plural verb, several methods of counteracting being signified. "The King consented; and, by this means, all hope of success was lost." Here but one mediating circumstance is implied; and the noun is, therefore, used as singular.

The following words, which have been adopted from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, are thus distinguished, with respect to number.

Some words, derived from the learned languages, are confined to the plural number; as, antipodes, credenda, literati, minutiæ.

The following nouns being, in Latin, both singular and plural, are used in the same manner when adopted into our tongue; hiatus, apparatus, series, species.

SECTION 4.-Of Person.

Again, nouns are distinguished, as names of the persons speaking, names of the persons spoken to, and names of the persons spoken of; and this distinction is called Person. The name of the speaker is in the first person; the name of the person addressed, in the second person; and the name of the person spoken of is in the third person. Of course, nouns have three distinctions of person. Nouns indeed are generally used in the third person; sometimes, in the second; and but rarely in the first person;-and in all cases their person known or determined, not by any change or variation in the noun, but merely by the character of the object denoted by the noun, as speaking, spoken to, or spoken of. Now, when we speak of any object, we are obliged to name that object, in order that it may be known of what we are speaking; therefore when an object is first mentioned in discourse, it is always named, unless it is present and already known; in speaking of it afterwards, we refer to it by using the pronoun, he, she or it; which pronouns mean simply the said, that is, the said (object before mentioned or referred to). But when the first person addresses the second, there is no necessity of naming either, because there is no possibili

* Genii, when denoting aerial spirits; Geniuses, when signifying persons of genius. Indexes, when it signifies pointers, or Tables of contents; Indices, when referring to Algebraic quantities.

ty of mistake. In such cases, the personal pronouns, whose peculiar office is to mark the distinctious of person, are used as being shorter and more convenient. Nouns, therefore, are seldom, if ever, used in the first or second person, except, by way of repetition, for the sake of greater emphasis or solemnity; as, "I, James Monroe, president of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim," &c. "Be grateful, children of men," that is, "Be ye grateful, ye children of men."

This circumstance appears to have led some grammarians into the mistaken notion, that nouns have but two persons, viz. the second and third. But besides the absurdity of supposing a second and third without a first person, this opinion does not appear to be well founded. If by the person of nouns is meant any variation in their form or termination, then it is clear that nouns have no person at all; but if by person is meant nothing more than the distinction of nouns with regard to their character as being the names of the persons speaking, spoken to, or spoken of. then it is equally clear that nouns have three persons. Besides, it is generally admitted that pronouns, as their name imports, are words used for or instead of nouns; and that, consequently, they have all which the nouns, they represent, have, and nothing more. But if nouns have but two persons, and personal pronouns have three persons, it follows that there are pronouns, which are not pronouns, that is, words used instead of nouns. It must, therefore, either be admitted that nouns have three persons, or else some new character must be assigned to pronouns.

SECTION 5.-Of Case.

Case, the fourth distinction of nouns, regards merely their state or situation, or their relation to other words, in a sentence. Case signifies the state or condition of things.

The English language, to express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, uses, for the most part, prepositions. The Greek and Latin amoog the ancient, and some too among the modern languages, as the German, vary the termination or ending of the nouns to answer the same purpose; an example of which, in the Latin, is inserted, as explanatory of the nature and use of cases, viz.

re

b

O Lords.

By Lords.

In imitation of the above names of cases, the possessive case in English is sometimes called the genitive; and the objective, the accusative.

Nominative Case. This case is called the nominative case, from nomen, nominis, a name,—because the nominative case is the primary, original form of names, or the state in which a name is always found, unless when its proper form is varied to denote its subordination to some other word in the sentence. In the Latin language, from which the term, nominative, is derived, this subordination of case is generally denoted by varying the termination of the name, as may be seen in the foregoing declension of Dominus. Thus also Cicero, the name of a distinguished Roman orator, is always written Cicero, when it is used merely as a name; but when it is used to denote also the subordination of that name to some other word in the sentence, this additional circumstance is denoted by varying the termination of the name; as, Cicero, Ciceronis, Ciceroni, Ciceronem, &c. So in English, Cicero is in the nominative case, when used sim

ply as the name of a person; but when used to express also the subordinate character of a possessor, its form is generally varied to denote that circumstance; as, "Cicero was eloquent; Cicero's eloquence was admired." In the former of these examples, Cicero is in the nominative case, or in the state (form) peculiar to that name, unvaried by any circumstance of subordination; and in the latter example, eloquence denotes the leading, princ pal idea, and Cicero is governed by it; and this subordinate character is expressed by adding ('s) an apostrophe with the letter s, to the name, Cicero. The nominative, then, is the simple state, or form, of the name.

Possessive Case. This case is called possessive, because the noun in this form, denotes the possessor of a thing; as, John's hat, Peter's cane. Here the words, John's and Peter's, besides being the names of persons, denote that those persons are the possessors of the objects signified by the nouns, hat and cane. This denotation of possession consists in the 's, which is called the sign of the possessive case; which sign was anciently the syllable is, thus Johuis hat, Peteris cane; and in modern use, the apostrophe denotes the omission of the i. When the s would occasion too much hissing in the pronunciation, we omit that also, retaining only the apostrophe; as, For conscience' sake, For righteousness' sake.

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When the thing to which another is said to belong, is expressed by a circumlocution, or by many terms, the sign of the possessive case is commonly added to the last term; as, "The king of Great Britain's dominions." Sometimes, though rarely, two nouns in the possessive case immediately succeed each other, in the following form; My friend's wife's sister;" a sense which would be better expressed by saying, "the sister of my friend's wife;" or, my friend's sister in law." Some grammarians say, that in each of the following phrases, viz. “A book of my brother's," A servant of the queen's," "A soldier of the king's" there are two possessive cases; the first phrase implying, one of the books of my brother," the next. "one of the servants of the queen ;" and the last, one of the soldiers of the king." But as the preposition governs the objective case; and as there are not, in each of these sentences, two apostrophes with the letter, s, coming after them, we cannot with propriety say, that there are two possessive cases.

Objective Case. The third case of nouns, in the English language, is called the objective case, because it denotes the object of a transitive verb, or of a preposition; as John assists Charles ; He resides in Boston. This case does not vary in form from that of the nominative; its subordinate relation to the governing word being sufficiently indicated by its situation in the sentence. Observing this coincidence of form and considering case as referring only to the termination of nouns, some writers have asserted, that, in English nouns have but two cases, the nominative and possessive; but there appears to be great propriety in admitting a case in English nouns, which shall serve to denote the objects of transitive verbs and of prepositions; and which is, therefore, properly termed the objective case. The general idea of case doubtless has a reference to the termination of the noun; but there are many instances, both in Greek and Latin, in which the nominative and accusative cases bave precisely the same form, and are distinguished only by the relation they bear to other words in the sentence. We are therefore warranted, by analogy, in applying this principle to our own language. as far as utility, and the idiom of it, will admit. Now it is obvious, that in English, a noun governed by an active verb, or a preposition, is very differently circumstanced, from a noun in the nominative, or in the pos sessive case; and that a comprehensive case, correspondent to that difference, must be useful and proper. The business of parsing, and of showing the conmexion and dependence of words, will be most conveniently accomplished, by the

adoption of such a case; and the irregularity of having our nouns sometimes placed in a situation, in which they cannot be said to be in any case at all, will be avoided.

LECTURE V.-OF PRONOUNS.

SECTION 1.-Of Pronouns in general.

In the word, Pronoun, the syllable pro signifies for or instead of; the remaining syllable is noun; and the whole word signifies for noun. A pro noun is therefore very properly defined a word used for a noun; and the reason why it is so used, is to prevent a too frequent or disagreeable repetition of the noún. The use and importance of pronouns are well exemplified in the following sentence. "A woman went to a man, and told him, that he was in great danger of being murdered by a gang of robbers, who had made preparations for attacking him. He thanked her for her kindness; and, as he was unable to defend himself, he left his house, and went to a neighbour's." Now if there were no pronouns, we should be obliged to say. "A woman went to a mao, and told the man, that the man was in great danger of being murdered by a gang of robbers; as a gang of robbers had made preparations for attacking the man. The man thanked the woman for the woman's kindness, and as the man was unable to defend the man's self, the man left the man's house, and went to a neighbour's."

But besides nouns, the pronoun is also used to represent an adjective, a sentence, a part of a sentence, and sometimes even a series of propositions; as, "They supposed him to be innocent, which he certainly was not." "His friend bore the abuse very patiently, which served to increase his rudeness; it produeed at length, contempt and insolence."

SECTION 2.-Of Personal Pronouns.

The peculiar office of personal, as distinguished from other pronouns, is to mark the distinctions of person. The first personal pronoun, 1, denotes "the immediate speaker," as distinguished from others by the circumstance of his being the speaker. The second, thou, denotes the party addressed," as characterized by the present circumstance of his being spoken to. The third, he, she, or it, designates an individual by the circumstance of "baving heen lately meutioned," or " being much nearer to the thoughts both of the speaker and the hearer, than any other who could, on that occasion, be referred to by a similar circumstance."

The personal pronouns combine a great degree of generality in their use, with a well marked particularity in the instances of their application. I may be applied to any person, but only by one speaker, viz. that person himself.The quarter from which the sound proceeds determines its exact application. In the same manner, thou may be applied to any individual, but only when that individual is particularly addressed, and this circumstance gives us on every occasion an unerring indication of its use. So he may be applied to any man, she to any woman, it to any thing, and by any individual. But they imply some previous mention of the object referred to, and this must be well understood, in order that their particular application may become intelligible. They have exactly the same meaning with the word " aforesaid."

Personal pronouns, being the representatives of nouns, have all the properties or distinctions, belonging to nouas; such as Gender, Number, Person and Case. The distinction of case is better marked by the pronouns than it is by the noun