objective case of the noun is the object of this doing mentioned by the verb. It will be noticed here by the pupil that we can have a subject to the verb in its threefold sense of being, doing, and suffering; but we can only have an object or objective case after the verb in one of these relations, viz., that of doing. The reason of this will be explained in discussing the Intransitive and Transitive verbs; or those which do not, and those which do take an object after them.

The Dative and Ablative are classed with the objective as indirect objectives, governed by the prepositions, to, for, by, with, &c., this word government implying that the nouns following the prepositions are obliged to be in the objective case.

But however we regard the matter so far as modern English is concerned, it must be always borne in mind that the Anglo Saxon had all 6 cases, and this for even pronouns and adjectives as well as nouns, and that we retain many of these forms yet.

The Possessive case: we have seen that this takes a different form from the nominative, generally marked by 's, added to the singular and plural. Some have thought that this form is a contraction of his, as John's book, equivalent to ‘John his book;' and this mistake has been strengthened by the fact that in rather old English both forms were used, as 'for Christ's sake,' and 'for Christ His sake.'

That this cannot be the origin, however, of the form, is seen at once from the two considerations:

(1) That it is employed in the plural as well as the singular, and there we should have, instead of “for the children's sake" (for the children his sake), 'for the children their sake,' and the s of the possessive cannot be said to be an abbreviation of their.

(2) We use the form for the feminine, and here we should require her rather than his, as 'for Mary her sake,' not Mary his (Mary's) sake.

THE ADJECTIVE.

Ve have defined the adjective as

66 a word added to

(ad-jected) a noun to mark its quality without asserting that the quality belongs to it." Its intimate relationship to the preceding part of speech is therefore apparent; and, in fact, we cannot have an adjective in a sentence except as accompanying a noun (or pronoun) expressed or implied, as 'God is good;' where good qualifies God; 'He is good;' where good qualifies the pronoun standing as a deputy for the noun previously mentioned. But the adjective cannot itself be the subject, as 'good is ;' except in those cases where it is really used as a noun, as 'good is my delight,' 'evil be thou my good.'

Adjectives generally in English precede the noun they qualify, and may be divided into three great classes, as follows,

I. Definitive.
II. Qualitative.
III. Quantitative.

1. Definitive. These include what are known as the articles, a, an, the; and the demonstrative adjectives, this and that; serving the function of simply pointing to the noun that is to follow. Of these, the is called the 'definite article,' because it points out a definite or particular individual, as the man, behold the man, out of the general class, men; while a and an are called indefinite articles, because while they point out the class definitively, they do not denote any particular individual of that class.

The double form, a and an, is merely required for euphony, the final n of an being a liquid letter, as it is termed, to make the sounds of the article and noun melt smooth'y into each other when the noun commences with a vowel sound, instead of having two vowel sounds coming together, as an apple, instead of a apple; an enemy; an instrument; an orange; an umpire. It must be remembered that it is for the sake of sweet sound that this form is used, and not for the sake of form; and, therefore, if the noun commences with a w and y, which are semi-vowels, (some

times vowels and sometimes consonants) we shall use the form where the sound is a vowel sound, as in an umpire; and not do so when it is a consonant sound, as a unit (pronounced a yunit), many a one, a youth, though the form is still the same as before. An is also used before a mute or silent h, as 'an herb,' 'an hour,' 'an honour,' 'an heir;' but it should not be used before an aspirate, as 'an historical,' any more than it should be used before the similar form "a history of England."

Besides the distinction of definite and indefinite attached to the and a and an, and partly following from this distinction, it must be remembered that a and an can only be used before singular or collective nouns, as a child,' 'an empire;' 'a mob,' 'an army;' whereas the can precede either singular or plural nouns, as 'the child,' 'the children.'

Though the place of the article is generally before the adjective, when both the article and a qualitative or quantitative adjectives are used, as 'a good man,' 'a hundred men,' yet in some few phrases it comes after the qualitative and quantitative adjectives, as after so, such, all, many, as 'so miserable a fate,' 'such a calamity,' all the men,' , 6 many a man.'

2. Qualitative adjectives. These are placed before nouns to imply the presence or absence of quality, as 'thoughtful,' 'thoughtless.'

3. Quantitative adjectives denote number or quantity; and attribute to the nouns they quantify either a definite or an indefinite, or a distributive character, as, in the case of the numerals, few, some, each, &c.

The numerals are either cardinal or ordinal, the first implying the definite numbers, as 'one,' 'two,' &c., the latter the definite order, as the firs,' 'second,' &c.; 'single,' 'double,' &c.; 'simple,' 'twofold,' &c.

The indefinite adjectives (quantitative) include the following; any, enough, few, many, several, some, divers, certain.

The distributive quantitative adjectives include the following, each, every, other, another, both, either, neither, &c.

DEGREES OF COMPARISON.-Some comparative adjectives undergo inflection to express the degree of the quantity or quality they attribute to the noun. degrees of comparison are these :

The

(1) Positive, which is really the simple form of the word, and has no notion of comparison included in it; as rich.

(2) The Comparative, which implies a greater quantity or quality, as ' more,' 'richer;' and

(3) The Superlative, which implies the greatest quantity or quality, as 'most,' 'richest.' The comparative, therefore, can only be used where two nouns are employed; and the superlative with three or more.

Besides this notion of comparison the superlative is sometimes used to denote a high degree of a quality, without reference, however, to any other noun; as 'my dearest child,' meaning 'my very dear child.'

MODES OF COMPARISON. (1) The most common mode of forming the degrees of comparison is by the addition of the termination er, ter, or ther to the positive for the comparative; and the ending est for the superlative, as 'rich, richer, richest.'

(2) If, however, the adjective in its positive form consists of more than one or two syllables, the comparative and superlative degrees are formed by the use of more and most or less and least, preceding the positive form; as 'beautiful, more or less beautiful, most or least beautiful.'

(3) Some adjectives form their degrees of comparison in an irregular manner, as seen below.

(4) Some adjectives admit of no comparison; as the Definitives (articles and demonstratives) a, an, the; this, that; besides those denoting materials, as 'golden;" and definite numerals, as 'two, second;' as well as those implying shape, as 'square;' or time, as 'weekly;' and perfection, as 'all powerful.'

Of course we may not use double forms of compa rison, as 'more richer, most richest,' since our whole meaning can be expressed by either of the forms, but does not require both. There is one exception to this, in the use of the double superlative in poetry, where the writer tacitly implies that the use of ordinary language is inadequate to express the deep meaning of the author's mind; and he commits a grammatical error and implies in doing so that the reader will forgive him for thus attempting the impossible, as in the Paradise Lost:

"And in the lowest deep a lower deep,

Still threatening to devour me, opens wide." and when we call God, the most Highest.

When the positive form of the adjective ends in y, preceded by a consonant, the y is changed to i, and er and est added to form the comparative and superlative; compare 'dry, drier, driest,' with 'gay, gayer, gayest.'

The adjective is sometimes used instead of the adverb: this was particularly the case in old English; for as the adverb was derived from the adjective, as soft, adjective, softe, adverb, confusion very naturally arose in the use of the two closely allied forms. Accordingly we find that poets, who write as far as possible in a style remote from every-day usage, affect this use of the adjective for the adverb, as

"The leaves are falling, falling

Solemnly and slow.'