grammatical relation; as, "John and I shall go, Monday or Tuesday, and stay two or three days, but not longer."

Prepositions are connective words, which serve to introduce a following object, with incidental reference to a preceding or correlative proposition; as, we came from Charleston by land through Richmond to Baltimore.

NOUNS.

81. Sometimes called substantives.

Noun is derived from the Latin word nomen, a

name.

Nouns are names of things, real or conceivable; as, tree, Troy, blackness, Hydra of Lerné.

The word things is here to be taken in its greatest latitude of meaning, including all objects, qualities, and fictions of the mind, simple or complex, to which names are applied.

Some nouns express merely the negation of a thing; as nonentity, nothingness.

82. Nouns are of two kinds, common and proper.

Common nouns designate sorts of things, according to their descriptive qualities; as, chair, boy, city, quadruped.

Proper names are applied to individuals, to identify them among others of their kind; as, Solomon Belmot, Albany, Hamilcar.

Any word becomes a proper noun when used as an individual name; as, "Christian Wolf,"

"Praise-God Barebones," the ships "Congress," and "Fair Trader;" the race-horse "Eclipse," the "Potter's Field," the " United States."

On the other hand, specific names become common nouns when applied as words of general meaning; as, Dunces, a Judas, Jack Tars, many Catilines, the Solomons of the city; "this is a deceiver and an Antichrist.”—2 John, 7.

The question whether a noun is proper or common, depends on the fact of its being used as a significant word, or of its being specifically applied as an individual designation.

The word God is a common noun, because it is hot applied to the Supreme Being peculiarly, nor as an individual name, but in reference to his attributes, and relations as the ruler of the world. The word applies to many imaginary beings, conceived of as existing under a similar character.

To nouns belong person, number, gender, and

case.

Most nouns are of the third person. They are of the second when directly addressed, as persons present, and listening to the speaker; as, "Countrymen and Fellow Soldiers." "O Liberty! sound once delightful to every Roman ear!"

Nouns are never of the first person, except as mere expletives, in apposition with a pronoun; as, "Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you, who, being absent, am bold toward you."

NUMBER.

83. Nouns have two numbers, the singular and the plural. The singular denotes one thing, as bandit; the plural, any number more than one, as bandits. This division into singular and plural, is

the general principle of language, though it is not without exceptions. The Hebrew, as written with points, the Greek, Sanscrit, all the dialects of the Teutonic, and several other languages, have each three numbers, the singular, the dual, and the plural. The dual speaks of two or a pair, and the plural of any number more than two. Some nouns have no plural; as, fitness, chaos: Others have no singular; as, tongs, shears. Sheep and deer are of both numbers. Swine is a vulgar corruption from sowen, the plural of sow, and it should not be used in the singular. Of the same kind is kine, plural of ky, the ancient word for cow. Kye is now used in Scotland for cattle. The word people stands alone in its character. Without changing its form, it is either a noun of multitude, having no plural; or, referring to individuals, it has no singular. Thus we say, "a united people." "Many people are of that opinion."

The word castle is without change, singular in its form, with a plural meaning.

The English plural is generally formed, by addings to the singular. This rule has several modifications and exceptions.

1. Words ending in ch, sh, ss, x, or z, take the addition of es, to form the plural, making an other syllable, which is necessary for ease and distinctness of pronunciation. Church, churches; sash, sashes; press, presses; fox, foxes; buzz, buzzes. Those also which end with the sound of s, z, or soft g, followed by e mute, make an additional syllable in pronunciation; as, roses, places, carria ges

Proper nouns, as well as common, admit the plural number; as, there are forty Jon Smiths in the city of New-York; the Miss Van Nesses; the twelve Cesars; both the Senecas: all the Howards.

GENDER.

84. To distinguish the sexes by some different form of words, is a general principle, common to all languages. The word gender is used to express this grammatical distinction. Words denoting males are of the masculine gender: names of females are feminine; and the technical word neuter applies to things which are of neither sex.

85. By a figure of rhetoric, called personification, we sometimes speak of inanimate things as having personal qualities. Of the moon, it is poetically said, "she sheds her mild beams.

This ascription of sex to things without life like most other deviations from truth and nature. leads to many inconsistencies: Thus it is said of the ship Hercules, Jupiter, or James Monroe, "she sails well." If ship must be considered feminine, it should take none but a name appropriate to the female character.

86. Grammarians have imagined a philosophic principle in the application of gender to inanimate things. They tell us, "We commonly give the masculine gender to nouns which are conspicuous for the qualities of imparting or communicating, and which are by nature strong and efficacious; and those are feminine which are peculiarly beau tiful and amiable." This seems like a very plausible theory, and is wrought into a fine system by Dr. Lowth, and by Mr. Harris in his Hermes. From their time it has been trustingly copied by nearly all the compilers of grammar, and volumes wasted upon it. The whole theory sprang from

the imagination of its authors. There is no sucl principle in the structure of those languages which refer every thing to two genders; still less in English, in which a rational philosophy is the only guide belonging to the language itself, and in which writers personify according to their individual fancy. In those tongues, in which adjectives take the agreement of number and gender with nouns, the whole application to inanimate objects depends on the mere accidental ending of the word. Not the least attention is paid to any supposed nature of the thing. Nothing is more contrary to fact, than the whole system taught in English schools respecting the application of genders to inanimate objects.

If virtue is feminine from its beauty, why were all the crimes of Babylon personified in the character of a woman? why are vice, slander, and deceitful fortune also feminine; and why have mortals been so much afflicted by sorceresses, witches, and midnight hags? probably in the latter case, from the love of mankind for what is marvellous, as well as what is beautiful and amiable. How would Bellona, Pallas, and the Amazons, be flattered by this gratuitous grammatical courtesy of their gallant friends, Harris, Lowth, and Murray?

87. We are told that the sun is masculine, and the moon, feminine. So they are in Greek and Latin; but it is exactly the reverse, in ancient Teutonic, Gothic, and Scandinavian: in the Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish, and all the northern languages of modern Europe, except the Sclavonian, in which they are both neuter. In the Saxon language, from which our mother tongue is directly derived, the words moon and man are from the same root, and mean the same thing. In their