man, means one man, without determining who in particular; leaving that to be explained, if neceffary, by the other parts of the fentence.

This article can, therefore, be joined to fubftantives in the angular number only, except it come before the adjectives... few and many: as, a few days, a (great) many men; or before. the complete numerical adjectives, a dozen, a score, an hundred, a thousand, a million, a myriad: as, a dozen pound, a fcore of eggs, an hundred men, &c.

The definite article the determines which particular thing is meant; or of many, which they are: this is therefore enployed both with fingular and plural nouns: as, "the fork in the heavens."

It is also used sometimes before adverbs in the comparative and fuperlative degrees; as, the more, the better, the leaft (of all). The SUBSTANTIVE is the name of any object whatever of which we have. any idea.

There are two forts of fubftantives, Proper and Common. Proper names are fuch as belong to individual objects, whether animate or inanimate; but not to every individual, or objec of the fame fort or species: thus, John is the name of a man, but not the name of every man; Chance may be the name of a dog, but it is not the name of every dog; London the name of a city, but not of every city. Thefe are therefore proper names; but man, dog, and city are common names: for man is the common name of every man; dog, the common name, of every dog; and city, the common name of every city..

Proper names have no articles nor plural number, unless by a metaphor: as when a cruel tyrant is called a Nero; or when a common name is understood, as the (ship) Royal George; or when there are many of the fame name, as the twelve Cafars. There are three attributes belonging to the English noun, viz. number, gender, and cafe.

The number is either fingular or plural. The fingular number expreffes one object: as, a king: the plural, two or more, as, kings.

The

i

The plural number is moftly formed, in English, by the addition of sores: as, boy, boys goat, goats; fox, foxes. Some change the ƒ into v: as, wife, wives; leaf, leaves. Some plurals end in en : as, ox, oxen'; child, children; man, men; brother, brethren. In the latter, and fome others, the in the first fyllable is changed into e. This form is the remains of the Teutonic language, and the following of the Saxon; loufe, lice; moufe, mice; tooth, teeth.

Some nouns ending in y, change it into i: as, city, cities ; gallery, galleries.

Some nouns have no plural: as, corn, gold, pitch, fioth, &c. And others no fingular numbers: as, annals, bellows, fciffars, lungs, &c. The words keep and deer have no variation of

number.

All fubftantives in English, whether common or proper, are confidered with relation to gender, as being either of the masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. That is, either of the male or female fex, or neither.

The mafculine or feminine genders are applied to the names of animals only, and fuch whofe fex is obvious: as, man, Thomas, ox, which are the mafculine gender: Mary, woman, ken, cow, which are the feminine gender. Those whofe sex is not evident, with all inanimate objects, are of the neuter gender: as, oyfter, worm, honfe, tree; except in poetry, and the elegant fpecies of compofition, where inanimate objects, and the human paffions, are perfonified into men and women, and confequently have their genders.

A few fubftantives are marked by their terminations: as, prince, princess; lion, lioness; actor, actress.

The chief ufe of gender is to agree with the pronoun. In English there are three different cafes of the noun: the nominative, poffeffive, and objective cafe.

The nominative cafe is the fimple name of the noun, without relation to other objects: as, "John."

The poffeffive fignifies the relation of poffeffion: as, “John's book," and was formerly written "Johnis book," and not "John his book," as is vulgarly written. It may alfo be expressed by

inverting

*

I

inverting the phrase, and inserting the prepofition: as, "the book of John."

When the fign of the poffeffive cafe is to be added to a phrase of feveral words, it is generally joined to the last word: as, "the Emperor of Morocco's dominions." To the plural noun ending in s, the s is not added: as, the "arrows' heads."

The objective cafe, though founded in grammar, is formed as the nominative, and expreffes the object of a fentence: as, "man loves fociety."

gender, and cafe.

First, the person

The PRONOUN is a word ufed as a fubftitute for the noun, and to prevent its repetition: as, " John loves his book." Here the pronoun his fupplies the place of the noun John, and prevents the repetition of it. In a pronoun there are perfon, number, There are three perfons in the pronoun. who speaks may mean himself: as, I, me; thefe are therefore called pronouns of the first perfon :-or he may fpeak of the perfon to whom he addresses himself: as, thou, thee; these are pronouns of the fecond perfon:-or he may intend fome other perfon or thing: as, he, she, or it; these are pronouns of the third perfon. Each of thefe perfons have the fingular and plural numbers, and the three variations of cafe. The third perfon has alfo the variations of gender.

The Pronouns declined according to their Variations of Perfons, Numbers, Cafes, and Genders.

Thou, in all its cafes, generally gives place to you, except in a very folemn style, and in addreffes to the Deity.

As the perfonal pronoun is a substitute for the noun, so it has the fame nature in grammatical construction, and is capable of forming a fentence without the aid of the substantive: as," that fpeak unto thee am he [Chrift]."-John, iv. 26.

But there are other pronouns, of the nature of adjectives, and, like adjectives, require fome fubftantive to be joined with them, which is either expreffed or understood. Those are therefore called Pronominal Adjectives. Of these there are four forts: poffeffives, definitives, relatives, aud diftributives.

The poffeffives are my, thy, our, your, her, their; and are entirely different words from the poffeffive pronouns, mine, thine, &c. In these the fubftantive is fometimes understood without being expreffed: as, "the shame be yours;" whereas, to those the fubftantive fhould be added: as, 66 thy people hall be my people, and thy God my God."-Ruth, i. 16.

The definitives are, this, that, other, any, fome, one, none, These define, or limit, the meaning of the fubftantive to which they refer, or are joined. The three first have the plural sumber; as, thefe, thofe, others. This refers to the latter term or fentence, that to the former: as, " thefe are definitives, thofe (mentioned before) are poffeffives; other is ufed in the plural form only, when the substantive belonging to it is not expreffed, as is fometimes the cafe in definitives: other and one have alfo the poffeffive cafe: as, "this is others' property," and "it startles one's apprehenfion;" one is alfo ufed in an indefinite sense, as, "one thinks." Thefe are all the variations definitives admit of.

The relatives are, who, which, that. Thefe refer to fome fubftantive or pronoun going before, which is therefore called the antecedent: as, "I am the Lord that maketh all things, that ftretcheth. forth the heavens alone."-Ifaiah, xliv. 24. They also connect the following and foregoing parts of a fentence together. Who is varied to exprefs the three cafes as, who, whofe, whom; thefe relatives refer to all the three

perfons,

perfons, whereas the other pronominal adjectives belong only to the third perfon. Who, which, what, are called interrogatives, when they are used in a question.

Each, every, either, are called diftributives, because they relate to objects or perfons taken separately.

Befides the foregoing pronominal adjectives, there are two others own, and felf, in the plural felves. Both of them. exprefs emphafis, or oppofition, and are joined to the poffeffives, and fo form a compound pronominal adjective; as, my own, thyself, yourselves.

Our felf, the plural pronominal adjective, with the fingular fubftantive, belongs to the regal ftyle.

All fubftantives belong to the third perfon, except when an address is made to a person, then the substantive is of the fecond perfon.

An ADJECTIVE is a word added to a fubftantive, to exprefs the quality of it, or fome other property: as, a good man, an hundred pounds, a burning mountain.

Adjectives have no variation, except the three degrees of comparison pofitive, comparative, and fuperlative.

Moft qualities confift of different degrees, or of more or less. Thus, when a quality is fimply expreffed, without reference to a greater or less degree of the fame, it is called the pofitive degree: as, large, Jhort. When it is expreffed with relation to a lefs degree, it is called the comparative degree: as, larger, Shorter. When it is expreffed as being of the highest degree in its quality, it is called the fuperlative: as, largeft, fhorteft.

There are two ways of forming the comparative and fuperlative degrees; the first is by adding r or er to the pofitive degree, which forms the comparative; and by adding st or es, to the positive, and fo forming the superlative degree; as in the last example. Most monofyllables are compared in this manner; and diffyllables ending in y: as, happy; and le, when they are followed by a mute: as, able; or when they are accented on the last fyllable: as, genteel. But others, and words