174. What, is a compound relative pronoun, having the same meaning as which, preceded by that; as, Tell me what you want; that which you want. 175. The interrogative pronouns are those used in asking a question-namely, who, which, and what. Who is used only for persons; which and what for persons or things. 176. This, that, these, and those, are considered as pronouns by some grammarians being called demonstrative. They are undoubtedly adjectives, when used along with nouns; as, This book; that horse; these trees. When used without nouns, they may still, in certain cases, be viewed as adjectives, nouns being understood; as, This is the book, or, this book is the book. 2. Inflections of Pronouns. 177. The personal pronouns are inflected to express number and case, as follows. In many instances, instead of an inflection, a totally different word is used. 178. The relative pronouns who and which, are inflected to express case; they are the same in the plural as in the singular. 179. It will be observed that the pronoun has no distinction to express gender, except in the third person singular. "When the first or second is used, the sex is obvious; whereas, when the third is used, it can only be inferred from the language. That it is a convenient arrangement, we may conclude from the number of languages in which it exists; and yet the want of a plural personal pronoun to signify an individual without suggesting the sex, must have occurred to every one who has paid the least attention to language."-Connon. 180. Care must be taken to distinguish between the possessive cases, mine, thine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs; and the corresponding possessive adjectives, my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their. They are different in spelling, except his and its. It must * In the Anglo-Saxon, the word he was declined as follows: The parts in Italics are not used in modern English. It is formed from hit, by leaving out the h. The word it resembles the Latin id, which has a similar meaning. The learner will find these derivations, changes, and analogies very interesting. But we cannot pursue them further here. also be observed, that the possessive cases, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, are written without the apostrophe. It is usual to consider his as a possessive adjective, in such a case, as "That is his book;" a personal pronoun in the possessive case, in such a case as "That book is his," We may suppose, in the latter case, that book is understood after his, when the sentence would be, That book is his book." And this agrees with the view of the possessive case taken by some grammarians-that it is of the nature of an adjective; that in such an expression as John's book, the word “John's" is like an adjective qualifying "book." 66 181. The word self, in the plural selves, is sometimes added to the possessive adjectives, my, thy, our, your—and to the objective personal pronouns, him, her, it, them, to give emphatic expression; as, “He himself told me;" or to form what are called reflective pronouns, indicating that an action is reflected or thrown back on the actor; as, "She hurt herself," "They hid themselves;" "Cato stabbed himself.” 182. The relatives, who, which, and what, sometimes have the words so or ever joined to them, which renders them indefinite in their application, forming the words whoever, whichever, whatever, whoso, whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever. They may be regarded as compound pronouns. Whoever means "the person who," or " any person who," and so of the others. "Whoever finds the purse," or "the person who finds the purse." 183. The pronoun it is a very convenient word, used in a variety of ways. We say, "It snows;" "It rains;" "It is a rainy day;" "It is good to be honest and true;" "It is intolerable." In the first two of these examples, it is used as a phrase, or irregular but convenient expression, established by usage. In the next two instances it is used as a pronoun, but in a peculiar manner: first, instead of "the day," or "this day;" in the second, instead of "this," or "this condition." In the third instance it is used as an ordinary pronoun, referring to something previously stated, or about to be stated, which is considered "intolerable." 184. The word that, sometimes used as a relative pronoun, is also used as a demonstrative adjective, and sometimes as a conjunction. "Give me that book," (demonstrative adjective.) "Give me the book that I was reading last night," (relative pronoun.) "Give me a book, that I may have something to do," (conjunction). When that is used as a relative pronoun, the word who, whom, or which, may be substituted for it; as, "Give me the book which I was reading last night." 185. We conclude our account of the pronoun with a grammatical puzzle, being an exercise in parsing this Proteus-like word that, in a few lines quoted in McCulloch's Grammar : "I'll prove the word that I have made my theme, Or say-That that that that that man writ was right! 186. As we have examined the noun, adjective, and pronoun, learned the nature of the cases, and a little about the verb, we should be able now to parse a sentence a little more particularly than formerly. For this purpose we shall take the sentence parsed in Par. 55. p. 34. "You have too much respect upon the world; They lose it that do buy it with too much care." You-a personal pronoun; second person, common gender; singular or plural, nominative to the verb have. Have a transitive verb, agrees with its nominative, you. Too-an adverb, qualifies the adjective much. Much-an adjective, qualifies the noun respect. Respect a common noun, neuter gender, singular number, objective case, by the transitive verb have, (that is, it is considered to be put into the objective case by the verb have.) Upon-a preposition, referring to the noun world. The-a demonstrative adjective (or the definite article) defining the noun world World-a common noun, neuter gender, singular number, objective case by the preposition upon. They a personal pronoun, third person, common gender, plural number, nominative to the verb lose. (They, is here equivalent to those persons.) Lose a transitive verb, agrees with its nominative they. It-a personal pronoun, third person, neuter gender, singular number, stands for the noun world, objective case by the transitive verb lose. That-a relative pronoun, common gender, plural number, refers to its antecedent or correlative they, nominative to the verb do buy. (We find that to be a relative pronoun, as we might substitute who for it.) Do buy a transitive verb, agrees with its nominative that. (Or, the words do and buy may be regarded as two distinct verbs.) It-a personal pronoun, third person, neuter gender, singular number, stands for the noun world, objective case by the transitive verb do buy. With a preposition, referring to the noun care. Too and much-same as above. Care-common noun, neuter gender, singular number, objective case by the preposition with. You is the subject of the sentence in the first line ;-they that buy it with too much care, the subject of the sentence in the second line. 187. That which is said about the subject of a sentence is called the predicate or attribute. Have too much respect upon the world is the predicate of the subject you, in the first line. Lose it is the predicate of the subject in the second line. The learner may now exercise himself in analyzing simple sentences, by separating them into subject and predicate. This is done with the examples in Par. 105, but the term predicate is not used. Separating short sentences into subject and predicate, and parsing them as above, will be found very useful exercises. 188. The student who wishes to improve himself in composition as well as to fix the rules of grammar in his mind, will do well to compose a number of short sentences, each illustrating some point in the principles of English Grammar, underlining the word in the sentence that gives the required illustration. Thus, if Chap. II. be selected for exercise, the following would be the points to be illustrated :-Proper noun, common noun, abstract noun, collective noun, verbal noun, compound noun, general rule for the formation of the plural, plural by adding es-(several different examples would be required of this) exceptions to the latter rule, plural in ies, plural in ves; and so on; either composing the sentences with the book before him, to recal the various points in order; or recalling them himself (after having studied the matter thoroughly), if he finds that his time or memory will enable him to perform the exercise in the latter way. Another good exercise is to write out an abstract of any chapter or section; or, to write out the rules and definitions in proper order in our own words, and then compare what we have written with the text. ZOOLOG Y.-No. IV. ZOOPHYTES. "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters: "These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep."-PSALM cvii. 23, 24. MANY of the animals belonging to this division resemble flowers, not only in form, but in the brilliancy and variety of their colouring. "Moreover," says Dana,* "a large number of Zoophytes are so like the trees and shrubs of land vegetation, as to have deceived even the philosopher, till near a century since. The mosses and ferns of our woods-the lichen and mushroom-the clump of pinks-the twig and spreading shrub-have all their counter part among the productions of the sea. The ocean-grove is without verdure, yet there is full compensation in its perpetual bloom; for each coral branch is everywhere covered with its star-shaped animals, the coral blossoms.'"' Ellis, a London merchant, was the first to establish their true character. Attracted by their beauty, he was led to examine them with the microscope, and saw evidence in their texture that they were more of an animal than of a vegetable nature. His "suspicions," as he modestly terms them, were communicated to the Royal Society in 1752. After an interval of two years, during which he had confirmed the accuracy of his former observations, his views were more fully explained to the same body; and in 1755 he published his justly celebrated work on the Natural History of the British Corallines. The observations of preceding naturalists had, to some extent, prepared the public mind for the reception of the views advocated by Ellis. But Linnæus was then living, in the very zenith of his reputation, "the observed of all observers," and looked up to by his followers as the prince of naturalists. By him the new opinions were received with caution; and finally, led captive by his rich and poetic imagination, he decided that zoophytes were intermediate in their nature between plants and animals, possessing the functions of animal and vegetable life combined; or, to use his *On the Structure and Classification of Zoophytes. Philadelphia: 1846. 66 own words, vegetables with respect to their stems, and animals with respect to their florescence." After these introductory remarks, the meaning of the word "Zoophyte" is easily understood, and easily remembered. It is derived from two Greek words, one signifying an "animal," the other a "plant." It denotes, therefore, as regards external appearance, those animals that have a plantlike growth; and it reminds us at the same time, that even philosophers at one period looked upon them as combining in their structure animal and vegetable life. But, although the external resemblance to objects belonging to the vegetable kingdom is so striking, there is little real likeness between them. "Each of these floweranimals has a mouth, and a cavity to receive and digest food; and the appendages that look like petals, are organs fitted either for securing their prey, or for some other animal function. Some species have actually been fed, and the process of digestion watched by the naturalist. They are not always invisible animalcules, as has been the common impression; on the contrary, many of the most common varieties are half-an-inch in diameter, while others are one, two, and three inches, and others are a foot to eighteen inches.* They present a great variety of form, sometimes aping that of common domestic articles, such as a drinking glass, or a bottle-brush; at others assuming the appearance of delicate lacework, more perfect and more wonderful than any that will be exhibited within the Palace of Glass in 1851. This lace, spread over the leaves of some of our larger sea-weeds, shows, to use the words of an old writers-"How the needle of nature delighteth to work." Some not only resemble flowers, but bow their living blossoms, as if in homage to the dredger, who * Dana. + "When at rest, it (Lucernaria fascicularis) assumes very much the form of a common drinkbeautiful rose tint."-Templeton. ing glass, and is exceedingly conspicuous from its "The polypidom (Thuiæria thuja) retains throughout its whole growth the appearance of a bottle-brush."-Johnston. § Sir Thomas Browne, a learned antiquary and physician, born 1605. Corymorpha nutans. "Its head gracefully nodded (whence the appropriate specific appellation given it by Sars), bending the upper part of its stem."-Forbes and Goodsir. has removed their beauties from the ocean depths, and revealed them to the gaze of sentient beings. "The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, And with him rises weeping," is represented, with all its class, by living inhabitants of the sea, not less beautiful in shape or colouring; and that tree, whose pensile branches are associated with human affections and sorrows, has its miniature representative, called the "sea-cypress."* Zoophytes of these, and all other existing forms, are arranged by naturalists in four principal groups or orders. The likeness to various members of the vegetable kingdom is the prevailing characteristic of the first three of these. In the other, a higher grade of structure prevails, and establishes its near affinity to creatures from which it is widely removed in our present classification. Let us now give our attention to each of these four orders in succession. ORDER I.-HYDROIDA. "New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots DARWIN. "Hydroida! what a horrid hard word! tell us, Uncle Robert, what does it mean?" "It simply means 'hydra-like,' or resembling the hydra, a fabled monster of Lake Lerna, with fifty or a hundred heads, of which, no sooner was one cut off, than two sprouted out in its place. The real hydra, however, is a creature found pretty generally in ponds and ditches, though not in all localities; and the true history of its birth, its powers, and its habits, is more strange than any classic fiction." some, a little bit of jelly, not larger than half the size of a pea. Place it in a glass Ivessel filled with water, and if you have found the hydra (Fig. 12) it will, after a time, spread out its long hair-like tentacula or feelers. Woe to the little creature that comes in contact with them! it becomes paralysed by their touch, and is drawn helplessly into the mouth of the hydra, and devoured. Some of the minute crustacea, that live in fresh water, now and then escape; as if their shelly covering had, in some degree, afforded them protection. But worms, which, under ordinary circumstances, bear severe wounds, have been observed to die after being bitten by the hydra, though afterwards removed from its grasp. To Trembley, a naturalist of Geneva, we are indebted for our first information respecting this creature. When, about the year 1744 he made known its wonderful properties, the announcement created the liveliest sensation of astonishment, and his alleged facts were, by many, regarded as impossible fancies. But all his discoveries were speedily confirmed; and admiration at the skill and perseverance with which his investigations were pursued, succeeded to the previous distrust. Perhaps no part of their history seems more strange than their power, not only of enduring injuries, but of multiplying underthe process which threatened their destruction. This was tested by Trembley by many strange experiments. One was cut into halves, and soon each half became a perfect hydra. One was divided into three parts, and in three or four days, in summer, the tail had produced a head, the head a tail, and the middle part a tail at one Look at the underside of the leaves of end, and a head at the other; and even before completion, they sometimes gave out buds, which rapidly assumed the likeness of the parent. From forty parts, forty hydras were formed. The body slit open soon unites again, even if each part is previously extended like a flat riband. One hydra pulled into the body of another unites with it, so that they form but one animal. And two may be made to change heads, for the head of the one may be engrafted on the body of another. Among such animals, the question of personal identity would become a very puzzling one; and degrees of consanguinity or |