common to a great number of objects, in fact, to a whole class of objects. There are many monuments, gentlemen, strangers, newspapers, in the world. Accordingly, such nouns are called common nouns, that is, names which may be applied to any one whatever of a class, or kind of objects.

66. But the monument represented is that particular monument which the people of London call The Monument; the gentleman pointing out The Monument is the Duke of Wellington; the newspaper which the stranger has in his hand is The Times; the street in which the monument is placed is Arthur Street East. These names, The Monument (as the term is applied to that particular column), the Duke of Wellington, The Times, Arthur Street East,

are not common to a number of objects -they are restricted or proper to one individual object only of each kindthere is only one of each in the world. They are, therefore, called proper nouns; that is, names which can be applied only to one individual of a class.

67. Proper nouns are mostly the names of persons, places, and notable objects or events, and serve to distinguish one individual of a class from others of the same class. The words woman, queen, boy, day, month, book, treatise on history, conquest, city, river, mountain, tree, event, are common nouns. The words Victoria, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, Tuesday, June, the Bible, Edinburgh, the Trent, Snowdon, Luther's Linden, the Reformation, are proper nouns.

Fig. 6.

68. A proper noun ought always to begin with a capital letter. When a noun is used both as a common noun and as a proper noun, it takes the capital letter when it is used in the latter way. Thus, we say-there are twenty dukes in the British peerage, of whom the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Somerset have the most ancient titles; there are three queens among the European sovereigns-the Queen of Britain, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Portugal. It was usual, formerly, to make the first letter of every noun a capital letter, as may be seen in books printed in the last century.

69. Proper nouns are sometimes used as common nouns, to denote a class of individuals resembling some notable individual, as, the Galileos, Bacons, Newtons, Watts, Howards, Arkwrights, have been great benefactors of the human race; he is quite a Hercules-meaning that he is very strong. In such cases, the capital letter is retained.

70. Certain kinds of common nouns have particular names applied to them; namely, abstract, collective, verbal, and compound nouns.

71. ABSTRACT NOUNS.-There is a curious operation of the human mind, called abstraction, or taking away. It consists in thinking of something by itself, apart from things to which it is always joined. Thus, to use an illustration given in most treatises on Grammar, we observe that snow, milk, and chalk, are white. We hence form an idea of the property in which these things agree; we mentally abstract it from them (although we cannot procure it by itself); and we give it a name, whiteness, as if it

could exist by itself. Such a noun is an abstract noun: it may be defined as a noun expressing some quality, or property. Many abstract nouns resemble the adjectives denoting the same qualities; the nouns have usually one of the terminations, ness, dom, ty, nce, th; as good, goodness; free, freedom; pure, purity; benevolent, benevolence; long, length.

72. A COLLECTIVE NOUN is a noun meaning many individuals spoken of as one object, or one mass; as, the assembly, the army, the crowd, the people, the peasantry, a flock, the clergy.

73. A VERBAL NOUN is the infinitive, or present participle of a verb, used as a noun; as, to steal is forbidden; stealing is forbidden; to steal is the infinitive of a verb, and stealing is its present participle. In the examples given, these words are used as names of that about which we are speaking: there they are true nouns. Those ending in ing are sometimes called participial nouns. (See par. 18, page 6.)

74. A COMPOUND NOUN is a noun formed of two, or more words, as, milk-maid, dining-room, school-boy, looking-glass.

75. The learner should now exercise himself in composing sentences with the various kinds of nouns in them, distinguishing each by some particular mark, as underlining it once, or twice, &c., as directed in par. 56. He should also practise himself on all the parts of speech, by setting himself such tasks as the following:-Compose three sentences, each having a proper noun, and an adverb; three with an abstract noun and some adjective; three with a pronoun and preposition; three with a noun, adjective, and adverb; three with a collective noun, adverb, and preposition; and so on.

2. Inflections of Nouns.

76. An inflection of a word, we have seen, is a change in its termination to convey some peculiar modification of its meaning. Thus, to take the word lion, we sometimes find it with an s after it-lions; sometimes with a comma (called an apostrophe), and then an s-lion's; sometimes with the addition ess after it-lioness. These modifications are inflections of the word lion, which is called the root, or radical form of the words thus produced from it. The inflections, in most ancient languages, were many and intricate; in the English language they are few and simple. The English noun is inflected for three different purposes, namely, to express differences in number, gender, and case.

(1.) Inflection of Nouns for Number.

77. We may have to speak of one of an object, or of more than one, as two, ten, or several, without saying exactly how many. When a noun means only one, it is said to be in the singular number; when it means more than one, it is said to be in the plural number. The radical form of the word is the singular; and, in most cases, s is simply added to the singular to indicate that the noun is plural, as cloud, clouds; house, houses; day, days.

78. We here see a gentleman looking at three CHILDREN-two BOYS, his NEPHEWS, and one girl, his daughter-amusing THEMSELVES; Jane is throwing up and catching

her ball; John is keeping up two BALLS at once; and Tommy is playing with a number of MARBLES which his uncle has given to him. The uncle has put his hat and GLOVES on the table, which we may observe to be supported by a stalk resting on three FEET. The words in italics denote only one object each; they are in the singular number. The words in small capitals denote each two or more objects; they are in the plural

number.

79. The usual formation of the plural of the English noun, by simply adding s to the singular, is derived from the form of the plural in one class of Anglo-Saxon nouns, which terminated in as, as endas, ends; dagas, days. There were other modes in which the plural was formed in the Anglo-Saxon language, which are mostly out of use in modern English.

80. There are several exceptions to the general rule for the formation of the plural.

81. Exception 1.-Nouns which, in the singular, end with the sound of s, as those which terminate in s, sh, ch soft,* and x; and nouns which end in o preceded by a consonant, form the plural by adding es to the singular; as, glass, glasses; brush, brushes; church, churches; box, boxes; hero, heroes. The reason for this rule, so far as it regards nouns ending in the sound of s in the singular, is, that we cannot sound one s after another without some other sound intervening. Nouns terminating in o formerly ended in oe, and many have retained the e in the plural.

82. Sub-exception.-Bamboo, canto, grotto, halo, junto, motto, portico, folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, solo, two, tyro, (and sometimes volcano,) follow the general rule, adding s only to form the plural.

83. Exception 2.-Nouns ending in the singular in y, preceded by a consonant, form the plural by changing the y into ies, as city, cities; lady, ladies. It must be observed that if the y is preceded by a vowel, as in the words, valley, key, the plural is formed in the usual way by simply adding s, as valleys, keys. Still, some words of this kind, as money, journey, chimney, are sometimes spelled monies, journies, chimnies. Proper names, when pluralised, follow the general rule, as, eight Henrys ruled over England. The change of the y into ies seems to arise from the old spelling of these words being ie instead of y, the singular being altered, while the old form of plural is retained. The learner will do well to observe, that in many other cases also, when a word ending in y preceded by a consonant is inflected, the y is turned into ie, as in the verb magnify, which becomes magnifies, or magnified; or the adjective happy, which becomes happier or happiest.

:

84. Exception 3.-Nouns ending in for fe in the singular, usually change the for fe into ves, to form the plural, as half, halves; loaf, loaves; wife, wives. Sub-exception Nouns in ff, also brief, chief, fief, handkerchief, hoof, proof, roof, dwarf, scarf, gulf, turf; and nouns in such terminations, as also fife, strife, safe, follow the general rule, and add s only. But staff has staves, wolf, wolves, in the plural.

85. Exception 4.-Some nouns form their plural in en or n, as man, its compounds footman, &c., ox, child, brother, which have men, oxen, children, brethren, in the plural. This was the case with a considerable number of nouns in the Anglo-Saxon language; and in the northern parts of Britain, to this day, we may hear the plural of eye and shoe, called een and shoon; the ancient form, from which we who say eyes and shoes, have diverged. Kine and swine are old Saxon plurals of cow and sow.

86. Exception 5.-Foot, tooth, goose, mouse, louse, make feet, teeth, geese, mice, lice, in the plural.

87. It ought to be observed of the s or es which is added to form the plural, that it is sometimes sounded sharp like the s in hiss; sometimes flat like the s in his, i. e. like z. Hat, top, muff, book, have the sharp sound of s in the plural; lad, slab, life, (lives), jug, have the flat sound like z.

88. Exception 6.-Many nouns, from other languages, retain their original plurals;

*Ch is said to be soft when sounded like tsh, as in beach; hard, when sounded like k, as in monarch.

as addendum, animalculum, arcanum, automaton, criterion, datum, desideratum, dictum, effluvium, emporium, encomium, erratum, medium, memorandum, momentum, parhelion, phenomenon, speculum, stratum, which change the um or on into a; analysis, antithesis, axis, basis, crisis, ellipsis, hypothesis, metamorphosis, oasis, phasis, parenthesis, thesis, change the is into es; focus, fungus, magus, polypus, radius, stimulus, and virtuoso, change the us or o into i; formula, lamina, larva, macula, nebula, scoria, take a in the plural; apex, appendix, index, radix, vertex, and vortex, change ex or ix into ices. Nouns ending in um and in a, and some in is, are from the Latin language; the others are Greek. Also

89. Some nouns have the singular and plural alike, as deer, sheep, species, apparatus. The singular is usually shown by a or an placed before it, as a sheep.

90. Some nouns have two plural forms, expressing different meanings, as

Brothers, means sons of the same parent; brethren, persons united in the same society or church. Dies, means stamps for producing impressions, as on coins; dice, small cubes used in games. Geniuses, means persons of great abilities; genii, fabulous ærial spirits. Indexes, tables of contents; indices, algebraic expressions. Peas, a number of separate seeds; pease, a number taken together, in a mass, as a dish of pease. Pennies, a number of separate coins; pence, the value in computation.

91. Some nouns have no plural, as proper names, (except when used as common nouns); names of grains, metals, minerals, soine arts; a few other objects, and qualities, as London, rye, wheat, iron, granite, music, milk, goodness.

92. Some nouns have no singular, as alms, ashes, annals, antipodes, breeches, bowels, bellows, billiards, cattle, compasses, clothes, goods, lungs, manners, mathematics, nuptials, news, optics, oats, minutiæ, politics, riches, scissors, snuffers, statistics, thanks, tongs, victuals, wages, &c. Some of these can be used either in a plural or in a singular sense, according to the meaning of the speaker, as billiards, mathematics, news.

93. Besides the singular and plural numbers, the Sanscrit and Greek languages had a dual number that is, an inflection of the noun to express two.

(2.) Inflection of Nouns for Gender.

94. Gender.-Gender denotes the distinction of sex, or the absence of such distinction. There are three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter.

95. The names of males are said to be masculine, as tiger, horse, man; those of females feminine, as tigress, mare, woman; and those of things neither male nor female neuter, as book, cloud, table. Words which may be the names of either males or females, are said to be of the common gender, as child, parent, relation, cousin.

96. For masculine nouns we substitute the pronouns he, his, or him; for feminine nouns the pronouns she, hers, or her; for neuter nouns the pronouns it, or its. In the plural number the pronoun has no distinction to mark gender.

Polypes. But there we are obliged to INFUSORIA OR INFUSORY ANIMALCULES.