of only one meaning. This fact gives rise to the distinction between declinable and indeclinable words. Of the eight parts of speech, five only, the Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, and Adverb, are declinable—that is, capable of being inflected; while the remaining three, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection, are indeclinable—that is, cannot be varied in such a way as to express any modification in meaning. INFLECTION OF NOUNS. 76. Nouns are varied in three ways, by Number, Gender, and Case. 1.-NUMBER. 77. Number shows whether one or more than one thing is meant by the noun. It may be truly called an accident of a noun, for not only do we find languages differing as to the extent in which they indicate numbers, but we sometimes meet with words commonly said to be alike in both numbers, that is, in fact, without the distinction of number at all, and yet we do not experience any difficulty in indicating whether we mean one or more than one. Sheep, deer, and one or two more of the same kind, prove that we could do without the distinction; but, at the same time, they show no less conclusively by their fewness, that the distinction is a very useful one. 78. While all languages, so far as we yet know, have numbers, they have them not to the same extent. The Sanscrit, Arabic, and Greek, adopt a Dual in addition to the usual distinction of Singular and Plural, and so have three distinct forms to represent three different ideas. Thus, to take an example from the Greek: agorns (arotes) signifies a or one ploughman; agora (arota), two ploughmen; and agora (arotäi), any number of ploughmen above two. 79. The principle on which the Dual Number was introduced, and subsequently discontinued, may be thus explained. A great many objects in nature as well as in art, and those in which we are at an early period of life particularly interested, present themselves to us in duals. Our hands, eyes, cheeks, shoulders, arms, limbs, feet, are all twins. The natural relations of life present the same dual aspect― father and mother, sister and brother, son and daughter; and, in short, the relations of the sexes in the animated kingdom generally exhibit this combination. The sun which rules by day, and the moon "the queen of the nightly heaven," those most arresting to youth in particular of all visible objects, are a heavenly dual. Land and sea, heaven and earth, east and west, north and south, are all correlatives. Many of the instruments used by man are duals a pair of pincers, tongs, scissors, snuffers, &c., and scales and balances, by which relative weight and value are ascertained, are likewise paired. At the same time, it is manifest that as all duals are plurals, and as plurals occur more frequently in nature than duals, the plurals may be expected to supersede the use of the duals; and in most languages this is actually the case. Nay, even in the Greek language, where the dual has perhaps obtained the most permanent footing, the plural is frequently made use of instead of the dual. In fact, this refinement on numbers— for such it may be considered to be-seems to have been felt at last to be in a great measure superfluous, and so came to be gradually discontinued even in those languages where it once obtained an extensive use. 80. The English tongue is particularly sparing of unnecessary distinctions, and in it we accordingly find numbers divided into unity, and more than unity; or, in the language of the grammarian, into Singular and Plural. 81. The Singular denotes one of a class; as, river, horse; while the Plural signifies more than one; as, rivers, horses. 82. On examining a considerable number, the larger the better, of nouns, it will be found that a great majority form the plural from the singular by simply adding the letter s ; thus, pen, pens; book, books; table, tables. Grammarians, therefore, lay it down as a rule, that "the plural is generally formed by adding s to the singular." When a child who is beginning to speak uses the word mans, as a child may be often observed to do, he shows by so doing that he understands sufficiently well the general rule for the formation of the plural. 83. The exceptions, however, to the rule are by no means few. Nouns ending in any of the five following terminations, s, sh, ch (when pronounced soft), x, and o impure, that is, preceded by a consonant, form their plural by adding es to the singular; thus, ass, asses; brush, brushes; church, churches; fox, foxes; hero, heroes. 84. The reason why s, sh, ch, and a take es, and not simply s, in forming their plurals, is obviously, that s cannot be added immediately to s, but requires the intervention of a vowel. Mr Latham thinks that the e in such words as cargoes is an orthographical expedient for the sake of denoting the length of the vowel." 66 85. When a noun ending in y is to be formed into the plural, s is added if the y is preceded by a vowel; but if a consonant goes before the y, then the y is changed into ies; thus, in boy there is a vowel before the y, we therefore add s, boys; but in duty there is a consonant before the y, the plural therefore is duties. 86. Nouns ending in for fe generally form the plural by changing the ƒ or fe into ves; thus, loaf, loaves; knife, knives. The change here is exceedingly slight, being merely the use of v instead of f, both belonging to the class of labials, and therefore very liable to be interchanged. Strong as the tendency is, however, many words retain the ƒ; as, for example, brief, chief, fief, grief, handkerchief; hoof, proof, reproof, roof; dwarf, scarf, wharf; gulf; turf, cliff, sheriff, skiff, whiff; cuff, muff, puff, ruff, snuff, stuff; fife, strife; safe. These follow the common rule, and add simply s. 87. Nouns derived or rather adopted from dead or foreign tongues, for the most part retain their original plurals, and mere English scholars are very apt to blunder in the use of them, if they are not careful to make themselves familiar with each word separately. We subjoin a list of those most generally in use. 88. The Hebrew words cherub and seraph form their plurals cherubim and seraphim; and the French beau and monsieur form their plurals beaux and messieurs, which last is contracted into messrs. 89. A few nouns in very common use appear to form their plurals quite anomalously, as far as any rules at present affecting our language can be traced; but doubtless, at one period of its history, they came under some general rule. The words referred to are such as 90. Sometimes a noun has two different plurals with distinct meanings; as, brother, which has brothers, sons of the same parents, and brethren, members of the same profession. The former word is a true plural, the latter a kind of collective noun. Genius has geniuses, men of talent; but genii, aërial spirits. We say, "Shakspeare and Milton are the two greatest geniuses that England has produced;" but we speak of the genii of a fairy-tale. EXERCISE XII. 1. Under what two aspects may the term inflection be used? On what principle is father's called an inflection of father, and of a father not? Into what classes are the parts of speech divided with regard to inflection? What is the reason of this division? In how many ways are nouns varied? Whence arises the accident of number? Might nouns be without such a distinction? Give instances. Do languages agree in the extent to which they represent numbers? Explain the three numbers in the Greek. What is the probable origin of the dual number? How came it to be discontinued? Does the use of the dual indicate whether a language is in an early or a later stage of existence? How many numbers have English nouns, and what are they? What does the singular denote ! The plural ? What is the general rule for forming the plural ? What is meant by saying that this is the general rule? How do nouns ending in s, sh, ch (soft), x, and o (impure) form their plurals? On what principle do they take es instead of s? How do nouns in y form the plural? Nouns in f and fe? On what principle may this be explained? Are there many exceptions? How are the plurals of nouns adopted from dead or foreign tongues formed? Give instances of a noun having two plurals. 2. Write the plurals of the following nouns; book, box, man, potato, knife, monarch, focus, army, medium, fly, fife, brother, folio, index, chief, chorus, pea, gold, judge, prince, princess, echo, key, child, phenomenon, seraph, valley, genius, ox, watch, stratum. 3. Point out plural nouns in the following sentences, and state on what principle each has been formed from its singular. The Spaniards were the newly conquered subjects of Carthage, strangers to her race and language, and accustomed to divide their lives between actual battle and the most listless bodily indolence.— Arnold. The primal duties shine aloft-like stars; The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, Kind wishes, and good actions, and pure thoughts- 2.-GENDER. Wordsworth. 91. The grammatical distinction of Gender corresponds to the natural distinction of sex, and as there are two sexes, male and female, there should be two genders. A third, however, is added, to indicate that the word signifies something not characterized by sex at all. There are also many words applicable to persons of both sexes, so that, on the whole, grammarians have made a fourfold distinction of Gender, Masculine, Feminine, Neuter, and Common. The Masculine Gender includes all males; the Feminine, all females; the Neuter, all words expressive of things without the distinction of sex; and the Common, all words which are equally applicable to males and females. 92. In some languages the distinction of gender is much more deeply impressed than in others. A Latin scholar, who happened to be ignorant of the word vacca, would be much more justifiable in concluding that it represented a |