receive an augment beginning with a vowel, the e is omitted; as, give, giving; sense, sensible; cure, curable; fame, famous; stone, stony.

(a) When the silent e is preceded by c or g soft, it is usually retained before able and ous, in order to preserve the pronunciation; as, peace, peaceable; service, serviceable; change, changeable; courage, courageous.

2. When the augment begins with a consonant the e is retained; as, name, nameless; white, whiteness; whole, wholesome; peace, peaceful; allure, allurement.

(a) Before fy and ty, the e is changed into i; as, pure, purity, purify; active, activity,

(b) The following words drop the e: due, duly; true, truly; awe, awful; judge, judgment; abridge, abridgment; acknowledge, acknowledgment; whole, wholly.

3. Words ending in y, preceded by a consonant, change the y into i on receiving an augment; as, holy, holier; happy, happiness; pity, pitied; envy, envious; ally, allies; cry, crier, criest, cried.

(a) Before ing, ish, and 's (the mark of the possessive singular) y is retained; as, flying, babyish, for pity's sake; also, in dryness, slyly, shyness. Words in ie drop e and change i into y; as, die, dying.

4. When y is preceded by a vowel, it is retained; as, boy, boys, boyish; attorney, attorneys ; alley, alleys; joy, joyful,

(a) Exceptions: gay, gaiety; laid, paid, said, staid, raiment (from array), daily, with a few others.

5. A word ending in ll usually drops one lon becoming part of a compound word; as, all,

B 2

always, almost, altogether; fill, fulfil; full, fruitful; till, until; chill, chilblain; dull, dulness ; will, wilful.

(a) Exceptions: illness, shrillness, smallness, stillness, tallness, refill, recall, uphill.

6. Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant before an additional syllable that begins with a vowel; as, fit, fitted, fitteth, fitting; thin, thinner; beg, beggar; bar, barred, barreth; abet, abetted; compel, compelled; begin, beginner, beginning; prefer, preferred.

7. In monosyllables when the vowel is long, and in other words if the accent is not on the last syllable, the final consonant remains single; as, toil, toiling; offering; proffer, proffered; limit, limited; civil, civility.

(a) To this rule there are still many exceptions, for which no possible reason can be given, except usage. They belong mostly to the same class-viz., words ending in 7 preceded by a single vowel; as, travel, travelled, travelling, traveller; apparelled, caviller, crystalline, driveller, duellist, grovelling, jeweller, leveller, marvellous, quarrelled, rivalling, &c.

(b) If the accent is thrown back from the final syllable, by the addition of the augment, the final letter is not generally doubled; as, confér, cónference; prefér, préference, préferable, préférred; refér, réference; infér, ínference, inférred, inférrible or ínferable; transfér, tránsferable or transférrible.

8. DIVISION OF SYLLABLES.-(1) Words of one syllable are never divided.

(2) Each separate syllable should, as far as the pronunciation allows, begin with a consonant; as, Con-stan-ti-no-ple. Short vowels are followed by a consonant; as, ep-ic.

(3) When two consonants come together between two vowels, they should be divided; as, car-pet, but not if the two consonants coalesce; as, ta-ble.

(4) If two vowels come together, and do not form a diphthong, they must be divided; as, la-i-ty, a-e-ri-al.

(5) Prefixes, affixes, and grammatical endings, such as er, est, form separate syllables; as, mis-deed, harm-less, indetermin-ate, lov-er, lov-est.

ETYMOLOGY.

ETYMOLOGY treats of the different sorts of Words, their various modifications, and their true derivation.

The words which constitute our language are classified under nine distinct heads, which received their names from the Romans, called PARTS OF SPEECH. They consist of the ARTICLE, the NOUN (or SUBSTANTIVE), the ADJECTIVE, the PRONOUN, the VERB, the ADVERB, the PREPOSITION, the CONJUNCTION, and the INTER

JECTION.

OF THE ARTICLES.

An Article is a word put before a noun, to show the extent of its meaning; as, a man.

There are two articles, a and the. A becomes an before a vowel or silent h; as, an age, an hour.

A is not changed into an before u long; as, a unit, a use. An is used before words beginning with h sounded, when the accent is on the second syllable; as, an herōic action; an historical account.

A is called the indefinite article, because it does not point out a particular person or thing; as, A king.

The is called the definite article, because it refers to a particular person or thing; as, The queen; that is, the queen of our own country. EXERCISES ON THE ARTICLES a, an, AND the.

To be corrected.

A army, a end, an horn, an heart, a adder, a hour, an horse, an house, a honour, an pen, a ox, a umpire, an university, an human being, an history, a historical work, a man is mortal.

The God is omnipotent. The bravery is laudable. Bravery of troops was displayed. The gold and the silver are the precious metals. Persons of whom you spoke. Judge of court who tried prisoners all day.

OF NOUNS, OR SUBSTANTIVES. A Noun is the name of any person, place, or thing; as John, London, book.

Nouns are varied by Number, Gender, and Case.

A noun, without an article to limit it, is taken in its widest sense; as, man is mortal: namely, all mankind.

OF NUMBER.

Nouns have two numbers,-the Singular and the Plural. The singular denotes one, the plural more than one.

The plural is generally formed by adding s to the singular; as, Book, books.

Nouns in s, sh, ch, x, or o, form the plural by adding es; as, Miss, misses; brush, brushes; match, matches; fox, foxes; hero, heroes.

Nouns in y change y into ies in the plural; as Lady, ladies. But y with a vowel before it is not changed into ies; as, Day, days.

Nouns in f, or fe, change f, or fe, into ves, in the plural; as Loaf, loaves; life, lives.

Nouns ending in ch sounding k, form the plural by adding s only; as Stomach, stomachs.

Nouns in io, with junto, canto, tyro, grotto, and portico, have s only in the plural; as, Folio, folios, canto, cantos.

Nouns in ff, have their plural in s; as, Muff, muffs, except staff, which sometimes has staves. Dwarf, scarf, wharf, brief, chief, grief, kerchief, handkerchief, mischief, gulf, turf, surf, fife, strife, proof, hoof, roof, and reproof, never change ƒ or fe into ves.

Nouns are either proper or common. Proper names are the names of persons, places, seas, and rivers, &c.; as, Thomas, Scotland, Thames. Proper names have the plural only when they refer to a race or family, as The Campbells; or to several persons of the same name, as the two Mr. Bells, the two Miss Browns, Messrs. Guthrie and Tait.

Common nouns are the names of things in general; as Chair, table, spoon.

Nouns signifying many are called collective nouns; as, Multitude, crowd.

The names of virtues, vices, and qualities