one of

next, "one of the servants of the queen ;" and the last, the soldiers of the king." But as the preposition governs the objective case; and as there are not, in each of these sentences. two apostrophes with the letter s coming after them, we cannot with propriety say, that there are two genitive cases

CHAPTER IV.

OF ADJECTIVES.

SECTION 1. Of the nature of Adjectives, and the degrees of comparison.

"

AN Adjective is a word added to a substantive, to express its quality as, An industrious man;" "A virtuous woman;" A benevolent mind."

In English, the adjective is not varied on account of genThus we say, der, number, or case. A careless boy;

careless girls."

The only variation which it admits, is that of the degrces of comparison.

There are commonly reckoned three degrees of comparison; the POSITIVE, the COMPARATIVE, and the SUPERLATIVE.

Grammarians have generally enumerated these three degrees of comparison; but the first of them has been thought by some writers, to be, inproperly, termed a degree of comparison; as it seems to be nothing more than the simple form of the adjective, and not to imply either comparison or degree. This opinion may be well founded unless the adjective be supposed to imply comparison or degree, by containing a secret or general reference to other things: as, when we say, "he is a tall man,' "this is a fair day," we make some reference to the ordinary size of men, and to different weather.

The Positive state expresses the quality of an object, without any increase or diminution: as, good, wise, great. The Comparative Degree increases or lessens the positive in signification: as, wiser, greater, less wise.

The Superlative Degree increases or lessens the positive to the highest or lowest degree: as, wisest, greatest, least wise.

The simple word, or positive becomes the comparative, by adding ror er; and the superlative, by adding stor est, to the end of it: as, wise, wiser, wisest, great, greater, greatest. And the adverbs more and most, placed before the adjec tive, have the same effect: as, wise, more wise, most wise. The termination ish may be accounted in some sort a degree of comparison, by which the signification is diminished below the

positive: as, black, blackish, or tending to blackness; salt, sallish, or having a little taste of salt.

The word rather is very properly used to express a small degree or excess of a quality: as, "she is rather profuse in her expenses." Monosyllables, for the most part, are compared by er and est; and dissyllables by more and most: as, mild, milder, mildest ; frugal, more frugal, most frugal. Dissyllables ending in y; as, happy, lovely; and in le after a mute, as, able, ample; or accented on the last syllable, as, discreet, polite; easily admit of er and est: as, happier, happiest; abler, ablest; politer, politest. Words of more than two syllables hardly ever admit of those terminations. In some words the superlative is formed by adding the adverb most to the end of them; as, nethermost, uttermost, or utmost, undermost, uppermost, foremost.

In English, as in most languages, there are some words of very common use, (in which the caprice of custom is apt to get the better of analogy,) that are irregular in this respect: as, "good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; much or many, more, most ; near, nearer, nearest or next; late, later, latest or last; oid, older or elder, oldest or eldest ;" and a few others, An adjective put without a substantive, with the definite ar ticle before it, becomes a substantive in sense and meaning, and is written as a substantive; as, "Providence rewards the good, and punishes the bad."

Various nouns placed before other nouns assume the nature of adjectives; as, sea fish, wine vessel, corn fie'd, meadow ground, &c. Numeral adjectives are either cardinal, or ordinal: cardinal, as one, two, three, &c. ; ordinal, as, first, second, third, &c.

SECTION II. Remarks on the subject of Comparison.

If we consider the subject of comparison attentively, we shall perceive that the degrees of it are infinite in number, or at least indefinite.-A mountain is larger than a mite;-by how many degrees? How much bigger is the earth than a grain of sand? By how many degrees was Socrates wiser than Alcibiades? or by how many is snow whiter than this paper? It is plain, that to these and the like questions, no definite answers can be returned. In quantities, however, that may be exactly measured, the degrees of excess may be exactly ascertained. A foot is just twelve times as long as an inch; and an hour is sixty times the length of a minute. But, in regard to qualities, and to those quantities woich cannot be measured exactly, it is impossible to say how many degrees may be comprehended in the comparative excess. But though these degrees are infinite or indefinite in fact, they cannot be so in language; nor would it be convenient, if language were to express many of them. In regard to unmeasured quantities and qualities, the degrees of more and less, (besides those marked above,) may be expressed intelligibly, at least, if not accurately, by certain adverbs, or words of like import: as, "Socrates was much wiser than Alcibiades;" "Snow is a great

dea! whiter than this paper;" "Epaminondas was by far the most accomplished of the Thebans ""The evening star is a very splendid object, but the sun is incomparably more splendid;" "The Deity is infinitely greater than the greatest of his creatures." The inaccuracy of these, and the like expressions, is not a material inconvenience; and, if it were, it is unavoidable: for human speech can only express human thought; and where thought is necessarily inaccurate, language must be so too.

When the word very, exceedingly, or any other of similar import, is put before the positive, it is called by some writers the superlative of eminence, to distinguish it from the other superlative, which has been already mentioned, and is called the superlative of comparison. Thus, very eloquent, is termed the superlative of eminence; most eloquent, the superlative of comparison. In the superlative of eminence, something of comparison is, however, remotely or indirectly intimated; for we cannot reasonably call a man very eloquent, without comparing his eloquence with the eloquence of other men.

The comparative may be so employed, as to express the same pre-eminence or inferiority as the superlative. Thus, the sentence, "Of all acquirements, virtue is the most valuable," conveys the same sentiment as the following: "Virtue is more valuable than every other acquirement."

CHAPTER V.

OF PRONOUNS.

A PRONOUN is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word: as, "The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful."

There are three kinds of pronouns, viz. the PERSONAL, the RELATIVE, and the ADJECtive pronouns.

SECTION 1. Of the Personal Pronouns. THERE are five Personal Pronouns, viz. I, thou, he, she, it; with their plurals, we, ye, or you, they.

Personal pronouns admit of person, number, gender,

and case.

The persons of pronouns are three in each number, viz. I, is the first person

Thou, is the second person

He, she, or it, is the third person

We, is the first person

Ye or

you,

is the second person

They, is the third person

Singular.

Plural.

This account of persons will be very intelligible, when we reflect, that there are three persons who may be the subject of any discourse: first, the person who speaks, may speak of himself;

secondly, he may speak of the person to whom he addresses him self; thirdly, he may speak of some other person: and as the speakers, the persons spoken to, and the other persons spoken of, may be many, so each of these persons must have the plural number.

The numbers of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two, the singular and the plural: as, I, thou, he, we, ye or you, they.

Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it. He is masculine; she is feminine; it is neuter.

The persons speaking and spoken to, being at the same time the subjects of the discourse, are supposed to be present; from which, and other circumstances, their sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked by a distinction of gender in the pronouns but the third person, or thing spoken of, being absent, and in many respects unknown, it is necessary that it should be marked by a distinction of gender; at least when some particu lar person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be more distinctly marked: accordingly the pronoun singular of the third person has the three genders, he, she, it.

Pronouns have three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective.

The objective case of a pronoun has, in general, a form differ ent from that of the nominative, or the possessive case.

The personal pronouns are thus declined:

SECTION II. Of the Relative Pronouns. RELATIVE Pronouns are such as relate in general, to some word or phrase going before, which is thence called the antecedent: they are, who, which, and that: as, The man is happy who lives virtuously.

What is a kind of compound relative, including both the antecedent and the relative, and is mostly equivalent to that which: as, "This is what I wanted;" that is to say, "the thing which I wanted."

Who is applied to persons, which to animals and inanımate things as. "He is a friend, who is faithful in adversity;""The bird, which sung so sweetly, is flown;""This is the tree, which produces no fruit."

That, as a relative, is often used to prevent the too frequent repetition of who and which. It is applied to both persons and things as, "He that acts wisely deserves praise;' "Modesty is a quality that highly adorns a woman." Who is of both numbers, and is thus declined:

Which, that, and what, are likewise of both numbers, but they do not vary their termination; except that whose is sometimes used as the possessive case of which: as, "Is there any other doctrine whose followers are punished ?".

"And the fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death.”

"Pure the joy without allay,

Whose very rapture is tranquillity."

MILTON.

YOUNG.

"The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life.” POPE. "This is one of the clearest characteristics of its being a religion whose origin is divine."

BLAIR.

By the use of this license, one word is substituted for three: as. "Philosophy, whose end is to instruct us in the knowledge of nature," for," Philosophy, the end of which is to instruct us," &c.

Who, which, and what, have sometimes the words soever and ever annexed to thein; as, "whosoever or whoever, whichsoever or whichever, whatsoever or whatever :" but they are seldom used in modern style.

The relative pronoun, when used interrogatively, relates to a word or phrase which is not antecedent, but subsequent, to the relative. See note under tipe VI. Rule of Syntax.