mice, alms, riches, thanks, snuffers, tongs, teeth, woman, child, court-martial, apparatus, miasma, genii, geniuses, indices, indexes, mathematics, Matthew, James, John?

Observations on Number.

155. Some nouns are used in the singular only. Such are the names of metals, virtues, vices, arts, sciences, abstract qualities, and things weighed or measured; as, gold, meekness, piety, idleness, intemperance, sculpture, geometry, wisdom, flour, milk, etc. Except when different sorts of things are expressed; as, wines, teas, sugars, liquors, etc.

156. Some nouns are used in the plural only; as, annals, antipodes, archives, assets, ashes, billiards, bitters, breeches, clothes, calends, colors (military banners), dregs, goods, hysterics, ides, intestines, literati, lees, letters (literature), minutiæ, manners, morals, nones, orgies, pleiads, or pleiades, shambles, tidings, thanks, vespers, vitals, victuals: Also, things consisting of two parts; as, bellows, drawers, hose, nippers, pincers, pliers, snuffers, scissors, shears, tongs, etc.

A few words usually plural, viz., bowels, embers, entrails, lungs, have sometimes a singular, denoting a part or portion of that expressed by the plural; as bowel, lung, etc.

157. Some nouns are alike in both numbers; as, deer, sheep, swine, vermin; grouse, salmon, tench, trout; apparatus, hiatus, series, congeries, species, superficies; head (in the sense of individual), cattle; certain building materials; as, brick, stone, plank, joist in mass; also fish and sometimes foul, denoting the class. But several of these, in a plural sense, denoting individuals have the regular plural also; as, salmons, trouts, fishes, fowls, etc.

158. The words brace, couple, pair, yoke, dozen, score, gross, hundred, thousand, and some others, after adjectives of number, are either singular or plural; as, a brace, a dozen, a hundred; two brace, three dozen, six hundred, etc. But without an adjective of number, or in other constructions, and particularly after in, by, etc., in a distributive sense, most of these words, in the plural, assume a plural form; as, "In braces and dozens."-" By scores and hundreds.”— 66 'Worth thousands."

159. 1. The following words, plural in form, are sometimes singular, but most commonly plural in signification, viz.: amends, means, riches, pains (meaning laborious efforts), odds, alms, wages; and the

names of certain sciences; as, mathematics, ethics, optics, acoustics metaphysics, politics, pneumatics, hydrostatics, etc.

2. Means and amends, referring to one object, are singular; to more than one, plural. Mean, in the singular form, is now used to signify the middle between two extremes. Alms (almesse, AngloSaxon) and riches (richesse, French) are really singular, though now used commonly in a plural sense. News, formerly singular or plural, is now mostly singular. Molasses and measles, though ending like a plural, are singular, and are so used. Oats is generally plural; gallows is both singular and plural, though a distinct plural form, gallowses, is also in use.

160. The following are singular in form, but in construction va. rious; thus, foot and horse, meaning bodies of troops, and people, meaning persons, are always construed as plural; cannon, shot, sail, cavalry, infantry, as singular or plural. People (also folk), when it signifies a community or body of persons, is a collective noun in the singular, and sometimes, though rarely, takes a plural form; as, “Many peoples and nations." Rev. x. 11.

The Plural of Proper Names.

161. Proper names for the most part want the plural; but1. Proper names without a title are used in the plural, when they refer to a race or family; as, “The Campbells," "the Stuarts," or to several persons of the same name; as, "The twelve Casars," or when they are used to denote character; as, "The Ciceros of the age.”

2. Proper names with the title of Mrs. prefixed, or with any title, preceded by the numerals, two, three, etc., pluralize the name, and not the title; as, "The Mrs. Howards," "the two Miss Mortons," "the • two Mr. Henrys."

3. But when several persons of the same name are spoken of individually, and distinguished by a particular appellation, or when persons of different names are spoken of together, the title only, and not the name is made plural; as, "Misses Julia and Mary Robinson;" "Messrs. George and Andrew Thomson;" "Messrs. Jones, Brown, and Robinson."

Thus far, usage and the rule are settled and uniform; but—

4. In other cases, usage is still unsettled. Some writers, perhaps the majority, pluralize the title and not the name; as, The Misses Brown;" "the Messrs. Harper." Others, of equal authority, regard ing the title as a sort of adjective, or the whole as a compound name, pluralize the name, and not the title; as, "The Miss Browns," "the

Mr. Harpers." This form is more common in conversation, and, being less stiff and formal, is more likely to prevail. A few improperly pluralize both name and title; as, "The Misses Browns," "the Messrs. Harpers."

5. Names, with other titles prefixed, follow the same analogy; as, "Lords Wellington and Lynedoch;" "the lords bishops of Durham and St. David's;" "the generals Grant and Sherman."

Cases of Nouns.

162. Case is the state or condition of a noun with respect to the other words in a sentence. See 164-166.

163. Nouns in English have three cases, the Nominative, Possessive, and Objective.

164. A noun is in the Nominative case

1. When it is used as the subject of a finite verb (315); as, "John reads."

2. When it is used as a predicate (586); as, "John is a good boy."

3. When it is used absolutely, or independent of any other word; as, "O Absalom, my son !"

REMARK.-A noun used in direct address, as in the last instance, is by some said to be in the vocative case.

165. The Possessive case connects with the name of an object, the idea of origin, possession, or fitness; as, The sun's rays; John's book; a boy's cap; men's shoes. It is always found with another substantive, whose meaning it limits (839).

A noun in the possessive case limits the noun to which it is joined, like an adjective, but should be parsed as a noun; for it never loses its characteristics as such; as, "If this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him," etc. (Matt. xxiii. 14).

166. The Objective case is used

1. To denote the object of a transitive verb (317) in the active voice (368); as, "James assists Thomas.

2. To denote the object of a relation expressed by a preposition (538); as, "They live in London."

3. To denote time, value, weight, or measure, without a

governing word (828); as, “James is ten years old.” ' [Note.-Some authors assign the nominative case to words used merely as names. Words not in relation can, strictly speaking, have no case, but, for convenience in referring to them, this distinction is, in some instances, retained.]

GENERAL RULES.

167. The nominative and the objective of nouns are alike in form.

168. The possessive singular is formed by adding an apostrophe and s to the nominative; as, John's.

169. When the plural ends in s, the possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe only; as, ladies'. But when the plural does not end in s, both the apostrophe and s are added; as, men's, children's.

171. Proper names for the most part want the plural (161).

Observations on the Possessive.

172. The 's in the possessive case is evidently an abbreviation for the old English termination of the genitive in es or is. Thus, “The king's crown" was written, "The kingis crown.' That s is not an abbreviation for his, as some have supposed, is manifest from the fact. that it is used where his could not be properly employed; thus, wo

man's, men's, children's, book's, etc., can not be resolved into woman his, men his, children his, etc.

The apostrophe (') after 8 in the plural, is not a mark of abbre viation, but is used in modern times, merely as a sign of the possessive. Its use in the plural is of but recent date.

173. When the nominative singular ends in ss, or in letters of a similar sound, though to retain the s after the apostrophe is never wrong, yet, as a matter of taste, it is sometimes omitted in order to avoid harshness, or too close a succession of hissing sounds; as, "For goodness' sake;" "for conscience' sake;" so also "Moses' disciples;" "Jesus" feet."

174. NOTE.-There is considerable diversity of opinion and usage on this point. Some few insist on retaining s after the apostrophe in every position; as, “Xanthus's stock of patience."-L'Estrange. Others drop the s only before a word beginning with an s or an 8-sound, as above; while others drop the 8 wherever the use of it would produce harshness, or difficulty of pronunciation. Though in this last, the usage which omits the s is less prevalent and less accurate than that which retains it, yet, from the sanction it has obtained-from the stiffness and harshness which retaining the s often occasions—and from the tendency in all spoken language to abbreviation and euphony, it seems destined to prevail against all arguments to the contrary.

175. REMARK.-In written language, the omission of the s occasions but little inconvenience; for the apostrophe sufficiently indicates the case, and the construction will generally indicate the number. In spoken language, however, the use of the s is more necessary, to avoid obscurity, especially in proper names. Thus, in spoken language, “Davy's Surveying,” and “Davies' Surveying," sound precisely alike, though the names are different. Hence, to indicate the last name correctly in speaking, it will be more accurate, though less euphonic, to say, "Davies's Surveying." Thus, also, "Perkins' Arithmetic,” "Sparks' Analysis,” in spoken language, may be mistaken for "Perkin's Arithmetic," "Spark's Analysis." In such cases, precision will be secured at the expense of euphony, by retaining the 8, while euphony will be attained, frequently at the expense of precision, by dropping it.

176. The meaning of the possessive may, in general, be expressed by the word of with the objective; thus, for “man's wisdom,” “vir