ke lice and mice. Penny makes pence, or pennies, en the coin is meant; die, dice, (for play); die, dies, coining.) t is agreeable to analogy, and the practice of the genery of correct writers, to construe the following words as ral nouns; pains, riches, alms; and also mathematics, taphysics, politics, ethics, optics, pneumatics, with other ilar names of sciences. Dr. Johnson says, that the adjective much is sometimes a m of number, as well as of quantity. This may account the instances we meet with of its associating with pains a plural noun; as, " much pains" The connexion, hower, is not to be recommended. The word news is now almost universally considered as longing to the singular number. The noun means is used both in the singular and plural mber. The following words, which have been adopted from the ebrew, Greek and Latin languages, are thus distinguishwith respect to number. * Genii, when denoting aerial spirits; Geniuses, when signifying ersons of genius. Indexes, when it signifies pointers, or tables of contents; Inices, when referring to Algebraic quantities. connne the plural number; as, antipodes literati, minutiæ. The following nouns being in Latin, both s plural, are used in the same manner when adop tongue: hiatus, apparatus, series, species. SECT. 4. Of Case. IN English, substantives have three nominative, the possessive, and the obj The nominative case simply express of a thing, or the subject of the verb boy plays;" "The girls learn." The possessive case expresses the property or possession; and has an with the letter s coming after it: scholar's duty;" "My father's house When the plural ends in s, the other but the apostrophe is retained: as, wings "The drapers' company." Sometimes also, when the singula in ss, the apostrophic s is not added goodness' sake;" "For righteousnes The objective case expresses the action, or of a relation; and general verb active, or a preposition: as, Charles:" "They live in London." English substantives are declined ing manner: Nominative Case. Possessive Case. Objective Case. Singular. The man. The man. *The possessive is sometimes called the gen objective the accusative. t, and some too among the modern languages, as the man, vary the termination or ending of the substantive, nswer the same purpose; an example of which, in the n, is inserted, as explanatory of the nature and use of =s, viz. Some writers think, that the relations signified by the dition of articles and prepositions to the noun, may proply be denominated cases, in English: and that, on this inciple, there are, in our language, as many cases as in e Latin tongue. But to this mode of forming cases for ur substantives, there are strong objections. It would in. eed be a formal and useless arrangement of nouns, arties, and prepositions. If an arrangement of this nature ere to be considered as constituting cases, the English nguage would have a much greater number of them than ne Greek and Latin tongues; for, as every preposition has Es distinct meaning and effect, every combination of a preposition and article with the noun, would form a different elation, and would constitute a distinct case. This would encumber our language with many new terms, and a heavy and useless load of distinctions.* "If cases are to be distinguished by the different significations of the noun, or by the different relations it may bear to the govern ing word, then we have in our language as many cases almost, as there are prepositions: and above a man, beneath a man, beyond a man, round about a man, within a man, without a man, &c. shall be cases, as well as, of a man, to a man, and with a man." Dr. Beattie, we might adopt a number of declensions, as riety of cases, for English substantives. Th declensions, distinguished according to the of forming the plural of substantives, with a dozen cases to each declension, would furn arrangement of English nouns, in all their tr on this subject, the fifth and ninth section chapter of Etymology. But though this variety of cases does no pond with the idiom of our language, the great propriety in admitting a case in Englis which shall serve to denote the objects of ac of prepositions; and which is, therefore, p the objective case. The general idea of cas a reference to the termination of the noun many instances, both in Greek and Lati nominative and accusative cases have pre form, and are distinguished only by the rel to other words in the sentence. We are the ed, by analogy, in applying this principle guage, as far as utility, and the idiom of Now it is obvious, that in English, a noun active verb, or a preposition, is very differen ed, from a noun in the nominative, or in case; and that a comprehensive case, co that difference, must be useful and proper. of parsing, and of showing the connexion of words, will be most conveniently accom adoption of such case; and the irregularity nouns sometimes placed in a situation, in v not be said to be in any case at all, will be a The author of this work 'long doubted t assigning to English substantives an objec renewed, critical examination of the subje tion to which he was prompted by the e creasing demand for the grammar, has mind a full persuasion, that the nouns of entitled to this comprehensive objective ca When the thing to which another is sa expressed by a sircumlocution, or by man immediately succeed each other, in the following : "My friend's wife's sister;" a sense which would etter expressed by saying, "the sister of my friend's ;" or "my friend's sister-in-law." Some grammarisay, that in each of the following phrases, viz "A book y brother's," "A servant of the queen's," "A soldier he king's," there are two genitive cases; the first se implying, "one of the books of my brother," the , one of the scrvants of the queen; and the last, "one ne soldiers of the king." But as the preposition gov. the objective case; and as there are not, in each of e sentences, two apostrophes with the letters coming r them, we cannot with propriety say, that there are genitive cases. CHAPTER IV. Of ADJECTIVES. TION 1. Of the nature of Adjectives, and the degrees of comparison. AN Adjective is a word added to a substantive express its quality: as "An industrious man ;" A virtuous woman; "A benevolent mind." In English, the adjective is not varied on acint of gender, number, or case. Thus we say, A careless boy; careless girls." The only variation which it admits, is that of e degrees of comparison. There are commonly reckoned three degrees of mparison; the POSITIVE, the COMPARATIVE, d the SUPERlative. Grammarians have generally enumerated these three grees of comparison; but the first of them has been ought by some writers, to be, improperly, termed a deee of comparison; as it seems to be nothing more than e simple form of the adjective, and not to imply either mparison or degree. This opinion may be well founded, |