Abstract nouns, and the names of ships, cities, and countries, are usually considered as feminine.

Examples:-"They arrived too late to save the ship, for the violent current had set her more and more upon the bank."-Irving. "Statesmen scoffed at Virtue, and she avenged herself by bringing their counsels to naught."-Russell.

"Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God." Coleridge. "Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound, Save his own dashings."-Bryant.

"The oak

"Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould."

"Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes: He comes attended by the sultry hours, And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;

Bryant.

While, from his ardent looks, the turning Spring Averts her blushful face."-Thomson.

The distinction between males and females is ex

pressed in three different ways.

1. By the use of different words :

:

* In our early poetry applied to the child or son of a king; to a prince. The Spaniards use the word as the title of a prince of the blood royal.

† A princess descended from the royal blood of Spain.

Some words are used only in the feminine; as, Amazon, brunette, dowager, shrew, siren, virago.

ON THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL NUMBER OF NOUNS.

The plural of nouns is generally formed by adding s or es to the singular.

Words ending in a sound, which will unite with the

sound of 8, form the plural by adding s only; as, herd, herds; tree, trees.

Words ending in a sound, which will not unite with the sound of s, form the plural by adding es; as, fox, foxes; lash, lashes.

Words ending in silent e, whose last sound will not combine with the sound of s, add s only for the plural; as, rose, roses; voice, voices.

Most nouns ending in o, preceded by a consonant, form the plural by the addition of es; as, cargo, cargoes; hero, heroes; but the following nouns are commonly written in the plural with s only:-canto, folio, grotto, junto, motto, memento, nuncio, punctilio, portico, quarto, octavo, solo, zero, seraglio, and tyro. There are also a few others, with respect to which, usage is not uniform.

Several nouns ending in for fe change their termination into ves in the plural; as, loaf, loaves; life, lives; beef, beeves; shelf, shelves; knife, knives. Others, as, chief, dwarf, fife, grief, gulf, handkerchief, hoof, proof, roof, reproof, safe, scarf, strife, surf, turf, and most of those ending in ff, form the plural regularly; as, gulf, gulfs; muff, muffs. Staff has staves in the plural, but its compounds are regular; as, flagstaff, flagstaffs.

Nouns ending in y after a consonant form the plural by changing y into ies; as, lady, ladies. But nouns ending in y after a vowel form the plural regularly; as, day, days.

Many words ending in y were formerly spelled with ie in the singular; as, glorie, vanitie. The termination ie in the singular is now laid aside for y, while