beings are either male or female, their names in language are either masculine or feminine. Hence the names of things naturally destitute of sex should be neuter-that is, of neither gender; but the Latin language, as well as those most nearly allied to it, assigns the masculine or feminine gender even to names of things.

The gender of Latin substantives may be ascertained partly from their meaning, and partly from certain terminations which have been appropriated to certain genders.

It is important to know the genders of Latin substantives, since adjectives, pronouns, and numerals, when united to a substantive, accommodate themselves to it by assuming a termination corresponding with the gender of the substantive-as pater bonus, a good father; filia bons, a good daughter; summum bonum, the chief good.

21. Names of males, rivers, winds, and months are masculine, whatever their terminations may be-as vir, a man; scriba, a scribe; poëta, a poet; aries, a ram; taurus, a bull; Tiberis, the Tiber; Sequăna, the Seine; Auster, south wind; Januarius, January.

22. Names of females, whatever be their terminations, are feminine—as femina, a woman; uxor, a wife; soror, a sister; socrus, a mother-in-law.

Most of the names of trees, towns, countries, islands, and precious stones, are likewise feminine-as cedrus, a cedar; pinus, a pine-tree; Tyrus, Tyre; smaragdus, emerald.

23. Indeclinable substantives, the names of the letters of the alphabet, and all words which, without being substantives, are used as such (except they refer to persons, as in the case of boni, good men), are neuter-as fas, divine right; gummi, gum; pascha, easter; sinapi, mustard; pondo, a pound.

24. Some substantives denoting persons are used as masculines when sex is not necessarily referred to as

hostis, an enemy; testis, a witness; civis, a citizen; parens, a parent. But they are used as feminine when directly designating a female.

25. Some substantives receive different terminations according as they designate male or female beings. Thus many masculine substantives ending in -tor have a feminine termination in -trix, and some ending in us or any other termination have a feminine form in a-as victor, a conqueror, and victrix, a female conqueror; coquus, a male cook, and coqua, a female cook; rex, a king, and regina, a queen. The same is the case with many names of animals-as agnus, a male lamb, and agna, a female lamb; cervus, a stag, and cerva, a hind or doe; equus, a horse, and equa, a mare.

When the sex is not intended to be particularly indicated, the masculine is preferred, according to a principle recognised in all languages.

Declension of Substantives.

26. Declension is a change of termination in nouns to express the different relations in which they stand to other words in the same sentence-as pater, a father; patris domus, a father's house, or house of a father; patri, to a father; patre, from or by a father.

Case.

27. By change of termination the Latin language indicates six great or general relations, and accordingly has six cases-namely, Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, and Ablative, which are distinguished from each other by terminations or endings.

1. The Nominative expresses the subject of an assertion— as DEUS creavit mundum, God created the world; in which DEUS is the subject or nominative.

2. The Genitive denotes the author or possessor, or any of the relations expressed in English by of-as PATRIS filia, a father's daughter, in which PATRIS is the genitive, and thus expresses the relation of filia to pater.

3. The Dative expresses the person to whom anything is given or done-as pater dat FILIO librum, the father gives to the son a book; in which FILIO is the dative. 4. The Accusative denotes the object in which an action terminates thus, in the sentence pater dat filio LIBRUM, LIBRUM is the accusative or object given.

5. The Vocative is used in addressing an object-as mater, O mother! or simply, mother!

6. The Ablative expresses the source whence anything proceeds, and a variety of other relations, such as separation, instrumentality, time, place, &c., which are indicated in English by the prepositions, from, by, with, in, at, &c.

Number.

28. A substantive may denote a single individual or many-as pater, father; patres, fathers. When it denotes one, it is said to be in the singular number; and when more than one, in the plural.

29. In Latin there are two numbers-the Singular and the Plural-in each of which the noun has the six cases. 30. There are five modes in which nouns are declined; hence there are Five Declensions. Each of these declensions has a peculiar termination in the genitive-singular

-as

31. Certain features are common to all the declensions1. All neuter nouns have the nominative, accusative, and vocative alike, which in the plural end in -ă.

Neuters are found only in the second, third, and fourth declensions. 2. The accusative of masculine and feminine nouns of all the declensions ends in the singular in -m, and in the plural in -8.

3. The vocative, both singular and plural, is like the nominative, except in nouns in -us of the second declension.

4. The genitive plural of all the declensions ends in -um. 5. The dative and ablative plural are alike in all the declensions.

32. The following table exhibits all the case-endings of the five declensions :

33. In order to decline a noun, it is necessary to know

the genitive, which consists of the stem of the word

and the termination; the stem remains the same in all the cases, the termination being the only part that suffers change.

First Declension.

34. In this declension the nominative singular and the stem are identical; but the a of the stem is often contracted with the vowel of the termination in the other

cases.

35. All nouns purely Latin (both adjective and substantive) belonging to the first declension, terminate in the nominative singular with -ă, which becomes -ae in the genitive.

There are a few Greek words ending in -ās, -ē, -ēs, which also belong to this declension, but are declined somewhat differently from genuine Latin words.