EXERCISE I.-Let the pupil point out the concrete nouns, or names of substances in the following extract:

"On the right, amid a profusion of thickets, knolls, and crags, lay the bed of a broad mountain lake, lightly curled into tiny waves by the breath of the morning breeze, each glittering in its course under the influence of the sunbeams. High hills, rocks, and banks waving with natural forests of birch and oak, formed the borders of this enchanting sheet of water; and, as their leaves rustled in the wind, and twinkled in the sun, gave to the depth of solitude a sort of life and vivacity."

EXERCISE II.-Let the pupil write a given number of examples of concrete nouns. This exercise, in the case of young pupils, may, with advantage, be often repeated. Each time it may be prescribed to give a number of examples from one subdivision of these names. 1st, names of persons; 2d, names of animals; 3d, names of places; 4th, names of things of natural production, as minerals, plants, &c.; 5th, names of things of artificial production; 6th, names of spiritual, or immaterial substances.

may

§ 9. COLLECTIVE NOUNS.-What are called collective nouns be regarded (1) as a peculiar subdivision of the names of substances. (2) The collectives claim our notice, because some of them are occasionally so employed as to give rise to certain peculiarities of construction. (3) They are called collectives, because they express an assemblage of objects contemplated by the mind as forming a single conception, and capable of being embraced collectively under the same assertion. (4) We have examples in the words, army, meaning an organized collection of soldiers; navy, a collection of ships and seamen; society, party, parliament, congress, council, mob, group, crowd, horde, host, &c.

EXERCISE.-Let the pupil give a written list of collective nouns.

§ 10. (1) SECOND CLASS: ABSTRACT NOUNS.-The names given to qualities, properties, or attributes, ABSTRACTLY Considered (that is, considered separately from the substances or

$9. (1) How may collective nouns be regarded? (2) Why does this subdivision of nouns claim a share of our notice? (3) Why are these nouns called collectives? (4) Give examples of collective nouns.

$10. (1) What words constitute the second class of nouns? (2) Recite the illustrations

objects in which they are found) constitute a second class of nouns very distinct from the former.

(2) Some of these qualities, or properties, are perceived by the senses; as, for example, the properties of external bodies-hardness, softness, the various colors, &c. Others are made known to us by the help of an intellectual process; as, for example, the various properties or attributes of human minds-emotions, passions, feelings, affections, virtues, vices, &c. These attributes or properties, whether of matter or of mind, have obviously no independent existence. They all subsist only in connection with substances, and apart from these have no real being. (3) But we often find it convenient to contemplate these properties separately, or abstracted from the substances in which they exist, and to discourse of them as thus viewed. Hence we give them names, and express our thoughts of them in propositions, in the same manner as we do of substances. (4) To distinguish this class of names from the names of substances, they are commonly called ABSTRACT NOUNS. Or they may be called names of attribuTES; that is, of those qualities or properties which we attribute to substances.

EXERCISE I.-Point out the nouns in the following sentences, and distinguish the abstract names from the names of substances :—

"Whatever promotes and strengthens virtue, whatever calms and regulates the temper, is a source of happiness. Devotion produces these effects in a remarkable degree. It inspires composure of spirit, mildness and benignity; weakens the painful, and cherishes the pleasing emotions; and, by these means, carries on the life of a pious man in a smooth and placid tenor."

The pupil will call "whatever" a noun, since it expresses the subject of several propositions in the beginning of this passage, but he need not give himself any trouble for the present to determine to what class of nouns it belongs.

EXERCISES II. III., &c.-Write out a given number of abstract nouns. 1st. Names of sensible or external attributes. 2d. Names of spiritual or mental attributes, or such as are perceived by the help of an intellectual process.

§ 11. (1) VERBAL NOUNS.-What are called verbal nouns, may be considered as a peculiar subdivision of abstract nouns, or

and examples given above and suggest others. (3) Account for the formation of this class of nouns. (4) By what name are they called?

$11. (1) How may verbal nouns be considered? (2) Why is this class of words called verbals?

names of attributes subjectively employed. (2) These are called verbals, because they express substantively, or subjectively, that which is expressed assertively by their kindred verbs.

(3) We have in the English language two of these verbals for every verb, with the exception of four or five very peculiar verbs of the class called auxiliary verbs-may, can, shall, must. These, and will, in its auxiliary sense, have no correspondent verbals.

(4) One of these verbals consists of what is called the root, or radical form of the verb, generally, with the particle to prefixed. The other consists of the radical form with the termination ing affixed. For example, from the root read we have the two verbals, to read and reading; from print, to print and printing. (5) When the written radical form of the verb ends in an e mute (that is, e not sounded), this e is omitted before the termination ing.

(6) The form consisting of the root with the particle to prefixed, is commonly called the infinitive mood of the verb. (7) Bút it cannot be classed as a verb, consistently with the definition already given, since it does not express assertion. (8) On the contrary, it is always employed to perform the function of a noun—sometimes that of a subject noun, most frequently that of modifying or completing a verb. (9) In performing this latter function after some few verbs (mostly auxiliaries), the particle to is omitted, and the bare root employed; as, he can READ he is able TO READ. He must go; men dare UNDERTAKE, &c.—men dare TO UNDERTAKE. (10) As this class of words has been so long known by the name of infinitives of verbs, we shall continue to call them infinitives, whenever we have occasion to distinguish them from other nouns; but, by so doing, we must not be understood as admitting them to be verbs.

(11) The verbal in ING (as we have remarked in § 3: 5), (a) very exactly

(a) The first number, when we use two numbers in a reference, is the

(3) How many verbal nouns are connected with each verb? (4) Describe these verbals and give examples. (5) Notice the exception in forming the written verbal in ing. (6) By what name is the first of these two verbals called? (7) State the objection to classing it as a verb. (8) What functions does it perform? (9) Is it always preceded by the particle to? Mention exceptions. Give examples. (10) When we call this class of verbals infinitives, do we admit them to be verbs? (11) What does the verbal in ING ex

expresses in English that which is predicated—that part of the predicate which is contained in the kindred verb. (12) For example, John writes. What is asserted of John in this proposition, is precisely that action, which is expressed by the noun writing. In other words, writing expresses a wellknown act substantively, or subjectively—that is, in the form to be employed as the subject of an assertion. Writes expresses the same act assertively. (13) In many languages the infinitives express precisely in a substantive, or subjective form, that which is expressed assertively by the verb. (14) The verbal in ING, employed as subject noun of a proposition, sometimes admits of being interchanged with the infinitive; as, SEEING the sun is pleasant, or To SEE the sun is pleasant. (15) With this exception, these verbals generally perform distinct functions (as we shall see hereafter), and the one cannot (with propriety) be substituted for the other. (16) The verbal in ing is sometimes called the gerund. This is the name given to a form of like use and signification in the Latin language, and it may sometimes be conveniently employed to distinguish this class of verbals, as the term infinitives is used to distinguish the other.

(17) These verbals differ from other nouns, in being capable of taking the same forms of complements, or the same kinds of words to modify them as their kindred verbs. This fact will be considered and accounted for in treating of complements or modifications.

(18) It may also be observed, to guard against mistakes, that all nouns made by the union of the roots of verbs and the termination ing, do not belong to the class of verbals in ing or gerunds, though exactly agreeing with them in form. Concrete nouns are sometimes formed by adding ing to the root of the verb, as building, a something built-altogether distinct in meaning from the gerund building, which expresses the act asserted by the verb build; in the same manner many of these words in ing are used both as verbals and in another and often a concrete sense; for

number of the section, and the second is the number intended to direct the learner to the answers of the subjoined questions. We may find it convenient to use these numbers, sometimes, to refer more exactly to the part of the section which explains any point under consideration.

press? (12) Give example and illustrate. (18) What do the Infinitives of many languages express? (14) Can verbals in ING and infinitives be interchanged, or substituted for each other, and, if so, under what circumstances? (15) Can the one verbal be generally substituted for the other? (16) By what name is the verbal in ing sometimes called?

(17) What peculiarity distinguishes these verbals from other nouns ?

(18) Are all nouns formed by the union of the roots of verbs with the termination ing to be classed as gerunds? Tell what is said of other nouns so formed, and how the gerund may be distinguished from them.

example, lodging, beginning, painting, &c. Let it be remembered that the verbals, which alone merit special attention on account of their peculiar relation to the verbs in meaning and in the modifications which they admit in common, are those which express that substantively, which the verbs express assertively.

(19) Care must also be taken to distinguish these verbal nouns in ing from the verbal adjectives or participles which in modern English agree with them in form. (a)

The learner will distinguish the verbal noun from the verbal adjective, by the test given above (§ 7 : 1), and from the other nouns in ing, by attending to the remarks we have just been making on these nouns.

EXERCISE I.—Let the learner distinguish the gerunds from the other nouns in ing, and from the verbal adjectives in the following sentences. To assist in distinguishing the nouns from the verbal adjectives, we use the former only in their function of subject nouns. If, therefore, the word in ing is subject, or main part of the subject of the proposition, it is a noun (whether gerund or not remains for the pupil to determine); if, on the contrary, some other word is the main part of the subject, the word in ing is a verbal adjective. When the word in ing can take an infinitive as a substitute, it is a gerund.

This writing is blotted. The boy writing to his father, told him, &c. Writing is a fatiguing employment. The beginning of the exercise is better than the end. Beginning a good course requires effort. Telling falsehoods is mean. Speaking the truth is commendable. The man saying this departs. Saying and doing are very different things. This saying is hard. Loving our enemies is a difficult duty. Reading is less laborious than writing. Wasting time is as bad as wasting money. Giving is sometimes easier than forgiving; and forgiving is easier than forgetting.

In going through the preceding exercise, it will be proper to point out the verb first in each proposition, and next the subject noun. Next show to which class the word ending in ing belongs.

MODEL "This writing is blotted." Which is the verb, or assertive word? ANS. Is. Which is the subject noun? ANS. " Writing," because it is about writing that the assertion in the proposition is made. Is writing

(a) The forms were originally distinct in our language, as the corresponding forms are still in the sister dialects. The verbal is not the participle usurped substantively, as most grammarians have incorrectly asserted. The verbal nouns had a place in the language in their present form, ending in ING or UNG centuries before verbal adjectives or participles had assumed or borrowed this ending. (See Gram. Struct. E. Lang., pp. 31, 32.)

(19) What other class of words has assumed the same form with the gerunds, and how are the gerunds to be distinguished from these?