We give no list of those names for males and females which are entirely distinct in form; as, husband, wife; father, mother; brother, sister; horse, mare; &c., since the fact that these different names are given to animals of different sexes has nothing to do with grammar.

(13) The learner will please remember that in all proposi tions, I and we alone are used as subject nouns to represent the first person or speaker, singular and plural. Thou or you alone to represent the second person or party addressed, singular or plural. (14) Nouns are never used to express the subjects of assertions in reference to these parties. (15) But in making assertions of parties distinct from the speaker and the party addressed, we use either the noun-the name of the person or persons, the thing or things spoken of-or we can use their representatives, the pronouns he, she, it, and they (when no obscurity is occasioned), as subject nouns of propositions. (16) From this it follows that all nouns employed as the subjects of propositions are to be classed under the third person; they are only used to express parties merely spoken of.

(17) There is another pronoun of the third person which we must notice here; namely, the word one. This word seems to be the French on, borrowed, likely, from the Normans. It is used to represent an indefinite third person, and can scarcely be said to be the representative of a name, but rather of that which is nameless. ONE thinks-any person thinks. (b)

(b) Expos. Gram. Struc. E. Language, § 155: 25.

(18) What words are always used in propositions to represent the speaker and the party or parties addressed? (14) Are nouns ever employed for this purpose? (15) What subject nouns are employed in propositions having reference to parties distinct from speaker and hearer? (16) Under what person then are all nouns employed as subjects of propositions to be classed?

(17) Repeat what is said of the indefinite pronoun oNE

EXERCISES ON THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS.-I. Analyze the following propositions: I think. We live. Thou standest. You run. He sleeps. She learns. It decays. They work. We prosper. He plays. I study. It Man toils, he suffers, &c.

snows.

MODEL OF ANALYSIS.-Example: "We live." Point out the verb in this proposition. Ans. The word "live." Why do you call "live" a verb? Ans. Because it is the assertive word of the proposition. What is the subject of this proposition? Ans. The word "we." What do you mean by the subject of a proposition? Ans. The subject is that of which the assertion contained in the proposition is made. What kind of word is “we?” Ans. A noun of the second order or personal pronoun of the first person. What is meant by a pronoun or noun of the second order? Ans. A word which stands instead of a noun, or which represents a noun, without being the definite or fixed name of any particular object or class of objects. What does the pronoun "we" here represent? Ans. The names of the person who speaks (who utters the proposition), and of those for whom, in connection with himself, he speaks.

These questions may be increased or diminished, according to the capacity and the progress of the learner. It will generally be best to analyze a few examples very fully, and afterwards abbreviate the process, as in the model which follows:

MODEL SECOND.-Example: "She learns." The verb is "learns," for "learns” expresses the assertion contained in the proposition. The subject is the pronoun SHE. This pronoun is of the third person and feminine gender; for it represents an individual merely spoken of, and that individual a female. Or, more briefly still, the subject is the feminine pronoun SHE of the third person.

Example: Man toils, he suffers, &c. The subject of the second proposition is HE, the masculine pronoun of the third person. This pronoun represents the noun "man"-subject of the preceding proposition.

In written analyses, the following abbreviations may be adopted: pron. for pronoun, pers. for person, persl. for personal, the numerals 1, 2, 3 to express the number of the person, mas. for masculine, fem. for feminine, neut. for neuter. It may be useful, in writing, to draw a line under all the grammatical terms and abbreviations employed to indicate the analysis, in order to distinguish them more clearly from the words of the example analyzed. In the printed book we exhibit the words employed to express the analysis in Italics, to distinguish them from the words analyzed, which are exhibited in Roman type.

MODEL OF A WRITTEN EXERCISE.-Example: He sleeps (He, mas. pron. 3 pers.) S. sleeps, V. That is, He, the masculine pronoun of the third person, is the subject, sleeps is the verb.

EXERCISES II. III., &c.—Let the pupil form a given number of written propositions having personal pronouns for their subjects.

§ 15. PROPER NOUNS AND COMMON NOUNS.-We must now attend to another classification of nouns, founded on a different principle-a classification of considerable importance in a grammatical point of view, as many of the contrivances of language have reference to the fact or principle on which it rests. The fact to which we allude is the extent of the signification of nouns. (1) In reference to this, Grammarians have divided them into two classes, called by them proper nouns and common nouns.

(2) Some nouns are names appropriated to certain persons or things, as the names of men and women, names given to some of the domestic animals, as dogs, horses, &c., by which we recognise only a single individual. To this class belong also the names of countries, regions, cities, towns, mountains, rivers, states, nations, or races of men, languages, days, months, festivals, great events, ships, &c., &c. (3) These are called proper nouns, because they are names proper—that is, peculiar or ap propriated to individual persons, places, &c., of which they are the spoken signs. Proper has, in this use, the sense it retains in the word property. These names are, as it were, the property of the individuals they represent. Examples: George Washington, Maria Edgeworth, Europe, the Canadas, London, New-York, the Alps, the Potomac, Pennsylvania, the Germans, the Celts, French, English, Monday, May, Christmas, Easter, the Revolution, &c.

(4) There are other names which are used to designate, not a single individual, but a whole class of objects: as, animal, man, tree. These are sometimes employed to designate the whole class taken together, sometimes to designate any individual or any number of individuals of the class. (5) Without the help of

§ 15. (1) Name the two classes into which nouns are divided in reference to the extent of their signification.

(2) What nouns, or names are included in the first class, or class of proper nouns? (8) Why are they called proper nouns? Give examples.

(4) Describe the other class of nouns. (5) Do these nouns alone serve to indicate a de

some other sign, they never indicate any determinate individual or determinate individuals of the class. (6) They are sometimes called general terms, because some of them serve to indicate a whole genus or class. In grammar, they are generally and more properly called coMMON NOUNS; because they are names common to a whole class of objects.

(7) This division of nouns into proper nouns and common nouns has reference chiefly, if not exclusively, to concrete nouns, or names of substances, including collective nouns. (8) All proper nouns are names of substances, and the name common nouns applies chiefly and most appropriately to signs of classes of substances. (9) The collectives are chiefly com. mon nouns, names common to kinds of collections of individuals, as party, assembly, &c., each of these representing a class of those collections, or unions into which individuals are sometimes formed. (10) Sometimes collectives are employed as proper names; as, when we use the word Parliament, to mean the Parliament of Great Britain; or Congress, to indicate the Legislature of the United States; Parliament met for business: Congress adjourned. (11) Such expressions as the Romans, the Stuarts, the Bourbons, the Cæsars, &c., may be considered as a kind of collective or plural proper nouns.

(12) Let the learner remember that, in writing proper names and words derived from them, we always begin the word with a large letter, or, as it is commonly called, a capital letter. (13) Thus, England is spelled with a large E, and English, though not a noun, because it is derived from, and has reference to, a proper name, is spelled with a capital E. The same of America, American, &c. (14) In the beginning of the last century it was customary, in our printed books, to distinguish every noun, whether proper or common, by a capital letter.

Let the learner tell to which class, proper nouns or common nouns, each word in the following exercise belongs, giving, in each case, the reason for so classing it. In this exercise we have not employed capitals in spelling

terminate individual? (6) What are these nouns sometimes called, and for what reason? What are they usually called by grammarians?

[(7) To what kinds of nouns does this division into proper and common extend? (8) To which of the classes of nouns already enumerated do proper nouns exclusively belong? and to what nouns does the name common most appropriately apply? (9) What class are chiefly common nouns? (10) Are any of the collectives to be considered as proper nouns ? (11) Give examples of plural proper nouns.

(12) How are proper nouns and nouns derived from proper names written? (18) Illustrate this by examples. (14) What was the practice in former times in writing nouns?]

the proper nouns, lest we should distinguish them from the common nouns. After repeating the exercise, as an oral lesson, the learner may be required to write it, distinguishing the proper nouns by an initial large letter.

EXERCISE-Plant, town, country, india, franklin, man, england, president, america, king, soldier, hero, st. paul's, trinity church, general, mountain, the rocky mountains, philadelphia, liverpool, country, kingdom, state, bristol, stranger, horse, day, thursday, april, stephen, boston, city, &c.

MODEL OF EXAMINATION.-What kind of word is plant? Ans. A noun. Why do you call it a noun? Ans. Because it belongs to that class of words which serve as subjects of propositions. What kind of noun? Ans. A concrete common noun. Why call it a concrete noun? Ans. Because it is the name of a substance, or of that which possesses independent existence. Why a common noun? Ans. Because it is a name common to a class of things, and not appropriated to a single individual thing.

The young learner may now be required to give twenty or more examples of concrete nouns as a written exercise, distinguishing each proper noun in the usual manner, by beginning it with a large letter. After this exercise has been examined, let the pupil be questioned according to the above model, on each example. These exercises must be repeated till the learner can promptly distinguish proper and common nouns from one another, and from all other classes of words.

§ 16. (1) In employing common nouns—that is, words which designate classes of things-we may have occasion either to speak, 1st, of the whole class; 2d, of an individual of the class; or, 3d, of a number of individuals of the class without comprising the whole class. (2) The noun, in its simplest form, without any modification of any kind, is sometimes employed in English to indicate the whole class of objects to which the name is applicable. (3) Thus, the word man is employed to signify the whole race of men, or all mankind, as when we say Man is frail, Man is mortal, The proper study of mankind is MAN. By man, in all these cases, we mean the whole human race or humanity in general. (4) When we wish to indicate, by a common noun, a single individual, we must, in our language, have recourse to the use of

§ 16. (1) Mention the purposes for which we may have occasion to employ common nouns. (2) For what purpose is the common noun in its simplest form sometimes employed in English? (8) Give illustrations of this fact. (4) To what contrivance must we have re