the principal Proposition, and serves at the same time as Attribute to the Abstract Verb "we may be."

The subject of a Preposition, the complement of a Verb and the complement of a Proposition being always a Noun,* or a Pronoun, the words "who," "which," etc. besides their Conjunctive import, do, moreover, represent beings in a very vague and indefinite manner, expressing neither their nature, their qualities, nor the person under which we regard them in discourse. They are then properly speaking neither pure Nouns, Pronouns nor Adjectives.

But, since these words make of the whole Conjunctive Proposition a sort of Adjective, which qualifies a being denoted by a Noun or Pronoun belonging to the principal Proposition, I think it more accurate to give them the name of Conjunctive Adjectives. The sense is the same, whether I say, "a just king makes his people happy," or "a king, who is just, makes his people happy."

In other respects, the consideration of the words "who," "which,” etc. belongs rather to the grammar of the English language and of those languages which subject this Conjunctive to rules of agreement, as the Latin, German, etc. than to General Grammar. In place of this Conjunctive we might employ a simple Conjunction; this would then serve only to connect the Conjunctive, with the principal Proposition, and the subject or the complement of the Conjunctive Proposition might be expressed by a word independent of the Conjunction. Thus in Italian "che," is indeclinable; it corresponds alike to the "who," the "which," and the 'whom," of the English. Dio che ha creato il mondo, ha fatto lutto di niente;" 66 lutte le cose che vediamo sono l' opra di Dio." In the first of these sentences, the Pronoun egli," the subject of the Verb "ha creato," is omitted, but

*

I here include under the denomination of Nouns, the Infinitives of Verbs.

the third person of the Verb supplies its place. In the second, the Pronoun "le," complement of the Verb "vediamo," is omitted, because the Conjunctive form of the Proposition renders it unnecessary.

There are other languages in which the Conjunctive does not prevent our expressing the subject of the Conjunctive Proposition or the complement of the Verb of the same Proposition, by a Pronoun. Thus in Arabic, they say, man who he is weak, has need of help from God ;” the man whom I see him, is one of my friends;" the man whom I labor for him does not generously requite my pains." This Conjunctive, however, possesses in Arabic the variation of gender and number, which constitutes it in fact an Adjective.

We may observe something similar in the German, in which when the subject of the principal Proposition is a Personal Pronoun which also serves as subject to the Conjunctive Proposition, this Pronoun is repeated after the Conjunctive Adjective, although this last is declined with gender, number, and case. Example: "Ich der ich meinen vater liebe, kann sein Elend nicht ausehen;" "I who love my father cannot look upon his misery;" literally, “I who I love, etc." In a like case in English, we content ourselves with denoting the subject of the Conjunctive Proposition by the person of the Verb; I who am;" thou who art;" we who are." In Hebrew the Conjunctive has no variation of gender, number or case.

Other Conjunc

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The words "who," "which," etc. are not the tive Words. only words which connect the function of a Conjunction with another design. There are Conjunctive Nouns and Adverbs, as well as Adjectives; and a characteristic of these words is, that we can substitute for them another form of expression in which shall be found the words "who," "which," etc. Thus, "when," "where," "what,"

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how," as," and many others, are Conjunctive words. "I shall finish when I please;" that is, "I shall finish at the time at which I please;" "I know not where I am; i. e. “I know not the place in which I am." "I do not know what to do;" i.e. "I do not know the thing which I ought to do." "I should like to know how he makes himself beloved;" i. e. "I should like to know the means by which he makes himself beloved." "" He does as he says;" i. e. "he does in the

way which he says."

verbs.

""

As to the affirmative word "yes," the negatives Negative, Af"no," and "not," and the prohibitive "not," are Prohibitive Adfirmative, and they not Adverbs? Some have denied this, and have made of such words a peculiar class; yet it does not seem to me absolutely necessary to take this step. Yes," is equivalent to," in truth;" we may hence regard it as an Adverb. 66 'No," is rather more remote from the nature of an Adverb; yet we may resolve it into "In negation." The same may be said of" not," when used simply to deny, as in this example: "I do not believe it." "Not," performing the function of a prohibition, i. e. serving to prohibit, as when it is said, " do not touch me," does not differ essentially from "not" negative; the difference of sense is less in the Adverb than in the mode of the Verb which in a prohibitive expression is always the Imperative.]

PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL GRAMMAR.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

OF NUMBERS.

Proper Nouns, as we have seen in the first part of this Grammar, designate beings by the idea of their individual nature; each designates but a single being. Not so with Appellative Nouns; they denote of themselves not individual, but the nature common to all the individuals of the same species and they are as properly used to designate collectively all the beings which belong to one species, as to designate a certain number or even a single one only of that species. Thus the word "man" is found in each of these three propositions, "all men are destined to die," several men have seen this prodigy," some man, I know not who, has stolen my purse," although the first of these propositions relates to the human race considered as a whole, the second, to several individuals only of this race, and the third, to but a single individual. According as the number of the individuals, to whom we have reference, is definite or indefinite, in order to represent that number we make use of the numeratives, "one," "two," "three,” “ten,” twenty," hundred," etc. or of words which denote some number above unity but still indefinite, such as several," "some.”

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