all joined, they restrict the meaning to one individual. There are many Popes; but there is only one present Pope.

Many Singular names have a mixed character; they are partly meaningless and partly significant. Thus Exeter Hall' has a certain meaning through the significant name 'hall'-a place of meeting; the word 'Exeter' is an accidental addition, and serves for distinguishing Exeter Hall from other public places, as "Westminster Hall,' 'St. James's Hall,' which are mixed names also.

'Paradise' is a purely proper and meaningless name; the 'Garden of Eden' is a mixed singular name.

It will be afterwards explained that the word 'the,' called the Definite Article, prefixed to a general noun, is often sufficient to point out an individual; the queen, spoken in this country, means a single person; the river, spoken in London, means the river Thames: the Bank, is the Bank of England.

Proper names of rivers have usually the article:-the Rhine, the Nile, the Severn.

As the significant general name designates many individuals, it must be modified according as we speak of one or of a number of these. Sometimes we name a single member of the class; for which the form is 'a mountain,' 'an animal,' 'a ship;' sometimes we speak of several individuals, and then we say 'mountains,' animals,' 'ships.'

The following Exercise embraces the two foregoing classes of Nouns.

Exercise 5.

1. Columbus discovered America.

2. George Fox, the first of the Quakers, was a shoemaker.

3. Joan of Arc perished at the stake.

4. Washington is the capital of the United States.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS.

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5. The ark of the covenant was brought up to Mount Zion.

6. Roman Catholics worship the Blessed Virgin, and eat no flesh during Lent.

7. A shout that frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.

8. Earth felt the wound.

9. Laud was flung into the Tower.

10. Christmas comes but once a year.

11. Measles, Scarletina, and Small-pox, are just now very prevalent.

12. James is learning Arithmetic; Mary begins music in January.

7. III. Collective Nouns; as flock, crowd, tribe, congregation. A great many individuals are collected together, and are spoken of as one body.

"The flock is brought home;' 'the crowd is large;' 'the tribe of Judah was scattered.'

Farther examples: - Company, party, family, troop, legion, cluster, galaxy, swarm, assembly, meeting, court, jury, parliament, club, multitude, mob, herd, array, brotherhood, tenantry, number, host, gathering, Armada, navy, army, fleet, regiment, clan.

As there may be more than one collection of the same things, collective names may be either Singular or Plural; 'an army,' 'armies;' 'a host,' 'hosts.' Such names are significant as well as collective.

The collective nouns 'firmament,' starry sphere,' are so all-comprehending that there cannot be more than one.

8. IV. Material Nouns :-silver, coal, chalk, sandstone, ivory. 'Silver' is a name for the entire collection of the metal of that name existing everywhere.

'Chalk' means all chalk, not any piece or portion of it. 'Wood' is wood generally and collectively.

Farther examples :-Brass, iron, stone, clay, sugar, salt, tobacco, cotton, flax, beet-root, mustard, rice, grass, cloth, wood, jute, paper, water, snow, wine.

These names are necessarily singular; they designate the material as one whole.

When such names are used in the plural, as they often are -irons, coppers, marbles, coals, sands, cottons, sugars, wines their meaning is changed. They no longer state the material as a whole, but either things made of it, or portions of it, or kinds of it. Coppers are things made of copper; marbles things made of marble. Coals are pieces of coal; sands are grains of sand. Woods, cottons, sugars, wines, are different kinds of wood, cotton, sugar, wine. Such nouns are common, or significant nouns. They are class nouns.

Whatever noun is used in the plural, as irons, coppers, may also be used in the singular with a or an before it; an iron, a copper, a sugar. This also shows that the noun is not used as a noun of material, but as a common, general, or class noun.

9. V. Abstract Nouns :-darkness, squareness, righteousness, purity (Int. p. 16).

These are

formed from Adjectives:-darkness, from dark; righteousness, from righteous; purity (also pureness) from pure.

ABSTRACT NOUNS.

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The Adjective (see p. 14) expresses a meaning along with a noun :-' dark places,' 'righteous men.' The Abstract noun expresses the same meaning as if it were separate; it mentions the agreement apart from the things agreeing:darkness, righteousness.

It is impossible to separate darkness from something that is dark, or righteousness from some persons that are righteous; but it is convenient to suppose the separation, or to consider only that property of the things mentioned called 'dark,' 'righteous.'

10. Other Abstract Nouns are formed from verbs :-Contradiction, belief, doubt.

'Contradiction' is from the verb 'contradict,' and expresses the action of the verb.

'Belief' is from the verb 'believe.'

'Doubt' is either noun or verb. NOUN' doubt is a distressing condition.' VERB-' no one doubts the rumour.'

When Abstract Nouns are used with 'a' before them, or in the plural, they are converted into common or general nouns, and have a different meaning. Truth is an abstract noun; 'a truth,' and 'truths,' mean particular examples of truth.

'Charity' is abstract; 'charities are particular acts or modes of charity.

"Glory'-abstract; 'glories'—a general noun--kinds or examples of glory.

'Time' and 'Space' may be parsed either as collective nouns, or as abstract nouns. 'Time' means the whole duration of past and future; 'a time' and ' times' mean parts or portions of time.

Besides being Subject or Object of a Sentence, the Noun may be found in the following places:

(1). Nouns are extensively used along with prepositions, as phrases; which phrases most usually act the part of Adverbs. He stood by John,' 'we were under canvas.'

These phrases may have adjectives prefixed to the noun; 'I stood on the highest ground.'

Excepting in one of the infinitive forms of the verb-as 'to ride,' 'to see '-the word that follows a preposition is either a Noun or a Pronoun.

(2). Nouns occur in the Predicate of a Sentence, with certain verbs of incomplete meaning; the verb 'be' (is, was, were, &c.) is the chief example. He is a lawyer.'

The verb 'is' has not a complete meaning till we add a word to say what he is.

The words that complete the meaning of these incomplete verbs are usually either Nouns or Adjectives.

(3). Nouns are used extensively as Adjectives :-ship stores, table drawer. These will be explained afterwards.

[With these explanations the pupil will be able to point out every noun in the examples. A beginning should be made, however, by parsing only the nouns that are either subjects or objects of sentences.]

Exercise 6.

Nouns generally.

1. Frederick the Great wrested Silesia from the Empire, and brought on the Seven Years' War.

2. Kindness to animals is no unworthy exercise of benevolence.

3. The produce of previous labour makes the wealth of a country.

4. Security of property is essential to capital, to power, to skill, to combination and division of labour, and also to self-preservation.

5. The throne of the Cæsars gave little certainty of possession to the occupier.

6. Dirt is matter in the wrong place.

7. Round the agent's house they threw up with great speed a wall of turf fourteen feet in height and