less intensity, so adjectives and adverbs admit of what are called degrees of comparison, namely, the POSITIVE, as wise, far; the COMPARATIVE, as wiser, farther; the SUPERLATIVE, as wisest, farthest.

Such are the fundamental distinctions of universal grammar, or to speak technically, such is its accidence. It has also its Syntax, or mode of putting words together, and here again the rules are broad and comprehensive. The three concords, as they are termed by grammarians, are well known and with a few modifications are universally applicable. They are

1. That of the nominative and verb; namely the agree ment of the verb, or action, in number and person with the agent. Thus, if the nominative or agent be 1, the verb must agree with it by being in the singular number, and the first person; or if the agent be some person or thing which is addressed, it is in the second person; or if it be some person or thing which is spoken of, and not addressed, it is in the third perOne remarkable exception to this rule exists in the Greek, where a neuter noun plural requires the verb to be in the singular number; a peculiarity not easily to be accounted for, unless the Greeks perhaps considered that there could be no individuality where there was no gender, and that therefore these things could only be spoken of collectively.

son.

2. That of the substantive with its adjective, namely the agreement of the adjective in gender, number, and case with the noun, or which is the same thing, with the pronoun to which it belongs; and here there appears to be an exception in the English where the adjective is universally indeclinable, yet this is but an apparent exception, for though the adjective admits of no inflection, nobody doubts that a perfect agreement with the substantive is implied. strong men, implies that all the men are strong, and therefore the adjective is in fact plural:-the good father's kindness implies that the kindness is a quality belonging to a father in so far as he is good; therefore good is here in the same case as father.

The

3. That of the relative with the antecedent; namely, the

agreement of the relative pronoun,* with the person or thing which it refers to, in gender, number, and person; though here the English relative being alike in both numbers, appears, at first sight, to be anomalous.

As universal is the rule that the verb substantivet shall have the same case after as before it: for this is a rule originating in the very nature of things, since simple existence terminates in the individual, and has no relation to any other being. Verbs transitive, on the contrary, i. e., actions which have relation to other persons or things, are universally followed by an accusative case, and this whether it be marked by any inflection or not. For the thing acted upon cannot be in the same condition as the actor; and the same great distinction which, we have already seen, exists between the active and passive voice of verbs, exists as naturally and necessarily in nouns. All external actions require an agent and a patient; that is, in other words, must be accompanied by a nominative case or agent, and an accusative or patient.

A verb which implies any particular relation of things necessarily governs the case which implies that relation; thus, verbs of giving govern the dative case, for that implies an act of gift, and though in many modern languages, the defective state of the inflections make this obscure, yet it will be seen that verbs of giving, require no following preposition to place the substantive or pronoun in the due relation.

A verb in the infinitive mode can never be accompanied by a nominative; for it is the abstract idea of action unaccompanied by any agent. To speak conveys no impression but that of speech generally, and in order to connect it with any individual a verb transitive, which will govern an accusative, must precede it, or at least be understood: thus the sentence I consider him to be a fit person to speak to the people, contains two accusatives, i. e, him

* Englished by who or which.

In English we say give the man his man, &c., or give him his due, where the makes itself evident.

In English, to be. due-not give to the dative inflection again

and a fit person, as would immediately be seen on rendering the phrase into Latin; and thus it becomes a general and short rule, that an infinitive must be accompanied by an accusative.

Prepositions universally govern a case, for they imply some peculiar relation of place or time, and it has been explained already that cases are but the expression of the relation in which persons or things stand to each other. I stood BESIDE her; I went AFTER him, may exemplify this rule, which is without an exception.

Conjunctions which join different limbs of a sentence, will require to be followed by the same cases, modes, and tenses as preceded them.

By fixing the above simple rules well in the memory, much difficulty in learning a new language will be avoided; for it will be needless to go over afresh any of those parts which have the character of universality, and a new grammar will be much less formidable than its bulk might otherwise make it appear.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

HAVING now given a short view of that part of grammar which is applicable to all languages, the next step is to notice the peculiarities of the English, as well for the use of those natives who wish to write an idiomatic style, as for that of foreigners, who find the English idioms very hard to attain, the difficulties of which have not generally been sufficiently attended to by those who profess to treat of English grammar. In order to facilitate the comparison with other works of the same kind, the different parts of speech shall be treated of in separate sections, and in the usual order-namely, 1. ARTICLE. 2. NOUN-SUBSTANTIVE. 3. NOUN-ADJECTIVE. 4. PRONOUN. 5. VERB. 6. ADVERB. 7. PREPOSITION. 8. CONJUNCTION. 9. INTERJECTION.

I.

ARTICLE.

This part of speech finds a place in all modern European languages, and in most, though not all ancient ones. It is a small word prefixed to the substantive to limit its signification, and in English there are two of these, i. e., A, and THE, both indeclinable. A, when followed by a vowel, or a mute h, is changed into AN, euphonia gratiâ. In the ancient Greek, and in all but this one of the modern languages, the article is declined, namely, varied in termination, according to the gender, number, and case,

of the accompanying substantive. In English, a is indefinitely singular: as, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God."* THE is definite in meaning, and applies equally to the singular and plural, as, "The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor." "If he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree, that is wounded itself when it gives the balm."*

In Latin, the article is wholly wanting, and the power of expression of that language is thereby considerably impaired.

For the benefit of foreigners it may be observed, that A OF AN may be used indifferently before the words union, unanimity, universal, and others in which the u has a sharp sound, but AN must always be used before those in which the u is obtuse, as unhappy, uncle, &c.

II.

NOUN-SUBSTANTIVE.

The substantive is the name of some person or thing. In the Anglo-Saxon grammars it is entitled Nama, or

name.

The English substantive has lost all trace of the dual number, which existed in the more ancient languages, and of which we find traces in the Anglo-Saxon, i. e., in the pronouns, its plural is usually formed by the addition of s, as a yard, plu. yards; but many words of Saxon

* Bacon's Essays.