MURRAY. "Noun (nomen) is that part of speech which expresses the subject of discourse, or which is the name of the thing spoken of”—Crombie. "A substantive or noun is the name of anything that exists, whether material or immaterial."HILEY.

9. Now, I mean unequivocally to assert, that not one of these definitions contains that comprehensiveness to enable a person, totally ignorant of grammar, to understand it. My first reason is, that each of them embraces too many words, and because the superabundant matter leads to perplexity. Secondly, I am unfavourable to them, because they contain terms which, taken abstractedly, the young grammarian cannot define, and I much question whether, by any ordinary effort of his intellect, he can, as they now stand, draw any permanent conclusion from them-from them all, though all different.

10. This noun is a corruption of nomen, a Latin word, signifying nothing more than our English name : hence to tell us, a noun is " a name," is correspondent to saying "a name is a name." Always, then, when you halt at noun, substitute it by name, and you will, at once, remove many great mountains, and pave your path to higher attainments.

11. Point at any thing, or speak of any thing, to a mere child, and, at the same time ask, "What do you call it ?" "What do you call him?" or "What do you call her?" and the child's reply is sure to be the name of the thing or person referred to.

12. It is customary to accompany definitions of the name by examples. In this case, however, I apprehend

the thing would be too futile. I am not doing so, because I am persuaded your own judgment cannot mislead you, and, likewise, because a little exercise will be of more benefit.

PRONOUN.

13. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun; as, John is a good boy; he obeys his master."--LENNIE.

14. Pro, in Latin, means for. I have told you that noun signifies name. Now, just join these two simple English words together, and make pronoun FORNAME, and then you will be supplied with a term exactly to tell you what you want to know-that pronouns are for, or instead of, names.

15. The only fornames in the language are, I, me, we, us, thou, thee, ye, you, he, him, she, her, it, they, them.

16. If you have paid the least attention to language, you have often observed, that we employ these words to avoid the disagreeableness that would arise from an endless repetition of names. You, in the preceding sentence, saves me the trouble of repeating your name twice, and we gives me a further advantage, for, where it occurs, I must have repeated not only your name, but my own likewise. But there is another purpose effected by the forname, for you will readily discern, that it is what may be called a moveable word, when you consider, that, if your name had supplied its place, it would have appeared as if I had only written my grammar for your instruction, whereas you has the same reference to all my readers.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

ADJECTIVE.

17. "An adjective is a word added to a substantive, to express its quality."-MURRAY. "An adjective expresses the quality of a thing."- GUY. FISHER substitutes adjective by quality. "An adjective is a word which signifies the quality of any person, place, or thing." -DR. ASH. "An adjective is a word which expresses the quality of a noun."-LENNIE. These definitions appear to DR. CROMBIE to be somewhat defective and incorrect, for, says he, "the adjective does not express the quality simply, but the quality or property, as conjoined with a substance, or, as grammarians have termed it, in concerto." "An adjective is a word which qualifies a noun."-M'CULLOCH.

18. What a mighty lift Dr. Crombie must have given us by his attempted precision! Murray, Guy, Fisher, Dr. Ash, and Lennie, are all harping upon the same string, but, as a matter of course, it would not do for different composers to play the same tune with the same crotchets and quavers. Dr. Crombie tries the tune upon a somewhat different key, with accompaniments-accompaniments of so intricate a nature as to drive our instruments entirely out of tune. Thus the Doctor leads the unskilful inquirer into a greater labyrinth of difficulties than ever.

19. I will now shew you some adjectives of a different kind, from LENNIE, which are nearly copied verbatim from Lindley Murray :

The possessive adjective pronouns: My, thy, his, her, our, your, their, its, own. The distributive

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

adjective pronouns: Each, ever, either, neither. The demonstrative adjective pronouns: This, that, with their plurals, these and those. The indefinite adjective pronouns: None, any, all, such, whole, some, both, one, other, another.

20. Let us see how far this adjective bears upon the class of words which it serves to distinguish. It comes from adjectus, a Latin word, signifying one thing joined, or added, to another. How vague must such an indeterminate appellation be to distinguish one part of speech from the rest. In every sentence one word is always joined, or added, to another, and hence, from this paltry term, taken literally, we might reasonably rush to this conclusion, that all words are adjectives.

21. All that ever any grammarian has said, regarding the different adjectives I have introduced to you, amounts to this: They serve to describe something of names, as, A good man, a round stone, a quiet horse, a brass kettle, my cat, each man, this house, and another thing. As the office of these words is merely to describe, why not call them describers, or describing words, and make it something like plain English?

ARTICLE.

22. "An article," says LENNIE, "is a word put before a noun, to show the extent of its meaning; as, a man." A, an, and the, are the only articles. How much it is to be lamented that LENNIE did not arrange these articles amongst his words which express the quality of a noun, that we might, at once, have

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

classed them with our describers. However, call them describing words. I shall enlarge on this head in a more convenient place.

VERB.

23. MURRAY says, "A verb is a word which signifies to do, to be, or to suffer." FISHER says, "Verbs express the actions, passions, or being of things." CROMBIE says of the verb, "Its essence consists in affirmation, and by this property it is distinguished from every other part of speech." LENNIE says, "A verb is a word that affirms something of its nominative; or, a verb is a word which expresses being, doing, or suffering." M'CULLOCH says, "A verb is a word which affirms, or asserts." The least of all perplexing writers, COBBETT, confesses that the mind of man is unable to bring the whole of the verbs into any short and precise description. After giving his self a great deal of trouble to define what the mind of man is unable to do, these are his words: "Verbs are, then, a sort of words, the use of which is to express the actions, the movements, and the state or manner of being, of all creatures, whether animate or inanimate."

24. I really am astonished that Cobbett's experience never taught him that these words, with one exception, invariably imply the doing of something. Put the question, "What do you do?" to any child six years old, and he will readily furnish you with play, talk, cry, laugh, read, spit, smell, see, hear, feel, pray, and a thousand more such words, which are all verbs. Just tell the child, that all words which answer this question