Note.-A quality can have no independent existence; it resides in a substance, as redness and fragrance are in a rose. But we may think and speak of a quality by itself, apart from its substance. This we do by a power of the mind called Abstraction (taking away, from Latin abstrahere.) Observing that roses, vermilion, blood, rubies, and a thousand other things, all agree in possessing a certain quality, we fix our thoughts on that quality alone, without regarding either the things themselves or their other qualities, and in the name we give it―redness -we have an Abstract Noun.

Changes of the Noun.

Nouns are inflected—that is, changed in form by the addition of terminations-to express Number, Gender, and Case.

NUMBER.

The simple noun, expressing one thing, is said to be of the Singular Number.

The form of the noun, which denotes more things than one, is said to be of the Plural Number.

Note.-The Greek and other languages have a dual number, denoting two things. The Anglo-Saxon had a dual number in the personal pro

nouns.

There are four ways of making Nouns plural in English. I. By adding s to the Singular; as, book, books; heal, heads. This is the most usual way.

Note. In the second example the s has the force of z in pronunciation. This happens when it follows a flat mute (see page 2.)

II. By adding es to the Singular; as, boxes, volcanoes, daisies. This is done :

1. When the spoken Singular ends with a hissing sound. This occurs when the word closes with s, x, sh, or ch (soft.) If to such words the simple s were added, Singular and Plural would be alike in sound. Hence the need of the syllable es. For example, we cannot hear the Plural ending in foxs, fishs; the words must be written fox-es, fish-es.

2. When the Singular ends with o or y, following a consonant; as, negro-es, ladi-es.

Note.-When we add es to lady, it becomes lady-es. But a rule of modern Spelling obliges us in such a case to change y into i, since the letter has been brought to the middle of the word by the addition of a syllable. It is nonsensical to describe lady as forming its Plural by changing y into ies. We cannot make three letters out of one.

Many words, ending in f, change the ƒ into v, after adding the Plural ending es; as, loafes becomes loaves, in order that two syllables may be reduced to one.

This change (of ƒ into v) also takes place in some nouns which make their Plural in the usual way; as, knife, (knifes,) knives.

III. By adding en to the Singular; as, oxen.

This way

is very rarely used in modern English. The en is sometimes reversed; as in swine for sowen, kine for kien, &c.

Note. The plural children has a peculiar double termination. It is thus accounted for:-The Norse plural-ending er would make the word childer (still to be heard among the Irish peasantry;) the English plural would be childen. Our plural is a compound of both.

IV. By changing the vowel of the Singular; as, man, men; foot, feet. This is also rare.

The student may also note :

1. That some nouns have two plural forms, which are distinct in use as,

2. That some nouns have singular and plural the same; as, deer, sheep, grouse.

3. That some nouns from their meaning cannot have any plural. To this class belong all Proper and Abstract nouns

and names of Materials, such as tea, water, air (subject to the exception quoted on page 7.)

4. That some nouns have no singular form; as, bellows, cattle, tongs, &c.

5. That some nouns, apparently plural, are really singular; as, news, riches (French, richesse,) alms (Anglo-Saxon, ælmesse.)

Note.-News is often made plural in Scotland. But these news are true, is not good English. It is a provincialism similar to that which makes porridge or broth plural, asking-" Are they ready yet?"

6. That many foreign nouns retain their own plurals; as,

In the Anglo-Saxon noun there were four plural ter

The first of these has given us our common plural terminations s and es. The second, our rare termination en. Among the Anglo-Saxon nouns which made their plural by changing the vowel, we find, in addition to fot, a footfet, feet, man, men, &c., boc, a book-bec, books, and cu, a cow-cy, cows, (the original of kye, a Scottish form.)

GENDER.

Animals (that is, living beings) are of two sexes—the Male and the Female. The names of animals are therefore of two Genders.

1. The name of a Male animal is of the Masculine Gender; as, horse, boy, king.

2. The name of a Female animal is of the Feminine Gender; as, mare, girl, queen.

Note.-Sex belongs to animals; gender to words. It would be as absurd to describe a man as being of the masculine gender, as it would be to speak of a word as being of the male sex.

3. The name of a lifeless thing is neither Masculine nor Feminine. It is hence said to be of Neuter Gender; that is,

of no gender at all.

4. Some names may be applied to either a Male or a Female; as, friend, child, deer. Such words are said to be of Common Gender.

Note. In some languages gender is settled by the termination of the word, apparently without regard to the meaning of the word. This is largely true of Latin and Greek. It is true also of Anglo-Saxon. But English gender is very simple, depending on the use of the word with regard to the distinction of sex.

The only feminine termination much used in English nouns is ess, (from Latin ix-icis; as, in genetrix ;) as, lioness, duchess.

Ine, as in margravine, is the German inn.

A in donna, sultana, is the Latin a as in domina.

Note.-Heroine is a Greek feminine. Vixen is equal to fox-inn, a female fox.

The distinction of Sex is also denoted in English,

(1.) By wholly different words; as,

(2.) By placing Masculine and Feminine words before Nouns of Common Gender; as,

Note.-Widower and gander (from German gans, a goose) are masculines derived from the feminine, in opposition to the usual rule.

Note. The masculine and feminine pronouns he and she are sometimes applied to things without life. We call a ship she; and by country-folk almost every familiar thing is spoken of in the same way--a clock, a gun, a scythe, being always called she. We call the sun he, and the moon she. The Germans reverse the gender of these words.

Anglo-Saxon Gender.

In the Anglo-Saxon language Gender was distinguished in certain words by adding for the Masculine er or ere, (perhaps a contraction of wer or were, a man ;) and for the Feminine estre or istre, (probably the fragment of a word once meaning woman.) This survives in spinster, an unmarried woman; although the feminine force of the affix is lost in such words as songster,

CASE.

The Case of a noun is a change in its form to show the relation of the thing it means to something else.

Note.-Relation (from the Latin re, back, and latus, carried) means literally, "the carrying back of thought from one thing to another." A