men, however rude, learned to form ideas of qualities independently of the substances to which they belonged. Hence they acquired that class of words called adjectives, which are only names of qualities. Now, as qualities result from things, the names of qualities are derived from the names of things; and, as qualities are constant concomitants of the things they characterize, the names of qualities are constant adjuncts of substantives, expressed or implied.

qua

Adjectives expressing the simple qualities of natural objects, which do not imply motion or action, are derived from nouns, by the mind first abstracting the quality from the thing it qualifies, and then generalizing it so as to make it an epithet expressive of a similar quality in different things. Thus in re, a steep rock, the lity steep, contemplated first as a quality of that particular thing, the mind soon learned to consider as separate from the rock, and hence to make it a general term of the like quality in other objects. Thus was derived the adjective ens pronus, prone. And in the manner this single adjective is formed, are formed all the adjectives which exist in all languages.

When adjectives became numerous in any language, analogy or custom soon assigned them a particular termination. Hence, on every conversion of a noun into an adjective, that adjective immediately assumed the ending which analogy had appropriated to words of that class. Thus ogen, food, relish, was changed into probus, signifying agreeable food or wholesome relish. Thus, also, wood, wind, became wooden, windy, in our own tongue. From this, it is obvious, that in the earlier periods of human language, adjectives were fewer, and approached nearer in meaning and termination to the nouns from which they were derived.

In speaking of the qualities of things, similitude or resemblance is an idea of high importance and frequent recurrence. A person, discoursing to another of some thing unknown, naturally says, that it is like some other that is known. Thus in Greek zos, image; dos, form; cos, like; are combined with nouns in order to express likeness: avlewizos, man-like; ExTogidrs, having the form of Hector, Hector-like, that is, the son of Hector; av@groes, man-like. This last termination, by inserting s, gave birth to the Latin adjectives in osus, and to our adjectives in ous; thus, pecunia, pecuniosus; glory, glori ous. The numerous adjectives and adverbs in English are formed on the same principle. Earthly is earth-like; gladsome, is glad-same, the same with glad; some or same being, we conceive, corruptions of similis. The termination ish is originally the Persian wash, added to a noun to express likeness; as, gomer, the moon; gomer-wash, moonish, like the moon; womanish, like a woman. The terminatión en, derived, it is allowed, from the Northern language, is borrowed by that language from the Greek participle in on. In the same manner we form some adjectives after the analogy of the past participle in ed; as, honied, wooded; while that of y is the Anglo-Saxon ig: but this is only the Latin termination cus; as, unicus, AngloSaxon anig, any. We have also a numerous class of adjectives derived from verbs, independently of participles.

Of this origin are all those adjectives whose qualities presuppose motion or action; and they imply greater power of abstraction than those derived from nouns.

CHAPTER V.

OF PRONOUNS.

to

A PRONOUN is a word used instead of a noun, avoid the too frequent repetition of the noun; as, The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful.'

There are four kinds of pronouns; namely, the Personal, the Possessive, the Relative, and the Adjective Pronouns.

SECTION I.-Of the Personal Pronouns.

THERE are five Personal Pronouns; namely, I, thou, he, she, it; with their plurals, We, ye or you, they.

Personal Pronouns admit of person, number, gender, and case.

The persons of pronouns are three in each number; namely,

I is the first person

Thou is the second person

He, she, or it, is the third

We is the first person

Singular.

person

-Plural.

Ye, or you, is the second person
They is the third person

This account of persons will be very intelligible, when we reflect, that there are three persons who may be the subject of any discourse: first, the person who speaks may speak of himself; secondly, he may speak of the person to whom he addresses himself; thirdly, he may speak of some other person: and as the speakers, the persons spoken to, and the other persons spoken of, may be many, so each of these persons must have the plural number.

The Numbers of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two: the Singular; as, I, thou, he: and the Plural; as, We, ye or you, they.

Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it. He is masculine; she is feminine; it is neuter.

The persons speaking and spoken to, being at the same time the subjects of discourse, are supposed to be present; from which, and other circumstances, their sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked by a distinction of gender in the pronouns: but the third person, or thing spoken of, being absent, and in many respects unknown, it is necessary that it should be marked by a distinction of gender; at least when some particular person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be more distinctly marked; accordingly, the pronoun singular of the third person has the three genders, he, she, it.

Personal pronouns have three cases, the Nominative, the Possessive, and the Objective.

The objective case of a personal pronoun has, in general, a form different from that of the nominative, or the possessive case.

The personal pronouns are thus declined:

Substantives are said, by some writers on Grammar, to be never used in the first person. The following quotations will show, that the observation has been made without due consideration: I, even I Artaxerxes, make a decree,' Ez. vii. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things,' Rev. xxii.

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Although the circumstance, of the speaker and hearer being present with each other, when the words are spoken in which the one calls himself I, whilst he calls the other thou or you, is thought sufficient to ascertain the individual objects denoted by them in all common instances; this ascertainment has not been thought sufficient on occasions where the utmost precision is required. Hence, in solemn contracts, oaths, &c. it has been judged expedient to direct that the name of the person speaking, and that of the person spoken to, when the contract is made with a person present, shall be added to the pronouns of the persons which they respectively support. Thus, the form of contract in the office of matrimony is, 'I, N. take thee, M.' although both the contracting parties are present, and see, and hear each other speak. And the prescribed forms of oaths usually begin with, I, such a one, do swear.'

In affairs of consequence, such as deeds for the conveyance of property; after the principal persons and things concerned, are specified by names or descriptions, or both; it is usual, upon mentioning them again, to add their names after the pronouns personal which denote them; as, 'I, the said N.;' 'You, the said A. B.;' 'Him, the said C. D.;' 'Part of them, the said lands and tenements.' This proceeding is plainly made use of, to prevent the ambiguity which might arise from the indefinite signification of the personal pronouns. These observations tend to show, incontestably, that substantives have all the persons that pronouns possibly can have.

A pronoun has been defined by Dalton, to be a word used instead of a noun, partly of necessity, when the noun is not known; and partly for the sake of brevity and variety, when the noun is known.'

Whether we speak of things present, or of things absent, and to whomsoever we address our discourse, the repetition of those names or things would not only be tiresome, but also be sometimes productive of ambiguity. Hence appears the utility of pronouns; words, as the meaning of the term denotes, supplying the place of

nouns.

SECTION II.-Of the Possessive Pronouns.

POSSESSIVE Pronouns are those which relate to possession or property. There are seven of them: namely, my, thy, his, her, our, your, their.

Mine and thine, instead of my and thy, were formerly used before

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a substantive or adjective, beginning with a vowel, or a silent h; as, Blot out all mine iniquities;' 'Mine hour is not yet come.' The pronouns his, mine, thine, have the same form, whether they are considered possessive pronouns, or the possessive cases of their respective personal pronouns.

The following sentences exemplify the possessive pronouns: My lesson is finished;' Thy books are defaced;'' He loves his studies;' 'She performs her duty;' We own our faults;' 'Your situation is distressing;' 'I admire their virtues.'

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The following are examples of the possessive cases of the personal pronouns: 'This desk is mine; the other is thine;' 'These trinkets are his; those are hers;''This house is ours, and that is yours;' "Theirs is very commodious.'

Some grammarians consider its as a possessive pronoun.

The two words own and self are used in conjunction with pronouns. Own is added to possessives, both singular and plural; as, 'My own hand; our own house.' It is emphatical, and implies a silent contrariety or opposition; as, I live in my own house;' that is, ‘not in a hired house.' Self is added to possessives; as, myself, yourselves: and sometimes to personal pronouns; as, himself, itself, themselves. It then, like own, expresses emphasis and opposition; as, 'I did this myself,' that is, 'not another;' or it forms a reciprocal pronoun; as, ' We hurt ourselves by vain rage.'

Himself, themselves, are now used in the nominative case, instead of hisself, theirselves; as, 'He came himself;' 'He himself shall do this;' They performed it themselves.'

Mine, thine, his, hers, theirs, yours, ours, stand alone; as, 'Whose book is this?-Mine.' The corresponding words, my, thy, her, their, our, your, have their noun expressed; as, 'It is

my book.'*

SECTION III.-Of the Relative Pronouns.

RELATIVE Pronouns are such as relate, in general, to some word or phrase going before, which is thence called the antecedent: they are who, which, and that; as, The man is happy who lives virtuously.'

What is a kind of compound relative, including both the antecedent and the relative, and is equivalent to the thing which; as, "This is what I wanted;' that is to say, the thing which I wanted.'

May not mine, ours; thine, yours; and his (he's, as whose appears to be who's), hers, its, theirs, be regarded as genitives, in the same way as in Latin the corresponding words mei, nostri or nostrum (i.e. nostrorum or nostrarum); tui, vestri or vestrum (vestrorum or vestrarum), and sui, are considered as the genitives of the primitive or substantive pronouns, although certainly they are forms, too, of the genitive of the adjectives. In other languages, as in Latin, a certain analogy or similitude is observable between the genitives of the primitive, and the derivative pronoun. Grammarians have long differed, and probably they will still differ, with respect to the grammatical classification of the preceding English words. It may, however, be observed, that most of them have the form of the English genitive case; and that Dr. Wallis, as already observed, considers all our genitives as possessive adjectives. Hence it would appear that neither those who consider them as genitives, nor those who consider them as possessive adjectives or pronouns, are guilty of any great impropriety. Such of them as do not admit a noun after them may be termed absolute pronouns.-GRANT.