Oct. 17. ting colonies among the literati who were far from Rome. By the first, youth is accustomed to imbibe early the best stile; and, by the second, the same good stile has been introduced and is preserved among the most lively, and most illustrious geniuses of Italy. There are above sixty of these colonies, in different parts of Italy, and one even in Carinthia, in the town of Lubiana.

The colonies depend on the general afsembly in some particular things; but are free to keep their literary afsemblies when and where, and on what subject they please, and create their own magistrates, and choose their censors. The authority the general assembly has reserved to itself over them, is to ratify the choice of their new shepherds, and deliver their diplomas, without which they are not considered as Arcadians; to choose the vice custode of the colony out of the two presented by the colony; to decide the disputes which may arise in the colonies; and the approbation of the works which are intended for the prefs, with the Arcadian names, or the arms of the colony, or that of the general afsembly. The arms or emblem of Arcadia, is the seven reeds, or syringa, which the colonies quarter with their own.

As the institutors of this pastoral society had devised to conceal, under pastoral names, the persons who composed it, they likewise imagined to make use of the Olympiads of the ancient Greeks in their date of time. Thus, after the course of about fifteen centuries, that the computation by Olympiads had ceased, our literary society reafumed the use of it, and destined the end of every Olympiad for the cele

bration of the Olympic games, by substituting for the games formerly directed for bodily exercise, others establish ed for the exertion of the mind and talents. The commifsion to settle.perpetual Ephemerides to be observed in the affairs of Arcadia, was given to two famous astronomers, Selvaggio, (Monsignor Francesco Bianchini,) and Aci, (Dottor Eustachio Manfredi,) who made their exact observations, and presented them to the general afsembly in the year 1693, when it was decreed, that, from that time forward, all the businefs in Arcadia fhould be regulated according to them. The joyful and melancholy days were fixed, the first to be marked by the custode with a laurel branch,-the second with one of cyprefs. Melancholy days, are those in which the death happens of an acclammated Arcadian, of a general custos, or of any that are actually colleagues or vice custode of a colony; joyful, that of the pope's election, with the two following days; of any Arcadian being raised to be a sovereign, or a cardinal; that of the election of a new custode; and all those days in which there is the meeting of a general assembly. Three particular days are considered perpetually joyful, the 5th of October, on which this literary society was instituted; the 20th of May, when the laws were proclaimed; and 25th of December, in which falls the commemoration of the nativity of Jesus Christ, the chief festival of Arcadia.

From this rough sketch, one may well understand, in what esteem and renown our pastoral society has, from its infancy, been held all over Italy, so as to make all the Italian literati willingly submit to

the revolution it produced in reforming the bad taste that prevailed in that time; to induce all the Italian sovereigns to encourage literary afsemblies in their dominions, as colonies of the Roman Arcadia, and many of them to become Arcadian fhepherds themselves; and to favour, with all their power, this li terary society, far from having the least jealousy that the appearance of so perfect a democratical government, might ever influence to the destruction of monarchy. I am, dear Sir, your most humble serFILILLO LIPAREO. P. A.

vant,

GRAMMATICAL DISQUISITIONS.

Continued from p. 204.

Of the derivatives from personal pronouns. THE above are all the variations, as far as I at present recollect that the personal pronouns themselves admit of. But there are several words which have been usually admitted into the clafs of pronouns, some of which being plainly derived fron the personal pronouns, and nearly connected with them, require to be here particularly adverted to. The words here alluded to may be arranged into two clafses, as under :

Her,

Their.

Clafs First, My, Thy, Our, Your, Clafs Second, Mine, Thine, Ours, Yours, His, Hers, Its, Theirs. With regard to these words, we do not find that grammarians are agreed by what name to call them, or what rank they fhould hold; but almost all agree in classing them among the pronouns, from which they

are obviously derived. Without spending time in examining their several hypotheses, let us rather try if we can at once discover what are the real distinguishing characteristics which fhould determine their name and situation in grammar.

It is, in the first place, very evident, that the word my, is equivalent, in power, to what has been usually called the genitive case of our English noun, being in signification very nearly equivalent to the phrase of me. Thus, the phrase, “this is my house," has nearly the same meaning as if it were, "this is the house of me." By a similar mode of analysis, we fhall find that the words, thy, our, &c, of the first clafs, are precisely of the same import with my, having in all cases a meaning nearly the same with that of the pronouns from which they are respectively derived, when the word of is prefixed to them.

We observe also, in the second place, that the word mine has a signification nearly allied to that of my, though it obviously differs in certain particulars. We can, for example, say with propriety, "this is my house," but not, "this is mine house." And the same observation will apply to all the other words of this clafs. Again, we say,

My house is better than thine; but thine is more elegant than mine.” In this sentence it is evident that the word mine, is substituted for the phrase," my house," i. e. "the house of me ;" and the word thine, for the phrase "your house," which is equivalent to "the house of thee or you." Accordingly, we find that the sense would be the same were it written in either of these ways, as under.

My bouse is better than thine;

but thine is finer than mine, or,

My house is better than thy house; but thy house is finer than my house, or, My bouse is better than the house of thee; but thy house is finer than the bouse of me.

The word thine, therefore, in this example, is nearly equivalent to "thy house, or the house of thee," and mine, to my house, or the the house of me."

Again, fhould we attempt to banish the words mine, thine, and the others ranged in the last class, and substitute those of the first clafs in their stead, we should find a great want in language. Thus, continuing the same phrase,

My house is better than thy; but shy is finer than my.” we immediately recognise, that, unless the word house be added to the words thy and my, the sense must be incomplete, which is not in the least necessar y when mine, thine, and others of the same class are employed.

By this kind of analysis we are led to perceive, that the words belonging to the first of these classes, my, thy, &c. cannot with propriety be called pronouns, seeing they do not come in the the place of any noun whatever. But that, instead of a noun, they only supply the place of a pronoun itself; and that the very pronoun, whose place this word occupies, is not itself the substitute of a noun on this occasion; but merely the substitute of a definitive only. To make all this plain, let us suppose in this case the speaker to be James, and the person addrefsed to be John, then the phrase "my house," would be exactly the same with "James's house." The word my is therefore an exact substitute for the word James's, which I had occasion to fhow on a former occasion, is not a noun, but a definitive only. In