3. Words that indicate persons or things, without expressing any quality, as the, this, that, these, those. These cannot be compared. 4. Adjectives indicating the person who is the agent or object of what is affirmed; as, I, me, we, us, thou, thee, ye, you, he, him, she, her, it, they, them, who. 5. Adjectives formed from those of the fourth class, and used, not merely to point out the agents or objects, but also to show their relation to some other noun. Of this class are my, mine, thy, thine, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs. 6. Adjectives formed from nouns without alteration, or by adding an apostrophe, with or without an s, as, glass house, man's, John's, &c. 7. Verbs which are used as adjectives without any additional termination, as, tell-tale, keep-sake, go-cart, &c.—the past or imperfect tense of all regular verbs, and of such irregulars as have the past tense and perfect participle alike; as loved, feared, &c. bent, dug, &c. 8. Verbs with the termination en or ing, and such of Murray's perfect participles of irregular verbs as differ from the past tense; as, written, loving, begun. In regard to all the words of these eight classes we would remark, that they qualify nouns, in Murray's sense of the word; that they cannot be used without a noun; that they may be known by making sense with the word thing after them. We shall make a few par ticular remarks upon some of the classes. 1. Of the first class we need say nothing, for both parties agree in respect to them. 2 and 3. Murray allows all the words of the second and third classes to be either adjectives or adjective pronouns, that is, pronouns used as adjectives, except an, a, and the, which were examined under the head of articles. 4. The words in the fourth class he calls pronouns, and says 'they stand instead of nouns.' We assert that they are no more used instead of nouns than other adjectives are, whose nouns are understood. That they are generally used without the noun's being expressed, we allow, but this was not so much the case formerly as it is now; and even now, when we wish to avoid mistakes, and be very definite, we always insert the nouns. Of this, perhaps the most striking examples occur in legal forms, where, lest the pronoun (adjective) should point to the wrong word, the right one is always repeated. A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word.' This implies that the word has been once expressed, and that previously to using the pronoun. The man is happy, he is benevolent, he is useful.' He stands instead of man, it is said. The man is happy, happy because benevolent, happy because useful, happy because contented, &c. Is happy a pronoun also? it seems to stand instead of' man. Let us analyse Mr. Murray's sentence. The we have proved to be the same word as this, these, that, &c. It is then, 'This or that man is happy,' &c. He is derived from the Latin adjective Is, which becomes I, Italian, pronounced E, and E in English with the breathing, or as we call it, H. Is, in Latin, generally means that, and is joined to a noun. The and he, then, are the same word in fact, and it is the same thing to say, the man is happy, he is benevolent, he is useful—or, the man is happy, the (man) is benevolent, the (man) is useful. He does not stand instead of the word man, then, but instead of the word the. Even on Murray's ground, he must stand instead of the man; for he does not mean simply man, but the man before mentioned. Besides, if pronouns stand instead of nouns previously expressed, what is to be done when the pronoun comes first? We the subscribers.' 'Who art thou?" What do we and who stand instead of in these sentences? Does not the first mean 'the we subscribers, or we persons the subscribers?' and does not the second mean, 'Who person art thou?' The latter sentence will not sound so awkward when it is recollected that our who is the Latin Quis or quo, which is an adjective, and generally has the noun expressed. We cannot be so minute in regard to the other pronouns, although in some of them their adjective nature is more apparent than in he, which we selected because it is the example adduced by Mr. Murray. A few parallel sentences must suffice to illustrate our position. I Paul, the apostle-The I-dentical Paul, the apostle. Thou Lord of allWe, the editorYe hypocrites He, John, is sick She, Sarah, agrees -The Lord of all. -That John is sick. They, owners, are brothers Those owners are brothers. *He and she are acknowledged to be adjectives in such words as be goat and she-goat, that is, male goat and female goat; and as he and she did not originally have distinct genders, this must be a somewhat modern application of the words. How unsettled the gender of he, she, and it, is, may be gathered from the fact that any neuter noun may be, and many are usually called he and she, without a figure of speech;' for this custom is rather an adherence to ancient usage than a modern rhetorical use of the pronouns. My carpenter always says of his saw, she cuts well; and the sailor who never heard of rhetoric, says of the anchor, he holds, and of the ship, she brings up. We all say, It was I, you, he, she, they; It was a man, woman, or tree. It, the same as dit French, ditto Italian, dicto Latin, hit Anglo-Saxon, means said, and, like our expression the said, may be applied to any gender. We shall leave our remarks upon the number and person of pronouns until we come to the verb. I, thou, we, ye, you, they, have no genders. We do not assert that in these parallel expressions the words in italic have the same meaning, although we believe they come near it; but we do assert, that they are used in the same manner and for the same purpose, and, of course, must belong to the same class of words. 5. The words of our fifth class, with the exception of hers, ours, yours, and theirs, are called adjective pronouns by Mr. Murray. The four above named he calls the possessive case of the personal pronouns. We have shown that the possessive case of nouns is merely an adjective, and there is no reason why the deputy should not share the fate of its principal. Mine and thine are allowed, sometimes at least, to be adjectives. It would be very unaccountable if the possessives singular of I, and thou might be used as adjectives, while their plural possessives could not. This book is mine, this book is ours, this book is his, this book is theirs, this book is new. If it be said that mine, his, and new can be placed before the noun, but ours, yours, hers, theirs, cannot-I answer, that it is no condition of a word's becoming an adjective that it must be placed before a noun. Our pronouns are all borrowed from the Latin, where the adjective oftener follows than precedes the noun. Besides, there are other adjectives in English which always follow their nouns, as, A man worth a million-A prisoner quite alone, &c. If any more proof is wanted of these words being adjectives in their nature and use, let another adjective be substituted for them in the following sentences. The injuries are mine-substitute, great. The benefits were thine; The day is yours; Liberty is ours; The prize is theirs; small. cold. precious. valuable. We need not in these cases seek for a noun understood for the pronouns any more than for the acknowledged adjectives. Besides, mine, thine, his, its, take their place before adjectives expressed, and there are but four that cannot be so placed; so that the numbers are equal, as far as that argument goes. Again, it must be recollected that ours, yours, hers, and theirs, should be written our's, your's, her's, their's,-as they actually were written in former days,-then recollect that the apostrophe and s in this case, as in the case of nouns, mean add or join, and you may place the words before the noun at once. 6. We have little to add to what we have already said on the subject of the fifth class; but cannot forbear remarking that we have lately been amused at a grave discussion of the question, whether it is more proper to say, the Miss Howards, or the Misses Howard. There can be no doubt that the words in the plural are nouns, and the others adjectives. If we wish to distinguish the unmarried from the married Howards, we call them the Miss Howards: if we wish to distinguish these misses from other misses, we call them the Misses Howard, in which case, the word in italics is an adjective. 7. Under this head we class the present and past tenses of all regular verbs, when used without alteration, as adjectives. Perhaps we shall be better understood if we say that the past tense of regular verbs when used as an adjective, is what Murray calls the perfect participle. This, he says, has the nature of an adjective;— we believe it, and rank such words accordingly. The 8th class includes what he calls the present participle of all verbs, and the perfect participle of all irregular verbs whose participles differ from the past tense. The participle is no more a part of the verb because formed from it, than an adjective is part of a noun from which it is formed; and there is as much propriety in calling such an adjective a participle, as in so calling an adjective formed from a verb. This, of course, will set aside the passive voice and all the compound tenses of verbs, but we prefer the English jackdaw in his plain suit of black, to the gaudy one bedecked with the borrowed finery of foreign peacocks. INTELLIGENCE. MR. G. F. THAYER'S SCHOOL, BOSTON. At the conclusion of the exercise [described in the last Number of the Journal,] the bell strikes again, and five spelling monitors, each with his slate in hand, containing the list of a division of a class, repair to as many semi-circular marks on the floor. Again the bell is rung, and the five divisions assemble at their posts. If any one should have forgotten his rank, the monitor gives it to him from his memorandum on the slate. At the fourth sound of the bell, the monitors of the lowest two divisions--who spell from spelling books, in which the pronunciation is sometimes doubtful to the pupils-begin by pronouncing the words of the lesson, while the boys of the class follow thein looking over their books, and the other three monitors give out the words by the orthoepy of their dictionaries,—from which classes spell, as soon as they have become familiar with the contents of their spelling books. Each boy pronounces his word before spelling. If the lesson be short, it is spelled twice over; otherwise, only once. Every word missed in each class, is marked by its monitor, and a check made against the boy who failed; the latter office is generally performed by the boy standing at the head. The word is then put to the next below until it is spelled right, and the correct speller goes above those who fail, who all spell the word over, as evidence of attention in them. The boy who has taken precedence, then spells another word, that those who have lost their rank, may have a chance to recover it, and especially as their failure may have been a means of his gain, without any merit on his part, excepting that of spelling differently from them. Boys are required to spell mentally every word given out, that nothing in the lesson may escape them. This and many other of the details of the exercise, may be deemed trifles too inconsiderable to be mentioned; but they will all be found, on examination, to furnish good reasons for their adoption. Boys in class, having occasion to speak to their monitor, give a signal, and he listens to them. If any difficulty occurs, an appeal is made to the principal when the lesson is over. The spelling concluded, boys are required to write on their slates, all the words missed by their class, the monitor giving them out; by which means, those who spell, as many do, thoughtlessly, are obliged to think or they will fail. The slates are examined by the monitors, and due notice taken of the errors. Sometimes we require boys to learn the definitions of words repeatedly missed, and to copy them, as we do those achose signification is not understood in the moral lesson, into their writing books, the better to impress them on their memories. The boy at the head of each class, goes to the foot every morning before the lesson begins; and at the end of the week, he who has nost frequently gained this distinction, receives a reward. Boys are degraded in class, for inattention or disorder, from one to the whole, according to the nature of the offence. Before boys leave the spelling stands, lessons are assigned for the following day, rank is marked, and the award made (a mark of 4 or otherwise) for the report.† There are in all four classes, at present subdivided into seven divisions: viz first class one, and each of the others, two. |