CAPITAL LETTER-RULE.—Proper or individual names and words derived from them begin with capital letters.

PERIOD and CAPITAL LETTER-RULE.-Abbreviations generally begin with capital letters and are always followed by the period.

LESSON 9.

CAPITAL LETTERS.

Direction.--From the following words select and write in one column those names that distinguish individual things from others of the same class, and in another column the words derived from these names :--

Observe Rule 1, Lesson 8.

ohio, state, chicago, france, bostonian, country, england, boston, milton, river, girl, mary, hudson, william, britain, miltonic, city englishman, messiah, platonic, american, deity, bible, book, plato, christian, broadway, america, jehovah, christ, british, easter, europe, man, scriptures, god.

Direction. Write in one column the names of the days of the week and the months of the year, beginning each with a capital letter; and in another column the names of the seasons, without capital letters.

Remember that some individual names are made up of a *class name and a distinguishing word. The distinguishing word always begins with a capital letter. If this word alone cannot clearly designate the object, the class name also begins with a capital letter, but not otherwise.

Examples.-Long Island, Good Friday, Mount Vernon, Milky Way, Jersey City, Suspension Bridge, Pacific ocean, New York city, Harper's Ferry, Cape May, Bunker Hill, Hudson river, Red River, Queens county, Lake Erie, General Jackson, White Mountains, river Thames, Astor House, steamer Drew, North Pole.

* Dead Sea is composed of the class name sea, which applies to all seas, and the word Dead, which distinguishes one sea from all others.

Many writers would begin city, river, county, ocean, etc., in the examples given, with capital letters; but we think the best usage supports the position taken above. There is going on a slow but steady desertion from the ranks of capital letters. About a century ago every noun began with a capital letter.

Direction.-Write these words, using capital letters when needed:ohio river, professor huxley, president adams, doctor brown, arctic circle, clinton county, westchester county, torrid zone, colonel burr, secretary stanton, lake george, green mountains, white sea, cape cod, delaware bay, atlantic ocean, united states, rhode island.

Remember that, when the distinguishing word preceded by of follows the class name, and cannot alone clearly designate the object, the class name also begins with a capital letter; as, Bay of Biscay. Otherwise, the class name begins with a small letter; as, state of New York.

Direction.-Write these words, using capital letters when needed :

city of london, isle of man, straits of dover, state of vermont, isthmus of darien, gulf of mexico, queen of england, bay of naples, empire of china.

Remember that, when a compound name is made up of two or more distinguishing words, as Henry Clay, John Stuart Mill, each word begins with a capital letter.

Direction.-Write these words, using capital letters when needed :—

great britain, lower california, new york, daniel webster, new england, oliver wendell holmes, north america, new orleans, james russell lowell, british america.

Remember that, in writing the titles of books, essays, poems, plays, etc., and the names of the Deity, only the chief words begin with capital letters; as, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Supreme Being, Paradise Lost, the Holy One of Israel.

Direction.-Write these words, using capital letters when needed:

declaration of independence, clarendon's history of the great rebellion, webster's reply to hayne, pilgrim's progress, lives of the poets, son of man, the most high, dombey and son, tent on the beach, bancroft's history of the united states.

Direction.-Write these miscellaneous names, using capital letters when needed :

erie canal, governor tilden, napoleon bonaparte, cape of good hope, essay on criticism, massachusetts bay, city of boston, continert of

america, new testament, she stoops to conquer, hymn on the nativity, indian ocean, cape cod bay, plymouth rock, anderson's history of the united states, mount washington, english channel, the holy spirit, new york central railroad, old world, long island sound.

LESSON 10.

ABBREVIATIONS.

Direction.-Some words occur frequently, and for convenience are abbreviated in writing. Observing Rule 2, Lesson 8, abbreviate these words by writing the first five letters:

Thursday and lieutenant.

These by writing the first four letters :

Connecticut, captain, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, professor, president, Tennessee, and Tuesday.

These by writing the first three letters :

Alabama, answer, Arkansas, California, colonel, Colorado, Delaware, England, esquire, Friday, general, George, governor, honorable, Illinois, Kansas, major, Monday, Nebraska, Nevada, reverend, Saturday, secretary, Sunday, Texas, Wednesday, Wisconsin, and the names of the months except May, June, and July.

These by writing the first two letters:

Company, county, credit, example, idem (the same), Iowa, and Oregon.

These by writing the first letter:

East, north, Ohio, south, and west.

These by writing the first and the last letter:

Doctor, debtor, Georgia, Indiana, junior, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Master, Mister, numero (number), Pennsylvania, saint, street, Vermont, and Virginia.

These by writing the first letter of each word of the compound with a period after

each :

Artium baccalaureus (bachelor of arts), anno Domini (in the year of our Lord), artium magister (master of arts), ante meridiem (before noon), before Christ, collect on delivery, District (of) Columbia, divinitatis doctor (doctor of divinity), member (of) Congress, medicinæ doctor (doctor of medicine), member (of) Parliament, North America, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, post master, post meridiem (afternoon), post office, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and United States.

These and

Direction. The abbreviations in column 1 are irregular in the choice of letters; and those in column 2, in not beginning with capital letters. those you have made must be committed to memory.

To the Teacher.-Explain to the pupils that the doubling of the in l. and LL. D., and of p. in pp., with no period between the letters, comes from pluralizing the nouns line, lex, and page. Hold the pupils to this Lesson till they have mastered the application of the rules in Lesson 8, and have thoroughly learned all these common abbreviations.

LESSON 11.

VERBS.

Introductory Hints.- We told you, Lesson 8, how, by noticing the essenial likenesses in things and grouping the things thus alike, we could throw the countless objects around us into comparatively few classes.

We began to classify words according to their use, or office, in the sentence, and found one class that name things, and called them nouns.

But in all the sentences given you, we have used and have had to use another class of words. These words, you notice, tell what the things do, or assert that they are, or exist.

When we say Clocks tick, tick is not the name of anything; it tells what clocks do; it asserts action.

When we say Clocks are, or There are clocks, are is not the name of anything, nor does it tell what clocks do; it simply asserts existence, or being. When we say Clocks hang, stand, last, lie, or remain, these words hang, stand, last, etc., do not name anything, nor do they tell that clocks act or simply exist; they tell the condition, or state, in which clocks are, or exist; that is, they assert state of being.

All words that assert action, being, or state of being, we call Verbs (Lat. verbum, a word). The name was given to this class because it was thought that they were the most essential words in the sentence. They form the second part of speech.

Give a score of verbs that assert action. Give all that you think assert being or state of being.

DEFINITION.-A Verb is a word that asserts action, being, or state of being.

There are two forms of the verb, the participle and the infinitive (see Lessons 37 and 40), which express action, being, or state, without asserting it.

Direction.-Write after each of the following nouns as many appropriate verbs as you can think of :

Let some express being or state of being.