THOU, of the SECOND PERSON, any of the genders. HE, of the THIRD PERSON, masculine gender. SHE, of the THIRD PERSON, feminine gender. OBS. 1.-Most of the personal pronouns have two forms of the possessive case, in each number; as, my or mine, our or ours; thy or thine, you or yours; her or hers, their or theirs. The former is used before a noun expressed; the latter, when the governing noun is understood, or so placed as not immediately to follow the pronoun; as, "My powers are thine." -Montgomery. OBS. 2.-Mine and thine were formerly used before all words beginning with a vowel sound; my and thy, before others: as, "It was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance."-Psalm. But this usage is now obsolete, or peculiar to the poets; as, "Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow."-Byron. COMPOUND PERSONALS. The word self added to the simple personal pronouns, forms the class of compound personal pronouns; which are used when an action reverts upon the agent, and also when atively; and the question is, whether the figure always necessarily changes the gender of the antecedent noun. Pronouns are of the same gender as the nouns for which they stand; and if, in the following example, gold and diamond are neuter, so is the pronoun me. And, if not neuter, of what gender are they? "Where thy true treasure? Gold says, 'Not in me, And, 'Not in me,' the diamond. Gold is poor."— Young. *The use of the pronoun ye is mostly confined to the solemn style, and to the burlesque. In the latter, it is sometimes used for the objective case. + In ancient times, he, his, and him, were applied to things neuter. In our translation of the Bible, the pronoun it is employed in the nominative and the objective, but his is retained in the possessive, neuter; as, "Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright."—Prov., xxiii, 81. Its is not found in the Bible, except by misprint. The word self was originally an adjective; but when used alone, it is now generally a noun. This may have occasioned the diversity in the formation of the compound personal pronouns. Dr. Johnson calls self a pronoun; but he explains it as being both adjective and substantive. some persons are to be distinguished from others: as, sing. myself, plur. ourselves; sing. thyself, plur. yourselves; sing. himself plur. themselves; sing. herself, plur. themselves; sing. itself, plur. themselves. They all want the possessive case, and are alike in the nominative and objective. RELATIVES AND INTERROGATIVES. The relative and the interrogative pronouns are thus de clined : THAT, applied to persons, animals, and things. The compound relative pronouns, whoever or whosoever, whichever or whichsoever, and whatever or whatsoever, are declined in the same manner as the simples, who, which, what. In the Fourth Praxis, it is required of the pupil—to distinguish and define the different parts of speech, and the classes * Hisself, itsself, and theirselves, are more analogical than himself, itself, themselves; --but custom has rejected the former, and established the latter. When an adjective is prefixed to self, the pronouns are written separately in the possessive case; as, My single self,-My own self,-His own self,-Their own selves. + Whose is sometimes used as the possessive case of which; as, “A religion whose origin is divine."-Blair. and modifications of the articles, nouns, adjectives, and pro nouns. The definitions to be given in the Fourth Praxis are, two for an article, six for a noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun-and one for a verb, a participle, an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus : "She met them." EXAMPLE PARSED. She is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, feminine gender, and nominative case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 8. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The feminine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the female kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. Met is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. Them is a personal pronoun, of the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 8. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or prepo sition. LESSON I. I who was present, know the particulars. He who has not virtue, is not truly wise. An enemy that disguises himself under the veil of friendship, is worse than one that declares open hostility. He that improperly reveals a secret, injures both himself and them to whom he tells it. Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial To my proportion'd strength!-Shepherd, lead on. LESSON II. All men have their frailties. Whoever looks for a friend without imperfections, will never find what he seeks: we love ourselves with all our faults; and we ought to love our friends in like manner. Selina's benevolence and piety engaged the esteem of all who knew her. When the Saxons subdued the Britons, they introduced into England their own language; which was a dialect of the Teutonic, or Gothic.-Allen. LESSON III. Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! still thou art a bitter draught; and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. -Sterne. Redeem we time?-its loss we dearly buy. What pleads Lorenzo for his high-priz'd sports? He pleads time's num'rous blanks; he loudly pleads CHAPTER VI.-OF VERBS. A Verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon: as, I am, I rule, I am ruled; I love, thou lovest, he loves. CLASSES. Verbs are divided, with respect to their form, into four classes; regular, irregular, redundant, and defective. I. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, love, lovED, loving, lovED. II. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, see, saw, seeing, seen. III. A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregular; as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. IV. A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but few of the moods and tenses; as, beware, ought, quoth. OBS.-Regular verbs form their preterit and perfect participle, by adding d to final e, and ed to all other terminations. The verb hear, heard, hearing, heard, adds d to r, and is therefore irregular. Verbs are divided again, with respect to their signifi cation, into four classes; active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, and neuter. I. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or thing for its object; as, "Cain slew Abel." II. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has no person or thing for its object; as, "John walks." III. A passive verb is a verb that represents its subject, or nominative, as being acted upon; as, "I am compelled." IV. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being; as, "Thou art."- "He sleeps." OBS. 1.-In most grammars and dictionaries, verbs are divided into three classes only; active, passive, and neuter. In such a division, the class of active verbs includes those only which are active-transitive, and all the activeintransitive verbs are called neuter. But, in the division adopted above, active-intransitive verbs are made a distinct class; and those only are regarded as neuter, which imply a state of existence without action. When, therefore, we speak of verbs without reference to their regimen, we apply the simple term active to all those which express action, whether transitive or intransitive. "We act whenever we do any thing; but we may act without doing any thing."—Crabb's Synonymes. OBS. 2.-Active-transitive verbs generally take the agent before them and the object after them; as, "Cæsar conquered Pompey." Passive verbs (which are derived from active-transitive verbs) reverse this order, and denote that the subject, or nominative, is affected by the action; and the agent follows, being introduced by the preposition by: as, "Pompey was conquered bý Cæsar." OBS. 3.-Most active verbs may be used either transitively or intransitively. Active verbs are transitive when there is any person or thing expressed or clearly implied, upon which the action terminates; when they do not govern such an object, they are intransitive. OBS. 4.-Some verbs may be used either in an active or a neuter sense. In the sentence, "Here I rest," rest is a neuter verb; but in the sentence, "Here I rest my hopes," rest is an active-transitive verb, and governs hopes. OBS. 5.-An active-intransitive verb, followed by a preposition and its object, will sometimes admit of being put into the passive form, the object of the preposition being assumed for the nominative, and the preposition being retained with the verb, as an adverb: as, (Active,) "They laughed at him. -(Passive,) "He was laughed at." MODIFICATIONS. Verbs have modifications of four kinds; namely, Moods, Tenses, Persons, and Numbers. MOODS. Moods are different forms of the verb. each of which |