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Like sportive deer* they coursed about,

And shouted as they ran

Turning to mirth all things on earth,
As only boyhood can;—

But the usher sat remote from all,
A melancholy man!

His hat was off, his vest apart,

To catch heaven's blessed breeze;

For a burning thought was in his brow,

And his bosom ill at ease;

So he leaned his head on his hands, and read

The book between his knees.

THE NOUN.-GENDER.

LESSON XI.

In the following Exercise, point out all the Nouns which are the names of males, and all which are the names of females:-+

The man sent away his son and daughter to call his uncle and aunt. The boy ran away from the horse, and frightened the mare. Your uncle is older than your aunt. The lord and his lady rode in their carriage. The cow chased the little girl, but her brother came to her help. The bull was fierce. Your sister's husband was calling for your brother. The empress is dead. The king banished his queen. The tiger and tigress were confined in a cage. The little maid was very shy. The lion began to roar, and the he-goat ran off. servant told the maid-servant that her master and mistress were dead.

The lioness broke the bars of her cage.

and the nun into the house.

The man

The she-goat followed the abbot

DEFINITION I.-Nouns which are the names of males are said to be of the MASCULINE gender.

DEFINITION II.-Nouns which are the names of females are said to be of the FEMININE gender.

* Words like deer, and foreign words introduced into the language, can be easily explained as they occur. We have not deemed it necessary to lay down rules for the formation of such plurals.

Or the teacher may ask the pupils to point out those to which he can be applied, and those to which she. They know this, and simply require to have their attention directed to it to see what is meant by Gender.

DEFINITION III.-Nouns which are not the names of males or females are said to be NEUTER.*

LESSON XII.

Arrange in three columns the masculine, feminine, and neuter Nouns in the following Exercise :

An old man came out of the wood riding on a bay horse. His dog ran by his side, and every now and then poked his nose into the snow. The pen was made of steel. George informed his sister that their little dog Carlo had broken his leg. My father went to America, and fought against the Spaniards. The King of Italy left his kingdom to his son. The trees waved in the wind, and frightened the boy, who was leading his grandmother by the hand. The cow is a very useful animal. She gives us milk. Her hide is made into leather, from which men make shoes. The calft ran round the field, and was chased by a dog. The bull pursued the old woman, and nearly fell into the ditch. The Queen assembled Parliament in the month of February.

LESSON XIII.

Arrange the words in your reading-lesson as in last Exer

cise.

LESSON XIV.

Examine carefully the Nouns in the following Exercise, and tell how the gender is expressed:

The boy told the emperor that the empress had fled. The girl became the heroine of the story, and was much praised by the king, who told his man-servant to bring her to the queen. The duke informed the duchess that the ambassador and his wife were coming on a visit. The hen-sparrow sat on the eggs, while the cock-sparrow brought her food. My little sister was ill, and your brother came to see her. He said his father and mother had sent him. The tiger sprang on the mare, and would have killed her had not the count fired his rifle.

How do you express the feminine of boy, king, husband, brother, father, &c. ?

* Neuter means neither, and as used in grammar means that a Noun is neither masculine nor feminine.

Explain that many words are applied indifferently to males and females. The gender is then said to be Common.

How do you express the feminine of emperor, hero, duke, tiger, count, lion, &c. ?

How do you express the masculine and feminine of servant, goat, sparrow, &c. ?

We have thus three methods of expressing gender in Eng

lish:

I.-Gender is expressed by the use of different words,-husband, wife. II.-Gender is expressed by a change of termination, or by derivation, -tiger, tigress.

III.-Gender is expressed by prefixing a word to indicate the sex, or by composition,-he-goat, she-goat.

LESSON XV.

In the following Exercise give the number and gender of all the Nouns :

The child who had been her little friend came there, almost as soon as it was day, with an offering of dried flowers, which he begged them to lay upon her breast. It was he who had come to the window overnight, and spoken to the sexton; and they saw in the snow traces of small feet, where he had been lingering near the room in which she lay, before he went to bed. Soothing him with his artless talk of Nell, the boy persuaded the old man to take some rest. They were to gather fresh leaves and berries for her bed. It was Sunday—a bright, clear, wintry afternoon-when they traversed the village.

LESSON XVI.

In the following Exercise give the number and gender of all the Nouns :

When Napoleon was flying

From the field of Waterloo,
A British soldier, dying,

To his brother bade adieu.

"And take," he said, "this token

To the maid that owns my faith,
With the words that I have spoken
In affection's latest breath.

Sore mourned the brother's heart
When the youth beside him fell;
But the trumpet warned to part,
And they took a sad farewell.

There was many a friend to lose him
For that gallant soldier sighed;
But the maiden of his bosom

Wept when all their tears were dried.

THE NOUN.-CASE.

LESSON XVII.

In the following Exercise examine these Nouns:-Man, horse, dog, cart, cat, mat, temple, house, book, door, fire, grate, grass, tree, bird; and explain what change you observe in their form or their position in the sentence :—

The book was dear.

The horse
The dog

The man fell. The man's hat fell. We caught the man. ran off. The horse's bridle shook. He killed the horse. barks. The dog's chain broke. He stoned the dog. The cart was full. The cart's wheel fell off. He filled the cart. The cat mews. The cat's ear was hurt. We hunted the cat. The mat was dry. He sat on the mat. The temple was built. Solomon built the temple. The house stood. He went into the house. The man wrote the book. The door was open. He forced the door. The fire burns. He kindled a fire. The grate is made of steel. He cleaned the grate. He put coals into the grate. The grate's bars are broken. The grass grows. He cut the grass. He sat on the grass. The tree shook. The tree's branches are dead. He planted a tree. The bird sat on a tree. The bird's wing was broken. He shot the bird. He gave food to the bird.

What change of form do you observe in some of the foregoing Nouns? Name the Nouns in which you observe the change of form. What kind of word always follows the Noun in which you observe the change of form?

What change of position in the sentence do you observe among some of the foregoing Nouns? Name the Nouns in which you observe this change of position in the sentence. Why have these Nouns undergone the change of form or position in the sentence which you have pointed out?

DEFINITION I.-To indicate the relation in which a Noun (or Pronoun) stands to some other word in a sentence, the Noun (or Pronoun) undergoes a change of form or of position in the sentence.

DEFINITION II. -This change of form or of position in the sentence is called CASE.

DEFINITION III.-When the Noun (or Pronoun) is the subject of the sentence-i.e., the subject about which any affirmation is made,—it is put before the Verb, and said to be in the NOMINATIVE Case.

DEFINITION IV.-When the Noun is followed by another Noun, and expresses possession, it is said to be in the POSSESSIVE Case.

DEFINITION V.-When the Noun denotes the object of a Transitive Verb or Preposition, it is put after the Transitive Verb or Preposition, and is said to be in the OBJECTIVE Case.

LESSON XVIII.

In the following Exercise tell the Case of all the Nouns, and give in each instance a reason for your answer :

The snow covered the ground. The ground was thick with mud. The lion tore the horse to pieces. Spring has come with sun and flowers. The moon's rays were reflected in the deep blue sea. Solomon, the son of David, was king* over Israel. The newspaper contained news of the war. Ministers experienced their first check for the session. The election was attended with great uproar among the people. The cat's legs were caught in the trap. Men began to build without concert, and the walls soon fell down. The Assyrian came down like a wolf† on the fold. His cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold. The lion's mane is large and shaggy. The man's shoes were made of leather. John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost."

LESSON XIX.

Arrange the Nouns in the following Exercise in three columns, according as they are in the Nominative, Possessive, or Objective Case :

The books were bound in calf. The teacher's book was found in the school. The master gave the prize to the little boy. John's hand caught the ball. The game at foot-ball tested the boys' strength. The men's heads appeared above the water. The oak grows in the forest. The tree's roots were imbedded in the soil. The setting sun cast his rays on the sea. The way was long. The wind was cold. Moses' face shone. He refused to sign the deed for conscience' sake. Peter's hat was blown off by the wind. The children's lessons were well pre

* Explain this nominative case, and give examples of the same sort.
What case is wolf? Why is it in the objective?

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