(2) III. All qualifies a singular or plural noun, according as it refers to number or quantity.

IV. Many is used with a singular noun whenever the article a or an intervenes.

V. Which and what, when used as adjectives, qualify nouns of either number.

VI. Either and neither relate to two objects only; any and none are used if allusion is made to more than two objects.

EXAMPLES.

Each month affords us dif ferent plants and flowers.

Every thing grows and decays in turn.

go.

Either John or William is to

There is neither liquid nor solid body, nor any other material mass in nature, but is divisible into very minute, indestructible, and unchangeable particles.

I. Most bodies in nature are compounds.

Few men can patiently bear insults.

Several persons lose their lives by indiscretion.

Both vessels sailed from Waterford on the same day.

II. None feels another's burden as if it were his own.

None have less praise than those who seek it most.

III. All nature proclaims the bounty and goodness of God.

All the visible objects on our globe are divided into three classes: minerals, vegetables, and animals.

IV. Muny a wonder is still undiscovered in nature.

Many a year he has spent at school, although his acquirements are so limited.

V. Which science teaches the properties of animal bodies? What man is insensible to kindness?

Of what use are eclipses, if not to show the true position of places?

VI. Either of these two, or of those three will serve my purpose.

any

Neither of these two; none of those three would answer.

evil is to be avoided. a one has suffered by talking, but few by silence. Full

blush unseen.

the sun revolves round

the earth, or the earth revolves round the sun: the latter is the

a flower is born to fact.

are equally entitled to

With ease does the mis the two premiums. placed arm return to its socket

folly to sacrifice an eter

under the guidance of a skilful | nal reward to the vain smoke of human praise!

hand!

No less a bribe than great Achilles' car,

And those swift steeds that sweep the ranks of war,

Urged me, unwilling, this attempt to make,

To learn

counsels,

RULE 15.

resolves you take.

(3) In English the adjective precedes the noun, except,—

(I.) When used in technical expressions;

(II.) When applied to individuals by way of pre

eminence;

(III.) When the adjective is preceded by an adverb;

(IV.) In poetry, where the common order of words is frequently reversed.

EXAMPLES.

Charles the Bald was king of

I. The conjunction copulative differs from the conjunction dis-France. junctive.

II. St. Gregory the Great sent missioners to convert England. Leo the Wise was a Greek philosopher.

III. He is a man uniformly temperate.

The knowledge absolutely necessary is that of ourselves.

IV. In pomp barbaric came Arontes, fired
With all that pride which titles vain inspired.

When through my windows morn hath flung
Its first uncertain gleaming.

Notes startling high and loud and long,
Dispel my idle dreaming.

A man severe he was, and stern to view;
I knew him well, and every truant knew.

The slender stream of Siloa's gentle wave
Once to the Christians draughts untainted gave.

(4) The word other, and the comparative degree of adjectives, require to be followed by the conjunction

than.

EXAMPLES.

He is no other than the brave from ten to twenty times quicker and religious Sobieski.

Sound travels in water about four times quicker, and in solids,

than in air.

Nothing is more eloquent than the language of truth.

RULE 17.

The article a or an is placed before nouns in the singular number only.*

The article the may be placed before nouns in the singular or plural number.

(1) I. Singular nouns which signify more than one object, take the indefinite article before them.

II. Plural nouns preceded by numeral adjectives, also take the indefinite article before them.

(2) III. When several nouns which require both forms of the indefinite article come together, each must be introduced.

IV. Although the indefinite article may be sometimes omitted, it must be used whenever emphasis is required, even before the latter of two words in the same construction.

(3) V. An adjective preceded by the may be sometimes used as a noun.

VI. The article the may be sometimes omitted in conversation where it should be used in writing.

(4) VII. Proper nouns become common when articles are prefixed to them, except when a common epithet is understood.

VIII. The adjectives all, such, what, and many; and adjectives following as, so, too, and how, have the articles after them.

* Adjectives often take the articles a, an, and the, before them, and are then used as nouns; as-a sage, the good; but when a is used with few or many; as-a few apples, a great many books, the article a cannot be made to agree with the plural noun apples or books, but with the collective noun few or many, the noun apples or books being governed by the preposition of understood, as will appear by substituting equivalent words for few and many; asa small number of apples, a great number of books. The seeming harshness arising from the introduction of the preposition of before few or many will disappear by completing the sentence; as-Give me a few of those apples; I lent him a great many of my books.

EXAMPLES.

When a body has a rotatory motion, the line round which it revolves is called an axis. A continued force produces a continued effect.

No person has a greater esteem of what he does than he who is capable of doing little.

Winter hides the treasures of the earth, only that the succeeding spring may display them.

I. I gave him a score, and he

returned but a dozen.

II. Water, a thousand fathoms below the surface, is less bulky by about one-twentieth, than

when at the surface.

He owed me a thousand pounds, but has paid me only a hundred.

examined by an attorney and a counsellor.

IV. On the discoveries of the microscope a new and an interesting philosophy has been raised. V. The wise and the just are happy.

The vain and the foolish are miserable.

VI. At (the) worst, I could but incur his censure.

At (the) best, he could do me little service.

VII. The fame of a Cæsar or a Scipio is vain.

The exploits of the Alexanders, or the Tamerlanes, were frequently no better than successful robberies.

VIII. All the vain philosophy

III. He had a pound of sugar, of the world, attempts but the

but he used not an ounce.

A lake and an ocean are analogous to an island and a continent.

An ensign and a captain were

destruction of vice by vice.

Such a river as the Amazon, which is the largest in the world, would scarcely be formed by the united waters of the principal rivers of Europe.

V. The mother view'd the scene of blood,

Her six unconquer'd sons were gone;
Fearless she view'd-beside her stood
The last the youngest-dearest one:
He look'd upon her and he smiled!
Oh! will she save that only child?