Q. What, then, does the positive degree do?

108. It merely describes, without any comparison. Q. Will you compare great?

109. "Positive, great: Comparative, greater; Superla · tive, greatest."

Q. Will you compare wise in the same manner?

Q. Wise and great are words of one syllable: how, then, are the comparative and superlative degrees of words of this sort formed?

110. By adding r or er, st or est, to the positive.

Q. Will you in this manner compare small? high? mean?

Q. Will you compare beautiful?

111. "Pos. beautiful; Comp. more beautiful; Sup. most beautiful."

Q. How many syllables compose the word beautiful?

112. Three.

Q. How, then, are words of three, or more syllables than one, usually compared?

113. By placing more and most before the positive.

Q. Will you in this manner compare industrious? ingenious? dutiful? Q. Will you compare wise, by using the words less and least?

114. "Pos. wise; Comp. less wise; Sup. least wise." Q. Will you in like manner compare benevolent? distinguished? dilatory! Q. "Good men, better men, best men.' Which adjective here is the positive, and why? (108.) Which the comparative? why? (101.) Which the superlative? why ? (105.)

Q. Good, you perceive, is not compared regularly, like great, beautiful, &c.; and since there are many words of this description, I will give you a list of the principal ones, together with others, regularly compared: will you repeat the comparative and superlative degrees, as I name the positive ?

Q. From the foregoing, how many degrees of comparison do there appear to be, and what are they?

116. Three-the positive, comparative, and superlative. Q. Adjectives, you recollect, describe nouns: to what, then, do they naturally belong?

RULE IV.

Adjectives belong to the nouns which they describe

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

"A wiser child.”

117. A is an ARTICLE, a word placed before nouns to limit their meaning-INDEFINITE; it means no particular child and belongs to child, agreeably to

RULE II. The indefinite article a or an belongs to nouns of the singular number

made

Wiser is an ADJECTIVE, a word joined with a noun to describe it" Pos. wise; Comp. wiser; Sup. wisest"in the comparative degree and belongs to child, by RULE IV. Adjectives belong to the nouns which they describe.

Child is a NOUN; it is a name COMMON; it is a general rame COMMON GENDER; it may be either male or femaleTHIRD PERSON; it is spoken of-and SINGULAR NUMBER; means but one.

Q. When I say, "John goes to school, John learns fast, and John will excel," how can I speak so as to avoid repeating John so often?

118. By using the word he in its place; thus, “John goes to school, he learns fast, and he will excel."

Q. What little word, then, may stand for John?

119. He.

Q. What does the word pronoun mean?

120. Standing for, or instead of, a noun. Q. What, then, shall we call the word he, above? 121. A PROnoun.

Q. What, then, is a pronoun ?

122. A pronoun is a word used for a noun, to avoid a repetition of the same word.

Q. When James says, "I will study," you perceive that I stands for the person speaking: what person, then, is it? (39.)

Q. When I say, "James, you must study," the word you evidently in applied to James, who is spoken to: what person, then, ought you to be? 123. The second person.

1. To be omitted in parsing. 2. Johnson's is governed by dictionary, by Rule I.

Q. When I say, "He (meaning William) should learn," what person ought he to be, and why?

124. The third person; because it stands in the place of a noun which is spoken of.

Q. If I invariably stands for the first person, you for the second, and he for the third, how can we tell the different persons of pronouns ? 125. By the pronouns themselves.

Q. What have these pronouns been called from this circumstànce? 126. Personal pronouns.

I will now give you a list of all the personal pronouns, which you must first examine carefully, and then answer such questions on them as may be asked you.

DECLENSION OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

Q. Will you decline I in both numbers? thou or you? he? she? it! Q. In what person, number, and case is I? we? my? mine? our of ours? me? us? thou? ye? his? they? them?

Q. In what gender, person, number, and case is he? she? it? his? hers ? her? him?

Q. How many numbers do pronouns appear to have, and what are they? 128. Two-the singular and plural.

Q. How many cases, and what are they?

129. Three-the nominative, the possessive, and the objective

Q. How many persons?

130. Three-the first, second, and third.

Q. How many genders?

131. Three-the masculine, feminine, and neuter. How many pronouns are there in all, of the first person?

How many of the second, and how many of the third?

Q. The pronouns of the nominative case, singular, are called leading pronouns : how many of these are there?

133. Five-I, thou or you, he, she, it.

Q. Why are not the possessive and objective cases of the singular and plural numbers, also the nominatives plural, reckoned in the number of the leading pronouns ?

134. Because they are all considered as variations of the nominative singular.

Q. To which of the pronouns is it customary to apply gender? 135. To the third person singular, he, she, it.

Q. Why are not the first and second persons each made always to represent a different gender?

136. The first and second persons being always present, their genders are supposed to be known.

Q. If, as we have seen, pronouns stand for nouns, what gender, number, and person ought they to have?

137. The same as the nouns for which they stand.

Q. What, then, may be considered a rule for the agreement of the pro

louns?

RULE V.

Pronouns must agree with the nouns for which they stand, in gender, number, and person.

QUESTIONS ON PARSING.

Q. How many different sorts of words have we now found. and what are they?

138. Four-the NOUN, the ARTICLE, the ADJECTIVE, and the PROnoun.

Q. The word part, you know, means division; and speech, the power of using words, or language: what, therefore, shall we call these grand divi

sions of words?

139. PARTS OF SPEECH.

Q. When, then, I ask you what part of speech boy is, for instance, what do you understand me to mean?

140. The same as to ask me whether boy is a noun

or not.

Q. What part of speech, then, is William, and why? (36.)

1. "He went to school."

2. "She went to her task."

3. "William went to his play."

4. "John returned from his school."

5. "I request you to mind your studies."

6. "The book was mine, but now it is yours."

Will you name the pronouns in the six foregoing examples ?

How many are there in all?

What is the gender, number, and person of those in the first ? second. third fourth? fifth sixth ?

Q. What is the gender of his, in the fourth sentence? why? (137.) Its number? why? (137.) Its person? why? (137.) Its case? why ? (61.) Q. Will you name the nouns in the first sentence? in the second? third ? fourth? fifth? sixth?

Q. When I say,

James does?

141. Strikes.

X. OF THE VERB.

"James strikes William," which word tells what

Q. The word verb means word; and as the words in all sentences, which tell what the nouns do, are the principal ones, what shall such words be called?

142. VERBS.

Q. If, in the phrase, "William strikes James," we leave out the word strikes, you perceive at once that the sense is destroyed: what reason, then, can you give, for calling some words in a sentence verbs, and others by a different name?

143. The words which we call verbs are the most important.

Q. "William studies his lesson." Which word is the verb here, and why?

144. Studies, because it tells what William does. "John cances," which word is the verb, and why? "James strikes John," which word shows that an

When I say, When I say, action is performed?

145. Strikes.

Q. What kind of a verb, then, shall we call strikes? 146. An active verb.

Q. What kind of a verb is walks, in this sentence, "John walks," and why?

147. Walks is an active verb, because it expresses action.

Q. "He beat William." Which word here is the verb? Is William an agent or an object?

148. An object.

Q. When I say, "The child walks," walks, it is true, is an active verb, but it has no noun after it for an object, as beat has, in the phrase above; neither can we supply one; for we cannot say, "The child walks," any thing: what, therefore, is to be inferred from this fact, in regard to the nature of active verbs?

149. That some active verbs will take nouns after them for objects, and others will not.

Q. We will next notice this difference. The term transitive means passing over; and when I say, " William whips Charles," the verb whips shows that the action which William performs, passes over to Charles as the object. What kind of a verb, then, shall we call whips?

150. An active-transitive verb.

Q. What, then, is an active-transitive verb ?

151. It is one that either has, or may have, an object after it.

Q. Walks, we found, would not take an object after it; and, as intransi tive means not passing over, what shall we call such verbs as walks?