118 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



the immense bulk of that which was and is produced ; and the 

 thought is fascinated by the sense of that aggregate of human 

 effort, and happiness, and suffering, which has lain striving and 

 sleeping beneath the broad heavens since the birth of time. 

 " And what," we ask ourselves, " is the motive, and what are 

 the conditions of all this action and suffering ? " Men move 

 under the influences of fitful gusts and gales of passion; but 

 also under the steady trade-winds of necessity, of self-interest, 

 of ambition, of benevolence, of duty. Physical need is the most 

 universal and the most imperious claimant upon man's time 

 and sinew. It stares most of us in the face, and it stares 

 some of us with cruel pertinacity. There is nothing more ap- 

 parent than that God intended that our existence should depend 

 upon our exertions ; and with this naked fact however rough, 

 and hard, and humiliating it may seem we must start in all 

 our reasoning. The benefits of fortune make, indeed, an appa- 

 rent exception to this rule. There is a class of men who do 

 not find toil necessary to life, or even to its luxuries ; but is it 

 not apparent to all that a life without exertion exertion sys- 

 tematic, continued, and directed to an object is a life without 

 happiness, and that idleness is not only useless, but practically 

 evil? 



But when we have got thus far, we have advanced but a small 

 step, however necessary that step is. Man cannot live by bread 

 alone. His first want is not his greatest ; no, nor nearly so. What 

 a different sight should we look upon as compared to that which 

 is now in sense and memory before us of the world and man's 

 work upon it, if his sole necessity here had been the food and 

 clothes which keep life strong within him ! We should not then 

 see, as we do now, cities, and temples, and ships; power, and 

 beauty, and thought grown into shapes of wood and stone upon 

 the earth, and into culture of tree and flower, bird and beast, 

 colour and sound, heat and force. We must look to other cravings, 

 besides that of hunger, in man, to find the secret of that eternal 

 twisting of the matter and spirit about him, the moulding of it 

 into fresh forms, the digging, and the building, and the question- 

 ing. No hard necessity of food is laid upon him here, yet he toils 

 as if all eternity waited upon his success. What a bustling, 

 suffering, hoping creature it is ! Let us look at him more closely. 

 He is inquisitive the pictures of his senses will not satisfy him. 

 He is fond of power and possession the dominion of his own body 

 and birthplace will not satisfy him. He is fond of beauty and 

 order the flower and the wind will not satisfy him. He knows 

 of right and wrong obedience to his passions will not satisfy 

 him. He knows of an unearthly power and his own supremacy 

 will not satisfy him. Of all these dissatisfactions and needs, that 

 which is attendant on the moral faculties the sense of right 

 * and wrong, and of responsibility is the most curious and dis- 

 tinctive in man. Eemove this, and it were better for him that he 

 had but the hunger of the brute ; the world is without form and 

 void, and there is darkness upon the face of the deep. 



Now, whatsoever different forms education may impose upon 

 this sense of right and wrong in the minds of men; whatever they 

 may, by length of time, persuade themselves about it ; however it 

 may be disregarded, violated, attended to it is universal in all 

 rational minds, and is as much a part of man's mental system as 

 hunger is of his physical system. The laws of God as revealed 

 ;o us in the Bible sanction, direct, and enforce it ; the laws of 

 ociety are the partial expression of it. Moreover, mankind in 

 general acquiesce in a judicial system which punishes the trans- 

 gressions of a man against his fellow, and most men fear a 

 judicial system which shall take a like cognizance of the faults 

 which are secret to ourselves. We have, therefore, come to 

 another element in the great history of man's thought, and word 

 and work ; or, rather, to two separate principles, closely akin 

 the moral faculty and the fear of God. 



This is not the place for any metaphysical discussion as to 



ine relations of these two ; and we are concerned now with 



the former rather than the latter. That is, we wish to confine 



rselves to the view of man as under the influence of certain 



principles which he finds to be part of his nature. Against 



ie many things tempt him to rebel, but he feels that there is 



a warning voice which will not suffer him to do so in ignorance 



ol coming retribution, and which tells him, without ar<niments 



it passion, without partiality, that every principle thus 



violated is sure to avenge itself with a merciless reaction. 



We hope m succeeding papers to point out the practical 

 bearing upon life of these e reat moral principles in man. and 



under such headings as "Truth," "Temperance," "Character," 

 etc., to bring before our readers the united ideas of life and 

 duty. 



LESSONS IN GERMAN. VII. 



SECTION XV. THE PLURAL NUMBER OF ARTICLES, 

 NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, ETC. 



IN the plural the adjective, when not preceded by a declinable 

 word (the personal pronouns excepted), is inflected according to 



THE OLD DECLENSION. 



St. dktte, good; ftybne, fine; atte, old; rotfjt, red; 



@. utct, of good; flutter, of fine; alter, of old; rotfycr, of red; 



3). uten, to good; [chosen, to fine; alten, to old; rctfyen, to red; 



21. ute, good; fe^onc, fine; alte, old; votfyc, red. 



1. The definite article, the demonstrative and possessive pro- 

 nouns, have, in the plural, the same form for all genders, and 

 are declined like adjectives of the Old Declension. 



Adjectives, when preceded by the definite article, a demon- 

 strative, possessive, or relative pronoun, end in all cases of the 

 plural in e n, and are of the New Declension. 



DECLENSION OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE, DEMONSTRATIVE 

 AND POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS IN THE PLURAL. 



SI, 35ie, the; tiefe, these; mrine, my; 



. >er, of the ; ttefcr, of these ; meincr, of my ; 



3>. >en,to,or forthe; tiefen,to, or for these; metnen, to, or for my; 



21. 2>te, the ; tiefe, these ; racine, my. 



NEW DECLENSION OF ADJECTIVES IN THE PLURAL. 



91. Scne gutcn, those good ; fcine gut en, his good : 



. Sener guten, of those good ; feiner guten, of his good 



5) . Sencn gutcn, to, or for those good ; feinen guten. to, or for his good ; 



91. 3enc gutcn, those good ; feinc guten, his good. 



RULES FOR THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL OF NOUNS. 



Old Declension. 



Rule 1. Masculine nouns ending in c(, en, er, have the same 

 form in the plural, as : 25er 2Kalcr, the painter : tie 2Jiater, the 

 painters. Der SKergcn, the morning ; tie SJJcrgen, the mornings. 

 !Dcr trutct, the whirlpool ; tie trubcl, the whirlpools. 



The following masculine nouns take the Umlaut. (To take the 

 ,,llmfaut" means to change or modify the vowel ; i.e., to change a 

 into fl, o into 5, it into u ; the diphthong au is modified into du.) 

 3lfe(, apple ; ^ammcl, wether ; -Mantel, trade ; SWnngef, want ; 

 QJJantcl. cloak: 9tabe(, navel; Sftagcf, nail; ottcl, saddle; djmafcel, 

 beak: 93ogd, bird; Saten, thread ; arten. garden; ra&en, ditch; 

 afen, harbour ; Ofcn, stove, oven ; ctyaten. injury ; Slcfer, field ; 

 SSnrt-cr, brother : jammer, hammer ; ctyftager, brother-in-law ; 

 SSotcr, father. As, also, the feminine nouns : Gutter, mother ; 

 Softer, daughter. 



Singular. St. <J>er SHantd. Plural, tie SKantd. 



Set 93oget. tie 83oget. 



cr 23ruter. tie Skitter. 



Rule 2. Masculine nouns of other terminations add e (in a 

 few words tr), and assume the Umlaut, as : 3afyn, tooth ; 3afjnc, 

 teeth. 23aum, tree; ;Baume, trees. 9fe<f, coat; 9?o(fe, coats. 

 ut, hat; -iite, hats. Thus also are declined the feminine nouns 

 2liia.fl. 3lrt, etc. 



The following do not assume the Umlaut : 2laf, eel ; 2Iar, eagle ; 

 2lmk'p, anvil ; 9lnalt, attorney ; 2(rm, arm ; 3)od)t, wick ; >olc$, 

 dagger ; SJerfcf), haddock ; tarn, son-in-law ; emafyl, husband ; 

 >alm, stalk (-almcn when used in a collective sense) ; $mfy, 

 breath ; ->eqog, duke : -$uf, hoof ; unb, dog ; Jiofalb, hobgoblin ; 

 Saut, sound ; Sck&ium, corpse ; ucf), lynx ; SWolcty, lizard ; 9Konb, 

 moon; SWonat, month: SWort, murder; $fab, path; aim., salmon; 

 @<*>aft, shaft ; cfjul), shoe : taar, starling ; toff, material ; Sag, 

 day ; Srunfentolt, drunkard ; llnfjolb, monster ; SHelfrati, glutton ; 

 SBieteljopf, hoopoo : 3c((, inch (3eK, pi. 3^e, custom, tax), as : 



Singular. $>er ema^f. Plural, tie ema^le. 



$et SKcitb. tie iKcnte. 



Set Unfyctb. fcie Unl)olte. 



Rule 3. Neuter nouns ending in e, tl, tn, tr, d>en, and lein, 

 liave the same form in the plural, as : S5a3 2fttttei, the means ; 

 tic Sfttttet, the means. 2)a8 2Baffer, the water ; tie Staffer, the 

 waters. SaS efcdute, the building ; tie ebaube, the buildings. 



