READINGS IN GREEK. 



251 



With tho aid of the logical term*, (Attract and concrete, two 



:i visions of nouns aro formed. Qualitici may bo con- 



sidered under two aspects. They may be considered aa belong- 



ing to some subject, aa white paper ; or they may be considered 



M altogether detached from any subject, aa whiteness. In the 



former wo regard the quality in question M concrete, in the latter 



M abstract. Hence whiteness is an abstract noun. Abstract 



nouns are numerous in English, being readily formed from their 



respective concrete adjectives by certain terminations, aa black, 



>$ ; pure, purity. 



-ard is had to the origin of nouns, wo may be led to 

 recognise another class, namely, verbal nouns. Verbal nouns 

 h as ore formed from verbs : thus, " If the blood of balls 

 siinrtiii "ih to the purifying of the flesh." (Hob. ix. !::.> II- r 

 a noun derived from the verb to purify. The addi- 

 tion of the syllable ing, or the employment of the present parti- 

 ciple as a noun, is a very prolific source of nouns. But observe, 

 when a noun is thus formed, it has the attributes because it per- 

 forms the functions of a noun. Now a noun is connected with 

 another noun, when tho one is dependent on the other, by the 

 preposition of. Thus we say, " the purification of the temple." 

 In tin- same way we ought to say "the purifying of tho temple." 

 But inaccurate writers, while they use verbal nouns as nouns, 

 allow them to retain their qualities as participles or parts of 

 verbs, and deprive them of their rights as nouns ; omitting the 

 connecting of, and writing thus, "to the purifying the flesh;" 

 " his handling the subject was good." 



Nouns are ordinarily divided into common and proper. This 

 is the most general division of nouns. A common noun is a 

 noun which is common to a whole class or kind. Tree is a com- 

 mon noun, for it may be used of any tree, and of the whole 

 class ; thus we say a tree, and the tree. A proper noun is a 

 noun which is proper or peculiar (Lat. proprium, peculiar) to an 

 individual, as to a person, a place, a city, a nation. Thus Alfred 

 is a proper noun ; so is Lancashire, and London, and England. 



The distinction between common and proper is not very satis- 

 factory. If tree is a common noun because the term tree is 

 common to all trees, might not George be accounted a common 

 noun because it is common to all the Georges ? And is not the 

 name Tree as peculiar to the class Tree, as the name George is 

 peculiar to the class of persons who bear this name ? If, then, 

 Tree is a noun peculiar to an individual and a class, and if 

 George is the same, the distinction between common and proper 

 does not appear determinate. In truth, the terms peculiar and 

 common do not here essentially differ, for what is peculiar to 

 each of a class is common to all the members of that class. 



The difficulty seems to arise from the multiplication of the 

 objects which are considered as nouns proper. So long as there 

 is but one London, the word London is strictly a proper or pecu- 

 liar name. But let there be several cities so called, then a class 

 is formed, and the original peculiarity is lost. What was once 

 peculiar to an individual place, is now common to several places. 

 Proper names, you thus see, pass into common names. 



This want of fixedness and precision is an objection. Never- 

 theless, the classification of nouns as nouns common and nouns 

 proper has so rooted itself in our grammar, that I think it better 

 to retain it, than to propose another which might be scarcely 

 free from exception. 



Emerson has written a book on what he calls " Representative 

 Men." There are also representative nouns or names. Thus 

 Solomon stands for a wise man, Croesus for a rich man, Judas for 

 a traitor, Demosthenes for an orator, Cicero for the same, and 

 Homer for a poet. Now mark how these are constructed. Shy- 

 look exclaims 



" A Daniel come to judgment ! Tea, a Daniel." 



And we also say of an eminent orator, " he is the Cicero of his 

 age." Daniel and Cicero, in themselves, are proper nouns. In 

 virtue of tho articles they become common. 



As proper nouns become common, so common nouns become 

 proper, under the influence of the article. In the latter case, 

 however, it is the definite article which produces the effect. A 

 strand is a river's bank. The Strand is a thoroughfare in Lon- 

 don, so colled because it runs alongside the Thames. So we 

 speak of the Channel, the Downs, the United States, tl- 

 lands. We also say the Harbour; bat the Harbour is not a 

 proper name, except at Portsmouth, where the Harbour mean* 

 the particular harbour that is there ; but tho usage is local ; 



whereas it requires national usage to convert 10011 a 

 noun into a proper noun. This fact b eiemptfned in the phrase 

 the Lake*, which from national usage means tit* Lake* of Wat. 

 moreland. The Lake*, therefore, has become the specific MB* 



wi;.-r- c< 



for the whole district in the North of 

 After a similar 



certain 



lakes are found. After a similar manner we speak of 

 land*. 



The figure termed Personification (ascribing persons! qosJittM 

 to inanimate objects) may give to a common noon the attributes 

 of a proper noon. " Beacon is the highest gift of God ; may 

 we, Divine Beacon, listen rererentiy to thy voice ! " In the 

 first member or part of the sentence, reatun is a common noon ; 

 in the second, in consequence of being the object of a direct 

 address, it is a proper noon. 



We have already seen that common BOOM may represent an 

 individual or a class. Thus a pigeon is one bird, bat the pigeon 

 is the class of birds so denominated. Some common noons in 



their essential import denote a number; such as *jket, a navy, 

 & flock. These noons are called collective, or noons of multitude. 

 Singular in form, they are plural in import. Indeed, they denote 

 a class. Thus a crowd is number of individual* considered as 

 forming one body ; a council is a number of men met for con- 

 sultation, forming the class councillor, in relation to some par- 

 ticular locality. Thus we say, I am in the council ; I am of the 

 council ; that is, / am one of the clou or body known under that 

 general term. 



READINGS IN GREEK. IV. 



SOPHOCLES. 



OF the three great tragic poets of Greece, Sophocles Oceania* 

 a position midway between Euripides on the one hand and 

 ^Eschylus on the other. More polished in his style and the 

 treatment of his subjects than the hitter, he never condescends 

 to the triviality and mere exhibition of mechanical skill which are 

 the signs of the commencement of a degenerating taste in the 

 former. Sophocles may be said to represent the best period of 

 Greek literature. Moreover, he flourished at a period when 

 Athens was at the very zenith of her fame, with the Persian 

 invader triumphantly driven from her shores when the Mace- 

 donian power had not begun to throw its dark shadow orer her 

 greatness, and her land was still untouched by the inroads of 

 her neighbours and rivals in the Peloponnesus. The battle of 

 Salamis, B.C. 480, in which the hosts of the Persian king Xerxes 

 experienced a decisive overthrow, serves as a link to bind to- 

 gether in the student's memory the names of the three great 

 tragic poets. JjJschylus, the eldest of the three, fought as a 

 soldier in the ranks of the Athenian army on that day ; Sopho- 

 cles, a youth of fifteen, led the chorus at the festival in which 

 the people of Athens returned thanks for their success; and 

 the same day witnessed the birth of Euripides. Of the many 

 plays which Sophocles wrote, only seven have come down to us 

 in a perfect form, bnt we have fragments of several others. 

 Of many we only possess the titles, allusions having been made 

 to them by subsequent writers. In depicting mental emotion 

 and simple natural affection, Sophocles has been peculiarly 

 happy ; and Antigone's love for her brother, and the tender, 

 affectionate care which she and her sister Ismene show for 

 their ill-starred father (Edipus, are among the most beautiful 

 pictures in ancient Greek poetry. The language, though hardly 

 so simple as that of Euripides, presents no remarkable difficulty 

 to the translator, and the versification is always faultless, form 

 ing the very best model that can be found for imitation. 



Eteocles and Polynioes having fallen by each other's hand. 

 Kreon, king of Thebes, allowed to the former the customary 

 rites of burial, while ho ordered tho body of Polynioes to b? 

 cast out unburied, and forbad its interment, proclaiming death 

 against any one who should dare to bury it The body, how 

 ever, is found some days after covered with earth, and inquiry 

 being instituted, it is discovered to be the act of Antigone, his 

 sister. The following passage contains her defence of herself . 



SOPHOCLKS. "AOTIOONK," 441 470. 



KP. 2i 55). at r^x vtvoixra* is *Y8or cdfo, 



445 



, 



AN. Kal <>ijjui totiffeu, iciwc iraprovntu T& ft^. 

 KP. 2w M* KOfil 



atricii 



