

411 



.'* help for hour* ha oould do it w loiitf 



in reaping tin- Ill-Ill by him 



tea at6*. Oil. j..-r ]MIII<|, und u 



i.tnin.N :.-. u:i f coffee at 2*. <; 1. Ho sold 



I tho coffco :md HO piinod 5 guinea* 



bargain. I i da of oach did bo buy t 



i aid a number composed of , : -,, each greater by 



him that which follows it, HIJ t!' . H abovo one- 



. !' thn number fi.iinud by inverting tlio digits shall bo 30 



im of the digits. 



55. A ami U have each a sum of money given them, which 

 will sir families for 10 and 12 days respective! 



iipjMirt li's fumily for 15 days, and B'H monoy 

 ft A's family for 7 days, with '2 i. >' \. over. What 



::ii.S !" 



in beini,' asked how many diiokn and I:<H>MO he had 

 in hi* yard, said, "If I had 8 moro of oach, I lOuwld have 8 

 1 XQGSQ ; and if I had 8 loss of each, I Hh.i.iM have- 7 

 for 6 geese." How many had ho of each P 



57. A man, woman, and child could reap a field in 30 hours, 

 i D tluini,' half as much again as tho woman, and tho woman 



two-tin :i a^'ain as tho child. How many houra would 



oach tako to do it separately ? 



58. A merchant who allows 160 for his annual expenditure, 

 - t.s his property every year by a fourth part, and at tho 



end of two years is ^6900 richer thau at first. What property 

 had ho at first ? 



59. A sold a certain number of tickets at a guinea each, and 

 gavo one-third of tho produce to B ; one-fourth of the remainder 

 to C ; and one-fifth of the last remainder to D ; after which he 

 had J2210 remaining. How many did ho sell ? 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XLIIL 



GENDER (continued). 



MANY words give no indication as to sex, and may be used indif- 

 ferently, as the sex requires, of either males or females. Such 

 nouns have been called of the common gender ; tho appellation 

 may pass, provided the reader bears in mind that, strictly speak- 

 ing, there are in English only two genders, the masculine and 



NOUNS EITHER MASCULINE OR FE3IININE. 



Enemy. Friend. Fainter. Slave. 



Favourite. Neighbour Parent. Sovereign. 



Flatterer. Novice. Sage. Thief. 



Foul. Orphan. Servant. Writer. 



Artist. 

 Child. 

 Cousin. 

 Dancer. 



With these nouns, tho sex is made known by some accom- 

 panying word. For example : 



He is my cousin. 

 She is my cousin. 



My female cousins are dead. 

 My male cousins have married. 



Child, or infant, is generally used in the neuter gender 

 (except when you wish to mark the sex emphatically), until the 

 person you speak of has grown to some degree of intelligence ; 

 thus, we say of a babe 



What a pretty child, and it is so good 1 

 but we do not say 



What a bad child ! it tells stories ; or 



It is a good boy, it has mastered its Latin lessons. 



There are some feminine nouns of which masculine counter- 

 parts do not exist. For example : 



A blonde. A dressmaker. A shrew. A termagant. 



A brunette. A luautuuuwkor. A syren. A scold. 



A dowager. A milliner. A vixen. A virago. 



Some titles are double feminincs tJie Queen Doioager, that is, 

 ihe King's Widow ; the Dowager Countess of Derby, that is, the 

 Earl of Derby's Widow. 



Sex is sometimes attributed to inanimate objects. This 

 attribution is very common in Latin and other languages in 

 which the ending of nouns is one moans of determining the sex ; 

 thus, gladius, a sword, is of the masculine gender, because it 

 ends in its. Sometimes sex may be ascribed to things without 

 life, from a regard to tho nature of the functions which such 

 objects perform. Those which exert active functions may thus 

 be spoken of as masculine ; those which receive influences may 

 thus be spoken of as feminine. In general, active and quioken- 



lag energy U viewed M male, passive and pmdnainc power is 

 viewed M female. But the role U not of universal appUoatioB. 



U, .....:,-, t:. : .. . ; ...-'..-. . i i 



the nm in tmueuMiM, bat in German the MA a feminine. 

 us, too, agreeably to the rule, the moon U /mi4iu>; but with 

 onaiu, contrary to th rule, the moon U mcuoi/<<i. 



more in this case can be don* than to study and follow 

 usage. As an aid, I subjoin instances of what, M the latitud* 

 is chiefly token by po*U, may b* called the poelie gender t 



POCTIO OCXDCB. KAWMrLIVC. 



Lovo. Time. Tbe Elephant. The Leopard. 



Tbe Ocean. The Horse. 



Tbe Bun. Tyranny. The Dog. Hi ' . : 



Terror War. Tbe Lion. TIMS 



Thunder. Winter. Tbe Tisjsx. Itlvwi 



Danger. 

 Dsafh. 



Fear. 

 Laughter. 



Affection. 



Ambition. 



Art. 



Astronomy. 



Autumn. 



Avarice. 



Beauty. 



Benevolence. 



Charity. 



Chastity. 



Church. 



Commerce. 



Compassion. 



Conscience. 



Contemplation. 



Darkness. 



Freedom. 



POETIC GENDER. 

 Devotion. Fortune. 

 Discord. 

 I..-.,. 

 Echo. 

 England. 

 Envy. 

 Eternity. 

 Etna. 



Experience. 

 France. 

 Faith. 

 Fame. 

 Fancy. 



Fate. 



Flattery. 



Folly. 



Happiness. 

 Heaven. 



II . 



Hour. 



Hurjility. 



Justice. 



Law. 



Liberty. 



Life. 



London. 



Melancholy. 



Memory. 



Mind. 



Misfortune. 



The Moon. 



Morning. 



MUM. 



Music. 



Mature. 



Necessity. 



Night. 



'.' .-. . 



Patience. 



: 



Pleasure. 



Plenty. 



Poesy. 



Pride. 



Prose. 



<..;.... -. 



. . 



.- 



Spring. 



. 

 'J 



; . . . .:.. 

 Truth. 

 Vanity. 

 Vice. 



\v. ; B. 



Ship is of the feminine gender ; yet a ship intended for 

 like purposes is called a man-of-war ; nevertheless, a man-of- 

 war is spoken of as feminine. 



The gender of Greek and Latin proper names, and the pottie 

 gender of other classical nouns, must be learnt from classical 

 authorities ; thus Venus, the goddess of beauty, is feminine, 

 and Oceunus, the god of the sea, is masculine. 



This poetic gender baa its basis in what is called prosopopeia, 

 or personification. These two words represent the same thing, 

 the former indicating a direct address to an inanimate object as 

 if it were animate, and the latter indicating the ascription to 

 an inanimate object of personal qualities. Prosopopeia, called 

 also apostrophe", does not, however, always convert the neuter 

 into the Masculine or feminine ; in the ensuing fine instance of 

 apostrophe, s word retains its natural gender : 



" O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be en thou art quietr* 

 put thyself up into thy scabbard, rest, and be still! How can it be 

 quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Aahkelon, acd 

 against the sea-shore ? " Jer. xlvii. 6. 



Personification is a figure of larger comprehension than apos- 

 trophe, for, in general, it is to be recognised wherever things 

 are spoken of, or spoken to, as if they were persons or animals. 

 In English, the employment of personification is easy, inasmuch 

 as you have only to use a masculine or feminine pronoun instead 

 of a pronoun in the neuter gender ; as, 



" Haste ! haste 1 Death lies in wait ; *' at the door." 



Being easy, this figure is apt to become common, and should 

 be frugally, not to say sparingly, employed. Personification is 

 the peril of young writers and young speakers, especially those 

 who have aught of tho poetic temperament. 



NUMBER. 



Regard to number causes nouns to undergo a change. A'timior 

 relates to the question whether a noun indicates one object, or 

 more objects than one. If a noun indicates one object, it is 

 said to bo in the sin-jular number ; if a noon indicates wore 

 objects than one, it is said to be in the plural number. The 

 word singular comes from the Latin singularis, one only, and 

 has its representative in our term single ; as, o single star, a 

 single city, a single act. For example : 



" No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of 

 all the rest." 



Tho word plural comes from the Latin plus, more, that :>, 

 more than one. The Greek, and some other languages, have 

 what is called a dual number a form, that is, which specifiiauiy 



