MEANINGS OF 'THE.'

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So in such phrases as 'the Bar,' the Church,' the Bench,' we have in our mind the aggregate of professions, and single out the separate individuals. "The palace,' 'the cottage,' are figures of speech (like the Bar, &c.) for the noble and the low-born, and exhibit still the same general signification. By prefixing 'the' to an adjective, as 'the rich,' 'the powerful,' we indicate a particular class of men selected from the general community. The noun 'men' is omitted in such phrases, because it is one that can be so readily supplied by the hearer.

In Shakspeare was the Homer' we have still the same principle of specification from an aggregate. Of the great poets of antiquity, Homer is the one to be singled out for comparison to Shakspeare.

The head of a Celtic clan is spoken of as the Douglas,' by preeminence. There are many Douglases it is true, but there is one that commands, and, as it were, sums up and personifies the whole, and he is distinguished by the specifying article.

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The is used in pointing out an individual defined by an adjective clause, as The man that earns his bread honestly.' There is nothing remarkable in this case; it is a mere expansion of such a phrase as the rich man,' the honest man,' the adjective being converted into a sentence, as if we were to say the man that is rich.' Somewhat different, seemingly, is the employment of the article in the phrases the beautiful, the good,'' the true, the just,' the lawful,' the expedient,' where an adjective is converted into an abstract noun by prefixing the.' This is probably an imitation of a Greek idiom. It still falls under the general signification of the article-the specification of one thing in a supposed aggregate. These are reckoned more emphatic and pointed expressions than 'beauty,' 'goodness,' 'truth,' 'justice,' lawfulness,' 'expediency;' and, as often happens when there are two modes of expressing the same thought, a slight difference of meaning springs up between the two; the just,' is not precisely the same thing as 'justice.' So we say for darkness the dark;' and Carlyle employs the expression, somewhat sorrowfully in the vague.'

The occurrence of 'the' with a comparative, the more, the better,' is now shown by grammarians not to afford an example of the definite article. The' in such combinations, although spelt like the article, is in reality another word, namely the ablative of the Anglo-Saxon demonstrative. In Anglo-Saxon it was 'thi mara, thi betera,'' by how much the more, by so much the better,' as in a well-known Latin idiom (quo magis, eo melius). We need not, therefore, in this case look for the carrying out of the general meaning that obtains with all the foregoing applications of the article.

In the sentence' they will ask the more,' we must suppose this to be the meaning of the,' even although the more' appears to be the object of the verb 'ask,' and therefore incompatible with an ablative construction. Either the more' is elliptical for a proportionably greater quantity, or we may consider it as an adverbial phrase qualifying the verb.

The dropping of the article from words that it has usually been joined to has a personifying effect. When we say 'society' instead of the society,' we treat society as a person. So with Government,' for the Government.' The Americans have made the same change with the Community.' They say Community thinks so too.' There are various Scotticisms in connection with the articles. How much the

pound is it? (What is it a pound?) sixpence the piece' (a piece); 'the sugar is cheaper' (sugar); go to the school' (to school); say the grace' (say grace); 'a justice of the peace' (of peace); up the stairs' (up stairs); 'be is studying (the) Botany.'

The names of diseases are recognized in English usage as nouns of material: he has caught cold; he died of consumption, of typhus.' It is a Scotticism to treat them as class nouns, and prefix the article-the cold, the fever.

'From Tweed to Tay' is a poetical usage; the common form is, 'from the Tweed to the Tay.' Not worth (a) sixpence.' The day' (to-day).

'Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel,' is given by Lowth as an error of the article. The meaning is definite; the wheel.'

17. NOUNS are frequently employed as Adjectives: 'a gold crown;''the cotton districts;' the police regulations;' the Berlin decrees;'' Health of Towns Act;' 'cod-liver oil.'

The easy transmutation of the parts of speech has already been noticed as a peculiarity of our language. All that is necessary to perform the true function of the adjective is to limit the application of a noun, by selecting some portion of the things denoted by it having a more special meaning than the rest. Thus of 'crowns' we select those made of gold, of iron, of diamonds, and the noun indicating the material in each case is considered enough for the purpose. We limit the class of oils' by specifying the oil extracted from the liver of the cod. Police regulations' are the particular class of rules having reference to police. The same considerations explain the employment of verbs, as 'bake-house.'

18. Likewise ADVERBS; as 'the very instant,'' the then king,' 'the now state of things,' 'the down train.’

19. Also PREPOSITIONS; as 'after ages,' 'the above discourse.'

20. The ADJECTIVE CLAUSE is a Sentence serving to limit a Noun in the same manner as the Adjective: 'the crown that Napoleon wore;' the way that he ought to go;''the causes that led to the war,' &c.

It has already been remarked that this is the construction most suited to the employment of that' as a relative, in preference to 'who' or which.'

THE VERB.

1. The VERB is the part of speech concerned in predication; that is, in affirming or denying-in presenting something to be believed or disbelieved, something that can be acted on. There can be no sentence without a Verb. The sun shines;' 'the sea is calm;' 'Milton wrote Paradise Lost.'

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In affirmation, as has been seen, there must always be two things, a subject and a predicate. The subject is expressed by a noun or its

TRANSITIVE VERBS.

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equivalent; the predicate always contains a verb. Whenever any word has the effect of predicating or affirming, it is from that circumstance a verb. But verbs have the further grammatical distinction of being inflected to express varieties of time, person, number, manner of action, &c. A verb proper is thus distinguished from a word belonging to some other part of speech that may be used in predication. The adverb 'away' may be employed for the verb 'go,' but it is not on that account a true grammatical verb; we do not say 'I away, thou awayest, they awayed.'

To classify the different kinds of predications serves no purpose in Grammar, but belongs to Logic. We should derive no assistance from the common classification into being,' 'doing,' and 'suffering,' even if it were a correct division, which may be very much doubted.

The logical classification of Predicates may be seen in Mill's Logic. There are five in all-Existence, Co-existence, Succession, Causation, and Resemblance. The meaning is that every sentence affirms or denies of one or more things, some one or other of these five properties: There is light' (existence); the lion is carnivorous' (co-existence); 'night follows day' (succession); 'heat melts bodies' (causation); three times four is twelve' (resemblance).

For purely grammatical purposes, verbs are classified as follows:2. I. TRANSITIVE VERBS; as 'the fire warms the room.' Here' warm' is called transitive, because the action passes over to and affects a certain object, the room.' This is contrasted with another class of verbs exemplified by the fire glows,' where the action, 'glowing,' is said not to pass away from, but to adhere to, the fire. It is with a transitive verb that we have a sentence containing subject, action, and object, or the completion of the predicate by an object.

The distinction of transitive and intransitive is important for the purposes of grammar, but it is not always a distinction in the nature of things. We find that the same verb, expressing the same action, can be both transitive and intransitive. Thus in the child sees the candle,' the verb is transitive; in the new-born child sees, the puppy is blind,' the same verb is intransitive. The difference of the two cases may be explained thus: In the transitive application a special and single act is expressed, 'seeing the candle; in the other, the action, seeing,' is generalized, that is, spoken of generally, and the particular modes are, therefore, suppressed. So, men build houses' (trans.); men build, and time pulls down' (intrans.). Speaking of painting, Cowper says:—

Blest be the art that can immortalize.

Some of the verbs named causative, which are transitive, are derived from intransitive verbs by an internal modification, as follows:

We may also employ intransitive verbs as transitive and causative without any change, as the horse walks' (intrans.); the groom walked the horse' (trans. and causative). The wood floated; the raftsman floated the wood down the river.'

Transitive verbs are construed in the passive voice; the object of the active verb being the subject or nominative of the passive verb: 'The steam-engine was invented by Watt.' Reflective transitives are those where the object is the same as the subject: 'He defended himself.' A passive construction is forbidden here by the nature of the

case.

3. II. INTRANSITIVE VERBS; as 'come,' lie,' 'sit,'' stand,' 'walk,' ' run,'' speak,'' bark,' 'wonder,' 'groan,' 'sleep.'

A distinction has been drawn between intransitive verbs expressing action (flies, moves, walks) and verbs expressing merely a state (sleeps, lies, rests), which last are called neuter verbs. But it is often impossible to draw the line where activity ends and neutrality begins. If any difference were to be expressed between the two classes, it would be that such verbs as 'sleep,' 'lie,' 'rest,' express abstinence from action, or the restraining of action; but no grammatical constructions depend upon this difference.

Intransitive verbs can often take what seems a prepositional object, as 'I wonder at his zeal;' they came to the resolution;' his friends stood by him.' By an allowable process, the prepositions in such cases become adverbs united to the verbs, constituting them compound verbs, and rendering them transitive likewise; what was the object of the preposition being now the object of the verb. Thus we have the verbs wonder at, come to,' stand by,' 'speak to,' 'ride about' (the town, the fields), which are often transitive in the fullest sense, as tested by the passive construction; his zeal was wondered at; the resolution was come to;' the servant was spoken to by the master.' So, 'robbers fell upon him; he was fallen upon by robbers.' An exception to the use of a passive construction in such cases would be the sea is run into by the Thames.' This we might say grammatically, but we refrain, on the ground that the sea is too little impressed by the flow of the Thames to be made the subject of the affirmation.

4. There are certain verbs termed Copula or Apposition verbs, of which the leading example is the substantive verb 'be;' the others are such as become,' 'seem,' 'appear,' 'grow,' &c. The noun that follows a verb of this class is said to be in apposition with the nominative, instead of being governed by it as an object. 'He was king' is different from 'he dethroned a king.'

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These verbs are now considered as incomplete predicates, or verbs of incomplete predication. He lived an apostle, and died a martyr.' Here lived' is only a part of the predicate; an apostle' is necessary to complete it.

There is an ambiguity attaching to the verb 'be,' from the circumstance that it is also used to declare that a thing exists, as 'God is.' Both uses occur in the passage, We believe that he is (existence), and that he is (copula) the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'

AUXILIARY AND IMPERSONAL VERBS.

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5. It is usual to designate a certain class of verbs by the name auxiliary. They are the verbs that contribute to form the tenses of the ordinary verbs. But they all fall under one or other of the three foregoing classes. 'Have,' 'do,' 'will,' are transitives; 'be' is the copula verb; may' and 'can' are transitives, having for their objects the infinitives of verbs: 'I can run.'

6. The impersonal verbs are, strictly speaking, verbs defective in the persons, being used only with the third person singular; they are hence called 'unipersonal.' Such are 'it rains,' 'it snows.'

7. Other parts of speech are sometimes used as verbs; as 'Hence; home, you idle creatures;' Up, Guards, and at 'em.' There is in such instances an obvious ellipsis, or omission of the proper verb; 'go hence.' Nouns, as we have seen, are freely converted into verbs, and regularly conjugated as such: 'he ages fast. The same is true of adjectives: idle,'' better,'' dry, smooth,' &c., are examples.

THE ADVERB.

1. The Adverb is a word used to limit or modify the meaning of Verbs, Adjectives, and other Adverbs: she sings brilliantly; a very great pity;' exceedingly well.'

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These are the parts of speech that are, properly speaking, modified by adverbs; although instances are pointed out where they are joined to prepositions, to phrases, and even to nouns.

Prepositions long after the event,' much before the time,' greatly above his reach.' But we may consider that the adverb in such expressions really qualifies the adverbial phrase made up of the preposition and noun,much (before the time).

Compound phrase: he boldly (fought his way to the barrier'). In this construction it might seem not improper to say that boldly' qualifies the whole action, rather than the verb alone (fought). The barn-owl sometimes (carries off rats').

As regards the noun, such examples as these may be given: 'I shall study only instruction; he looked to his reputation solely; an only son.' But it would be better in these instances to regard only,'' solely,' in the light of adverbs used as adjectives; in the phrase 'an only son,' no other view could well be taken. Another apparent example is, 'Napoleon, lately Emperor of the French.' Here, however, there is a manifest omission of a verb, which lately' would qualify, being lately,' or who was lately.' The same might be said of the house here,' for the house that is here.' In such an expression as he was fully master of his subject,' we might treat the word 'master' as having the form of a noun with the sense of a verb. The more regular form in such a case would be he had fully mastered his subject.' We are therefore to consider that as a rule the noun is not properly qualified by an adverò, but by an adjective or some of its equivalents; and the parts of speech that are properly qualified by adverbs are verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

2. Before classifying adverbs according to their signification (as