by and by, &c. Where will you read? Here, there, &c. These questions will speedily lead the mind of the pupil to discover the nature of an adverb.

The verbs can only be taught by the definition.

Prepositions should be taught by showing the relation between two objects; your hand, for instance, and a book. Thus, hold your hand above, below, under, over, on, around, in the book, &c. One hour's lesson in this way will enable the pupil to get a clear idea of the nature of prepositions so as to distinguish them readily ever after.

As the use of conjunctions is to join sentences, the obvious way of teaching them by leaving blanks between words and sentences that would readily suggest the necessary copula to the pupils. Thus: You I were there John was not. I will love him still

he hate me ever so much, &c.

The exercises are all constructed on these principles and have been used with most satisfactory results for many years in the author's own classes. It is, indeed, solely from experi ence of their utility that he has ventured to intrude on public notice.

The structure of the examples may occasionally appear a little harsh, owing to the ordinary arrange nent having been departed from, to exercise the ingenuity of the pupils. It is hoped that this objection will not be considered of much importance.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

THE art of speaking and writing language correctly is called Grammar.

English Grammar is divided into four parts, ORTHOGRAPHY, ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, and PRO

SODY.

ORTHOGRAPHY means writing correctly. It treats of letters, and the proper mode of forming them into words.

ETYMOLOGY means a treatise on derivations. It treats not only of the derivation of words but also of their different sorts, and of the declensions or changes they undergo.

SYNTAX means combination in order.

It treats of the

connexion and arrangement of words in sentences.

PROSODY means the art of vocal sounds. It treats of the accent or stress laid on words, of pauses, emphasis, and intonation.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

In the English Alphabet there are twentysix letters; of which seven are Vowels, a, e, i, o, u, with w and y when they do not begin a syllable.

U, when sounded as "you," should be regarded as a Consonant; thus we say, "a union," not "an union."

The remaining letters, with w and y when they begin a syllable, are called Consonants.

Vowel means a vocal sound. The Vowels are so called because they form perfect sounds. Consonant means sounding with. The Consonants are so called because they cannot make perfect sounds except with the assistance of a vowel.

A

The union of two vowels in one sound is called a diphthong, as ea in heat. The union of three vowels in one sound is called a triphthong, as iew in view.

Syllable means taken together. A Syllable is the sound of one or more letters formed by one impulse of the voice, as a, an, and, height.

A word of one syllable is termed a monosyllable, as just; a word of two syllables a dissyllable, as just-ly; a word of three syllables a trisyllable, as just-i-fy; and a word of four or more syllables a polysyllable, as just-i-fi-ca-tion.

EXERCISE.*

Divide the following words into syllables, and underline the Vowels :

Unaccountable, account, accountable, expect, expecting, expectation, consider, considerably, consideration, consist, consisting, consistency. Write d over diphthongs and t over triphthongs:

Beauty, hoop, humorous, deep, hear, jewel, east, south, soup, bean, height, day, convey, jaw, caul, claim.

Words are called simple and compound. Compound words are formed by the combination of two or more together, as ship-carpenter. The mark between ship and carpenter is called a hyphen, which means bringing two or more words into one. Words not compound are called simple.

The first letter of a sentence, of every line of poetry, of a direct quotation, of the names of God, of names appropriated

*The teacher is recommended to go over all the exercises with the pupils in class, and to give every day's lesson thus gone over as an exercise to be brought written on the subsequent day, with marks such as the initial letter of the name placed above the word, or a line drawn under it, &c.

to individual persons, places, and things, of adjectives derived from these, of remarkable words, as the Reformation, the pronoun I, and the interjection O, should be capitals.

ETYMOLOGY.

Etymology means a treatise on derivations. It treats not only of the derivation of words, but of their different SORTS, and the CHANGES they undergo.

For derivations, see Appendix.

There are nine parts of speech, or sorts of words: Article,* Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection. ARTICLE.

An Article is a word placed before a noun, to limit its signification. Thus, a man means one man. The men means some particular men.

NOUN.+

Noun means name. A noun is the name of an animal, place, or thing, as Man, horse, London, beauty, hardness.

A noun is the name of a thing, that is, of something that exists-something we can think of. The word thing is by some supposed to be another form of think. It appears in that shape in the vulgar pronunciation of something, nothing"somethink," "nothink."

Properly speaking the Article is an Adjective. The word Article means little joint. It is a translation of the Greek word arthron, which had originally a peculiar signification not found in English.

The teacher will find the parts of speech given at full length further on; but he is strongly recommended to give his pupils a knowledge of their several natures before entering on the minor distinctions. Before the objective case can be properly understood there must be some knowledge of verbs and prepositions, &c,

EXERCISE.

Give a dozen names of things about you. Give the names of their most prominent qualities.

Mark the nouns and articles by writing n over nouns, and a over articles, in the following exercise:

The

The eye sees things. The ear hears sounds. All parts of the body possess feeling. qualities of a slate are smoothness and hardness. The frame is made of wood, which receives a certain amount of polish from the hand. The qualities of your coat are warmth, convenience, neatness, and fineness: the materials are good, but the make is bad.*

ADJECTIVE.

Adjective means added to. An adjective is a word added to a noun, to express some quality or attributes of the noun; as, tall men; several

men.

Adjectives may generally be known by answering to the question, What sort of? or, How many? thus, in the phrases wild birds, several birds, wild and several answer to the questions, What sort of? and, How many?

EXERCISE.

Join Adjectives to nouns you see around you. Point out the Adjectives, nouns, and articles; or, write out the exercise, putting ad over adjectives, n over nouns, and ar over articles :

More copious exercises will be found at the end of the Etymology. The teacher is recommended to adopt the word attribute, instead of quality, as being more comprehensive. The attribute of a noun means, according to Grammar usage, any notion connected with it. Thus, in the phrase, few lambs, fewness is an attribute of lambs.