by the Neuter Adjective Plural, as ovσiká (fysika). The treatises of Aristotle are generally so named. To apply this, I conceive that, in the Middle Ages, a science of Greek origin might have its name drawn from two sources, viz., from the name of the art or science, or from the name of the books wherein it was treated. In the first case it had a Singular form, as, Physic, Logic; in the second case a Plural form, as, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Optics."-Latham, p. 222.

Pains, Riches, and Wages, are more usually considered as plural, though riches seems to have been the French richesse, and, therefore, strictly, no more plural than gentlenesse. Wages was originally wagis, and really singular. Pains, when preceded by much, should have a singular verb. News is generally singular. Odds and Means are either singular or plural. Measles, as the name of a disease, is no more plural than gout or fever. Billiards has the sense of game, containing unity of idea. Ethics, Metaphysics, and other similar words, comprehending each the whole system of a particular science, do not convey the idea of parts or particular branches, but of a whole collectively, and hence seem to be treated as words belonging to the singular number. Alms was originally a noun singular, being a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon almesse, Greek λenμoovvn. The s belonged to the word just as the s in goose does. "This almesse shouldst thou do of

thy proper things."-Chaucer.

$163. Some Nouns have SOMETIMES THE SAME FORM FOR BOTH NUMBERS, and at OTHER TIMES A REGULAR PLURAL FORM; such are Dozen, pair, brace, couple, score. "He bought ten dozen;"" he bought them by dozens."

§ 164. "COMPOUNDS, consisting of two or more words connected by a hyphen, are generally composed either of two nouns, of which one is used in the sense of an adjective, as man-trap, where man is really an adjective; or of a noun and adjective, as court-martial; or of a noun and some expression having the force of an adjective, as father-in-law, where in-law has the force of an adjective as much as legal. In all these compounds the sign of the plural is added to that part of the compound which really constitutes the noun, whether at the end or not; as, man-traps, courts-martial,

fathers-in-law. In forming the possessive case, the rule is different, the sign of the possessive being uniformly suffixed to the compound expression; thus, father-in-law, plural fathers-in-law, possessive fathers-in-law's."-Hart's Grammar, p. 42.

§ 165. There are FOUR SIMPLE FORMS OF THE PLURAL in English, and consequently four processes by which a singular is converted into a plural: 1. The addition of s or es; 2. By a change of vowel; 3. By the addition of n; 4. By the addition of r. Notwithstanding this, it is very certain that the plural of a new word would not be formed in en, like oxen; nor yet by a change of vowel, like feet; nor yet by the addition of r, as childer; but by the addition of the sound of 8, Z, or es. This shows that the process by which ox is changed into oxen, foot into feet, and child into children, is no longer in operation; in other words, that it is obsolete, while the process that changes father into fathers is still in operation; in other words, current, or vital, or existing.

CASES OF NOUNS.

§ 166. CASE denotes the relation which a Noun sustains to other words in the sentence, expressed sometimes by its Termination, and sometimes by its Position. Nouns have three Cases, the Nominative, the Possessive or Genitive, and the Objective or Accusative.

The NOMINATIVE CASE is the Noun in its simple form, and denotes the relation of the Subject to the finite Verb; as, "Man speaks;" "John is loved."

The POSSESSIVE or GENITIVE CASE denotes the relation of Possession or Origin, and is formed by adding to the simple form the letter s, with an apostrophe before it; as, "Man's virtue;" "Milton's poems."

The OBJECTIVE or ACCUSATIVE CASE is the Noun in its simple form, and denotes the relation of the Object to the Verb, or the complement of a Preposition; as, "He struck the soldier," "he lives in Boston." To these cases might be added the Dative and the Vocative. See 176.

§ 167. Case is from the Latin word casus, a falling. The cases were supposed to fall or decline from the Nominative,

which was written in a perpendicular, and therefore called rectus casus, the right case, while the others were written from that at different angles, and therefore called obliqui ca. sus, the oblique cases. The cases in the ancient languages were formed by varying the terminations, and thus expressing a few of the obvious and common relations. In the Latin language nouns have six cases, in the Anglo-Saxon four. The Latin word PATER is declined as follows:

§ 168. In the following example we have nine cases of the

Laplandish language, expressed by variable terminations:

Nom., Joulke, a foot. Gen., Joulken, of a foot. Dat., Joulkas, to a foot. Acc., Joulken, a foot. Voc., Joulk, a foot.

Ab.,

Joulkest, from a foot.
Priv., Joulket, without a foot.

Mid., Joulkin, with a foot.
Loc., Joulkesn, in a foot.

Some of the Indian dialects, instead of using inflections or prepositions to express the different relations, employ postpositions; as, Hhoda, a God; Hhoda-ka, of a God; Hhoda-ko, to a God. For the difference between an Ancient and a Modern language, in the use of inflections and prepositions, see § 33.

§ 169.

Nom., Book, Books.
Poss., Book's, Books'.
Obj. Book, Books.

2. MEN.

Sing.

Plur.

Man, Men.

Man's, Men's.
Man, Men.

INFLECTION OF THE GENITIVE.

§ 170. When the nominative plural ends in s, the possessive plural is formed by adding only an apostrophe; when it does not end in s, the possessive plural is formed by adding both the apostrophe and the s. See examples of declension.

Generally, when the singular ends in ss, or in letters of a similar sound, and the next word begins with s, or when there is an s also in the penult, the apostrophic s is omitted, but the apostrophe is added; as, For righteousness' sake; for conscience' sake; Moses' disciples.

§ 171. When the letter s, added as the sign of the possessive, will coalesce with the terminating sound of the Noun, it is pronounced in the same syllable; as, John's; but if it will not coalesce, it adds another syllable to the word; Thomas's, pronounced as if spelled Thomasis. There would be some advantage in returning to this mode of spelling, as some eminent writers have done.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH GENITIVE.

§ 172. The following extracts will show the transition from the Anglo-Saxon Genitive to the present English Possessive case:

In Alfred's will, "And ic bidde in Godes naman." And I bid in God's name. He died October 28, 900.

In a book called "Ormulum," written by one Orm, about 1180, is the following:

"And Cristess moder, Marye, was att tatt bridalles sæte."

"And Christ's mother, Mary, was at that bridal's feast."

In an Elegy upon the death of Edward I., July 5, 1307, there is the following:

"The pope is to his chaumber wende,
For dole he might ne speke na more,
And after cardenales he sende,

That much couthen of Cristes love."

Chaucer, who died October 25, 1400, uses the AngloSaxon Genitive:

"And when he in his chamber was alone,

He down upon his beddis sette."

"And I ride with Gold so red,

And I have to do with landes law."

DAME BERNERS (1496).

In the 16th century, the words his, her, and their were introduced into use instead of the Genitive case:

"Where is this mankind? Who lives to age

Fit to be made Methusalem his page?"
DR. DONNE.

"And by Ronix her womanish subtlety"-Ronixis or Ronix's womanish subtlety. "About the Hollanders their throwing off the monarchy of Spain."-Wellwood, Memoirs. "My paper is Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength." Addison, in this quotation, uses this form of expression, and elsewhere justifies it. "The same single letter s on many occasions does the office of a whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers." Spect., No. 207.

Yet opposition had been made to this innovation. "Ben Jonson, in his Grammar, which came out in 1640, after his death, says, 'Nouns ending in x, s, sh, g, and ch, take to the Genitive singular i, and to the plural e, which distinctions, not observed, brought in first the monstrous syntax of the pronoun his joining with a noun betokening a possessor.' But this monstrous syntax' became so general, that the republisher of Ben Jonson, in 1662, taking upon him to correct his author, audaciously and tacitly put in room of this pasTo the Genitive cases of all nouns denoting a possage: sessor is added 's, with an apostrophe, thereby to avoid the gross syntax of the pronoun his joining with a noun; as, the Emperor's court, not the Emperor his court; thus foisting in his own conviction that 's stands for his, and yet retaining the expression the gross syntax,' he has made old Ben