A Week of Instruction and Amusement Part 2

_Anne._ Anne, Clapham, Limetree, are proper nouns; girl, village, tree, are common nouns.

_Mrs. Harley._ _Gender_ is the distinction of s.e.x; there are three genders, the _masculine_ which denotes the male kind as, a man: the _feminine_ which denotes the female kind as, a woman: and the _neuter_ which denotes things without animated life as, a cabbage.

_Number_ is the distinction of one from many: there are two numbers, the _singular_ which speaks of one; and the _plural_ which speaks of more than one. Tell me some nouns with their genders and numbers.

_Anne._ I know that mamma is a noun of the feminine gender and singular number; men is a noun masculine and plural; table is neuter and singular.

_Mrs. Harley._ Very well. A _p.r.o.noun_ is used to avoid repeating the noun as, Frederic was good, and _he_ went out. There are four kinds of p.r.o.nouns. _Personal p.r.o.nouns_, as, _I_, _me_; _thou_, _thee_; _he_, _him_; _she_, _her_; _it_: _we_, _us_; _you_; _they_, _them_.

_Possessive p.r.o.nouns_ which denote property, as, _my_, _mine_; _thy_, _thine_; _his_; _her_, _hers_; _its_: _our_, _ours_; _your_, _yours_; _their_, _theirs_; _whose_, _ones_, and _anothers_. _Relative p.r.o.nouns_ which refer to a noun going before or coming after them; they are, _who_, _whom_, _which_, _what_, and _whether_. _Demonstrative p.r.o.nouns_ point out some particular object; they are, _this_, _these_; _that_, and _those_.

_Anne._ I don't think I can remember all these words without reading them over a great many times, but I quite understand the use of the p.r.o.noun, for it would be very awkward to say, Mary played, Mary laughed, and Mary danced; I ought to say, Mary played, she laughed, and she danced.

_Mrs. Harley._ I am pleased with your attention. The _adjective_ explains the _quality_, _colour_, _form_, _size_, or any other property of the noun, as, good, blue, square, large. The signification of adjectives may be increased or diminished, and this is called _comparison_; there are two degrees of comparison, the comparative, which increases or diminishes the quality, is formed by adding _er_ to the adjective in its positive state; the superlative increases or diminishes the comparative to its last degree, and is formed by adding _est_ to the adjective in its positive or original state, as long, longer, longest; short, shorter, shortest. When the adjective consists of more than two syllables, the comparative and superlative are formed by prefixing the words more and most to the adjective; as, beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful. Some adjectives differ entirely from these rules in forming their comparison, as, good, better, best; bad, worse, worst. Now, some examples.

_Anne._ Fine is an adjective because it is a quality, black because it is a colour, coa.r.s.e is an adjective in its positive state, brighter is the comparative degree, and youngest is the superlative.

_Mrs. Harley._ A _verb_ is a word which signifies _to be_, _to do_, or _to suffer_. Verbs are divided into _neuter_, _active_, and _pa.s.sive_.

Neuter verbs merely signify being, or that kind of action which has no effect upon any thing beyond the performer, as, _I am_, _I sit_, _I walk_. (You may distinguish those neuter verbs that seem to imply action from active verbs by their making a complete sense by themselves, whereas active verbs always require a noun or p.r.o.noun after them to finish the sense.)

_Active verbs_, denote action as, I eat, I love, I work. _Pa.s.sive verbs_, denote suffering, they are only the _participle pa.s.sive_ of an active verb with a tense of the neuter verb _to be_ before it; as, _I am loved_, _you are dressed_.

Any word is a verb before which you can place a _noun_, a _p.r.o.noun_, or the word _to_, as _Mary talks_, _he works_, _to be_. The different times when actions are performed are called _tenses_, there are properly only three, the present, as _I am_, the past as _I was_, and the future as _I shall be_; but these are subdivided into others; and there are a great many other things relating to verbs, which you shall learn when you are a little older.

_Anne._ Thank you, mamma, I believe I understand all that you have told me about verbs, except the meaning of _participle pa.s.sive_.

_Mrs. Harley._ A _participle pa.s.sive_, my dear, is that part of a verb which follows a tense of either of the verbs _to have_, or _to be_.

Some people consider it a distinct part of speech.

_Adverbs_ denote _time_, _place_, _manner_, and _quant.i.ty_; therefore you may always know them by recollecting their meaning: _to-day_, _there_, _prettily_, _much_, are adverbs.

Prepositions serve to connect words with one another and to shew the relation between them. They require some word after them to complete the sense; as, come _to_ me, _up_, _down_, _to_, _from_, _for_, are prepositions.

Conjunctions join words and sentences together, as you _and_ I are going, _but_ she stays at home.

Interjections express some emotion of the mind as, Alas! Oh! Ah!

I am afraid, my dear, you are quite tired of this long lesson, but I don't expect you to remember all I have told you; we will talk over a _very_ small portion of it every day, and then in time you will be able to tell me what part of speech any word is that I may ask you.--I will give you a little example to shew you what I mean and then you shall run away.

The rose in your nosegay was very beautiful a little while ago; but alas! it is now quite dead!

_The_, an article definite--_rose_, a substantive, neuter gender, singular number--_in_, a preposition--_your_, a possessive p.r.o.noun--_nosegay_, a substantive--_was_, a verb neuter past tense--_very_, an adverb--_beautiful_, an adjective--_a_, an article indefinite--_little_, an adjective--_while_, a substantive--_ago_, an adverb--_but_, a conjunction--_alas!_, an interjection--_it_, a personal p.r.o.noun neuter gender--_is_, a verb--_now_, an adverb--_quite_, an adverb,--_dead_, a verb, participle pa.s.sive.

Children might soon understand that a case in grammar signifies the different terminations of nouns and p.r.o.nouns. A noun has two cases, the nominative which simply names the object: it generally precedes the verb, and answers to the questions who? which? what? The genitive denotes possession and is formed by adding an apostrophe, and the letter _s_ to the nominative; it answers to the question whose? When the plural nominative ends in _s_ the apostrophe only is added: ex. _Anne_ plays. Who? Anne.--_Mary's_ gown. Whose? _Mary's._--_Birds'_ feathers.

Whose? _Birds'._

A personal p.r.o.noun has two cases the _nominative_ and the _objective_.

The nominative precedes the verb, and requires it to be of the same person and number as itself; it answers to the questions, who? which?

what? The objective follows the verb, and answers to the question whom?

ex. _I_ dance, who? _I._--We love _her_, whom? _her._

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

_Nom._ _Objec._ _Nom._ _Objec._ I Me We Us Thou Thee You You He Him They Them She Her It It

The accusative case of the relative p.r.o.noun _who_ is _whom_.

_CHAPTER IV_

SUNDAY.

_Mrs. Harley._ Come hither, my love: you know that to-day is called _Sunday_, and is set apart for the observance of _religious_ duties.

You have read in the Bible that G.o.d created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that therein is, in the s.p.a.ce of six days, that he rested on the seventh, and called that day holy, ordering his people so to observe it, and to abstain from every kind of labour throughout its duration. Therefore, the Jews, to whom this commandment was originally given, keep their sabbath on Sat.u.r.day, the last day in the week; but Christians, who have been taught the blessed religion of Jesus, begin the week with praising G.o.d. No command for changing the day of worship seems ever to have been given, either by our Saviour or the apostles; but we know that it was the custom of the earliest Christians, even during our Lord's time, to meet together on the first day of the week for the purpose of holding religious a.s.semblies; and all nations which have embraced the religion of the New Testament have adhered to this practice.

_Anne._ Thank you, mamma. Will you now perform your promise of giving me a new morning and evening prayer?

_Mrs. Harley._ In the evening I will, my dear; but at present, I wish to give you a short account of the contents of the books contained in the sacred volumes. As yet you have only read detached parts of them, and before you proceed to a more general perusal, it may be useful to have some distinct idea of the whole. The account I shall give you I have chiefly extracted from Dr. Prettyman's Elements of Christian Theology.

All the books of the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, excepting a few pa.s.sages towards the conclusion of the volume, which appear in the Chaldee tongue. The English translation used in all our churches was begun and completed in the reign of James the first.

The five first books of the Bible are, Genesis, which begins with an account of the creation of the world, and ends with the death of Joseph.

Exodus, which relates the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt; their bondage in that country, deliverance by Moses, and the promulgation of the law.

Leviticus, which describes the offices and duties of the Levites and priests.

Numbers, which contains an account of the numbering of the people in the wilderness when a very miraculous increase was found to have taken place since the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt.

Deuteronomy, which contains a repet.i.tion of the civil and moral law, and ends with the death of Moses. These five books are called the Pentateuch, and were written by Moses. They contain the history of 2552 years and a half.

Joshua, contains an account of the conquest and division of Canaan among the twelve tribes, and ends with the death of Joshua. This book is supposed to have been written by himself, excepting the last few verses, which were added by one of his successors.

Judges gives an account of the Jewish history from the death of Moses to that of Sampson. It was most probably written by Samuel.

Ruth contains the history of the person of that name, a native of Moab: she married Boaz an Israelite, and was the great grandmother of David.

This book is generally ascribed to Samuel. The first book of Samuel completes the government of the Judges, and relates the appointment of Saul to be king of Israel, the rejection of his family, and the anointing of David.

The second book of Samuel continues the history of David after the death of Saul. Most probably, Samuel wrote the first 24 chapters of the first book, and the prophets Gad and Nathan the remainder of it, and all the second.

The first book of Kings commences with an account of the death of David, and continues to that of Jehosaphat.

The second book of Kings continues the history of the kings of Judah and Israel to the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. These books were probably compiled by Ezra, from the records which were kept both at Jerusalem and Samaria of all public transactions.