Pronouns must agree with their antecedents, or nouns which they represent, in gender, number, and person."--Merchant's Gram., pp. 86, 111, and 130. "The adverb where, is often improperly used, for the relative pronoun and preposition."--Ib., 94. "The termination ish imports diminution, or lessening the quality."--Ib., 79. "In this train all their verses proceed: the one half of the line always answering to the other."--Blair's Rhet., p. 384. "To an height of prosperity and glory, unknown to any former age."--Murray's Sequel, p. 352. "HWILC, who, which, such as, such an one, is declined as follows."--Gwilt's Saxon Gram., p. 15. "When a vowel precedes y, an s only is required to form a plural."--Bucke's Gram., p. 40. "He is asked what sort of a word each is, whether a primitive, derivative, or compound."--British Gram., p. vii. "It is obvious, that neither the 2d, 3d, nor 4th chapter of Matthew is the first; consequently, there are not four first chapters."--Churchill's Gram., p. 306. "Some thought, which a writer wants art to introduce in its proper place."--Blair's Rhet., p. 109. "Groves and meadows are most pleasing in the spring."--Ib., p. 207. "The conflict between the carnal and spiritual mind, is often long."--Gurney's Port. Ev., p. 146. "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful."--Burke's Title-page.
"Silence, my muse! make not these jewels cheap, Exposing to the world too large an heap."--Waller, p. 113.
CHAPTER III.--NOUNS.
A Noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned: as, George, York, man, apple, truth.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.--All words and signs taken technically, (that is, independently of their meaning, and merely as things spoken of,) are nouns; or, rather, are things read and construed as nouns; because, in such a use, they temporarily assume the syntax of nouns: as, "For this reason, I prefer contemporary to cotemporary."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 175; Murray's Gram., i, p. 368. "I and J were formerly expressed by the same character; as were U and V."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 3. "Us is a personal pronoun."--Murray. "Th has two sounds."--Ib. "The 's cannot be a contraction of his, because 's is put to female [feminine] nouns; as, Woman's beauty, the Virgin's delicacy."--Dr. Johnson's Gram. "Their and theirs are the possessives likewise of they, when they is the plural of it."--Ib. "Let B be a now or instant."--Harris's Hermes, p. 103. "In such case, I say that the instant B is the end of the time A B."--Ib., 103. "A is sometimes a noun: as, a great A."--Todd's Johnson. "Formerly sp was cast in a piece, as st's are now."--Hist. of Printing, 1770. "I write to others than he will perhaps include in his we."--Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 455. "Here are no fewer than eight ands in one sentence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 112; Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 319. "Within this wooden O;" i. e., circle.--Shak.
OBS. 2.--In parsing, the learner must observe the sense and use of each word, and class it accordingly. Many words commonly belonging to other parts of speech are occasionally used as nouns; and, since it is the manner of its use, that determines any word to be of one part of speech rather than of an other, whatever word is used directly as a noun, must of course be parsed as such.
1. Adjectives made nouns: "The Ancient of days did sit."--Bible. "Of the ancients."--Swift. "For such impertinents."--Steele. "He is an ignorant in it."--Id. "In the luxuriance of an unbounded picturesque."--Jamieson. "A source of the sublime;" i. e., of sublimity.--Burke. "The vast immense of space:" i. e., immensity.--Murray. "There is none his like."--Job, xli, 33. "A little more than a little, is by much too much."--Shakspeare. "And gladly make much of that entertainment."--Sidney. "A covetous man makes the most of what he has."--L'Estrange. "It has done enough for me."--Pope. "He had enough to do."--Bacon.
"All withers here; who most possess, are losers by their gain,
Stung by full proof, that bad at best, life's idle all is vain."
--Young.
"Nor grudge I thee the much the Grecians give,
Nor murm'ring take the little I receive."
--Dryden.
2. Pronouns made nouns: "A love of seeing the what and how of all about him."--STORY'S LIFE OF FLAXMAN: Pioneer, Vol. i, p. 133. "The nameless HE, whose nod is Nature's birth."--Young, Night iv. "I was wont to load my she with knacks."--Shak. Winter's Tale. "Or any he, the proudest of thy sort."--Shak. "I am the happiest she in Kent."--Steele. "The shes of Italy."--Shak. "The hes in birds."--Bacon. "We should soon have as many hes and shes as the French."--Cobbet's E. Gram., Para. 42. "If, for instance, we call a nation a she, or the sun a he."--Ib., Para. 198. "When I see many its in a page, I always tremble for the writer."--Ib., Para. 196. "Let those two questionary petitioners try to do this with their whos and their whiches."--SPECT: Ash's Gr., p. 131.
"Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law Is death to any he that utters the
