what one individual is meant ; the determines the application of the noun to some particular individual, and hence it is termed, the definite article. It has the same primary signification with that; but they vary in the mode of their employment, the former never being employed without a noun, the latter having its noun frequently understood; and farther that is more emphatic than the: these, however, are the refinements of language, and have no foundation in the origin of words. Horne Tooke considers that as the past participle, and the as the imperative mood, of the verb thean, to get, to take, to assume: and the, he observes, may very well supply the place of the corresponding Anglo-Saxon article se, which is the imperative of seon to see: for it answers the same purpose in discourse to say, see man, or take man. We really like the import of our forefathers' article so much better than that of our own, that we shall cheerfully give up the for se, unless it should appear, that the and that have their origin in some verb signifying to point at.

Of that large class of restrictives called numerals, the origin of some may be traced; and as we wish to give our readers an insight into the labours of Mr. H. Tooke, we shall mention , his derivation of words in this class. It is in the highest degree probable, that all numeration was originally performed by the fingers, the actual resort of the ignorant; for the number of the fingers is still the utmost extent of numeration.* The hands doubled, closed, or shut in, may therefore well be denominated ten (the past participle of tynan, to enclose, to shut in), for therein you have closed all numeration; and if you want more, you must begin again, ten and one, ten and two, &c., twain-tens, twenty, when you must begin again as before. Score is the past participle of the verb to shear, to separate; and means separated parcels or talleys. The ordinal numbers, as they are called, are formed like the abstract

* The Kamschatkans, however, take in the toes; and go as far as twenty; but this is the limit of their numeration. The Mexicans reckoned by twenties; probably from the same cause.

nouns in eth; fifth, sixth, tenth, &c. is the unit which fiveth, six-eth, ten-eth, i. e. makes up the number five, six, ten, &c.

III. OF THE PRONOUN.-So much has already been said respecting the force of the Pronoun, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon it here. Horne Tooke's derivation of it must however be stated, as it shews what have been the actual procedures of language in the formation of one of our pronouns, and gives an insight into the probable origin of the rest. It, formerly written hit and het, is the past participle of the Gothic verb haitan, to name, and, therefore, means the person or persons, thing or things named, or afore-said: and accordingly was applied by all our old writers indifferently to singular and plural nouns. We do not know whether a similar opinion, as to the origin of pronouns, had been previously laid before the public, but the philosophical Greek professor of Glasgow, (who, in his very interesting and important investigations, has often anticipated Mr. Tooke,) long ago delivered it as his opinion, that some, at least, of the pronouns are participles; and if we mistake not, traced the origin of yw, and ipse, as follows. Eyw, in the more ancient dialect of Greece, was eywv, which is an obvious abbreviation or corruption of λyw; so that syw (whence the Latin and other languages have their first person, signifies the speaking person. Ipse is the Latin past participle from έw; and though this verb is not to be found in Latin writers, those who know how much the Latin is a dialect of the Greek, will not feel this a material difficulty: on this derivation, ipse signifies the said person, &c. These speculations might be advantageously extended, would our limits permit; but sufficient has been said to show, that these words are not of that unintelligible nature which has been usually supposed.

Respecting the inflexion of pronouns, the same general principles are applicable, as respecting that of nouns. His is obviously he's; and whatever be the origin of the possessive

G 2

termination of the noun, it has the same origin here. Mine, thine, and hern and theirn still retained in some of our dialects, have apparently the same origin as wooden, woollen, &c. The objective form is merely a grammatical appropriation of one of the forms of the pronouns, to a particular purpose; and we still find that her, among the vulgar, is commonly employed as the subject of verbs, instead of she.

Of the Relatives.-Though we see no reason to give the appellation of Pronoun to those words which are called Adjective Pronouns, (and accordingly we class them as restrictives), yet there is one word of peculiar importance, which seems properly a pronoun, and to which some attention is necessary, viz. the Relative. We have already observed several of the contrivances of language to particularize general terms; another is, to restrict or explain the general term, by means of a dependent sentence connected with it by a relative. We will first consider what the relative performs, and then how it performs it. Take the following examples: "every man, who loves truth, abhors falsehood; and John, who loves truth, hates falsehood." If the relative clause had been omitted in the former sentence, the remaining assertion would have been false; here then it is restrictive; in the second it is merely explanatory; and in such cases, so far from being necessary, may even destroy the unity and force of the sentence. To explain the subject of discourse, and to restrict its signification, are the two offices of the relative. If the custom of language allowed it, precisely the same purpose might be answered by an adjective or participle connected with the term, as, every man loving truth, &c. and it might seem useless to introduce a new procedure; but the utility of the present plan is obvious, when we consider the immense number of new words which must be introduced to supply the place of the relative, and further, that it enables us to state a greater variety of circumstances in connexion with the antecedent, and occasionally to state them more forcibly.

The relative is equivalent to a personal pronoun with a connective of general signification. We do not mean to affirm that, in the original signification, that connective will be found; but that such is the present force. The dependent clause may be joined to the principal, either by simple juxtaposition, or by means of a connecting particle, or lastly by a word including the force of a connective particle. Instances of the first, are, "The ship he commanded was wrecked;" and, “The man that (i. e. that man) loves wisdom, shall find her:" in both of which, the dependent clause is connected in that natural manner which is frequently adopted in our simple language, to express connexion in ideas; and in the same manner, the early Greek writers employ their definite article for their relative. As an instance of the second kind, we may adduce this mode of expression: "A man if he do not love truth cannot be virtuous" in which, the dependent clause is joined by a connective, though of a less general kind than what is implied in the relative. This last mode is the most general, and on the whole the most useful, because most general and least ambiguous. Without venturing to assert that who essentially differs in its original signification from that, it certainly does now include more signification; and that additional signification we think to be what is expressed by and: so that, "Every man who loves truth, hates falsehood," means, Every man and he loves truth, hates falsehood, i. e. as Mr. H. Tooke has shewn us, Every man add (this circumstance) he loves truth, &c.

CHAP. IV.

GRAMMAR, Continued.

The Verb-Participle-Adverb-Connective-Directions for the Study of Grammar.

IV. OF THE VERB. As we do not profess to consider the theory of grammar in general, we have not much occasion to enlarge respecting this important sort of words; for our language, simple in most of its procedures, here approaches almost to the verge of simplicity. Some languages have a great variety of changes in the form of the verb to denote the subject of affirmation, and the mode and time in which the affirmation is to be taken: we have only four, and of those, three are, to say the least, in no way necessary. We have already said enough respecting the general nature of the verb, to render it unnecessary to recur again to that point, and we shall here direct the attention of our readers to the modes of signification assumed by the English verb: only repeating, that the Verb is a word which, when preceded by a noun or pronoun, or by what may be represented by it, expresses affirmation. In English, and in other languages, words appropriated to express affirmation are often used without any such force in such cases it might, in some respects, be more scientific to cease to give them the appellation of verbs; but it would be inconvenient in practice, and we prefer speaking

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