are such as are used instead of other names, in order to avoid the repetition of the same word; as, I instead of my name; thou or you, instead of your name; he and she, instead of his name, or her name; and it where there is no distinction of sex.

There are three persons in these names; the first is the person speaking, the second is the person spoken to, the third is the person spoken of.

There are two numbers, singular and plural; the singular number speaks of one, as man; the plural of more than one, as men. Some words have no plural, as Philadelphia, Frankford; and others no singular, as ashes, bellows, &c. The persons are used in both numbers thus:

Names have two genders, masculine and feminine. The masculine gender expresses the male, as man, horse; and the feminine the female, as woman, mare. There are besides two modes of gender, the neuter and doubtful; the neuter expresses things without life, which consequently can have no sex, as a stick, or a stone; the doubtful requires another word to explain it, as sparrow requires either cock or hen to be placed before it, to determine its gender.

OF QUALITIES.

Qualities, or as they have been called, abjectives, are words expressive of the manners, properties, affections, and qualities of names, or things, as good, black, white, &c.

Qualities are distinguished by making sense with the word thing after them, as good thing, bad thing, black thing, white thing, &c.

Names are sometimes changed into the nature of quali

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ties; as, man's nature, for the nature of man; Pope's works, for the works of Pope; the President's house, for the house of the President-These are termed possessive qualities, and answer to the genitive case of the Latin. The possessive quality is the only case we have in English.

Qualities are compared by two degrees, formed from the word in its positive state-thus, if the quality in its positive state, is black, in the comparative degree it is blacker, or more black; and in the superlative degree, or the utmost increase ór diminution of its first quality, it is blackest, or most black.

Of AFFIRMATION.

Affirmations, which have been called verbs, express being, doing, or suffering; viz. being, as John is; doing, as I love ; suffering, as I am beaten.

There are three times, or tenses, the present, past, and future; or things now doing, that have been done, or will be done hereafter these are again subdivided into the time not perfectly past, and the time long past.

The present time affirms the thing, as love, dance; the past time generally ends in ed, as loved, danced; the other times are expressed by have, shall, will, as I do love, he shall love, she will love; thus the personal names, I, thou, he, she, they, &c. are assistant to the affirmations, and denote their number and person. As only two times, or tenses are expressed by the affirmation itself, its other times and manners are denoted by the nine following words, viz. do, will, shall, can, ought, have, am, or be, which are called helping affirmations.

Of PARTICLES.

Particles denote some circumstances of an action, and join words together; hence they are called the manners of words, and are of four sorts, viz:

1. Adverbs, which denote the manner and quality of the af

firmation, or verb; as, I fought well; which shews in what manner I fought.

2. Prepositions, which denote some circumstances of action, and shew the relation of words to each other; as, I'll go OVER the bridge; you live without the city; where over and without are prepositions.

3. Conjunctions, which join words and sentences together; as, Bob went to the fair, and I went with him. In which sentence the word and is a conjunction, and joins its two distinct parts together.

4. Interjections, which denote some sudden emotion or passion of the soul, and are independent of any other words; as, oh! alas! indeed! ah! hush! hark! &c.

OF SYNTAX.

Syntax, or the composition of sentences, teaches you to apply what you have learnt in the foregoing rules.

A sentence must contain absolutely, at least one affirmation, and one name, of which something is affirmed; as, God is just. This is called a simple sentence; but if we say God is just, but man is unjust, it is à compound sentence, as it contains two simple sentences joined together by the conjunction but.

The chief rule in the construction of sentences is, that the affirmation must agree with the name in number and person, as, John runs well; where the proper name JoнN, and the affirmation RUNS, are both in the third person singular, and consequently agree. To find the name in any sentence which should agree with the affirmation, ask the question, and then state the answer to be given it, as in the above sentence: Say, Who runs well? Answer, JOHN-John is therefore the name to agree with the affirmation, runs.

The name of multitude must be singular; thus, the crowd is great, not are great, because it is but one crowd.

When two singular names are joined together by a conjunction, the affirmation must be plural; thus, Bill and Tom fight, not fights.

The articles a, or an, and the, come before names and qualities; a is placed before a consonant, an before a vowel, and the indifferently before both: But sometimes in construction they are placed between the quality and name, as, so fair a face; so good an example; how great the gift.

INTRODUCTION.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING LETTERS.

EPISTOLARY writing, by which a great part of the commerce of human life is carried on, was esteemed by the Románs a liberal and polite accomplishment; and Cicero, the father of eloquence, and master of style, speaks with great pleasure in his epistles to Atticus, of his son's genius in this particular. Among them, it was undoubtedly a part of their education, and in the opinion of Mr. Locke, it well deserves a share in ours. "The writing letters," says this great genius, "enters so much into all the occasions of life, that no gentleman can avoid she wing himself in compositions of this kind. Occurrences will daily force him to make this use of his pen; which lays open his breeding, bis sense and his abilities, to a severer examination than any oral discourse."

When you sit down to write a letter, remember that this sort of writing should be, in some measure, like conversation. Observe this rule, and you will seldom be more at a loss to write, than you would be to speak to the person were he present. Letters are most agreeable when most familiar. But, though lofty phrases are improper, the style should not be low and mean; but let an easy complaisance, an open

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