We are more inclined to think that, if there is really an ellipsis in this construction, it is the ellipsis or suppression of a proposition, rather than of a preposition, or of an article. To illustrate by an example, suppose I am asked the price of a piece of cloth, I reply, This cloth cost thirty shillings. This is a complete proposition, but it does not contain, as I find when I come to the end of it, a sufficiently definite answer to the question. I therefore add, as it were by after-thought, the words a yard, equivalent to the additional proposition, A yard of it costs thirty shillings, or to the two additional propositions, A yard of it, I mean, costs thirty shillings. This kind of after-thought, we suspect, affords the true clue to the explanation of the origin of many otherwise puzzling constructions. See another case to which it applies in the next note. We might refer the learned reader to Greek constructions which, we think, most likely originated first from after-thought, and at last became established idioms in the progress of the language. Sometimes the insensible extension of such idioms, after they have been once received, has added to the difficulties which the grammarian has to encounter in explaining them. We refer to such examples as,

̓Αλλ' οὐκ ̓Ατρείδη ̓Αγαμέμνονι ἤνδανε θυμῷ.

But it did not please Agamemnon, son of Atreus-soul; equivalent to, It did not please Agamemnon-I mean it did not please his soul. Such datives as Suu here, we think first originated from after-thought. And in the same manner, perhaps, we may account for the origin of the accusative employed in Greek to specify the part, circumstance, &c., often imitated by the Latin poets.

When such expressions are often repeated, they become established idioms; their origin is forgotten; they are recognised as a regular mode of expressing a certain sort of modification; and are, sometimes (to increase the grammarian's perplexity), extended insensibly to serve purposes in language very different from those for which they were primarily employed.

The grammarians have said very little on the subject of these accusatives of time, &c., as we have ventured to call them, because they have unhesitat ingly concluded that a preposition is in all such cases suppressed-and that this ellipsis accounts completely for the construction. A more extensive knowledge of our very earliest English authors, might throw light on some of the idiomatic constructions now noticed, and might either confirm or set aside the explanations which we have suggested. We are not perfectly satisfied on some points. We wish more light. It is to be desired that those who are engaged in exploring the dark regions of our literature, would bear in mind those points in the construction of our language, which still need elucidation. And these are not a few. To do any service in this cause, those who engage in the inquiry must do so free from the trammels of all grammatical theories.

NOTE (e). We have another way of expressing weight, in which the word weight itself occurs as an accusative of weight, except we consider it as

employed originally by after-thought, to explain a proposition already completed. (See Note d.) For example, This bale is one hundred pounds weight. Here we might supply the words as to, or in or by. This would make a very clumsy as well as finical expression-such as, we suspect, our early straightforward forefathers never employed. We suppose that the word weight was added by after-thought, as we have said, to explain that pounds by weight, not pounds sterling, were meant. The difference between these two kinds of pounds is of ancient date in our financial history.

CHAPTER VI.

OF ADJECTIVES.

§ 85. (1) We pass now from that class of modifications which consists wholly or partly of nouns to those which are effected by words, invented and employed exclusively for the purpose of modification-of completing the noun and the verb. Here the adjectives claim our first attention.

OF ADJECTIVES.

(2) The adjectives rank next to the nouns and verbs in importance. (3) They have received the name of ADJECTIVE, because they are intended for the purpose of being ADJECTED, or added to a principal word to determine, limit, describe, or qualify it; or, to use the more general expression, which we employ as including all these purposes, to modify it.. (4) The adjective may be considered the chief modifier.

(5) We divide the adjectives into two classes, which we shall call descriptive adjectives (des. a.), and determinative adjectives (det. a.). (6) The descriptive adjectives are far the most numerous class, and, besides, the easiest to explain. (7) We shall consider them first, as a knowledge of their use will prepare the way for the better understanding of the determinatives.*

* It will be observed that we have not treated the participles as a distinct class of adjectives. The reason is that, except when employed in forming compound tenses, as already described, and in performing the part of

85. (1) Repeat the introductory remark.

(2) How do the adjectives rank in importance?

(3) Tell the reason assigned for giving this class of words the name ADJECTIVE (4) How may the adjective be considered?

(5) Into what classes are the adjectives divided? (6) What is said of the descriptive adjectives? (7) What reason is assigned for considering them first?

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THE DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES.-(8) The name descriptive is given to this class of words because they describe an object (expressed by the noun to which they are attached as attributives, or of which they are predicated), by some quality or property either attributed to it or asserted of it. (8 a) These words, by some called adjective nouns, are, like the abstract nouns, the names of qualities, properties, attributes of objects, but they are not, like the abstract nouns, employed as the subjects of propositions. (9) To illustrate this by an example, goodness is an abstract noun, the name of a moral quality, and can be employed as the subject of a proposition, Goodness is one of the divine attributes. Or it can be employed in modifying other nouns with the help of a preposition, as, A man of goodness. But good, also the name of the same moral quality, can predicates in contracted accessory propositions to be described hereafter, they differ nothing in their functions from descriptive adjectives. The difference between them and common descriptive adjectives is in meaning. The adjectives express qualities inherent in objects, the participles express actions attributively of which the noun they modify represents either the agent or the recipient or passive object. The participles of that very peculiar (peculiar as to significance) verb to be, may perhaps be regarded as forming an exception.

Participles in many cases become adjectives, when they are used not to express an action, but an inherent attribute. tinued, merges into an inherent attribute. Thus the participle loving, in An action indefinitely consuch phrases as, A loving friend, comes to express an inherent attribute, because the action is capable of indefinite continuance, or, in other words, becomes habitual. Some actions again produce permanent effects, and hence their perfect participles expressing the completion of these effects, come to be used as common adjectives to express acquired inherent qualities. Thus in the phrase, An educated man, a learned man, the words educated and learned are used as common descriptive adjectives, and express permanent though acquired qualities.

What we have described above, we believe to be the true distinction between a participle and a participle adjectively used. The assertion of the old grammarians, that when a participle ceases to indicate time, it becomes an adjective, appears to us incorrect. lish participles, which do not indicate time, but merely the state of the acAt all events it cannot apply to Engtion as completed or incomplete-perfect or imperfect.

(8) Why is the name descriptive given to this class of words?

(8 a) In what are the descriptive adjectives like, and in what unlike, abstract nouns? (9)

only be used adjectively, in connection with a principal word to which it is adjected, which it describes, or modifies.*

(10) It cannot, like the noun goodness, be used as the subject of a proposition. We can assert nothing of it. (11) We find indeed such propositions as, The good alone are happy, but it is obvious that the good is in this proposition an abbreviated expression for good men, good persons, or good people. Either men, or persons, or some noun of similar meaning, is manifestly implied. (12) To assert of what we understand by the term good, considered alone, that it is happy would be absurd. (13) When considered (formally, technically, or materialiter) as a mere word without reference to its meaning, we can employ it as the subject of such propositions as the following: Good is a word of one syllable or of four letters; Good is an adjective; Good expresses a moral quality, &c. (14) But these assertions are made in reference to the word or sign, not in reference to what GOOD denotes. (15) If we wish to make any assertion about the quality expressed by good, we must employ the abstract noun goodness, as the subject of the proposition.

(16) Lest we should be misunderstood, we must call the attention

*The adjective is a more brief, compact, complete way of expressing the same thing that is expressed by the noun and preposition. A good man is equivalent to, A man of goodness, and generally speaking, a much more convenient phrase. When we have an adjective to express a quality, it forms the most perfect kind of complement. The adjectives may be regarded as a most artificial contrivance-one of the last results of the refinement of language. The want of a word of this sort to express a quality, is often felt as a serious disadvantage by those who value a compact, terse, and forcible style of writing. For example, we have no adjective to express the attribute sensibility; for sensible does not express this attribute, but one entirely distinct from it. If we wish to speak of a man possessed of this quality, we have to say, A man of sensibility. Such lumbering complements, especially when often repeated, enfeeble style.

Illustrate this by an example. (10) What farther is said of the adjective good! (11) What is said in reference to the good in such an assertion as The good alone are happy? (12) Can we assert any thing of good alone in its proper sense? (18) Repeat the remark in reference to good and similar adjectives considered (materialiter) as mere words. Repeat examples. (14) What is said of the assertions in the examples? (15) What word must we use, when we wish to assert any thing about the quality expressed by good?

(16) What two purposes does the same word sometimes serve? (17) Illustrate by ex