substantives by adding y; as, from "Health, healthy; wealth, wealthy; might, mighty," &c.

Adjectives denoting the matter out of which any thing is made, are derived from substantives by adding en: as, from "Oak, oaken; wood, wooden; wool, woollen," &c.

Adjectives denoting abundance, are derived from substantives by adding ful: as, from " Joy, joyful; sin, sinful; fruit, fruitful," &c.

Adjectives denoting plenty, but with some kind of diminution, are derived from substantives, by adding some: as, from "Light, lightsome; trouble, troublesome; toil, toilsome," &c.

Adjectives denoting want, are derived from substantives, by adding less as, from "Worth, worthless ;" from care, careless; joy, joyless," &c.

Adjectives denoting likeness, are derived from substantives, by adding ly: as, from "Man, manly; earth, earthly; court, courtly," &c.

Some adjectives are derived from other adjectives, or from substantives, by adding ish to them; which termination, when added to adjectives, imports diminution, or lessening the quality: as, "White, whitish ;" i. e. somewhat white. When added to substantives, it signifies similitude, or tendency to a character: as, 66 Child, childish; thief, thievish."

Some adjectives are formed from substantives or verbs, by adding the termination able; and those adjectives signify capacity: as, " Answer, answerable; to change, changeable."

4. Substantives are derived from adjectives, sometimes by adding the termination ness: as, "White, whiteness; swift, swiftness" sometimes by adding th or t, and making a small change in some of the letters: as, "Long, length; high, height."

5. Adverbs of quality are derived from adjectives, by adding ly, or changing le into ly; and denote the same quality as the adjectives from which they are derived: as, from "base," comes "basely ;" from "slow, slowly;" from "able, ably."

There are so many other ways of deriving words from one another, that it would be extremely difficult, and nearly impossible, to enumerate them. The primitive words of any language are very few; the derivatives form much the greater number. A few more instances only can be given here.

Some substantives are derived from other substantives, by adding the terminations hood or head, ship, ery, wick, rick, dom, ian, ment, and age.

Substantives ending in hood, or head, are such as signify

character or qualities: as, "Manhood, knighthood, falsehood," &c.

Substantives ending in ship, are those that signify office, employment, state, or condition : as, " Lordship, stewardship, partnership," &c. Some substantives in ship, are derived from adjectives: as, "Hard, hardship," &c.

Substantives which end in ery, signify action or habit: as, "Slavery, foolery, prudery," &c. Some substantives of this sort come from adjectives: as, "Brave, bravery," &c.

Substantives ending in wick, rick, and dom, denote dominion, jurisdiction, or condition: as," Bailiwick, bishoprick, kingdom, dukedom, freedom," &c.

Substantives which end in ian, are those that signify profession: as," Physician, musician," &c. Those that end in ment and age, come generally from the French, and commonly signify the act or habit: as, " Commandment, usage."

Some substantives ending in ard, are derived from verbs or adjectives, and denote character or habit: as, " Drunk, drunkard; dote, dotard.”

Some substantives have the form of diminutives; but these are not many. They are formed by adding the terminations kin, ling, ing, ock, el, and the like: as, "Lamb, lambkin; goose, gosling; duck, duckling; hill, hillock; cock, cockerel," &c.

That part of derivation which consists in tracing English words to the Greek, Latin, French, and other languages, must be omitted. The best English dictionaries will, however, furnish some information on this head. The learned Horne Tooke, in his "Diversions of Purley," has given an ingenious account of the derivation and meaning of many of the adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions: and as you will doubtless be amused, by tracing to their Saxon origin some of these words, I shall present you with a list or specimen of them; which I presume will be sufficient to excite your curiosity, and induce you to examine the subject more extensively.

ABOUT—is derived from a, on, and bout, signifying boundary : On the boundary or confines.

AMONG or AMONGST comes from the passive participle gemænced, which is from gemengan, to mix. AND-is from the imperative an-ad, which is from the verb, anan-ad, signifying to accumulate, to add to: as, 66 Two and two are four;" that is, " Two add two are four." SUNDER-comes from the participle asundred of the verb asundrian, to separate: and this verb is from Sond, sand.

ATHWART is derived from the passive participle athweoried of the verb athweorian, to wrest.

BEYOND comes from be-geond: geond, or goned, is the passive participle of the verb gangan, to go, to pass: Be passed, be gone.

BUT—from the imperative bot, of the verb botan, to boot, to superadd, to supply: as, "The number three is not an

even number, but an odd; that is, not an even number, superadd, (it is) an odd number."

BUT from the imperative, be-utan, of the verb beon-utan, to be out. It is used by way of exception: as, "She re

gards nobody, but him;" that is, "nobody be out him." IF-comes from gif, the imperative of the verb gifan, to give: as, "If you live honestly, you will live happily ;" that is, "give you live honestly."

LEST-from the participle, lesed, of the verb lesan, to dismiss. THOUGH from thafig, the imperative of the verb thafigan, to allow: as, "Though she is handsome, she is not vain :" that is, "Allow, grant, she is handsome."

UNLESS comes from onles, the imperative of the verb onlesun, to dismiss or remove: as, "Troy will be taken unless the palladium be preserved;" that is, "Remove the palladium be preserved, Troy will be taken."

WITH-the imperative of withan, to join: as, " A house with a party-wall;" that is, "A house join a party-wall." WITHOUT-Comes from wyrth-utan, the imperative of the verb wyrthan-utan, to be out: as, "A house without a roof;" that is, "A house be out a roof."

YET-is derived from get, the imperative of the verb getan, to get: as, "Yet a little while;" that is, "Get a little

time."

THROUGH comes from Gothic and Teutonic words, which signify door, gate, passage: as, "They marched through a wilderness;" that is, "They marched the passage a wilderness."

tive: as,

FOR-is from Saxon and Gothic words, signifying, cause, mo"He died for his religion;" that is, " He died, the cause his religion." FROM-is derived from frum, which signifies beginning, origin, source, &c.; as, "The lamp hangs from the ceiling;" that is, "Ceiling the place of beginning to hang." To-comes from Saxon and Gothic words, which signify action, effect, termination, to act, &c.: as, "Figs come from Turkey to England:" that is, "Figs come-beginning Turkey-Termination England.

It is highly probable that the system of the acute grammarian, from whose work these Saxon derivations are borrowed, is founded on truth; and that adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, are corruptions or abbreviations of other parts of speech. But as many of them are derived from obsolete words in our own language, or from words in kindred languages, the radical meaning of which is, therefore, either obscure, or generally unknown; as the system of this very able etymologist is not universally admitted; and as, by long prescription, whatever may have been their origin, the words in question appear to have acquired a title to the rank of distinct species; it seems proper to consider them, as such, in an elementary treatise on grammar: especially as this plan coincides with that, by which other languages must be taught; and will render the study of them less intricate. It is of small moment, by what name and classification we distinguish these words, provided their meaning and use are well understood. A philosophical consideration of the subject, may, with great propriety, be entered upon by the grammatical student, when his knowledge and judgment become more improved.

CONVERSATION XV.

OF THE MOODS AND TENSES OF VERBS.

Tutor. I will now commence the explanation of the moods and tenses of verbs. To verbs belong person, number, mood and tense.

MOOD or MODE, is a particular form of the verb, showing the manner in which the action is represented. It consists in the change which the verb undergoes, to signify various intentions of the mind, and various modifications and circumstances of action. Thus, the expressions, I walk—If I walk— I may or can walk-To walk-Walk thou-are all different moods or modes of expressing the same action.

George. I perceive a difference between these five forms of expression. I walk, expresses positively what I do. If I walk, does not declare positively, but it expresses doubt. I may or can walk, does not declare that I do walk; nor does it express a doubt, but it shows, that I am at liberty to walk,

And the fourth expression, to

or that I am able to walk. walk, is different from the other three: this simply expresses an action without a nominative. And the fifth, walk thou, is different from all others; it simply commands a second person to do the action.

Tutor.

Very well; your distinctions are quite correct. Caroline. Are there no more than five forms, or moods ? Tutor. No English verbs have but five moods.

George, What are the names of these different moods? Tutor. INDICATIVE, SUBJUNCTIVE, POTENTIAL, INFINITIVE, and IMPERATIVE.

I will now explain the Indicative Mood to you; and you will perceive, that nearly all the verbs that you have hitherto parsed, have been in this mood.

When a verb makes a direct affirmative, or asks a question, it is in the INDICATIVE MOOD: as, "He walks, he walked, he will walk :" or, "Does he walk? Did he walk? Will he walk ?"

This mood is called Indicative, because, generally, this form of the verb simply indicates, or declares the action.

I shall, in the next Conversation, explain to you the other moods, and show you how they differ from the indicative. With this, therefore, you must make yourselves very familiar, that you may the more clearly see how the others differ from this, and from one another.

TENSE means time, or the distinction of time. Every ac tion must be done in some time, either in past, present, or future time. You perceive, then, there are three grand divisions of time, viz. Past, Present, and Future.

When I say, I walk, walk is a verb in the indicative mood, present tense or time; but when I say, I walked-I have walked-I had walked-the verbs are in the indicative mood, past tense; and the expressions, I shall or will walk, or Í shall have walked, put the verb in the future tense, because these expressions indicate actions to be done hereafter, in some future time.

You will observe, that the three expressions in past time, are all different, viz. walked—have walked-had walked—so that there are three distinct tenses, or distinctions, of the past time. These are called Imperfect, Perfect, and Pluperfect.

And now observe those that indicate future time, and you will perceive two distinctions of the future time, viz. shall or will walk-and, shall have walked. These are called First Future, and Second Future tenses.

The INDICATIVE MOOD, then, has six tenses, or distinctions