the splendid front which faces the river is 900 feet long. This frontage is divided into five great compartments, which are ornamented with most beautiful tracery, and with rows of statues and shields, On the shields are the arms of the kings of England since the Norman Conquest. There are nearly 500 statues in and about the building. The three great towers are the Victoria Tower, the central tower, and the clock tower. "The Victoria Tower when complete will be a most stupendous work, but it is said that it will be too high in proportion to the rest of the building. Indeed, much fault has been found with the whole edifice. It is said that it is overlaid with a profusion of minute ornaments, that they spoil its simplicity, that they appear paltry, that they are good for nothing, except to catch the soot and smoke, and to form places for swallows' nests; and a great many more faults of all kinds are found with it, some of which are true. There is, perhaps, more reason to complain of the large sums of money which have been wasted upon it. It is, however, said to be the largest Gothic edifice in the world. ETYMOLOGY. CHAPTER III. ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRONOUNS. P. BESIDES the personal and relative pronouns, there are others called ADJECTIVE PRO NOUNS. W. I suppose that is because they are something like adjectives. P. Yes. This and that are one kind of adjective pronoun; you may easily see that they are pronouns. If I hold a book in my hand, and say, "Take this," what does the word "this" stand for? W. For the book; so it is a pronoun. Or you might say, "Take that;" so that is a pro noun. P. Now let us see why they are like adjectives. If I say, "Take this book," the word "this" describes the book; it shows that it is not the same as that book. The plural of this is these; of that, those. You can at any time form the plural from the singular by trying to use the singular pronoun with a plural noun. Alter these sentences, "This books are pretty;" "That cows are coming." The principal use of the words this and that is to point out anything that is required. The Latin word for to point out is monstrāre; therefore this, these, that, and those are called DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS. W. That is one sort of adjective pronoun, papa. Now please to tell us another. P. Here are some different pronouns. One pronoun sometimes stands instead of a great many nouns. Suppose that you saw an army of three hundred soldiers on horseback, and you were to look at them. W. Yes. P. Then, suppose you said, "I know every soldier." How many persons would the word every stand for? W. It would represent three hundred. P. And suppose you said, "I know each man and each horse," how much would the words each represent? W. The first each would represent three hundred men, and the next, three hundred horses. P. There are other pronouns like each and every; the words either and neither belong to the same class. But either and neither cannot be applied to so many persons. You cannot say, "Here are three hundred soldiers; I do not know either of them." Either and neither do not apply to more than two persons. L. What are these adjective pronouns called? P. They are called DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS, & name which you can easily remember. The word each, for instance, only represents one person, yet it may be distributed over a crowd of three hundred. the pronouns my, thy, his, your, called POSSESSIVE &c., are PRONOUNS; but if you will look back to a lesson on personal pronouns, you will see that such are We often words said to be the possessive case of those pronouns. In most grammars the possessive of I is said to be mine; of thou, thine, and so on; but I think that both kinds of words, mine and my, thine and the other personal pronouns. thy, are only the possessive of Ion. What is the difference between mine and my? P. The only difference is, that mine may be used alone. If you possess anything you may say, "This is mine"; but you cannot say, "This is my." You require a noun to join There are more kinds of adjective pronouns. make such sentences as these Who are you? Whom do you want? Whose son are you? Which is the way to town? What is the matter? W. But, papa, we have had the words who, whom, whose, which, and what, before; they are Relative pronouns. P. In these sentences they are not relatives, for two reasons. 1st, They have no antecedents; and, 2ndly, They are used in asking questions. The Latin word for to ask a question is rogare; so these words, as they are used in these sentences, are called "INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS." it to. L. And that is why my is more like an adjective-it is ad-dependent, and must be joined to a noun. I will now sum up the account of those pronouns. L. Are there any more jective pronouns? P. Yes. There are some which cannot be called Demonstrative, or Distributive, or Interrogative. Here they are All, any, both, certain, few, many, one, none, other, another, several, such, whole. Some of these are very much like adjectives. They are, however, very different in their nature, so that they are not easy to describe. They are therefore all thrown together, and are called INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. Indefinite, you know, means not well explained. W. I suppose that there are no more adjective pronouns. P. I think not. In some grammar books we find that No. 21. PARSING EXERCISE. This man is either a lawyer or a doctor. I think he is neither. Every man is of my opinion. Who calls? I do. Each boy is to come with me. These collars are not like those. That is a pretty frock. The frock which you have is prettier than any. I do not see many. Both are good ones, but these and the other are prettier than all you now have. Certain frocks of mine have been spoiled by the moth. I have several. I have seen Paris, which is the capital of France. Which is the capital? I who have been abroad and returned. Who has been abroad? Which places have you been to? Both are places which I have not seen. |
