English, by taking ly, contribute to the formation of a particular class of adverbs, as, hourly, yearly, purposely. In Latin è, er are the most common characteristic syllables of the adverbs of manner. In Arabic there is not a noun, a verb, or an adjective, which may not be changed into an adverb. In Greek, all proper names of places become adverbs by changes in the final syllables. From the nature of the adverb it may be seen why the French words en (of it, from it, &c.), y (to it), où (in which), ď où (from which), being the equivalents of prepositions and pronouns, may be considered either as pronouns in the oblique case, or as adverbs; why also the ablative absolute and the supines of verbs in Latin are species of adverbs. The adverbs where, whence, when, why, wherefore, are undoubtedly different oblique cases of the pronoun which.

Negatives are adverbial expressions denoting, like other adverbs, particular circumstances of time, place, quantity, or manner, but in a negative sense. Hence they are commonly composed of two terms, one of which is the negative, properly speaking, and the other its complement, signifying the circumstance which modifies it with relation to time, place, quantity, or manner, and which is itself an affirmative expression. For example, in ne pas, ne point, pas signifies pace; point signifies point; and as a point is less than a pace, so is ne point a stronger negative than ne pas. The prevalent notion that the French requires two negatives to express one negation is therefore erroneous. In that language, as well as in English, two negatives make an affirmative; in Greek two negatives often enforce instead of destroying each other. In English and German the two terms which constitute the negative are generally united in one word: thus, not is a contraction of no ought, never of no ever, none of no one, &c. In French the terms remain separate, ne being placed before the verb, and its complement after. It is by ellipsis that the second term is sometimes used as a negative. This happens when the verb is understood, and with it the first term ne, as l'aimez-vous ? (do you like it?) pas beaucoup (not much), that is, je NE l'aime pas beaucoup.

5. Conjunctions.

Conjunctions serve to express relations and connections between propositions; they must consequently come between two verbs. When they apparently connect other parts of speech, the verb is

understood, as, love your father and mother, that is, love your father and love your mother; it is red or blue, that is, it is red or it is blue; I sing, but not well, that is, I sing, but I do not sing well. And, or, but, and though are the only conjunctions which can be used elliptically before words which are not verbs.

The true place of a conjunction being between two propositions, it is by inversion it commences a sentence: the logical order of, SINCE it rains, I will not go out, is, I will not go out SINCE it rains.

The number of simple conjunctions is very small, not exceeding forty in the generality of languages; but deficiency is easily supplied by conjunctional phrases formed with verbs, prepositions, or adverbs, as, suppose that, besides that, so that. In fact, conjunctions, like the other secondary words, are elliptical words or contracted phrases, an origin so obvious in some of them that they may with equal propriety be called words or phrases.

The government of conjunctions is, in the study of a language, a source of much perplexity, which the few rules given in grammars are unable to remove: we are told, for example, that if governs the subjunctive or the indicative, according as it implies contingency or not; yet how few English persons know when to use either mood after that conjunction. The government of conjunctions varies not only for the different conjunctions of one language, but for the corresponding conjunctions in different languages, as,

WHEN you COME to-morrow (present of the indicative), QUAND vous VIENDREZ demain (future tense).

IF he SHOULD come (conditional), s'il VENAIT (imperfect of the indicative).

BEFORE you CAME (indicative), AVANT QUE vous VINSSIEZ (subjunctive).

Prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, having, in many instances, a common origin and being often converted one into the other, are easily confounded. The most eminent grammarians differ in their opinion respecting the nature and classification of these words; it is not, therefore, surprising that the generality of grammars should differ in the lists which they give of them.

The following parallel may, perhaps, assist in discriminating between these three species of words. Prepositions have always, for their complements, nouns or pronouns, as also verbs in the infinitive, used substantively; whereas, Adverbs generally follow, and Conjunctions precede verbs used as such, as,

He went out BEFORE me, il sortit AVANT moi: (before and avant are prepositions).

He went out BEFORE I saw him, il sortit avant QUE je le visse : (before is a conjunction, and avant que a conjunctional phrase). He went out BEFORE, il sortit AUPARAVANT: (before and auparavant are adverbs).

Prepositions govern personal pronouns in the objective case; Conjunctions are followed by pronouns in the nominative, as have a fire FOR me, FOR I am cold; ayez du feu POUR moi, CAR j'ai froid. Adverbs, different from Prepositions and Conjunctions, do not connect words or propositions; they mark no relations between substantives or sentences, but modify the import of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; they can always be changed into phrases formed of a preposition with its complement: this is not the case with Prepositions and Conjunctions. Prepositions require

nouns, and Conjunctions, verbs, to complete the ideas of relation which they express; whereas, Adverbs require no complements; but serve themselves to complete the idea expressed by the verb.

Verbs cannot be used interrogatively with their governing Conjunctions; they may, with the Adverbs that modify their meaning.

To complete the distinction between these words, we may add that Prepositions are to substantives what Conjunctions are to verbs; and Adverbs are to verbs, adjectives, and adverbs what adjectives are to substantives.

These strictures on the elements of speech, conformable to the principles laid down by the best philologists, and, especially, by Silvestre de Sacy,* to whose work we are considerably indebted, are not given as an introduction to the study of languages: they are offered to young teachers to assist them in explaining to their advanced pupils, the technology of grammar, in a manner more philosophical than is found in the generality of school-books. They exhibit the nature of words, their relative importance, the principal modifications to which they are liable, the general principles of grammar, the existence of affinities between some languages, and of differences in the genius of others. For more ample information on particular principles, the anxious inquirer must apply to the grammar of the language which is the object of his study: it is its office to unfold the collocation and variations of the words, the peculiar forms which characterise the syntax of the language, and the exceptions to the principles which we have

• Principes de Grammaire Générale.

laid down. However, the few examples we have given among the numberless peculiarities and forms of speech that escape classification, and apparently follow no law but that of custom, sufficiently prove the difficulty of the study, and demonstrate that reading standard works and conversing with good speakers, are the surest means of gaining familiarity with the idiomatic construction of a language.

The diversity of means resorted to in the expression of thought, shows that the principles of universal grammar are very few, and that we should guard against hasty generalisation of such as are applicable to any one idiom, a common error of persons unacquainted with many languages. It should be maintained, as a general maxim in the study of languages, that the custom of one or even of many, cannot be urged as a rule in others. It was seen in the preceding Book, that the study of the Latin grammar, does not, as some people believe, teach the principles of all languages, or preclude the necessity of learning the national grammar. But, although the principles of the native tongue cannot be elicited by the study of those which are peculiar to a foreign one, this object will be fully accomplished by the constant practice of translating one into the other. It is, in fact, the differences between the structure and genius of languages which, forced upon the learner's notice by translation, teach him the grammar of his own idiom.

With respect to the laws of general grammar, although they may, in great measure, be inferred by induction from facts collected from many languages, their safest foundation will be found in the constitution of the mind, because its action in the generation of ideas and in their relation is less diversified in mankind, than are their forms of speech. The many intricacies of languages, and the multitude of considerations involved in their study, in consequence of the want of correspondence between the words and principles of one, and the words and principles of another, tend to show also, that their complete attainment cannot be effected without considerable time, attention, and practice.

CHAPTER II.

STUDY OF WORDS.

SECT. I.-WHAT CLASS OF WORDS SHOULD BE STUDIED FIRST.

THE words of the first class are the indispensable materials with which the edifice of language is raised: no sentence can be formed without their being either expressed or understood. The words of the second class are the accessory materials, the binding links of discourse; and, although acting as mere auxiliaries to the words of the first class, they are, as we shall see, those most required in the early stages of the study.

Two questions present themselves of the numerous words which constitute a language, what are those which should be known first? and in what manner are they to be learned? To arrive at a correct solution of these questions, we should bear in mind the different objects to be accomplished by the study of words.

The branches which first demand the attention of a beginner are, as has been shown, reading and hearing the foreign language. Reading, especially, which, being the foundation of the other departments of the study, cannot be commenced too early. Means must therefore be employed to facilitate translation, which is the preliminary step to it, and to avoid annoyance, as well as loss of time, resulting from constant application to the dictionary.

Committing substantives to memory will not assist in this: the most extensive vocabularies of nouns contain only a fraction of the many thousands found in a language, and, small as that fraction is, compared with the whole, it is yet too large to be easily retained. The absence of connection between these words must tend greatly to increase the difficulty of fixing them on the memory: the greater number of them, not being met with in the course of reading or in daily conversation, are usually forgotten as soon as learned. Even if they were remembered

VOL. II.

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