A plural richesses is not unfrequently found in O. E.:

By concord and pees the smalé riches wexen grete, and by debaat and discord the greté richesses fallen down.-Chaucer.

The plenteous richessis of his grace.— Wicliff.

117. Politics, ethic-s, optic-s, physic-s, and similar words, are literal translations of the plural terms that express these sciences in Greek. Ta politika, "things relating to the state," politics; ta ethika, "things relating to morals," ethics. They are frequently used as singulars.

The words Physic, Music, Logic, &c. are singular both in form and meaning. They are abbreviations of the Greek words for those arts.

118. A few English nouns have no singular :

The singulars of nuptials, thanks, and wages, occur in old and provincial English. Shakspere always writes nuptial.

119. Objects, which from their nature cannot be counted, have no plural: gold, silver, darkness, pride, &c.

66

But when, as in the case of materials, natural or artificial productions, &c., the object may vary in quality, a plural form is sometimes used to express these variations; wines, sugars, wools. Turf, and peat, and cowshards, are cheap fuels"—(Bacon). Even abstract nouns are thus occasionally plural: "Insolent zeals that do decry good works"-(Sir T. Browne).

120. The plurals of a few nouns differ in meaning from

the singulars. Iron, irons; content, contents; domino, dominoes; good, goods; salt, salts, &c.

121. Some nouns have two meanings in the singular, and only one in the plural:

horse, cavalry, animal.
foot, infantry, part of body.
powder, for guns, mixture.
light, of a lamp, a lamp ; &c.

horses, animals.
feet, parts of body.
powders, mixtures.
lights, lamps; &c.

The noun compass has two meanings in the singular, and a third in the plural; sing., circuit, mariners' compass. Plur., instrument for measuring.

122. Some nouns have two meanings in the plural, and one in the singular:

pain, suffering.
custom, habit.

pains, sufferings, trouble.
customs, habits, revenue duties.

The noun letter has two meanings in the singular and two in the plural; sing., of alphabet, epistle. Plur., of alphabet, literature.

123. Certain nouns have no plural form, but are usually found with a plural meaning: cattle, artillery, infantry, cavalry, militia, &c. They have also a collective meaning.

124. Proper nouns sometimes have a plural denoting objects of a similar character: "There have been many Diogeneses, and as many Timons, though but few of that name."—(Sir T. Browne.)

125. The names of towns are occasionally plural; as Well-s, Sevenoak-s, Athen-s, Thebe-s, &c. The names of mountain ranges are frequently plural, because they include many separate elevations: Alp-s, Apennine-s, Pyrenee-s, &c.

126. The inhabitants of a country are commonly described by the definite article and an adjective: the British, the French, the Dutch, &c.; but in O. E. we meet with the Chineses, the Portugueses, &c. National names compounded of man, make the plural in men: Frenchman, Frenchmen, &c. but Norman and German have the plurals Normans and

Germans, possibly because Nor and Ger were obsolete. The names Mussulman, Brahman, Turcoman are not compounds of man, and therefore form their plurals regularly.

127. A few foreign words still retain the plural form of the languages from which they were taken. Hebrew, seraph-im, cherub-im, saba-oth (hosts); Greek, antipodes, phaenomena; Latin, tumuli, strata, genera, indices, formulae, series; French, beaux, mesdames, messieurs; Italian, banditti. The present tendency of the English language is to reject these foreign plurals. Hence we find crocus-es, genius-es, terminus-es, vivarium-s, formula-s, bandit-s, cherub-s, seraph-s, dogma-s, &c.

128. Compounds consisting of a noun and an adjective, such as court-martial, or of a noun and the equivalents of an adjective, such as father-in-law, usually attach the plural suffix to the noun, e.g. courts-martial, fathers-in-law.

Case.

129. A suffix is frequently added to a noun or pronoun to mark the relation in which it stands to other words. Thus, in "the bird-s song," the letter s shows the relation existing between the bird and the song, viz. that the song proceeds from the bird.

The simple word and the suffix are together called a Case.

130. These suffixes originally marked the relation of place: and from this local meaning relations of a more abstract nature were subsequently developed. Thus, if we obtain a thing from a person, we are apt to consider that person as the owner or possessor of the thing in question. Hence the idea of possession became associated with the case that marked the source from which an object proceeds. If, again, we give or entrust anything to a person, we place the object by him, or deposit it at the place where he is: hence the idea of giving, &c. became associated with the case that marks at a place.

131. The old grammarians imagined that nouns, which in every sentence express some definite relation between themselves and other nouns or verbs, figuratively leaned or fell upon those words with which

they were grammatically connected. Hence they spoke of the "falling" or "inclination" of a noun-in Latin casus, whence the English term case. Hence also the terms decline and declension applied to nouns.

132. Modern languages frequently drop the case-endings of nouns and substitute prepositions of equivalent meaning. Thus, "the bird's song" may be expressed by "the song of the bird," where of represents the suffix s. Cases expressed by prepositions may be called syntactical: those expressed by suffixes, inflectional. A knowledge of both is required in explaining the structure of a sentence in the English language; but Accidence is concerned only with the latter.

The case-endings, with one exception, are usually dropt in English.

133. It is evident that a modern language may have as many cases is there are prepositions employed in that language to mark the relations existing between nouns. It is usual, however, to limit the number to those recognised in the classical languages, and to include the later relations under the primitive local idea whence they sprung.

There are six cases commonly recognised: the Nominative, the Accusative or Objective, the Genitive or Possessive, the Dative, the Ablative, and the Vocative.

134. The Nominative denotes the source of an action, as, "the bird sings." The act of singing proceeds from the bird. It is often called the Subject.

The terms subject and nominative are not always identical. The term Nominative can be applied with propriety only to the simple noun or nouns from which the action proceeds. If explanatory phrases or sentences are added to the noun these combined words form the subject of the verb, and the noun remains in the nominative case. The terms can be used indifferently only when the subject of the verb is a simple noun.

135. The Accusative or Objective marks the object to which the action is directed, as, "the boy strikes the ball." The act of striking is directed to the ball. It is often called the Object and the Objective case.

The terms Object and Accusative are not always identical. When a simple noun is the object of a verb it is usually in the Accusative case, but the noun may be accompanied by explanatory phrases or sentences.

The accusative and the explanatory adjuncts combined, constitute the object of the verb. The terms are identical only when the object of a verb consists of a simple noun in the accusative case.

136. The Genitive shows the source from which something proceeds, as, "the sun's light:" sun's marks the source of the light.

The person from whom anything is obtained is frequently the owner of the thing. Hence this case is often called the Possessive.

137. The Dative originally denoted locality, i. e. the place at, or in, which something rests. "I stand here," i. e. in this place.

The Ablative marks the means, instrument, or manner, and is also used to denote the agent with a passive verb.

When we address an object, we sometimes name the object addressed:

Enchantress, fare thee well.-Scott.

A noun so employed is said to be in the Vocative case.

138. No example of a nominative or accusative suffix occurs in modern. English. 1, thou, he, she, we, they, are called nominatives, and me, thee, us, you, accusatives, but they have no case-endings. In A. S. the accusative suffix was -n, and a few examples occur in O. Eng. :-hy-ne, ac. of he; tha-ne, ac. of the; an-ne, ac. of one; hwa-n, ac. of who.

139. The genitive suffix in most of the Indo-European languages is s preceded by a vowel. In Anglo-Saxon the form -es was often used, as leaf-es; in old English, -es or is, leaf-es, leaf-is. In modern English the vowel is omitted, and its place indicated by ('), leaf's.

140. The omission of the vowel in the old genitive suffix -es produces changes similar to those required in forming the plural, viz. :

(a) s is added when the noun ends in a sharp mute; chief's. (b) 2 (written s) when it ends in a flat mute, a vowel, or a liquid; bird's, fly's, sun's.

(c) es (written -'s) remains unchanged when the noun ends in a sibilant; fox's, church's, fish's, judge's.