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EXERCISE XVIII.—Insert the right adjectives in the following lines. The dots indicate the number of letters, and the syllables are indicated by hyphens :—

"How ..........

this night! the ....-.-... sigh Which...-... zephyrs breathe in evening's ear

Were discord to the

.........

quietude

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EXERCISE XIX.-Supply more appropriate adjectives than those in italics in the fol lowing quotation:

"The ground we tread on is as ancient as the creation, though it does not seem so, except when collected into colossal masses, or separated by dreary solitudes from present uses and the purposes of ordinary life. The solitary Helvellyn and the quiet Andes are in thought of the same age with the globe itself, and can only perish with it. The pyramids of Egypt are immense, elevated, antique, everlasting; but Stonehenge, built no doubt in a more recent day, satisfies my capacity for the sense of antiquity; it seems as if as much rain had drizzled on its whitish, wrinkled head, and it had watched out as numerous winter nights; the hand of Time is upon it, and it has sustained the burden of years on its back, a wonder and a weighty riddle, time out of mind, without ascertained origin or use, defeating fable or conjecture, the credulity of the unlearned or sage men's search."— Hazlitt's" Plain Speaker," vol. ii., Essay vi.

EXERCISE XX.-Insert the adjectives hereunder quoted in their proper places in the following sonnet. The dashes show the places from which they are omitted:

Ancient, Danish, Druid, Enriched, Fatal, Genuine, Giants, Hallowed, Huge, Human, Many, Massy, Mighty, Mystic, Noblest, Renowned, Rude, Savage, Slain, Solemn, Sprinkled, Studious, Unhewn, Vast, Wondrous.

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EXERCISE XXI.-Construct forty sentences, either logically or grammatically, each containing one of the following adjectives, viz.:

Tender, bright, gentle, dark, changing, faithful, grand, virtuous, strong, grievous, downy, glossy, courteous, serviceable, angry, delighted, proud, barbed, broad, glad, adorable, fierce, disdainful, gay, erroneous, logical, scriptural, argumentative, poinpous, verbose, puzzling, foolish, innocent, sincere, insolent, dangerous, vicious, potent, sacred, brilliant.

Adjectives are either Proper or Common.

Proper Adjectives are either proper names used as adjectives, or adjectives derived from proper names-e. g., Portugal wines, Portuguese stolidity.

Common Nouns are either real, idea', verbal, numeral, or pronominal.

Real Adjectives are the names of qualities observable only by the senses-e. g., a long passage.

Ideal Adjectives are the names of qualities existent in, or only perceptible by, the mind -e. g., a logical deduction, a clever article, a detestable scheme.

Verbal Adjectives are the perfect or imperfect participles of verbs used as adjectivese. g., a broken reed, an avenging hand.

Numeral Adjectives are the names of numbers; they are either cardinal or ordinal: cardinal numbers are one, two, three, &c.; ordinal, first, second, third, &c.

Pronominal Adjectives combine the chief qualities of pronouns and adjectives, i. e., they not only represent a name, but, along with that, indicate a quality—e.g., James said, "These are my books," but I contend that they are mine.

EXERCISE XXII.-In the following extracts underline proper adjectives twice, common adjectives once, or place the figure 2 above those which are proper, and 1 over those which

are common.

"Sir Andrew Freeport's notions of trade are noble and generous; and, as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting, which would make no great figure were he not a great man, he calls the sea a British common."

"To the charms of beauty, and the utmost elegance of external form, Mary, the Scottish Queen, added the most irresistible accomplishments of speech and manners."

"He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone,

He swam the Esk river, where ford there was none;

But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,

The bride had consented, the gallant came late,

For a laggard in love and a dastard in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar."

"Return, Sicilian Muse,

And call the vales, and bid them hither cast
Their bells and flowrets of a thousand hues.
Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks,-
Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freak'd with jet;
The glowing violet,

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears;
Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies."

EXERCISE XXIII.-Construct a form like that given below, and arrange the adjectives in the previous exercises into their respective columns.

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Adjectives are in general compared, to indicate the possession of a greater or less degree of any quality, &c., in two ways, viz.:—

1. Inflectionally: by the addition of r or er to the positive to form the comparative, and st or est to form the superlative-e.g., wide, wider, widest.

2. Adverbially: by placing the word more before the positive, to form the comparative, and most to form the superlative-e.g., noble, more noble, most noble.

The positive indicates the lowest, the comparative a medium, and the superlative the highest degree of any quality, &c.

Adjectives of one syllable or of two syllables, ending with the vowels e or y, are compared inflectionally: all others adverbially.

Adjectives ending in a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant before adding the inflectional syllables-e. g., big, bigger, biggest; hot, hotter, hottest, &c.

Adjectives ending in y, preceded by a consonant or the letter u, change y into i before adding the inflectional syllables-e. g., merry, merrier, merriest, &c.

No adjective requires both the inflectional and adverbial forms of comparison-e. g., "L most straitest" is improper.

EXERCISE XXIV.—Proper adjectives do not admit of comparison. Compare inflectionally or adverbially, as may be requisite, the adjectives in the preceding sonnet on "Stonehenge," Exercise XX.

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EXERCISE XXV.-Construct a table like the following, and insert in each of the columns thirty adjectives, properly arranged and compared, as in the examples given.

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Philosophy.

IS REASON CONFINED TO MAN? AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I.

If we have advanced in the direction of the wisdom-enjoined adage, "know thyself," we shall be prepared to explain and illustrate the difference between ourselves and the brute creation-if there be a difference, and "that is the question." It is a subject of momentous interest, for it is connected collaterally and subsecutively with the most important questions in man's regard. It is undoubtedly to reason that man owes his vast practical superiority; without it and its adjuncts, the knowledge and experience-stored memory and education, he would be viler and more helpless than any of the lower animals. If a difference, a discriminated degree exists between man and the brute creation-then the faculty of reason is the most remarkable feature of that difference, and we propose showing anon that man's capacity for immortality is due to its action. It may be well in this place to particularize the important bearings of the present question. If man is only a superior kind of animal, differing merely in continuous degrees-degrees of more and less from the lower animals (which opinion is implied in the negation of the present question)-then the notion of his immortality is much prejudiced. An almost universal intuition prompts mankind to reject the idea that creatures whom he slays without compunction for his food, his convenience, or his pleasure, are beings of a like destiny with himself; or, rather, the intuitional conviction of their lower and more contracted destiny disabuses him of any compunction in the matter. But if there is no discriminated degree between men and brutes, then the rule which pronounces immortality for the one and not for the other must be felt to be arbitrary, and thus the matter of man's immortality is prejudiced; for though some would maintain the immortality of brutes, rather than prejudice that of man, still this must be seen to be " a crutch," of which, however, we should be sorry to deprive any one who could not walk in the belief of his immortality without it. It is needless to point out how

the whole fabric of theology and religion would be affected as subsequent questions, should the immortality of the soul of man be invalidated.

We purpose offering arguments both on à posteriori and à priori grounds in support of the affirmative of the present question. We are curious to learn what facts our opponents will rely upon to establish their arguments. Will they treat us to choice extracts from the "thousand and one" collections of "amusing and instructive anecdotes of animals," recording wonderful instances of their sagacity, &c.? We will venture so far to anticipate their case, as to challenge the production of one authentic instance, which may not be accounted for on the score either of instinct and its connate science, a physical appreciation of causes and effects, or an education proceeding upon these faculties, and developing them in certain directions, the result either of circumstances or of the direct agency of man; but none of these will argue reason, by which term we understand broadly the intellectual faculty as exemplified in man, and in man alone. Perhaps our opponents will found their case upon the fact that man exhibits several instincts and feelings in common with the lower animals! but, granting the fact, that will not prejudice the argument we mean to adduce, that man possesses life in a superior and discriminated degree, and that reason is one of the legitimate issues of that life.

It belongs to one branch of our argument to show that the above indicated capabilities in brutes are not of an intellectual quality. This may be best done by comparing the respective attributes, and their legitimate results in men and brutes. In men we observe three distinguishing characteristics, namely, conscience, character, and progressiveness. Now, reason is a primary cause of each. Conscience may be defined as an interior feeling of pleasure and pain, occasioned by the acting out or acting against the knowledge of goodness and truth as

own.

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and the unprogressiveness of brutes constitutes a very marked distinction between them. We can compare notes with naturalists who made their observations centuries ago in regard to the most sagacious of their kind-the ant, the bee, and the beaver; the result of the comparison is, that we find that they exhibit precisely the same degree of ingenuity and perfection then as now, nor can we detect any progress whatever. But how different is the case with man! We can trace him in the pages of history, or behold him as exemplified in existing communities, in all states and stages of progress

tion between him and the brute creation is scarcely appreciable, and in states of civilization, where he exhibits numerous phases of physical, social, and moral excellency.

It is to be noted that this progression is not uniformly of a positive kind, but often of a negative or retrograde character; thus, while our own and other countries of Europe afford instances of positive progression from barbarism to the higher degrees of civilization, many of the countries of Asia furnish examples of a negative character, having sunk from states of comparatively high civilization to semi-barbarism.

appreciated by reason. Character, as the result of free will, modified and acted out by reason. Progressiveness, as the result of aspiration, conducted to its end by knowledge, experience, and judgment-the prerogative of reason. But who will show us either conscience, character, or progression in brutes? The pervading presence of such faculties as instinct and its connate science obviates the notion of anything like conscience or character attaching to them. "Instinct is a natural impulse to certain actions, which animals perform without deliberation, and without having any end in view, and without knowing why they do it.-in states of barbarism, where the distincThat the spontaneity of instinct operates unconsciously is fully established by observation. A calf butts with its head before its horns are grown; and the hen broods over the eggs of another species, or even simulated eggs, as patiently as over its A faculty of free determination is essential to, and is implied in, a correct predication of conscience and character; but instinct has a fixed determination, so that good and evil, as moralities, and the guages alike of conscience and character, cannot be properly ascribed to its results; nor can we appropriately refer the arts displayed by beasts to an intellectual standard. The connate science adjoined to their instinct "differs from intellect by the unerring certainty of the means it employs, the uniformity of its results, and the perfection of its works prior to, and independent of, all instruction and experience; and lastly, by the pursuit of nothing beyond what directly conduces either to the continuation of the individual, or to the propagation of the kind. But the arts of rational creatures proceed slowly, while the means they employ are always various, and seldom the best."† Thus, while we admire the skill, ingenuity, and perfection displayed by the lower order of existences, it is with very different feeling that we view the attainments of mankind: to the latter we ascribe a character for mental acquirement, energy, and superiority, and their legitimate praise, but the praise of the former is appropriately ascribed to nature and to "nature's God."

The fact of the progressiveness of man

"National Cyclopædia," art. "Instinct.". + Ibid.

It may be safely assumed that these diverse kinds of progression among men are due to the relations they sustain to the standard of right reason: in adhering practically to this they have progression, and in diverging from it they engender retrogression. It is equally safe to assume that the unprogressive nature of the lower orders of creation is due, firstly, to the absence of aspiration as an end, which can only exist as an attribute of free will, the exclusive faculty of man; and, secondly, to the absence of reason as the means thereto. Beasts have been called "perfections in their degree," and perhaps it is conclusive against the notion of their possessing reason that they do not require it, whereas it is all in all to man. Without its qualifying, conforming, and informing powers, his other faculties would be non-effective of good results, and, indeed, promotive of his degradation and destruction. Thus, his faculty of free determination, which contrasts so strongly with the instinct implanted in brutes, would, without reason as an ally, inevitably lead to these results. The faculty of reason, then, being so

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