When I say, A wise man, un homme sage, homme is a substantive, which, without the word sage, applies to any individual of the male race of man; but as soon as this word sage is added to it, the idea represented by the two words, homme sage, does not designate any man, but one among them who has the quality of being wise; thus wise qualifies and modifies the substantive man, and accordingly is an adjective.

We have already stated that nouns are sometimes used as adjectives, and adjectives as nouns. But it is proper to notice here, that this last transformation never takes place when we speak of living beings; for being always, in this case, of the same gender as the noun they represent, they always suppose the apposition of this noun to them; so that when employed, the sentence has the character of an ellipsis; thus, when we say, for the Almighty L'Eternel, Le-Tout puissant, the noun God is understood, and, God being masculine, the adjective can only be used in that gender. The wise (man), Le sage; The select (men), Les élus; Learned men, Les savants; A prude (woman), Une prude.

In these examples, the word man, homme, is understood in the first, hommes in the second and third, femme in the last.

fort de l'épée; Les (remèdes) purgatifs; Une (ligne) perpendiculaire.

The adjective is, then, only taken as a noun when it expresses an idea which may, positively and actually, be applied to things of different species; as in the following:-What is true persuades, Le vrai persuade; What is honest must be preferred to what is agreeable and useful, L'honnête doit être préféré à l'agréable et à l'utile.

The first proposition is true when speaking of a narrative, a system, an argument, a gesture, a sadness, a desire, &., but it does not designate any of these ideas in particular, and represents what is spoken of only as a thing, the nature of which is truth.

The same construction may be applied in the second sentence when the subject spoken of is what is honest, agreeable, and useful.

Variation of the Adjectives.-The nature of adjectives being, as we have already stated, to express the quality of nouns, by identifying themselves with them, they must both have the same characteristics, and always be of the same number and gender.

Besides, the adjective may qualify the noun to which it is joined in a manner more or less extended; this is what is called, by grammarians, degrees of signification in the adjectives.

We have, then, three distinct parts to consider in adjectives; the gender, the number, the degrees of signification.

OF THE GENDER IN THE ADJECTIVES.

Formation of the Feminine in Adjectives ending with e mute.-All adjectives have for their termination in the masculine either an e mute, another vowel, or a consonant.

All adjectives in the feminine are ended with an e mute.

Even when the adjective does not refer to a living being, if it designates an attribute, belonging to a class of things which may be expressed by a noun, it should be always considered as an adjective; thus, The acids of the stomach, Les acides de l'estomac; The thick part of the blade, Le fort de l'épée; The purgatives, Les purgatifs; A perpendicular, Une perpendiculaire, signify, Les (sucs) acides de l'estomac; Le (endroit)

Traitor, traitre, traitresse; Devilish, diable, diablesse; Master, maître, maîtresse.

Of Adjectives ending with a Vowel which is not a mute e.-Adjectives, which in the masculine end with any other vowel than an e mute, make their feminine by the addition of an e mute to the masculine termination. Enchanté, enchantée, Enchanted; poli, polie, polished; bleu, bleue, blue.

There is but one exception to this rule, which is, Favourite, favouri, favourite.

Of Adjectives ending in an, ien, on.Adjectives ending in the masculine in an, ien, on, besides the addition of an e mute, double their last consonant in the feminine; as, Christian, Chrétien, Chrétienne.

The Academy, in stating this rule, marks as exceptions: English, Anglican, Anglicane; Benign, bénin, makes bénigne; Cunning, malin, makes maligne.

Of Adjectives ending with a Consonant which is neither m or n.-Adjectives ending in the masculine with any other consonant than m or n, make their feminine by the addition of an e mute to their last consonant; as, Great, grand, grande.

But this rule has an immense number of exceptions. We will explain them one after another.

с

Of Adjectives ending in c and d.-Adjectives ending with the letter c make their feminine in two ways; some add he to the masculine; as Frank, frank, franche.

Others make their feminine by changing c into que; as, Public, public, publique. The adjective Greek, grec, makes its feminine by keeping the c and adding que; grecque; Raw, crud, makes crue.

Of Adjectives ending in f. Adjectives ending with f in the masculine, make their feminine by changing f into ve; as, Brief, bref, brève.

Of Adjectives ending in g.. Adjectives ending in g, make their plural by adding ue to the masculine; as, Long, long, longue.

Of Adjectives ending in el, eil, ol, ul, as, os, ot, and et.-Adjectives ending in el, eil, as, ol, ul, os, ot, et, make their feminine by doubling the last consonant, and adding an

é mute.

Of Adjectives ending in eur, teur, erieur. -Adjectives ending in eur have several modes of termination for the feminine. Those in cur derived from a present participle by changing ant into eur, make their

Foolish,

Those ending in érieur make their feminine by adding an e mute to this termination, as, Exterior, extérieur, extérieure.

There are a great number of nouns with this termination that must not be mistaken for adjectives, and make their feminine terminations in different manners; they are easily distinguished from adjectives by placing the word man, or woman. before them, and seeing if, thus accompanied, they are used in the language. A good dictionary is the best rule for such cases.

There are also some adjectives terminating in cur, which have no feminine termination, and are used for either gender; such as, Lover of arts, amateur, amateur; Author, auteur, auteur; Conqueror, vainqueur, &c., vainqueur, &c.

Of Adjectives ending in x.-Adjectives ending in x, ehange this letter into se, in the feminine; as, Courageous, courageux, courageuse.

Exceptions: Reddish, roux, rousse; False, faux, fausse; Sweet, doux, douce; Prefixed, préfix, préfixe.

Of Adjectives having two terminations in the Masculine, according as they are placed before a Vowel or a Consonant.-Five adjectives are entirely defective in their feminine termination, and, besides, change their masculine according to the letter which begins the next word, whether it is a consonant or a vowel; as,

vieux,

vieil,

vielle,

beau,

bel,

belle,

New,

nouveau

Vowel or h mute

nouvel,

nouvelle,

Soft,

Of Adjectives which are used only in the| Masculine or in the Feminine.-Some adjectives have no feminine; as Active, dispos; Foppish, fat; Pale, paillet, &c.

Some have no masculine: as, Mellow, blette, &c.

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES OF NUMBER.

Numbers are divided into five classes; as, 1st. Cardinal; 2nd. Ordinal; 3rd. Collective; 4th. Distributive; 5th. Propor tional.

This rule does not extend to any other number, and it would be wrong to say, vingtet-deux, trente-et-quatre, &c. This mode of counting in English, one and twenty, six and thirty, &c., is not used in French.

Of the Numerical Adjective one, un, with the words hundred and thousand.-One, or a, placed before the words hundred and thousand, in English, are suppressed in French; thus, one hundred, one thousand, are expressed by cent, mille.

Of Numerical Adjectives used in Poetry, Music, Games, &c.-There are, besides, the numerical adjectives already mentioned above, many others used in poetry, music, games, &c.; as Distich, distique, Tiercet, tercet; Quatrain, &c., quatrain; Solo, solo; Duet, duo; Music in three parts, trio; Quartet, &c., quatuor, &c.; Two number ones (playing with dice), beset; Two number sixes, (playing with dice), sonnet, &c.

Un millier is very often employed for one thousand weight. Quintal is only used in the sense of one hundred weight.

Of Distributive and Proportional Numbers.-The Distributive Numbers are those expressing the different parts of a whole; as, The half, la moitié; The third, le tiers; The fourth, le quart; The fifth, le cinquiéme, &c.

The Proportional Numbers denote the progressive increase of things; as, The double, le couple; The treble, le triple; A hundred fold, le centuple, &c.

OF NUMBER IN ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives agreeing in number, as well as in gender, with the nouns which they qualify, it becomes necessary now to examine what alterations they suffer in their termition when joined to a noun in the plural.

General Rule.-Adjectives, whatever may be their termination, form their plural by the addition of an s to the feminine and masculine; as, Good, Bon, bons, (masculine); Bonne, bonnes, (feminine.)

This rule has no exceptions for the feminine termination; as to the other, there are two cases in which this rule is not observed. 1st. Adjectives ending in s or x in the singular, do not change in the plural: as, Big, gros, gros; Hideous, hideux, hideux. 2nd. Adjectives ending in au and al make their plural by changing this termination into aux; as, Beautiful, beau, beau, beaux; General, general, gènèraux.

All cardinal numbers indicate the plural, except one, un; for it would be absurd if a word, which, in all cases, denotes a plu

noun thus, two, deux; ten, dix; twenty, vingt, &c., are always in the plural; as, Two men, deux hommes; Ten years, dix ans; Twenty days, vingt jours, &c.

Of the Adjectives vingt and cent.-The adjective quatre-vingts takes the plural termination in the word twenty, provided it is not followed by another number; as, Eighty men, quatre-vingts hommes; Eighty-two men, quatre-vingt-deux hommes.

The adjective hundred takes the plural in the same cases; as, Two hundred days, deux cents jours; Two hundred and one days, deux-cent-un jours, &c. But these two adjectives do not take the plural when they are used instead of the ordinal adjectives, centième and millième; as, Charlemagné died in the year 800, Charlemagne mourut en l'an huit cent; This great calamity happened in the year 580, Ce grand malheur arriva en l'an cinq cent quatre-vingt.

Of the Numerical Adjectives mille and mil, one thousand.-The adjective thousand, mille, never takes the plural; as, Ten thousand men, dix mille hommes; One thousand men, mille hommes.

The word thousand employed in dates is written mil, and means only ten hundred; as, In 1830, en mil huit cent trent.

Although this example is correct, it is more elegant to say for, In eighteen hundred and thirty, en dix-huit cent trente.

The word mille, used as a noun, and meaning a mile, follows the rule of nouns, and takes the plural; as, A hundred miles,

cent milles.

Remark.-It is to be remarked that in French the conjunction and, et, is never used in the formation of adjectives of number. We do not say, for two hundred and fifty, deux cent et cinquante, but deux cent cinquante; the reason for this rule is, that a numerical adjective, whatever may be the number of words of which it is composed, is but one qualificative, which does not admit therefore that and, et, which separates the adjective into parts, should convey the idea of several.

The fact of et being used in the adjectives vingt-et-un, trente-et-un, &c., is not a derogation to this rule, because in these cases et is only used for the sake of euphony, and is dropped as soon as it ceases being necessary to please the ear; thus we say, Quatrevingt-un, cent-un, &c.

Remarks on the Formation of the Plural in several Adjectives.-The adjective, pénitentiel, makes its plural, pénitentiaux; Penitential psalms, Les psaumes pénitentiaux. Universal, universel, makes its plural uni