Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/247

 m."--Shak.

3. Verbs made nouns: "Avaunt all attitude, and stare, and start theatric."--Cowper. "A may-be of mercy is sufficient."--Bridge. "Which cuts are reckoned among the fractures."--Wiseman. "The officer erred in granting a permit."--"Feel darts and charms, attracts and flames."--Hudibras. "You may know by the falling off of the come, or sprout."--Mortimer. "And thou hast talk'd of sallies and retires."--Shak.

"For all that else did come, were sure to fail;   Yet would he further none, but for avail."--Spenser.

4. Participles made nouns: "For the producing of real happiness."--Crabb. "For the crying of the poor and the sighing of the needy, I will arise."--Bible. "Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood; so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife."--Prov., xxx, 33. "Reading, writing, and ciphering, are indispensable to civilized man."--"Hence was invented the distinction between doing and permitting."--Calvin's Inst., p. 131. "Knowledge of the past comes next."--Hermes, p. 113. "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me."--''Sol. Song'', vii, 10. "Here's--a simple coming-in for one man."--Shak.

"What are thy rents? What are thy comings-in?   O Ceremony, show me but thy worth."--Id.

5. Adverbs made nouns: "In these cases we examine the why, the what, and the how of things."--L'Estrange. "If a point or now were extended, each of them would contain within itself infinite other points or nows."--Hermes, p. 101. "The why is plain as way to parish church."--Shak. "'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter."--Addison. "The dread of a hereafter."--Fuller. "The murmur of the deep amen."--Sir W. Scott. "For their whereabouts lieth in a mystery."--Book of Thoughts, p. 14. Better: "Their whereabout lieth," or, "Their whereabouts lie," &c.

"Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind;   Thou losest here, a better where to find."--Shak.

6. Conjunctions made nouns: "The if, which is here employed, converts the sentence into a supposition."--Blair's Rhet. "Your if is the only peacemaker; much virtue is in if."--Shak.

"So his Lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone,     Decisive and clear, without one if or but--    That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,      By daylight or candlelight--Eyes should be shut."--Cowper.

7. Prepositions made nouns: "O, not like me; for mine's beyond beyond."--Shakspeare: Cymb., iii, 2. "I. e., her longing is further than beyond; beyond any thing that desire can be said to be beyond."--Singer's Notes. "You whirled them to the back of beyont to look at the auld Roman camp."--Antiquary, i. 37.

8. Interjections or phrases made nouns: "Come away from all the lo-heres! and lo-theres!"--Sermon. "Will cuts him short with a 'What then?'"--Addison. "With hark and whoop, and wild halloo."--Scott. "And made a pish at chance and sufferance."--Shak.

"A single look more marks th' internal wo,   Than all the windings of the lengthen'd oh."--Lloyd.

CLASSES.

Nouns are divided into two general classes; proper and common. I. A proper noun is the name of some particular individual, or people, or group; as, Adam, Boston, the Hudson, the Romans, the Azores, the Alps.

II. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things; as, Beast, bird, fish, insect,--creatures, persons, children.

The particular classes, collective, abstract, and verbal, or participial, are usually included among common nouns. The name of a thing sui generis is also called common.

1. A collective noun, or noun of multitude, is the name of many individuals together; as, Council, meeting, committee, flock.

2. An abstract noun is the name of some particular quality considered apart from its substance; as, Goodness, hardness, pride, frailty.

3. A verbal or participial noun is the name of some action, or state of being; and is formed from a verb, like a participle, but employed as a noun: as, "The triumphing of the wicked is short."--Job, xx, 5.

4. A thing sui generis, (i. e., of its own peculiar kind,) is something which is distinguished, not as an individual of a species, but as a sort by itself, without plurality in either the noun or the sort of thing; as, ''Galvanism, music, ge