“The rearing of them [i. e. of plants] became his first care, their fruit his first food, and marking their kinds his first knowledge.”—­N.  Butler’s Gram., p. 44.

“After the period used with abbreviations we should employ other points, if the construction demands it; thus, after Esq. in the last example, there should be, besides a period, a comma.”—­Ib., p. 212.

“In the plural, the verb is the same in all the persons; and hence the principle in Rem. 5, under Rule iii. [that the first or second person takes precedence,] is not applicable to verbs.”—­Ib., p. 158.

“Rex and Tyrannus are of very different characters.  The one rules his people by laws to which they consent; the other, by his absolute will and power:  that is called freedom, this, tyranny.”—­Murray’s Key, 8vo, p. 190.

“A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, which can be known, or mentioned, as:  George; London; America; goodness; charity.”—­Cooper’s Plain and Pract.  Gram., p. 17.

“Etymology treats of the classification of words; their various modifications and derivations.”—­Day’s School Gram., p. 9.  “To punctuate correctly implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and phrases, as well as of all their corresponding connexions”—­W.  Day’s Punctuation, p. 31.

“All objects which belong to neither the male nor female kind are called neuter.”—­Weld’s Gram., 2d Ed., p. 57.  “All objects, which belong to neither the male nor female kind, are said to be of the neuter gender.”—­Weld’s Gram., Abridged, p. 51.

“The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language presented in the preceding statements are sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand.  Those who wish to pursue it further can consult Dr. Rush’s admirable work, ’The Philosophy of the Human Voice.’”—­Fowlers E. Gram., 1850, Sec.65.  “Nobody confounds the name of w or y with their sound or phonetic import.”—­Ib., Sec.74.

   “Order is Heaven’s first law; and this confest,
    Some are and must be, greater than the rest.”—­Ib., p. 96.

LESSON II.—­UNDER VARIOUS RULES.

“In adjectives of one syllable, the Comparative is formed by adding _-er_ to the positive; and the Superlative by adding _-est_; as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest.”—­Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 19.

“In monosyllables the comparative is formed by adding er or r to the positive, and the superlative by adding est or st; as, tall, taller, tallest; wise, wiser, wisest.”—­Id., Pract.  Les., p. 24.

“By this method the confusion and unnecessary labor occasioned by studying grammars in these languages, constructed on different principles is avoided, the study of one is rendered a profitable introduction to the study of another, and an opportunity is furnished to the enquiring student of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and seeing at once wherein they agree, and wherein they differ.”—­Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., Pref. to 5th Ed., p. vii.