Gram., p. 125.  “Because the child has no idea of any nurse besides his own.”—­Ib., p. 153.  To brute animals also, the same distinction is generally applied, though with less uniformity.  Some that are very small, have a gender which seems to be merely occasional and figurative; as, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”—­Prov., vi, 6.  “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.”—­Prov., xxx, 28.  So the bee is usually made feminine, being a little creature of admirable industry and economy.  But, in general, irrational creatures whose sex is unknown, or unnecessary to be regarded, are spoken of as neuter; as, “And it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.  And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail.  And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.”—­Exod., iv, 3, 4.  Here, although the word serpent is sometimes masculine, the neuter pronoun seems to be more proper.  So of some imaginary creatures:  as, “Phenix, the fowl which is said to exist single, and to rise again from its own ashes.”—­Webster’s Dict. “So shall the Phoenix escape, with no stain on its plumage.”—­Dr. Bartlett’s Lect., p. 10.

OBS. 9.—­But this liberty of representing animals as of no sex, is often carried to a very questionable extent; as, “The hare sleeps with its eyes open.”—­Barbauld.  “The hedgehog, as soon as it perceives itself attacked, rolls itself into a kind of ball, and presents nothing but its prickles to the foe.”—­Blair’s Reader, p. 138.  “The panther is a ferocious creature:  like the tiger it seizes its prey by surprise.”—­Ib., p. 102.  “The leopard, in its chace of prey, spares neither man nor beast.”—­Ib., p. 103.  “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it.”—­Exod., xxii, 1.  “A dog resists its instinct to run after a hare, because it recollects the beating it has previously received on that account.  The horse avoids the stone at which it once has stumbled.”—­Spurzheim, on Education, p. 3.  “The racehorse is looked upon with pleasure; but it is the warhorse, that carries grandeur in its idea.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 30.

OBS. 10.—­The sexes are distinguished by words, in four different ways.  First, by the use of different terminations:  as, Jew, Jewess; Julius, Julia; hero, heroine.  Secondly, by the use of entirely different names:  as, Henry, Mary; king, queen.  Thirdly, by compounds or phrases including some distinctive term:  as, Mr. Murray, Mrs. Murray; Englishman, Englishwoman; grandfather, grandmother; landlord, landlady; merman,