16.  Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.

17.  Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
      Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.

18.  And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.

19.  A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays
      And confident to-morrows.

20.  The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.

21.  Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.

22.  My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.

23.  But pleasures are like poppies spread,
     You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.

24.  All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.

INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.

GENDER.

[Sidenote:  What gender means in English.  It is founded on sex.]

21.  In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine.  There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English.  Male beings are, in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.

When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words.  For instance:  in Latin, hortus (garden) is masculine, mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.

The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex:  if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if of the female sex, the name of it is feminine.  Hence: 

[Sidenote:  Definition.]

22.  Gender is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.

23.  It is evident from this that English can have but two genders,—­masculine and feminine.

[Sidenote:  Gender nouns.  Neuter nouns.]

All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—­gender nouns, those distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.

Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.

[Sidenote:  Some words either gender or neuter nouns, according to use.]

24.  Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use.  Thus, the word child is neuter in the sentence, “A little child shall lead them,” but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth,—­