is worthless.”  He is worth less, less worthy of respect and confidence.  “He writes very correctly.”  He writes his letters and words like very correct letters.  But I need not enlarge.  You have only to bear in mind the fact, that ly is a contraction of like, which is often retained in many words; as god_like_, christian_like_, etc., and search for a definition accordingly; and you will find no trouble in disposing of a large portion of this adverb family.

It is a curious fact, and should be maturely considered by all who still adhere to the neuter verb theory, that adverbs qualify neuter as well as active verbs, and express the quality or manner of action, where there is none!  Adverbs express “manner of action” in a neuter verb!  When a person starts wrong it is very difficult to go right.  The safest course is to return back and start again.

Adverbs have been divided into classes, varying from eleven to seventy-two, to suit the fancies of those who have only observed the nice shades of form which these words have assumed.  But a bonnet is a bonnet, let its shape, form, or fashion, be what it may.  You may put on as many trimmings, flowers, bows, and ribbons, as you please; it is a bonnet still; and when we speak of it we will call it a bonnet, and talk about its appendages.  But when it is constructed into something else, then we will give it a new name.

Adjectives, we have said, are derived from either nouns or verbs, and we now contend that the words formerly regarded as adverbs are either adjectives, nouns, or verbs.  In defence of this sentiment we will adduce a few words in this place for examples.

=Ago.= “Three years ago, we dwelt in the country.”  This word is a past participle from the verb ago, meaning the same as gone or agone, and was so used a few centuries ago—­agone, or gone by.

    “For euer the latter ende of ioye is wo,
    God wotte, worldly ioye is soone ago.”
                              Chaucer.

    “For if it erst was well, tho was it bet
    A thousand folde, this nedeth it not require
    Ago was euery sorowe and euery fere.”
                              Troylus, boke 3, p. 2.

    “Of such examples as I finde
    Upon this point of tyme agone
    I thinke for to tellen one.”
                              Gower, lib. 5, p. 1.

    “Which is no more than has been done
    By knights for ladies, long agone.”
                              Hudibras.

    “Twenty years agone.”
                              Tillotson’s sermon.

    “Are all the go.”
                              Knickerbocker.

=Astray.= “They went astray.” Astrayed, wandered or were scattered, and of course soon became estranged from each other.  Farmers all know what it is for cattle to stray from home; and many parents have felt the keen pangs of sorrow when their sons strayed from the paths of virtue.  In that condition they are astray-ed.