The clothes that hang on him are turning to

rags,

And his money still wastes till he starves or he begs.

I made him a visit, still hoping to find

That he took better care in improving his mind: He told me his dreams, talk'd of eating and drinking;

But he scarce reads his bible, and never loves thinking.

Said I, then, to my heart, here's a lesson for me, That man's but a picture of what I might be; But thanks to my friends for their care in my breeding,

Which taught me betimes to love working and

reading.

DR. WATTS' Nursery Rhymes.

LESSON IX.

A LESSON IN GRAMMAR.

You have read very well. I will give you, now, a short lesson in what is called grammar, and I will make it as easy as I can for you.

Grammar teaches the rules for writing and speaking well. Every body ought to be able to write and to speak his own language well. To write or speak bad grammar, and to spell words falsely, is a mark of great negligence and laziness, or of not having been properly taught.

Words having different meanings are called parts of speech, and have particular names given them.

We could not talk to one another about the the things we see, which we handle and use every day, if they had not names.

What you are sitting upon is called a chair, you know. What you are leaning upon is called a table. What you were writing with just now are called pens, ink, and paper.

Now these names of the things that you see, touch, talk of yourselves, or hear others talk about, are Nouns or Substantives. Such are, the door, the window, the garden, the house, the dog, the cat.

There are other words which tell you the nature of those things, the names of which are called Nouns or Substantives; as red, square, hard, soft, sweet, sour. These words are called Adjectives, that is, words added to Nouns. Thus, the red cow, the square table, the hard iron, the soft butter, the sweet sugar, the sour lemon; here the adjectives tell you what is the colour of the cow; what is the figure of the table; what iron and butter are to the touch; what sugar and lemons are to the taste. But you do not want to know only the names of things you see, touch, and talk about, and what are their kinds and nature; you would like to know also what they do, that is how they aet.

The words which tell you this, are called Verbs, that is, the words to express their great importance in language. To run, to stand, to walk, to swim, to fly, are verbs. The swift dogs run.

The tall man walks. The square table stands. The little ducks swim. The pretty birds fly. Here the words, swift, tall, square, little, pretty, show something about the nature of the nouns, dogs, man, table, ducks, birds; and the words, run, walks, stands, swim, fly, tell what they are doing. Another part of speech is called Pronoun, that is a word put instead of a noun, to prevent the repeating of it too often. I, thou, he, she, it, we, they, you, this, that, who, which, are words of that kind. So, Mary, instead of saying, "Mamma came into my room this morning, and mamma dressed me, and mamma washed me, and mamma combed me;" to avoid repeating the word mamma so many times, you say, "Mamma came into my room this morning, she dressed me, and she washed, and she combed me."

"Mr. Broderip came yesterday to give me my music lesson. He is a good teacher. He is a kind man. He is pleasant in his manners. Here, instead of repeating the name, Mr. Broderip, three times, you use the pronoun he.

Words which tell you the time when, the place where, the manner how, any action is done, are called Adverbs, that is, words joined to verbs, just as adjectives are words joined to nouns. William ran hither, just now, carelessly, and jogged the table at which I was writing. The words, hither, just now, carelessly, are adverbs; they are joined to the verb ran. The first shews the place, the second the time, the third the manner of the action expressed by that verb.

There are certain words placed before sub

stantives or pronouns, to show their relation to some other word, and these are named Prepositions, that is, words set before. In, with, by, from, to, for, into, and many others, are prepositions. They are used in this manner, the dog is in his kennel. In is a preposition which shows the situation in which the dog is to his kennel. William went with Mary into the garden. With is a preposition pointing out the situation in which William and Mary are to each other; and into is another preposition showing their situation with respect to the garden. Papa is gone from York to London. From and to are prepositions that point out the situation of papa with regard to London and York.

Other words, such as and, or, because, although, are used to join words, and parts of sentences which are composed of words, they are therefore called Conjunctions, or joining words. You and I and Mary, will take another walk by and by, because it is fine weather. Here, the conjunction, and, joins the three words, you, I, and Mary; the conjunction, because, joins the two members of the sentence. The sounds which you make when you are frightened, or hurt, or surprised, or very much delighted, or are very sorry, are called Interjections, that is, things thrown in between. Such are, oh, ah, alas.

If a number of oranges were on the table, and you could not go to the table to help yourself, Mary, you would ask your brother to bring you what you wanted; and it would be right that you should tell him, whether you wanted one only, and perhaps you would like to point which one.

The words which do this are called Articles, a or an, which is nearly the same as one, means any one of a number, and the marks the particular one.

Thus, then, the parts of speech are noun or substantive, adjective, verb, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, article.

I hope you pretty well understand them; but you will know them better, and learn more about grammar, when you are older.

E

LESSON X.

THE NOONDAY WALK.

We have now time to take a longer walk than we did before breakfast. We will go through the fields to the windmill, and then pay a visit to the carpenter in the village. I suppose you will like that very well.

You see how much higher in the heavens the sun is at present than when we were out last. How much warmer it is! That is, because the rays of the sun come more directly down upon us, and because they have heated the air. The dew is all gone from the grass and the bushes. The sky is blue and clear, and there is hardly a cloud to be seen. The cows and the sheep are lying still in the shade of the trees. The flies, and many other winged insects are buzzing about, and rejoicing in the warm sun beams. The cicada is chirping loud and shrill in the