adjective qualifies a noun which is understood. When I say 'The moon is round,' I mean 'The moon is a round moon' or 'a round thing.' Moreover it is only when the adjective is used as a part of the predicate that this ellipsis of the noun is possible. As the subject of a sentence the adjective cannot stand alone. I cannot say 'Round rotates on its axis,' but must say 'A round object rotates on its axis.' In any case it is the noun which is the name of the thing: the adjective marks merely a quality of the thing.

74. Different classes of nouns.-Common and Proper.

Compare the words river and Henry. What important difference is there between them? Not this, as is sometimes said, that river can be applied to an indefinite number of objects and Henry to only one, for Henry can be applied to an indefinite number of objects also: eight Henrys sat on the throne of England. The difference lies in the fact that, when we use the word river, it has for us a certain uniform sense. The word suggests to our minds the conception of flowing water, banks, source, outfall, and so forth. If we found a piece of water in a park and were inclined at first sight to call it a river, but afterwards discovered that it contained neither inlet nor outlet and that we could walk all round it, we should say 'This is not a river; this is a lake.' The word river has a meaning, and its meaning does not suit a stagnant sheet of water. But a person called 'Henry' might equally well have been called 'John,' for the name 'Henry' has no meaning. We say that the Thames is a 'river,' because it has certain qualities which the word river suggests to our minds. But 'Henry' is merely a mark, arbitrarily set upon a person to distinguish him from other people. Any other mark would have done just as well. And for one reason or another such marks or names are often changed. Thus, Sir Robert Walpole became Earl of Orford. During the greater part of his life he was known by the mark Walpole: for the last few years he was known by the mark Orford. Walpole

and Orford are names without meaning, so if we once know to whom they are to be attached as marks, it makes no difference which name we choose for the purpose. If a football club changes its colours, the team is indicated by a new mark. When Walpole became Orford he was indicated by a new mark. But if we called a river an 'elephant' or a 'bedstead,' we should talk nonsense, because these words are not merely marks but contain meanings, and their meanings in no wise correspond with the qualities presented by a river. Once upon a time, no doubt, people's names had a meaning and were bestowed upon them because people possessed certain qualities. The original Redhead may have got his name from the colour of his hair, the original Tomson from the circumstance that he was the son of Tom. But Redhead's posterity perpetuate the name, though they may be black-haired boys or baldheaded men, and a Tomson of to-day may have taken the name to enable him to receive a legacy, though his name was formerly Robinson. This important distinction is expressed in grammar by the words Common and Proper. A common noun is applied to a number of things because they are alike, or possess some quality in common, whereas a proper noun, though it may be applied to several objects, is not applied to these objects because they are alike or possess any quality in common.

There are some nouns which contain a meaning but are applicable to only one thing. Such nouns we call Singular. In the mouth of a Christian or of a Jew, the name God is a Singular noun, for Christians and Jews recognise only one God. Whiteness is a Singular name, for although the quality which we call 'whiteness' is found in many objects, the quality is one and the same. Several nouns present the peculiarity of being sometimes Singular and sometimes Common. If I say 'Space is infinite,'

'ies,' the nouns are Singular; if I say 'This space is

larger than that,' 'I have seen him several times,' they are Common.

The reader will perceive on reflexion that Proper names are really a special class of Singular names. When we make use of a Proper name, we apply it to some particular individual only. But Singular nouns with a meaning are few and hard to find in any language, whilst meaningless Singular nouns are many, and they meet us at every turn. Hence it is that, in a classification of Nouns for the purposes of Grammar, we usually distinguish between Common and Proper nouns, and not between Common and Singular nouns, of which latter kind Proper nouns are a sub-class.

We may define these three classes of nouns thus:

A Common Noun is one which can be applied to an indefinite number of things in the same

sense.

A Singular Noun is one which cannot be applied to more than one thing in the same sense.

A Proper Noun is a singular name assigned to an individual as a mere distinguishing mark.

75. We may notice that (1) Proper Nouns are sometimes used as Common Nouns, and (2) Common nouns are sometimes used as Singular nouns, that is, as names possessing a meaning, but applicable to only one individual.

(1) Proper nouns become common in two ways: (a) When they indicate a class resembling the individual denoted by the proper name. 'A village Hampden' means a village patriot: of an ill-tempered woman we may say 'She is a regular Xanthippe:' we may speak of promising young cricketers as 'youthful Graces.' When parsing words thus employed, describe them as proper nouns used as if common. Note however that when

we speak of 'the Browns' or 'the Smiths,' meaning all the people called 'Brown' or 'Smith,' without implying that they have any common quality besides the possession of the same name, these words, though plural, are still proper. But if we mean by the Marlboroughs and Wellingtons' not the people called Marlborough and Wellington, but great soldiers like Marlborough and Wellington, the proper nouns have passed into common nouns.

(b) Proper nouns become common also when things are named after the persons or places which bear these names. Atlas, boycott, macadam, phaeton, brougham, come from names of persons; cypress, guinea, worsted, landau, from names of places'.

(2) On the other hand a Common noun may be used with such qualifying epithets as to become Singular. 'The last of the Tudors,' 'the present Lord Chancellor,' 'the highest mountain of Europe,' are compound names which can be used correctly of only one object. And even without the qualifying words we sometimes interpret the meaning of common nouns in a restricted sense. A child who says, 'Father told me to do this,' narrows the meaning of 'father' and uses the noun as if it were a singular noun. Similarly, by 'the Queen' we signify Alexandra, by 'the Prince,' the Prince of Wales. These words are like Proper nouns in this respect, that they can be applied to only one individual in the same sense: they are unlike them in this respect, that they have a meaning, while Alexandra and George have none.

76. Names of Materials. Nouns denoting certain materials, e.g. mud, zinc, gold, rice, arsenic, are never found

1 The original form of the personal name or place name is sometimes disguised, as in camellia (Kamel), filbert (St Philibert), petrel (St Peter), volcano (Vulcan), camoric (Cambrai), currant (Corinth), sherry (Xeres), gypsy (Egypt).

in the plural: others of precisely similar character occur in the plural, but always in some special sense. Men means more than one man, but tins does not mean more than a certain quantity of tin, nor sugars more than a certain quantity of sugar. Tins means cases made of tin; coppers means coins made of copper; irons, fetters made of iron; slates, tiles made of slate; sugars, teas, calicoes, wines, mean different sorts or varieties of these commodities, and in these plural forms the nouns are common nouns.

77. A Collective Noun is one which denotes a number of things regarded as forming a whole. Such nouns as mob, regiment, flock, congregation, are collective. Both plurals and collectives denote a number of things: boys, cricketers, soldiers, sailors, are plurals. But collectives denote a number of things taken in the aggregate and viewed as forming a single group; school, team, army, crew, are collectives. Collective nouns are

mostly common: there are several schools, teams, armies, crews. Sometimes however we use them in a restricted sense as applicable to only one object. Thus, if I say 'The Queen opened Parliament,' the common collective noun parliament has its application narrowed down to one assembly, just as the common noun queen has its application narrowed down to one person.

Collective nouns are also called Nouns of Multitude, and in using them we sometimes think of the individuals included in the group rather than of the group as a whole. Hence these nouns are found with either singular or plural predicates. We may say 'Parliament was unanimous,' if the thought uppermost in our minds is the assembly as a whole, but we may say 'Parliament were all sixes and sevens,' if we are thinking of the assembly as divided into different parties.