His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.

18 Here lies one who never drew

Blood himself, yet many slew.

19 It is an old fable that love is blind. But I think there are no eyes so sharp as those of lovers. I am sure there is not a shade upon Prue's brow that I do not instantly remark, nor an altered tone in her voice that I do not instantly observe.

20 But none of us remember all the benefits we owe him; they have come one by one, one driving out the memory of the other: it is only when we come to examine them all together, as the writer has done, who has a pile of books on the table before him-a heap of personal kindnesses from George Cruikshank (not presents, if you please, for we bought, borrowed, or stole every one of them)—that we feel what we owe him.

CHAPTER VI

THE ADJECTIVE

93. An Adjective is a word used to modify the meaning of a noun or a noun equivalent. Adjectives may be classified as: (1) Descriptive; (2) Demonstrative; (3) Indefinite; (4) Distributive; (5) Numeral; (6) Interrogative; (7) Relative.

Note 1: A Descriptive Adjective expresses some quality of the thing spoken of: as, "I have reached the highest point of all my glory."

Note 2: Participial Adjectives (52) and Proper Adjectives (derived from Proper Nouns) may be classified as Descriptive Adjectives: as, "Tennyson made the Arthurian legend the subject of an epic cycle."

Note 3 Adjectives used as complements of Intransitive and Passive Verbs may refer to noun clauses or phrases used as subjects: as, "To be weak is miserable."

Note 4: The Adjectives like and near are followed by nouns or pronouns in the Objective Case after to understood.

Note 5: An Adjective preceded by the may become a Noun: as, "None but the brave deserves the fair."

Exercise 67. In the following sentences, find the descriptive adjectives and tell to what each relates:—

1 Faint and fainter sounds the flute.

2 Yet beautiful and spacious

The wise old world appears.

3 No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed.

4 Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

5 Nothing useless is, or low,

Each thing in its place is best.

6 In his chamber, weak and dying,

Was the Norman baron lying.

7 Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,
Stiller the notes of the birds on the hill;
Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,
Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.

8 Blinking embers, tell me true,

Where are those armies marching to,
And what the burning city is
That crumbles in your furnaces.
9 There dwells a loved one,
But cruel is she!

She left lonely forever

The kings of the sea.

10 He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown. 11 August next, with cider mellow,

Laughs from out the poppied corn.

12 How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream, With half-shut eyes ever to seem

Falling asleep in a half-dream.

13 With pipe and flute the rustic Pan

Of old made music sweet for man.

14 For there was Milton like a seraph strong, Beside him Shakespeare bland and mild;

15

And there the world-worn Dante grasp'd his song,

And somewhat grimly smiled.

And there the Ionian father of the rest;

A million wrinkles carved his skin.

Heaven's ebon vault,

Studded with stars unutterably bright,

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which heaven has spread

To curtain her sleeping world.

16 If the above account be correct, the tyranny of the majority is no longer a blemish on the American system, and the charges brought against democracy from the supposed example of America are groundless. 17 Under the stone you behold,

Buried, and coffin'd, and cold,

Lieth Sir Wilfrid the bold.

18 Poor, reckless, rude, low-born, untaught,
Bewilder'd and alone,

A heart with English instinct fraught
He yet can call his own.

19 On her cheek an autumn flush
Deeply ripen'd;—such a blush
In the midst of brown was born,

Like red poppies grown with corn. 20 Mild is the parting year, and sweet The odor of the falling spray; Life passes on more rudely fleet,

And balmless is its closing day.

94. Demonstrative, Indefinite, and Distributive Adjectives have the forms of the corresponding classes of Pronouns, but are used with Nouns, to modify their meaning: as,

And be these juggling fiends no more believed!

Note 1: Every and no are used as Adjectives only; none is always a Pronoun.

Note 2: Numeral Adjectives denote number and are classified as: (1) Cardinals: one, two, etc.; (2) Ordinals: first, second, etc.; Multiplicatives: once, twice, etc. The words pair, dozen, hundred, thousand, and million, which

are preceded by a and take a plural are usually parsed as Nouns, the preposition of being understood after them.

Note 3: Which, what, whichever, and whatever may be used as Relative Adjectives: as, "It mattered not what party was uppermost, the Vicar of Bray held fast to his living." Which and what are used as Interrogative Adjectives both in direct and in indirect questions: as, "What cat's averse to fish?"

Note 4: The Articles the, and a or an, are usually parsed as adjectives: the is the Definite Article; a or an the Indefinite.

Note 5: The Adjectives this and that have, as Plurals, these and those respectively.

Exercise 68. Find the adjectives in the following sentences and tell the class of each:

1 Give him another hope, to betray him to another punishment.

2 He's a present for any emperor that ever trod.

3 All men are not alike, alas! good neighbor.

4 Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck the flower, safety. 5 Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favored

When others are more wicked.

6 They flock together in consent like so many wild geese.

7 Few pence are better than none.

8 She will mix these pleasures up

Like the fit wines in a cup,

And thou shalt quaff it:-thou shalt hear
Distant harvest-carols clear:

Rustle of the reapèd corn;

Sweet birds antheming the morn.

9 Every night my prayers I say,

And get my dinner every day.

10 Full twenty times was Peter feared, For once that Peter was respected.