The third adjection is when we say rank or quality of knight. This form of adjective we have learnt from the French; and although we use it less than our neighbours, yet we are well acquainted with such expressions as men of property, men of learning, persons of strong opinions, the girl of the period, the men of this generation, arms of precision, &c. Our first quotation supplies three instances:

'Originally it was proposed that all the members (1000) of the Athenæum should be men of letters, and authors, artists, or men of science-in a word, producers; but it was found impossible to form a club solely of such materials, and had it been possible, it would have been scarcely desirable. So the qualification was extended to lovers of literature,' &c.-H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1824.

In the following lines, functions of a man is equivalent to human functions:

'I think, articulate, I laugh and weep,
And exercise all functions of a man.'

William Cowper, The Garden.

Such are the three ways in which we manage the expression of the adjectival idea, or, as we may conveniently style it, the three methods of adjection.

The third or symbolic method, to which, as the one which most merits attention, the title of Adjection will be more particularly suitable, is generally effected by the preposition of, and yet not by this preposition only. Any other preposition can discharge this function. Thus, if we take the preposition beyond; it is the same thing whether we speak of hope beyond the grave, or of deathless, or immortal hope.

And it sometimes happens that through ellipse of the substantive-adject, the symbol preposition may by itself fill the office of an adjective; as in the local names of Bishopsgate Without and Bishopsgate Within.

Of the three methods of adjection now described, the middle one, or the second variety of it, has so much the

greater development, that it has appropriated the name of Adjective to itself, and the body of this section has been. occupied with it.

This threefold variety of adjectival expression has a philological importance which will more clearly be seen in the next section, where it will be made the basis of the arrangement.

III. OF THE ADVERB.

In Adverbs our attention shall be given to one leading character. It is that which has been already traced in the adjectives at the end of the last section. The adverbs rise stage above stage in a threefold gradation. They are either Flat, Flexional, or Phrasal; and this division gives the plan of the present section.

But before proceeding to exhibit these, it will be desirable to apprehend clearly what an adverb is, in the most pure and simple acceptation of the term. The adverb is the tertiary, or third presentive word. It has been shown above that the substantive is the primary, that the adjective and verb are co-ordinated as the secondary, and we now complete this trilogy of presentives by the addition of the adverb, which is the third and last of presentive words. Whatever material idea is imported into any sentence must be conveyed through one of these three orders of words. All the rest is mechanism.

We assign to the adverb the third place, although we know that it does not stand in that order in every sentence. We do so because this is its true and natural order; for it is in this order alone that the mind can make use of it as an

adverb. Whether the adverb stand first, as in very fine child, or in the third place as in John rides well, either way it is equally third in mental order. As fine is dependent on child for its adjectival character, so very is dependent on the two for its adverbial character. There is a good meaning in very if I say 'a very child,' but it is no longer an adverbial meaning.

As a further illustration of the tertiary character of the adverb, it may be noticed that it attaches only to adjectives and verbs, that is, to the two secondary words. The adverb is further removed from the base of language, it is higher above the foundation by which language is based in physical nature; in other words, mind is more deeply engaged in its production than it is either in the case of the substantive or of the adjective. Accordingly the adverbs cannot be disposed of in a catalogue such as we have made of substantives and adjectives. The power of making adverbs is too unlimited for us to catalogue them as things moulded and made. The adverb is to be looked at rather as a faculty than as a product, as a potential rather than as a material thing.

Of all presentive words, the adverb has most sympathy with the verb. Indeed, this quality is already intimated in the very name of Adverb. It is the peculiar companion of the verb, as the adjective is of the substantive. It continues or intensifies the mental action raised by the verb, or even directs it into new channels. And here having reached as it were the third and topmost storey of our edifice, we leave behind us the care for raw material, and think more and more of the arts and graces of architectural composition. We have done with the forest and the quarry, and we are absorbed in the contemplation of the effect. We may yet incidentally notice that an adverbial form has come from Saxon or other external source; but our main attention will

be required by a division as truly inward to the adverbs themselves, as that which formed the plan of the chapter on verbs. Moreover this internal division is the more worthy of consideration, as it is not limited to the adverbs alone, but is correlated to the general economy and progress of language.

1. Of the Flat Adverb.

The Flat Adverb is simply a substantive or an adjective placed in an adverbial position. The same word which, if it qualified a noun, would be called an adjective, being set to qualify an adjective or a verb is called an adverb. The use of the unaltered adjective as an adverb has a peculiar effect, which I know not how to describe better than by the epithet Flat. This effect is not equally appreciable in all instances. of the thing; but it may perhaps be recognised in the following case of the adverb

villainous.

'Like an ape, with forehead villainous low.'

The uneasy young traveller in an American car, who (as Mr. Zincke relates) exclaimed 'Mother, fix me good,' gave us there an excellent example of this original adverb of

nature.

Although this adverbial use of good is not admitted in literary English, the analogous use of gut is polite German. Indeed, the flat adverb is much more extensively used in German than in English, as schreiben Sie langsam, 'write slowly.' We do also hear in English write slow, but it is rather rustic.

Our English examples of this most primitive form of adverb will mostly be found in the colloquial and familiar

specimens of language. In such homely phraseology as walk fast, walk slow; speak loud, speak low; tell me true; or again in this, yes, sure-we have examples of the flat adverb. We do indeed find sure thus used by good writers :

And the work sure was very grateful to all men of devotion.'-Clarendon, History, i. § 198.

clean.

Suffre yet a litle whyle, & ye vngodly shal be clene gone: thou shalt loke after his place, & he shal be awaye.'-Psalm xxxvii. 10. (Miles Coverdale, 1535.)

In the following, brisk is a flat adverb:—

'Yet these each other's power so strong contest,
That either seems destructive of the rest.'

Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller.

:

In the following, warm is a flat adverb :

'Or when the deep green-mantl'd earth
Warm cherish'd ev'ry flow'ret's birth,
And joy and music pouring forth

In ev'ry grove,

I saw thee eye the gen'ral mirth
With boundless love.'

solemn.

Robert Burns, The Vision.

'And wear thou this, she solemn said,
And bound the holly round my head:
The polish'd leaves, and berries red
Did rustling play;

And like a passing thought she fled
In light away.'-Id.

just.

'A WHITE STARLING IN PEMBROKESHIRE.—Sir: On the 27th of October last, at about 10 a. m., I was seated in my room at Solva, Pembrokeshire