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mean 'love that is fading or dying out'; it is used in a sense that would be more suitably given by 'death love'. 'Long measures', for measures of length', should be length measures'. A German teacher' ought to mean a teacher that is a German'; in the sense of teacher of the German language', it should be properly 'German language teacher'. We submit to the shorter form, in spite of the ambiguity; nevertheless, the example is in point as showing the variety of the Adjective form in elliptical combinations. ''Tis our opening day' cannot be construed as a noun qualified by an adjective, unless we are prepared to defy the meaning. The filling up is essential to the parsing ''tis the day that we open or commence upon': shortenedour day for opening'. 'Intending purchasers, communicants'- -are persons intending to purchase or to communicate. Expectant minister' is one that expects to become a minister.

Our Father who is in heaven' is contracted without loss of meaning to 'Our Father in heaven'; the phrase fully represents the precise connection between 'Our Father' and 'heaven'. But the farther transformation of the phrase into the adjective heavenly' is misleading. This adjective is not employed in its best understood meaning in the combination heavenly Father'. The use of the noun 'heaven Father' would be less misleading; it would only involve a guess as to the purport of the two words taken in conjunction.

For the extreme illustration of the artificial adjective we might refer to the Latin language, which forbade in form the employment of nouns as adjectives. The practice, however, was allowed in substance. Nouns had to assume adjective terminations. To signify the power that could be exercised by a father of a family, pater was made into an adjective, and the expression was patria potestas, 'father power'. We say 'paternal power', gaining by the formal adjective nothing but pomposity. The combinations of noun and adjective, in Latin, are thus as enigmatical, as far from being self-explaining, as our combinations of noun

and noun. When Juvenal says of Marius, how much happier would it have been for himself and for Rome, had he died,

Quum de Teutonico vellet descendere curru, the reader would suppose that, with other spoils taken in his Teutonic war, he had brought home a carriage, and used it in the triumphal procession. One needs special information to interpret 'Teutonicus currus' as the carriage (doubtless made in Rome) that he rode in during the triumph gained for vanquishing the Teutons.

When these adjectives of artificial formation have contracted by usage a constant or uniform meaning, they acquire the characters of the ordinary or typical adjective. The adjectives-English, German, Colonial-although in their origin they might have been anything, are now narrowed to the special signification of 'belonging to, or coming from, England, Germany, the Colonies'. It is impossible in the nature of things that a sense should have been found to 'English manufactures', if all that is meant by the word 'England' were to be fused with the meaning of manufactures. But by a termination restricting the signification to subsisting, or produced, in England', we may obtain a meaning that can be superadded to, or withdrawn from, particular things, as manufactures, houses, towns, &c.

On this principle, we account for the deriving of adjectives from nouns, by the suffixes 'less', 'ly', 'ful,' 'ish,' and some others. The meaning of 'home' cannot be superadded to 'man'; there cannot be an object that has every property that a man possesses, together with every property that a home possesses. But we may assert of a man that he is without a home, and this may be done shortly by a significant suffix, as 'less,' 'homeless'. So a man may have a peculiar style of manners or demeanour, such as belongs to people that spend their time principally in their homes, and see little of the world, or of general society; this fact is indicated by 'homelike', or 'homely', which by virtue of the constancy of the meaning, are correct or regular adjectives. Fruitful', 'careful', 'needful',

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are adjectives of the same class; we do not need to go back upon their origin, except from curiosity. 'Fruitful field' explains itself, without an effort of guessing what is the intention of putting together the nouns 'fruit' and 'field'. We need not, therefore, raise the same questions about these, as we have to do when we encounter such words as 'legal', 'natural', 'Parliamentary', where we must divine in each case what is the sense of the writer.

THE PREPOSITIONAL ADJECTIVE PHRASE.

We have seen adjective clauses shortened to phrases, as well as to nouns. This is quite common. 'An honest man's the noblest work of God' is the noblest work that God has made'. 'A man of sense' is sense man, a sensible man.

a man that possesses sense', a The full form is the restrictive

or adjective clause; the curtailed or abridged form may be a phrase, or an adjective.

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The phrase may be more significant or expressive than a noun standing alone; this is owing to the preposition, which has a meaning in itself, and limits the range of our guesses as to what is intended by connecting the two nouns. 'A man in London' is more suggestive and definite than ' London man', although we should still need a complete clause to make us sure of the sense-'a man that lives in London', a man that is in London casually', or whatever else. 'A man from London, to London, with London, against London'—are all suggestive of the special modes of connexion between man and London; they intimate less than a clause, and more than the noun 'London' by itself.

The preposition that most frequently enters into the prepositional Adjective phrase, and at the same time suggests least, is 'of', called the preposition of reference. So vague is the relation indicated by of', as compared with other prepositions-to, from, by, with, &c.—that we might almost as well be without it. 'Work of God' hardly expresses anything more definite than 'God work'; 'the noblest God work' is as suggestive as 'the noblest work of God'. The

'of' is little else than a various mode of joining two nouns, leaving the sense to be divined as in the case of two nouns without any binding word. 'Man of valour' gives no more insight than valour man' would do; it is more euphonious, and that is all. So with 'principle of utility'; the meaning would be quite as clearly conveyed by 'utility principle'.

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THE POSSESSIVE AS AN ADJECTIVE.

It is an extensive process of our language to qualify a noun by the possessive case of another noun. The possessive inflection being mostly confined to persons, the usage is confined to these; yet it is still very frequent The king's conscience', 'the lion's share', 'Cold is Cadwallo's tongue'.

The precise effect of the possessive form, and the latitude of meaning allowed to it, will be considered once for all under the Possessive (INFLECTION). What we may remark here is the analogy to a suffix for converting a noun into an adjective, and for imparting a special signification instead of leaving two nouns loose. 'King's conscience' and ' royal conscience' are perfect equivalents in grammar; the case-ending operates exactly like the suffix' al' to define the bearing of the two words, 'king' and conscience'; while both modes are almost the same as the phrase made up by the vague preposition of', 'conscience of the king'.

THE PARTICIPLE AS AN ADJECTIVE.

The condensation of a clause yields first a participial phrase, that is, a participle with an object or an adverbial qualification. When the participle is bereft of these complements, belonging to it as a part of the verb, it assumes the character of an adjective: 'a learned man', 'a beaten foe'. These are parsed indifferently as participles, as adjectives, or as participial adjectives.

The participle may be regarded as having passed into an adjective when the meaning is no longer a single act, or display, but a permanent character or habit. 'A man learned in Philosophy' contains the word 'learned' as a true parti

ciple. ‘A learned man', signifying a general character for learning, shows 'learned' more as an adjective. A horse that refuses (refusing) to go', participle; a refusing horse', adjective. We employ such adjectives occasionally for a single act or result; he is a ruined man' means that 'he has just been ruined'.

THE ADJECTIVE IN CO-ORDINATION.

There are constructions, not unfrequently occurring, where the adjective cannot be construed as restricting the noun. An adjective is often applied to an individual, as ‘mighty Cæsar', 'vast ocean', 'mortal man', 'pretty Jane', 'merry old England'; in such instances, there cannot be any farther restriction.

To account for these cases, we must remark that, from the nature of a proposition, an adjective in the predicate does not limit or restrict, but adds to, the meaning of the subject. 'Cæsar was great, ambitious, unfortunate', contains three predicate adjectives, whose meaning is superinduced upon the meaning of Cæsar. 'Great men are rare': 'men' are restricted by 'great'; 'rare' does not restrict them farther, it adds to what we already know of great men the fact that they are rare.

We can reconcile this usage to the restrictive function of the adjective, by supplying an omitted noun: thus, 'great men are rare individuals'; where 'rare' has a truly restrictive force and limits objects. 'Cæsar was a great, ambitious, and unfortunate man'.

When a co-ordinating relative clause is abridged or reduced to its predicate adjective, we have a co-ordinating adjective. Thus He underwent a reproof, which was merited' might be 'he underwent a merited reproof'. The adjective is then the equivalent of the co-ordinating clause, and does not limit 'reproof'. 'His wise counsels were rejected'; this does not mean that those of his counsels that were wise were rejected, but that his counsels' altogether were rejected, and that these counsels were wise.