5. When an adjective or adverb, and a participle immediately following, are used together as a kind of compound adjective, merely expressing a quality, without reference to immediate action, and precede the noun to which they are joined, a hyphen is used; as, A quick-sailing vessel; The above-men tioned circumstances.

When they imply immediate action, and follow the noun, the hyphen is not used; as, The ship quick sailing o'er the deep [or, Quick sailing o'er the deep, the ship] pursues her course. The circumstances above mentioned.

RULES FOR SPELLING.

1. Final consonants are generally single; as in man, book, repeat.

The final letters in add, ebb, odd, jagg, egg, err, purr, burr, inn, butt, and buzz, are exceptions to this rule. We must also except f, l, and s, immediately preceded by a single vowel, or by gu or qu, and a single vowel. Under these circumstances, f, and, in monosyllables, and s, are doubled, as in rebuff, call, guess, quill; except in as, has, was, gas, his, is, this, thus, us, yes, is, if, of and its compounds hereof, whereof, &c. Concerning and s in words of more than one syllable, no certain rule can be given.

C assumes at the end of all monosyllables, except lac, zinc, and arc.

Kwas formerly used after c, in many words of more than one syllable; but it is now generally omitted, except in some few words; as, attack, hillock, bullock

2. Words ending in y preceded by a consonant, change y into i on receiving an addition,* unless this addition is 's, or a syllable beginning with i; as, carry, carries, carrier; fancy, fancied, fanciful, -lady, lady's; carry, carrying.

3. But words ending in y preceded by a vowel generally retain the y on taking an increase; as boy, boys, boyish,

EXCEPTIONS.-Paid, laid, lain, saith, said, and most of their compounds, as, unpaid, mislaid, are exceptions to this rule.

4. Words ending in silent e, generally reject the , before an additional syllable beginning with a vowel; as, move, movest,t moving, movable.

Exc. 1.-Words ending in oe, retain the final e; as, shoe, shoeing; hoe, hocing.

Exc. 2. When e is preceded by c or g, it is retained before ous and able; as, courageous, peaceable.

Exc. 3-The e is retained in a few words to prevent ambiguity; as in singeing, to distinguish it from singing; in dyeing [colouring], to distinguish it from dying [expiring].

Exc. 4.-Words terminating in ee, drop the final letter only when the addition begins with e; as, see, seer, seeth; flee, fleest; agree, agreed. Final ie, besides dropping e, changes i into y, before an additional syllable beginning with i; as, lie, lying

The 2nd, 4th, and 6th rules are not intended to include such additions as form compound words.

Movest is forined in accordance with the rule, by dropping the e in move, and adding est.

5. Words ending in silent e generally retain e on receiving an additional syllable beginning with a consonant; as, large, largely.

Exc.—Duly, truly, wholly, awful, judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment, and argument, are exceptions.

Before fy and ty, e is sometimes changed into i; as, pure, purity, purify.

6. Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, generally double the final consonant, on taking an additional syllable beginning with a vowel; as, tan, tanner; fulfil, fulfilling.

Exc. 1.-X and z are never doubled; and when the accent is shifted, the final letter remains single; as, wax, waxen; confer, conference. Excel follows the general rule; as in excellence.

Exc. 2.-The derivatives of gas have only one s; as, gases, gasify.

When a diphthong precedes the final letter, or when the accent is not on the last syllable, the consonant is not doubled, on assuming an additional syllable; as, boil, boiling; visit, visitor.

Respecting words ending in 7 and p, which are not accented on the last syllable, usage is not settled. In many words these letters are most frequently doubled; as, travel, traveller, worship, worshipper.

Many words ending in c assume k on taking an additional syllable beginning with e, i, or y; as, frolic, frolicked, frolicking.

7. Words ending in a double consonant generally

retain both consonants on receiving an addition; as, call, calls, caller, calling.

Exc.-Some words ending in Il drop one lon receiving an increase beginning with a consonant, as, full, fulness, fully.

S. Compound words are usually spelled in the same manner as the simple words, of which they are composed; as, here-after, ice-house.

Exc. An e is dropped in wherever; and words ending in I often drop one l in composition; as, with-al, un-til, al-ready.

E is inserted before s, in forming the plural of nouns and the third person singular of verbs, ending in ch soft, sh, s, x, z, o, or y, preceded by a consonant; as, churches, wishes, hisses, cooes, flies.

Exc.-Cameo, embryo, and nouns ending in io, form the plural by adding s alone. In the following words e is commonly, but not uniformly, omitted Canto, solo, grotto, junto, quarto, octavo, portico, tyro, zero, and a few others.

:

Many words in our language admit of two or more different modes of spelling; as, connection, connexion; inquire, enquire; negotiate, negociate; riband, ribband; ribon, ribbon; chemistry, chymistry.

In such cases, the prevailing usage is to be learnt by observing the practice of the standard authors of the present day, and by consulting the best dictionaries.

In some kinds of writing, such as bills and inscriptions, symbols are often used to represent either whole words or parts of words; as, XII, 18, 29th,

&c-But in literary compositions, elegant usage generally rejects these, except in giving dates, and the several divisions of a subject.

ON NOUNS.

A noun is a word used to express the name of an object; as, Europe, boy, slate, honor.

Nouns are of two kinds;-proper and common. A proper noun is the name used to distinguish an individual object from others of the same class; as, Thomas, Dublin, Severn, Etna, August.

A common noun is a name which may be applied to any one of a whole class of objects; as, desk, cottage, village, scholar.

Common nouns embrace also the particular classes, termed abstract, verbal or participial, and collective.

An abstract noun is the name of a quality consid ered apart from the object to which it belongs; as, nardness, strength, wisdom, benevolence. Thus, in beautiful flower, the quality expressed by the word beautiful, when considered as separated from the object flower, forms the abstract noun beauty.

A participial noun is a word which has the form of a participle, and performs the office of a noun; as "They could not avoid submitting to this influence.'

A collective noun, or noun of multitude, is a name, that denotes a collection of many individuals; as, school, flock, veople, cssembly.