4. Other words—e.g., the, of, by, if, else, and, when, most auxiliary and specifying words—have no mental picture as their accompaniment; they have no significance when used alone; whatever they may once have been, they are now only sound without sense, and have no power in language except as they stand with idea-words. Those are called form-words or relation-words. The latter term will be used in this book. 5. A third class-e.g., he, they, such, so,-represent other words. They have no meaning of their own, and yet, not being mere relation-words, inasmuch as through the words for which they stand they do, though in a secondary sense, represent ideas, it is more convenient to call them substitutes.

6. A word, then, is the sign of an idea, or of some relation of ideas, or a substitute for some other word or words. Or, WORDS REPRESENT IDEAS, RELATIONS AND OTHER WORDS, and are IDEA-WORDS, RELATION-WORDS, AND SUB

STITUTES.

7. The definite office of words of the first class is to express the ideas which make the substance of a sentence. These ideas are, in general, those of objects of all kinds with their qualities and states; those of actions and states of being, with their manner, time, place, and various other modifying circumstances; in short, whatever contributes substance, in distinction from form or structure, to the sentence. The student of sentences will be impressed with the fact that objects, qualities and actions-using these terms in their general sense-make the great part of what is said or written.

8. The office of words of the second class is to combine ideas by showing direct grammatical connection between them, or by expressing some modification of them. The

specification of all these combinations is impossible. They are very many and very various, and they constitute one of the main difficulties in careful analysis of sentences, as they can be fully understood only by much practice in analyzing. Some of the relations or modifications so expressed are those of addition, opposition, concession, number, cause, agent, origin, possession, time, purpose, result, comparison, etc.

The student of sentences in any language will be impressed with the number and the subtilty of combinations of ideas which are made with the help of comparatively few words, and how much his real knowledge of the structure of sentences and their use as a means of expressing thought, and of expressing it with exactness and nicety, depends upon such skillful combinations as well as upon wealth of ideas.

These combinations may, in general, be distributed into seven heads: (a) direct union of subject and attribute by the copula or the copulative verb [see Lesson XI.]; (b) direct union of two similar parts of a sentence, or of two sentences, by a pure conjunction; or (c) of a subsequent to an antecedent term by a preposition; or (d) of substantive, adjective and adverbial clauses [see Lessons XVII., etc.] with some word in the principal clause by an impure, or mixed, conjunction [see Lesson XXXIV.]; (e) those made by such words as same.... as, the....the, more....than, referring whatever they are joined with to some other part of the sentence; and (f) various idiomatic connections which can be understood only by considering individual instances; (g) various modifications of principal terms by means of auxiliary and specifying words.

9. The office of words of the third class is, simply, to take the place of other words; and they refer to them, as antecedents, for explanation and interpretation.

10. This distinction of words is fundamental to all thorough study of language. The test to be applied is this question: Does a given word mean anything definite of itself, or is it only a sign of some connection between words which have such meaning, or does it take the place of such words?

11. By far the greater part of the words in any language are idea-words: relation-words are comparatively few, but the number of relations of ideas expressed by them is almost infinite; substitutes for other words are still less numerous.

12. Idea-words are the staple of sentences; relation-words are equally necessary for connecting the former, as without them the constructing of any but the most simple sentences would be impossible; and substitutes are convenient devices for avoiding unnecessary repetitions.

13. Nouns, descriptive adjectives, verbs, adverbs denoting time, place and manner, are idea-words; connectives, including conjunctions and prepositions, specifying and numeral adjectives, auxiliary verbs and auxiliary words in general, are relation-words: pronouns and pronominals, and some other words, are substitutes.

14. This classification does not interfere with, or supersede, the ordinary classification of the grammars; it is more elementary than that, and it is logical, rather than grammatical.

NOTE. -The Parts of Speech are given in Lesson XIII. From the general knowledge of them assumed here, it is supposed that no special difficulty will be found in applying the classification to the sentences which follow. There seems no convenient way of avoiding the use of a single new term-substitutes-in this classification; but as the words included under this term really differ from those in the other two classes, its use is justifiable on the ground of necessity.

the first distinction to be made among words? 2. What are all words? 3. What do words like lake, sweet, etc., carry with them? What are they called, and why? 4. What is the significance of such words as of, if, etc.? What are they called, and why? 5. What is the use of such words as he, they, and some others? What may they be called? 6. What then is a word? What three fundamental classes? 7. What is the definite office of idea-words? What are, in general, the ideas so expressed? What fact will impress the student of sentences? 8. What is the definite office of relation-words? What about those combinations? What are some of the relations so expressed? What fact about them will impress the student? Into what heads may they be distributed? 9. What is the office of words of the third class? 10. What test distinguishes them? Into what heads may they be distributed? What test determines to which class a word belongs? 11. What is the relative number of words

in each class? 12. What is the relative importance of each class of words? 13. What parts of speech belong to each class? 14. How is this classification related to the ordinary one of the grammars? 15. Write out a synopsis of this classification.

APPLICATION.

Tell to which class each word of the following belongs:

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever a man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the design, without determining whether I was ever able to undertake it ; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat often came into my head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries into it by this foolish answer which I gave myself: Let me first make it, I'll warrant I'll find some way to get it along when it is done.-Robinson Crusoe, Chap. IX.

So he (Capt. John Smith) had a great deal to do in keeping them to their duty, teaching them to cut down trees and build houses, drilling them as soldiers, and exploring the country to procure food. His punishment for idleness was starvation; and in order to cure profane swearing, he kept a daily account of every man's oaths; and at night, in penalty for each oath, he poured a can of cold water down the offender's sleeve. He himself worked harder than anybody; so that the others were put to shame by his example.-Higginson's Young Folk's History of U. S., page 114.

NOTE. If it is thought best by the teacher, this practice may be extended to giving at least the general idea, or relation, expressed by the word, as action, quality, possession, etc.

It may be well, also, to extend this practice to other passages; this will depend, in part, on the teacher's estimate of its value. If this is done it will be interesting to call attention to the relative number of words of each class in any short piece of ordinary writing. It will soon