rder to ascertain that object, put the question, Gallileo
invented what? The telescope. _Telescope_, then, is the real object of
the action, denoted by the transitive verb invented; and, therefore,
telescope is in the objective case. If I say, The horse _kicks_ the
servant--Carpenters _build_ houses--Ossian _wrote_ poems--Columbus
_discovered_ America--you readily perceive, that the verbs _kick, build,
wrote_, and _discovered_, express transitive actions; and you cannot be
at a loss to tell which nouns are in the objective case:--they are
_servant, houses, poems_, and _America_.

The nominative and objective cases of nouns are generally known by the
following rule: the nominative _does something_; the objective _has
something done to it_. The nominative generally comes _before_ the verb;
and the objective, _after_ it. When I say, George struck the servant,
_George_ is in the nominative, and _servant_ is in the objective case;
but, when I say, The servant struck George, _servant_ is in the
nominative case, and _George_ is in the objective. Thus you perceive,
that _Case_ means the different state or situation of nouns with regard
to other words.

It is sometimes very difficult to tell the case of a noun. I shall,
therefore, take up this subject again, when I come to give you an
explanation of the participle and preposition.

Besides the three cases already explained, nouns are sometimes in the
nominative case _independent_, sometimes in the nominative case
absolute, sometimes in apposition in the same case, and sometimes in the
nominative or objective case after the neuter to _be_, or after an
active-intransitive or passive verb. These cases are illustrated in
Lecture X. and in the 21 and 22 rules of Syntax.

ACTIVE-INTRANSITIVE VERBS.

An active verb is _transitive_, when the action terminates on an object:
but

An active verb is _intransitive_, when the action does _not_ terminate
on an object; as, John _walks_.

You perceive that the verb _walks_, in this example, is _intransitive_,
because the action does not pass over to an object; that is, the action
is confined to the agent John. The following _sign_ will generally
enable you to distinguish a _transitive_ verb from an _intransitive_.
Any verb that will make sense with the words _a thing_ or _a person_,
after it, is _transitive_. Try these verbs by the sign, _love, help,
conquer, reach, subdue, overcome_. Thus, you can say, I love _a person_
or _thing_--I c