at are in the same form in both numbers.--Name
_all_ the various ways of forming the plural number of nouns.--Of what
number are the nouns _news, means, alms_, and _amends_?--Name the
plurals to the following compound nouns, _handful, cupful, spoonful,
brother-in-law, court-martial_.

* * * * *

NOTES ON PHILOSOPHICAL GRAMMAR.

Perhaps no subject has, in this age, elicited more patient research,
and critical investigation of original, constituent principles,
formations, and combinations, than the English language. The
legitimate province of philology, however, as I humbly conceive,
has, in some instances, been made to yield to that of philosophy, so
far as to divert the attention from the combinations of our language
which refinement has introduced, to radical elements and
associations which no way concern the progress of literature, or the
essential use for which language was intended. Were this
retrogressive mode of investigating and applying principles, to
obtain, among philologists, the ascendency over that which
accommodates the use of language to progressive refinement, it is
easy to conceive the state of barbarism to which society would, in a
short time, be reduced. Moreover, if what some call the philosophy
of language, were to supersede, altogether, the province of
philology as it applies to the present, progressive and refined
state of English literature, the great object contemplated by the
learned, in all ages, namely, the approximation of language, in
common with every thing else, to that point of perfection at which
it is the object of correct philology to arrive, would be
frustrated.

The dubious and wildering track struck out by those innovators and
visionaries who absurdly endeavor to teach modern English, by
rejecting the authority and sanction of custom, and by conducting
the learner back to the original combinations, and the detached,
disjointed, and barbarous constructions of our progenitors, both
prudence and reason, as well as a due regard for correct philology,
impel me to shun. Those modest writers who, by bringing to their aid
a little sophistry, much duplicity, and a wholesale traffic in the
swelling phrases, "philosophy, reason, and common sense," attempt to
overthrow the wisdom of former ages, and show that the result of all