vern a noun in the AORIST CASE. They are called

CLES OF ATTRACTION.

حُرُوف جازة

or PARTI

وف الاضافة both, and for a similar reason are also termed حُروف

They are called PARTICLES OF ATTRACTION, because they are said to attract the sense of the antecedent word to the consequent, pointing out at the same time the relation subsisting betweenor CONNEXIVE particles. They are applied like the prepositions of other languages in a two-fold capacity; Karà wagátion by way of juxta position, and Karà oúrdson by way af composition; viz. some of them are seperable, and some inseperable. They invariably render the governed word MUFROOR, which some grammarians have rendered the GENITIVE case, but what it may be asked in the genitive-case? le fils aîné du Romanitif,' says Du Marsais,*-the eldest son of the nominative!and is formed to express all 4 relations commencing FROM it itself,' says Harris, in contradistinction to the dative, which expresses ' all relations tending To itself. If this be the true character of the genitive, it is obvious it cannot be applicable to the term mujroor, as the prepositions from and te, govern the same case, though the relations they are formed to denote, are directly opposed to each other. If the metaphorical or rather whimsical language of the French grammarian be admissible, it must be allowed that the claims of this CASE to hereditary pre-eminence are much superior to those of the fils aîné, as it may be said to inherit a sort of trinal consanguinity, or triplicity of filiation possessing in itself a complex cognation, with its progenitor the nominative, which includes not only the rank and powers of the eldest son, the genitive, but of the two younger also, the dative and ablative.

ن

1

It might perhaps be called the RELATIVE CASE, if it were not that every case is strictly speaking relative, a case being generally defined by grammarians--the special difference in a noun, according to the different relations that things bear to one another; yet the Messieurs DE PORT ROYAL Who' copied this definition from Sanctius, + have strangely enough, and almost in the same page restricted the term relative to the dative. On a question however merely nominal it is not necessary to be captious :-in re levi noluimus esse morosi;-the arbitrary distinctions of languages have no essential connexion with he operations of words; the name is seldom found significant of the office. But although the equality of words to things be often neglected,' it seems necessary in technical appellations to be as precise as possible ;-to the two first terminations or cases of an Arabic noun, the terms NOMINATIVE and ACCUSATIVE are sufficiently applicable, but the compre

* Principes De Grammaire, ou Fragmens sur les causes de la parole.

+ Prima et specialis nominis differentia, teste Scaligero, casus est. Sanct, Minerv. De Cas, Nom.

OF THE PARTICLE OR PREPOSITION,

باء

THE PREPOSITION signifies union, or coalescence, in a two-fold

manner:

الصاق

Absolutely, as Tag He is sick, or diseased, lit. in him is disease.

A.

Relatively, as a joy. I passed by Zued; in other words,

حقيقة
به

صورت بزید

حكما

hensive and indefinite character of he one in question, which comprises virtually the various powers of the genitive, dative and ablative, seems to require a name of correspondent import; I shall therefore hazard an innovation, and term it in future the AORIST CASE.

From the etymology of the word case, grammarians have pretended to explain its pro perties. CASE they say comes from casus à cadere to fall, like the Greek rog from Tw words following (as it were) from the mind or discursive faculty. This is fanciful enough, and worthy the ingenuity of Harris, and his friends the Peripatetics. But what authority is advanced for supposing, that words when first applied as terms of art, were applied in their primitive rather than in their consequential or metaphorical significations? There is no authority for such a supposition, but authority directly against it. The word CASUS in Latin is considered synonymous with eventus and exitus, and has many other senses besides its literal one-case in English is never used in its original import, and Aristotlet himself applics 117 to the variations of the noun and verb, not only to what we term declension and conjugation, but even to the singular and plural number. But this is not a work for minute discussions on grammatical subtelties and verbal peculiarities, I shall therefore conclude with observing that the

* Vid. Hermes. p. 278.

+ Πτῶσις δέ ἐςιν ὀνόματος ἡ ῥήματος, ἡ μὲν τὸ κατὰ τὸ, τέτου, ἡ τούτῳ, σημαίνουσα, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα· ἡ δὲ τὸ κατὰ τὸ, ἑνὶ, ἡ πολλοῖς. οἷον ανθρωποι, ἢ ἄνθρωπος. CasUS autem est nominis aut verbig

unus quidem, qui significat id quod hujus est, vel huic datur, et quæcunque talia; alter vero, qui significat id quod uni, vel muitis tribuitur; veluti homines, aut homo,-See also SUIDAS on the word Пsweis.

Aristot. De Poctica.

3. It is occasionally used in the sense of (a) causality, or causation.

(تَعْلِيلُ)

EXAMPLE.

[Verily you have injured your souls by your

adoption of the calf, i. e. adopting it for your

أَنْفُسَكُمْ veril] اِنّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُ

God باتخاذ كُمُ الْعِجْل

same idea is expressed in Arabic by the word, meaning familiarly state, case, &c. which

a fanciful grammarian after the usual mode of etymological retrogradation might trace to the verb he turned, inverted or declined, and hence argue that the term was thus significantly applied

حالة رفع ) in grammar, to express the variations, or declensions, s t of a noun from its upright form This is quite as plausible a (حالة خفض) ".through its various declining forms

derivation.

as the other, but I am persuaded it never entered the mind of an Arabian Grammarian. Who would not smile to hear a physician etymologize on the word case, and inform his Patient, that it signified literally falling, implying as it were the decline or fall of his health from its upright form?-Yet the physician's etymology is every way as good as the grammarian's; or rather they are both good for nothing.

5.

اشْتَرَيْتُ الْغَرَسَ بِسُرْجِهِ

EXAMPLE.

I bought the horse along with his saddle..

It has another property termed () and is that, by which a neuter verb

is rendered transitive.

EXAMPLES.

.God took away their light, i, e, he blinded them ذَهَبَ الله ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ

to. ذهبت برید

I took or carried away Zued, equivalent to

6. It denotes substitution or exchange, (âíléo)

Grammarians have assigned various other relations to the particles besides those enumerated in the text, but they seem all correlative and may be traced to the primary signification or generic idea denoted by the term, all

The radical import of this particle is therefore UNION, whether absolute or relative.

Absolutely, it denotes possitive or immediate union or co-alescence.

Relatively, it implies simple relation of vicinity or proximity of place.

From the generic idea of union flow several specific relations, which may be translated by the following English prepositions.

1. With, denoting the instrument or agent, which is expressed in Latin by the ablative case as

2. By, or on account of, denoting the efficient or final cause, the means by which any thing is performed; also in swearing.

3. Along with, association, society, or connexion.

4. For, in exchange of.

5. In, denoting the relation between the object contained and that containing it.

It corresponds very nearly in all its relations with the English preposition by.