Mrs. Harley. Yes, my dear, he was an excellent youth, and his good conduct met its reward in the affection of his friends. I wish you, my dear child, to be convinced, from this story, that there is no situation in life, however humble, which does not afford opportunities for exercising those duties recommended to us by our Saviour.—To feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to comfort the afflicted, is, to a certain degree, in the power of us all. You may be in a situation that will enable you to dispense comfort to many; but in relieving strangers, never forget the duties you owe to your own family; be mild and submissive when they correct you, obedient to their wishes, attentive to their instructions, and endeavour by the affectionate gratitude of your conduct, to repay the many hours of anxious solicitude they must spend on your account.
Lift up your heart with gratitude to the great God who made you, and, when you reflect on the many blessings you enjoy, never, if you do meet with little disappointments, give way to discontent and murmurings. Remember, it is easy to be good humoured when every thing happens agreeably to our wishes: it is only by cheerfully submitting to the opposition of them that a really good temper is proved. We must now hasten to our other business, or we shall not have time to finish it before dinner.
Anne. I am quite ready to attend to you, dear mamma; Grammar, I think, is to be the subject of our lesson. What is the meaning of the word Grammar?
THIRD LESSON.
Mrs. Harley. The shortest definition I can give you of Grammar, is I believe, my dear, by saying, that it is the art of speaking and writing a language correctly. By parts of speech are meant the different kinds of words of which a language is composed: ours is the English language, and it contains nine parts of speech, which are,
The Article,
The Noun or Substantive,
The Pronoun,
The Adjective,
The Verb,
The Adverb,
The Preposition,
The Conjunction,
The Interjection.
Do you think you can remember their names, Anne.
Anne. I will try do so, mamma.
Mrs. Harley. I will now give you a short explanation of them. An article is placed before a substantive to limit or determine its meaning; the articles are a, an, and the; a or an is called the indefinite article, because it does not point out any particular object: the is called the definite article because it determines what particular object is meant. Do you understand this explanation, my dear?
Anne. Perfectly mamma; a man, an orange, mean any man, or any orange; but the man, the orange, refer to some particular man or orange.