Be well aware, quoth then that _ladie_ milde.
At last fair Hesperus in highest _skie_
Had spent his lampe.

(3) In the case of some words ending in -_f_ or -_fe_, which have
the plural in _-ves_: _calf_--_calves_, _half_--_halves_,
_knife_--_knives_, _shelf_--_shelves_, etc.


Special Lists.


43. Material nouns and abstract nouns are always singular. When
such words take a plural ending, they lose their identity, and go over
to other classes (Secs. 15 and 17).


44. Proper nouns are regularly singular, but may be made plural
when we wish to speak of several persons or things bearing the same
name; e.g., _the Washingtons_, _the Americas_.


45. Some words are usually singular, though they are plural in
form. Examples of these are, _optics_, _economics_, _physics_,
_mathematics_, _politics_, and many branches of learning; also _news_,
_pains_ (care), _molasses_, _summons_, _means_: as,--

_Politics_, in its widest extent, is both the science and the art
of government.--_Century Dictionary_.