the records of the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies.

This practice has not wholly gone out of use in our day, for we hear of
the names of Hope, Mercy, Patience, Comfort, Experience, Temperance,
Faith, Deliverance, Return, and such like, applied usually to females,
(being more in character probably,) and sometimes to males. We have also
the names of White, Black, Green, Red, Gray, Brown, Olive, Whitefield,
Blackwood, Redfield, Woodhouse, Stonehouse, Waterhouse, Woodbridge,
Swiftwater, Lowater, Drinkwater, Spring, Brooks, Rivers, Pond, Lake,
Fairweather, Merryweather, Weatherhead, Rice, Wheat, Straw, Greatrakes,
Bird, Fowle, Crow, Hawks, Eagle, Partridge, Wren, Goslings, Fox, Camel,
Zebra, Bear, Wolf, Hogg, Rain, Snow, Haile, Frost, Fogg, Mudd, Clay,
Sands, Hills, Valley, Field, Stone, Flint, Silver, Gould, and Diamond.

Proper nouns may also become common when used as words of general
import; as, _dunces_, corrupted from Duns Scotus, a distinguished
theologian, born at Dunstane, Northumberland, an opposer of the
doctrines of Thomas Aquinus. He is a real _solomon_, jack tars, judases,
antichrist, and so on.

Nouns may also be considered in respect to person, number, gender, and
positive, or case. There are _three_ persons, _two_ numbers, _two_
genders, and _two_ cases. But the further consideration of these things
will be deferred, which, together with Pronouns, will form the subject
of our next lecture.




LECTURE V.