ove. In the first place, it is a contracted form from _pennies_; in the
second place, its sense is collective rather than plural; in the third
place, the use of the sharp sibilant lene distinguishes it from _pens_,
sounded _penz_. That its sense is _collective_ rather than _plural_, we
learn from the word _sixpence_, which, compared with _sixpences_, is no
plural, but a singular form.

_Dice_.--In respect to its form, peculiar for the reason that _pence_ is
peculiar.--We find the sound of s after a vowel, where that of z is
expected. This distinguishes _dice_ for play, from _dies_ (_diz_) for
coining. _Dice_, perhaps, like _pence_, is collective rather than plural.

In _geese_, _lice_, and _mice_, we have, apparently, the same phenomenon as
in _dice_, viz., a sharp sibilant (s) where a _flat_ one (z) is expected.
The s, however, in these words is not the sign of the plural, but the last
letter of the original word.

_Alms_.--This is no true plural form. The s belongs to the original word,
Anglo-Saxon, _aelmesse_; Greek, [Greek: eleemosune]; just as the s in
_goose_ does. How far the word, although a true singular in its form, may
have a collective signification, and require its verb to be plural, is a
point not of etymology, but of syntax. The same is the case with the word
_riches_, from the French _richesse_. In _riches_ the last syllable being
sounded as ez, increases its liability to pass for a plural.

_News_, _means_, _pains_.--These, the reverse of _alms_ and _riches_, are
true plural forms. How far, in sense, they are singular is a point not of
etymology, but of syntax.

_Mathematics_, _metaphysics_, _politics_, _ethics_, _optics_,
_physics_.--The following is an exhibition of my hypothesis respecting
these words, to which I invite the reader's criticism. All the words in
point are of Greek origin, and all are derived from a Greek adjective. Each
is the name of some department of study, of some art, or of some science.
As the words are Greek, so also are the sciences which they denote, either
of Greek origin, or else such as flourished in Greece. Let the arts and
sciences of Greece be expressed in Greek, rather by a substantive and an
adjective combined, than by a simple substantive; for instance, let it be
the habit of the language to say _the musical art_, rather than _music_.
Let the Greek for _art_ be a word in the feminine gender; e.g., [Greek:
techne] (_tekhnae_), so that the _musical art_ be [Greek: he