. In some languages, as the Greek and the Arabic,
there is a _dual_ number, which denotes _two_, or a _pair_; but in ours,
this property of words, or class of modifications, extends no farther than
to distinguish unity from plurality, and plurality from unity. It belongs
to nouns, pronouns, and finite verbs; and to these it is always applied,
either by peculiarity of form, or by inference from the principles of
concord. Pronouns are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their
subjects, in number.

OBS. 2.--The most common way of forming the plural of English nouns, is
that of simply adding to them an _s_; which, when it unites with a sharp
consonant, is always sharp, or hissing; and when it follows a vowel or a
flat mute, is generally flat, like _z_: thus, in the words, _ships, skiffs,
pits, rocks, depths, lakes, gulfs_, it is sharp; but in _seas, lays,
rivers, hills, ponds, paths, rows, webs, flags_, it is flat. The
terminations which always make the regular plural in _es_, with increase of
syllables, are twelve; namely, _ce, ge, ch_ soft, _che_ soft, _sh, ss, s,
se, x, xe, z_, and _ze_: as in _face, faces; age, ages; torch, torches;
niche, niches; dish, dishes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebuses; lens, lenses;
chaise, chaises; corpse, corpses; nurse, nurses; box, boxes; axe, axes;
phiz, phizzes; maze, mazes._ All other endings readily unite in sound
either with the sharp or with the flat _s_, as they themselves are sharp or
flat; and, to avoid an increase of syllables, we allow the final _e_ mute
to remain mute after that letter is added: thus, we always pronounce as
monosyllables the words _babes, blades, strifes, tithes, yokes, scales,
names, canes, ropes, shores, plates, doves_, and the like.

OBS. 3.--Though the irregular plurals of our language appear considerably
numerous when brought together, they are in fact very few in comparison
with the many thousands that are perfectly simple and regular. In some
instances, however, usage is various in writing, though uniform in speech;
an unsettlement peculiar to certain words that terminate in vowels: as,
_Rabbis_, or _rabbies; octavos_, or _octavoes; attornies_, or _attorneys_.
There are also some other difficulties respecting the plurals of nouns, and
especially respecting those of foreign words; of compound terms; of names
and titles; and of words redundant or deficient in regard to the numbers.
What is most worthy of notice, respecting all these puzzling points of
En