mples; but we are afraid of going beyond
our limits. It deserves to be mentioned as a peculiarity, that the
Slavi consider only the first four ordinal numbers as adjectives, and
all the following ones as substantives. For this reason, the governed
word must stand in the genitive instead of the accusative: _osm sot_
(nom. _sto_), eight hundred. In all negative phrases they employ
likewise the genitive instead of the accusative. A double negation
occurs in Slavic frequently, without indicating an affirmation; for
even if another negation has already taken place, they are accustomed
to prefix to the verb the negative particle _ne_ or _nje_.

In respect to the verb, it is difficult to give a general idea of its
character; for it is in the forms of this part of speech, that there
reigns the greatest variety in the numerous dialects of the Slavic
language. The same termination which in Old Slavonic and in Russian
indicates invariably the first person of the present, _u_ or _gu_, is
in Servian that of the third person Plural of the present and
imperfect; and the general termination of the Servian and the Polish
for the first person of the present, _am, em_ or _im_, is in Old
Slavonic and Russian used for the Plural, _em_ and _im_. There is
however one fundamental form through all the Slavic dialects for the
second person of the present, a termination in _ash, esh_ or _ish_;
and this is consequently the person, by which it is to be recognized
to what conjugation a verb belongs.

The division of the verbs adopted in all other European languages into
_Active_ and _Passive_, seems to be useless in Slavic; for their being
active or passive has no influence upon their flexion; and the forms
of the Latin Passive and Deponent must in Slavic be expressed by a
circumlocution. A division of more importance and springing from the
peculiarity of the language itself, is that into verbs _Perfect_ and
_Imperfect_. Neither the Greek, nor the Latin, nor the German, nor any
of the languages derived from them, admits of a similar distinction.
It seems therefore difficult for persons not perfectly acquainted with
any Slavic dialect, to form to themselves a clear idea of it. It is
however one of their most striking features, which adds very
considerably to their general richness and power. The relation in
which the perfect and imperfect verbs stand to each other, is about
the same as that of the perfect and imperfect tenses in the
conjugation of