to a
certain degree, in the power of us all. You may be in a situation that
will enable you to dispense comfort to many; but in relieving strangers,
never forget the duties you owe to your own family; be mild and
submissive when they correct you, obedient to their wishes, attentive to
their instructions, and endeavour by the affectionate gratitude of your
conduct, to repay the many hours of anxious solicitude they must spend
on your account.

Lift up your heart with gratitude to the great God who made you, and,
when you reflect on the many blessings you enjoy, never, if you do meet
with little disappointments, give way to discontent and murmurings.
Remember, it is easy to be good humoured when every thing happens
agreeably to our wishes: it is only by cheerfully submitting to the
opposition of them that a really good temper is proved. We must now
hasten to our other business, or we shall not have time to finish it
before dinner.

_Anne._ I am quite ready to attend to you, dear mamma; Grammar, I think,
is to be the subject of our lesson. What is the meaning of the word
Grammar?

THIRD LESSON.

_Mrs. Harley._ The shortest definition I can give you of Grammar, is I
believe, my dear, by saying, that it is the art of speaking and writing
a language correctly. By parts of speech are meant the different kinds
of words of which a language is composed: ours is the English language,
and it contains _nine_ parts of speech, which are,

The Article,
The Noun or Substantive,
The Pronoun,
The Adjective,
The Verb,
The Adverb,
The Preposition,
The Conjunction,
The Interjection.

Do you think you can remember their names, Anne.

_Anne._ I will try do so, mamma.

_Mrs. Harley._ I will now give you a short explanation of them. An
article is placed before a substantive to limit or determine its
meaning; the articles are _a_, _an_, and _the_; _a_ or _an_ is called
the _indefinite article_, because it does not point out any particular
object: _the_ is called the _definite article_ because it determines
what particular object is meant. Do you understand this explanation, my
dear?

_Anne._ Perfectly mamma; _a_ man, _an_ orange, mean any man, or any
orange; but _the_ man, _the_ orange, refer to some particular man or
orange.

_Mrs. Harley._ Quite right, _a_ you perceive is used before a consonant
and _an_ before a vowel.

A noun is the name of a _person_, _place_, or _thing_. Nouns are