-masculine and feminine gender, it denotes both males
and females--third person, spoken of--plural number, it implies more
than one--and in the nominative case, it is the _subject_ of the verb
"repose," and governs it according to RULE 3. _The nominative case
governs the verb_. Declined--Sing. nom. bird, poss. bird's, obj. bird.
Plural, nom. birds, poss. birds', obj. birds.

_Repose_ is a verb, a word that signifies to _be_--neuter, it expresses
neither action nor passion, but a state of being--third person, plural
number, because the nominative "birds" is with which it agrees,
agreeably to RULE 4. _The verb must agree with its nominative in number
and person_.

Declined--1. pers. sing. I repose, 2. pers. thou reposest, 3. pers. he
reposes, or the bird reposes. Plur. 1. pers. we repose, 2. pers. ye or
you repose, 3. pers. they repose, or birds repose.

Now parse those nouns and neuter verbs that are distinguished by
_italics_, in the following

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

The _book lies_ on the desk--The _cloak hangs_ on the wall--_Man's days
are_ few--_Cathmor's warriors sleep_ in death--_Caltho reposes_ in the
narrow house--Jocund _day stands_ tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. The
_sunbeams rest_ on the grave where her _beauty sleeps_.

You may parse these and the preceding exercises, and all that follow,
_five or six times over_, if you please.

OBJECTIVE CASE.--ACTIVE-TRANSITIVE VERBS.

The _objective_ case expresses the object of an action or of a
relation. It generally follows a transitive verb, a participle, or a
preposition.

A noun is in the objective case when it is the _object_ of something. At
present I shall explain this case only as the object of an _action_; but
when we shall have advanced as far as to the preposition, I will also
illustrate it as the object of a _relation_.

An active verb is _transitive_ when the action passes over from the
subject or nominative to an object; as, Richard _strikes_ John.

_Transitive_ means _passing_. In this sentence the action of the verb
_strikes_ is _transitive_, because it _passes over_ from the nominative
Richard to the object John; and you know that the noun John is in the
_objective_ case, because it is _the object of the action_ expressed by
the active-transitive verb strikes. This matter is very plain. For
example: Gallileo invented the telescope. Now it is evident, that
Gallileo did not exert his powers of invention, without some object in
view. In o