Words, by strongly conveying the passions, by _those means_ which
we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in
other respects.--BURKE.

With great dexterity _these means_ were now applied.--MOTLEY.

By _these means_, I say, riches will accumulate.--GOLDSMITH.

[Sidenote: Politics _plural_.]

Cultivating a feeling that _politics_ are tiresome.--G.W. CURTIS.

The _politics_ in which he took the keenest interest _were
politics_ scarcely deserving of the name.--MACAULAY.

Now I read all the _politics_ that _come_ out.--GOLDSMITH.

46. Some words have no corresponding singular.

aborigines
amends
annals
assets
antipodes
scissors
thanks
spectacles
vespers
victuals
matins
nuptials
oats
obsequies
premises
bellows
billiards
dregs
gallows
tongs

[Sidenote: _Occasionally singular words_.]

Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of
singular nouns. Notice the following:--

They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade of
_a scissors_ can cut without the other.--J.L. LAUGHLIN.

A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have been
_a tongs_.--IRVING.

Besides this, it is furnished with _a forceps_.--GOLDSMITH.

The air,--was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn
a windmill, carry off chaff, or work in _a bellows_?--PROF. DANA.

In Early Modern English _thank_ is found.

What _thank_ have ye?--_Bible_

47. Three words were _originally singular_, the present ending _-s_
not being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly construed
as plural: _alms, eaves, riches_.

[Sidenote: _two plurals_.]

48. A few nouns have two plurals differing in meaning.

brother--brothers (by blood), brethren (of a society or church).

cloth--cloths (kinds of cloth), clothes (garments).

die--dies (stamps for coins, etc.), dice (for gaming).

fish--fish (collectively), fishes (individuals or kinds).

genius--geniuses (men of genius), genii (spirits).

index--indexes (to books), indices (signs in algebra).

pea--peas (separately), pease (collectively).

penny--pennies (separately), pence (collectively).

shot--shot (collective balls), shots (number of times fired).

In speaking of coins, _twopence_, _sixpence_, etc., may add _-s_,
making a double plural, as two _sixpences_.