e case singular in
_ius_ and the dative in i.

RIDDLES.

_Q._ In what case will a grain of barley joined to an adjective stand
for the name of an animal?

_A._ In the dative case of unus-- uni-corn.

_Uni_ nimirum tibi recte semper erunt res.

_Hor. Sat. lib. ii._ 2. 106.

_Q._ Why is the above verse like all nature?

_A._ Because it is an _uni_-verse.

The word alius, another, is declined like the above-named adjectives,
except that it makes ali_ud_, not ali_um_, in the neuter singular.

The difference of unus from alius, say the London commentators, like
that of a humming-top from a peg-top, consists of the _'um_.

N.B. Tu es unus alius, is not good Latin for "You're another," a phrase
more elegantly expressed by "Tu quoque."

[Illustration: TU QUOQUE.]

There are some adjectives that remind us of lawyer's clerks, and, by
courtesy, of linen-drapers' apprentices. These may be termed _articled_
adjectives; being declined with the articles hic, haec, hoc, after the
third declension of substantives-- as tristis, sad, melior, better,
felix, happy.

It is not very easy to conceive any thing in which sadness and
comicality are united, except Tristis Amator, a sad lover.

[Illustration: TRISTIS AMATOR.]

Melior is not _better_ for comic purposes. Felix affords no room for a
_happy_ joke.

Decline these three adjectives, and others of the same class, according
to the following rules:

If the nominative endeth in _is_ or _er_, why, sir,
The ablative singular endeth in _i_, sir;
The first, fourth, and fifth case, their neuter make _e_,
But the same in the plural in _ia_ must be.
_E_, or _i_, are the ablative's ends,-- mark my song,
While _or_ to the nominative case doth belong;
For the neuter aforesaid we settle it thus:
The plural is _ora_; the singular _us_.
If than _is_, _er_, and _or_, it hath many more enders,
The nominative serves to express the three genders;
But the plural for _ia_ hath _icia_ and _itia_,
As Felix, felicia-- Dives, divitia.

+COMPARISONS OF ADJECTIVES.+

Comparisons are odious--

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison. This is perhaps the reason
why they are so disagreeable to learn.

The first degree of comparison is the positive, which denotes the
quality of a thing absolutely. Thus, the Eton Latin Grammar is lepidus,
funny.

The second is the comparative, which increases or lessens the quality,
formed by adding _or_ to the