dative

    means

     giving

    . Schoolmasters are very often in the dative case—but

    their generosity is chiefly exercised in bestowing what is termed monkey’s allowance; that is, if not more kicks, more boxes on the ear, more spats, more canings, birchings, and impositions, than halfpence.

     A DATIVE AND A VOCATIVE CASE.

    The accusative case follows the verb, as a bailiff follows a debtor, a bull-dog a butcher, or a round of applause a supernatural squall at the Italian Opera. It answers to the question Whom? or What? as, Whom do you laugh at? (behind his back) Derideo magistrum—I laugh at the master.

    The vocative case is known by calling, or speaking to; as, O magister—O master; an exclamation which is frequently the consequence of shirking out, making false concords or quantities, obstreperous conduct in school, &c.

    The ablative case is known by certain prepositions, expressed or understood; as Deprensus magistro—caught out by the master. Coram

     rostro

    —before the

     beak

    . The prepositions, in, with, from, by, and the word, than, after the comparative degree, are signs of the ablative case. In angustiâ—in a fix. Cum indigenâ—with a native. Ab arbore—from a tree. A rictu—by a grin. Adipe lubricior—slicker than grease.

    The genders of nouns, which are three, the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter, are denoted in Latin by articles. We have articles, also, in English, which distinguish the masculine from the feminine, but they are articles of dress; such as petticoats and breeches, mantillas and mackintoshes. But as there are many things in Latin, called masculine and feminine, which are nevertheless not

    male and female, the articles attached to them are not parts of dress, but parts of speech.

    We will now, with our readers’ permission, initiate them into a new mode of declining the article hic, 

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