Taking the noun with all the terminations incident to it, we might still be supposed desirous of giving it a defini tion. In its different forms we have a variety of uses to which it is applied. With these in our view, we may now ask, what circumstance is common to them all, which does not belong to the same etymon in the form of a verb. It will not be easy to give a formal definition of this. It ap pears to us to consist in the degree of conspicuousness which the word has in a sentence, and the ascendant inter est which the idea expressed by it is intended to have in the mind of the person addressed. The noun is a name for the central object of interest. When we come to consi der the different cases, it will be made to appear that they refer us to degrees of importance different from one ano thee ; but they all agree in expressing ideas nearer to the central object than those expressed by the other parts of speech ; or, at least, this will be shewn to be their original destination. This may seem a very imperfect definition of a particular part of speech : it expresses, however, no thing but what is true ; and the same truth will he more fully developed in other instances, as we proceed with the discussion of the various kinds of words. Although no formal definition has now peen given of the noun, the pur pose of a definition is ultimately answered, when it is de scribed by means of a comparison with other words, the only objects from which it requires to be distinguished.
When no termination is affixed to the radical sign, the distinction betwixt its application as a noun and as a verb is designated by its mode of connection with other words in the sentence. When the general idea expressed by the word " love" is exhibited as the chief object of interest, " love" is a noun, and the purposes of speech require it in that use to be connected with some sort of verb, as " love is a pleasing emotion." It is thus fully distinguished from the verb love," which is known to be a verb from having a noun connected with it as introductory. In such sen tences as, " I love," " you love," " they love," the, sub ject of discourse is always denoted by a substantive noun. Other substantive nouns may indeed be introduced as subor dinate to that which signifies the subject chiefly spoken of. The differences of these relations will be afterwards at tended to. In the mean time we shall regard this general purpose as giving origin to that part of speech. In the noun the name of the idea has also greater latitude in the uses to which it is applied. It is a sign by means of which the same idea may, in the progress of discourse, be represented repeatedly, and in a great variety of aspects.