_Alms_.--This is no true plural form. The s belongs to the original word, Anglo-Saxon, _ælmesse_; Greek, ἐλεημοσύνη; just as the s in _goose_ does. How far the word, although a true singular in its form, may have a collective signification, and require its verb to be plural, is a point not of etymology, but of syntax. The same is the case with the word _riches_, from the French _richesse_. In _riches_ the last syllable being sounded as ez, increases its liability to pass for a plural. _News_, _means_, _pains_.--These, the reverse of _alms_ and _riches_, are true plural forms. How far, in sense, they are singular is a point not of etymology, but of syntax. _Mathematics_, _metaphysics_, _politics_, _ethics_, _optics_, _physics_.--The following is an exhibition of my hypothesis respecting these words, to which I invite the reader's criticism. All the words in point are of Greek origin, and all are derived from a Greek adjective. Each is the name of some department of study, of some art, or of some science. As the words are Greek, so also are the sciences which they denote, either of Greek origin, or else such as flourished in Greece. Let the arts and sciences of Greece be expressed in Greek, rather by a substantive and an adjective combined, than by a simple substantive; for instance, let it be the habit of the language to say _the musical art_, rather than _music_. Let the Greek for _art_ be a word in the feminine gender; e.g., τέχνη (_tekhnæ_), so that the _musical art_ be ἡ μουσίκη τέχνη (_hæ mousikæ tekhnæ_). Let, in the progress of language (as was actually the case in Greece), the article and substantive be omitted, so that, for the _musical art_, or for _music_, there stand only the feminine adjective, μουσίκη. Let there be, upon a given art or science, a series of books, or treatises; the Greek for _book_, or _treatise_, being a neuter substantive, βίβλιον (_biblion_). Let the substantive meaning _treatise_ be, in the course of language, omitted, so that whilst the science of physics is called φυσίκη (_fysikæ_), physic, from ἡ φυσίκη τέχνη, a series of treatises (or even chapters) upon the science shall be called φύσικα (_fysika_) or physics. Now all this was what happened in Greece. The science was denoted by a feminine adjective singular, as φυσίκη (_fysicæ_), and the treatises upon it, by the neuter adjective plural, as φύσικα (_fysika_). The treatises of Aristotle are generally so named. To apply this, I conceive, that in the middle ages a science of Greek origin might have its name drawn from two sources, viz., from the name of the art or science, or from the name of the books wherein it was treated. In the first case it had a singular form, as _physic_, _logic_; in the second place a plural form, as _mathematics_, _metaphysics_, _optics_. In what number these words, having a collective sense, require their verbs to be, is a point of syntax. § 201. The plural form _children_ (_child-er-en_) requires particular notice.