This variation, in the termination of the noun adjective, according to the gender of the substantive, which takes place in all the ancient languages, seems to have been introduced chiefly for the sake of a certain similarity of sound, of a certain species of rhyme, which is naturally so very agreeable to the human ear. Gender, it is to be observed, cannot properly belong to a noun adjective, the signification of which is always precisely the same, to whatever species of substantives it is applied. When we say, _a great man_, _a great woman_, the word _great_ has precisely the same meaning in both cases, and the difference of the sex in the subjects to which it may be applied, makes no sort of difference in its signification. _Magnus_, _magna_, _magnum_, in the same manner, are words which express precisely the same quality, and the change of the termination is accompanied with no sort of variation in the meaning. Sex and gender are qualities which belong to substances, but cannot belong to the qualities of substances. In general, no quality, when considered in concrete, or as qualifying some particular subject, can itself be conceived as the subject of any other quality; though when considered in abstract it may. No adjective therefore can qualify any other adjective. A _great good man_, means a man who is both _great_ and _good_. Both the adjectives qualify the substantive; they do not qualify one another. On the other hand, when we say, the _great goodness_ of the man, the word _goodness_ denoting a quality considered in abstract, which may itself be the subject of other qualities, is upon that account capable of being qualified by the word, _great_.