Saxon thin, gen. of thu, and not from Gothic theins, theina, thein, Anglo-Saxon thin, thine, thin, the adjective.

And, in the third place, the different uses of my and mine, thy and thine, severally, are merely euphonic. The longer forms are used at the end of a sentence or clause for the better cadence. As the indefinite articles an and a are mere abridgments of the ancient numeral for one, being distinguished from each other euphonically, so are mine and my, thine and thy, mere abridgments of the same ancient form. Thus we say, "It is my book;" also, "The book is mine," or "Mine is the book." Also, we say, "My book ;" ." but anciently altogether, and now, in more solemn style, "Mine hour,' "mine iniquities," just as we say, "A book," " an hour," "an elephant." Thus the longer forms are used at the end of a sentence or a clause, whenever the word with which it stands most immediately connected is either omitted or begins with a vowel.

Thus far concerning my and mine, thy and thine; but our and ours, your and yours, their and theirs, her and hers, stand etymologically on somewhat different ground.

In my and mine, &c., mine is the original or normal form from which my is derived by an apocope. But in our and ours, &c., our appears to be the original or normal form from which ours is derived by a process not yet fully understood. It is probably a capricious or abnormal form, involving a double or second exponent of the possessive relation (in imitation of the genitive of nouns, king's, John's). Compare the Latin genitives plural nostrum or nostri, vestrúm or vestri.

But, in usage, the distinction between our and ours, &c., is now perfectly analogous to that between my and mine, &c.; that is, it is merely euphonic.

The distinction in usage between the longer and the shorter forms of the possessive case is often very delicate. Thus we say "The book is mine;" but if own follows, we say, "The book is my own." So "Yours and her ancestors," if the ancestors are different; but if they are the same, we say, "Your and her ancestors."

There is another form of the possessive, namely, of mine, of thine, of ours, of yours, &c., which has been usually explained as a partitive construction; but it is to be regarded as emphatic; or, rather, as indicating the logical importance of the term thus used. Thus : "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his."-Ps. xxx. 4. "And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar."-1 Sam. ii. 33. "My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine.”—WATTS.

In the ancient language a genitive might be employed either before or after a noun, according to its logical worth or importance. Hence, in forming our modern language, when an emphasis fell on the genitive, the mind vacillated between the expressions, "A book mine" and "A book of me," and finally adopted the mixed construction, "A book of mine."

If our views are correct, it follows,

1. We cannot approve of the course of the older English grammarians, as WALLIS, GREENWOOD, WISEMAN, PRIESTLEY, who make my and mine, our and ours, &c., all adjective pronouns, unless one goes further, and makes also John's and Peter's adjective nouns. No one, we fancy, will incline to do this.

2. We cannot approve of the course of most modern English grammarians, as LOWTH, MURRAY, BARRETT, INGERSOLL, LENNIE, who make my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, adjective pronouns, and mine, thine, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, personal pronouns in the possessive case; for the etymology or derivation does not sustain such a distinction, and the addition of a substantive following is no more necessary for an adjective than for a genitive case.

3. We cannot approve of the principle adopted by a late celebrated English grammarian, that mine, thine, ours, yours, &c., are not the genitive or possessive case of the personal pronouns, but pronouns or substitutes, which may stand of themselves directly in the nominative or accusative case, or be preceded by of, the sign of the genitive, for all the examples usually adduced may be explained by supplying the ellipsis of the substantive, and making the change in the form of the pronoun which the principles of euphony stated above require.

SECTION CCCIII.

"SELF

USED WITH THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS A REFLECTIVE PRONOUN.

The word SELF, compounded with the personal pronouns my, thy, him, her, it, and their plurals our, your, their, them, has the force and supplies the place of a reflective pronoun; as, I abhor myself; thou enrichest thyself; he loves himself; she admires herself; it pleases itself: plural-We value ourselves; ye or you hurry yourselves; they see themselves. Self, in composition, both in the singular and plural number, is used only in the nominative and the objective

case.

There is no reflective pronoun in the English language, and hence the use of the word SELF is the more necessary and convenient. In the Latin there is the reflective pronoun sui, sibi, se.

=

In the Moso-Gothic one is found in three cases: Seina, sis, sik In Old Norse there is one found in three cases: sui, sibi, se. Sin, ser, sik. In Old Frisian, in Old Saxon, in Old High German, in Anglo-Saxon, there are traces of a reflective pronoun, at least in its adjectival forms.

In Dutch, Danish, and Swedish the true reflectives occur, so that the modern Frisian and English stand alone in respect to the entire absence of them.

SECTION CCCIV.— _66 SELF A SUBSTANTIVE.

SELF appears to be in reality a substantive, though sylf in the Anglo-Saxon was declined as an adjective, and was used as an adjective.

1. Self has selves, the plural form of a noun, and not that of an adjective. 2. It is used as a noun; as, "The lover of self."

3. The circumstance that if self be dealt with as a substantive, such phrases as my own self, my great self, my single self, &c., can be used, by which the language would be a gainer. In the Anglo-Saxon it is added to personal pronouns in the same gender and case; as, N. Icsylf, I myself; G. Minsylfes, of myself, &c. N. Wesylfe, we ourselves G. Uresylfra, of ourselves, &c. It was also annexed to nouns; as, Petrus-sylf, Peter's self; Christ-sylf, Christ himself.

4. In myself, thyself, ourselves, yourselves, it appears to be a substantive preceded by; is genitive case: Myself = my individuality. In himself and themselves the construction a that of a substantive in apposition with a pronoun in the accusative. When himself and themselves are used as nominatives, the two words himself, themselves, must be viewed each as a single word compounded; and even then the compound will be of an irregular kind, inasmuch as the inflectional element -m is dealt with as part and parcel of the root. See LATHAM and GUEST, Lond. Phil. Soc., vol. i., p. 26.

SECTION CCCV.-SELF USED AS AN ADJECTIVE.

SELF is sometimes used as an adjective; as, "At that self-same moment."-DRYDEN. Self-same is equivalent to "very same."

Formerly hisself and theirselves were in use even in the objective case, after a preposition. "Every of us, each for hisself, laboured how to recover him."-SIDNEY. "That they would willingly and of theirselves endeavour to keep a perpetual chastity." Ourself is peculiar to the regal style.

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SECTION CCCVI.-" SELF EMPHATIC.

In the nominative case, and sometimes when governed by a preposition, these compounds express emphasis; as "I myself will write;" "I will examine for myself;" "Thou thyself shalt go;" "Thou shalt see for thyself;" "You yourself shall write;" "You shall see for yourself;" "He himself shall write;" " He shall examine for himself," "She herself shall write;" "She shall examine for herself;" "The child itself shall be carried;" "It shall be present itself."

To make the genitive his, her, its, our, your, their, mine, thine, emphatic or reflective, the pronominal adjective own is used; as, "He killed himself with his own sword;" "Let them fall by their own counsel."

SECTION CCCVII.-DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS.

A DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN is a pronoun which eminently points out the object to which it relates.

The Demonstrative Pronouns (Latin demonstrare, to show) are THIS, plural THESE; THAT, plural THOSE; as, "This is true charity: that is only its image."

"The only good on earth

Was pleasure; not to follow that was sin."

In the last example, that stands simply for pleasure; there is no ellipsis, for we cannot put in the word "pleasure" without striking out that. "That" stands for "pleasure," and not for that pleasure. It is, therefore, in this case, a pronoun, and not an adjective.

This refers to the nearest person or thing, and that to the most distant. This indicates the latter or last mentioned, that the former or first mentioned; as, "Both wealth and poverty offer temptations; that tends to excite pride; this discontent."

The words such and same. have also been called demonstrative pronouns.

"Demonstrative pronouns are those which express the demonstrative relation, namely, a relation either to the speaker or to another notion, establishing a distinction from other persons or things."BECKER.

SECTION CCCVIII.-COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY.

THIS and THESE answer to the Latin hic and hi, and to the Greek OUTOS, OUTOL; THAT and THOSE, to the Latin ille and illi, and the Greek ἐκεῖνος, ἐκεῖνοι,

1. The cases marked in italics are in the present language. Throughout the Indo-European tribe, the demonstrative idea is expressed by t, or by some modification of it. Sanscrit tat, that; tataras, such a one out of two. Lithuanic tas, he; taks, such. Slavonic tako, so. Latin tot, talis, tantum. Greek róσos, Tołos, tóTE. English this, that, thus.

2. THESE. The s is no inflection, but a radical part of the word, like s in geese. The form in Anglo-Saxon is pas. According to GUEST, the plural termination of the word is the letter e, and this e is the Old English and the Anglo-Saxon adjective plural; so that thes-e is formed from thes, as gode (= boni) is formed from god (bonus).

3. THOSE is, perhaps, the Anglo-Saxon pá, with the s added; or, perhaps, the bâs, from pis, with its power altered. The English form they is illustrated by the Anglo-Saxon form sage þá. There is much uncertainty resting upon the doctrine of the forms in question.

4. According to LATHAM, the demonstrative pronouns are, 1. He, it; 2. She; 3. This, that; 4. The. The reasons he assigns for this classification are, 1. That the personal pronouns, exclusive of he, it, and she, form a natural class by themselves, distinguished by the absence of gender and defectiveness. 2. That the idea expressed by he, it, and she is naturally that of demonstrativeness, corresponding to the meaning of is, ille, and hic, which are demonstrative pronouns. 3. That the plural forms they, their, them, in the present English, are the plural forms of the root of that, a true demonstrative pronoun; so that even if he, she, and it could be treated as personal pronouns,

it could only be in their so-called singular number. 4. That the word she has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon seó, and that seó was in Anglo-Saxon the feminine form of the definite article, the definite article being a demonstrative pronoun.

5. This, that, these, those, such, and some are more commonly classed with adjective pronouns.

A RELATIVE PRONOUN is a pronoun which stands for some preceding word or phrase, called the antecedent, and performs the office of a conjunction in connecting sentences.

The relative pronouns (Latin relatum refero) are WHO, WHICH, THAT, and WHAT. They not only relate to some preceding word or phrase called the antecedent, but also perform the office of a conjunction in connecting sentences.

WHO is applied to persons; as, "This is the orator who will speak to-morrow.' It is figuratively applied to things. See Section DII. WHICH was formerly applied to persons as well as things; as, "Our Father which art in heaven." It is now applied only to animals and things without life; as, "This is the horse which 1 bought yesterday;" "Here is the book which I am studying.

THAT is used for who or which, and is applied to both persons and things.

WHAT, in its derivation the neuter of who, is, in its use, a compound relative, including the antecedent and the relative, and is equivalent to that which or those which; as, "This is what I wanted;" that is, the thing which I wanted. For the connecting power of the relatives, see Syntax.

WHO and WHICH are the same in both numbers, and are thus declined:

Sing. and Plur.

Nom. Who.

Poss. Whose.

Obj. Whom.

Sing. and Plur.

Which.

Whose.

Which (see Section cccxII.).

WHOSE, being the possessive case of both who and which, is applied to persons as well as things.

WHAT admits of no variation. As a simple relative, it has been so far replaced by which that its use is now vulgar.

I. 1. WHICH is a substitute for a sentence, or a part of a sentence, as well as for a single word; as, "We are bound to obey all the divine commands, which we cannot do without divine aid."

2. WHICH is sometimes used as an adjective, or with a noun subjoined; as, "For which reason he will do it."

3. WHICH Sometimes relates to persons: as,

of the two men was innocent."

"He told me which

II. 1. WHAT is used as a relative in either the singular or the plural number; as, "This book is what is wanted;" "These books are what are wanted."