The chief use of Gender in English is in the Pronoun of the Third Perfon; which muft agree in that respect with the Noun for which it ftands.

PRONOUN.

A PRONOUN is a word ftanding instead of a

Noun, as its Subftitute or Representative.

In the Pronoun are to be confidered the Perfon, Number, Gender, and Cafe.

There are Three Perfons which may be the Subject of any discourse : first, the Person who fpeaks may speak of himfelf; fecondly, he may fpeak of the Perfon to whom he addreffes himfelf; thirdly, he may speak of fome other Person. These are called, refpe&ively, the First, Second, and Third, Persons and are expressed by the

Pronouns, I, Thou, He.

As the Speakers, the Perfons spoken to, and the other Perfons spoken of, may be many; fo each of these Perfons hath the Plural Number; We, Ye, They.

The Perfons speaking and spoken to, being at the same time the Subjects of the discourse, are

:

fuppofed to be prefent; from which and other circumftances their Sex is commonly known, and need not to be marked by a distinction of Gender in their Pronouns but the third Perfon or thing spoken of being absent and in many respects unknown, it is necessary, that it should be marked by a diftinction of Gender; at least when some particular person or thing is fpoken of, which ought to be more distinctly marked accordingly the Pronoun Singular of the Third Perfon hath the Three Genders; He, She, It.

Pronouns have Three Cafes; the Nominative; the Genitive, or Poffeffive; like Nouns; and mereover a Cafe, which follows the Verb Active, or the Prepofition, expreffing the Object of an Action, or of a Relation. It answers to the Oblique Cafes in Latin; and may be properly enough called the Objective Cafe.

Thou, Thine, Thee; Ye or You, Yours, You (1).

(1) Some Writers have ufed Ye as the Objective Cafe Plural of the Pronoun of the Second Perfon; very improperly, and ungrammatically.

The more fhame for ye: holy men I thought ye..

Shakspeare, Hen. VIII.

"But tyrants dread ye, left your juft degree

Transfer the pow'r, and fet the people free."

Prior.

"His wrath, which one day will deftroy ye both. " Milton, P. L. ii. 734.

Milton ufes the fame manner of expreffion in a few other places of his Paradife Loft, and more frequently in his

Third Perfon.

Maf. He, His, Him;
Fem. She, Hers, Her;
Neut. It, Its (1), It;

They, Theirs, Them.

Poems. It may perhaps be allowed in the Comic and Burlefque ftyle, which often imitates a vulgar and incorre& pronunciation: By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye." Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV.

as, 66

But in the ferious

and folemn ftyle, no authority is fufficient to justify fo manifeft a folecism.

The Singular and Plural Forms feem to be confounded in the following Sentence: "Pafs ye away, thou inhabitant of

Saphir." Micah, i. 11.

(1) The Neuter Pronoun of the Third Perfon had formerly no variation of Cafes. Inftead of the Poffefsive its they used his, which is now appropriated to the Masculine. «Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning, and almoft childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his ftrength of years, when it is folid and reduced; and laftly his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust., Baçon, example his is evidently used as the Poffeffive Cafe of it but what fhall we fay to the following, and feems to where her is applied in the fame manner, make a strange confufion of Gender? He that pricketh the heart maketh it to fhow her knowledge." Eccles, xxii. 19. Oft have I feen a timely-parted ghoft,

Effay 58. In this

Of afhy femblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
Being all defcended to the lab'ring heart,
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
Attracts the fame for aidance 'gainst the enemy."

Shakspeare, 2 Hen. VI.

The Perfonal Pronouns have the nature of Subftantives, and, as fuch, ftand by themselves: the reft have the nature of Adjectives, and, as fuch, are joined to Subftantives; and may be called Pronominal Adjectives.

Thy, My, Her, Our, Your, Their, are Pronominal Adjectives: but His, (that is, He's) Her's, Our's, Your's, Their's, have evidently the Form of the Poffeffive Cafe: and by Analogy, Mine, Thine (1),

may

be efteemed of the fame rank. All these are ufed, when the Noun, to which they belong, is underfood the two latter fometimes alfo inftead of my, thy, when the Noun following them begins with a vowel.

Befide the foregoing, there are feveral other Pronominal Adjectives; which, though they may

Who, in the conflict that he holds with death."

:

(1) So the Saxon Ic hath the Poffeffive Cafe Min; Thu, Poffeffive Thin; He, Poffeffive His from which our Possesfive Cafes of the fame Pronouns are taken without Alteration. To the Saxon Poffeffive Cafes, hire, ure, eower, hira, (that is, her's, our's, your's, their's,) we have added the s, the Chara&eristic of the Poffeffive Cafe of Nouns. Or our's, your's, are direâly from the Saxon ures, cowers; the Poffeffive Cafe of the Pronominal Adjectives ure, cower; that is, ear, your.