}

verted into Mafculine and Feminine [5], the Perfonification is more diftinctly and forcibly marked. Some few Subftantives are diftinguished in their Gender by their terminations: as, prince, princess; actor, actress; lion, lioness; hero, heroine; &c.

[5]" At his command the uprooted Hills retir'd
Each to bis place: they heard his voice, and went
Obfequious: Heaven bis wonted face renew'd,
And with fresh flowrets Hill and Valley fmild."

"Was I deceiv'd; or did a fable Cloud
Turn forth ber filver lining on the Night?

Milton, P. L. B. vi.

Milton, Comus, "Of Law no lefs can be acknowledged, than that ber feat is the bofom of God; her voice, the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do ber homage: the very leaft, as feeling her care; and the greatest, as not exempted from ber power." Hooker, B. i. 16. "Go to your Natural Religion: lay before ber Mahomet and his difciples, arrayed in armour and in blood:-hew ber the cities, which he fet in flames; the countries, which he ravaged when he has viewed him in this fcene, carry her into his retirements; fhew ber the Prophet's chamber, his concubines and his wives: when he is tired with this profpect, then thew ber the Bleffed Jefus." See the whole paffage in the conclusion of Bp. Sherlock's 9th Sermon, vol. i.

Of these beautiful paffages we may obferve, that as, in the English, if you put it and its instead of bis, she, her, you confound and destroy the images, and reduce, what was before highly Poetical and Rhetorical, to mere profe and common difcourfe; fo if you render them into another language, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, or German; in which Hill, Heaven, Cloud, Law, Religion, are conftanly Mafculine, or Feminine,or Neuter, respectively; you make the images obfcure and doubtful, and in proportion diminish their beauty.

This excellent remark is Mr. Harris's, HERMES, p. 58.

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

A

PRONOUN.

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 Persons which may be the Subject of any discourse: firft, the Perfon who speaks may speak of himself; fecondly, he may speak of the Perfon to whom he addreffes himself; thirdly, he may speak of fome other Perfon.

These are called, respectively, the First, Second, and Third, Perfons: and are expreffed by the Pronouns, I, Thou, He.

As the Speakers, the Perfons fpoken to, and the other Persons spoken of, may be many; so each of thefe Perfons hath the Plural Number; We, Ye, They.

The Perfons fpeaking and spoken to, being at the fame time the Subjects of the difcourfe, are fuppofed to be prefent; from which and other circumftances their Sex is commonly known, and needs not be marked by a distinction of Gender in their Pronouns: but the third Perfon or thing spoken of being abfent and in many refpects unknown, it is neceffary, that it fhould be marked by a di

Rinction

ftinction of Gender; at leaft when fome particular Perfon or thing is fpoken of, which ought to be more diftinctly 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 moreover a Cafe, which follows the Verb Active, or the Prepofition, expreffing the Object of an Action, or of a Relation. It anfwers to the Oblique Cafes in Latin; and may be properly enough called the Objective Cafe..

PRONO UN S;

according to their Perfons, Numbers, Cafes, and

Second Perfon.

Thou, Thine, Thee; Ye or You, Yours, You [6].

Third Perfon.

Maf. He, His, Him;
Fem. She, Hers, Her;

}

They, Theirs, Them.

Neut. It, Its [7], It;

[6] Some Writers have used Ye as the Objective Cafe Plural of the Pronoun of the Second Perfon; very improperly, and ungrammatically. "The more shame for ye: holy men I thought ye."

Shakespear, Hen. VIII.

"But tyrants dread ye, left your just decree
Transfer the pow'r, and fet the people free."

"His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.”

Prior.

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 Poems. It may perhaps be allowed in the Comic and burlefque ftyle, which often imitates a vulgar and incorrect pronunciation: as, “By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye." Shakespear, 1 Henry IV. But in the ferious and folemn style, no authority is fufficient to justify so manifest a folecifm.

The Singular and Plural Forms feem to be confounded in the following Sentence: "Pafs ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir." Micah i. 11.

[7] The Neuter Pronoun of the Third Perfon had formerly no variation of Cafes. Instead of the Poffeffive its they used bis, which is now appropriated to the Mafculine. "Learning bath bis infancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then bis youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his ftrength of years, when it is folid and reduced; and laftly bis old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust.” Bacon, Effay 58. In this example bis is evidently used as the Poffeffive Cafe of it: but what fhall we fay to the following, where ber is applied in the fame manner, and feems to make a frange confufion of Gender? "He that pricketh the heart maketh it to shew ber knowledge," Ecclus xxii. 19.

The

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 Prominal 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 [8] may be efteemed of the fame rank. All these are used, when the Noun, to which they belong, is understood: the two latter fometimes alfo inftead of my, thy, when the Nonn following them begins with a vowel:

"Oft have I feen a timely-parted ghoft,

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

It ought to be,

Shakespear, 2 Hen. VI.

"Which, in the conflict that it holds”—

Or, perhaps more poetically,

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

[8] So the Saxon Ic hath the Poffeffive Cafe Min: Thu, Poffeffive Thin; He, Poffeffive His: from which our Poffeffive Cafes of the fame Pronouns are taken without Alteration. To the Saxon Poffeffive Cafes, bire, ure, eover, bira, (that is, ber's, our's, your's, their's, we have added the s, the Characteristic of the Poffeffive Cafe of Nouns. Or our's, your's, are directly from the Saxon ures, eowers; the Poffeffive Cafe of the Pronominal Adjectives ure, eswer; that is, our, your.

Befide