"Gif he passeth with honour,

Our is the dishonoure."-Kyng Alisaunder, 38.

"Of Synah can I tell the more,

And of Our Lady's bower,

But little needs to strow my store,

Suffice this hill of our."

Us. For us in English we have us in the Anglo-Saxon, unser

in the German, os in the Danish, nos in the Latin. ours, us, are etymologically related to each other. spring from the same root.

We, our,
They all

PLURALITY FOR UNITY.

§ 297. WE, in the plural, is often used in the place of I in the singular, especially by reviewers, authors, monarchs, &c. That a reviewer, in giving his individual opinions to the public, should substitute plurality for unity is very natural, inasmuch as he is associated with others, often in a junto or club, whose collective opinions he is supposed to utter. Moreover, what he lacks in argument he can supply by calling in the aid of we instead of I. That a ruler, embodying in himself the collected will of others; that an author or orator, in addressing his readers or hearers, who entertain the same views with himself, should use the plural term instead of the singular, is warrantable.

"But there is a tribe of writers who are fond of merging their individuality in a multitudinous we. They think they may pass themselves off unnoticed, like the Irishman's bad guinea, in a handful of halfpence. In ordinary books, except when the author can be reasonably conceived to be speaking, not merely in his own person, but as the organ of a body, or when he can fairly assume that his readers are going along with him, his using the plural we impresses one with much such feeling as a man's being afraid to look one in the face. In simpler times, before our self-consciousness became so sensitive, men were not afraid to say I, and they never dreamed that their doing so could be any offense to their neighbors. But now men are ready to become he, she, it, they-any thing rather than I. Even Dr. Chalmers, speaking of himself, says, We formerly thought differently, but have now changed our mind." See Guesses at Truth, first series, p. 143.

PRONOUNS OF THE SECOND

PERSON.

§ 298. THOυ. The equivalent of thou, in the Anglo-Saxon, was pu; in the German, du; in the Swedish and Danish, du; in the Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, tu.

THY. For the etymological relations of thy and thine, see § 302 THEE. The equivalents of thee, in Anglo-Saxon, are þe, peh, рес.

YE. In the Anglo-Saxon we have ge. This is a true nominative. It sometimes has the force of an accusative, and, as such, is used by the poets. "His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both."-MILTON.

YOUR, YOURS. In the Anglo-Saxon we have the equivalent cower. YOURS is used independently as a substitute for a noun in the nominative or objective case; as, "This book is yours;" "I have no pen; give me yours."

You. The equivalent of you, in Anglo-Saxon, was cow.

It is

a true accusative. It is also used as a nominative instead of ye. It is, in familiar language, used in the singular number as thou is in the solemn style. You is used, like on in French, indefinitely, i. c., for any one; as, "It is a grand object; you may look over the world without finding such another."

SUBSTITUTION

OF PLURALITY FOR UNITY.

§ 299. The original use of you, a plural form, instead of thou, a nominative singular, may have arisen from a deference to the person addressed, which led the speaker to treat one as more than one, or as representing others besides himself. That you had a plural meaning, and not a singular one, is evident from the circumstance that it is nominative to a plural verb, you are, and not to a singular one, you art. But it has long since ceased to have that meaning, or to suggest the idea of plurality when applied to an individual. It may, therefore, with propriety take its place among the singular forms in the declension of the pronoun and the conjugation of the verb. See § 293.

In the languages of modern Europe, divers expedients have been adopted to supersede the pronoun of the second person singular; and only among certain classes, or in particular cases, is it thought allowable nowadays to address any one by his right

ful appellation, thou. This is commonly supposed to be dictated by a desire of showing honor to him whom we are addressing. But the further question arises, Why is it esteemed a mark of honor to turn an individual into a multitude? The secret motive which lies at the bottom of these conventions is a reluctance, in the one case, to obtrude one's own personality by the use of I, and, in the other, to intrude on the personality of another by the use of thou.

Among the Greeks and Romans there was not the same personality in their addresses to each other. They never fancied that there could be any thing indecorous or affronting in calling each other simply oú or tu.

In England thou was in current use until, perhaps, near the commencement of the seventeenth century, though it was getting to be regarded as somewhat disrespectful. At Walter Raleigh's trial, Coke, when argument and evidence failed him, insulted the defendant by applying to him the term thou. "All that Lord Cobham did," he cried "was at thy instigation, thou viper! for I thou thee, thou traitor!" When Sir Toby Belch is urging Sir Andrew Aguecheek to send a challenge to Viola, he says, "If thou thouest him some thrice it shall not be amiss."

PRONOUNS

OF THE THIRD PERSON.

§ 300. HE. For he we have in the Anglo-Saxon he, in the German er, in the Swedish han, in the Latin ille.

HIS. His was in the Anglo-Saxon a true possessive as now, and was common to both the masculine and the neuter genders. HIM. Him was in the Anglo-Saxon a dative (heom), common to the masculine and the neuter genders, but now an objective case, and restricted to the masculine.

SHE. For she we find in the Anglo-Saxon heo, out of which it grew.

HER. Originally hire, or hyre, was used in the Anglo-Saxon either as a dative or a possessive; used in the modern English as a possessive (her book) or an objective (he led her). "Hers

is probably a case from a case," or an instance of a double inflection.

Ir. A true form of the neuter gender, which in the AngloSaxon was hit. See § 295. The letter t is the sign of the neu

ter gender, as in what, that, it. In the present Danish, Swed ish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, and in the Old Norse and MœsoGothic, all neuter adjectives end in t. It is used as a nominative and objective.

Irs. A possessive irregularly formed, the t being mistaken as an original part of the word. It has superseded the Anglo-Saxon his. The following forms were in use in the time of Queen Elizabeth and James I.: "Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and, lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust."-BACON, Essay LVIII. Here his is evidently used as the possessive case of it.

The word its is of late introduction into the language. It does not occur in the common version of the Bible, the substitute being his or thereof.

THEY, THEIR, THEIRS, THEM. These words, borrowed from the demonstrative pronoun thaet (see § 308), replaced the pronouns hi, heora, heom. Theirs is in the same predicament with ours, yours, and hers. It is either a case formed from a case, and is a secondary genitive, or it is the case of an adjective. See $ 302.

THE GERMAN USAGE.

§ 301. The Germans, when addressing a person, generally use the third person plural of the personal pronoun.

Till within some centuries, the Germans, like the French and the English, addressed each other in familiar conversation by the second person singular, and in formal intercourse by the second person plural. Since that period another mode of address has been adopted as expressive of respect, viz., by the third person plural, while inferiors were, and still are, addressed in the 'third person singular.

Although the Germans adopted these modern forms, they still retained the ancient form. There exists, therefore, a considerable variety in accommodating the mode of address to the different relations of superiority, inferiority, friendship, and love. The use of the third personal pronoun in the plural is generally received in the polite conversation of people of education; and

even inferiors, if not in dependence on the speaker, would be of fended if otherwise addressed. The second personal pronoun in the plural is used among peasants and other people of lower condition, and is never used by others, except in addressing persons of that description. This practice is, however, more common in the country than in towns. The third personal pronoun in the singular, er for male, and sie for female persons, is used only in addressing inferiors, particularly servants and others, who are dependent on the speaker. It is also employed by the country people of some German provinces in speaking to one another. Being considered, however, as indicating a want of respect, this mode of address should scarcely ever be used.

The natural address, Du, is much more usual at the present day in German than in other modern languages. As it excludes all ceremonious formality, it is reserved for relations of confidence, friendship, and love. They use it in addressing their family, their best friends, and the Supreme Being. See BECKER'S Grammar.

That my and mine, thy and thine, our and ours, your and yours, are personal pronouns in the possessive case, and not possessive adjective pronouns, may be seen in § 302.

THE LONGER AND THE SHORTER FORMS OF THE

POSSESSIVE CASE.

§ 302. The Genitive or Adnominal case of the pronoun has, in several of the Indo-European languages, given rise to a possessive adjective, which differs from the genitive or possessive case only in being declined like an adjective. Thus:

From Sanscrit mama, genitive of aham, I, comes mûmaka, my; from Sanscrit tava, genitive of tvam, thou, comes tavaka, thy.

From Slavonic mene, gen. of az, I, comes moi masc., moya fem., moe neut., my; from Slavonic tebe, gen. of ty, thou, comes tvoi masc., tvoya fem., tvoe neut., thy.

From Greek ἐμοῦ, gen. of ἐγώ, comes ἐμός, ἐμή, ἐμόν, my; from Greek oov, gen. of cú, comes oóc, on, oóv, thy (comp. Greek δημόσιος, from gen. δήμου, Ionic δήμοιο, a contraction of ancient δήμοσιο).

From Latin mei, gen. of ego, comes meus, mea, meum, my;