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specification and conjunction, that may be substituted in most cases for which; as, tribulation worketh patience; that patience worketh experience; that experience hope; &c.

152. That and the are from the same Saxon word, [Daet pap tha] that. The two words are now substantially the same, and may be substituted for each other, in a large proportion of the instances in which they occur; as, "That (or the) enjoyment which a wise man should most desire, is peace of mind."

That is no longer, like the, used with direct reference to a following plural, as it formerly was. There is no other difference in their manner of signification. In degree of force that is the most definite and emphatic word.

The word that, whether the demonstrative pronoun, the relative pronoun, or the conjunction of the grammars, is always a specifying adjective. If, on this point, the least doubt remains, in the mind of any one, a reference to the "Diversions of Purley," Vol. I. p. 67, will set the matter at rest.

153. The word what is a compound of two specifying adjectives, each, of course, referring to a noun, expressed or understood. It is equivalent to the. which; that which; which that; or that that; used also in the plural. At different periods, and in different authors, it appears in the varying forms, tha qua, qua tha, qu'tha, quthat, quhat, hwat, and what. This word is found in other forms; but it is needless to multiply them. The letters which answer to qu and w were often interchanged, and appear to have been similarly sounded, by most of the ancient nations of Europe. The reciprocal sub

stitution of these letters, as well as g and y and w, are habitual, in the Gothic, Gaelic, and Saxon languages.

154. This compounding of words need occasion no surprise. There must be a greater tendency to it in spoken than in written language; a striking proof of which is shown in the various Indian dialects of North America; yet we see the same constantly practised at the present day, in the words something, nothing, don't, can't, and many others.

The word what, like which and that, is never used without a noun after it, expressed, or necessarily understood in construction.

"It is not material what names are assigned to them."--Campbell's Rhetoric, I. 1.

"Whate'er a blooming world contains,
That wings the air, that skims the plains,
United praise bestow.”

That is, Whatever Being, &c.

"I am whatsoever is, what so ever has been; what so ever shall be; and the veil which is over my face no mortal hath removed."-Inscription on the Temple of Isis, or Nature.

Here the idea is the most general: whatever conceivable being or thing, in the whole range of creation.

"I know not what [

] to do."

155. Any pronoun, a common noun with a specifying adjective or a proper noun, without an adjective, may be made to connect different propositions, in a compound sentence. This may be illustrated by the celebrated syllogism of Themistocles.

My little boy governs the world: that is,
He controlls his mother;

She rules me ;

I govern Athens;

Athens gives laws to Greece;
Greece commands the world:
So my son governs the world.

The principle of language, here, as connected with the mental or logical process, is this: an important idea is caught from each proposition; for which idea a specific substitute is adopted, and made the leading word in the next member of the sentence. This is frequently an important use of conjunctive words; however their radical meanings, or original forms, may become disguised by gradual change.

156. An other subdivision of the words called adjective pronouns, is the possessive. The list comprehends my, thy, his, her, our, your, and their. Its and whose belong with them, and should have been included. An attempt has already been made, under the description of adjectives, to show what these words are; it remains to show that they are not pronouns, either wholly or in part.

What are called personal pronouns, in the possessive case, too, will be examined at the same time, for the purpose of dismissing all these possessive words at once. These words are mine, thine, his, her's, our's, your's, their's, and whose: for the words his and whose, without changing their forms, belong to both classes.

157. The traditional teaching has been that I, mine, my, and me, were all pronouns of the first person, as being only modifications of the same word. Such a supposition is contradicted by the facts, as they

are presented through every page of the English language. As to any relation which my and mine may have to I and me, that circumstance cannot make them pronouns, more than golden and snowy are nouns, because derived from gold and snow. The word my, instead of standing for a noun, wholly or in part, is so obstinate and pertinacious in its character, as an adjective, that it is never used without its noun, actually inserted after it, in unbroken connexion. Many adjectives have the noun omitted after them, where it is necessarily understood: but we can not say my, without using the word to which my, as an adjective, directly refers.

The same remarks will apply to all the possessive adjective pronouns, wherever they occur.

158. We will next examine the personal pronoun, in the possessive case. This will best be done in a practical way.

You have one book,

I have two,
Mine are old,

Yours is new.

It was before observed that this possessive case of the personal pronoun is always nominative or objective, and unavoidably so, wherever used; involving a strange absurdity, which has been strangely overlooked, of employing a word in two distinct cases, at the same time, without the least explanation of such a palpable inconsistency.

159. But there is still a greater difficulty; in trying to surmount which, we shall obtain no aid from the standing theory of adjectives and pro

nouns.

In the example given above, the word mine, if a pronoun at all, is in the first person singular, as we are told by a hundred writers on grammar; yet it

is the nominative case to the verb are, which is always plural. In like manner the word your's, which is the second person plural of the grammars, is nominative case to the verb is, which must always be third person singular.

"His subject is things: your's, on the contrary, is persons."Campbell's Rhetoric.

Here the pronoun of the second person plural, in the possessive case, is nominative case to the verb is, which is always third person singular.

This house is* our's, and that is your's. "Their's ist very commodious,"-Murray's Grammar, example under personal pronouns, possessive case.

These are a few instances of the difference between good English and bad grammar, in relation to possessive adjective pronouns, and personal pronouns in the possessive case.

160. It seems hardly necessary to observe that, if a word could be half adjective and half pronoun, the pronoun part, of course, should predominate, according to the general principle of grammatical agreement.

"Quid, meus Æneas, in te committere tantum," &c. Virg. Lib. I. 245. Here meus, masculine, if a pronoun, stands for the Goddess Venus.

"Fando aliquid, si forte tuas pervenit ad aures." Virg. Lib. XI. 18. Here tuas, in the feminine plural, is the "possessive adjective pronoun" for King Priam.

*The verb to be has the same case after it as before it, through all the moods and tenses."-Murray's Grammar. †The verb agrees with its nominative case in number and person."-Murray's Syntax, Rule 1.

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