5. Myself, thyself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, are called compound personal pronouns, and are joined either to the simple pronouns or to nouns for the purpose of emphasis: thus-" He made it himself "=" He made it with his own hand," to indicate more emphatically the agency of the individual represented by he, the expression, "He made it," possibly conveying the idea of his having procured it to be made by somebody else.

6. In the above expression, himself is in the nominative case, agreeing with he; himself, herself, themselves, though, in form, objective cases, agreeing with nouns in both nominative and objective.

7. The personal pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand in gender and number: she and man, for instance, applied to objects of different genders, cannot be applied to the same thing. We cannot say, "I relieved a woman, and he thanked me," but she: neither can we say, "I built a house, and they cost me £400," without violating the concord in number of the pronoun and the noun it stands for the expression should be, "and it cost," &c.

=

8. The pronoun, and the noun it stands for, which generally precedes it, and is therefore called the antecedent, from ante before, and cedo I go, do not necessarily agree in case; they may do so, but it will altogether depend on the construction of the sentence. In the following sentence, "One young gentleman acquired the confidence of the doctor, who invited him to an entertainment,' the antecedent, gentleman, being the subject of the verb acquired, is in the nominative, whilst the pronoun him, its substitute, being governed by the transitive verb invited, is in the objective case. In the following, "Mary Queen of Scots was polite and affable: to all the charms of beauty she added those accomplishments which render their impression irresistible," the antecedent, Mary, and the pronoun she, agree in case, being each the subject of a verb.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

The relative pronouns are-who, which, that, what, and as they are so called from re=again, or before, and

:

latum to carry, because they, as it were, refer or carry us back to some word previously mentioned for which they stand. In the expression,

"We seldom think upon our God,

Who tinged these clouds with gold,"

Who, referring to God, is called the relative or correlative, and God is called the antecedent.

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It is evident that there is no substantial reason for calling these pronouns relative rather than I, thou, he, &c. &c., all pronouns equally making direct reference to the antecedent. The harm that may result from such names, at first applied without sufficient consideration, and afterwards continued by a kind of otiose assent, is the possible inducement thereby supplied to the learner to regard no words save those included in the foregoing list, as relatives; whereas it is evident that a large proportion of the words of every language must necessarily convey the idea of relationship of one kind or another, and are therefore entitled to be considered relatives. All terms, in fact, which lead the mind beyond the subjects denominated, are fitly called relative terms. Relation," says Locke, "being the considering of one thing with another, which is extrinsical to it, it is evident that all words that necessarily lead the mind to any other ideas than are supposed really to exist in that thing to which the words. are applied, are relative words.-'A man black, merry, thoughtful,' &c. &c., these, and the like, are all absolute, because they neither signify nor intimate anything but what does, or is supposed really to exist in the man thus denominated; but-father, brother, king, husband, blacker, merrier, are words which, together with the thing they denominate, imply also something else, separate and exterior to the existence of that thing." Thus does Locke clearly show that words such as father, brother, countryman, should be classed under the head of relatives, which he further denominates natural, as conveying the idea of such relationship as is produced by the operation of nature. Words such as queen, subject, rebel, he calls acquired relatives, the relationship expressed by them being different from that conveyed by natural relatives, in that it may cease to exist, in the case of persons in whom

it may at one time reside. A brother, for instance, cannot cease to be a brother under any circumstance, whereas a subject may cease to be a subject of a particular ruler by changing his place of residence. The great body of adjec tives, moreover, Locke proves to be relative words, which will be more properly alluded to when the adjective will be discussed.* The relatives that, what, and as, are indeclinable; who and which are alike in both numbers, and are thus declined :

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

1. Who is used when the antecedent is a person, as― "The boy who was punished."

"The

2. Which is used when the antecedent is an inferior animal, or the name for an object without life, asdog which hitherto had been quiet;"-"Some authors have adduced this propensity in support of the theory which teaches that," &c.

*

3. That is sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction. It is a relative when who and which may be substituted for it, as-" The courier that (who) came an hour afterwards brought different tidings ;"-"The days that (=which) are gone are past for ever." (See Observation 10.)

4. What is distinguished from the other relatives, in that it includes under it both the antecedent and the relative, for which reason it is called a compound relative, as"I received what I wanted;" i. e., I received the thing (antecedent) which (relative) I wanted.

5. As, which by some grammarians is treated as a conjunction, appears to possess, at least in some instances, all the characteristics of the relative pronoun. In the clause, "He spoke as follows," as may be considered a compound

* Any student desirous to acquire a real knowledge of relationship and relative words will do well to read all that Locke has said under the head "Relatives."

relative no less than what, being resolvable into-language which.

6. The relative and antecedent are always in the same gender, number, and person. "The book who was written," should be "The book which," &c. "The books which was written," here is involved the agreement between the subject and the verb, which will be discussed hereafter-was written should be were written, the subject being which in the plural, to agree with its antecedent, books. "Thou who reads so well."-Here, again, is involved the agreement between the subject and the verb; who is in the second person, to agree with its antecedent, thou: the verb should therefore be in the second person-readest.

7. The relative and antecedent may or may not be in the same case. (See Observation 8, on the Personal Pronouns.)

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8. The relative sometimes regards a whole clause, or several clauses, as its antecedent, as, "The bill was rejected by an overwhelming majority, which sufficiently indicated the feeling of the country.' Though the earth were burned up; though the trumpet of its dissolution were sounded; though yon sky were to pass away as a scroll; by which so many varied scenes of life and population would rush into forgetfulness."

9. Which, say some grammarians, has no possessive case of its own. In the expression, therefore, "A religion whose origin is divine," they are obliged to maintain that there is a violation of concord, whose (the possessive of who) being masculine or feminine; and religion, the antecedent, being neuter. Latham accounts for such irregularity in two ways. In the case of the expression, "Gold, whose touch seductive leads to crime," he says, "We may say that gold is personified, and dealt with as if it were a person, either male or female, in the same way that sin, death, virtue, and vice are personified; or else we may deny that the word whose is exclusively either masculine or feminine." -The latter would appear the true explanation: there is no reason assignable why, in using the relative for gold, we should personify the latter, and refrain, as we always do, from personifying it when we use the personal pronoun as a substitute for it. No one, for instance, would say-He amassed great quantities of gold, and he, she, proved his ruin.

10. "In expressions," says Latham, "like The men that fought at Waterloo, there is an apparent violation of the concord of number, men being plural, whilst that is in form and origin singular. Notwithstanding however the fact of that being originally of the neuter gender, and the singular number, it may now be considered that the practice of language permits it to be used for both numbers and all genders indifferently, as, The woman that speaks; The man that speaks; The children that speak.”

11. Whoever, whosoever, and whoso, are compound relatives, equivalent to he who, &c., &c. Whatever, whatsoever, whichever, whichsoever, are sometimes used as compound relatives in an intensive sense; that is, they increase the force of the expression. Whoso is now becoming obsolete; and of the others, whatever and whoever are most used.

12. Who, which, what, whose, from the fact of their being used in asking questions, are sometimes called interrogative pronouns, and arranged under a distinct class. For this no necessity exists, the words in question being evidently relative pronouns, and the sentences in which they occur being elliptical: "Who comes there ?" is clearly equivalent to "I wish to know who is the person who comes there."

QUESTIONS ON THE PRONOUN.

Derive the term pronoun. What is the function of this class of words? Could they be dispensed with altogether? What inconvenience would their loss entail on us? How many kinds of pronouns are there? Name the kinds. What other pronouns are there said to be? Show that the class interrogative is unnecessary, and that those pronouns arranged under it are relatives. Name the personal pronouns. Is the name appropriate? Give a reason for Decline each of the personal pronouns. What are the possessive cases thereof sometimes called? What peculiarity is observable in the use of you? Mine, and thine, where formerly used? Under what circumstances? What are their modern substitutes? Give examples of the use of both.

your answer.

Correct the expressions her's, your's, our's. What are the compound personal pronouns ?-how and for what