der which latter is only the exclufion of all confideration of Gender. The English Language, with fingular propriety, following nature alone, applies the diftinction of Mafculine and Feminine only to the names of Animals; all the reft are Neuter: except when, by a Poetical or Rhetorical fiction, things Inanimate and Qualities are exhibited as Perfons, and confequently become either Male or Female. And this gives the English an advantage above moft other languages in the Poetical and Rhetorical ftyle: for when Nouns naturally Neuter are converted into Mafculine and Feminine [5], the Perfonification is more diftinctly and forcibly marked. [5] "At his command the uprooted Hills retired' Each to his place: they heard his voice, and went Milton, P. L. B. vi.. "Was I deceiv'd; or did a fable Cloud Milton, Comus. "Of Law no less can be acknowledged, than that her feat is. the bofom of God; ber 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 :fhew ber the cities, which he fet in flames; the countries, which he ravaged: when she has viewed him in this scene, carry ber into his retirements; fhew ber the Prophet's chamber, his concu Some few Subftantives are diftinguished in their Gender by their terminations: as, prince, princess; actor, actress; lion, lioness; hero, heroine; &c. กา The chief ufe 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 inftead of a In the Pronoun are to be confidered the Person, Number, Gender, and Cafe. There are Three Perfons which may be the Subject of any difcourfe: first, the Perfon who fpeaks may speak of himself; fecondly, he may bines and his wives:when he is tired with this prospect, then fhew ber the Bleffed Jesus." See the whole paffage in the conclufron of Ep. Sherlock's 9th Sermon, vol. i. Of thefe beautiful paffages we may obferve, that as, in the English, if you put it and its instead of his, she, ber, you confound and deftroy the images, and reduce, what was before highly Poctical 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 conftantly Mafculine, or Feminine, or Neuter, respective ly; you make the images obfcure and doubtful, and in proportion diminish their beauty. This excellent remark is Mr. Harris's, HERMES, P. 58. fpeak fpeak of the Perfon to whom he addreffes himself; thirdly, he may fpeak of fome other Perfon. Thefe are called, refpectively, the First, Second, and Third, Perfons: and are expreffed by the Pronouns, I, Thou, He. As the Speakers, the Perfons spoken to, and the other Perfons fpoken of, may be many; fo each of these 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 circumstances their Sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked by a diftincttion 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 diftinction of Gender; at least 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.. PRONOUNS; according to their Perfons, Numbers, Cafes, and Singular. Plural. 3. I, Thou, He; We, Ye or You, They. Thou, Thine, Thee; Ye or You, Yours, You [6]. [6] Some Writers have ufed re 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." Shakespear, Hen. VIII "But tyrants dread ye, left your juft decree Prior.. «His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both." Milton ufes the fame manner of expreffion in a few other places of his Paradise Loft, and more frequently in his Poems. It may per haps be allowed in the Comic and Burlefque ftyle, which often. imitates a vulgar and incorrect pronunciation: as, "By the Lord, Third Third Perfon. Maf. He, His, Him; Fem. She, Hers, Her; They, Theirs, Them. Neut. It, Its [7], It; The Perfonal Pronouns have the nature of Subftantives, and, as fuch, ftand by themselves: the reft have the nature of Adjectives, and, as I knew ye, as well as he that made ye." Shakespear, 1 Henry IV. But in the serious and folemn style, no authority is fufficient to juftify fo manifeft 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 Person had formerly no variation of Cafes. Inftead of the Poffeffive its they ufed his, which is now appropriated to the Mafculine. "Learning hath bis infancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his ftrength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and låftly his 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 say to the following, where her is applied in the fame manner, and feems to make a strange confufion of Gender? "He that pricketh the heart maketh it to fhew ber knowledge." Ecclus, xxii. 19. "Oft have I feen a timely-parted ghost, It ought to be, "Which, in the conflict that it holds" Or, perhaps more poetically, Shakespear, 2 Hen. VI. "Who, in the conflict that be holds with death." |