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ing used for ye, will not allow it to be considered as a Nominative singular on the strength of its being used for thou.

SUBSTITUTION OF PLURALITY FOR UNITY.

§ 220. 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 § 287.

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 rightful 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 Ague-Cheek to send a challenge to Viola, he says, "If thou thouest him some thrice it shall not be amiss."

George Fox, in his Journal, tells us, "When the Lord sent me forth into the world, I was required to thee and thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. But, ah! the rage that then was in priests, magistrates, and people of all sorts, but especially in priests or professors; for though thou, to a single person, was according to their own learning, their accidence, and their grammar rules, they could not bear it." This was in 1648. In 1661, he says, "The book called The Battle-door came forth, written to show that, in all languages, thou and thee is the proper and usual speech to a single person, and you to more than one. This was set forth in examples taken from the Scriptures, and out of books of teaching in about thirty languages. When the book was finished, some of the copies were presented to the king and his council, to the bishops of Canterbury, and to the two universities, one apiece. The king said it was proper language for all nations; and the Bishop of London being asked what he thought of it, was so at a stand that he could not tell what to say; for it did so inform and convince people that few afterward were so rugged toward us for saying thou and thee to a single person, which before they were exceeding fierce against us for."

"The substitution of the plural you for the singular thou is only one among many devices which have been adopted for the sake of veiling over the plain-speaking familiarity of the latter. The Germans call you they, the Italians she and her. In the Malay languages, we are told by Marsden, a variety of substitutes for the first and second pronoun are in use, by which the speaker betokens his own inferiority or the superiority of the person he is addressing."-See Guesses at Truth, p. 187.

THE GERMAN USAGE.

§ 221. 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 inter

course 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 edu cation; and even inferiors, if not in dependence on the speaker, would be offended 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.

PRONOUNS OF THE THIRD PERSON.

§ 222. HE. This word, in the present stage of the English language, is defective in its declension. It consists at present of the following forms:

1. Ir, a true form of the Neuter Gender, of which the letter t was the sign. The form in Anglo-Saxon was hit, hi-t. The loss of the h has done much to disguise the nature of the present word it, which is a true formation from he. I-t, tha-t, and wha-t, are true neuter signs, t being the original sign of the Neuter Gender. In the present Danish, Swedish, Nor

wegian, and Icelandic, and in the Old Norse and MosoGothic, all Neuter Adjectives end in t. Irs, a possessive irregularly formed. The t being mistaken for an original part of the word, the form i, t, s was derived from it, superseding the Saxon his. The t was no original part of the word, but the sign of the Neuter Gender.

The following forms were in use in the time of 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 versions of the Bible, the substitute oeing his or thereof.

2. HIM, originally a Dative (heom), common to the Masculine and the Neuter Genders, now an objective case, and restricted to the masculine only.

3. His, hi-s, now and originally a true possessive. In the Anglo-Saxon it was common to both the Masculine and Neuter Genders, the word its being, in that stage of the language, unknown. Now, as a neuter it is replaced by its: “et quidem ipsa vox his ut et interrogativum whose, nihil aliud sunt quam hee's, who's, ubi s omnino idem præstat quod in aliis possessivis. Similiter autem his pro hee's eodem errore quo nonnunquam bin pro been; item whose pro who's eodem errore quo done, gone, knowne, growne, &c., pro doen, goen, knowen, vel do'n, go'n, know'n, grow'n; utrobique contra analogiam linguæ; sed usu defenditur."-Wallis, ch. v.

4. HER (he-r), originally hire or hyre, used in the AngloSaxon either as a Dative or a Possessive; used in modern English as a Possessive (her book) or as an objective (he led her). Hers is probably a case from a Case.

$223. SHE. This word has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon seó. Now seó was in Anglo-Saxon the feminine form of the Definite Article, the definite article being a demonstrative pronoun. Heó being lost to the language, was replaced by the feminine article seó.

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§ 224. THEY, THEIR, THEM. When hit had been changed into it, when heó had been replaced by she, and when the singular form the as an article had come to serve for all the cases of all the Genders, two circumstances took place: 1. The forms pám and pára as Definite Articles became superfluous; and, 2. The connection between the plural forms hí, heom, heora, and the singular forms he and it, grew indistinct. These were conditions favorable to the use of the forms they, them, and their, instead of hí, heom, heora. See § 209.

THEIRS. This word 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 $222.

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE PRONOUN S.

$ 225. 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 mâmaka, my; from Sanscrit tava, genitive of tvam, thou, comes tâvaka, 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 oú, comes oós, on, oóv, thy (comp. Greek δημόσιος, from gen. δήμου, Ionio δήμοιο, ancient δημοσιο).

From Latin mei, gen. of ego, comes meus, mea, meum, my; from Latin tui, gen. of tu, comes tuus, tua, tuum, thy ; from Latin cujus, gen. of quis, quæ, quod, comes cujus, cuja, cujum, belonging to whom?

From Gothic meina, gen. of ik, I, comes meins, masc. meina, fem. mein, neut. my; from Gothic theina, gen. of thu, thou, comes theins, masc. theina, fem. thein, neut. thy.

From Anglo-Saxon min, gen. of ic, I, comes min, masc. mine, fem. min, neut. my; from Anglo Saxon thin, gen. of thu, comes thin, masc. thine, fem. thin, neut. thy.

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