[140] “If I or we is set before a name, it [the name] is of the first person:  as, I, N—­ N—­, declare; we, N—­ and M—­ do promise.”—­Ward’s Gram., p. 83.  “Nouns which relate to the person or persons speaking, are said to be of the first person; as, I, William, speak to you.”—­Fowle’s Common School Gram., Part ii, p. 22.  The first person of nouns is admitted by Ainsworth, R. W. Bailey, Barnard, Brightland, J. H. Brown, Bullions, Butler, Cardell, Chandler, S. W. Clark, Cooper, Day, Emmons, Farnum, Felton, Fisk, John Flint, Fowle, Frazee, Gilbert, Goldsbury, R. G. Greene, S. S. Greene, Hall, Hallock, Hamlin, Hart, Hendrick, Hiley, Perley, Picket, Pinneo, Russell, Sanborn, Sanders, Smart, R. C. Smith, Spear, Weld, Wells, Wilcox, and others.  It is denied, either expressly or virtually, by Alger, Bacon, Comly, Davis, Dilworth, Greenleaf, Guy, Hazen, Ingersoll, Jaudon, Kirkham, Latham, L. Murray, Maltby, Merchant, Miller, Nutting, Parkhurst, S. Putnam, Rev. T. Smith, and others.  Among the grammarians who do not appear to have noticed the persons of nouns at all, are Alden, W. Allen, D. C. Allen, Ash, Bicknell, Bingham, Blair, Buchanan, Bucke, Burn, Burr, Churchill, Coar, Cobb, Dalton, Dearborn, Abel Flint, R. W. Green, Harrison, Johnson, Lennie, Lowth, Mennye, Mulligan, Priestley, Staniford, Ware, Webber, and Webster.

[141] Prof.  S. S. Greene most absurdly and erroneously teaches, that, “When the speaker wishes to represent himself, he cannot use his name, but must use some other word, as, I; [and] when he wishes to represent the hearer, he must use thou or you.”—­Greene’s Elements of E. Gram., 1853, p. xxxiv.  The examples given above sufficiently show the falsity of all this.

[142] In shoe and shoes, canoe and canoes, the o is sounded slenderly, like oo; but in doe or does, foe or foes, and the rest of the fourteen nouns above, whether singular or plural, it retains the full sound of its own name, O.  Whether the plural of two should be “twoes” as Churchill writes it, or “twos,” which is more common, is questionable.  According to Dr. Ash and the Spectator, the plural of who, taken substantively, is “whos.”—­Ash’s Gram., p. 131.

[143] There are some singular compounds of the plural word pence, which form their own plurals regularly; as, sixpence, sixpences.  “If you do not all show like gilt twopences to me.”—­SHAKSPEARE.  “The sweepstakes of which are to be composed of the disputed difference in the value of two doubtful sixpences.”—­GOODELL’S LECT.:  Liberator.  Vol. ix, p. 145.

[144] In the third canto of Lord Byron’s Prophecy of Dante, this noun is used in the singular number:—­

   “And ocean written o’er would not afford
    Space for the annal, yet it shall go forth.”