[196] The latter part of this awkward and complex rule was copied from Lowth’s Grammar, p. 101.  Dr. Ash’s rule is, “Pronouns must always agree with the nouns for which they stand, or to which they refer, in Number, person, and gender.”—­Grammatical Institutes, p. 54.  I quote this exactly as it stands in the book:  the Italics are his, not mine.  Roswell C. Smith appears to be ignorant of the change which Murray made in his fifth rule:  for he still publishes as Murray’s a principle of concord which the latter rejected as early as 1806:  “RULE V. Corresponding with Murray’s Grammar, RULE V. Pronouns must agree with the nouns for which they stand, in gender, number, AND PERSON.”—­Smith’s New Gram., p. 130.  So Allen Fisk, in his “Murray’s English Grammar Simplified,” p. 111; Aaron M. Merchant, in his “Abridgment of Murray’s English Grammar, Revised, Enlarged and Improved,” p. 79; and the Rev. J. G. Cooper, in his “Abridgment of Murray’s English Grammar,” p. 113; where, from the titles, every reader would expect to find the latest doctrines of Murray, and not what he had so long ago renounced or changed.

[197] L. Murray’s Gram., 8vo, p. 51; 12mo, 51; 18mo, 22; D. Adams’s, 37; Alger’s, 21; Bacon’s, 19; Fisk’s, 20; Kirkham’s, 17; Merchant’s Murray, 35; Merchant’s American Gram., 40; F. H. Miller’s Gram., 26; Pond’s, 28; S. Putnam’s, 22; Russell’s, 16; Rev. T. Smith’s, 22.

[198] Dr. Crombie, and some others, represent I and thou, with their inflections, as being “masculine and feminine.”  Lennie, M’Culloch, and others, represent them as being “masculine or feminine.”  But, if either of them can have an antecedent that is neuter, neither of these views is strictly correct. (See Obs. 5th, above.) Mackintosh says, “We use our, your, their, in speaking of a thing or things belonging to plural nouns of any gender.”—­Essay on English Gram., p. 149.  So William Barnes says, “I, thou, we, ye or you, and they, are of all genders,”—­ Philosophical Gram., p. 196.

[199] “It is perfectly plain, then, that my and mine are but different forms of the same word, as are a and an. Mine, for the sake of euphony, or from custom, stands for the possessive case without a noun; but must be changed for my when the noun is expressed:  and my, for a similar reason, stands before a noun, but must be changed for mine when the noun is dropped. * * * Mine and my, thine and thy, will, therefore, be considered in this book, as different forms of the possessive case from I and Thou.  And the same rule will be extended to her and hers, our and ours, your and yours, their and theirs.”—­Barnard’s Analytic Grammar, p. 142.

[200] It has long been fashionable, in the ordinary intercourse of the world, to substitute the plural form of this pronoun for the singular through all the cases.  Thus, by the figure ENALLAGE, “you are,” for instance, is commonly put for “thou art.”  See Observations 20th and 21st, below; also Figures of Syntax, in Part IV.