The forms mine, thine, yours, hers, theirs, sometimes his and its, have a peculiar use, standing apart from the words they modify instead of immediately before them.  From this use they are called ABSOLUTE PERSONAL PRONOUNS, or, some say, ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES.

As instances of the use of absolute pronouns, note the following:—­

     ’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands. 
     —­SHAKESPEARE.

     And since thou own’st that praise, I spare thee mine.—­COWPER.

     My arm better than theirs can ward it off.—­LANDOR.

     Thine are the city and the people of Granada.—­BULWER.

[Sidenote:  Old use of mine and thine.]

Formerly mine and thine stood before their nouns, if the nouns began with a vowel or h silent; thus,—­

     Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?—­SHAKESPEARE.

     Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.—­Id.

     If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.—­Bible.

     My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes.—­SWIFT.

This usage is still preserved in poetry.

[Sidenote:  Double and triple possessives.]

87.  The forms hers, ours, yours, theirs, are really double possessives, since they add the possessive s to what is already a regular possessive inflection.

Besides this, we have, as in nouns, a possessive phrase made up of the preposition of with these double possessives, hers, ours, yours, theirs, and with mine, thine, his, sometimes its.

[Sidenote:  Their uses.]

Like the noun possessives, they have several uses:—­

(1) To prevent ambiguity, as in the following:—­

     I have often contrasted the habitual qualities of that gloomy
     friend of theirs with the astounding spirits of Thackeray and
     Dickens.—­J.T.  FIELDS.

     No words of ours can describe the fury of the conflict.—­J.F. 
     COOPER.

(2) To bring emphasis, as in these sentences:—­

     This thing of yours that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit
     of rag-paper with ink.—­CARLYLE.

     This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times. 
     —­HOLMES.

(3) To express contempt, anger, or satire; for example,—­

     “Do you know the charges that unhappy sister of mine and her
     family have put me to already?” says the Master.—­THACKERAY.

     He [John Knox] had his pipe of Bordeaux too, we find, in that old
     Edinburgh house of his.—­CARLYLE.

     “Hold thy peace, Long Allen,” said Henry Woodstall, “I tell thee
     that tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about
     thee.”—­SCOTT.