or it is an honor to _him_."--_Webster's Plain and Comp. Gram., Sixth
Edition_, 1800, p. 9. "But for convenience, the two positions of nouns, one
_before_, the other _after_ the verb, are called _cases_. There are then
three cases, the _nominative, possessive_, and _objective_."--_Webster's
Rudiments of Gram._, 1811, p. 12. "In English therefore names have two
cases only, the _nominative_ or simple name, and the _possessive_."--
_Webster's Philosoph. Gram._, 1807, p. 32: also his _Improved Gram._, 1831,
p. 24.

OBS. 9.--Murray altered his opinion after the tenth or eleventh edition of
his duodecimo Grammar. His instructions stand thus: "In English,
substantives have but two cases, the nominative, and [the] possessive or
genitive."--_Murray's Gram. 12mo, Second Edition_, 1796, p. 35. "For the
assertion, that there are in English but two cases of nouns, and three of
pronouns, we have the authority of Lowth, Johnson, Priestley, &c. _names
which are sufficient_ to decide this point."--_Ib._, p. 36. "In English,
substantives have three cases, the nominative, the possessive, and the
objective."--_Murray's Gram., 12mo, Twenty-third Edition_, 1816, p. 44.
"The author of this work _long doubted_ the propriety of assigning to
English substantives an _objective case_: but a renewed critical
examination of the subject; an examination to which he was prompted by the
extensive and increasing demand for the grammar, has produced in his mind
_a full persuasion_, that the nouns of our language are entitled to this
comprehensive objective case."--_Ib._, p. 46. If there is any credit in
changing one's opinions, it is, doubtless, in changing them for the better;
but, of all authors, a grammarian has the most need critically to examine
his subject before he goes to the printer. "This case was adopted in the
_twelfth edition_ of the Grammar."--_Murray's Exercises_, 12mo, N. Y.,
1818, p. viii.

OBS. 10.--The _possessive case_ has occasioned no less dispute than the
objective. On this vexed article of our grammar, custom has now become much
more uniform than it was a century ago; and public opinion may be said to
have settled most of the questions which have been agitated about it. Some
individuals, however, are still dissatisfied. In the first place, against
those who have thought otherwise, it is determined, by infinite odds of
authority, that there _is such a case_, both of nouns and of pronouns. Many
a common reader will wonder, who can h