r had been so, it would still be easy to prove the
point, by citations from ancient books. The general principle then is, that
_the apostrophe forms the possessive case, with an s in the singular, and
without it in the plural_; but there are some exceptions to this rule, on
either hand; and these must be duly noticed.

OBS. 16.--The chief exceptions, or irregularities, in the formation of the
possessive _singular_, are, I think, to be accounted mere poetic licenses;
and seldom, if ever, to be allowed in prose. Churchill, (closely copying
Lowth,) speaks of them thus: "In poetry the _s_ is frequently omitted after
proper names ending in _s_ or _x_ as, 'The wrath of _Peleus'_ son.' _Pope._
This is scarcely allowable in prose, though instances of it occur: as,
'_Moses'_ minister.' _Josh._, i, 1. _'Phinehas'_ wife.' _1 Sam._, iv, 19.
'Festus came into _Felix'_ room.' _Acts_, xxiv, 27. It was done in prose
evidently to avoid the recurrence of a sibilant sound at the end of two
following syllables; but this may as readily be obviated by using the
preposition _of_, which is now commonly substituted for the possessive case
in most instances."--_Churchill's New Gram._, p. 215. In Scott's Bible,
Philadelphia, 1814, the texts here quoted are all of them corrected, thus:
"_Moses's_ minister,"--"_Phinehas's_ wife,"--"_Felix's_ room." But the
phrase, "for _conscience_ sake," (_Rom._, xiii, 5,) is there given without
the apostrophe. Alger prints it, "for _conscience'_ sake," which is better;
and though not regular, it is a common form for this particular expression.
Our common Bibles have this text: "And the weaned child shall put his hand
on the _cockatrice'_ den."--_Isaiah_, xi, 8. Alger, seeing this to be
wrong, wrote it, "on the _cockatrice-den_."--_Pronouncing Bible._ Dr.
Scott, in his Reference Bible, makes this possessive regular, "on the
_cockatrice's_ den." This is right. The Vulgate has it, "_in caverna
reguli_;" which, however, is not classic Latin. After _z_ also, the poets
sometimes drop the _s_: as,

"Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,
When first from _Shiraz'_ walls I bent my way."--_Collins._

OBS. 17.--A recent critic, who, I think, has not yet learned to speak or
write the possessive case of _his own name_ properly, assumes that the
foregoing occasional or poetical forms are the only true ones for the
possessive singular of such words. He says, "When the name _does end_ with
the sound of _s_ or _z_, (