--_Pope, on Man_, Ep. iv, l. 247.

OBS. 24.--As the _objective case of nouns_ is to be distinguished from the
nominative, only by the sense, relation, and position, of words in a
sentence, the learner must acquire a habit of attending to these several
things. Nor ought it to be a hardship to any reader to understand that
which he thinks worth reading. It is seldom possible to mistake one of
these cases for the other, without a total misconception of the author's
meaning. The nominative denotes the agent, actor, or doer; the person or
thing that is made the subject of an affirmation, negation, question, or
supposition: its place, except in a question, is commonly _before_ the
verb. The objective, when governed by a verb or a participle, denotes the
person on whom, or the thing on which, the action falls and terminates: it
is commonly placed _after_ the verb, participle, or preposition, which
governs it. Nouns, then, by changing places, may change cases: as,
"_Jonathan_ loved _David_;" "_David_ loved _Jonathan_." Yet the case
depends not entirely upon position; for any order in which the words cannot
be misunderstood, is allowable: as, "Such tricks hath strong
imagination."--_Shak._ Here the cases are known, because the meaning is
plainly this: "Strong imagination hath such tricks." "To him give all the
prophets witness."--_Acts_, x, 43. This is intelligible enough, and more
forcible than the same meaning expressed thus: "All the prophets give
witness to him." The _order_ of the words never can affect the explanation
to be given of them in parsing, unless it change the sense, and form them
into a different sentence.

THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS.

The declension of a noun is a regular arrangement of its numbers and cases.
Thus:--

EXAMPLE I.--FRIEND.

Sing. Nom. friend, Plur. Nom. friends,
Poss. friend's, Poss. friends',
Obj. friend; Obj. friends.

EXAMPLE II.--MAN.

Sing. Nom. man, Plur. Nom. men,
Poss. man's, Poss. men's,
Obj. man; Obj. men.

EXAMPLE III.--FOX.

Sing. Nom. fox, Plur. Nom. foxes,
Poss. fox's, Poss. foxes',
Obj. fox; Obj. foxes.

EXAMPLE IV.--FLY.

Sing. Nom. fly, Plur. Nom. flies,
Poss. fly's, Poss. flies',
Obj. fly; Obj. flies.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.