r Murray pretended to follow Lowth, and nearly
all the rest copied Murray. Dr. Lowth says, "_Thy, my, her, our, your,
their_, are pronominal adjectives; but _his_, (that is, _he's_,) _her's,
our's, your's, their's_, have evidently the form of the possessive case:
And, by analogy, _mine, thine_, may be esteemed of the same
rank."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 23.[208] But why did he not see, that by the
same analogy, and also by the sense and meaning of the words, as well as by
their distinctions of person, number, and gender, all the other six are
entitled to "the same rank?" Are not the forms of _my, thy, her, our, your,
their_, as fit to denote the relation of property, and to be called the
possessive case, as _mine, thine, his_, or any others? In grammar, all
needless distinctions are reprehensible. And where shall we find a more
blamable one than this? It seems to have been based merely upon the false
notion, that the possessive case of pronouns ought to be formed like that
of nouns; whereas custom has clearly decided that they shall always be
different: the former must never be written with an apostrophe; and the
latter, never without it. Contrary to all good usage, however, the Doctor
here writes "_her's, our's, your's, their's_," each with a needless
apostrophe. Perhaps he thought it would serve to strengthen his position;
and help to refute what some affirmed, that all these words are adjectives.

OBS. 7.--Respecting _mine, thine_, and _his_, Lowth and L. Murray disagree.
The latter will have them to be sometimes "_possessive pronouns_," and
sometimes "_possessive cases_." An admirable distinction this for a great
author to make! too slippery for even the inventor's own hold, and utterly
unintelligible to those who do not know its history! In short, these
authors disagree also concerning _my, thy, her, our, your, their_; and
where two leaders of a party are at odds with each other, and each is in
the wrong, what is to be expected from their followers? Perceiving that
Lowth was wrong in calling these words "_pronominal adjectives_," Murray
changed the term to "_possessive pronouns_," still retaining the class
entire; and accordingly taught, in his early editions, that, "There are
_four kinds_ of pronouns, viz., the personal, _the possessive, the_
relative, and _the_ adjective pronouns."--_Murray's Gram._, 2d Edition, p.
37. "The Possessive Pronouns are such as principally relate to possession
or property. There are seven of