ly spelt with an apostrophe, a
fault not always imputable to the printer; while in _it's_, which is
unquestionably the possessive case of _it_, the apostrophe, by a strange
perverseness, is almost always omitted."--_Churchill Gram._, p. 222. The
charge of strange perverseness may, in this instance, I think, be retorted
upon the critic; and that, to the fair exculpation of those who choose to
conform to the general usage which offends him.

OBS. 26.--Of the compound personal pronouns, this author gives the
following account: "_Self_, in the plural _selves_, a noun, is often
combined with the personal pronouns, in order to express emphasis, or
opposition, or the identity of the subject and [the] object of a verb; and
thus forms a pronoun _relative_: as, 'I did it _myself_;' 'he was not
_himself_, when he said so;' 'the envious torment _themselves_ more than
others.' Formerly _self_ and _selves_ were used simply as nouns, and
governed the pronoun, which was kept distinct from _it_ [them] in the
possessive case: but since _they_ [the pronoun and the noun] have coalesced
into one word, _they_ [the compounds] are used only in the following forms:
for the first person, _myself, ourselves_; for the second, _thyself_, or
_yourself, yourselves_; for the third, _himself, herself, itself,
themselves_: except in the regal style, in which, as generally in the
second person, the singular noun is added to the plural pronoun, [making]
_ourself_. Each of these is _the same in all three cases._"--_Churchill's
Gram._, p. 75. In a note referring to the close of this explanation, he
adds: "_Own_ also is often employed with the possessive cases of the
personal pronouns by way of emphasis, or opposition; but separately, as an
adjective, and not combining with them to form _a relative_: as, 'I did it
of _my own_ free will:' 'Did he do it with _his own_ hand?'"--_Ib._, p.
227.

OBS. 27.--The preceding instructions, faulty and ungrammatical as they are,
seem to be the best that our writers have furnished upon this point. To
detect falsities and blunders, is half the grammarian's duty. The pronouns
of which the term _self_ or _selves_ forms a part, are used, not for the
connecting of different clauses of a sentence, but for the purpose of
emphatic distinction in the sense. In calling them "_relatives_," Churchill
is wrong, even by his own showing. They have not the characteristics which
he himself ascribes to relatives; but are compound personal p