ronouns, and
nothing else. He is also manifestly wrong in asserting, that they are
severally "the same in all three cases." From the very nature of their
composition, the possessive case is alike impossible to them all. To
express ownership with emphasis or distinction, we employ neither these
compounds nor any others; but always use the simple possessives with the
separate adjective _own_: as, "With _my own_ eyes,"--"By _thy own_
confession,"--"To _his own_ house,"--"For _her own_ father,"--"By _its own_
weight,"--"To save _our own_ lives,"--"For _your own_ sake,"--"In _their
own_ cause."

OBS. 28.--The phrases, _my own, thy own, his own_, and so forth, Dr.
Perley, in his little Grammar, has improperly converted by the hyphen into
compound words: calling them the possessive forms of _myself, thyself,
himself_, and so forth; as if one set of compounds could constitute the
possessive case of an other! And again, as if the making of eight new
pronouns for two great nations, were as slight a feat, as the inserting of
so many hyphens! The word _own_, anciently written _owen_, is an
_adjective_; from an old form of the perfect participle of the verb _to
owe_; which verb, according to Lowth and others, once signified _to
possess_. It is equivalent to _due, proper_, or _peculiar_; and, in its
present use as an adjective, it stands nowhere else than between the
possessive case and the name of the thing possessed; as, "The Boy's _Own_
Book,"--"Christ's _own_ words,"--"Solomon's _own_ and only son." Dr.
Johnson, while he acknowledges the abovementioned derivation, very
strangely calls own a noun substantive; and, with not more accuracy, says:
"This is a word of no other use than as it is added to the possessive
pronouns, _my, thy, his, our, your, their_."--_Quarto Dict., w. Own_. O. B.
Peirce, with obvious untruth, says, "_Own_ is used in combination with a
name or substitute, and as a part of it, to constitute it
emphatic."--_Gram._, p. 63. He writes it separately, but parses it as a
part of the possessive noun or pronoun which precedes it!

OBS. 29.--The word _self_ was originally _an adjective_, signifying _same,
very_, or _particular_; but, when used alone, it is now generally _a noun_.
This may have occasioned the diversity which appears in the formation of
the compound personal pronouns. Dr. Johnson, in his great Dictionary, calls
_self_ a pronoun; but he explains it as being both adjective and
substantive, admitting that,