iscarding a governing noun, it
is never omitted _by ellipsis_, as Buchanan, Murray, Nixon, and many
others, erroneously teach. The four lines of Note 2d below, are sufficient
to show, in every instance, when it must be used, and when omitted; but
Murray, after as many octavo pages on the point, still leaves it perplexed
and undetermined. If a person knows what he means to say, let him express
it according to the Note, and he will not fail to use just as many
apostrophes and Esses as he ought. How absurd then is that common doctrine
of ignorance, which Nixon has gathered from Allen and Murray, his chief
oracles! "If _several_ nouns in the _genitive_ case, are immediately
connected by a _conjunction_, the apostrophic _s_ is annexed _to the last_,
but _understood to the rest_; as, Neither _John_ (i. e. John's) nor
_Eliza's_ books."--_English Parser_, p. 115. The author gives fifteen other
examples like this, all of them bad English, or at any rate, not adapted to
the sense which he intends!

OBS. 20.--The possessive case generally comes _immediately before_ the
governing noun, expressed or understood; as, "All _nature's_ difference
keeps all _nature's_ peace."--_Pope_. "Lady! be _thine_ (i. e., _thy walk_)
the _Christian's_ walk."--_Chr. Observer._ "Some of _AEschylus's_ [plays]
and _Euripides's_ plays are opened in this manner."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
459. And in this order one possessive sometimes governs an other: as,
"_Peter's wife's mother_;"--"_Paul's sister's son_."--_Bible_. But, to this
general principle of arrangement, there are some exceptions: as,

1. When the governing noun has an adjective, this may intervene; as,
"_Flora's_ earliest _smells_."--_Milton_. "Of _man's_ first
disobedience."--_Id._ In the following phrase from the Spectator, "Of
_Will's_ last _night's_ lecture," it is not very clear, whether _Will's_ is
governed by _night's_ or by _lecture_; yet it violates a general principle
of our grammar, to suppose the latter; because, on this supposition, two
possessives, each having the sign, will be governed by one noun.

2. When the possessive is affirmed or denied; as, "The book is _mine_, and
not _John's_." But here the governing noun _may be supplied_ in its proper
place; and, in some such instances, it _must_ be, else a pronoun or the
verb will be the only governing word: as, "Ye are _Christ's_ [disciples, or
people]; and Christ is _God's_" [son].--_St. Paul_. Whether this
phraseology is thus elliptic