al or not, is questionable. See Obs. 4th, in
this series.

3. When the case occurs without the sign, either by apposition or by
connexion; as, "In her _brother Absalom's_ house."--_Bible_. "_David_ and
_Jonathan's_ friendship."--_Allen_. "_Adam_ and _Eve's_ morning
hymn."--_Dr. Ash_. "Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, is the
_Lord's_ thy _God_."--_Deut._,, x, 14. "For _peace_ and _quiet's_
sake."--_Cowper_. "To the beginning of _King James_ the _First's_
reign."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 32.

OBS. 21--The possessive case is in general (though not always) equivalent
to the preposition _of_ and _the objective_; as, "_Of_ Judas Iscariot,
_Simon's_ son."--_John_, xiii, 2. "_To_ Judas Iscariot, the son _of
Simon_."--_Ib._, xiii, 26. On account of this one-sided equivalence, many
grammarians erroneously reckon the latter to be a "_genitive case_" as well
as the former. But they ought to remember, that the preposition is used
more frequently than the possessive, and in a variety of senses that cannot
be interpreted by this case; as, "_Of_ some _of_ the books _of_ each _of_
these classes _of_ literature, a catalogue will be given at the end _of_
the work."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 178. Murray calls this a "laborious
mode of expression," and doubtless it might be a little improved by
substituting _in_ for the third _of_; but my argument is, that the meaning
conveyed cannot be expressed by possessives. The notion that _of_ forms a
genitive case, led Priestley to suggest, that our language admits a
"_double genitive_;" as, "This book _of_ my _friend's_."--_Priestley's
Gram._, p. 71. "It is a discovery _of Sir Isaac Newton's_."--_Ib._, p. 72.
"This exactness _of his_."--STERNE: _ib._ The doctrine has since passed
into nearly all our grammars; yet is there no double case here, as I shall
presently show.

OBS. 22.--Where the governing noun cannot be easily mistaken, it is often
omitted by ellipsis: as, "At the alderman's" [_house_];--"St. Paul's"
[_church_];--"A book of my brother's" [_books_];--"A subject of the
emperor's" [_subjects_];--"A friend of mine;" i. e., _one of my friends_.
"Shall we say that Sacrificing was a pure invention of _Adam's_, or of
_Cain_ or _Abel's?_"--_Leslie, on Tythes_, p. 93. That is--of Adam's
_inventions_, or of Cain or Abel's _inventions_. The Rev. David Blair,
unable to resolve this phraseology to his own satisfaction, absurdly sets
it down among what he calls "ERRONEOUS OR VULGAR PHR