ION SIXTH.

The pronoun sometimes disagrees with its antecedent in one sense, because
it takes it in an other; as, "I have perused Mr. Johnson's _Grammatical
Commentaries_, and find _it_[380] a very laborious, learned, and useful
Work."--_Tho. Knipe_, D. D. "_Lamps_ is of the plural number, because _it_
means more than one."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 8. "_Man_ is of the
masculine gender, because _it_ is the name of a male."--_Ib._ "The _Utica
Sentinel_ says _it_ has not heard whether the wounds are
dangerous."--_Evening Post_. (Better: "The _editor_ of the Utica Sentinel
says, _he_ has not heard," &c.) "There is little _Benjamin_ with _their_
ruler."--_Psalms_, lxviii, 27.

"_Her_ end when _emulation_ misses,
_She_ turns to envy, stings, and hisses."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 415.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE X.

OBS. 1.--Respecting a pronoun, the main thing is, that the reader perceive
clearly _for what it stands_; and next, that he do not misapprehend _its
relation of case_. For the sake of completeness and uniformity in parsing,
it is, I think, expedient to apply the foregoing rule not only to those
pronouns which have obvious antecedents expressed, but also to such as are
not accompanied by the nouns for which they stand. Even those which are put
for persons or things unknown or indefinite, may be said to agree with
whatever is meant by them; that is, with such nouns as their own properties
indicate. For the reader will naturally understand something by every
pronoun, unless it be a mere expletive, and without any antecedent. For
example: "It would depend upon _who_ the forty were."--_Trial at
Steubenville_, p. 50. Here _who_ is an indefinite relative, equivalent to
_what persons_; of the third person, plural, masculine; and is in the
nominative case after were, by Rule 6th. For the full construction seems to
be this: "It would depend upon _the persons who_ the forty were." So
_which_, for _which person_, or _which thing_, (if we call it a pronoun
rather than an adjective,) may be said to have the properties of the noun
_person_ or _thing_ understood; as,

"His notions fitted things so well,
That _which_ was _which_ he could not tell."--_Hudibras_.

OBS. 2.--The pronoun _we_ is used by the speaker or writer to represent
himself and others, and is therefore plural. But it is sometimes used, by a
sort of fiction, in stead of the singular, to intimate that the speaker or
writer is not alone in his opinions; or