the
doubling of the final consonant: as _Goddes, Godes, Godis, Godys_, or
_Gods_, for _God's_; so _mannes, mannis, mannys_ or _mans_, for _man's_.
Dr. Ash, whose English Grammar was in some repute in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, argued against the use of the apostrophe, alleging that
it was seldom used to distinguish the possessive case till about the
beginning of that century; and he then prophesied that the time would come,
when _correct writers would lay it aside again_, as a strange corruption,
an improper "departure from the original formation" of that case of English
nouns. And, among the speculations of these latter days, I have somewhere
seen an attempt to disparage this useful sign, and explode it, as an
unsightly thing _never well established_. It does not indeed, like a
syllabic sign, inform the ear or affect the sound; but still it is useful,
because it distinguishes to the eye, not only the _case_, but the _number_,
of the nouns thus marked. Pronouns, being different in their declension, do
not need it, and should therefore always be written without it.

4. The common usage of those who have spoken English, has always inclined
rather to brevity than to melody; contraction and elision of the ancient
terminations of words, constitute no small part of the change which has
taken place, or of the difference which perhaps always existed between the
solemn and the familiar style. In respect to euphony, however, these
terminations have certainly nothing to boast; nor does the earliest period
of the language appear to be that in which they were the most generally
used without contraction. That degree of smoothness of which the tongue was
anciently susceptible, had certainly no alliance with these additional
syllables. The long sonorous endings which constitute the declensions and
conjugations of the most admired languages, and which seem to chime so well
with the sublimity of the Greek, the majesty of the Latin, the sweetness of
the Italian, the dignity of the Spanish, or the polish of the French,
_never had_ any place in English. The inflections given to our words never
embraced any other vowel power than that of the short _e_ or _i_; and even,
this we are inclined to dispense with, whenever we can; so that most of our
grammatical inflections are, to the ear, nothing but consonants blended
with the final syllables of the words to which they are added. _Ing_ for
the first participle, _er_ for the compara