he verb in the plural: as, "The _fishes_ that _are_ in the
river,"--"The _fishes_ that _were_," &c. In our Bible, _fowl_, as well
_fish_, is sometimes plural; and yet both words, in some passages, have the
plural form: as, "And _fowl_ that may fly," &c.--_Gen._, i, 20. "I will
consume the _fowls_ of the heaven, and the _fishes_ of the sea."--_Zeph._,
i, 3.

[158] Some authors, when they give to _mere words_ the construction of
plural nouns, are in the habit of writing them in the form of possessives
singular; as, "They have of late, 'tis true, reformed, in some measure, the
gouty joints and darning work of _whereunto's, whereby's, thereof's,
therewith's_, and the rest of this kind."--_Shaftesbury_. "Here," says Dr.
Crombie, "the genitive singular is _improperly_ used for the objective case
plural. It should be, _whereuntos, wherebys, thereofs, therewiths_."--
_Treatise on Etym. and Synt._, p. 338. According to our rules, these words
should rather be, _whereuntoes, wherebies_, _thereofs, therewiths_. "Any
word, when used as the name of itself, becomes a noun."--_Goodenow's
Gram._, p. 26. But some grammarians say, "The plural of words, considered
as words merely, is formed by the apostrophe and _s_; as, 'Who, that has
any taste, can endure the incessant, quick returns of the _also's_, and the
_likewise's_, and the _moreover's_, and the _however's_, and the
_notwithstanding's_?'--CAMPBELL."--_Wells's School Gram._, p. 54. Practice
is not altogether in favour of this principle, and perhaps it would be
better to decide with Crombie that such a use of the apostrophe is
improper.

[159] "The Supreme Being (_God, [Greek: Theos], Deus, Dieu_, &c.) is, in
all languages, masculine; in as much as the masculine sex is the superior
and more excellent; and as He is the Creator of all, the Father of gods and
men."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 54. This remark applies to all the direct
names of the Deity, but the abstract idea of _Deity itself_, [Greek: To
Theion], _Numen, Godhead_, or _Divinity_, is not masculine, but neuter. On
this point, some notions have been published for grammar, that are too
heterodox to be cited or criticised here. See _O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p.
208.

[160] That is, we give them sex, if we mean to represent them _as_ persons.
In the following example, a character commonly esteemed feminine is
represented as neuter, because the author would seem to doubt both the sex
and the personality: "I don't know what a _witch_