tself."--_Text-Book_, p. 88. This appears to me a foolish innovation, too
much in the spirit of Oliver B. Peirce, who also adopts it. The person who
knows not the meaning of the word _nominative_, will not be very likely to
find out what is meant by _subjective_; especially as some learned
grammarians, even such men as Dr. Crombie and Professor Bullions, often
erroneously call the word which is governed by the verb its _subject_.
Besides, if we say _subjective_ and _objective_, in stead of _nominative_
and _objective_, we shall inevitably change the accent of both, and give
them a pronunciation hitherto unknown to the words.--G. BROWN.

[165] The authorities cited by Felch, for his doctrine of "_possessive
adnouns_," amount to nothing. They are ostensibly two. The first is a
remark of Dr. Adam's: "'_John's book_ was formerly written _Johnis book_.
Some have thought the _'s_ a contraction of _his_, but improperly. Others
have imagined, with more justness, that, by the addition of the _'s_, the
substantive is changed into a possessive adjective.'--_Adam's Latin and
English Grammar_, p. 7."--_Felch's Comp. Gram._, p. 26. Here Dr. Adam by no
means concurs with what these "_others have imagined_;" for, in the very
same place, he declares the possessive case of nouns to be their _only_
case. The second is a dogmatical and inconsistent remark of some anonymous
writer in some part of the "_American Journal of Education_," a work
respectable indeed, but, on the subject of grammar, too often fantastical
and heterodox. Felch thinks it not improper, to use the possessive case
before participles; in which situation, it denotes, not the owner of
something, but the agent, subject, or recipient, of the action, being, or
change. And what a jumble does he make, where he attempts to resolve this
ungrammatical construction!--telling us, in almost the same breath, that,
"The agent of a _nounal_ verb [i. e. participle] is never expressed," but
that, "Sometimes it [the _nounal_ or _gerundial_ verb] is _qualified_, in
its _nounal capacity_, by a possessive _adnoun_ indicative _of its agent_
as a verb; as, there is _nothing like one's_ BEING useful he doubted
_their_ HAVING it:" and then concluding, "_Hence it appears_, that the
_present participle_ may be used _as agent or object_, and yet retain its
character as a verb."--_Felch's Comprehensive Gram._, p. 81. Alas for the
schools, if the wise men of the East receive for grammar such utter
confu