though
some contend for this last construction.

[204] _Whose_ is sometimes used as the possessive case of _which_; as, "A
religion _whose_ origin is divine."--_Blair_. See Observations 4th and 5th,
on the Classes of Pronouns.

[205] After _but_, as in the following sentence, the double relative _what_
is sometimes applied to persons; and it is here equivalent _to the friend
who_:--

"Lorenzo, pride repress; nor hope to find
A friend, but _what_ has found a friend in thee."--_Young_.

[206] Of all these compounds. L. Murray very improperly says, "They are
_seldom used_, in modern style."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 54; also _Fisk's_, p.
65. None of them are yet obsolete, though the shorter forms seem to be now
generally preferred. The following suggestion of Cobbett's is erroneous;
because it implies that the shorter forms are innovations and faults; and
because the author carelessly speaks of them as _one thing only_: "We
_sometimes_ omit the _so_, and say, _whoever, whomever, whatever_, and even
_whosever_. _It is_ a mere _abbreviation_. The _so_ is understood: and, it
is best not to omit to write it."--_Eng. Gram._, 209. R. C. Smith
dismisses the compound relatives with three lines; and these he closes with
the following notion: "_They are not often used!_"--_New Gram._, p. 61.

[207] Sanborn, with strange ignorance of the history of those words,
teaches thus: "_Mine_ and _thine_ appear to have been formed from _my_ and
_thy_ by changing _y_ into _i_ and adding _n_, and then subjoining _e_ to
retain the long sound of the vowel."--_Analytical Gram._, p. 92. This false
notion, as we learn from his guillemets and a remark in his preface, he
borrowed from "Parkhurst's Systematic Introduction." Dr. Lowth says, "The
Saxon _Ic_ hath the possessive case _Min; Thu_, possessive _Thin; He_,
possessive _His_: From which our possessive cases of the same pronouns are
taken _without alteration_."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 23.

[208] Latham, with a singularity quite remarkable, reverses this doctrine
in respect to the two classes, and says, "_My, thy, our, your, her_, and
_their_ signify possession, because they are possessive cases. * * * _Mine,
thine, ours, yours, hers, theirs_, signify possession for a different
reason. They partake of the nature of _adjectives_, and in all the allied
languages are declined as such."--_Latham's Elementary E. Gram._, p. 94.
Weld, like Wells, with a few more whose doctrine will be criticised
by-a