how you its
importance, and, also, that its nature is very easily comprehended. If
we had no pronouns in our language, we should be obliged to express
ourselves in this manner: "A woman went to a man, and told the man that
the man was in danger of being murdered by a gang of robbers; as a gang
of robbers had made preparations for attacking the man. The man thanked
the woman for the woman's kindness, and, as the man was unable to defend
the man's self, the man left the man's house, and went to a neighbor's."

This would be a laborious style indeed; but, by the help of pronouns, we
can express the same ideas with far greater ease and conciseness: "A
woman went to a man, and told _him_, that _he_ was in great danger of
being murdered by a gang of robbers, _who_ had made preparations for
attacking _him. He_ thanked _her_ for _her_ kindness, and, as _he_ was
unable to defend _himself_, _he_ left _his_ house and went to a
neighbor's."

If you look at these examples a few moments, you cannot be at a loss to
tell which words are pronouns; and you will observe too, that they all
stand for nouns.

Pronouns are generally divided into three kinds, the _Personal_, the
_Adjective_, and the _Relative_ pronouns. They are all known by the
_lists_.

1. OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS. Personal Pronouns are distinguished from the
relative, by their denoting the _person_ of the nouns for which they
stand. There are five of them; _I_, _thou, he, she, it_; with their
plurals, _We, ye_ or _you, they_.

To pronouns belong gender, person, number, and case.

GENDER. When we speak of a _man_, we say, _he, his, him_; when we speak
of a _woman_, we say, _she, hers, her_; and when we speak of a _thing_,
we say _it_. Hence you perceive, that gender belongs to pronouns as well
as to nouns. Example; "The general, in gratitude to the lady, offered
_her his_ hand; but _she_, not knowing _him_, declined accepting _it_."
The pronouns _his_ and _him_, in this sentence, personate or represent
the noun _general_; they are, therefore, of the masculine gender: _her_
and _she_ personate the _lady_; therefore, they are feminine: and _it_
represents _hand_; for which reason it is of the neuter gender. This
illustration shows you, then, that pronouns must be of the same gender
as the nouns are for which they stand. But, as it relates to the
variation of the pronouns to express the sex,

Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns,
_he, she, i