121 on the personal pronounf. Sept. iG. 



view as an attempt to flnit the door against investiga- 

 tion, I fliall here only briefly remark, that we'can easi- 

 ly perceive that a va- iation in this respect is not con- 

 trary to nature ; but we can even conceive that 

 such a variation miglit, if it had been practised, be 

 the sou ce of much elegance and refinement in lan- 

 guage ; and, therefore, we may conclude, that it is 

 not at all impofsible, but some languages may be met 

 with which admit of this particular variation. 



As I find, however, that in the course of this in- 

 vestigation I fliall frequently have occasion to point 

 out deficiencies, and inelegancies, which are not in ge- 

 neral adverted to, I fliall beg leave to take notice 

 here, once for all, of the great facility with which 

 we accustom ourselves to make use of the same word 

 in two or more distinct senses, where we experience a 

 deficiency of terms, without being sensible of the smal- 

 lest imperfection in that respect. For example, when 

 I say, " it pained her to be compelled to sell her house," 

 ■we are not sensible of the smallest impropriety 

 or inelegance of language ; though, had we occa- 

 sion to employ the masculiae instead of the feminine 

 gender of the same pronoun, we could not say, " it 

 pained him to be compelled to sell htm house ;" but 

 we would find it necefsary to say, " it pained him to 

 be compelled to sell his house." This example brings 

 us at once to perceive, what we did not before sus- 

 pect, that the single word her is forced to perform, 

 alike, the office of the two words him, and his, with 

 Bcither of which we think we could pofsibly dispense. 

 Were we to proceed by the same mode of analysis, 

 we Ihould be able to point out a variety of great 



