96. 

 THE BEE, 



OR. 



LirERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER^ 



FOR 



Wetnesday, October lo 1791. 



GRAMMATICAL DISQUISITIONS. 

 Continued from p. 130. 



OF PECULIARITIES AFFECTING THE PRONOUN OF THE 



THIRD PERSON ONLY. 



GENDER *. 



Singular number. 



All our grammarians remark, that, in EngliQi, the 



pronoun of the third person, in the singular number, 



• I have often had, in the course of these lucubra.ioj-w, occasion to incr- 

 tien the viqx^ gender, yet from several lerters 1 have received, it appears 

 that what I have said on that heid hcs not been sjfnciently undfrstooJ. 

 My views were chiefly directed Cowards the information of tho ewho were 

 snere Englip readers. I fir.d that some wlioare acqua.nced with other lan- 

 guages are equally at a lofs to conceive clear notions on this head. 



In all European languages, ancient and modern, t! e Englii'h alone ex- 

 c*pted, the gender of nouns \siiatrt artificial arrangement, that has scarce- 

 ly any dcpendance upon njture. In these cases the kajwledge of the 

 gender ofmunsis a biirjen upon the memjry only, in which judge- 

 ment canno; beeierteJ; of cours;,in these languages, the number of gen- 

 ders is merely arbitrary. Iri some Ijnguagos tl.ree, in ot' ers tv.o ger.Jjrs 

 only have been adopted j and as the adjecti-ves ia most of these langu.iges, 

 arid the articlii, wh<re these occur, ?.re irude to vary accoriing to the g i- 



VOL. xi. B B 



