lyiji. ^tt perianal protiount. 271 



ced on other occasions, to perform the office of a de- 

 finitive, have contended that it {hould do so here al- 

 50 i and insist that we fhould write his-self, and not 

 l/im-seli. This, however, is only adopting one im- 

 perfection in place of another. Had thej determined 

 to make any change, it would have been better to 

 have at once devised a new word for the definitive 

 pronoun of this gender, which would have removed 

 the difficulty complained of, and several others they 

 have not taken notice of. 



In the feminine gender, we also find that the accu- 

 sative and definitive are exprefsed by the same word 

 bfir. And here, according to the general analogy, 

 it would seem that the word her (hould be reckoned, 

 in strict propriety, the definitive, rather than the ac- 

 cusative ; yet as this word is employed in both ways, 

 we are at liberty to view the word her as either ; 

 and it is here employed properly as the definitive. 

 But as there is no proper definitive for the neuter 

 gender, the word zVj being properly the po/sefiive, we 

 have, as in the masculine gender, adopted the accu- 

 sative in its stead, and say it-self. Thus it has hap- 

 pened, that in twx) of the three genders of the singu- 

 lar number of this pronoun, we have adopted the 

 accusative instead of the definitive, in composition 

 with the word se/fi. And probably with a vicvv to 

 correspond with these, rather than from any other 

 cause, we have adopted THEM, the accusative plural, 

 instead of the proper definitive their, and say them- 

 selves, instead of /Zi«r-selves, which is, without a 

 doubt, the regular word, according to strict analo- 

 gy- 



