OBS. 12.—­Secondly, general custom has clearly determined that the possessive case of nouns is always to be written with an apostrophe:  except in those few instances in which it is not governed singly by the noun following, but so connected with an other that both are governed jointly; as, “Cato the Censor’s doctrine,”—­“Sir Walter Scott’s Works,”—­“Beaumont and Fletcher’s Plays.” This custom of using the apostrophe, however, has been opposed by many.  Brightland, and Buchanan, and the author of the British Grammar, and some late writers in the Philological Museum, are among those who have successively taught, that the possessive case should be formed like the nominative plural, by adding s when the pronunciation admits the sound, and es when the word acquires an additional syllable.  Some of these approve of the apostrophe, and others do not.  Thus Brightland gives some examples, which are contrary to his rule, adopting that strange custom of putting the s in Roman, and the name in Italic; “as, King Charles’s Court, and St. James’s Park.”—­Gram. of the English Tongue, p. 91.

OBS. 13.—­“The genitive case, in my opinion,” says Dr. Ash, “might be much more properly formed by adding s, or when the pronunciation requires it, es, without an Apostrophe:  as, men, mens; Ox, Oxes; Horse, Horses; Ass, Asses.”—­Ash’s Gram., p. 23.  “To write Ox’s, Ass’s, Fox’s, and at the same time pronounce it Oxes, Asses, Foxes, is such a departure from the original formation, at least in writing, and such an inconsistent use of the Apostrophe, as cannot be equalled perhaps in any other language.”—­Ib. Lowth, too, gives some countenance to this objection:  “It [i.e., ’God’s grace’] was formerly written ’Godis grace;’ we now always shorten it with an apostrophe; often very improperly, when we are obliged to pronounce it fully; as, ’Thomas’s book,’ that is, ‘Thomasis book,’ not ‘Thomas his book,’ as it is commonly supposed.”—­Lowth’s Gram., p. 17.  Whatever weight there may be in this argument, the objection has been overruled by general custom.  The convenience of distinguishing, even to the eye alone, the numbers and cases of the noun, is found too great to be relinquished.  If the declension of English nouns is ever to be amended, it cannot be done in this way.  It is understood by every reader, that the apostrophic s adds a syllable to the noun, whenever it will not unite with the sound in which the nominative ends; as, torch’s, pronounced torchiz.

   “Yet time ennobles or degrades each line;
    It brightened Craggs’s, and may darken thine.”—­Pope.