OBS. 2.—­The pronouns he and himself, she and herself, with their inflections, are literally applicable to persons and to brutes, and to these only; if applied to lifeless objects, they animate them, and are figurative in gender, though literal perhaps in every other respect.  For example:  “A diamond of beauty and lustre, observing at his side in the same cabinet, not only many other gems, but even a loadstone, began to question the latter how he came there—­he, who appeared to be no better than a mere flint, a sorry rusty-looking pebble, without the least shining quality to advance him to such honour; and concluded with desiring him to keep his distance, and to pay a proper respect to his superiors.”—­Kames’s Art of Thinking, p. 226.

OBS. 3.—­The pronoun it, as it carries in itself no such idea as that of personality, or sex, or life, is chiefly used with reference to things inanimate; yet the word is, in a certain way, applicable to animals, or even to persons; though it does not, in itself, present them as such.  Thus we say, “It is I;”—­“It was they;”—­“It was you;”—­“It was your agent;”—­“It is your bull that has killed one of my oxen.”  In examples of this kind, the word it is simply demonstrative; meaning, the thing or subject spoken of.  That subject, whatever it be in itself, may be introduced again after the verb, in any person, number, or gender, that suits it.  But, as the verb agrees with the pronoun it, the word which follows, can in no sense be made, as Dr. Priestley will have it to be, the antecedent to that pronoun.  Besides, it is contrary to the nature of what is primarily demonstrative, to represent a preceding word of any kind.  The Doctor absurdly says, “Not only things, but persons, may be the antecedent to this pronoun; as, Who is it? Is it not Thomas? i. e. Who is the person? Is not he Thomas?”—­Priestley’s Gram., p. 85.  In these examples, the terms are transposed by interrogation; but that circumstance, though it may have helped to deceive this author and his copiers, affects not my assertion.

OBS. 4.—­The pronoun who is usually applied only to persons.  Its application to brutes or to things is improper, unless we mean to personify them.  But whose, the possessive case of this relative, is sometimes used to supply the place of the possessive case, otherwise wanting, to the relative which.  Examples:  “The mutes are those consonants whose sounds cannot be protracted.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 9.  “Philosophy, whose end is, to instruct us in the knowledge of nature.”—­Ib., p. 54; Campbell’s Rhet., 421.  “Those adverbs are compared whose primitives are obsolete.”—­Adam’s Latin Gram., p. 150.  “After a sentence