OBS. 29.—­The word self was originally an adjective, signifying same, very, or particular; but, when used alone, it is now generally a noun.  This may have occasioned the diversity which appears in the formation of the compound personal pronouns.  Dr. Johnson, in his great Dictionary, calls self a pronoun; but he explains it as being both adjective and substantive, admitting that, “Its primary signification seems to be that of an adjective.”—­Again he observes, “Myself, himself, themselves, and the rest, may, contrary to the analogy of my, him, them, be used as nominatives.” Hisself, itsself, and theirselves, would be more analogical than himself, itself, themselves; but custom has rejected the former, and established the latter.  When an adjective qualifies the term self, the pronouns are written separately in the possessive case; as, My single self,—­My own self,—­His own self,—­Their own selves.  So, anciently, without an adjective:  as, “A man shall have diffused his life, his self, and his whole concernments so far, that he can weep his sorrows with an other’s eyes.”—­South.  “Something valuable for its self without view to anything farther.”—­Harris’s Hermes, p. 293.  “That they would willingly, and of their selves endeavour to keep a perpetual chastity.”—­Stat.  Ed. VI. in Lowth’s Gram., p. 26.  “Why I should either imploy my self in that study or put others upon it.”—­Walker’s English Particles, p. xiv.  “It is no matter whether you do it by your proctor, or by your self.”—­Ib., p. 96.  The compound oneself is sometimes written in stead of the phrase one’s self; but the latter is preferable, and more common.  Even his self, when written as two words, may possibly be right in some instances; as,

   “Scorn’d be the wretch that quits his genial bowl,
     His loves, his friendships, ev’n his self, resigns;
    Perverts the sacred instinct of his soul,
     And to a ducat’s dirty sphere confines.” 
        —­SHENSTONE:  Brit.  Poets, Vol. vii, p. 107.

OBS. 30.—­In poetry, and even in some compositions not woven into regular numbers, the simple personal pronouns are not unfrequently used, for brevity’s sake, in a reciprocal sense; that is, in stead of the compound personal pronouns, which are the proper reciprocals:  as, “Wash you, make you clean.”—­Isaiah, i, 16.  “I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards.”—­Ecclesiastes, ii, 4.  “Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth.”—­Isaiah, xlix, 18.  Compare with these the more regular expression:  “As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels.”—­Isaiah, lxi, 10.  This phraseology is almost always preferable in prose; the other is a poetical license, or peculiarity:  as,