OBS. 4.—­Although the possessive case is always intrinsically an adjunct and therefore incapable of being used or comprehended in any sense that is positively abstract; yet we see that there are instances in which it is used with a certain degree of abstraction,—­that is, with an actual separation from the name of the thing possessed; and that accordingly there are, in the simple personal pronouns, (where such a distinction is most needed,) two different forms of the case; the one adapted to the concrete, and the other to the abstract construction.  That form of the pronoun, however, which is equivalent in sense to the concrete and the noun, is still the possessive case, and nothing more; as, “All mine are thine, and thine are mine.”—­John, xvii, 10.  For if we suppose this equivalence to prove such a pronoun to be something more than the possessive case, as do some grammarians, we must suppose the same thing respecting the possessive case of a noun, whenever the relation of ownership or possession is simply affirmed or denied with such a noun put last:  as, “For all things are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”—­1 Cor., iii, 21.  By the second example placed under the rule, I meant to suggest, that the possessive case, when placed before or after this verb, (be,) might be parsed as being governed by the nominative; as we may suppose “theirs” to be governed by “vanity,” and “thine” by “learning,” these nouns being the names of the things possessed.  But then we encounter a difficulty, whenever a pronoun happens to be the nominative; as, “Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”—­1 Cor., vi, 20.  Here the common resort would be to some ellipsis; and yet it must be confessed, that this mode of interpretation cannot but make some difference in the sense:  as, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed.”—­Gal., iii, 29.  Here some may think the meaning to be, “If ye be Christ’s seed, or children.”  But a truer version of the text would be, “If ye are of Christ, then are ye Abraham’s seed.”—­“Que si vous etes a Christ, vous etes done la posterite d’Abraham.”—­French Bible.

OBS. 5.—­Possession is the having of something, and if the possessive case is always an adjunct, referring either directly or indirectly to that which constitutes it a possessive, it would seem but reasonable, to limit the government of this case to that part of speech which is understood substantively—­that is, to “the name of the thing possessed.”  Yet, in violation of this restriction, many grammarians admit, that a participle, with the regimen and adjuncts of a participle, may govern the possessive case; and some of them, at the same time, with astonishing inconsistency, aver, that the possessive case before a participle converts the latter into a noun, and