If this were expanded into the power which his Creator possesses, the word Creator would be the subject of the verb:  hence it is called a subjective possessive.

61.  This last-named possessive expresses a variety of relations. Possession in some sense is the most common.  The kind of relation may usually be found by expanding the possessive into an equivalent phrase:  for example, “Winter’s rude tempests are gathering now” (i.e., tempests that winter is likely to have); “His beard was of several days’ growth” (i.e., growth which several days had developed); “The forest’s leaping panther shall yield his spotted hide” (i.e., the panther which the forest hides); “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood” (blood that man possesses).

[Sidenote:  How the possessive is formed.]

62.  As said before (Sec. 56), there are only two case forms.  One is the simple form of a word, expressing the relations of nominative and objective; the other is formed by adding ’s to the simple form, making the possessive singular.  To form the possessive plural, only the apostrophe is added if the plural nominative ends in _-s_; the ’s is added if the plural nominative does not end in _-s_.

Case Inflection.

[Sidenote:  Declension or inflection of nouns.]

63.  The full declension of nouns is as follows:—­

SINGULAR.  PLURAL.

1. Nom. and Obj. lady ladies
   Poss. lady’s ladies’

2. Nom. and Obj. child children
   Poss. child’s children’s

[Sidenote:  A suggestion.]

NOTE.—­The difficulty that some students have in writing the possessive plural would be lessened if they would remember there are two steps to be taken:—­

(1) Form the nominative plural according to Secs 39-53

(2) Follow the rule given in Sec. 62.

Special Remarks on the Possessive Case.

[Sidenote:  Origin of the possessive with its apostrophe.]

64.  In Old English a large number of words had in the genitive case singular the ending _-es_; in Middle English still more words took this ending:  for example, in Chaucer, “From every schires ende,” “Full worthi was he in his lordes werre [war],” “at his beddes syde,” “mannes herte [heart],” etc.

[Sidenote:  A false theory.]

By the end of the seventeenth century the present way of indicating the possessive had become general.  The use of the apostrophe, however, was not then regarded as standing for the omitted vowel of the genitive (as lord’s for lordes):  by a false theory the ending was thought to be a contraction of his, as schoolboys sometimes write, “George Jones his book.”

[Sidenote:  Use of the apostrophe.]