Other examples might be quoted from Burke, Kingsley, Smollett, Scott, Cooper, Gibbon, and others.

[Sidenote:  Which.]

113.  The sentences in Sec. 108 show that—­

(1) Which refers to animals, things, or ideas, not persons.

(2) It is not inflected for gender or number.

(3) It is nearly always third person, rarely second (an example of its use as second person is given in sentence 32, p. 96).

(4) It has two case forms,—­which for the nominative and objective, whose for the possessive.

[Sidenote:  Examples of whose, possessive case of which.]

114.  Grammarians sometimes object to the statement that whose is the possessive of which, saying that the phrase of which should always be used instead; yet a search in literature shows that the possessive form whose is quite common in prose as well as in poetry:  for example,—­

     I swept the horizon, and saw at one glance the glorious
     elevations, on whose tops the sun kindled all the melodies and
     harmonies of light.—­BEECHER.

     Men may be ready to fight to the death, and to persecute without
     pity, for a religion whose creed they do not understand, and
     whose precepts they habitually disobey.—­MACAULAY

     Beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities of the
     plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of the
     heavens.—­SCOTT.

     Many great and opulent cities whose population now exceeds that
     of Virginia during the Revolution, and whose names are spoken
     in the remotest corner of the civilized world.—­MCMASTER.

     Through the heavy door whose bronze network closes the place of
     his rest, let us enter the church itself.—­RUSKIN.

     This moribund ’61, whose career of life is just coming to its
     terminus.—­THACKERAY.

So in Matthew Arnold, Kingsley, Burke, and numerous others.

[Sidenote:  Which and its antecedents.]

115.  The last two sentences in Sec. 108 show that which may have other antecedents than nouns and pronouns.  In 5 (a) there is a participial adjective used as the antecedent; in 5 (b) there is a complete clause employed as antecedent.  This often occurs.

Sometimes, too, the antecedent follows which; thus,—­

     And, which is worse, all you have done
     Hath been but for a wayward son. 
     —­SHAKESPEARE.

     Primarily, which is very notable and curious, I observe that men
     of business rarely know the meaning of the word “rich.”—­RUSKIN.

I demurred to this honorary title upon two grounds,—­first, as being one toward which I had no natural aptitudes or predisposing advantages; secondly (which made her stare), as carrying with it no real or enviable distinction.—­DE QUINCEY.

[Sidenote:  That.]