260 Miscellaneous Observations. use of the possessive may be compared to that of the nega- tive, so common in vulgar speech ; and both arise from that tendency to put forth more force than is necessary, which is always found among the inexpert, in words as well as in deeds. Such expressions indeed as der Konig sein, der Vater mein^ are common in the popular language, and occur per- petually in old poetry : but here mein and sein are used in their original manner, as genitives. This is a point however on which I cannot venture to speak with the slightest confi- dence. With regard to our own phrase the best way to esta- blish its legitimacy would be to bring forward passages, if such are to be found, in which he7^ or their is used in the same manner: for such a vise could not be resolved into a corruption. If such passages are not to be found, this will be a strong negative argument the other way. The one from Swift, which is the only one I ever remember to have seen, is curious as shewing what his notions about our old language were, but of course is of no weight as a proof that such a mode of speaking did ever actually prevail : he merely in- ferred, from having often met with his in old English, that her must also have been used in the same manner. As it is, I cannot help still thinking that what led so many of our old writers to use his instead of the genitive termination, was the notion that that termination had originated out of it. That such a persuasion did actually exist was shewn in my former remarks on this subject; and it is confirmed by the fact that in our version of the Bible Asa his and Mor- decai his were introduced, as if they were corrections, in- stead of the older readings Asas and Mordecais^ as well as by the substitution of Christ his sake in the new prayers for Christs sake^ the close of the old ones. At what period the errour, if it be one, first gained ground, still remains to be made out : it would seem to have been very pre- valent in the middle of the sixteenth century : for two translations from Horace were publisht in 1566 and 1567, one of them entitled Two Bookes of Horace his Satyres Englyshed^ accordyng to the prescription of Saint Hierome^ the other Horace his Arte of Poetrie, Pistles^ and Satirs Englished by Tho. Drafit : and a translation of Ovid his Ifivective against Ibis came out in 1569. May not the
