Note 8 — WORDS.

“Christ his sake,” in our Liturgy, is a mistake, either of the Printers, or of the Compilers.⸺“My paper is the Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength.” Addison, Guardian Nᵒ 98. This is no slip of Mr. Addison’s pen: he gives us his opinion upon this point very explicitly in another place. “The same single letter [s] on many occasions does the office of a whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers.” Addison, Spect. Nᵒ 135. The latter instance might have shewn him, how groundless this notion is: for it is not easy to conceive, how the letter s added to a Feminine Noun should represent the word her; any more than it should the word their, added to a Plural Noun: as, “the children’s bread.” But the direct derivation of this Case from the Saxon Genitive Case is sufficient of itself to decide this matter.