_Genitive._--Some call this the possessive case. It is found in substantives and pronouns (_father's_, _his_), but not in adjectives. It is formed like the nominative plural, by the addition of the lene sibilant (_father_, _fathers_; _buck_, _bucks_); or if the word end in _s_, by that of _es_ (_boxes_, _judges_, &c.) It is found in both numbers: _the men's hearts_; _the children's bread_. In the plural number, however, it is rare; so rare, indeed, that wherever the plural ends in _s_ (as it almost always does), there is no genitive. If it were not so, we should have such words as _fatherses_, _foxeses_, _princesseses_, &c. _Instrumental._--The following extracts from Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, teach us that there exist in the present English two powers of the word spelt _t-h-e_, or of the so-called definite article. "The demonstrative pronouns are _thaet_, _se_, _se['o]_ (_id_, _is_, _ea_), which are also used for the article; and _this_, _thes_, _the['o]s_ (_hoc_, _hic_, _haec_). They are thus declined:-- {239} _Neut._ _Masc._ _Fem._ _Neut._ _Masc._ _Fem._ _Sing. N._ thaet se se['o] this thes the['o]s. _A._ thaet thone th['a] this thisne th['a]s. \----\/----/ \-----\/-----/ _Abl._ th['y] th['ae]re thise thisse. _D._ th['a]m th['ae]re thisum thisse. _G._ thaes th['ae]re thises thisse. \--------\/-------/ \--------\/--------/ _Plur. N. and A._ th['a] th['a]s. _Abl. and D._ th['a]m thisum. _G._ th['a]ra thissa. "The indeclinable _the_ is often used instead of _thaet_, _se_, _seo_, in all cases, but especially with a relative signification, and, in later times, as an article. Hence the English article _the_. "_thy_ seems justly to be received as a proper _ablativus instrumenti_, as it occurs often in this character, even in the masculine gender; as, _mid thy ['a]the_=_with that oath_ (Inae Reges, 53). And in the same place in the dative, _on th['ae]m ['a]the_=_in that oath_."--Pp. 56, 57. Hence the _the_ that has originated out of the Anglo-Saxon _th['y]_ is one word; the _the_ that has originated out of the Anglo-Saxon _the_, another. The latter is the common article: the former the _the_ in expressions like _all the more_, _all the better_=_more by all that_, _better by all that_, and the Latin phrases _eo majus_, _eo melius_. That _why_ is in the same case with the instrumental _the_ (=_thy_) may be seen from the following Anglo-Saxon inflection of the interrogative pronoun:--