_His._--Originally neuter as well as masculine. Now as a neuter, replaced by _its_--"et quidem ipsa vox _his_, ut et interrogativum _whose_, nihil aliud sunt quam _hee's_, _who's_, ubi _s_ omnino idem praestat quod in aliis possessivis. Similiter autem _his_ pro _hee's_ eodem errore quo nonnunquam _bin_ pro _been_; item _whose_ pro _who's_ eodem errore quo _done_, _gone_, _knowne_, _growne_, &c., pro _doen_, _goen_, _knowen_, vel _do'n_, _go'n_, _know'n_, _grow'n_; utrobique contra analogiam linguae; sed usu defenditur."--Wallis, c. v. _It._--Changed from the Anglo-Saxon _hit_, by the ejection of _h_. The _t_ is no part of the original word, but a sign of the neuter gender, forming it regularly from _he_. The same neuter sign is preserved in the Latin _id_ and _illud_. _Its._--In the course of time the nature of the neuter sign _t_, in _it_, the form being found in but a few words, became misunderstood. Instead of being looked on as an affix, it passed for part of the original word. Hence was formed from _it_ the anomalous genitive _its_, superseding the Saxon _his_. The same was the case with-- _Hers._--The _r_ is no part of the original word, but the sign of the dative case. These formations are of value in the history of cases. _They_, _their_, _them_.--When _hit_ had been changed into _it_, when _he['o]_ had been replaced by _she_, and when the single form _the_, as an article, had come to serve for all the cases of all the genders, two circumstances took place: 1. The forms _th['a]m_ and _th['a]ra_ as definite articles became superfluous; and, 2. The connexion between the plural forms _h['i]_, _heom_, _heora_, and the singular forms _he_ and _it_, grew indistinct. These were conditions favourable to the use of the forms _they_, _them_, and _their_, instead of _h['i]_, _heom_, _heora_. _Theirs._--In the same predicament with _hers_ and _its_; either the case of an adjective, or a case formed from a case. {251} _Than_ or _then_, and _there_.--Although now adverbs, they were once demonstrative pronouns, in a certain case and in a certain gender.--_Than_ and _then_ masculine accusative and singular, _there_ feminine dative and singular. An exhibition of the Anglo-Saxon declension is the best explanation of the English. Be it observed, that the cases marked in italics are found in the present language. I. Se, _se['o]_. Of this word we meet two forms only, both of the singular number, and both in the nominative case; _viz._ masc. _se_; fem. _se['o]_ (the). The neuter gender and the other cases of the article were taken from the pronoun _thaet_ (that). II. _thaet_ (that, the), and _this_ (this).