"The genitive _its_ is of late introduction into our language. Though used by our dramatists and many of their cotemporaries, it does not occur in the versions of our Bible, the substitute being _his_ or the compound term _thereof_."--Phil. Trans., No. 25. s. 511. For the archaic and provincial use of _him_ and _he_ for _it_ see _ibid._; remembering that the two cases are different. _His_ for _its_ is an old form retained: _him_ and _he_ for _it_ are really changes of gender. s. 512. _Take them things away._--Here we have _them_ for _those_. The expression, although not to be imitated, is explained by the originally demonstrative power of _them_. Sometimes the expression is still more anomalous, and we hear the so-called nominative case used instead of the accusative. In the expression _take they things away_, the use of _they_ for _them_ (itself for _those_) is similarly capable of being, down to a certain period of our language, explained as an archaism. The original accusative was _tha_, and _tho_: the form in _-m_ being dative. s. 513. _This_ and _that_.--The remarks upon the use of these words in certain expressions is brought at once to the Latin scholar by the quotation of the two following lines from Ovid, and the suggestion of a well-known rule in the Eton Latin Grammar. _Quocunque aspicies nihil est nisi pontus et aer;_ _Nubibus hic tumidus, fluctibus ille minax._ Here _hic_ (=_this_ or _the one_) refers to the antecedent last named (the _air_); whilst _ille_ (=_that_ or _the other_) refers to the antecedent first named (the _sea_). Now on the strength of this example, combined with others, it is laid down as a rule in Latin that _hic_ (_this_) refers to the last-named antecedent, _ille_ to the first-named. s. 514. What is the rule in English? Suppose we say _John's is a good sword and so is Charles's_; _this cut through a thick rope, the other cut through an iron rod_. Or instead of saying _this_ and _that_ we may say _the one_ and _the other_. It is clear that, in determining to which of the {414} two swords the respective demonstratives refer, the meaning will not help us at all, so that our only recourse is to the rules of grammar; and it is the opinion of the present writer that the rules of grammar will help us just as little. The Latin rule is adopted by scholars, but still it is a Latin rule rather than an English one. The truth is, that it is a question which no authority can settle; and all that grammar can tell us is (what we know without it) that _this_ refers to the name of the idea which is logically the most close at hand, and _that_ to the idea which is logically the most distant.