her person, number, or gender.

The frequent use of these words render them very important, in the
elegant and rapid use of language. They are so short, and their sound so
soft and easy, that the frequency of their recurrence does not mar the
beauty of a sentence, but saves us from the redundancy of other words.
They are substituted only when there is little danger of mistaking the
nouns for which they stand. They are, however, sometimes used in a very
broad sense; as, "_they say_ it is so;" meaning no particular persons,
but the general sentiment. _It_ frequently takes the lead of a sentence,
and the thing represented by it comes after; as, "It is currently
reported, that things were thus and so." Here _it_ represents the single
idea which is afterward stated at length. "_It_ is so." "_It_ may be
that the nations will be destroyed by wars, earthquakes, and famines."
But more of this when we come to speak of the composition of sentences.

The words now classed as pronouns were originally _names_ of things, but
in this character they have long been obsolete. They are now used only
in their secondary character as the representatives of other words. The
word _he_, for instance, signified originally _to breathe_. It was
applied to the living beings who inhaled air. It occurs with little
change in the various languages of Europe, ancient and modern, till at
length it is applied to the male agent which lives and acts. The word
_her_ means _light_, but is specifically applied to females which are
the objects of action.

Was it in accordance with the design of these lectures, it would give me
pleasure to go into a minute examination of the origin, changes and
meaning of these words till they came to be applied as specific words of
exceeding limited character. Most of them might be traced thro all the
languages of Europe; the Arabic, Persic, Arminian, Chaldean, Hebrew,
and, for ought I know, all the languages of Asia. But as they are now
admitted a peculiar position in the expression of thought from which
they never vary; and as we are contending about philosophic principles
rather than verbal criticisms, I shall forbear a further consideration
of these words.

In the proper place I shall consider those words formerly called
"Adjective Pronouns," "Pronoun Adjectives," or "Pronominal Adjectives,"
to suit the varying whims of those grammar makers, who desired to show
off a speck of improvement in their "simplifying" works witho