The Grammar of English Grammars, page 797 by Gould Brown
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questionably the possessive case of it, the apostrophe, by a strange perverseness, is almost always omitted."--_Churchill Gram._, p. 222. The charge of strange perverseness may, in this instance, I think, be retorted upon the critic; and that, to the fair exculpation of those who choose to conform to the general usage which offends him.
OBS. 26.--Of the compound personal pronouns, this author gives the following account: "Self, in the plural selves, a noun, is often combined with the personal pronouns, in order to express emphasis, or opposition, or the identity of the subject and [the] object of a verb; and thus forms a pronoun _relative_: as, 'I did it _myself_;' 'he was not himself, when he said so;' 'the envious torment themselves more than others.' Formerly self and selves were used simply as nouns, and governed the pronoun, which was kept distinct from it [them] in the possessive case: but since they [the pronoun and the noun] have coalesced into one word, they [the compounds] are used only in the following forms: for the first person, _myself, ourselves_; for the second, thyself, or _yourself, yourselves_; for the third, _himself, herself, itself, themselves_: except in the regal style, in which, as generally in the second person, the singular noun is added to the plural pronoun, [making] ourself. Each of these is _the same in all three cases._"--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 75. In a note referring to the close of this explanation, he adds: "Own also is often employed with the possessive cases of the personal pronouns by way of emphasis, or opposition; but separately, as an adjective, and not combining with them to form _a relative_: as, 'I did it of my own free will:' 'Did he do it with his own hand?'"--_Ib._, p. 227.
OBS. 27.--The preceding instructions, faulty and ungrammatical as they are, seem to be the best that our writers have furnished upon this point. To