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elf in that study or put others upon it."--_Walker's English Particles_, p. xiv. "It is no matter whether you do it by your proctor, or by your self."--_Ib._, p. 96. The compound oneself is sometimes written in stead of the phrase _one's self_; but the latter is preferable, and more common. Even his self, when written as two words, may possibly be right in some instances; as,
"Scorn'd be the wretch that quits his genial bowl, His loves, his friendships, ev'n his self, resigns; Perverts the sacred instinct of his soul, And to a ducat's dirty sphere confines." --SHENSTONE: _Brit. Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 107.
OBS. 30.--In poetry, and even in some compositions not woven into regular numbers, the simple personal pronouns are not unfrequently used, for brevity's sake, in a reciprocal sense; that is, in stead of the compound personal pronouns, which are the proper reciprocals: as, "Wash you, make you clean."--Isaiah, i, 16. "I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards."--Ecclesiastes, ii, 4. "Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth."--Isaiah, xlix, 18. Compare with these the more regular expression: "As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels."--Isaiah, lxi, 10. This phraseology is almost always preferable in prose; the other is a poetical license, or peculiarity: as,
"I turn me from the martial roar."--_Scott's L. L._, p. 97.
"Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still."--_Ib._, p. 110.
"Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow."--_Ib._, p. 49.
OBS. 31.--To accommodate the writers of verse, the word ever is frequently contracted into _e'er_, pronounced like the monosyllable air. An easy extension of this license, gives us sim