Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/136

122 The real objection to the possessive here is merely the addition to the crowd of sibilants.

Or, if the names are essential, did not in the least mind how soon Edward and I married.

It has been replied to the absurd taunt about the French inventing nothing, that at least Descartes invented German philosophy.—. (Frenchmen's)

d. A modern construction called the compound possessive was mentioned at the end of the section on Cases. It is sometimes ugly, sometimes inoffensive; that is a matter of degree and of knowing where to draw the line; there is no objection to it in principle. And the application of it will sometimes help out a gerund. The first quotation gives a compound possessive simply; the second, a gerund construction to which it ought to be applicable; the third and fourth, two to which it can be applied; and the last, one to which it cannot.

The only objection to a possessive mark after successor is that the two commas cannot be dispensed with; we must say when...took for on the occasion of...taking. Such a premier's will certainly pass. In the Spectator sentence, we should ourselves allow union's; opinions will differ. But to put the 's after poor in the last sentence would be ridiculous; that sentence must be rewritten—insisting that many English