also changed the names of the other two. As we would adopt nothing that
is new without first being convinced that something is needed which the
thing proposed will supply; so we would reject nothing that is old,
till we have found it useless and cumbersome. It will be admitted on all
hands that the fewer and simpler the rules of grammar, the more readily
will they be understood, and the more correctly applied. We should
guard, on the one hand, against having so many as to perplex, and on the
other, retain enough to apply in the correct use of language. It is on
this ground that we have proposed an improvement in the names and number
of cases, or positions.

The word noun signifies name, and _nominative_ is the adjective derived
from noun, and partakes of the same meaning. Hence the _nominative_ or
_naming_ case may apply as correctly to the object as the agent. "_John_
strikes _Thomas_, and _Thomas_ strikes _John_." John and Thomas name the
boys who strike, but in the first case John is the actor or agent and
Thomas the object. In the latter it is changed. To use a _nominative
name_ is a redundancy which should be avoided. You will understand my
meaning and see the propriety of the change proposed, as the mind of the
learner should not be burthened with needless or irrelevant phrases.

But our main objection lies against the "possessive case." We regard it
as a false and unnecessary distinction. What is the possessive case?
Murray defines it as "expressing the relation of property or possession;
as, my father's house." His rule of syntax is, "one substantive governs
another, signifying a different thing, in the possessive or genitive
case; as, my father's house." I desire you to understand the definition
and use as here given. Read it over again, and be careful that you know
the meaning of _property_, _possession_, and _government_. Now let a
scholar parse correctly the example given. "_Father's_" is a common