This
illustration shows you, then, that pronouns must be of the same gender
as the nouns are for which they stand. But, as it relates to the
variation of the pronouns to express the sex,
Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns,
_he, she, it. He_ is masculine; _she_ is feminine; _it_ is neuter.
You may naturally inquire, why pronouns of the first and second persons
are not varied to denote the gender of their nouns, as well as of the
third. The reason is obvious. The first person, that is, the person
speaking, and the second person, or the person spoken to, being at the
same time the subjects of the discourse, are supposed to be present;
from which, and other circumstances, their sex is commonly known, and,
therefore, the pronouns that represent these persons, need not be marked
by a distinction of gender; but the third person, that is, the person or
thing spoken of, being absent, and in many respects unknown, necessarily
requires the pronoun that stands for it, to be marked by a distinction
of gender.
In parsing, we sometimes apply gender to pronouns of the first and
second person, and also to the plural number of the third person; but
these have no peculiar form to denote their gender; therefore they have
no agreement, in this respect, with the nouns which they represent.
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