+Examples+.—I am, dear madam, your friend. Alas, poor Yorick! He being dead, we shall live. Liberty, it has fled! (See Lesson 44.)
A noun or pronoun used as explanatory modifier is in the same case as the word explained—"is put by apposition in the same case."
+Examples+.—The first colonial Congress, that of 1774, addressed the King, George III. He buys is goods at Stewart's, the dry-goods merchant.
A noun or pronoun used as objective complement is in the objective case.
+Examples+.—They made him speaker. He made it all it is.
A noun or pronoun used as attribute complement of a participle or an infinitive is in the same case (Nom. or Obj.) as the word to which it relates as attribute.
+Examples+.—Being an artist, he appreciated it. I proved it to be him.
+Remark+.—When the assumed subject of the participle or the infinitive is a possessive, the attribute complement is said to be in the nominative case; as, Its being he [Footnote: The case of he in these examples is rather doubtful. The nominative and the objective forms of the pronoun occur so rarely in such constructions that it seems impossible to determine the usage. It is therefore a matter of no great practical importance.
Some, reasoning from the analogy of the Latin, would put the attribute complement of the abstract infinitive in the objective, supposing for and some other word to be understood; as, For one to be him, etc. Others, reasoning from the German, to which our language is closely allied, would put this complement in the nominative.
The assumed subject of the infinitive being omitted when it is the same in sense as the principal subject, him, in the sentence I wish (me or myself) to be him, is the proper form, being in the same case as me.] should make no difference. When the participle or the infinitive is used abstractly, without an assumed subject, its attribute complement is also said to be in the nominative case; as, To be he [Footnote: See footnote above.] is to be a scholar; Being a scholar is not being an idler.