VII. PARTICIPLES…

VII. PARTICIPLES

The true or regular syntax of the English Participle, as a part of speech distinct from the verb, and not converted into a noun or an adjective, is twofold; being sometimes that of simple relation to a noun or a pronoun that precedes it, and sometimes that of government, or the state of being governed by a preposition. In the former construction, the participle resembles an adjective; in the latter, it is more like a noun, or like the infinitive mood: for the participle after a preposition is governed as a participle, and not as a case.[417] To these two constructions, some add three others less regular, using the participle sometimes as the subject of a finite verb, sometimes as the object of a transitive verb, and sometimes as a nominative after a neuter verb. Of these five constructions, the first two, are the legitimate uses of this part of speech; the others are occasional, modern, and of doubtful propriety.

RULE XX.--PARTICIPLES.

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions: as, "Elizabeth's tutor, at one time paying her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato."--Hume. "I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it."--Dr. Johnson.

"Now, rais'd on Tyre's sad ruins, Pharaoh's pride Soar'd high, his legions threat'ning far and wide."--Dryden.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

A participle sometimes relates to a preceding phrase or sentence, of which it forms no part; as, "I then quit the society; to withdraw and leave them to themselves, APPEARING to me a duty."--"It is almost exclusively on the ground we have mentioned, that we have heard his being continued in office DEFENDED."--Professors' Reasons, p. 23. (Better, "his continuance in office," or, "the continuing of him in office." See Obs. 18th on Rule 4th.)

"But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to his high will."--Milton.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

With an infinitive denoting being or action in the abstract, a participle is sometimes also taken abstractly; (that is, without reference to any particular noun, pronoun, or other subject;) as, "To seem compelled, is disagreeable."--"To keep always praying aloud, is plainly impossible."--"It must be disagreeable to be left pausing[418] on a word which does not, by itself, produce any idea."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 323.

"To praise him is to serve him, and fulfill, Doing and suffering, his unquestion'd will." --Cowper, Vol. i, p. 88.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

The participle is often used irregularly in English, as a substitute for the infinitive mood, to which it is sometimes equivalent without irregularity; as, "I saw him enter, or entering"--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 230. "He is afraid of trying, or to try."--Ibid. Examples irregular: "Sir, said I, if the case stands thus, 'tis dangerous drinking:" i.e., to drink.--Collier's Tablet of Cebes. "It will be but ill venturing thy soul upon that:" i.e., to venture.--Bunyan's Law and Grace, p. 27. "Describing a past event as present, has a fine effect in language:" i.e., to describe.--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 93. "In English likewise it deserves remarking:" i.e., to be remarked.--Harris's Hermes, p. 232. "Bishop Atterbury deserves being particularly mentioned:" i.e., to be particularly mentioned.--Blair's Rhet., p. 291. "This, however, is in effect no more than enjoying the sweet that predominates:" i.e., to enjoy.--Campbell's Rhet., p. 43.

"Habits are soon assum'd; but when we strive To strip them off, 'tis being flay'd alive."--Cowper, Vol. i, p. 44

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

An other frequent irregularity in the construction of participles, is the practice of treating them essentially as nouns, without taking from them the regimen and adjuncts of participles; as, "Your having been well educated will be a great recommendation."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 171. (Better: "Your excellent education"--or, "That you have been well educated, will be," &c.) "It arises from sublimity's expressing grandeur in its highest degree."--Blair's Rhet., p. 29. "Concerning the separating by a circumstance, words intimately connected."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 104. "As long as there is any hope of their keeping pace with them."--Literary Convention, p. 114. "Which could only arise from his knowing the secrets of all hearts."--West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 180. "But this again is talking quite at random."--Butler's Analogy, p. 146.

"My being here it is, that holds thee hence."--Shak.

"Such, but by foils, the clearest lustre see, And deem aspersing others, praising thee."--Savage, to Walpole.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XX.

OBS. 1.--To this rule, I incline to think, there are properly no other exceptions than the first two above; or, at least, that we ought to avoid, when we can, any additional anomalies. Yet, not to condemn with unbecoming positiveness what others receive for good English, I have subjoined two items more, which include certain other irregularities now very common, that, when examples of a like form occur, the reader may parse them as exceptions, if he does not choose to censure them as errors. The mixed construction in which participles are made to govern the possessive case, has already been largely considered in the observations on Rule 4th. Murray, Allen, Churchill, and many other grammarians, great and small, admit that participles may be made the subjects or the objects of verbs, while they retain the nature, government, and adjuncts, of participles; as, "Not attending to this rule, is the cause of a very common error."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 200; Comly's Gram., 188; Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., 170. "Polite is employed to signify their being highly civilized.'"--Blair's Rhet., p. 219. "One abhors being in debt."--Ib., p. 98; Jamieson's Rhet., 71; Murray's Gram., 144. "Who affected being a fine gentleman so unmercifully."--Spect., No. 496. "The minister's being attached to the project, prolonged their debate."--Nixon's Parser, p. 78. "It finds [i.e., the mind finds,] that acting thus would gratify one passion; not acting, or acting otherwise, would gratify another."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 109. "But further, cavilling and objecting upon any subject is much easier than clearing up difficulties."--Bp. Butler's Charge to the Clergy of Durham, 1751.

OBS. 2.--W. Allen observes, "The use of the participle as a nominative, is one of the peculiarities of our language."--Elements of Gram., p. 171. He might have added, that the use of the participle as an objective governed by a verb, as a nominative after a verb neuter, or as a word governing the possessive, is also one of the peculiarities of our language, or at least an idiom adopted by no few of its recent writers. But whether any one of these four modern departures from General Grammar ought to be countenanced by us, as an idiom that is either elegant or advantageous, I very much doubt. They are all however sufficiently common in the style of reputable authors; and, however questionable their character, some of our grammarians seem mightily attached to them all. It becomes me therefore to object with submission. These mixed and irregular constructions of the participle, ought, in my opinion, to be generally condemned as false syntax; and for this simple reason, that the ideas conveyed by them may generally, if not always, be expressed more briefly, and more elegantly, by other phraseology that is in no respect anomalous. Thus, for the examples above: "Inattention to this rule, is the cause of a very common error."--"Polite is employed to signify a high degree of civilization;" or, "that they are highly civilized."--"One abhors debt."--"Who affected the fine gentleman so unmercifully."--"The minister's partiality to the project, prolonged their debate."--"It finds [i.e., the mind finds,] that to act thus, would gratify one passion; and that not to act, or to act otherwise, would gratify another."--"But further, to cavil and object, upon any subject, is much easier than to clear up difficulties." Are not these expressions much better English than the foregoing quotations? And if so, have we not reason to conclude that the adoption of participles in such instances is erroneous and ungrammatical?

OBS. 3.--In Obs. 17th on Rule 4th, it was suggested, that in English the participle, without governing the possessive case, is turned to a greater number and variety of uses, than in any other language. This remark applies mainly to the participle in ing. Whether it is expedient to make so much of one sort of derivative, and endeavour to justify every possible use of it which can be plausibly defended, is a question well worthy of consideration. We have already converted this participle to such a multiplicity of purposes, and into so many different parts of speech, that one can well-nigh write a chapter in it, without any other words. This practice may have added something to the copiousness and flexibility of the language, but it certainly has a tendency to impair its strength and clearness. Not every use of participles is good, for which there may be found precedents in good authors. One may run to great excess in the adoption of such derivatives, without becoming absolutely unintelligible, and without violating any rule of our common grammars. For example, I may say of somebody, "This very superficial grammatist, supposing empty criticism about the adoption of proper phraseology to be a show of extraordinary erudition, was displaying, in spite of ridicule, a very boastful turgid argument concerning the correction of false syntax, and about the detection of false logic in debate." Now, in what other language than ours, can a string of words anything like the following, come so near to a fair and literal translation of this long sentence? "This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticising concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during debating." Here are not all the uses to which our writers apply the participle in ing, but there would seem to be enough, without adding others that are less proper.

OBS. 4.--The active participles, admitting, allowing, considering, granting, speaking, supposing, and the like, are frequently used in discourse so independently, that they either relate to nothing, or to the pronoun I or we understood; as, "Granting this to be true, what is to be inferred from it?"--Murray's Gram., p. 195. This may be supposed to mean, "I, granting this to be true, ask what is to be inferred from it?" "The very chin was, modestly speaking, as long as my whole face."--Addison. Here the meaning may be, "I, modestly speaking, say." So of the following examples: "Properly speaking, there is no such thing as chance."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 172. "Because, generally speaking, the figurative sense of a word is derived from its proper sense."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 190. "But, admitting that two or three of these offend less in their morals than in their writings, must poverty make nonsense sacred?"--Pope's Works, Vol. iii, p. 7. Some grammarians suppose such participles to be put absolute in themselves, so as to have no reference to any noun or pronoun; others, among whom are L. Murray and Dr. James P. Wilson, suppose them to be put absolute with a pronoun understood. On the former supposition, they form an other exception to the foregoing rule; on the latter, they do not: the participle relates to the pronoun, though both be independent of the rest of the sentence. If we supply the ellipsis as above, there is nothing put absolute.

OBS. 5.--Participles are almost always placed after the words on which their construction depends, and are distinguished from adjectives by this position; but when other words depend on the participle, or when several participles have the same construction, the whole phrase may come before the noun or pronoun: as, "Leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement."--Sterne.

"Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells."--Milton.

"Brib'd, bought, and bound, they banish shame and fear; Tell you they're stanch, and have a soul sincere."--Crabbe.

OBS. 6.--When participles are compounded with something that does not belong to the verb, they become adjectives; and, as such, they cannot govern an object after them. The following construction is therefore inaccurate: "When Caius did any thing unbecoming his dignity."--Jones's Church History, i, 87. "Costly and gaudy attire, unbecoming godliness."--Extracts, p. 185. Such errors are to be corrected by Note 15th to Rule 9th, or by changing the particle un to not: as, "Unbecoming to his dignity;" or, "Not becoming his dignity."

OBS. 7.--An imperfect or a preperfect participle, preceded by an article, an adjective, or a noun or pronoun of the possessive case, becomes a verbal or participial noun; and, as such, it cannot with strict propriety, govern an object after it. A word which may be the object of the participle in its proper construction, requires the preposition of, to connect it with the verbal noun; as, 1. THE PARTICIPLE: "Worshiping idols, the Jews sinned."--"Thus worshiping idols,--In worshiping idols,--or, By worshiping idols, they sinned." 2. THE VERBAL NOUN: "The worshiping of idols,--Such worshiping of idols,--or, Their worshiping of idols, was sinful."--"In the worshiping of idols, there is sin."

OBS. 8.--It is commonly supposed that these two modes of expression are, in very many instances, equivalent to each other in meaning, and consequently interchangeable. How far they really are so, is a question to be considered. Example: "But if candour be a confounding of the distinctions between sin and holiness, a depreciating of the excellence of the latter, and at the same time a diminishing of the evil of the former; then it must be something openly at variance with the letter and the spirit of revelation."--The Friend, iv, 108. Here the nouns, distinctions, excellence, and evil, though governed by of, represent the objects of the forenamed actions; and therefore they might well be governed by confounding, depreciating, and diminishing, if these were participles. But if, to make them such, we remove the article and the preposition, the construction forsakes our meaning; for be confounding, (be) depreciating, and (be) diminishing, seem rather to be verbs of the compound form; and our uncertain nominatives after be, thus disappear in the shadow of a false sense. But some sensible critics tell us, that this preposition of should refer rather to the agent of the preceding action, than to its passive object; so that such a phrase as, "the teaching of boys," should signify rather the instruction which boys give, than that which they receive. If, for the sake of this principle, or for any other reason, we wish to avoid the foregoing phraseology, the meaning may be expressed thus: "But if your candour confound the distinctions between sin and holiness; if it depreciate the excellence of the latter, and at the same time diminish the evil of the former; then it must be something openly at variance with the letter and the spirit of revelation."

OBS. 9.--When the use of the preposition produces ambiguity or harshness, let a better expression be sought. Thus the sentence, "He mentions Newton's writing of a commentary," is not entirely free from either of these faults. If the preposition be omitted, the word writing will have a double construction, which is inadmissible, or at least objectionable. Some would say, "He mentions Newton writing a commentary." This, though not uncommon, is still more objectionable because it makes the leading word in sense the adjunct in construction. The meaning may be correctly expressed thus: "He mentions that Newton wrote a commentary." "Mr. Dryden makes a very handsome observation on Ovid's writing a letter from Dido to Æneas."--Spect., No. 62; Campbell's Rhet., p. 265; Murray's Key, ii, 253. Here the word writing is partly a noun and partly a participle. If we make it wholly a noun, by saying, "on Ovid's writing of a letter," or wholly a participle, by saying, "on Ovid writing a letter;" it may be doubted, whether we have effected any improvement. And again, if we adopt Dr. Lowth's advice, "Let it be either the one or the other, and abide by its proper construction;" we must make some change; and therefore ought perhaps to say; "on Ovid's conceit of writing a letter from Dido to Æneas." This is apparently what Addison meant, and what Dryden remarked upon; the latter did not speak of the letter itself, else the former would have said, "on Ovid's letter from Dido to Æneas."

OBS. 10.--When a needless possessive, or a needless article, is put before the participle, the correction is to be made, not by inserting of, but by expunging the article, according to Note 16th to Rule 1st, or the possessive, according to Note 5th to Rule 4th. Example: "By his studying the Scriptures he became wise."--Lennie's Gram., p. 91. Here his serves only to render the sentence incorrect; yet this spurious example is presented by Lennie to prove that a participle may take the possessive case before it, when the preposition of is not admissible after it. So, in stead of expunging one useless word, our grammarians often add an other and call the twofold error a correction; as, "For his avoiding of that precipice, he is indebted to his friend's care."--Murray's Key, ii, 201. Or worse yet: "It was from our misunderstanding of the directions that we lost our way."--Ibid. Here, not our and of only, but four other words, are worse than useless. Again: "By the exercising of our judgment, it is improved. Or thus: By exercising our judgment, it is improved."--Comly's Key in his Gram., 12th Ed., p. 188. Each of these pretended corrections is wrong in more respects than one. Say, "By exercising our judgement, we improve it" Or, "Our judgement is improved by being exercised" Again: "The loving of our enemies is a divine command; Or, loving our enemies [is a divine command]."--Ibid. Both of these are also wrong. Say, "'Love your enemies,' is a divine command." Or, "We are divinely commanded to love our enemies." Some are apt to jumble together the active voice and the passive, and thus destroy the unity even of a short sentence; as, "By exercising our memories, they are improved."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 226 and 195. "The error might have been avoided by repeating the substantive."--Murray's Gram., p. 172. "By admitting such violations of established grammatical distinctions, confusion would be introduced."--Ib., p. 187. In these instances, we have an active participle without an agent; and this, by the preposition by, is made an adjunct to a passive verb. Even the participial noun of this form, though it actually drops the distinction of voice, is awkward and apparently incongruous in such a relation.

OBS. 11.--When the verbal noun necessarily retains any adjunct of the verb or participle, it seems proper that the two words be made a compound by means of the hyphen: as, "Their hope shall be as the giving-up of the ghost."--Job, xi, 20. "For if the casting-away of them be the reconciling of the world."--Rom., xi, 15. "And the gathering-together of the waters called he seas."--Gen., i, 10. "If he should offer to stop the runnings-out of his justice."--Law and Grace, p. 26. "The stopping-short before the usual pause in the melody, aids the impression that is made by the description of the stone's stopping-short.'"--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 106. I do not find these words united in the places referred to, but this is nevertheless their true figure. Our authors and printers are lamentably careless, as well as ignorant, respecting the figure of words: for which part of grammar, see the whole of the third chapter, in Part First of this work; also observations on the fourth rule of syntax, from the 30th to the 35th. As certain other compounds may sometimes be broken by tmesis, so may some of these; as, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is."--Heb., x, 23. Adverbs may relate to participles, but nouns require adjectives. The following phrase is therefore inaccurate: "For the more easily reading of large numbers." Yet if we say, "For reading large numbers the more easily," the construction is different, and not inaccurate. Some calculator, I think, has it, "For the more easily reading large numbers." But Hutton says, "For the more easy reading of large numbers."--Hutton's Arith., p. 5; so Babcock's, p. 12. It would be quite as well to say, "For the greater ease in reading large numbers."

OBS. 12.--Many words of a participial form are used directly as nouns, without any article, adjective, or possessive case before them, and without any object or adjunct after them. Such is commonly the construction of the words spelling, reading, writing, ciphering, surveying, drawing, parsing, and many other such names of actions or exercises. They are rightly put by Johnson among "nouns derived from verbs;" for, "The [name of the] action is the same with the participle present, as loving, frighting, fighting, striking."--Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 10. Thus: "I like writing."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 171. "He supposed, with them, that affirming and denying were operations of the mind."--Tooke's Diversions, i, 35. "'Not rendering,' said Polycarp the disciple of John, 'evil for evil, or railing for railing, or striking for striking, or cursing for cursing."--Dymond, on War. Against this practice, there is seldom any objection; the words are wholly nouns, both in sense and construction. We call them participial nouns, only because they resemble participles in their derivation; or if we call them verbal nouns, it is because they are derived from verbs. But we too frequently find those which retain the government and the adjuncts of participles, used as nouns before or after verbs; or, more properly speaking, used as mongrels and nondescripts, a doubtful species, for which there is seldom any necessity, since the infinitive, the verbal or some other noun, or a clause introduced by the conjunction that, will generally express the idea in a better manner: as, "Exciting such disturbances, is unlawful." Say rather, "To excite such disturbances,--The exciting of such disturbances,--The excitation of such disturbances,--or, That one should excite such disturbances, is unlawful."

OBS. 13.--Murray says, "The word the, before the active participle, in the following sentence, and in all others of a similar construction, is improper, and should be omitted: 'The advising, or the attempting, to excite such disturbances, is unlawful.' It should be, 'Advising or attempting to excite disturbances.'"--Octavo Gram., p. 195. But, by his own showing, "the present participle, with the definite article the before it, becomes a substantive."--Ib., p. 192. And substantives, or nouns, by an other of his notes, can govern the infinitive mood, just as well as participles; or just as well as the verbs which he thinks would be very proper here; namely, "To advise or attempt to excite such disturbances."--Ib., p. 196. It would be right to say, "Any advice, or attempt, to excite such disturbances, is unlawful." And I see not that he has improved the text at all, by expunging the article. Advising and attempting, being disjunct nominatives to is, are nothing but nouns, whether the article be used or not; though they are rather less obviously such without it, and therefore the change is for the worse.

OBS. 14.--Lennie observes, "When a preposition"--(he should have said, When an other preposition--) "follows the participle, of is inadmissible; as, His depending on promises proved his ruin. His neglecting to study when young, rendered him ignorant all his life."--Prin. of E. Gram., 5th Ed., p. 65; 13th Ed., 91. Here on and to, of course, exclude of; but the latter may be changed to of, which will turn the infinitive into a noun: as, "His neglecting of study," &c. "Depending" and "neglecting," being equivalent to dependence and neglect, are participial nouns, and not "participles." Professor Bullions, too, has the same faulty remark, examples and all; (for his book, of the same title, is little else than a gross plagiarism from Lennie's;) though he here forgets his other erroneous doctrines, that, "A preposition should never be used before the infinitive," and that, "Active verbs do not admit a preposition after them." See Bullions's Prin. of E. Gram., pp. 91, 92, and 107.

OBS. 15.--The participle in ing is, on many occasions, equivalent to the infinitive verb, so that the speaker or writer may adopt either, just as he pleases: as, "So their gerunds are sometimes found having [or to have] an absolute or apparently neuter signification."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 234. "With tears that ceas'd not flowing" [or to flow].--Milton. "I would willingly have him producing [produce, or to produce] his credentials."--Barclay's Works, iii, 273. There are also instances, and according to my notion not a few, in which the one is put improperly for the other. The participle however is erroneously used for the infinitive much oftener than the infinitive for the participle. The lawful uses of both are exceedingly numerous; though the syntax of the participle, strictly speaking, does not include its various conversions into other parts of speech. The principal instances of regular equivalence between infinitives and participles, may be reduced to the following heads:

1. After the verbs see, hear, and feel, the participle in ing, relating to the objective, is often equivalent to the infinitive governed by the verb; as, "I saw him running"--"I heard it howling."--W. Allen. "I feel the wind blowing." Here the verbs, run, howl, and blow, might be substituted. 2. After intransitive verbs signifying to begin or to continue, the participle in ing, relating to the nominative, may be used in stead of the infinitive connected to the verb; as, "The ass began galloping with all his might."--Sandford and Merton. "It commenced raining very hard."--Silliman. "The steamboats commenced running on Saturday."--Daily Advertiser. "It is now above three years since he began printing."--Dr. Adam's Pref. to Rom. Antiq. "So when they continued asking him."--John, viii, 7. Greek, "[Greek: Os epemenon erotontes auton.]" Latin, "Cum ergo perseverarent interrogantes eum."--Vulgate. "Cùm autem perseverarent eum interrogare."--Beza. "Then shall ye continue following the Lord your God."--1 Sam., xii, 14. "Eritis sequentes Dominum Deum vestrum."--Vulgate. "As she continued praying before the Lord."--1 Sam., i, 12. "Cùm ilia multiplicaret preces coram Domino."--Vulgate. "And they went on beating down one an other."--2 Sam., xiv, 16. "Make the members of them go on rising and growing in their importance."--Blair's Rhet., p. 116. "Why do you keep teasing me?"

3. After for, in, of, or to, and perhaps some other prepositions, the participle may in most cases be varied by the infinitive, which is governed by to only; as, "We are better fitted for receiving the tenets and obeying the precepts of that faith which will make us wise unto salvation."--West's Letters, p. 51. That is--"to receive the tenets and obey the precepts." "Men fit for fighting, practised in fighting, proud of fighting, accustomed to fighting."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 172. That is, "fit to fight," &c. "What is the right path, few take the trouble of inquiring."--Murray's Key, 8vo. ii, 235. Better, perhaps:--"few take the trouble to inquire."

OBS. 16.--One of our best grammarians says, "The infinitive, in the following sentences, should be exchanged for the participle: 'I am weary to bear them.' Is. i, 14. 'Hast thou, spirit, perform'd to point the tempest?' Shak."--Allen's Gram., p. 172. This suggestion implies, that the participle would be here not only equivalent to the infinitive in sense, but better in expression. It is true, the preposition to does not well express the relation between weary and bear; and, doubtless, some regard should be had to the meaning of this particle, whenever it is any thing more than an index of the mood. But the critic ought to have told us how he would make these corrections. For in neither case does the participle alone appear to be a fit substitute for the infinitive, either with or without the to; and the latter text will scarcely bear the participle at all, unless we change the former verb; as, "Hast thou, spirit, done pointing the tempest?" The true meaning of the other example seems somewhat uncertain. The Vulgate has it, "Laboravi sustinens," "I have laboured bearing them;" the French Bible, "Je suis las de les souffrir," "I am tired of bearing them;" the Septuagint, "[Greek: Ouketi anæso tas hamartias humon,]" "I will no more forgive your sins."

OBS. 17.--In the following text, the infinitive is used improperly, nor would the participle in its stead make pure English: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me."--Ps. 1. 8. According to the French version, "to have been" should be "which are;" but the Septuagint and the Vulgate take the preceding noun for the nominative, thus: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, but thy burnt-offerings are continually before me."

OBS. 18.--As the preposition to before the infinitive shows the latter to be "that towards which the preceding verb is directed," verbs of desisting, omitting, preventing, and avoiding, are generally found to take the participle after them, and not the infinitive; because, in such instances, the direction of effort seems not to be so properly to, or towards, as from the action.[419] Where the preposition from is inserted, (as it most commonly is, after some of these verbs.) there is no irregularity in the construction of the participle; but where the participle immediately follows the verb, it is perhaps questionable whether it ought to be considered the object of the verb, or a mere participle relating to the nominative which precedes. If we suppose the latter, the participle may be parsed by the common rule; if the former, it must be referred to the third exception above. For example:

1. After verbs of DESISTING; as, "The Cryer used to proclaim, DIXERUNT, i. e. They have done speaking."--Harris's Hermes, p. 132. "A friend is advised to put off making love to Lalage."--Philological Museum, i, 446. "He forbore doing so, on the ground of expediency."--The Friend, iv, 35. "And yet architects never give over attempting to reconcile these two incompatibles."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 338. "Never to give over seeking and praying for it."--N. Y. Observer. "Do not leave off seeking."--President Edwards. "Then Satan hath done flattering and comforting."--Baxter. "The princes refrained talking."--Job, xxix, 9. "Principes cessabant loqui."--Vulgate. Here it would be better to say, "The princes refrained from talking." But Murray says, "From seems to be superfluous after forbear: as, 'He could not forbear from appointing the pope,' &c."--Octavo Gram., p. 203. But "forbear to appoint" would be a better correction; for this verb is often followed by the infinitive; as, "Forbear to insinuate."--West's Letters, p. 62. "And he forbare to go forth."--1 Sam., xxiii, 13. The reader will observe, that, "never to give over" or "not to leave off," is in fact the same thing as to continue; and I have shown by the analogy of other languages, that after verbs of continuing the participle is not an object of government; though possibly it may be so, in these instances, which are somewhat different. 2. After verbs of OMITTING; as, "He omits giving an account of them."--Tooke's Diversions of Purley, i, 251. I question the propriety of this construction; and yet, "omits to give" seems still more objectionable. Better, "He omits all account of them." Or, "He neglects to give, or forbears to give, any account of them." L. Murray twice speaks of apologizing, "for the use he has made of his predecessors' labours, and for omitting to insert their names."--Octavo Gram., Pref., p. vii; and Note, p. 73. The phrase, "omitting to insert," appears to me a downright solecism; and the pronoun their is ambiguous, because there are well-known names both for the men and for their labours, and he ought not to have omitted either species wholly, as he did. "Yet they absolutely refuse doing so, one with another."--Harris's Hermes, p. 264. Better, "refuse to do so." "I had as repeatedly declined going."--Leigh Hunt's Byron, p. 15.

3. After verbs of PREVENTING; as, "Our sex are happily prevented from engaging in these turbulent scenes."--West's Letters to a Lady, p. 74. "To prevent our frail natures from deviating into bye paths [write by-paths] of error."--Ib., p. 100. "Prudence, prevents our speaking or acting improperly."--Blair's Rhet., p. 99; Murray's Gram., p. 303; Jamieson's Rhet., p. 72. This construction, though very common, is palpably wrong: because its most natural interpretation is, "Prudence improperly prevents our speech or action." These critics ought to have known enough to say, "Prudence prevents us from speaking or acting improperly." "This, however, doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from singing."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 70. Here the infinitive is used, merely because it does not sound well to say, "from borrowing from singing;" but the expression might very well be changed thus, "from being indebted to singing." "'This by no means hinders the book to be a useful one.'--Geddes. It should be, 'from being.'"--Churchill's Gram., p. 318.

4. After verbs of AVOIDING: as, "He might have avoided treating of the origin of ideas."--Tooke's Diversions, i, 28. "We may avoid talking nonsense on these subjects."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 281. "But carefully avoid being at any time ostentatious and affected."--Blair's Rhet., p. 233. "Here I cannot avoid mentioning[420] the assistance I have received."--Churchill's Gram., p. iv. "It is our duty to avoid leading others into temptation,"--West's Letters, p. 33. "Nay, such a garden should in some measure avoid imitating nature."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 251. "I can promise no entertainment to those who shun thinking."--Ib., i, 36. "We cannot help being of opinion."--ENCYC. BRIT. Murray's Gram., p. 76. "I cannot help being of opinion."--Blair's Rhet., p. 311. "I cannot help mentioning here one character more."--Hughes. Spect., No. 554. "These would sometimes very narrowly miss being catched away."--Steele. "Carleton very narrowly escaped being taken."--Grimshaw's Hist., p. 111. Better, "escaped from being taken;"--or, "escaped capture."

OBS. 19.--In sentences like the following, the participle seems to be improperly made the object of the verb: "I intend doing it."--"I remember meeting him." Better, "I intend to do it."--"I remember to have met him." According to my notion, it is an error to suppose that verbs in general may govern participles. If there are any proper instances of such government, they would seem to be chiefly among verbs of quitting or avoiding. And even here the analogy of General Grammar gives countenance to a different solution; as, "They left beating of Paul."--Acts, xxi, 32. Better, "They left beating Paul;"--or, "They quit beating Paul." Greek, "[Greek: Epausanto tuptontes ton Paulon.]" Latin, "Cessaverunt percutientes Paulum."--Montanus. "Cessarunt coedere Paulum."--Beza. "Cessaverunt percutere Paulum."--Vulgate. It is true, the English participle in ing differs in some respects from that which usually corresponds to it in Latin or Greek; it has more of a substantive character, and is commonly put for the Latin gerund. If this difference does not destroy the argument from analogy, the opinion is still just, that left and quit are here intransitive, and that the participle beating relates to the pronoun they. Such is unequivocally the construction of the Greek text, and also of the literal Latin of Arias Montanus. But, to the mere English grammarian, this method of parsing will not be apt to suggest itself: because, at first sight, the verbs appear to be transitive, and the participle in ing has nothing to prove it an adjunct of the nominative, and not the object of the verb--unless, indeed, the mere fact that it is a participle, is proof of this.

OBS. 20.--Our great Compiler, Murray, not understanding this construction, or not observing what verbs admit of it, or require it, has very unskillfully laid it down as a rule, that, "The participle with its adjuncts, may be considered as a substantive phrase in the objective case, governed by the preposition or verb, expressed or understood: as, 'By promising much and performing but little, we become despicable.' 'He studied to avoid expressing himself too severely.'"--Octavo Gram., p. 194.[421] This very popular author seems never to have known that participles, as such, may be governed in English by prepositions. And yet he knew, and said, that "prepositions do not, like articles and pronouns, convert the participle itself into the nature of a substantive."--Ibid. This he avouches in the same breath in which he gives that "nature" to a participle and its adverb! For, by a false comma after much, he cuts his first "substantive phrase" absurdly in two; and doubtless supposes a false ellipsis of by before the participle performing. Of his method of resolving the second example, some notice has already been taken, in Observations 4th and 5th on Rule 5th. Though he pretends that the whole phrase is in the objective case, "the truth is, the assertion grammatically affects the first word only;" which in one aspect he regards as a noun, and in an other as a participle: whereas he himself, on the preceding page, had adopted from Lowth a different doctrine, and cautioned the learner against treating words in ing, "as if they were of an amphibious species, partly nouns and partly verbs;" that is, "partly nouns and partly participles;" for, according to Murray, Lowth, and many others, participles are verbs. The term, "substantive phrase," itself a solecism, was invented merely to cloak this otherwise bald inconsistency. Copying Lowth again, the great Compiler defines a phrase to be "two or more words rightly put together;" and, surely, if we have a well-digested system of grammar, whatsoever words are rightly put together, may be regularly parsed by it. But how can one indivisible word be consistently made two different parts of speech at once? And is not this the situation of every transitive participle that is made either the subject or the object of a verb? Adjuncts never alter either the nature or the construction of the words on which they depend; and participial nouns differ from participles in both. The former express actions as things; the latter generally attribute them to their agents or recipients.

OBS. 21.--The Latin gerund is "a kind of verbal noun, partaking of the nature of a participle."--Webster's Dict. "A gerund is a participial noun, of the neuter gender, and singular-number, declinable like a substantive, having no vocative, construed like a substantive, and governing the case of its verb."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 70. In the Latin gerund thus defined, there is an appearance of ancient classical authority for that "amphibious species" of words of which so much notice has already been taken. Our participle in ing, when governed by a preposition, undoubtedly corresponds very nearly, both in sense and construction, to this Latin gerund; the principal difference being, that the one is declined, like a noun, and the other is not. The analogy, however, is but lamely maintained, when we come to those irregular constructions in which the participle is made a half-noun in English. It is true, the gerund of the nominative case may be made the subject of a verb in Latin; but we do not translate it by the English participle, but rather by the infinitive, or still oftener by the verb with the auxiliary must: as, "Vivendum est mihi rectè, I must live well."--Grant's L. Gram., p. 232. This is better English than the nearer version, "Living correctly is necessary for me;" and the exact imitation, "Living is to me correctly," is nonsense. Nor does the Latin gerund often govern the genitive like a noun, or ever stand as the direct object of a transitive verb, except in some few doubtful instances about which the grammarians dispute. For, in fact, to explain this species of words, has puzzled the Latin grammarians about as much as the English; though the former do not appear to have fallen into those palpable self-contradictions which embarrass the instructions of the latter.

OBS. 22.--Dr. Adam says, "The gerund in English becomes a substantive, by prefixing the article to it, and then it is always to be construed with the preposition of; as, 'He is employed in writing letters,' or, 'in the writing of letters:' but it is improper to say, 'in the writing letters,' or, 'in writing of letters.'"--Latin and English Gram., p. 184. This doctrine is also taught by Lowth, Priestley, Murray, Comly, Chandler, and many others; most of whom extend the principle to all participles that govern the possessive case; and they might as well have added all such as are made either the subjects or the objects of verbs, and such as are put for nominatives after verbs neuter. But Crombie, Allen, Churchill, S. S. Greene, Hiley, Wells, Weld, and some others, teach that participles may perform these several offices of a substantive, without dropping the regimen and adjuncts of participles. This doctrine, too, Murray and his copyists absurdly endeavour to reconcile with the other, by resorting to the idle fiction of "substantive phrases" endued with all these powers: as, "His being at enmity with Cæsar was the cause of perpetual discord."--Crombie's Treatise, p. 237; Churchill's Gram., p. 141. "Another fault is allowing it to supersede the use of a point."-- Churchill's Gram., p. 372. "To be sure there is a possibility of some ignorant reader's confounding the two vowels in pronunciation."--Ib., p. 375. It is much better to avoid all such English as this. Say, rather, "His enmity with Cæsar was the cause of perpetual discord."--"An other fault is the allowing of it to supersede the use of a point."--"To be sure, there is a possibility that some ignorant reader may confound the two vowels, in pronunciation."

OBS. 23.--In French, the infinitive is governed by several different prepositions, and the gerundive by one only, the preposition en,--which, however, is sometimes suppressed; as, "en passant, en faisant,--il alloit courant."--Traité des Participes, p. 2. In English, the gerundive is governed by several different prepositions, and the infinitive by one only, the preposition to,--which, in like manner, is sometimes suppressed; as, "to pass, to do,--I saw him run." The difficulties in the syntax of the French participle in ant, which corresponds to ours in ing, are apparently as great in themselves, as those which the syntax of the English word presents; but they result from entirely different causes, and chiefly from the liability there is of confounding the participle with the verbal adjective, which is formed from it. The confounding of it with the gerundive is now, in either language, of little or no consequence, since in modern French, as well as in English, both are indeclinable. For this reason, I have framed the syntactical rule for participles so as to include under that name the gerund, or gerundive, which is a participle governed by a preposition. The great difficulty with us, is, to determine whether the participle ought, or ought not, to be allowed to assume other characteristics of a noun, without dropping those of a participle, and without becoming wholly a noun. The liability of confounding the English participle with the verbal or participial adjective, amounts to nothing more than the occasional misnaming of a word in parsing; or perhaps an occasional ambiguity in the style of some writer, as in the following citation: "I am resolved, 'let the newspapers say what they please of canvassing beauties, haranguing toasts, and mobbing demireps,' not to believe one syllable."--Jane West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 74. From these words, it is scarcely possible to find out, even with the help of the context whether these three sorts of ladies are spoken of as the canvassers, haranguers, and mobbers, or as being canvassed, harangued, and mobbed. If the prolixity and multiplicity of these observations transcend the reader's patience, let him consider that the questions at issue cannot be settled by the brief enunciation of loose individual opinions, but must be examined in the light of all the analogies and facts that bear upon them. So considerable are the difficulties of properly distinguishing the participle from the verbal adjective in French, that that indefatigable grammarian, Girault Du Vivier, after completing his Grammaire des Grammaires in two large octavo volumes, thought proper to enlarge his instructions on this head, and to publish them in a separate book, (Traité des Participes,) though we have it on his own authority, that the rule for participles had already given rise to a greater number of dissertations and particular treatises than any other point in French grammar.

OBS. 24.--A participle construed after the nominative or the objective case, is not in general equivalent to a verbal noun governing the possessive. There is sometimes a nice distinction to be observed in the application of these two constructions. For the leading word in sense, should not be made the adjunct in construction. The following sentences exhibit a disregard to this principle, and are both inaccurate: "He felt his strength's declining."--"He was sensible of his strength declining." In the former sentence, the noun strength should be in the objective case, governed by felt; and in the latter, it should rather be in the possessive, governed by declining. Thus: "He felt his strength declining;" i.e., "felt it decline."--"He was sensible of his strength's declining;" i.e., "of its decline." These two sentences state the same fact, but, in construction, they are very different; nor does it appear, that where there is no difference of meaning, the two constructions are properly interchangeable. This point has already been briefly noticed in Obs. 12th and 13th on Rule 4th. But the false and discordant instructions which our grammarians deliver respecting possessives before participles; their strange neglect of this plain principle of reason, that the leading word in sense ought to be made the leading or governing word in the construction; and the difficulties which they and other writers are continually falling into, by talking their choice between two errors, in stead of avoiding both: these, as well as their suggestions of sameness or difference of import between the participle and the participial noun, require some farther extension of my observations in this place.

OBS. 25.--Upon the classification of words, as parts of speech, distinguished according to their natures and uses, depends the whole scheme of grammatical science. And it is plain, that a bad distribution, or a confounding of such things as ought to be separated, must necessarily be attended with inconveniences to the student, for which no skill or learning in the expounder of such a system can ever compensate. The absurdity of supposing with Horne Tooke, that the same word can never be used so differently as to belong to different parts of speech, I have already alluded to more than once. The absolute necessity of classing words, not according to their derivation merely, but rather according to their sense and construction, is too evident to require any proof. Yet, different as are the natures and the uses of verbs, participles, and nouns, it is no uncommon thing to find these three parts of speech confounded together; and that too to a very great extent, and by some of our very best grammarians, without even an attempt on their part to distinguish them. For instances of this glaring fault and perplexing inconsistency, the reader may turn to the books of W. Allen and T. O. Churchill, two of the best authors that have ever written on English grammar. Of the participle the latter gives no formal definition, but he represents it as "a form, in which the action denoted by the verb is capable of being joined to a noun as its quality, or accident."--Churchill's New Gram., p. 85. Again he says, "That the participle is a mere mode of the verb is manifest, if our definition of a verb be admitted."--Ib., p. 242. While he thus identifies the participle with the verb, this author scruples not to make what he calls the imperfect participle perform all the offices of a noun: saying, "Frequently too it is used as a noun, admits a preposition or an article before it, becomes a plural by taking s at the end, and governs a possessive case: as, 'He who has the comings in of a prince, may be ruined by his own gaming, or his wife's squandering.'"--Ib., p. 144. The plural here exhibited, if rightly written, would have the s, not at the end, but in the middle; for comings-in, (an obsolete expression for revenues,) is not two words, but one. Nor are gaming and squandering, to be here called participles, but nouns. Yet, among all his rules and annotations, I do not find that Churchill any where teaches that participles become nouns when they are used substantively. The following example he exhibits for the express purpose of showing that the nominatives to "is" and "may be" are not nouns, but participles: "Walking is the best exercise, though riding may be more pleasant."--Ib., p. 141. And, what is far worse, though his book is professedly an amplification of Lowth's brief grammar, he so completely annuls the advice of Lowth concerning the distinguishing of participles from participial nouns, that he not only misnames the latter when they are used correctly, but approves and adopts well-nigh all the various forms of error, with which the mixed and irregular construction of participles has filled our language: of these forms, there are, I think, not fewer than a dozen.

OBS. 26.--Allen's account of the participle is no better than Churchill's--and no worse than what the reader may find in many an English Grammar now in use. This author's fault is not so much a lack of learning or of comprehension, as of order and discrimination. We see in him, that it is possible for a man to be well acquainted with English authors, ancient as well as modern, and to read Greek and Latin, French and Saxon, and yet to falter miserably in describing the nature and uses of the English participle. Like many others, he does not acknowledge this sort of words to be one of the parts of speech; but commences his account of it by the following absurdity: "The participles are adjectives derived from the verb; as, pursuing, pursued, having pursued."--Elements of E. Gram., p. 62. This definition not only confounds the participle with the participial adjective, but merges the whole of the former species in a part of speech of which he had not even recognized the latter as a subdivision: "An adjective shows the quality of a thing. Adjectives may be reduced to five classes: 1. Common--2. Proper--3. Numeral--4. Pronominal--5. Compound."--Ib., p. 47. Now, if "participles are adjectives," to which of these five classes do they belong? But there are participial or verbal adjectives, very many; a sixth class, without which this distribution is false and incomplete: as, "a loving father; an approved copy." The participle differs from these, as much as it does from a noun. But says our author, "Participles, as simple adjectives, belong to a noun; as, a loving father; an approved copy;--as parts of the verb, they have the same government as their verbs have; as, his father, recalling the pleasures of past years, joined their party."--Ib., p. 170. What confusion is this! a complete jumble of adjectives, participles, and "parts of verbs!" Again: "Present participles are often construed as substantives; as, early rising is conducive to health; I like writing; we depend on seeing you."--Ib., p. 171. Here rising and writing are nouns; but seeing is a participle, because it is active and governs you, Compare this second jumble with the definition above. Again he proceeds: "To participles thus used, many of our best authors prefix the article; as, 'The being chosen did not prevent disorderly behaviour.' Bp. Tomline. 'The not knowing how to pass our vacant hours.' Seed."--Ib., p. 171. These examples I take to be bad English. Say rather, "The state of election did not prevent disorderly behaviour."--"The want of some entertainment for our vacant hours." The author again proceeds: "If a noun limits the meaning of a participle thus used, that noun is put in the genitive; as, your father's coming was unexected."--Ib., p. 171. Here coming is a noun, and no participle at all. But the author has a marginal note, "A possessive pronoun is equivalent to a genitive;" (ibid.;) and he means to approve of possessives before active participles: as, "Some of these irregularities arise from our having received the words through a French medium."--Ib., p. 116. This brings us again to that difficult and apparently unresolvable problem, whether participles as such, by virtue of their mixed gerundive character, can, or cannot, govern the possessive case; a question, about which, the more a man examines it, the more he may doubt.

OBS. 27.--But, before we say any thing more about the government of this case, let us look at our author's next paragraph on participles: "An active participle, preceded by an article or by a genitive, is elegantly followed by the preposition of, before the substantive which follows it; as, the compiling of that book occupied several years; his quitting of the army was unexpected."--Allen's Gram., p. 171. Here the participial nouns compiling and quitting are improperly called active participles, from which they are certainly as fairly distinguished by the construction, as they can be by any means whatever. And this complete distinction the author considers at least an elegance, if not an absolute requisite, in English composition. And he immediately adds: "When this construction produces ambiguity, the expression must be varied."--Ib., p. 171. This suggestion is left without illustration; but it doubtless refers to one of Murray's remarks, in which it is said: "A phrase in which the article precedes the present participle and the possessive preposition follows it, will not, in every instance, convey the same meaning as would be conveyed by the participle without the article and preposition. 'He expressed the pleasure he had in the hearing of the philosopher,' is capable of a different sense from, 'He expressed the pleasure he had in hearing the philosopher.'"--Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 193; R. C. Smith's Gram., 161; Ingersoll's, 199; and others. Here may be seen a manifest difference between the verbal or participial noun, and the participle or gerund; but Murray, in both instances, absurdly calls the word hearing a "present participle;" and, having robbed the former sentence of a needful comma, still more absurdly supposes it ambiguous: whereas the phrase, "in the hearing of the philosopher," means only, "in the philosopher's hearing;" and not, "in hearing the philosopher," or, "in hearing of the philosopher." But the true question is, would it be right to say, "He expressed the pleasure he had in the philosopher's hearing him?" For here it would be equivocal to say, "in the philosopher's hearing of him;" and some aver, that of would be wrong, in any such instance, even if the sense were clear. But let us recur to the mixed example from Allen, and compare it with his own doctrines. To say, "from our having received of the words through a French medium," would certainly be no elegance; and if it be not an ambiguity, it is something worse. The expression, then, "must be varied." But varied how? Is it right without the of, though contrary to the author's rule for elegance?

OBS. 28.--The observations which have been made on this point, under the rule for the possessive case, while they show, to some extent, the inconsistencies in doctrine, and the improprieties of practice, into which the difficulties of the mixed participle have betrayed some of our principal grammarians, bring likewise the weight of much authority and reason against the custom of blending without distinction the characteristics of nouns and participles in the same word or words; but still they may not be thought sufficient to prove this custom to be altogether wrong; nor do they pretend to have fully established the dogma, that such a construction is in no instance admissible. They show, however, that possessives before participles are seldom to be approved; and perhaps, in the present instance, the meaning might be quite as well expressed by a common substantive, or the regular participial noun: as, "Some of these irregularities arise from our reception of the words--or our receiving of the words--through a French medium." But there are some examples which it is not easy to amend, either in this way, or in any other; as, "The miscarriages of youth have very much proceeded from their being imprudently indulged, or left to themselves."--Friends' N. E. Discipline, p. 13. And there are instances too, of a similar character, in which the possessive case cannot be used. For example: "Nobody will doubt of this being a sufficient proof."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 66. "But instead of this being the fact of the case, &c."--Butlers Analogy, p. 137. "There is express historical or traditional evidence, as ancient as history, of the system of religion being taught mankind by revelation."--Ibid. "From things in it appearing to men foolishness."--Ib., p. 175. "As to the consistency of the members of our society joining themselves to those called free-masons."--N. E. Discip., p. 51. "In either of these cases happening, the person charging is at liberty to bring the matter before the church, who are the only judges now remaining."--Ib., p. 36; Extracts, p. 57. "Deriving its efficacy from the power of God fulfilling his purpose."--Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 235. "We have no idea of any certain portion of time intervening between the time of the action and the time of speaking of it."--Priestley's Gram., p. 33: Murray's, i, 70; Emmons's, 41; and others. The following example therefore, however the participle may seem to be the leading word in sense, is unquestionably wrong; and that in more respects than one: "The reason and time of the Son of God's becoming man."--Brown's Divinity, p. xxii. Many writers would here be satisfied with merely omitting the possessive sign; as does Churchill, in the following example: "The chief cause of this appears to me to lie in grammarians having considered them solely as the signs of tense."--New Gram., p. 243. But this sort of construction, too, whenever the noun before the participle is not the leading word in sense, is ungrammatical. In stead, therefore, of stickling for choice between two such errors, we ought to adopt some better expression; as, "The reason and time of the Saviour's incarnation."--"The chief cause of this appears to me to be, that grammarians have considered them solely as signs of tense."

OBS. 29.--It is certain that the noun or pronoun which "limits the meaning of a participle," cannot always be "put in the genitive" or possessive case; for the sense intended sometimes positively forbids such a construction, and requires the objective: as, "A syllable consists of one or more letters forming one sound."--Allen's Gram., p. 29. The word representing or denoting would here be better than forming, because the letters do not, strictly speaking, form the sound. But chiefly let it be noticed, that the word letters could not with any propriety have been put in the possessive case. Nor is it always necessary or proper, to prefer that case, where the sense may be supposed to admit it; as, "'The example which Mr. Seyer has adduced, of the gerund governing the genitive of the agent.' Dr. Crombie."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 237. "Which possibly might have been prevented by parents doing their duty."--N. E. Discipline, p. 187. "As to the seeming contradiction of One being Three, and Three One."--Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 113. "You have watched them climbing from chair to chair."--PIERPONT: Liberator, Vol. x, p. 22. "Whether the world came into being as it is, by an intelligent Agent forming it thus, or not."--Butler's Analogy, p. 129. "In the farther supposition of necessary agents being thus rewarded and punished."--Ib., p. 140. "He grievously punished the Israelites murmuring for want of water."--Leslie, on Tythes, p. 21. Here too the words, gerund, parents, One, Three, them, Agent, agents, and Israelites, are rightly put in the objective case; yet doubtless some will think, though I do not, that they might as well have been put in the possessive. Respectable writers sometimes use the latter case, where the former would convey the same meaning, and be more regular; as, "Which is used, as active verbs often are, without its regimen's being expressed."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 302. Omit the apostrophe and s; and, if you please, the word being also. "The daily instances of men's dying around us."--Butler's Analogy, p. 113. Say rather,--"of men dying around us." "To prevent our rashly engaging in arduous or dangerous enterprises."--Brown's Divinity, p. 17. Say, "To prevent us from," &c. The following example is manifestly inconsistent with itself; and, in my opinion, the three possessives are all wrong: "The kitchen too now begins to give 'dreadful note of preparation;' not from armourers accomplishing the knights, but from the shop maid's chopping force meat, the apprentice's cleaning knives, and the journeyman's receiving a practical lesson in the art of waiting at table."--West's Letters to a Lady, p. 66. It should be--"not from armorers accomplishing the knights, but from the shopmaid chopping forcemeat, the apprentice cleaning knives, and the journeyman receiving," &c. The nouns are the principal words, and the participles are adjuncts. They might be separated by commas, if semicolons were put where the commas now are.

OBS. 30.--Our authors, good and bad, critics and no critics, with few exceptions, write sometimes the objective case before the participle, and sometimes the possessive, under precisely the same circumstances; as, "We should, presently, be sensible of the melody suffering."--Blair's Rhet., p. 122. "We should, presently, be sensible of the melody's suffering."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 327. "We shall presently be sensible of the melody suffering."--Murray's Exercises, 8vo, p. 60. "We shall presently be sensible of the melody's suffering."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 195. "And I explain what is meant by the nominative case governing the verb, and by the verb agreeing with its nominative case."--Rand's Gram., p. 31. "Take the verb study, and speak of John's studying his lesson, at different times."--Ib., p. 53. "The following are examples of the nominative case being used instead of the objective."--J. M. Putnam's Gram., p. 112. "The following are examples of an adverb's qualifying a whole sentence."--Ib., p. 128. "Where the noun is the name of a person, the cases may also be distinguished by the nominative's answering to WHO, and the objective to WHOM."--Hart's Gram., p. 46. "This depends chiefly on their being more or less emphatic; and on the vowel sound being long or short."--Churchill's Gram., p. 182. "When they speak of a monosyllable having the grave or the acute accent."--Walker's Key, p. 328. Here some would erroneously prefer the possessive case before "having;" but, if any amendment can be effected it is only by inserting as there. "The event of Maria's loving her brother."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 55. "Between that and the man being on it."--Ib., p. 59. "The fact of James placing himself."--Ib., p. 166. "The event of the persons' going."--Ib., p. 165. Here persons' is carelessly put for person's, i.e., James's: the author was parsing the puerile text, "James went into a store and placed himself beside Horatio."--Ib., p. 164. And I may observe, in passing, that Murray and Blair are both wrong in using commas with the adverb presently above.

OBS. 31.--It would be easy to fill a page with instances of these two cases, the objective and the possessive, used, as I may say, indiscriminately; nor is there any other principle by which we can determine which of them is right, or which preferable, than that the leading word in sense ought not to be made the adjunct in the construction, and that the participle, if it remain such, ought rather to relate to its noun, as being the adjunct, than to govern it in the possessive, as being the principal term. To what extent either of these cases may properly be used before the participle, or in what instances either of them may be preferable to the other, it is not very easy to determine. Both are used a great deal too often, filling with blemishes the style of many authors: the possessive, because the participle is not the name of any thing that can be possessed; the objective, because no construction can be right in which the relation of the terms is not formed according to the sense. The former usage I have already criticised to a great extent. Let one example suffice here: "There can be no objection to a syllable's being long, on the ground of its not being so long, or so much protracted, as some other long syllables are."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 242. Some would here prefer syllable to syllable's, but none would be apt to put it for its, without some other change. The sentence may be amended thus: "There can be no objection to a syllable as being long, on the ground that it is not so long as some other syllables."

OBS. 32.--It should be observed, that the use of as between the participle and the noun is very often better than either the adoption of the possessive sign, or the immediate connexion of the two words; as, "Another point constantly brought into the investigation now, is that of military success as forming a claim to civil position."--Boston Daily Advertiser. Concerning examples like the following, it may be questioned, whether the objective is proper or not; whether the possessive would be preferable or not; or whether a better construction than either may not be found: "There is scarce an instance of any one being chosen for a pattern."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 338. "Instead of its authenticity being shaken, it has been rendered more sure than ever."-- West's Letters, p. 197. "When there is no longer a possibility of a proper candidate being nominated by either party."--Liberator, Vol. x. p. 9. "On the first stone being thrown, it was returned by a fire of musketry."--Ib., p. 16. "To raise a cry about an innocent person being circumvented by bribery."--Blair's Rhet., p. 276. "Whose principles forbid them taking part in the administration of the government."-- Liberator, Vol. x, p. 15. "It can have no other ground than some such imagination, as that of our gross bodies being ourselves."--Butler's Analogy, p. 150. "In consequence of this revelation being made."--Ib., p. 162. If such relations between the participle and the objective be disapproved, the substitution of the possessive case is liable to still stronger objections; but both may be avoided, by the use of the nominative or otherwise: thus, "Scarcely is any one ever chosen for a pattern."-- "Its authenticity, in stead of being shaken, has been rendered more sure than ever."--"When there is no longer a possibility that a proper candidate will be nominated by either party."--"As soon as the first stone was thrown, there was returned a fire of musketry."--"To raise a cry, as if an innocent person had been circumvented by bribery."-- "Whose principles forbid them to take part in the administration of the government."--"It can have no other ground than some such imagination, as that our gross bodies are ourselves."--"In consequence of this revelation which is made."

OBS. 33.--A recent grammarian quotes Dr. Crombie thus: "Some late writers have discarded a phraseology which appears unobjectionable, and substituted one that seems less correct; and instead of saying, 'Lady Macbeth's walking in her sleep is an incident full of tragic horror,' would say, 'Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep is an incident full of tragic horror.' This seems to me an idle affectation of the Latin idiom, less precise than the common mode of expression, and less consonant with the genius of our language; for, ask what was an incident full of tragic horror, and, according to this phraseology, the answer must be, Lady Macbeth; whereas the meaning is, not that Lady Macbeth, but her walking in her sleep, is an incident full of tragic horror. This phraseology also, in many instances, conveys not the intended idea; for, as Priestley remarks, if it is said, 'What think you of my horse's running to-day?' it is implied that the horse did actually run. If it is said, 'What think you of my horse running to-day?' it is intended to ask whether it be proper for my horse to run to-day. This distinction, though frequently neglected, deserves attention; for it is obvious that ambiguity may arise from using the latter only of these phraseologies to express both meanings."-- Maunder's Compendious Eng. Gram., p. 15. (See Crombie's Treatise, p. 288-290.) To this, before any comment is offered, let me add an other quotation: "RULE. A noun before the present participle is put in the possessive case; as, Much will depend on the pupil's composing frequently. Sometimes, however, the sense forbids it to be put in the possessive case; thus, What do you think of my horse running to-day? means, Do you think I should let him run? but, What do you think of my horse's running? means, he has run, do you think he ran well?"-- Lennie's Gram., p. 91; Brace's Gram., 94. See Bullions's Gram., p. 107; Hiley's, 94; Murray's, 8vo. 195: Ingersoll's, 201: and many others.

OBS. 34.--Any phraseology that conveys not the intended idea, or that involves such an absurdity as that of calling a lady an "incident" is doubtless sufficiently reprehensible; but, compared with a rule of grammar so ill-devised as to mislead the learner nine times in ten, an occasional ambiguity or solecism is a mere trifle. The word walking, preceded by a possessive and followed by a preposition, as above, is clearly a noun, and not a participle; but these authors probably intend to justify the use of possessives before participles, and even to hold all phraseology of this kind "unobjectionable." If such is not their design, they write as badly as they reason; and if it is, their doctrine is both false and inconsistent. That a verbal noun may govern the possessive case, is certainly no proof that a participle may do so too; and, if these parts of speech are to be kept distinct the latter position must be disallowed: each must "abide by its own construction," as says Lowth. But the practice which these authors speak of, as an innovation of "some late writers," and "an idle affectation of the Latin idiom," is in fact a practice as different from the blunder which they quote, or feign, as their just correction of that blunder is different from the thousand errors or irregularities which they intend to shelter under it. To call a lady an "incident," is just as far from any Latin idiom, as it is from good English; whereas the very thing which they thus object to at first, they afterwards approve in this text: "What think you of my horse running to-day?" This phraseology corresponds with "the Latin idiom;" and it is this, that, in fact, they begin with pronouncing to be "less correct" than, "What think you of my horse's running to-day?"

OBS. 35.--Between these expressions, too, they pretend to fix a distinction of signification; as, if "the horse's running to-day," must needs imply a past action, though, (they suppose,) "the pupil's composing frequently," or, "the horse running to-day," signifies a future one. This distinction of time is altogether imaginary; and the notion, that to prefer the possessive case before participles, is merely to withstand an error of "some late writers," is altogether false. The instructions above cited, therefore, determine nothing rightly, except the inaccuracy of one very uncommon form of expression. For, according to our best grammarians, the simple mode of correction there adopted will scarcely be found applicable to any other text. It will not be right where the participle happens to be transitive, or even where it is qualified by an adverb. From their subsequent examples, it is plain that these gentlemen think otherwise; but still, who can understand what they mean by "the common mode of expression?" What, for instance, would they substitute for the following very inaccurate expression from the critical belles-lettres of Dr. Blair? "A mother accusing her son, and accusing him of such actions, as having first bribed judges to condemn her husband, and having afterwards poisoned him, were circumstances that naturally raised strong prejudices against Cicero's client."--Blair's Lectures, p. 274. Would they say. "A mother's accusing her son, &c., were circumstances," &c.? Is this their "common mode of expression?" and if it is, do they not make "common" what is no better English than the Doctor's? If, to accuse a son, and to accuse him greatly, can be considered different circumstances of the same prosecution, the sentence may be corrected thus: "A mother's accusing of her son, and her charging of him with such actions, as those of having first bribed judges to condemn her husband, and having afterwards poisoned him, were circumstances that naturally raised strong prejudices against Cicero's client."

OBS. 36.--On several occasions, as in the tenth and twelfth observations on Rule 4th, and in certain parts of the present series, some notice has been taken of the equivalence or difference of meaning, real or supposed, between the construction of the possessive, and that of an other case, before the participle; or between the participial and the substantive use of words in ing. Dr. Priestley, to whom, as well as to Dr. Lowth, most of our grammarians are indebted for some of their doctrines respecting this sort of derivatives, pretends to distinguish them, both as constituting different parts of speech, and as conveying different meanings. In one place, he says, "When a word ending in ing is preceded by an article, it seems to be used as a noun; and therefore ought not to govern an other word, without the intervention of a preposition."--Priestley's Gram., p. 157. And in an other: "Many nouns are derived from verbs, and end in ing, like participles of the present tense. The difference between these nouns and participles is often overlooked, and the accurate distinction of the two senses not attended to. If I say, What think you of my horse's running to-day, I use the NOUN running, and suppose the horse to have actually run; for it is the same thing as if I had said, What think you of the running of my horse. But if I say, What think you of my horse running to-day, I use the PARTICIPLE, and I mean to ask, whether it be proper that my horse should run or not: which, therefore, supposes that he had not then run."--Ib., p. 122. Whatever our other critics say about the horse running or the horse's running, they have in general borrowed from Priestley, with whom the remark originated, as it here stands. It appears that Crombie, Murray, Maunder, Lennie, Bullions, Ingersoll, Barnard, Hiley, and others, approve the doctrine thus taught, or at least some part of it; though some of them, if not all, thereby contradict themselves.

ODS. 37.--By the two examples here contrasted, Priestley designed to establish a distinction, not for these texts only, but for all similar expressions--a distinction both of the noun from the participle, and of the different senses which he supposed these two constructions to exhibit. In all this, there is a complete failure. Yet with what remarkable ductility and implicitness do other professed critics take for granted what this superficial philologer so hastily prescribes! By acknowledging with reference to such an application of them, that the two constructions above are both good English, our grammarians do but the more puzzle their disciples respecting the choice between them; just as Priestley himself was puzzled, when he said, "So we may either say, I remember it being reckoned, a great exploit; or, perhaps more elegantly, I remember its being reckoned, &c."--Gram., p. 70. Murray and others omit this "perhaps," and while they allow both forms to be good, decidedly prefer the latter; but neither Priestley, nor any of the rest, ever pretended to discern in these a difference of signification, or even of parts of speech. For my part, in stead of approving either of these readings about the "great exploit," I have rejected both, for reasons which have already been given; and now as to the first two forms of the horserace question, so far as they may strictly be taken for models, I cannot but condemn them also, and for the same reasons: to which reasons may be joined the additional one, that neither expression is well adapted to the sense which the author himself gives to it in his interpretation. If the Doctor designed to ask, "Do you think my horse ran well to-day?" or, "Do you think it proper for my horse to run to-day?" he ought to have used one or the other of these unequivocal and unobjectionable expressions. There is in fact between the others, no such difference of meaning as he imagines; nor does he well distinguish "the NOUN running" from the PARTICIPLE runnning; because he apparently allows the word, in both instances, to be qualified by the adverb to-day.[422]

OBS. 38.--It is clear, that the participle in ing partakes sometimes the nature of its verb and an adjective; so that it relates to a noun, like an adjective, and yet implies time, and, if transitive, governs an object, like a verb: as, "Horses running a race." Hence, by dropping what here distinguishes it as a participle, the word may become an adjective, and stand before its noun; as, "A running brook." So, too, this participle sometimes partakes the nature of its verb and a noun; so that it may be governed by a preposition, like a noun, though in itself it has no cases or numbers, but is indeclinable: as "In running a race." Hence, again, by dropping what distinguishes it as a participle, it may become a noun; as, "Running is a safer sport than wrestling." Now, if to a participle we prefix something which makes it an adjective, we also take away its regimen, by inserting a preposition; as, "A doctrine _un_deserving of praise,"--"A man _un_compromising in his principles." So, if we put before it an article, an adjective, or a possessive, and thus give to the participle a substantive character or relation, there is reason to think, that we ought, in like manner, to take away its regimen, and its adverb too, if it have any, and be careful also to distinguish this noun from the participial adjective; as, "The running of a race,"--"No racing of horses,"--"Your deserving of praise."--"A man's compromising of his principles." With respect to the articles, or any adjectives, it seems now to be generally conceded, that these are signs of substantives; and that, if added to participles, they must cause them to be taken, in all respects, substantively. But with respect to possessives before participles, the common practice of our writers very extensively indulges the mixed construction of which I have said so much, and concerning the propriety of which, the opinions of our grammarians are so various, so confused, and so self-contradictory.

OBS. 39.--Though the participle with a nominative or an objective before it, is not in general, equivalent to the verbal noun or the mixed participle with a possessive before it; and though the significations of the two phrases are often so widely different as to make it palpably absurd to put either for the other; yet the instances are not few in which it makes little or no difference to the sense, which of the two forms we prefer, and therefore, in these instances, I would certainly choose the more simple and regular construction; or, where a better than either can readily be found, reject both. It is also proper to have some regard to the structure of other languages, and to the analogy of General Grammar. If there be "some late writers" who are chargeable with "an idle affectation of the Latin idiom," there are perhaps more who as idly affect what they suppose "consonant with the genius of our language." I allude to those who would prefer the possessive case in a text like the following: "Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar?"'--1 Kings, i, 41. "Quid sibi vult clamor civitatis tumultuantis?"--Vulgate. "[Greek: Gis hæ phonæ tæs poleos æchousæs];"--Septuagint. Literally: "What [means] the clamour of the city resounding?" "Que veut dire ce bruit de la ville qui est ainsi émue?"--French Bible. Literally: "What means this noise of the city which is so moved?" Better English: "What means this noise with which the city rings?" In the following example, there is a seeming imitation of the foregoing Latin or Greek construction; but it may well be doubted whether it would be any improvement to put the word "disciples" in the possessive case; nor is it easy to find a third form which would be better than these: "Their difficulties will not be increased by the intended disciples having ever resided in a Christian country."--West's Letters, p. 119.

OBS. 40.--It may be observed of these different relations between participles and other words, that nouns are much more apt to be put in the nominative or the objective case, than are pronouns. For example: "There is no more of moral principle in the way of abolitionists nominating their own candidates, than in that of their voting for those nominated by others."--GERRIT SMITH: Liberator, Vol. X, p. 17. Indeed, a pronoun of the nominative or the objective case is hardly ever used in such a relation, unless it be so obviously the leading word in sense, as to preclude all question about the construction.[423] And this fact seems to make it the more doubtful, whether it be proper to use nouns in that manner. But it may safely be held, that if the noun can well be considered the leading word in sense, we are at least under no necessity of subjecting it to the government of a mere participle. If it be thought desirable to vary the foregoing example, it may easily be done, thus: "There is no more of moral principle to prevent abolitionists from nominating their own candidates, than to prevent them from voting for those nominated by others." The following example is much like the preceding, but less justifiable: "We see comfort, security, strength, pleasure, wealth, and prosperity, all flowing from men combining together; and misery, weakness, and poverty, ensuing from their acting separately or in opposition to each other."--West's Letters, p. 133. Say rather,--"from men's combining-together," or, "from the just combination of men in society;" and,--"from their separate action, or their opposition to one an other." Take an other example: "If illorum be governed here of negotii, it must be in this order, gratia negotii illorum videndi; and this is, for the sake of their business being seen, and not, for the sake of them being seen."--Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, p. 352. Here the learned critic, in disputing Perizonius's resolution of the phrase, "illorum videndi gratiâ" has written disputable English. But, had he affected the Latin idiom, a nearer imitation of it would have been,--"for the sake of their business's being seen, and not for the sake of their being seen." Or nearer still,--"for the sake of seeing of their business, and not, for the sake of seeing of them." An elegant writer would be apt to avoid all these forms, and say,--"for the sake of seeing their business;" and,--"for the sake of seeing them;" though the former phrase, being but a version of bad Latin, makes no very good sense in any way.

OBS. 41.--Idioms, or peculiarities of expression, are never to be approved or valued, but according to their convenience, utility, or elegance. By this rule, some phrases that are not positively barbarous, may yet be ungrammatical, and a construction that is sometimes allowable, may yet be quite unworthy to be made or reckoned, "the common mode of expression." Thus, in Latin, the infinitive verb is occasionally put for a noun, and taken to signify a property possessed; as, "Tuum scire, [thy to know,] the same as tua scientia, thy knowledge. Pers."--Adam's Gram., p. 153. So, in English, the participle in ing is often taken substantively, when it does not actually become a substantive or noun; as, "Thy knowing this,"--"Our doing so."--West. Such forms of speech, because they are idiomatical, seldom admit of any literal translation, and are never naturalized by any transfer from one language or dialect into an other; nor is it proper for grammarians to justify them, in vernacular speech, except as figures or anomalies that ought not to be generally imitated. It cannot be truly affirmed, that the genius of our language ever requires that participles, as such, should assume the relations of a noun, or govern the possessive case; nor, on the other hand, can it be truly denied, that very excellent and learned writers do sometimes make use of such phraseology. Without disrespect to the many users and approvers of these anomalies, I set down for bad English every mixed construction of the participle, for which the language can furnish an equivalent expression that is more simple and more elegant. The extent to which these comparative barbarisms now abound in English books, and the ridiculous fondness for them, which has been shown by some writers on English grammar, in stead of amounting to any argument in their favour, are in fact, plain proofs of the necessity of an endeavour to arrest so obvious and so pernicious an innovation.

OBS. 42.--A late author observes as follows: "That the English gerund, participle, or verbal noun, in ing, has both an active and a passive signification, there can be little doubt.[424] Whether the Latin gerund has precisely a similar import, or whether it is only active, it may be difficult, and, indeed, after all, it is not of much moment, to ascertain."--Grant's Latin Gram., p. 234. The gerund in Latin most commonly governs the case of its own verb, as does the active participle, both in Latin and English: as, "Efferor studio patres vestros videndi. Cic. de sen. 23."--Lily's Gram., p. 96. That is, "I am transported, with a desire of seeing your fathers." But sometimes we find the gerund taken substantively and made to govern the genitive. Or,--to adopt the language of an old grammarian:--"Interdum non invenustè additur gerundiis in di etiam genitivus pluralis: ut, 'Quum illorum videndi gratiâ me in forum contulissem.'--'Novarum [qui] spectandi faciunt copiam.' Ter. Heaut. prol. 29."--Lily's Gram., p. 97. That is, "To gerunds in di there is sometimes not inelegantly added a genitive plural: as, 'When, for the sake of seeing of them, I went into the forum.'--'Who present an opportunity of attending of new ones:' i.e., new comedies." Here the of which is inserted after the participle to mark the genitive case which is added, forms rather an error than an elegance, though some English writers do now and then adopt this idiom. The gerund thus governing the genitive, is not analogous to our participle governing the possessive; because this genitive stands, not for the subject of the being or action, but for what would otherwise be the object of the gerund, or of the participle, as may be seen above. The objection to the participle as governing the possessive, is, that it retains its object or its adverb; for when it does not, it becomes fairly a noun, and the objection is removed. R. Johnson, like many others, erroneously thinks it a noun, even when it governs an objective, and has merely a preposition before it; as, "For the sake of seeing them. Where seeing (says he) is a Substantive."--Gram. Com., p. 353.

OBS. 43.--If the Latin gerund were made to govern the genitive of the agent, and allowed at the same time to retain its government as a gerund, it would then correspond in every thing but declension, to the English participle when made to govern both the possessive case and the objective. But I have before observed that no such analogy appears. The following example has been quoted by Seyer, as a proof that the gerund may govern the genitive of the agent: "Cujus autem in dicendo aliquid reprehensum est--Cic."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 236. That is, (as I understand it,) "But in whose speaking something is reprehended." This seems to me a case in point; though Crombie and Grant will not allow it to be so. But a single example is not sufficient. If the doctrine is true, there must be others. In this solitary instance, it would be easier to doubt the accuracy even of Cicero, than to approve the notion of these two critics, that cujus is here governed by aliquid, and not by the gerund. "Here," says Grant, "I am inclined to concur in opinion with Dr. Crombie, whose words I take the liberty to use, 'That, for the sake of euphony, the gerund is sometimes found governing the genitive of the patient, or subject [say object] of the action, is unquestionable: thus, studio videndi patrum vestrorum. [That is, literally, By a desire of seeing of your fathers.] But I recollect no example, where the gerund is joined with a possessive adjective, or genitive of a noun substantive, where the person is not the patient, but the agent; as, dicendum meum, ejus dicendum, cujus dicendum. [That is, my speaking, his speaking, whose speaking.] In truth, these phraseologies appear to me, not only repugnant to the idiom of the language, but also unfavourable to precision and perspicuity.'"--Grant's Latin Gram., 8vo, p. 236.

OBS. 44.--Of that particular distinction between the participle and the participial noun, which depends on the insertion or omission of the article and the preposition of, a recent grammarian of considerable merit adopts the following views: "This double nature of the participle has led to much irregularity in its use. Thus we find, 'indulging which,' 'indulging of which,' 'the indulging which,' and 'the indulging of which,' used indiscriminately. Lowth very properly instructs us, either to use both the article and the preposition with the participle; as, 'the indulging of which:' or to reject both; as, 'indulging which:' thus keeping the verbal and substantive forms distinct. But he is wrong, as Dr. Crombie justly remarks, in considering these two modes of expression as perfectly similar. Suppose I am told, 'Bloomfield spoke warmly of the pleasure he had in hearing Fawcet:' I understand at once, that the eloquence of Fawcet gave Bloomfield great pleasure. But were it said, 'Bloomfield spoke warmly of the pleasure he had in the hearing of Fawcet:' I should be led to conclude merely that the orator was within hearing, when the poet spoke of the pleasure he felt from something, about which I have no information. Accordingly Dr. Crombie suggests as a general rule, conducive at least to perspicuity, and perhaps to elegance; that, when the noun connected with the participle is active, or doing something, the article should be inserted before the participle, and the preposition after it; and, when the noun is passive, or represents the object of an action, both the article and the preposition should be omitted:[425] agreeably to the examples just adduced. It is true, that when the noun following the participle denotes something incapable of the action the participle expresses, no mistake can arise from using either form: as, 'The middle condition seems to be the most advantageously situate for the gaining of wisdom. Poverty turns our thoughts too much upon the supplying of our wants; and riches, upon enjoying our superfluities.' Addison, Spect., 464. Yet I cannot think it by any means a commendable practice, thus to jumble together different forms; and indeed it is certainly better, as the two modes of expression have different significations, to confine each to its distinct and proper use, agreeably to Dr. Crombie's rule, even when no mistake could arise from interchanging them."--Churchill's Gram., p. 319.

OBS. 45.--The two modes of expression which these grammarians would thus apply constantly to different uses, on the supposition that they have always different significations, are the same that Lindley Murray and his copyists suppose to be generally equivalent, and concerning which it is merely admitted by the latter, that they do "not in every instance convey the same meaning." (See Obs. 27th above.) If Dr. Lowth considered them "as perfectly similar," he was undoubtedly very wrong in this matter: though not more so than these gentlemen, who resolve to interpret them as being perfectly and constantly dissimilar. Dr. Adam says, "There are, both in Latin and [in] English, substantives derived from the verb, which so much resemble the Gerund in their signification, that frequently they may be substituted in its place. They are generally used, however, in a more undetermined sense than the Gerund, and in English, have the article always[426] prefixed to them. Thus, with the gerund, Detector legendo Ciceronem, I am delighted with reading Cicero. But with the substantive, Delector lectione Ciceronis, I am delighted with the reading of Cicero."--Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 142. "Gerunds are so called because they, as it were, signify the thing in gerendo, (anciently written gerundo,) in doing; and, along with the action, convey an idea of the agent."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 70; Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 353. "The reading of Cicero," does not necessarily signify an action of which Cicero is the agent, as Crombie, Churchill, and Hiley choose to expound it; and, since the gerundive construction of words in ing ought to have a definite reference to the agent or subject of the action or being, one may perhaps amend even some of their own phraseology above, by preferring the participial noun: as, "No mistake can arise from the using of either form."--"And riches [turn our thoughts too much] upon the enjoying of our superfluities."--"Even when no mistake could arise from the interchanging of them." Where the agent of the action plainly appears, the gerundive form is to be preferred on account of its brevity; as, "By the observing of truth, you will command respect;" or, "By observing truth, &c."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 189. Here the latter phraseology is greatly preferable, though this author did not perceive it. "I thought nothing was to be done by me before the giving of you thanks."--Walker's Particles, p. 63. Say,--"before giving you thanks;" for otherwise the word thanks has no proper construction, the pronoun alone being governed by of--and here again is an error; for "you" ought to be the object of to.

OBS. 46.--In Hiley's Treatise, a work far more comprehensive than the generality of grammars, "the established principles and best usages of the English" Participle are so adroitly summed up, as to occupy only two pages, one in Etymology, and an other in Syntax. The author shows how the participle differs from a verb, and how from an adjective; yet he neither makes it a separate part of speech, nor tells us with what other it ought to be included. In lieu of a general rule for the parsing of all participles, he presents the remark, "Active transitive participles, like their verbs, govern the objective case; as, 'I am desirous of hearing him;' 'Having praised them, he sat down.'"--Hiley's Gram., p. 93. This is a rule by which one may parse the few objectives which are governed by participles; but, for the usual construction of participles themselves, it is no rule at all; neither does the grammar, full as it is, contain any. "Hearing" is here governed by of, and "Having praised" relates to he; but this author teaches neither of these facts, and the former he expressly contradicts by his false definition of a preposition. In his first note, is exhibited, in two parts, the false and ill-written rule which Churchill quotes from Crombie. (1.) "When the noun, connected with the participle, is active or doing something, the participle must have an article before it, and the preposition of after it; as, 'In the hearing of the philosopher;' or, 'In the philosopher's hearing;' 'By the preaching of Christ;' or, 'By Christ's preaching.' In these instances," says Hiley, "the words hearing and preaching are substantives." If so, he ought to have corrected this rule, which twice calls them participles; but, in stead of doing that, he blindly adds, by way of alternative, two examples which expressly contradict what the rule asserts. (2.) "But when the noun represents the object of an action, the article and the preposition of must be omitted; as, 'In hearing the philosopher.'"--Ib., p. 94. If this principle is right, my second note below, and most of the corrections under it, are wrong. But I am persuaded that the adopters of this rule did not observe how common is the phraseology which it condemns; as, "For if the casting-away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?"--Rom., xi, 15. Finally, this author rejects the of which most critics insert when a possessive precedes the verbal noun; justifies and prefers the mixed or double construction of the participle; and, consequently, neither wishes nor attempts to distinguish the participle from the verbal noun. Yet he does not fail to repeat, with some additional inaccuracy, the notion, that, "What do you think of my horse's running? is different to [say from,] What do you think of my horse running?"--Ib., p. 94.

OBS. 47.--That English books in general, and the style of even our best writers, should seldom be found exempt from errors in the construction of participles, will not be thought wonderful, when we consider the multiplicity of uses to which words of this sort are put, and the strange inconsistencies into which all our grammarians have fallen in treating this part of syntax. It is useless, and worse than useless, to teach for grammar any thing that is not true; and no doctrine can be true of which one part palpably oversets an other. What has been taught on the present topic, has led me into a multitude of critical remarks, designed both for the refutation of the principles which I reject, and for the elucidation and defence of those which are presently to be summed up in notes, or special rules, for the correction of false syntax. If my decisions do not agree with the teaching of our common grammarians, it is chiefly because these authors contradict themselves. Of this sort of teaching I shall here offer but one example more, and then bring these strictures to a close: "When present participles are preceded by an article, or pronoun adjective, they become nouns, and must not be followed by objective pronouns, or nouns without a preposition; as, the reading of many books wastes the health. But such nouns, like all others, may be used without an article, being sufficiently discovered by the following preposition; as, he was sent to prepare the way, by preaching of repentance. Also an article, or pronoun adjective, may precede a clause, used as a noun, and commencing with a participle; as, his teaching children was necessary."--Dr. Wilson's Syllabus of English Gram., p. xxx. Here the last position of the learned doctor, if it be true, completely annuls the first; or, if the first be true, the last must needs be false, And, according to Lowth, L. Murray, and many others, the second is as bad as either. The bishop says, concerning this very example, that by the use of the preposition of after the participle preaching, "the phrase is rendered obscure and ambiguous: for the obvious meaning of it, in its present form, is, 'by preaching concerning repentance, or on that subject;' whereas the sense intended is, 'by publishing the covenant of repentance, and declaring repentance to be a condition of acceptance with God.'"--Lowth's Gram., p. 82. "It ought to be, 'by the preaching of repentance;' or, by preaching repentance."--Murray's Gram., p. 193.

NOTES TO RULE XX.

NOTE I.--Active participles have the same government as the verbs from which they are derived; the preposition of, therefore, should never be used after the participle, when the verb does not require it. Thus, in phrases like the following, of is improper: "Keeping of one day in seven;"--"By preaching of repentance;"--"They left beating of Paul."

NOTE II.--When a transitive participle is converted into a noun, of must be inserted to govern the object following; as, "So that there was no withstanding of him."--Walker's Particles. p. 252. "The cause of their salvation doth not so much arise from their embracing of mercy, as from God's exercising of it"--Penington's Works, Vol. ii, p. 91. "Faith is the receiving of Christ with the whole soul."--Baxter. "In thy pouring-out of thy fury upon Jerusalem."--Ezekiel, ix, 8.

NOTE III.--When the insertion of the word of, to complete the conversion of the transitive participle into a noun, produces ambiguity or harshness, some better phraseology must be chosen. Example: "Because the action took place prior to the taking place of the other past action."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 140. Here the words prior and place have no regular construction; and if we say, "prior to the taking of place of the other," we make the jumble still worse. Say therefore, "Because the action took place before the other past action;"--or, "Because the action took place previously to the other past action."

NOTE IV.--When participles become nouns, their adverbs should either become adjectives, or be taken as parts of such nouns, written as compound words: or, if neither of these methods be agreeable, a greater change should be made. Examples of error: 1. "Rightly understanding a sentence, depends very much on a knowledge of its grammatical construction."--Comly's Gram., 12th Ed., p. 8. Say, "The right understanding of a sentence," &c. 2. "Elopement is a running away, or private departure."--Webster's El. Spelling-Book. p. 102. Write "running-away" as one word. 3. "If they [Milton's descriptions] have any faults, it is their alluding too frequently to matters of learning, and to fables of antiquity."--Blair's Rhet., p. 451. Say, "If they have any fault, it is that they allude too frequently," &c.

NOTE V.--When the participle is followed by an adjective, its conversion into a noun appears to be improper; because the construction of the adjective becomes anomalous, and its relation doubtful: as, "When we speak of 'ambition's being restless' or, 'a disease's being deceitful.'"--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 346; Kirkham's, p. 224. This ought to be, "When we speak of ambition as being restless, or a disease as being deceitful;" but Dr. Blair, from whom the text originally came, appears to have written it thus: "When we speak of ambition's being restless, or a disease being deceitful."--LECT. xvi, p. 155. This is inconsistent with itself; for one noun is possessive, and the other, objective. NOTE VI.--When a compound participle is converted into a noun, the hyphen seems to be necessary, to prevent ambiguity; but such compound nouns are never elegant, and it is in general better to avoid them, by some change in the expression. Example: "Even as the being healed of a wound, presupposeth the plaster or salve: but not, on the contrary; for the application of the plaster presupposeth not the being healed."--Barclays Works, Vol. i, p. 143. The phrase, "the being healed" ought to mean only, the creature healed; and not, the being-healed, or the healing received, which is what the writer intended. But the simple word healing might have been used in the latter sense; for, in participial nouns, the distinction of voice and of tense are commonly disregarded.

NOTE VII.--A participle should not be used where the infinitive mood, the verbal noun, a common substantive, or a phrase equivalent, will better express the meaning. Examples: 1. "But placing an accent on the second syllable of these words, would entirely derange them."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 239. Say rather, "But, to place an accent--But the placing of an accent--or, But an accent placed on the second syllable of these words, would entirely derange them." 2. "To require their being in that case."--Ib., Vol. ii, p. 21. Say, "To require them to be in that case." 3. "She regrets not having read it."--West's Letters, p. 216. Say, "She regrets that she has not read it." Or, "She does not regret that she has read it." For the text is equivocal, and admits either of these senses.

NOTE VIII.--A participle used for a nominative after be, is, was, &c., produces a construction which is more naturally understood to be a compound form of the verb; and which is therefore not well adapted to the sense intended, when one tells what something is, was, or may be. Examples: 1. "Whose business is shoeing animals."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 365. Say, "Whose business it is, to shoe animals;"--or, "Whose business is the shoeing of animals." 2. "This was in fact converting the deposite to his own use."--Murray's Key, ii, p. 200. Say rather, "This was in fact a converting of the deposite to his own use."--Ib.

NOTE IX.--Verbs of preventing should be made to govern, not the participle in ing, nor what are called substantive phrases, but the objective case of a noun or pronoun; and if a participle follow, it ought to be governed by the preposition from: as, "But the admiration due to so eminent a poet, must not prevent us from remarking some other particulars in which he has failed."--Blair's Rhet., p. 438. Examples of error: 1. "I endeavoured to prevent letting him escape"--Ingersoll's Gram., p. 150. Say,--"to prevent his escape." 2. "To prevent its being connected with the nearest noun."--Churchill's Gram., p. 367. Say, "To prevent it from being connected," &c. 3. "To prevent it bursting out with open violence."--Robertson's America, Vol. ii, p. 146. Say, "To prevent it from bursting out," &c. 4. "To prevent their injuring or murdering of others."--Brown's Divinity, p. 26. Say rather, "To prevent them from injuring or murdering others."

NOTE X.--In the use of participles and of verbal nouns, the leading word in sense should always be made the leading or governing word in the construction; and where there is reason to doubt whether the possessive case or some other ought to come before the participle, it is better to reject both, and vary the expression. Examples: "Any person may easily convince himself of the truth of this, by listening to foreigners conversing in a language [which] he does not understand."--Churchill's Gram., p. 361. "It is a relic of the ancient style abounding with negatives."--Ib., p. 367. These forms are right; though the latter might be varied, by the insertion of "which abounds" for "abounding." But the celebrated examples before cited, about the "lady holding up her train," or the "lady's holding up her train,"--the "person dismissing his servant," or the "person's dismissing his servant,"--the "horse running to-day," or the "horse's running to-day,"--and many others which some grammarians suppose to be interchangeable, are equally bad in both forms.

NOTE XI.--Participles, in general, however construed, should have a clear reference to the proper subject of the being, action, or passion. The following sentence is therefore faulty: "By establishing good laws, our peace is secured."--Russell's Gram., p. 88; Folker's, p. 27. Peace not being the establisher of the laws, these authors should have said, "By establishing good laws, we secure our peace." "There will be no danger of spoiling their faces, or of gaining converts."--Murray's Key, ii, p. 201. This sentence is to me utterly unintelligible. If the context were known, there might possibly be some sense in saying, "They will be in no danger of spoiling their faces," &c. "The law is annulled, in the very act of its being made."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 267. "The act of MAKING a law," is a phrase intelligible; but, "the act of its BEING MADE," is a downright solecism--a positive absurdity.

NOTE XII.--A needless or indiscriminate use of participles for nouns, or of nouns for participles, is inelegant, if not improper, and ought therefore to be avoided. Examples: "Of denotes possession or belonging."-- Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 118; Ingersoll's, 71. "The preposition of, frequently implies possession, property, or belonging to."--Cooper's Pl. and Pr. Gram., p. 137. Say, "Of frequently denotes possession, or the relation of property." "England perceives the folly of the denying of such concessions."--Nixon's Parser, p. 149. Expunge the and the last of, that denying may stand as a participle.

NOTE XIII.--Perfect participles being variously formed, care should be taken to express them agreeably to the best usage, and also to distinguish them from the preterits of their verbs, where there is any difference of form. Example: "It would be well, if all writers who endeavour to be accurate, would be careful to avoid a corruption at present so prevalent, of saying, it was wrote, for, it was written; he was drove, for, he was driven; I have went, for, I have gone, &c., in all which instances a verb is absurdly used to supply the proper participle, without any necessity from the want of such word."--Harris's Hermes, p. 186.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XX.

EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--EXPUNGE OF.

"In forming of his sentences, he was very exact."--Error noticed by Murray, Vol. i, p. 194.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the preposition of is used after the participle forming, whose verb does not require it. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 20th, "Active participles have the same government as the verbs from which they are derived; the preposition of, therefore, should not be used after the participle, when the verb does not require it." Therefore, of should be omitted; thus, "In forming his sentences, he was very exact."]

"For not believing of which I condemn them"--Barclay's Works, iii. 354. "To prohibit his hearers from reading of that book."--Ib., i, 223. "You will please them exceedingly, in crying down of ordinances."--MITCHELL: ib., i, 219. "The war-wolf subsequently became an engine for casting of stones,"--Constable's Miscellany, xxi, 117. "The art of dressing of hides and working in leather was practised."--Ib., xxi, 101. "In the choice they had made of him, for restoring of order."--Rollin's Hist., ii, 37. "The Arabians exercised themselves by composing of orations and poems."--Sale's Koran, p. 17. "Behold, the widow-woman was there gathering of sticks."--1 Kings, xvii, 10. "The priests were busied in offering of burnt-offerings."--2 Chron., xxxv, 14. "But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him."--2 Sam., ii, 21. "He left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah."--1 Kings, xv, 21. "Those who accuse us of denying of it, belie us."--Barclay's Works, iii, 280. "And breaking of bread from house to house."--Ib., i, 192. "Those that set about repairing of the walls."--Ib., i, 459. "And secretly begetting of divisions."--Ib., i, 521. "Whom he had made use of in gathering of his church."--Ib., i, 535. "In defining and distinguishing of the acceptions and uses of those particles."--Walker's Particles, p. 12.

"In punishing of this, we overthrow The laws of nations, and of nature too."--Dryden, p. 92.

UNDER NOTE II.--ARTICLES REQUIRE OF.

"The mixing them makes a miserable jumble of truth and fiction."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 357. "The same objection lies against the employing statues."--Ib., ii, 358. "More efficacious than the venting opulence upon the Fine Arts."--Ib., Vol. i, p. viii. "It is the giving different names to the same object."--Ib., ii, 19. "When we have in view the erecting a column."--Ib., ii, 56. "The straining an elevated subject beyond due bounds, is a vice not so frequent."--Ib., i, 206. "The cutting evergreens in the shape of animals is very ancient."--Ib., ii, 327. "The keeping juries, without meet, drink or fire, can be accounted for only on the same idea."--Webster's Essays, p. 301. "The writing the verbs at length on his slate, will be a very useful exercise."--Beck's Gram., p. 20. "The avoiding them is not an object of any moment."--Sheridan's Lect., p. 180. "Comparison is the increasing or decreasing the Signification of a Word by degrees."--British Gram., p. 97. "Comparison is the Increasing or Decreasing the Quality by Degrees."--Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 27. "The placing a Circumstance before the Word with which it is connected, is the easiest of all Inversion."--Ib., p. 140. "What is emphasis? It is the emitting a stronger and fuller sound of voice," &c.--Bradley's Gram., p. 108. "Besides, the varying the terms will render the use of them more familiar."--Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 25. "And yet the confining themselves to this true principle, has misled them!"--Horne Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, p. 15. "What is here commanded, is merely the relieving his misery."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 417. "The accumulating too great a quantity of knowledge at random, overloads the mind instead of adorning it."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 5. "For the compassing his point."--Rollin's Hist., ii, 35. "To the introducing such an inverted order of things."--Butler's Analogy, p. 95. "Which require only the doing an external action."--Ib., p. 185. "The imprisoning my body is to satisfy your wills."--GEO. FOX: Sewel's Hist., p. 47. "Who oppose the conferring such extensive command on one person."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 130. "Luxury contributed not a little to the enervating their forces."--Sale's Koran, p. 49. "The keeping one day of the week for a sabbath."--Barclay's Works, i. 202. "The doing a thing is contrary to the forbearing of it."--Ib., i, 527. "The doubling the Sigma is, however, sometimes regular."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 29. "The inserting the common aspirate too, is improper."--Ib., p. 134. "But in Spenser's time the pronouncing the ed seems already to have been something of an archaism."--Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 656. "And to the reconciling the effect of their verses on the eye."--Ib., i, 659. "When it was not in their power to hinder the taking the whole."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 155. "He had indeed given the orders himself for the shutting the gates."--Ibid. "So his whole life was a doing the will of the Father."--Penington, iv, 99. "It signifies the suffering or receiving the action expressed."--Priestley's Gram., p. 37. "The pretended crime therefore was the declaring himself to be the Son of God."--West's Letters, p. 210. "Parsing is the resolving a sentence into its different parts of speech."--Beck's Gram., p. 26.

UNDER NOTE II.--ADJECTIVES REQUIRE OF.

"There is no expecting the admiration of beholders."--Baxter. "There is no hiding you in the house."--Shakspeare. "For the better regulating government in the province of Massachusetts."--British Parliament. "The precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government."--J. Q. Adams's Rhet., Vol. ii, p. 6. "[This state of discipline] requires the voluntary foregoing many things which we desire, and setting ourselves to what we have no inclination to."--Butler's Analogy, p. 115. "This amounts to an active setting themselves against religion."--Ib., p. 264. "Which engaged our ancient friends to the orderly establishing our Christian discipline."--N. E. Discip., p. 117. "Some men are so unjust that there is no securing our own property or life, but by opposing force to force."--Brown's Divinity, p. 26. "An Act for the better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject."--Geo. III, 31st. "Miraculous curing the sick is discontinued."--Barclay's Works, iii, 137. "It would have been no transgressing the apostle's rule."--Ib., p. 146. "As far as consistent with the proper conducting the business of the House."--Elmore, in Congress, 1839. "Because he would have no quarrelling at the just condemning them at that day."--Law and Grace, p. 42. "That transferring this natural manner--will ensure propriety."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 372. "If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key."--Macbeth, Act ii, Sc. 3.

UNDER NOTE II.--POSSESSIVES REQUIRE OF.

"So very simple a thing as a man's wounding himself."--Blair's Rhet., p. 97; Murray's Gram., p. 317. "Or with that man's avowing his designs."--Blair, p. 104; Murray, p. 308; Parker and Fox, Part III, p. 88. "On his putting the question."--Adams's Rhet., Vol. ii, p. 111. "The importance of teachers' requiring their pupils to read each section many times over."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 169. "Politeness is a kind of forgetting one's self in order to be agreeable to others."--Ramsay's Cyrus. "Much, therefore, of the merit, and the agreeableness of epistolary writing, will depend on its introducing us into some acquaintance with the writer."--Blair's Rhet., p. 370; Mack's Dissertation in his Gram., p. 175. "Richard's restoration to respectability, depends on his paying his debts."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 176. "Their supplying ellipses where none ever existed; their parsing words of sentences already full and perfect, as though depending on words understood."--Ib., p. 375. "Her veiling herself and shedding tears," &c., "her upbraiding Paris for his cowardice," &c.--Blair's Rhet., p. 433. "A preposition may be known by its admitting after it a personal pronoun, in the objective case."--Murray's Gram., p. 28; Alger's, 14; Bacon's, 10; Merchant's, 18; and others. "But this forms no just objection to its denoting time."--Murray's Gram., p. 65. "Of men's violating or disregarding the relations which God has placed them in here."--Butler's Analogy, p. 164. "Success, indeed, no more decides for the right, than a man's killing his antagonist in a duel."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 295. "His reminding them."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 123. "This mistake was corrected by his preceptor's causing him to plant some beans."--Ib., p. 235. "Their neglecting this was ruinous."--Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "That he was serious, appears from his distinguishing the others as 'finite.'"--Felch's Gram., p. 10. "His hearers are not at all sensible of his doing it."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 119.

UNDER NOTE III.--CHANGE THE EXPRESSION.

"An allegory is the saying one thing, and meaning another; a double-meaning or dilogy is the saying only one thing, but having two in view."--Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 461. "A verb may generally be distinguished, by its making sense with any of the personal pronouns, or the word to before it."--Murray's Gram., p. 28; Alger's, 13; Bacon's, 10; Comly's, and many others. "A noun may, in general, be distinguished by its taking an article before it, or by its making sense of itself."--Merchant's Gram., p. 17; Murray's, 27; &c. "An Adjective may usually be known by its making sense with the addition of the word thing: as, a good thing; a bad thing."--Same Authors. "It is seen in the objective case, from its denoting the object affected by the act of leaving."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 44. "It is seen in the possessive case, from its denoting the possessor of something."--Ibid. "The name man is caused by the adname whatever to be twofold subjective case, from its denoting, of itself, one person as the subject of the two remarks."--Ib., p. 56. "When, as used in the last line, is a connective, from its joining that line to the other part of the sentence."--Ib., p. 59. "From their denoting reciprocation."--Ib., p. 64. "To allow them the making use of that liberty."--Sale's Koran, p. 116. "The worst effect of it is, the fixing on your mind a habit of indecision."--Todd's Student's Manual, p. 60. "And you groan the more deeply, as you reflect that there is no shaking it off."--Ib., p. 47. "I know of nothing that can justify the having recourse to a Latin translation of a Greek writer."--Coleridge's Introduction, p. 16. "Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly."--Hazlitt's Lectures. "There are remarkable instances of their not affecting each other."--Butler's Analogy, p. 150. "The leaving Cæsar out of the commission was not from any slight."--Life of Cicero, p. 44. "Of the receiving this toleration thankfully I shall say no more."--Dryden's Works, p. 88. "Henrietta was delighted with Julia's working lace so very well."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 255. "And it is from their representing each two different words that the confusion has arisen."--Booth's Introd., p. 42. "Æschylus died of a fracture of his skull, caused by an eagle's letting fall a tortoise on his head."--Biog. Dict. "He doubted their having it."--Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 81. "The making ourselves clearly understood, is the chief end of speech."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 68. "There is no discovering in their countenances, any signs which are the natural concomitants of the feelings of the heart."--Ib., p. 165. "Nothing can be more common or less proper than to speak of a river's emptying itself."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 186. "Our not using the former expression, is owing to this."--Bullions's E. Gram., p. 59.

UNDER NOTE IV.--DISPOSAL OF ADVERBS.

"To this generally succeeds the division, or the laying down the method of the discourse."--Blair's Rhet., p. 311. "To the pulling down of strong holds."--2 Cor., x, 4. "Can a mere buckling on a military weapon infuse courage?"--Brown's Estimate, i, 62. "Living expensively and luxuriously destroys health."--Murray's Gram., i, 234. "By living frugally and temperately, health is preserved."--Ibid. "By living temperately, our health is promoted."--Ib., p. 227. "By the doing away of the necessity."--The Friend, xiii, 157. "He recommended to them, however, the immediately calling of the whole community to the church."--Gregory's Dict., w. Ventriloquism. "The separation of large numbers in this manner certainly facilitates the reading them rightly."--Churchill's Gram., p. 303. "From their merely admitting of a twofold grammatical construction."--Philol. Museum, i. 403. "His gravely lecturing his friend about it."--Ib., i, 478. "For the blotting out of sin."--Gurney's Evidences, p. 140. "From the not using of water."--Barclay's Works, i, 189. "By the gentle dropping in of a pebble."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 125. "To the carrying on a great part of that general course of nature."--Butler's Analogy, p. 127. "Then the not interposing is so far from being a ground of complaint."--Ib., p. 147. "The bare omission, or rather the not employing of what is used."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 180; Jamieson's, 48. "Bringing together incongruous adverbs is a very common fault."--Churchill's Gram., p. 329. "This is a presumptive proof of its not proceeding from them."--Butler's Analogy, p. 186. "It represents him in a character to which the acting unjustly is peculiarly unsuitable."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 372. "They will aim at something higher than merely the dealing out of harmonious sounds."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 65. "This is intelligible and sufficient; and going farther seems beyond the reach of our faculties."--Butler's Analogy, p. 147. "Apostrophe is a turning off from the regular course of the subject."--Murray's Gram., p. 348; Jamieson's Rhet., 185. "Even Isabella was finally prevailed upon to assent to the sending out a commission to investigate his conduct."--Life of Columbus. "For the turning away of the simple shall slay them."--Prov., i, 32.

"Thick fingers always should command Without the stretching out the hand."--King's Poems, p. 585.

UNDER NOTE V.--PARTICIPLES WITH ADJECTIVES.

"Is there any Scripture speaks of the light's being inward?"--Barclay's Works, i, 367. "For I believe not the being positive therein essential to salvation."--Ib., iii, 330. "Our not being able to act an uniform right part without some thought and care."--Butler's Analogy, p. 122. "Upon supposition of its being reconcileable with the constitution of nature."--Ib., p. 128. "Upon account of its not being discoverable by reason or experience."--Ib., p. 170. "Upon account of their being unlike the known course of nature."--Ib., p. 171. "Our being able to discern reasons for them, gives a positive credibility to the history of them."--Ib., p. 174. "From its not being universal."--Ib., p. 175. "That they may be turned into the passive participle in dus is no decisive argument in favour of their being passive."--Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 233. "With the implied idea of St. Paul's being then absent from the Corinthians."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 123. "On account of its becoming gradually weaker, until it finally dies away into silence."--Ib., p. 32. "Not without the author's being fully aware."--Ib., p. 84. "Being witty out of season, is one sort of folly."--Sheffield's Works, ii. 172. "Its being generally susceptible of a much stronger evidence."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 102. "At least their being such rarely enhanceth our opinion, either of their abilities or of their virtues."--Ib., p. 162. "Which were the ground of our being one."--Barclay's Works, i, 513. "But they may be distinguished from it by their being intransitive."--Murray's Gram., i, 60. "To distinguish the higher degree of our persuasion of a thing's being possible."--Churchill's Gram., p. 234.

"His being idle, and dishonest too, Was that which caus'd his utter overthrow."--Tobitt's Gram., p. 61.

UNDER NOTE VI.--COMPOUND VERBAL NOUNS.

"When it denotes being subjected to the exertion of another."--Booth's Introd., p. 37. "In a passive sense, it signifies being subjected to the influence of the action."--Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 60. "The being abandoned by our friends is very deplorable."--Goldsmith's Greece, i, 181. "Without waiting for their being attacked by the Macedonians."--Ib., ii, 97. "In progress of time, words were wanted to express men's being connected with certain conditions of fortune."--Blair's Rhet., p. 135. "Our being made acquainted with pain and sorrow, has a tendency to bring us to a settled moderation."--Butler's Analogy, p. 121. "The chancellor's being attached to the king secured his crown; The general's having failed in this enterprise occasioned his disgrace; John's having been writing a long time had wearied him."--Murray's Gram., p. 66; Sanborn's, 171; Cooper's, 96; Ingersoll's, 46; Fisk's, 83; and others. "The sentence should be, 'John's having been writing a long time has wearied him.'"--Wright's Gram., p. 186. "Much depends on this rule's being observed."--Murray's Key, ii, 195. "He mentioned a boy's having been corrected for his faults; The boy's having been corrected is shameful to him."--Alger's Gram., p. 65; Merchant's, 93. "The greater the difficulty of remembrance is, and the more important the being remembered is to the attainment of the ultimate end."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 90. "If the parts in the composition of similar objects were always in equal quantity, their being compounded would make no odds."--Ib., p. 65. "Circumstances, not of such importance as that the scope of the relation is affected by their being known."--Ib., p. 379. "A passive verb expresses the receiving of an action or the being acted upon; as, 'John is beaten'"--Frost's El. of Gram., p. 16. "So our Language has another great Advantage, namely its not being diversified by Genders."--Buchanan's Gram., p. 20. "The having been slandered is no fault of Peter."--Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "Without being Christ's friends, there is no being justified."--William Penn. "Being accustomed to danger, begets intrepidity, i.e. lessens fear."--Butler's Analogy, p. 112. "It is, not being affected so and so, but acting, which forms those habits."--Ib., p. 113. "In order to our being satisfied of the truth of the apparent paradox."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 164. "Tropes consist in a word's being employed to signify something that is different from its original and primitive meaning."--Blair's Rhet., p. 132; Jamieson's, 140; Murray's Gram., 337; Kirkham's, 222. "A Trope consists in a word's being employed," &c.--Hiley's Gram., p. 133. "The scriptural view of our being saved from punishment."--Gurney's Evidences, p. 124. "To submit and obey, is not a renouncing a being led by the Spirit."--Barclay's Works, i, 542.

UNDER NOTE VII.--PARTICIPLES FOR INFINITIVES, &C.

"Teaching little children is a pleasant employment."--Bartlett's School Manual, ii, 68. "Denying or compromising principles of truth is virtually denying their divine Author."--Reformer, i, 34. "A severe critic might point out some expressions that would bear being retrenched."--Blair's Rhet., p. 206. "Never attempt prolonging the pathetic too much."--Ib., p. 323. "I now recollect having mentioned a report of that nature."-- Whiting's Reader, p. 132. "Nor of the necessity which there is for their being restrained in them."--Butler's Analogy, p. 116. "But doing what God commands, because he commands it, is obedience, though it proceeds from hope or fear."--Ib., p. 124. "Simply closing the nostrils does not so entirely prevent resonance."--Music of Nature, p. 484. "Yet they absolutely refuse doing so."--Harris's Hermes, p. 264. "But Artaxerxes could not refuse pardoning him."--Goldsmith's Greece, i, 173. "Doing them in the best manner is signified by the name of these arts."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 360. "Behaving well for the time to come, may be insufficient." --Butler's Analogy, p. 198. "The compiler proposed publishing that part by itself."--Dr. Adam, Rom. Antiq., p. v. "To smile upon those we should censure, is bringing guilt upon ourselves."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 108. "But it would be doing great injustice to that illustrious orator to bring his genius down to the same level."--Ib., p. 28. "Doubting things go ill, often hurts more than to be sure they do."--Beauties of Shak., p. 203. "This is called straining a metaphor."--Blair's Rhet., p. 150; Murray's Gram., i, 341. "This is what Aristotle calls giving manners to the poem."--Blair's Rhet., p. 427. "The painter's being entirely confined to that part of time which he has chosen, deprives him of the power of exhibiting various stages of the same action."--Murray's Gram., i, 195. "It imports retrenching all superfluities, and pruning the expression."-- Blair's Rhet., p. 94; Jamieson's, 64; Murray's Gram., p. 301; Kirkham's, 220. "The necessity for our being thus exempted is further apparent."--West's Letters, p. 40. "Her situation in life does not allow of her being genteel in every thing."--Ib., p. 57. "Provided you do not dislike being dirty when you are invisible."--Ib., p. 58. "There is now an imperious necessity for her being acquainted with her title to eternity."--Ib., p. 120. "Discarding the restraints of virtue, is misnamed ingenuousness."--Ib., p. 105. "The legislature prohibits opening shop of a Sunday."--Ib., p. 66. "To attempt proving that any thing is right."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 256. "The comma directs making a pause of a second in duration, or less."--Ib., p. 280. "The rule which directs putting other words into the place of it, is wrong."--Ib., p. 326. "They direct calling the specifying adjectives or adnames adjective pronouns."-- Ib., p. 338. "William dislikes attending court."--Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "It may perhaps be worth while remarking that Milton makes a distinction."--Philological Museum, i, 659. "Professing regard, and acting differently, discover a base mind."--Murray's Key, p. 206; Bullions's E. Gram., pp. 82 and 112; Lennie's, 58. "Professing regard and acting indifferently, discover a base mind."--Weld's Gram., Improved Edition, p. 59. "You have proved beyond contradiction, that acting thus is the sure way to procure such an object."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 92.

UNDER NOTE VIII.--PARTICIPLES AFTER BE, IS, &C.

"Irony is expressing ourselves in a manner contrary to our thoughts."--Murray's Gram., p. 353; Kirkham's, 225; Goldsbury's, 90. "Irony is saying one thing and meaning the reverse of what that expression would represent."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 303. "An Irony is dissembling or changing the proper signification of a word or sentence to quite the contrary."--Fisher's Gram., p. 151. "Irony is expressing ourselves contrary to what we mean."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 280. "This is in a great Measure delivering their own Compositions."--Buchanan's Gram., p. xxvi. "But purity is using rightly the words of the language."--Jamieson's Rhet., p. 59. "But the most important object is settling the English quantity."--Walker's Key. p. 17. "When there is no affinity, the transition from one meaning to another is taking a very wide step."-- Campbell's Rhet., p. 293. "It would be losing time to attempt further to illustrate it."--Ib., p. 79. "This is leaving the sentence too bare, and making it to be, if not nonsense, hardly sense."--Cobbett's Gram., ¶220. "This is requiring more labours from every private member."--West's Letters, p. 120. "Is not this using one measure for our neighbours, and another for ourselves?"--Ib., p. 200. "Is it not charging God foolishly, when we give these dark colourings to human nature?"--Ib., p. 171. "This is not enduring the cross as a disciple of Jesus Christ, but snatching at it like a partizan of Swift's Jack."--Ib., p. 175. "What is Spelling? It is combining letters to form syllables and words."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 18. "It is choosing such letters to compose words," &c.--Ibid. "What is Parsing? (1.) It is describing the nature, use, and powers of words."--Ib., pp. 22 and 192. (2.) "For parsing is describing the words of a sentence as they are used."--Ib., p. 10. (3.) "Parsing is only describing the nature and relations of words as they are used."--Ib., p. 11. (4.) "Parsing, let the pupil understand and remember, is describing facts concerning words; or representing them in their offices and relations as they are."--Ib., p. 34. (5.) "Parsing is resolving and explaining words according to the rules of grammar."--Ib., p. 326. (6.) "Parsing a word, remember, is enumerating and describing its various relations and qualities, and its grammatical relations to other words in the sentence."--Ib., p. 325. (7.) "For parsing a word is enumerating and describing its various properties and relations to the sentence."--Ib., p. 326. (8.) "Parsing a noun is telling of what person, number, gender, and case, it is; and also telling all its grammatical relations in a sentence with respect to other words."--Ingersoll's Gram., p. 16. (9.) "Parsing any part of speech is telling all its properties and relations."--Ibid. (10.) "Parsing is resolving a sentence into its elements."--Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, §588. "The highway of the righteous is, departing from evil."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 168. "Besides, the first step towards exhibiting truth should be removing the veil of error."--Ib., p. 377. "Punctuation is dividing sentences and the words of sentences, by pauses."--Ib., p. 280. "Another fault is using the preterimperfect shook instead of the participle shaken"--Churchill's Gram., p. 259. "Her employment is drawing maps."--Alger's Gram., p. 65. "Going to the play, according to his notion, is leading a sensual life, and exposing ones self to the strongest temptations. This is begging the question, and therefor requires no answer."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 217. "It is overvaluing ourselves to reduce every thing to the narrow measure of our capacities."--Murray's Gram., i, 193; Ingersoll's, 199. "What is vocal language? It is speaking; or expressing ideas by the human voice."--Sanders, Spelling-Book, p. 7.

UNDER NOTE IX.--VERBS OF PREVENTING.

"The annulling power of the constitution prevented that enactment's becoming a law."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 267. "Which prevents the manner's being brief."--Ib., p. 365. "This close prevents their bearing forward as nominatives."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 153. "Because this prevents its growing drowzy."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 5. "Yet this does not prevent his being great."--Ib., p. 27. "To prevent its being insipid."--Ib., p. 112. "Or whose interruptions did not prevent its being continued."--Ib., p. 167. "This by no means prevents their being also punishments."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 123. "This hinders not their being also, in the strictest sense, punishments."--Ibid., "The noise made by the rain and wind prevented their being heard."--Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 118. "He endeavoured to prevent its taking effect."--Ib., i, 128. "So sequestered as to prevent their being explored."--West's Letters, p. 62. "Who prevented her making a more pleasant party."--Ib., p. 65. "To prevent our being tossed about by every wind of doctrine."--Ib., p. 123. "After the infirmities of age prevented his bearing his part of official duty."--Religious World, ii, 193. "To prevent splendid trifles passing for matters of importance."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 310. "Which prevents his exerting himself to any good purpose."--Beattie's Moral Science, i, 146. "The want of the observance of this rule, very frequently prevents our being punctual in our duties."--Student's Manual, p. 65. "Nothing will prevent his being a student, and his possessing the means of study."--Ib., p. 127. "Does the present accident hinder your being honest and brave?"--Collier's Antoninus, p. 51. "The e is omitted to prevent two es coming together."--Fowle's Gram., p. 34. "A pronoun is used for or in place of a noun.--to prevent repeating the noun."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 13. "Diversity in the style relieves the ear, and prevents it being tired with the too frequent recurrence of the rhymes."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 166. "Diversity in the style relieves the ear, and prevents its being tired," &c.--Murray's Gram., i. p. 362. "Timidity and false shame prevent our opposing vicious customs."--Murray's Key, ii, 236; Sanborn's Gram., 171; Merchant's, 205. "To prevent their being moved by such."-- Campbell's Rhet., p. 155. "Some obstacle or impediment, that prevents its taking place."--Priestley's Gram., p. 38. "Which prevents our making a progress towards perfection."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 4. "This method of distinguishing words, must prevent any regular proportion of time being settled."--Ib., p. 67. "That nothing but affectation can prevent its always taking place."--Ib., p. 78. "This did not prevent John's being acknowledged and solemnly inaugurated Duke of Normandy."--HENRY: Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 182; his Improved Gram., 130; Sanborn's Gram., 189; Fowler's, 8vo, 1850, p. 541.

UNDER NOTE X.--THE LEADING WORD IN SENSE.

"This would preclude the possibility of a nouns' or any other word's ever being in the possessive case."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 338. "A great part of our pleasure arises from the plan or story being well conducted."--Blair's Rhet., p. 18, "And we have no reason to wonder at this being the case."--Ib., p. 249. "She objected only, as Cicero says, to Oppianicus having two sons by his present wife."--Ib., p. 274. "The Britons being subdued by the Saxons, was a necessary consequence of their having called in these Saxons, to their assistance."--Ib., p. 329. "What he had there said, concerning the Saxons expelling the Britons, and changing the customs, the religion, and the language of the country, is a clear and good reason for our present language being Saxon rather than British."--Ib., p. 230. "The only material difference between them, besides the one being short and the other being prolonged, is, that a metaphor always explains itself by the words that are connected with it."--Ib., p. 151; Murray's Gram., p. 342. "The description of Death's advancing to meet Satan, on his arrival."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 156. "Is not the bare fact of God being the witness of it, sufficient ground for its credibility to rest upon?"--Chalmers, Serm., p. 288. "As in the case of one entering upon a new study."--Beattie's Moral Science, i, 77. "The manner of these affecting the copula is called the imperative mode."--BP. WILKINS: Lowth's Gram., p. 43. "We are freed from the trouble, by our nouns having no diversity of endings."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. 20. "The Verb is rather indicative of the actions being doing, or done, than the time when, but indeed the ideas are undistinguishable."--Booth's Introd., p. 69. "Nobody would doubt of this being a sufficient proof."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 66. "Against the doctrine here maintained, of conscience being, as well as reason, a natural faculty."--Beattie's M. Sci., i, 263. "It is one cause of the Greek and English languages being much more easy to learn, than the Latin."--Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 25. "I have not been able to make out a solitary instance of such being the fact."--Liberator, x, 40. "An angel's forming the appearance of a hand, and writing the king's condemnation on the wall, checked their mirth, and filled them with terror."--Wood's Dict., w. Belshazzar. "The prisoners' having attempted to escape, aroused the keepers."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 357. "I doubt not, in the least, of this having been one cause of the multiplication of divinities in the heathen world."--Blair's Rhet., p. 155. "From the general rule he lays down, of the verbs being the parent word of all language."--Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 227. "He was accused of himself being idle."--Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 52. "Our meeting is generally dissatisfied with him so removing."--Wm. Edmondson. "The spectacle is too rare of men's deserving solid fame while not seeking it."--Prof. Bush's Lecture on Swedenborg. "What further need was there of an other priest rising?"--See Key.

UNDER NOTE XI.--REFERENCE OF PARTICIPLES.

"Viewing them separately, different emotions are produced."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 344. "But leaving this doubtful, another objection occurs."--Ib., ii, 358. "Proceeding from one particular to another, the subject grew under his hand."--Ib., i, 27. "But this is still an interruption, and a link of the chain broken."--Ib., ii, 314. "After some days hunting, Cyrus communicated his design to his officers."--Rollin, ii, 66. "But it is made, without the appearance of making it in form."--Blair's Rhet., p. 358. "These would have had a better effect disjoined thus."--Ib., p. 119; Murray's Gram., i, 309. "An improper diphthong has but one of the vowels sounded."--Murray's Gram., p. 9; Alger's, 12; Merchant's, 9; Smith's, 118; Ingersoll's, 4. "And being led to think of both together, my view is rendered unsteady."-- Blair's Rhet., p. 95; Murray's Gram., 302; Jamieson's Rhet., 66. "By often doing the same thing, it becomes habitual."--Murray's Key, p. 257. "They remain with us in our dark and solitary hours, no less than when surrounded with friends and cheerful society."--Ib., p. 238. "Besides shewing what is right, the matter may be further explained by pointing out what is wrong."--Lowth's Gram., Pref., p. viii. "The former teaches the true pronunciation of words, comprising accent, quantity, emphasis, pause, and tone."--Murray's Gram., Vol., i, p. 235. "Persons may be reproved for their negligence, by saying; 'You have taken great care indeed.'"--Ib., i, 354. "The words preceding and following it, are in apposition to each other."--Ib., ii, p. 22. "Having finished his speech, the assembly dispersed."--Cooper's Pract. Gram., p. 97. "Were the voice to fall at the close of the last line, as many a reader is in the habit of doing."-- Kirkham's Elocution, p. 101. "The misfortunes of his countrymen were but negatively the effects of his wrath, by depriving them of his assistance."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 299. "Taking them as nouns, this construction may be explained thus."--Grant's Latin Gram., p. 233. "These have an active signification, those which come from neuter verbs being excepted."--Ib., p. 233. "From the evidence of it not being universal."--Butler's Analogy, p. 84. "And this faith will continually grow, by acquainting ourselves with our own nature."--Channing's Self-Culture, p. 33. "Monosyllables ending with any consonant but f, l, or s, and preceded by a single vowel, never double the final consonant; excepting add, ebb," &c.--Murray's Gram., p. 23; Picket's, 10; Merchant's, 13; Ingersoll's, 8; Fisk's, 44; Blair's, 7. "The relation of being the object of the action is expressed by the change of the Noun Maria to Mariam"--Booth's Introd., p. 38. "In analyzing a proposition, it is first to be divided into its logical subject and predicate."--Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Gram., p. 254. "In analyzing a simple sentence, it should first be resolved into its logical subject and logical predicate."--Wells's School Gram., 113th Ed., p. 189.

UNDER NOTE XII.--OF PARTICIPLES AND NOUNS.

"The discovering passions instantly at their birth, is essential to our well being."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 352. "I am now to enter on considering the sources of the pleasures of taste."--Blair's Rhet., p. 28. "The varieties in using them are, indeed many."--Murray's Gram., i, 319. "Changing times and seasons, removing and setting up kings, belong to Providence alone."--Ib., Key, ii, p. 200. "Adhering to the partitions seemed the cause of France, accepting the will that of the house of Bourbon."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 246. "Another source of darkness in composing is, the injudicious introduction of technical words and phrases."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 247. "These are the rules of grammar, by the observing of which, you may avoid mistakes."--Murray's Gram., i, 192; Merchant's, 93; Fisk's, 135; Ingersoll's, 198. "By the observing of the rules you may avoid mistakes."--Alger's Gram., p. 65. "By the observing of these rules he succeeded."--Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "Being praised was his ruin."--Ibid. "Deceiving is not convincing."-- Ibid. "He never feared losing a friend."--Ibid. "Making books is his amusement."--Alger's Gram., p. 65. "We call it declining a noun."-- Ingersoll's Gram., p. 22. "Washington, however, pursued the same policy of neutrality, and opposed firmly, taking any part in the wars of Europe."--Hall and Baker's School Hist., p. 294. "The following is a note of Interrogation, or asking a question (?)."--Infant School Gram., p. 132. "The following is a note of Admiration, or expressing wonder (!)."--Ib. "Omitting or using the article a forms a nice distinction in the sense."--Murray's Gram., ii, 284. "Placing the preposition before the word it governs is more graceful."--Churchill's Gram., p. 150. "Assistance is absolutely necessary to their recovery, and retrieving their affairs."--Butler's Analogy, p. 197. "Which termination, [ish,] when added to adjectives, imports diminution, or lessening the quality."--Murray's Gram., i, 131; Kirkham's, 172. "After what is said, will it be thought refining too much to suggest, that the different orders are qualified for different purposes?"--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 114. "Who has nothing to think of but killing time."--West's Letters, p. 58. "It requires no nicety of ear, as in the distinguishing of tones, or measuring time."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 65. "The Possessive Case denotes possession, or belonging to."--Hall's Gram., p. 7.

UNDER NOTE XIII.--PERFECT PARTICIPLES.

"Garcilasso was master of the language spoke by the Incas."--Robertson's Amer., ii, 459. "When an interesting story is broke off in the middle."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 244. "Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy."--Ib., ii, 32. "If Du Ryer had not wrote for bread, he would have equalled them."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 166. "Pope describes a rock broke off from a mountain, and hurling to the plain."--Kames, ii, 106. "I have wrote or have written, Thou hast wrote or hast written. He hath or has wrote, or hath or has written;" &c.--Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 47; Maltby's, 47. "This was spoke by a pagan."--Webster's Improved Gram., p. 174. "But I have chose to follow the common arrangement."--Ib., p. 10. "The language spoke in Bengal."--Ib., p. 78. "And sound Sleep thus broke off, with suddain Alarms, is apt enough to discompose any one."--Locke, on Ed., p. 32. "This is not only the Case of those Open Sinners, before spoke of."--Right of Tythes, p. 26. "Some Grammarians have wrote a very perplexed and difficult doctrine on Punctuation."--Ensell's Gram., p. 340. "There hath a pity arose in me towards thee."--Sewel's Hist., fol., p. 324. "Abel is the only man that has underwent the awful change of death."--Juvenile Theatre, p. 4.

"Meantime, on Afric's glowing sands, Smote with keen heat, the Trav'ler stands."--Union Poems, p. 88.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

VIII. ADVERBS

The syntax of an Adverb consists in its simple relation to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or whatever else it qualifies; just as the syntax of an English Adjective, (except in a few instances,) consists in its simple relation to a noun or a pronoun.

RULE XXI.--ADVERBS.

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs: as, "Any passion that habitually discomposes our temper, or unfits us for properly discharging the duties of life, has most certainly gained a very dangerous ascendency."--Blair.

"How bless'd this happy hour, should he appear, Dear to us all, to me supremely dear!"--Pope's Homer.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

The adverbs yes, ay, and yea, expressing a simple affirmation, and the adverbs no and nay, expressing a simple negation, are always independent. They generally answer a question, and are equivalent to a whole sentence. Is it clear, that they ought to be called adverbs? No. "Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No."--SHAK.: First Part of Hen. IV, Act v, 1.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

The word amen, which is commonly called an adverb, is often used independently at the beginning or end of a declaration or a prayer; and is itself a prayer, meaning, So let it be: as, "Surely, I come quickly. Amen: Even so, come Lord Jesus."--Rev., xxii, 20. When it does not stand thus alone, it seems in general to be used substantively; as, "The strangers among them stood on Gerizim, and echoed amen to the blessings."--Wood's Dict. "These things saith the Amen."--Rev., iii, 14

EXCEPTION THIRD.

An adverb before a preposition seems sometimes to relate to the latter, rather than to the verb or participle to which the preposition connects its object; as, "This mode of pronunciation runs considerably beyond ordinary discourse."--Blair's Rhet., p. 334. "Yea, all along the times of the apostasy, this was the thing that preserved the witnesses."--Penington's Works, Vol. iv, p. 12. [See Obs. 8th on Rule 7th.]

"Right against the eastern gate, Where the great sun begins his state."--Milton, L'Allegro.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

The words much, little, far, and all, being originally adjectives, are sometimes preceded by the negative not, or (except the last) by such an adverb as too, how, thus, so, or as, when they are taken substantively; as, "Not all that glitters, is gold."--"Too much should not be offered at once."--Murray's Gram., p. 140. "Thus far is consistent."--Ib., p. 161. "Thus far is right."--Lowth's Gram., p. 101.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXI.

OBS. 1.--On this rule of syntax, Dr. Adam remarks, "Adverbs sometimes likewise qualify substantives;" and gives Latin examples of the following import: "Homer plainly an orator:"--"Truly Metellus;"--"To-morrow morning." But this doctrine is not well proved by such imperfect phrases, nor can it ever be very consistently admitted, because it destroys the characteristic difference between an adjective and an adverb. To-morrow is here an adjective; and as for truly and plainly, they are not such words as can make sense with nouns. I therefore imagine the phrases to be elliptical: "Verè Metellus," may mean, "This is truly Metellus;" and "Homerus planè orator," "Homer was plainly an orator." So, in the example, "Behold an Israelite indeed," the true construction seems to be, "Behold, here is indeed an Israelite;" for, in the Greek or Latin, the word Israelite is a nominative, thus: "Ecce verè Israëlita."--Beza; also Montanus. "[Greek: Ide alæthos 'Israaelitæs.]"--Greek Testament. Behold appears to be here an interjection, like Ecce. If we make it a transitive verb, the reading should be, "Behold a true Israelite;" for the text does not mean, "Behold indeed an Israelite." At least, this is not the meaning in our version. W. H. Wells, citing as authorities for the doctrine, "Bullions, Allen and Cornwell, Brace, Butler, and Webber," has the following remark: "There are, however, certain forms of expression in which adverbs bear a special relation to nouns or pronouns; as, 'Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters.'--Gen. 6: 17. 'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power.'--1 Thes. 1: 5."--Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 156; late Ed., 168. And again, in his Punctuation, we find this: "When, however, the intervening word is an adverb, the comma is more commonly omitted; as, 'It is labor only which gives a relish to pleasure.'"--Ib., p. 176. From all this, the doctrine receives no better support than from Adam's suggestion above considered. The word "only" is often an adjective, and wherever its "special relation" is to a noun or a pronoun, it can be nothing else. "Even," when it introduces a word repeated with emphasis, is a conjunction.

OBS. 2.--When participles become nouns, their adverbs are not unfrequently left standing with them in their original relation; as, "For the fall and rising again of many in Israel."--Luke, ii, 34. "To denote the carrying forward of the action."--Barnard's Gram., p. 52. But in instances like these, the hyphen seems to be necessary. This mark would make the terms rising-again and carrying-forward compound nouns, and not participial nouns with adverbs relating to them.

"There is no flying hence, nor tarrying here."--Shak., Macbeth.

"What! in ill thoughts again? men must endure Their going hence, ev'n as their coming hither."--Id.

OBS. 3.--Whenever any of those words which are commonly used adverbially, are made to relate directly to nouns or pronouns, they must be reckoned adjectives, and parsed by Rule 9th. Examples: "The above verbs."--Dr. Adam. "To the above remarks."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 318. "The above instance."--Ib., p. 442. "After the above partial illustration."--Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., ii, 62. "The above explanation."--Cobbett's Gram., ¶ 22. "For very age."--Zech., viii, 4. "From its very greatness."--Phil. Museum, i, 431. "In his then situation."--Johnson's Life of Goldsmith. "This was the then state of Popery."--Id., Life of Dryden, p. 185. "The servant becomes the master of his once master."--Shillitoe. "Time when is put in the ablative, time how long is put in the accusative."--Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 201; Gould's, 198. "Nouns signifying the time when or how long, may be put in the objective case without a preposition."--Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 24. "I hear the far-off curfew sound."--Milton. "Far on the thither side."--Book of Thoughts, p. 58. "My hither way."--"Since my here remain in England."--Shak. "But short and seldom truce."--Fell. "An exceeding knave."--Pope. "According to my sometime promise."--Zenobia, i, 176. "Thine often infirmities."--Bible. "A far country."--Ib. "No wine,"--"No new thing,"--"No greater joy."--Ib. "Nothing else."--Blair. "Tomorrow noon."--Scott. "Calamity enough."--Tr. Sallust. "For thou only art holy."--Rev., xv, 4.

OBS. 4.--It is not my design to justify any uncouth substitution of adverbs for adjectives; nor do I affirm that all the foregoing examples are indisputably good English, though most of them are so; but merely, that the words, when they are thus used, are adjectives, and not adverbs. Lindley Murray, and his copyists, strongly condemn some of these expressions, and, by implication, most or all of them; but both he and they, as well as others, have repeatedly employed at least one of the very models they censure. They are too severe on all those which they specify. Their objections stand thus; "Such expressions as the following, though not destitute of authority, are very inelegant, and do not suit the idiom of our language; 'The then ministry,' for, 'the ministry of that time;' 'The above discourse,' for, 'the preceding discourse.'"--Murray's Gram., i, p. 198; Crombie's, 294; Ingersoll's, 206. "The following phrases are also exceptionable: 'The then ministry;' 'The above argument.'"--Kirkham's Gram., p. 190. "Adverbs used as adjectives, as, 'The above statement;' 'The then administration;' should be avoided."--Barnard's Gram., p. 285. "When and then must not be used for nouns and pronouns; thus, 'Since when,' 'since then,' 'the then ministry,' ought to be, 'Since which time,' 'since that time,' 'the ministry of that period.'"--Hiley's Gram., p. 96. Dr. Priestley, from whom Murray derived many of his critical remarks, noticed these expressions; and, (as I suppose,) approvingly; thus, "Adverbs are often put for adjectives, agreeably to the idiom of the Greek tongue: [as,] 'The action was amiss.'--'The then ministry.'--'The idea is alike in both.'--Addison. 'The above discourse.'--Harris."--Priestley's Gram., p. 135. Dr. Johnson, as may be seen above, thought it not amiss to use then as Priestley here cites it; and for such a use of above, we may quote the objectors themselves: "To support the above construction."--Murray's Gram., i, p. 149; Ingersoll's, p. 238. "In all the above instances."--Mur., p. 202; Ing., 230. "To the above rule."--Mur., p. 270; Ing., 283. "The same as the above."--Mur., p. 66; Ing., 46. "In such instances as the above."--Mur., p. 24; Ing., 9; Kirkham, 23.[427]

OBS. 5.--When words of an adverbial character are used after the manner of nouns, they must be parsed as nouns, and not as adverbs; as, "The Son of God--was not yea and nay, but in him was yea."--Bible. "For a great while to come."--Ib. "On this perhaps, this peradventure infamous for lies."--Young. "From the extremest upward of thine head."--Shak. "There are upwards of fifteen millions of inhabitants."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 266. "Information has been derived from upwards of two hundred volumes."--Worcester's Hist., p. v. "An eternal now does always last"--Cowley. "Discourse requires an animated no."--Cowper. "Their hearts no proud hereafter swelled."--Sprague. An adverb after a preposition is used substantively, and governed by the preposition; though perhaps it is not necessary to call it a common noun: as, "For upwards of thirteen years."--Hiley's Gram., p. xvi. "That thou mayst curse me them from thence."--Numb., xxiii, 27. "Yet for once we'll try."--Dr. Franklin. But many take such terms together, calling them "adverbial phrases." Allen says, "Two adverbs sometimes come together; as, 'Thou hast kept the good wine until now.'"--Gram., p. 174. But until is here more properly a preposition, governing now.

OBS. 6.--It is plain, that when words of an adverbial form are used either adjectively or substantively, they cannot be parsed by the foregoing rule, or explained as having the ordinary relation of adverbs; and if the unusual relation or character which they thus assume, be not thought sufficient to fix them in the rank of adjectives or nouns, the parser may describe them as adverbs used adjectively, or substantively, and apply the rule which their assumed construction requires. But let it be remembered, that adverbs, as such, neither relate to nouns, nor assume the nature of cases: but express the time, place, degree, or manner, of actions or qualities. In some instances in which their construction may seem not to be reconcilable with the common rule, there may be supposed an ellipsis of a verb or a participle:[428] as, "From Monday to Saturday inclusively."--Webster's Dict. Here, the Doctor ought to have used a comma after Saturday; for the adverb relates, not to that noun, but to the word reckoned, understood. "It was well said by Roscommon, 'too faithfully is pedantically.'"--Com. Sch. Journal, i, 167. This saying I suppose to mean, "To do a thing too faithfully, is, to do it pedantically." "And, [I say] truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned."--Heb., xi, 15.

OBS 7.--To abbreviate expressions, and give them vivacity, verbs of self-motion (such as go, come, rise, get, &c.) are sometimes suppressed, being suggested to the mind by an emphatic adverb, which seems to be put for the verb, but does in fact relate to it understood; as,

"I'll hence to London, on a serious matter."--Shak. Supply "go."

"I'll in. I'll in. Follow your friend's counsel. I'll in"--Id. Supply "get."

"Away, old man; give me thy hand; away."--Id. Supply "come."

"Love hath wings, and will away"--Waller. Supply "fly."

"Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho!"--Scott. Supply "spring."

"Henry the Fifth is crowned; up, vanity!" Supply "stand."

"Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!"--Shak. Supply "fall," and "get you."

"But up, and enter now into full bliss."--Milton. Supply "rise."

OBS. 8.--We have, on some occasions, a singular way of expressing a transitive action imperatively, or emphatically, by adding the preposition with to an adverb of direction; as, up with it, down with it, in with it, out with it, over with it, away with it, and the like; in which construction, the adverb seems to be used elliptically as above, though the insertion of the verb would totally enervate or greatly alter the expression. Examples: "She up with her fist, and took him on the face."--Sydney, in Joh. Dictionary. "Away with him!"--Acts, xxi, 36. "Away with such a fellow from the earth."--Ib., xxii, 22. "The calling of assemblies I cannot away with"--Isaiah, i, 13. "Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse."--Milton's Comus. Ingersoll says, "Sometimes a whole phrase is used as an interjection, and we call such interjectional phrases: as, out upon him!--away with him!--Alas, what wonder! &c."--Conversations on Gram., p. 79. This method of lumping together several different parts of speech under the notion of one, and calling the whole an "adverbial phrase," a "substantive phrase," or an "interjectional phrase," is but a forced put, by which some grammarians would dodge certain difficulties which they know not how to meet. It is directly repugnant to the idea of parsing; for the parser ever deals with the parts of speech as such, and not with whole phrases in the lump. The foregoing adverbs when used imperatively, have some resemblance to interjections; but, in some of the examples above cited, they certainly are not used in this manner.

OBS. 9.--A conjunctive adverb usually relates to two verbs at the same time, and thus connects two clauses of a compound sentence; as, "And the rest will I set in order when I come,"--1 Cor., xi, 34. Here when is a conjunctive adverb of time, and relates to the two verbs will set and come; the meaning being, "And the rest will I set in order at the time at which I come." This adverb when is often used erroneously in lieu of a nominative after is, to which construction of the word, such an interpretation as the foregoing would not be applicable; because the person means to tell, not when, but what, the thing is, of which he speaks: as, "Another cause of obscurity is when the structure of the sentence is too much complicated, or too artificial; or when the sense is too long suspended by parentheses."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 246. Here the conjunction that would be much better than when, but the sentence might advantageously spare them both; thus, "An other cause of obscurity is too much complication, too artificial a structure of the sentence, or too long a suspension of the sense by parenthesis."

OBS. 10.--For the placing of adverbs, no definite general rule can be given; yet is there no other part of speech so liable to be misplaced. Those which relate to adjectives, or to other adverbs, with very few exceptions, immediately precede them; and those which belong to compound verbs, are commonly placed after the first auxiliary; or, if they be emphatical, after the whole verb. Those which relate to simple verbs, or to simple participles, are placed sometimes before and sometimes after them. Examples are so very common, I shall cite but one: "A man may, in respect to grammatical purity, speak unexceptionably, and yet speak obscurely, or ambiguously; and though we cannot say, that a man may speak properly, and at the same time speak unintelligibly, yet this last case falls more naturally to be considered as an offence against perspicuity, than as a violation of propriety."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 239.

OBS. 11.--Of the infinitive verb and its preposition to, some grammarians say, that they must never be separated by an adverb. It is true, that the adverb is, in general, more elegantly placed before the preposition than after it; but, possibly, the latter position of it may sometimes contribute to perspicuity, which is more essential than elegance: as, "If any man refuse so to implore, and to so receive pardon, let him die the death."--Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 209. The latter word so, if placed like the former, might possibly be understood in a different sense from what it now bears. But perhaps it would be better to say. "If any man refuse so to implore, and on such terms to receive pardon, let him die the death." "Honour teaches us properly to respect ourselves."--Murray's Key, ii, 252. Here it is not quite clear, to which verb the adverb "properly" relates. Some change of the expression is therefore needful. The right to place an adverb sometimes between to and its verb, should, I think, be conceded to the poets: as,

"Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride."--BURNS: C. Sat. N.

OBS. 12.--The adverb no is used independently, only when it is equivalent to a whole sentence. This word is sometimes an adverb of degree; and as such it has this peculiarity, that it can relate only to comparatives: as, "No more,"--"No better,"--"No greater,"--"No sooner." When no is set before a noun, it is clearly an adjective, corresponding to the Latin nullus; as, "No clouds, no vapours intervene."--Dyer. Dr. Johnson, with no great accuracy, remarks, "It seems an adjective in these phrases, no longer, no more, no where; though sometimes it may be so commodiously changed to not, that it seems an adverb; as, 'The days are yet no shorter.'"--Quarto Dict. And his first example of what he calls the "adverb NO" is this: "'Our courteous Antony, Whom ne'er the word of no woman heard speak.' SHAKSPEARE."--Ibid. Dr. Webster says, "When it precedes where, as in no where, it may be considered as adverbial, though originally an adjective."--Octavo Dict. The truth is, that no is an adverb, whenever it relates to an adjective; an adjective, whenever it relates to a noun; and a noun, whenever it takes the relation of a case. Thus, in what Johnson cites from Shakspeare, it is a noun, and not an adverb; for the meaning is, that a woman never heard Antony speak the word of no--that is, of negation. And there ought to be a comma after this word, to make the text intelligible. To read it thus: "the word of no woman," makes no an adjective. So, to say, "There are no abler critics than these," is a very different thing from saying, "There are critics no abler than these;" because no is an adjective in the former sentence, and an adverb in the latter. Somewhere, nowhere, anywhere, else-where, and everywhere, are adverbs of place, each of which is composed of the noun where and an adjective; and it is absurd to write a part of them as compound words, and the rest as phrases, as many authors do.

OBS. 13.--In some languages, the more negatives one crowds into a sentence, the stronger is the negation; and this appears to have been formerly the case in English, or in what was anciently the language of Britain: as, "He never yet no vilanie ne sayde in alle his lif unto no manere wight."--Chaucer. "Ne I ne wol non reherce, yef that I may."--Id. "Give not me counsel; nor let no comforter delight mine ear."--Shakspeare. "She cannot love, nor take no shape nor project of affection."--Id. Among people of education, this manner of expression has now become wholly obsolete; though it still prevails, to some extent, in the conversation of the vulgar. It is to be observed, however, that the repetition of an independent negative word or clause yet strengthens the negation; as, "No, no, no."--"No, never."--"No, not for an hour."--Gal., ii, 5. "There is none righteous, no, not one."--Rom., iii, 10. But two negatives in the same clause, if they have any bearing on each other, destroy the negation, and render the meaning weakly affirmative; as, "Nor did they not perceive their evil plight."--Milton. That is, they did perceive it. "'His language, though inelegant, is not ungrammatical;' that is, it is grammatical."-- Murray's Gram., p. 198. The term not only, or not merely, being a correspondent to but or but also, may be followed by an other negative without this effect, because the two negative words have no immediate bearing on each other; as, "Your brother is not only not present, and not assisting in prosecuting your injuries, but is now actually with Verres."--Duncan's Cicero, p, 19. "In the latter we have not merely nothing, to denote what the point should be; but no indication, that any point at all is wanting."--Churchill's Gram., p. 373. So the word nothing, when taken positively for nonentity, or that which does not exist, may be followed by an other negative; as,

"First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race, Or else conclude that nothing has no place."--Dryden, p. 95.

OBS. 14.--The common rule of our grammars, "Two negatives, in English, destroy each other, or are equivalent to an affirmative," is far from being true of all possible examples. A sort of informal exception to it, (which is mostly confined to conversation,) is made by a familiar transfer of the word neither from the beginning of the clause to the end of it; as, "But here is no notice taken of that neither"--Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 336. That is, "But neither is any notice here taken of that." Indeed a negation may be repeated, by the same word or others, as often as we please, if no two of the terms in particular contradict each other; as, "He will never consent, not he, no, never, nor I neither." "He will not have time, no, nor capacity neither."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 103. "Many terms and idioms may be common, which, nevertheless, have not the general sanction, no, nor even the sanction of those that use them."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 160; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 358. And as to the equivalence spoken of in the same rule, such an expression as, "He did not say nothing," is in fact only a vulgar solecism, take it as you will; whether for, "He did not say anything," or for, "He did say something." The latter indeed is what the contradiction amounts to; but double negatives must be shunned, whenever they seem like blunders. The following examples have, for this reason, been thought objectionable; though Allen says, "Two negatives destroy each other, or elegantly form an affirmation."--Gram., p. 174.

------------"Nor knew I not To be both will and deed created free." --Milton, P. L., B. v., l. 548.

"Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs." --Ib., B. v, l. 421.

OBS. 15.--Under the head of double negatives, there appears in our grammars a dispute of some importance, concerning the adoption of or or nor, when any other negative than neither or nor occurs in the preceding clause or phrase: as, "We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image."--Dan., iii., 18. "Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem."--Neh., ii, 20. "There is no painsworthy difficulty nor dispute about them."--Horne Tooke, Div., Vol. i, p. 43. "So as not to cloud that principal object, nor to bury it."--Blair's Rhet., p. 115; Murray's Gram., p. 322. "He did not mention Leonora, nor her father's death."--Murray's Key, p. 264. "Thou canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth."--Ib., p. 215. The form of this text, in John iii, 8th. is--"But canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth;" which Murray inserted in his exercises as bad English. I do not see that the copulative and is here ungrammatical; but if we prefer a disjunctive, ought it not to be or rather than nor? It appears to be the opinion of some, that in ail these examples, and in similar instances innumerable, nor only is proper. Others suppose, that or only is justifiable; and others again, that either or or nor is perfectly correct. Thus grammar, or what should be grammar, differs in the hands of different men! The principle to be settled here, must determine the correctness or incorrectness of a vast number of very common expressions. I imagine that none of these opinions is warrantable, if taken in all that extent to which each of them has been, or may be, carried.

OBS. 16.--It was observed by Priestley, and after him by Lindley Murray, from whom others again have copied the remark: "Sometimes the particles or and nor, may, either of them, be used with nearly equal propriety; [as,] 'The king, whose character was not sufficiently vigorous, nor decisive, assented to the measure.'--Hume. Or would perhaps have been better, but nor seems to repeat the negation in the former part of the sentence, and therefore gives more emphasis to the expression."-- Priestley's Gram., p. 138; Murray's, i, 212; Ingersoll's, 268; R. C. Smith's, 177. The conjunction or might doubtless have been used in this sentence, but not with the same meaning that is now conveyed; for, if that connective had been employed, the adjective decisive would have been qualified by the adverb sufficiently, and would have seemed only an alternative for the former epithet, vigorous. As the text now stands, it not only implies a distinction between vigour of character and decision of character, but denies the latter to the king absolutely, the former, with qualification. If the author had meant to suggest such a distinction, and also to qualify his denial of both, he ought to have said--"not sufficiently vigorous, nor sufficiently decisive." With this meaning, however, he might have used neither for not; or with the former, he might have used or for nor, had he transposed the terms--"was not decisive, or sufficiently vigorous."

OBS. 17.--In the tenth edition of John Burn's Practical Grammar, published at Glasgow, in 1810, are the following suggestions: "It is not uncommon to find the conjunctions or and nor used indiscriminately; but if there be any real distinction in the proper application of them, it is to be wished that it were settled. It is attempted thus:--Let the conjunction or be used simply to connect the members of a sentence, or to mark distribution, opposition, or choice, without any preceding negative particle; and nor to mark the subsequent part of a negative sentence, with some negative particle in the preceding part of it. Examples of OR: 'Recreation of one kind or other is absolutely necessary to relieve the body or mind from too constant attention to labour or study.'--'After this life, succeeds a state of rewards or punishments.'--'Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love?' Examples of NOR: 'Let no man be too confident, nor too diffident of his own abilities.'--'Never calumniate any man, nor give the least encouragement to calumniators.'--'There is not a Christian duty to which providence has not annexed a blessing, nor any affliction for which a remedy is not provided.' If the above distinction be just, the following passage seems to be faulty:

'Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.' Milton, P. L., B. iii, l. 40.--"Burn's Gr., p. 108.

OBS. 18.--T. O. Churchill, whose Grammar first appeared in London in 1823, treats this matter thus: "As or answers to either, nor, a compound of not or [ne or] by contraction, answers to neither, a similar compound of not either [ne either]. The latter however does not constitute that double use of the negative, in which one, agreeably to the principles of philosophical grammar, destroys the other; for a part of the first word, neither, cannot be understood before the second, nor: and for the same reason a part of it could not be understood before or, which is sometimes improperly used in the second clause; while the whole of it, neither, would be obviously improper before or. On the other hand, when not is used in the first clause, nor is improper in the second; since it would involve the impropriety of understanding not before a compound of not [or ne] with or. 'I shall not attempt to convince, nor to persuade you.--What will you not attempt?--To convince, nor to persuade you.' The impropriety of nor in this answer is clear: but the answer should certainly repeat the words not heard, or not understood."--Churchill's New Gram., p. 330.

OBS. 19.--"It is probable, that the use of nor after not has been introduced, in consequence of such improprieties as the following: 'The injustice of inflicting death for crimes, when not of the most heinous nature, or attended with extenuating circumstances.' Here it is obviously not the intention of the writer, to understand the negative in the last clause: and, if this were good English, it would be not merely allowable to employ nor after not, to show the subsequent clause to be negative as well as the preceding, but it would always be necessary. In fact, however, the sentence quoted is faulty, in not repeating the adverb when in the last clause; 'or when attended:' which would preclude the negative from being understood in it; for, if an adverb, conjunction, or auxiliary verb, preceding a negative, be understood in the succeeding clause, the negative is understood also; if it be repeated, the negative must be repeated likewise, or the clause becomes affirmative."--Ib., p. 330.

OBS. 20.--This author, proceeding with his remarks, suggests forms of correction for several other common modes of expression, which he conceives to be erroneous. For the information of the student, I shall briefly notice a little further the chief points of his criticism, though he teaches some principles which I have not thought it necessary always to observe in writing. "'And seemed not to understand ceremony, or to despise it.' Goldsmith. Here either ought to be inserted before not. 'It is not the business of virtue, to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.' Addison. The sentence ought to have been: 'It is the business of virtue, not to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.' 'I do not think, that he was averse to the office; nor do I believe, that it was unsuited to him.' How much better to say: 'I do not think, that he was averse to the office, or that it was unsuited to him!' For the same reason nor cannot follow never, the negative in the first clause affecting all the rest."--Ib. p. 332. "Nor is sometimes used improperly after no: [as,] 'I humbly however trust in God, that I have hazarded no conjecture, nor have given any explanation of obscure points, inconsistent with the general sense of Scripture, which must be our guide in all dubious passages.' Gilpin. It ought to be: 'and have given no explanation;' or, 'I have neither hazarded any conjecture, nor given any explanation.' The use of or after neither is as common, as that of nor after no or not.[429] 'Neither the pencil or poetry are adequate.' Coxe. Properly, 'Neither the pencil nor poetry is adequate.' 'The vow of poverty allowed the Jesuits individually, to have no idea of wealth.' Dornford. We cannot allow a nonentity. It should be: 'did not allow, to have any idea.'"--Ib., p. 333.

OBS. 21.--Thus we see that Churchill wholly and positively condemns nor after not, no, or never; while Burn totally disapproves of or, under the same circumstances. Both of these critics are wrong, because each carries his point too far; and yet it may not be right, to suppose both particles to be often equally good. Undoubtedly, a negation may be repeated in English without impropriety, and that in several different ways: as, "There is no living, none, if Bertram be away."--Beauties of Shak., p. 3. "Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged [always] understand judgement."--Job, xxxii, 9. "Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength."--Job, xxxiv. 19. Some sentences, too, require or, and others nor, even when a negative occurs in a preceding clause; as, "There was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words."--Job, xxxii, 12. "How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor."--Job, xxxiv, 19. "This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep."--Neh., viii, 9. "Men's behaviour should be like their apparel, not too straight or point-de-vise, but free for exercise."--Ld. Bacon. Again, the mere repetition of a simple negative is, on some occasions, more agreeable than the insertion of any connective; as, "There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves."--Job, xxxiv, 22. Better: "There is no darkness, no shadow of death, wherein the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." "No place nor any object appears to him void of beauty."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 255. Better: "No place, no object, appears to him void of beauty." That passage from Milton which Burn supposes to be faulty, and that expression of Addison's which Churchill dislikes, are, in my opinion, not incorrect as they stand; though, doubtless, the latter admits of the variation proposed. In the former, too, or may twice be changed to nor, where the following nouns are nominatives; but to change it throughout, would not be well, because the other nouns are objectives governed by of:

"Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, nor the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Nor sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine."

OBS. 22.--Ever and never are directly opposite to each other in sense, and yet they are very frequently confounded and misapplied, and that by highly respectable writers; as, "Seldom, or never can we expect," &c.--Blair's Lectures, p. 305. "And seldom, or ever, did any one rise, &c."--Ib., p. 272. "Seldom, or never, is[430] there more than one accented syllable in any English word."--Ib., p. 329. "Which that of the present seldom or ever is understood to be."--Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., Vol. ii, p. 120. Here never is right, and ever is wrong. It is time, that is here spoken of; and the affirmative ever, meaning always, or at any time, in stead of being a fit alternative for seldom, makes nonsense of the sentence, and violates the rule respecting the order and fitness of time: unless we change or to if, and say, "seldom, if ever." But in sentences like the following, the adverb appears to express, not time, but degree; and for the latter sense ever is preferable to never, because the degree ought to be possible, rather than impossible: "Ever so little of the spirit of martyrdom is always a more favourable indication to civilization, than ever so much dexterity of party management, or ever so turbulent protestation of immaculate patriotism."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 411. "Now let man reflect but never so little on himself."--Burlamaqui, on Law, p. 29. "Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."--Ps., lviii, 5. The phrase ever so, (which ought, I think, to be written as one word,) is now a very common expression to signify in whatsoever degree; as, "everso little,"--"everso much,"--"everso wise,"--"everso wisely." And it is manifestly this, and not time, that is intended by the false phraseology above;--"a form of speech handed down by the best writers, but lately accused, I think with justice, of solecism. * * * It can only be defended by supplying a very harsh and unprecedented ellipsis."--Johnson's Dict., w. Never.

OBS. 23.--Dr. Lowth seconds this opinion of Johnson, respecting the phrase, "never so wisely," and says, "It should be, 'ever so wisely;' that is, 'how wisely soever.'" To which he adds an other example somewhat different: "'Besides, a slave would not have been admitted into that society, had he had never such opportunities.' Bentley."--Lowth's Gram., p. 109. This should be, "had he had everso excellent opportunities." But Churchill, mistaking the common explanation of the meaning of everso for the manner of parsing or resolving it, questions the propriety of the term, and thinks it easier to defend the old phrase never so; in which he supposes never to be an adverb of time, and not to relate to so, which is an adverb of degree; saying, "'Be it never so true,' is resolvable into, 'Be it so true, as never any thing was.'[431] 'I have had never so much trouble on this occasion,' may be resolved into, 'I have never had so much trouble, as on this occasion:' while, 'I have had ever so much trouble on this occasion, cannot be resolved, without supplying some very harsh and unprecedented ellipsis indeed."--New Gram., p. 337, Why not? I see no occasion at all for supposing any ellipsis. Ever is here an adverb of degree, and relates to so; or, if we take everso as one word, this too is an adverb of degree, and relates to much: because the meaning is--"everso much trouble." But the other phraseology, even as it stands in Churchill's explanations, is a solecism still; nor can any resolution which supposes never to be here an adverb of time, be otherwise. We cannot call that a grammatical resolution, which makes a different sense from that which the writer intended: as, "A slave would not have been admitted into that society, had he never had such opportunities." This would be Churchill's interpretation, but it is very unlike what Bentley says above. So, 'I have never had so much trouble,' and, 'I have had everso much trouble,' are very different assertions.

OBS. 24.--On the word never, Dr. Johnson remarks thus: "It seems in some phrases to have the sense of an adjective, [meaning,] not any; but in reality it is not ever: [as,] 'He answered him to never a word.' MATTHEW, xxvii, 14."--Quarto Dict. This mode of expression was formerly very common, and a contracted form of it is still frequently heard among the vulgar: as, "Because he'd ne'er an other tub."--Hudibras, p. 102. That is, "Because he had no other tub." "Letter nor line know I never a one."--Scott's Lay of L. M., p. 27. This is what the common people pronounce "ne'er a one," and use in stead of neither or no one. In like manner they contract ever a one into "e'er a one;" by which they mean either or any one. These phrases are the same that somebody--(I believe it is Smith, in his Inductive Grammar--) has ignorantly written "ary one" and "nary one" calling them vulgarisms.[432] Under this mode of spelling, the critic had an undoubted right to think the terms unauthorized! In the compounds of whoever or whoe'er, whichever or whiche'er, whatever or whate'er, the word ever or e'er, which formerly stood separate, appears to be an adjective, rather than an adverb; though, by becoming part of the pronoun, it has now technically ceased to be either.

OBS. 25.--The same may be said of soever or soe'er, which is considered as only a part of an other word even when it is written separately; as, "On which side soever I cast my eyes." In Mark, iii, 28th, wherewithsoever is commonly printed as two words; but Alger, in his Pronouncing Bible, more properly makes it one. Dr. Webster, in his grammars, calls soever a WORD; but, in his dictionaries, he does not define it as such. "The word soever may be interposed between the attribute and the name; 'how clear soever this idea of infinity,'--'how remote soever it may seem.'--LOCKE."--Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 154; Improved Gram., p. 107. "SOEVER, so and ever, found in compounds, as in whosoever, whatsoever, wheresoever. See these words."--Webster's Dict., 8vo.

OBS. 26.--The word only, (i.e., onely, or onelike,) when it relates to a noun or a pronoun, is a definitive adjective, meaning single, alone, exclusive of others; as, "The only man,"--"The only men,"--"Man only,"--"Men only,"--"He only,"--"They only." When it relates to a verb or a participle, it is an adverb of manner, and means simply, singly, merely, barely; as, "We fancy that we hate flattery, when we only hate the manner of it."--Art of Thinking, p. 38. "A disinterested love of one's country can only subsist in small republics."--Ib., p. 56. When it stands at the head of a clause, it is commonly a connective word, equivalent to but, or except that; in which sense, it must be called a conjunction, or at least a conjunctive adverb, which is nearly the same thing; as, "Only they would that we should remember the poor."--Gal., ii, 10. "For these signs are prepositions, only they are of more constant use than the rest."--Ward's Gram., p. 129.

OBS. 27.--Among our grammarians, the word "only" often passes for an adverb, when it is in fact an adjective. Such a mistake in this single word, has led Churchill to say of the adverb in general, "It's place is for the most part before adjectives, after nouns, and after verbs;" &c.--New Gram., p. 147. But, properly, the placing of adverbs has nothing to do with "nouns," because adverbs do not relate to nouns. In this author's example, "His arm only was bare," there is no adverb; and, where he afterwards speaks of the latitude allowable in the placing of adverbs, alleging, "It is indifferent whether we say, 'He bared his arm only;' or, 'He bared only his arm,'" the word only is an adjective, in one instance, if not in both. With this writer, and some others, the syntax of an adverb centres mainly in the suggestion, that, "It's propriety and force depend on it's position."--Ib., p. 147. Illustration: "Thus people commonly say; 'I only spoke three words:' which properly implies, that I, and no other person, spoke three words: when the intention of the speaker requires: 'I spoke only three words; that is, no more than three words.'"--Ib., p. 327. One might just as well say, "I spoke three words only." But the interpretation above is hypercritical, and contrary to that which the author himself gives in his note on the other example, thus: "Any other situation of the adverb would make a difference. 'He only bared his arm;' would imply, that he did nothing more than bare his arm. 'Only he bared his arm;' must refer to a preceding part of the sentence, stating something, to which the act of baring his arm was an exception; as, 'He did it in the same manner, only he bared his arm.' If only were placed immediately before arm; as, 'He bared his only arm;' it would be an adjective, and signify, that he had but one arm."--Ib., p. 328. Now are not, "I only spoke three words," and, "He only bared his arm," analogous expressions? Is not the former as good English as the latter? Only, in both, is most naturally conceived to belong to the verb; but either may be read in such a manner as to make it an adjective belonging to the pronoun.

OBS. 28.--The term not but is equivalent to two negatives that make an affirmative; as, "Not but that it is a wide place."--Walker's Particles, p. 89. "Non quo non latus locus sit."--Cic. Ac., iv, 12. It has already been stated, that cannot but is equal to must; as, "It is an affection which cannot but be productive of some distress."--Blair's Rhet., p. 461. It seems questionable, whether but is not here an adverb, rather than a conjunction. However this may be, by the customary (but faulty) omission of the negative before but, in some other sentences, that conjunction has acquired the adverbial sense of only; and it may, when used with that signification, be called an adverb. Thus, the text, "He hath not grieved me but in part." (2 Cor., ii, 5,) might drop the negative not, and still convey the same meaning: "He hath grieved me but in part;" i.e., "only in part." In the following examples, too, but appears to be an adverb, like only: "Things but slightly connected should not be crowded into one sentence."--Murray's Octavo Gram., Index. "The assertion, however, serves but to show their ignorance."--Webster's Essays, p. 96.

"Reason itself but gives it edge and power."--Pope.

"Born but to die, and reasoning but to err."--Id.

OBS. 29.--In some constructions of the word but, there is a remarkable ambiguity; as, "There cannot be but one capital musical pause in a line."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 92. "A line admits but one capital pause."--Ibid. Thus does a great critic, in the same paragraph, palpably contradict himself, and not perceive it. Both expressions are equivocal. He ought rather to have said: "A line admits no more than one capital pause."--"There cannot be more than one capital musical pause in a line." Some would say--"admits only one"--"there can be only one." But here, too, is some ambiguity; because only may relate either to one, or to the preceding verb. The use of only for but or except that, is not noticed by our lexicographers; nor is it, in my opinion, a practice much to be commended, though often adopted by men that pretend to write grammatically: as, "Interrogative pronouns are the same as relative, ONLY their antecedents cannot be determined till the answer is given to the question."--Comly's Gram., p. 16. "A diphthong is always long; as, Aurum, Cæsar, &c. ONLY præ, in composition before a vowel is commonly short."--Adam's Gram., p. 254; Gould's, 246.

OBS. 30.--It is said by some grammarians, that, "The adverb there is often used as an expletive, or as a word that adds nothing to the sense; in which case, it precedes the verb and the nominative; as, 'There is a person at the door.'"--Murray's Gram., p. 197; Ingersoll's, 205; Greenleaf's, 33; Nixon's Parser, p. 53. It is true, that in our language the word there is thus used idiomatically, as an introductory term, when we tell what is taking, or has taken, place; but still it is a regular adverb of place, and relates to the verb agreeably to the common rule for adverbs. In some instances it is even repeated in the same sentence, because, in its introductory sense, it is always unemphatical; as, "Because there was pasture there for their flocks."--1 Chron., iv, 41. "If there be indistinctness or disorder there, we can have no success."--Blair's Rhet., p. 271. "There, there are schools adapted to every age."--Woodbridge, Lit. Conv., p. 78. The import of the word is more definite, when emphasis is laid upon it; but this is no good reason for saying, with Dr. Webster, that it is "without signification," when it is without emphasis; or, with Dr. Priestley, that it "seems to have no meaning whatever, except it be thought to give a small degree of emphasis."--Rudiments of E. Gram., p. 135.

OBS. 31.--The noun place itself is just as loose and variable in its meaning as the adverb there. For example; "There is never any difference;" i.e., "No difference ever takes place." Shall we say that "place," in this sense, is not a noun of place? To take place, is, to occur somewhere, or anywhere; and the unemphatic word there is but as indefinite in respect to place, as these other adverbs of place, or as the noun itself. S. B. Goodenow accounts it a great error, to say that there is an adverb of place, when it is thus indefinite; and he chooses to call it an "indefinite pronoun," as, "'What is there here?'--'There is no peace.'--'What need was there of it?'" See his Gram., p. 3 and p. 11. In treating of the various classes of adverbs, I have admitted and shown, that here, there, and where, have sometimes the nature of pronouns, especially in such compounds as hereof, thereof, whereof; but in this instance, I see not what advantage there is in calling there a "pronoun:" we have just as much reason to call here and where pronouns--and that, perhaps, on all occasions. Barnard says, "In the sentence, 'There is one glory of the sun,' &c., the adverb there qualifies the verb is, and seems to have the force of an affirmation, like truly"--Analytical Gram., p. 234. But an adverb of the latter kind may be used with the word there, and I perceive no particular similarity between them: as, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous."--Psal., lviii, 11. "Truly there is a glory of the sun."

OBS. 32.--There is a vulgar error of substituting the adverb most for almost, as in the phrases, "most all,"--"most anywhere,"--"most every day,"--which we sometimes hear for "almost all,"--"almost anywhere,"--"almost every day." The fault is gross, and chiefly colloquial, but it is sometimes met with in books; as, "But thinking he had replied most too rashly, he said, 'I won't answer your question.'"--Wagstaff's History of Friends, Vol. i, p. 207.

NOTES TO RULE XXI.

NOTE I.--Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the sentence the most perspicuous and agreeable. Example of error: "We are in no hazard of mistaking the sense of the author, though every word which he uses be not precise and exact."--Blair's Rhet., p. 95; Jamieson's, 66. Murray says,--"though every word which he uses is not precise and exact."--Octavo Gram., p. 302. Better:--"though not every word which he uses, is precise and exact."

NOTE II.--Adverbs should not be needlessly used for adjectives; nor should they be employed when quality is to be expressed, and not manner: as, "That the now copies of the original text are entire."--S. Fisher. Say, "the present copies," or, "the existing copies." "The arrows of calumny fall harmlessly at the feet of virtue."--Murray's Key, p. 167; Merchant's Gram., 186; Ingersoll's, 10; Kirkham's, 24. Say, "fall harmless;" as in this example: "The impending black cloud, which is regarded with so much dread, may pass by harmless."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 262.

NOTE III.--With a verb of motion, most grammarians prefer hither, thither, and whither, to here, there, and where, which are in common use, and perhaps allowable, though not so good; as, "Come hither, Charles,"--or, "Come here."

NOTE IV.--"To the adverbs hence, thence, and whence, the preposition from is frequently (though not with strict propriety) prefixed; as, from hence, from whence."--See W. Allen's Gram., p. 174. Some critics, however, think this construction allowable, notwithstanding the former word is implied in the latter. See Priestley's Gram., p. 134; and L. Murray's, p. 198. It is seldom elegant to use any word needlessly.

NOTE V.--The adverb how should not be used before the conjunction that, nor in stead of it; as, "He said how he would go."--"Ye see how that not many wise men are called." Expunge how. This is a vulgar error. Somewhat similar is the use of how for lest or that not; as, "Be cautious how you offend him, i.e., that you do not offend him."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 175.

NOTE VI.--The adverb when, while, or where, is not fit to follow the verb is in a definition, or to introduce a clause taken substantively; because it expresses identity, not of being, but of time or place: as, "Concord, is when one word agrees with another in some accidents."--Adam's Gram., p. 151; Gould's, 155. Say, "Concord is the agreement of one word with an other in some accident or accidents."

NOTE VII.--The adverb no should not be used with reference to a verb or a participle. Such expressions as, "Tell me whether you will go or no," are therefore improper: no should be not; because the verb go is understood after it. The meaning is, "Tell me whether you will go or will not go;" but nobody would think of saying, "Whether you will go or no go."

NOTE VIII.--A negation, in English, admits but one negative word; because two negatives in the same clause, usually contradict each other, and make the meaning affirmative. The following example is therefore ungrammatical: "For my part, I love him not, nor hate him not."--Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 16. Expunge the last not, or else change nor to and.

NOTE IX.--The words ever and never should be carefully distinguished according to their sense, and not confounded with each other in their application. Example: "The Lord reigneth, be the earth never so unquiet."--Experience of St. Paul, p. 195. Here, I suppose, the sense to require everso, an adverb of degree: "Be the earth everso unquiet." That is,--"unquiet in whatever degree."

NOTE X.--Adverbs that end in ly, are in general preferable to those forms which, for want of this distinction, may seem like adjectives misapplied. Example: "There would be scarce any such thing in nature as a folio."--Addison. Better:--"scarcely."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXI.

EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--THE PLACING OF ADVERBS.

"All that is favoured by good use, is not proper to be retained."--Murray's Gram., ii, p. 296.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the adverb not is not put in the most suitable place. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 21st, "Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the sentence the most perspicuous and agreeable." The sentence will be improved by placing not before all; thus, "Not all that is favoured by good use, is proper to be retained."]

"Every thing favoured by good use, [is] not on that account worthy to be retained."--Ib., i, 369; Campbell's Rhet., p. 179. "Most men dream, but all do not."--Beattie's Moral Science, i, 72. "By hasty composition, we shall acquire certainly a very bad style."--Blair's Rhet., p. 191. "The comparisons are short, touching on one point only of resemblance."--Ib., p. 416. "Having had once some considerable object set before us."--Ib., p. 116. "The positive seems improperly to be called a degree."--Adam's Gram., p. 69; Gould's, 68. "In some phrases the genitive is only used."--Adam, 159; Gould, 161. "This blunder is said actually to have occurred."--Smith's Inductive Gram., p. 5. "But every man is not called James, nor every woman Mary."--Buchanan's Gram., p. 15. "Crotchets are employed for the same purpose nearly as the parenthesis."--Churchill's Gram., p. 167. "There is still a greater impropriety in a double comparative."--Priestley's Gram., p. 78. "We have often occasion to speak of time."--Lowth's Gram., p. 39. "The following sentence cannot be possibly understood."--Ib., p. 104. "The words must be generally separated from the context."--Comly's Gram., p. 155. "Words ending in ator have the accent generally on the penultimate."--Murray's Gram., i, 239. "The learned languages, with respect to voices, moods, and tenses, are, in general, differently constructed from the English tongue."--Ib., i, 101. "Adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express compendiously in one word, what must otherwise have required two or more."--Ib., i, 114. "But it is only so, when the expression can be converted into the regular form of the possessive case."--Ib., i, 174. "Enter, (says he) boldly, for here too there are gods."--Harris's Hermes, p. 8. "For none work for ever so little a pittance that some cannot be found to work for less."--Sedgwick's Economy, p. 190. "For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again."--Luke, vi, 34. "They must be viewed exactly in the same light."--Murray's Gram., ii, 24. "If he does but speak to display his abilities, he is unworthy of attention."--Ib., Key, ii, 207.

UNDER NOTE II.--ADVERBS FOR ADJECTIVES.

"Motion upwards is commonly more agreeable than motion downwards."--Blair's Rhet., p. 48. "There are but two ways possibly of justification before God."--Dr. Cox, on Quakerism, p. 413. "This construction sounds rather harshly."--Murray's Gram., i, 194; Ingersoll's, 199. "A clear conception in the mind of the learner, of regularly and well-formed letters."--Com. School Journal, i, 66. "He was a great hearer of * * * Attalus, Sotion, Papirius, Fabianus, of whom he makes often mention."--Seneca's Morals, p. 11. "It is only the Often doing of a thing that makes it a Custom."--Divine Right of Tythes, p. 72. "Because W. R. takes oft occasion to insinuate his jealousies of persons and things."--Barclay's Works, i, 570. "Yet often touching will wear gold."--Beauties of Shak., p. 18. "Uneducated persons frequently use an adjective, when they ought to use an adverb: as, 'The country looks beautiful;' instead of beautifully."--Bucke's Gram., p. 84. "The adjective is put absolutely, or without its substantive."--Ash's Gram., p. 57. "A noun or pronoun in the second person, may be put absolutely in the nominative case."--Harrison's Gram., p. 45. "A noun or pronoun, when put absolutely with a participle," &c.--Ib., p. 44; Jaudon's Gram., 108. "A verb in the infinitive mood absolute, stands independently of the remaining part of the sentence."--Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 24. "At my return lately into England, I met a book intituled: 'The Iron Age.'"--Cowley's Preface, p. v. "But he can discover no better foundation for any of them, than the practice merely of Homer and Virgil."--Kames, El. of Criticism, Introd., p. xxv.

UNDER NOTE III--HERE FOR HITHER, &c.

"It is reported that the governour will come here to-morrow."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 196. "It has been reported that the governour will come here to-morrow."--Ib., Key, p. 227. "To catch a prospect of that lovely land where his steps are tending."--Maturin's Sermons, p. 244. "Plautus makes one of his characters ask another where he is going with that Vulcan shut up in a horn; that is, with a lanthorn in his hand."--Adams's Rhet. ii, 331. "When we left Cambridge, we intended to return there in a few days."--Anonym. "Duncan comes here to-night."--Shak., Macbeth. "They talked of returning here last week."--J. M. Putnam's Gram., p. 116.

UNDER NOTE IV.--FROM HENCE, &c.

"From hence he concludes that no inference can be drawn from the meaning of the word, that a constitution has a higher authority than a law or statute."--Webster's Essays, p. 67. "From whence we may likewise date the period of this event."--Murray's Key, ii, p. 202. "From hence it becomes evident, that LANGUAGE, taken in the most comprehensive view, implies certain Sounds, having certain Meanings."--Harris's Hermes, p. 315. "They returned to the city from whence they came out."--Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 135. "Respecting ellipses, some grammarians differ strangely in their ideas; and from thence has arisen a very whimsical diversity in their systems of grammar."--Author. "What am I and from whence? i.e. what am I, and from whence am I?"--Jaudon's Gram., p. 171.

UNDER NOTE V.--THE ADVERB HOW.

"It is strange how a writer, so accurate as Dean Swift, should have stumbled on so improper an application of this particle."--Blair's Rhet., p. 112. "Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us," &c.--Acts, xv, 7. "Let us take care how we sin; i.e. that we do not sin."--Priestley's Gram., p. 135. "We see by these instances, how prepositions may be necessary to connect those words, which in their signification are not naturally connected."--Murray's Gram., p. 118. "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"--2 Cor., xiii, 5. "That thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's."--Exod., ix, 29.

UNDER NOTE VI.--WHEN, WHILE, OR WHERE.

"Ellipsis is when one or more words are wanting, to complete the sense."--Adam's Gram., p. 235; Gould's, p. 229; B. F. Fisk's Greek Gram.. 184. "Pleonasm is when a word more is added than is absolutely necessary to express the sense."--Same works. "Hyst~eron prot~eron is when that is put in the former part of the sentence, which, according to the sense, should be in the latter."--Adam, p. 237; Gould, 230. "Hysteron proteron, n. A rhetorical figure when that is said last which was done first."--Webster's Dict. "A Barbarism is when a foreign or strange word is made use of."--Adam's Gram., p. 242; Gould's, 234. "A Solecism is when the rules of Syntax are transgressed."--Iidem, ib. "An Idiotism is when the manner of expression peculiar to one language is used in another."--Iid., ib. "Tautology is when we either uselessly repeat the same words, or repeat the same sense in different words."--Adam, p. 243; Gould, 238. "Bombast is when high sounding words are used without meaning, or upon a trifling occasion."--Iid., ib. "Amphibology is when, by the ambiguity of the construction, the meaning may be taken in two different senses."--Iid., ib. "Irony is when one means the contrary of what is said."--Adam, p. 247; Gould, 237. "The Periphrasis, or Circumlocution, is when several words are employed to express what might be expressed in fewer."--Iid., ib. "Hyperbole is when a thing is magnified above the truth,"--Adam, p. 249; Gould, 240. "Personification is when we ascribe life, sentiments, or actions, to inanimate beings, or to abstract qualities."--Iid., ib. "Apostrophe, or Address, is when the speaker breaks off from the series of his discourse, and addresses himself to some person present or absent, living or dead, or to inanimate nature, as if endowed with sense and reason."--Iid., ib. "A Simile or Comparison is when the resemblance between two objects, whether real or imaginary, is expressed in form."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 223. "Simile, or Comparison, is when one thing is illustrated or heightened by comparing it to another."--Adam's Gram., p. 250; Gould's, 240. "Antithesis, or Opposition, is when things contrary or different are contrasted, to make them appear in the more striking light."--Iid., ib. "Description, or Imagery, [is] when any thing is painted in a lively manner, as if done before our eyes."--Adam's Gram., p. 250. "Emphasis is when a particular stress is laid on some word in a sentence."--Ib. "Epanorthosis, or Correction, is when the speaker either recalls or corrects what he had last said."--Ib. "Paralepsis, or Omission, is when one pretends to omit or pass by, what he at the same time declares."--Ib. "Incrementum, or Climax in sense, is when one member rises above another to the highest."--Ib., p. 251. "A Metonymy is where the cause is put for the effect, or the effect for the cause; the container for the thing contained; or the sign for the thing signified."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 223. "Agreement is when one word is like another in number, case, gender, or person."--Frost's Gram., p. 43; Greenleaf's, 32. "Government is when one word causes another to be in some particular number, person, or case."--Webster's Imp. Gram., p. 89; Greenleaf's, 32; Frost's, 43. "Fusion is while some solid substance is converted into a fluid by heat."--B. "A Proper Diphthong is where both the Vowels are sounded together; as, oi in Voice, ou in House."-- Fisher's Gram., p. 10. "An Improper Diphthong is where the Sound of but one of the two Vowels is heard; as e in People."--Ib., p. 11.

UNDER NOTE VII.--THE ADVERB NO FOR NOT.

"An adverb is joined to a verb to show how, or whether or no, or when, or where one is, does, or suffers."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. 62. "We must be immortal, whether we will or no."--Maturin's Sermons, p. 33. "He cares not whether the world was made for Cæsar or no."--American Quarterly Review. "I do not know whether they are out or no."--Byron's Letters. "Whether it can be proved or no, is not the thing."--Butler's Analogy, p. 84. "Whether or no he makes use of the means commanded by God."--Ib.,, p. 164. "Whether it pleases the world or no, the care is taken."-- L'Estrange's Seneca, p. 5. "How comes this to be never heard of nor in the least questioned, whether the Law was undoubtedly of Moses's writing or no?"--Bp. Tomline's Evidences, p. 44. "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not."--John, ix, 25. "Can I make men live, whether they will or no?"--Shak.

"Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they serve Willing or no, who will but what they must?"--Milton, P. L.

UNDER NOTE VIII.--OF DOUBLE NEGATIVES.

"We need not, nor do not, confine the purposes of God."--Bentley. "I cannot by no means allow him that."--Idem. "We must try whether or no we cannot increase the Attention by the Help of the Senses."--Brightland's Gram., p. 263. "There is nothing more admirable nor more useful."--Horne Tooke, Vol. i, p. 20. "And what in no time to come he can never be said to have done, he can never be supposed to do."--Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 345. "No skill could obviate, nor no remedy dispel, the terrible infection."--Goldsmith's Greece, i, 114. "Prudery cannot be an indication neither of sense nor of taste."--Spurzheim, on Education, p. 21. "But that scripture, nor no other, speaks not of imperfect faith."--Barclay's Works, i, 172. "But this scripture, nor none other, proves not that faith was or is always accompanied with doubting."--Ibid. "The light of Christ is not nor cannot be darkness."--Ib., p. 252. "Doth not the Scripture, which cannot lie, give none of the saints this testimony?"--Ib., p. 379. "Which do not continue, nor are not binding."--Ib., Vol. iii. p. 79. "It not being perceived directly no more than the air."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 331. "Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray."--Shak., Shrew. "Where there is no marked nor peculiar character in the style."--Blair's Rhet., p. 175. "There can be no rules laid down, nor no manner recommended."--Sheridan's Lect., p. 163.

"Bates. 'He hath not told his thought to the king?' K. Henry. 'No; nor it is not meet he should.'"--Shak.

UNDER NOTE IX.--EVER AND NEVER.

"The prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we never so weak; and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so strong."--Hooker. "He is like to have no share in it, or to be ever the better for it."--Law and Grace, p. 23. "In some parts of Chili, it seldom or ever rains."--Willetts's Geog. "If Pompey shall but never so little seem to like it."--Walker's Particles, p. 346. "Latin: 'Si Pompeius paulum modò ostenderit sibi placere.' Cic. i, 5."--Ib. "Though never such a power of dogs and hunters pursue him."--Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Quamlibet magnâ canum et venantium urgente vi.' Plin. l. 18, c. 16."--Ib. "Though you be never so excellent."--Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Quantumvis licet excellas.' Cic. de Amic."--Ib. "If you do amiss never so little."--Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Si tantillum peccâssis.' Plaut. Rud. 4, 4"--Ib. "If we cast our eyes never so little down."--Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Si tantulum oculos dejecerimus.' Cic. 7. Ver."--Ib. "A wise man scorneth nothing, be it never so small or homely."--Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "Because they have seldom or ever an opportunity of learning them at all."--Clarkson's Prize-Essay, p. 170. "We seldom or ever see those forsaken who trust in God."--Atterbury.

"Where, playing with him at bo-peep, He solved all problems, ne'er so deep."--Hudibras.

UNDER NOTE X.--OF THE FORM OF ADVERBS.

"One can scarce think that Pope was capable of epic or tragic poetry; but within a certain limited region, he has been outdone by no poet."--Blair's Rhet., p. 403. "I, who now read, have near finished this chapter."--Harris's Hermes, p. 82. "And yet, to refine our taste with respect to beauties of art or of nature, is scarce endeavoured in any seminary of learning."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. viii. "By the Numbers being confounded, and the Possessives wrong applied, the Passage is neither English nor Grammar."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. 123. "The letter G is wrong named jee."--Creighton's Dict., p. viii. "Last; Remember that in science, as in morals, authority cannot make right, what, in itself, is wrong."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 194. "They regulate our taste even where we are scarce sensible of them."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 96. "Slow action, for example, is imitated by words pronounced slow."--Ib., ii, 257. "Sure, if it be to profit withal, it must be in order to save."--Barclay's Works, i, 366. "Which is scarce possible at best."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 67. "Our wealth being near finished."--HARRIS: Priestley's Gram., p. 80.

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