Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/642

 :" 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,