Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/125

Rh

Regarded as participles, these are incorrect. It is not you that consider, but I; not he that sees, but we; not men that roughly speak, but the moralist; not years that look, but philosophic historians; not the Bill that assumes, but the newspaper prophet. The development into prepositions, &c., is a natural one, however; the only question about any particular word of the kind is whether the vox populi has yet declared for it; when it has, there is no more to be said; but when it has not, the process should be resisted as long as possible, writers acting as a suspensive House of Lords; an instance will be found in 4.

Three quotations from Burke will show that he, like others of his time, felt himself more at liberty than most good writers would now feel themselves.

Similar constructions may be found on almost every page of Smollett.

2. Participles half justified by attachment to a pronoun implied in my, your, his, their. These are perhaps better avoided.

Having thus run through the causes of the sublime with reference to all the senses, my first observation will be found very nearly true.—.