Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/128

114 it must be admitted, a policy that they put forward, instead of a policy put forward, the participles hesitating and believing would have had owners.

7. Participles that seem to belong to a noun, but do not.

Letters on the constant stopping of omnibuses, thus causing considerable suffering to the horses.

Does causing agree with letters? Then the letters annoy the horses. With stopping? Then stopping causes suffering by stopping (thus). With omnibuses? The horses possibly blame those innocents, but we can hardly suppose a human being, even the writer of the sentence, so illogical. The word thus, however, is often considered to have a kind of dispensing power, freeing its participle from all obligations; so:

It is not love that carries out, but the power that denies love, which is not mentioned.

8. Really bad unattached or wrongly attached participles. The reader will generally find no difficulty in seeing what has led to the blunder, and if he will take the trouble to do this, will be less likely to make similar blunders himself.

And then stooping to take up the key to let myself into the garden, he started and looked as if he heard somebody near the door.–.