Chapter VII: Participles

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb: thus, from the verb _rule_, are formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, 1. _ruling_, 2. _ruled_, 3. _having ruled_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in _motion_, or _the privation of motion_--in _acting_, or _ceasing to act_. And to all motion and rest, _time_ and _place_ are necessary concomitants; nor are the ideas of _degree_ and _manner_ often irrelevant. Hence the use of _tenses_ and of _adverbs_. For whatsoever comes to pass, must come to pass _sometime_ and _somewhere_; and, in every event, something must be affected _somewhat_ and _somehow_. Hence it is evident that those grammarians are right, who say, that "_all participles imply time_." But it does not follow, that the _English_ participles _divide_ time, like the tenses of a verb, and _specify_ the period of action; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest, that they do not. The phrase, "_men labouring_," conveys no other idea than that of _labourers at work_; it no more suggests the _time_, than the _place, degree_, or _manner_, of their work. All these circumstances require _other words_ to express them; as, "Men _now here awkwardly_ labouring _much_ to little purpose." Again: "_Thenceforward_ will men, _there_ labouring _hard_ and _honourably_, be looked down upon by dronish lordlings."

OBS. 2.--Participles retain the _essential meaning_ of their verbs; and, _like verbs_, are either _active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive_, or _neuter_, in their signification. For this reason, many have classed them with the verbs. But their _formal meaning_ is obviously different. They convey no affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or pronouns, _like adjectives_, except when they are joined with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses of their verbs; or when they have in part the nature of substantives, like the Latin gerunds. Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the adjectives. The most discreet writers have commonly assigned them a separate place among the parts of speech; because, in spite of all opposite usages, experience has shown that it is expedient to do so.

OBS. 3.--According to the doctrine of Harris, all words denoting the _attributes_ of things, are either verbs, or participles, or adjectives. Some attributes have their essence in motion: as, _to walk, to run, to fly, to strike, to live_; or, _walking, running, flying, striking, living_. Others have it in the privation of motion: as, _to stop, to rest, to cease, to die_; or, _stopping, resting, ceasing, dying_. And there are others which have nothing to do with either motion or its privation; but have their essence in the quantity, quality, or situation of things; as, _great_ and _small, white_ and _black, wise_ and _foolish, eastern_ and _western_. These last terms are adjectives; and those which denote motion or its privation, are either verbs or participles, according to their formal meaning; that is, according to their manner of attribution. See _Hermes_, p. 95. Verbs commonly say or affirm something of their subjects; as, "_The babe wept_." Participles suggest the action or attribute without affirmation; as, "_A babe weeping_,"--"_An act regretted_."

OBS. 4.--A verb, then, being expressive of some attribute, which it ascribes to the thing or person named as its subject; of time, which it divides and specifies by the tenses; and also, (with the exception of the infinitive,) of an assertion or affirmation; if we take away the affirmation and the distinction of tenses, there will remain the attribute and the general notion of time; and these form the essence of an English participle. So that a participle is something less than a verb, though derived immediately from it; and something more than an adjective, or mere attribute, though its manner of attribution is commonly the same. Hence, though the participle by rejecting the idea of time may pass almost insensibly into an adjective, and become truly a participial adjective; yet the participle and the adjective are by no means one and the same part of speech, as some will have them to be. There is always an essential difference in their meaning. For instance: there is a difference between _a thinking man_ and _a man thinking_; between _a bragging fellow_ and _a fellow bragging_; between _a fast-sailing ship_ and _a ship sailing fast_. A thinking man, a bragging fellow, or a fast-sailing ship, is contemplated as being habitually or permanently such; a man thinking, a fellow bragging, or a ship sailing fast, is contemplated as performing a particular act; and this must embrace a period of _time_, whether that time be specified or not. John Locke was a _thinking man_; but we should directly contradict his own doctrine, to suppose him _always thinking_.

OBS. 5.--The English participles are all derived from the _roots_ of their respective verbs, and do not, like those of some other languages, take their names from the _tenses_. On the contrary, they are reckoned among the principal parts in the conjugation of their verbs, and many of the tenses are formed from them. In the compound forms of conjugation, they are found alike _in all the tenses_. They do not therefore, of themselves, express any particular time; but they denote the state of the being, action, or passion, in regard to its progress or completion. This I conceive to be their principal distinction. Respecting the participles in _Latin_, it has been matter of dispute, whether those which are called the _present_ and the _perfect_, are really so in respect to time or not. Sanctius denies it. In _Greek_, the distinction of tenses in the participles is more apparent, yet even here the time to which they refer, does not always correspond to their names. See remarks on the Participles in the _Port Royal Latin and Greek Grammars_.

OBS. 6.--Horne Tooke supposes our participles in _ed_ to express time past, and those in _ing_ to have no signification of time. He says, "I did not mean to deny the adsignification of time to _all_ the participles; though I continue to withhold it from that which is called the _participle present_."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 415. Upon the same point, he afterwards adds, "I am neither new nor singular; for Sanctius both asserted and proved it by numerous instances in the Latin. Such as, 'Et _abfui proficiscens_ in Græciam.' _Cicero_. 'Sed postquam amans _accessit_ pretium _pollicens_.' _Terent_. 'Ultro ad cam _venies indicans_ te amare.' _Terent_. 'Turnum _fugientem_ hæc terra videbit.' _Virg_."--_Tooke's Div._, ii, 420. Again: "And thus I have given you my opinion concerning what is called the _present participle_. Which I think improperly so called; because I take it to be merely the simple verb _adjectived_, without any adsignification of _manner_ or _time_."--_Tooke's Div._, Vol. ii, p. 423.

OBS. 7.--I do not agree with this author, either in limiting participles in _ed_ to time past, or in denying all signification of time to those in _ing_; but I admit that what is commonly called the _present participle_, is not very properly so denominated, either in English or in Latin, or perhaps in any language. With us, however, this participle is certainly, in very many instances, something else than "merely the simple verb _adjectived_." For, in the first place, it is often of a complex character, as _being loved, being seen_, in which two verbs are "_adjectived_" together, and that by different terminations. Yet do these words as perfectly coalesce in respect to time, as to everything else; and _being loved_ or _being seen_ is confessedly as much a "_present_" participle, as _being_, or _loving_, or _seeing_--neither form being solely confined to what now is. Again, our participle in _ing_ stands not only for the present participle of the Latin or Greek grammarians, but also for the Latin gerund, and often for the Greek infinitive used substantively; so that by this ending, the English verb is not only _adjectived_, but also _substantived_, if one may so speak. For the participle when governed by a preposition, partakes not of the qualities "of a verb and an _adjective_," but rather of those of a verb and a _noun_.

CLASSES.

English verbs, not defective, have severally three participles;[301] which have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus: the _Imperfect_, the _Perfect_, and the _Preperfect_. Or, as their order is undisputed, they may he conveniently called the _First_, the _Second_, and the _Third_.

I. The _Imperfect participle_ is that which ends commonly in _ing_, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion: as, _being, acting, ruling, loving, defending, terminating_.

II. The _Perfect participle_ is that which ends commonly in _ed_ or _en_, and implies a _completion_ of the being, action, or passion: as, _been, acted, ruled, loved, defended, terminated_.

III. The _Preperfect participle_ is that which takes the sign _having_, and implies a _previous completion_ of the being, action, or passion: as, _having loved, having seen, having written; having been loved, having been writing, having been written_.

The _First_ or _Imperfect_ Participle, when simple, is always formed by adding _ing_ to the radical verb; as, _look, looking_: when compound, it is formed by prefixing _being_ to some other simple participle; as, _being reading, being read, being completed_.

The _Second_ or _Perfect_ Participle is always simple, and is regularly formed by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the radical verb: those verbs from which it is formed otherwise, are either irregular or redundant.

The _Third_ or _Preperfect_ Participle is always compound, and is formed by prefixing _having_ to the perfect, when the compound is double, and _having been_ to the perfect or the imperfect, when the compound is triple: as, _having spoken, having been spoken, having been speaking_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Some have supposed that both the simple participles denote present _time_; some have supposed that the one denotes present, and the other, past time; some have supposed that the first denotes no time, and the second time past; some have supposed that neither has any regard to time; and some have supposed that both are of _all_ times. In regard to the distinction of _voice_, or the manner of their signification, some have supposed the one to be active, and the other to be passive; some have supposed the participle in _ing_ to be active or neuter, and the other active or passive; and some have supposed that either of them may be active, passive, or neuter. Nor is there any more unanimity among grammarians, in respect to the compounds. Hence several different names have been loosely given to each of the participles: and sometimes with manifest impropriety; as when Buchanan, in his conjugations, calls _being_, "Active,"--and _been, having been, having had_, "Passive." Learned men may differ in opinion respecting the nature of words, but grammar can never well deserve the name of _science_, till at least an ordinary share of reason and knowledge appears in the language of those who teach it.

OBS. 2.--The FIRST participle has been called the Present, the Progressive, the Imperfect, the Simple Imperfect, the Indefinite, the Active, the Present Active, the Present Passive, the Present Neuter, and, in the passive voice, the Preterimperfcct, the Compound Imperfect, the Compound Passive, the Passive. The SECOND, which, though it is always but _one word_, some authors treat as being _two participles_, or _three_, has been called the Perfect, the Preter, the Preterperfect, the Imperfect, the Simple Perfect, the Past, the Simple Past, the First Past, the Preterit, the Passive, the Present Passive, the Perfect Active, the Past Active, the Auxiliary Perfect, the Perfect Passive, the Perfect Neuter, the Simple Perfect Active, the Simple Perfect Passive. The THIRD has been called the Compound, the Compound Active, the Compound Passive, the Compound Perfect, the Compound Perfect Active, the Compound Perfect Passive, the Compound Preter, the Present, the Present Perfect, the Past, the Second Past, the Past Compound, the Compound Past, the Prior-perfect, the Prior-present, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Preterperfect, the Preperfect.[302]

In teaching others to speak and write well, it becomes us to express our doctrines in the most suitable terms; but the application of a name is of no great consequence, so that the thing itself be rightly understood by the learner. Grammar should be taught in a style at once neat and plain, clear and brief. Upon the choice of his terms, the writer of this work has bestowed much reflection; yet he finds it impossible either to please everybody, or to explain, without intolerable prolixity, all the reasons for preference.

OBS. 3.--The participle in _ing_ represents the action or state as _continuing_ and ever _incomplete_; it is therefore rightly termed the IMPERFECT participle: whereas the participle in _ed_ always, or at least usually, has reference to the action as _done_ and _complete_; and is, by proper contradistinction, called the PERFECT participle. It is hardly necessary to add, that the terms _perfect_ and _imperfect_, as thus applied to the English participles, have no reference to _time_, or to those _tenses_ of the verb which are usually (but not very accurately) named by these epithets. The terms _present_ and _past_, which some still prefer to _imperfect_ and _perfect_, do denote _time_, and are in a kind of oblique contradistinction; but how well they apply to the participles, may be seen by the following texts: "God _was_ in Christ, _reconciling_ the world unto himself."--"We pray you in Christ's stead, _be_ ye _reconciled_ to God."--ST. PAUL: _2 Cor._, v, 19, 20. Here _reconciling_ refers to the death of Christ, and _reconciled_, to the desired conversion of the Corinthians; and if we call the former a _present_ participle, and the latter a _past_, (as do Bullions, Burn, Clark, Felton, S. S. Greene, Lennie, Pinneo, and perhaps others,) we nominally reverse the order of time in respect to the events, and egregiously misapply both terms.

OBS. 4.--Though the participle in _ing_ has, by many, been called the _Present_ participle, it is as applicable to past or future, as to present time; otherwise, such expressions as, "I _had been writing_,"--"I _shall be writing_," would be solecisms. It has also been called, almost as frequently, the _Active_ participle. But it is not always active, even when derived from an active verb; for such expressions as, "The goods are _selling_,"--"The ships are now _building_," are in use, and not without good authority: as, "And hope to allay, by rational discourse, the pains of his joints _tearing_ asunder."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 285. "Insensible of the designs now _forming_ by Philip."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, ii, 48. "The improved edition now _publishing_."--BP. HALIFAX: _Pref. to Butler_. "The present tense expresses an action now _doing_."--_Emmons's Gram._, p. 40. The distinguishing characteristic of this participle is, that it denotes an unfinished and progressive state of the being, action, or passion; it is therefore properly denominated the IMPERFECT participle. If the term were applied with reference to _time_, it would be no more objectionable than the word _present_, and would be equally supported by the usage of the _Greek_ linguists. I am no more inclined to "_innovation_," than are the pedants who, for the choice here made, have ignorantly brought the false charge against me. This name, authorized by Beattie and Pickbourn, is approved by Lindley Murray,[303] and adopted by several of the more recent grammarians. See the works of Dr. Crombie, J. Grant, T. O. Churchill, R. Hiley, B. H. Smart, M. Harrison, and W. G. Lewis, published in London; and J. M. M'Culloch's Grammar, published in Edinburgh; also some American grammars, as E. Hazen's, N. Butler's, D. B. Tower's, W. H. Wells's, the Sanderses'.

OBS. 5.--The participle in _ed_, as is mentioned above, usually denotes a _completion_ of the being, action, or passion, and should therefore be denominated the PERFECT participle. But this completion may be spoken of as present, past, or future; for the participle itself has no tenses, and makes no distinction of time, nor should the name be supposed to refer to the perfect tense. The conjugation of any passive verb, is a sufficient proof of all this: nor is the proof invalidated by resolving verbs of this kind into their component parts. Of the participles in _ed_ applied to _present_ time, the following is an example: "Such a course would be less likely to produce injury to health, than the _present course pursued_ at our colleges."--_Literary Convention_, p. 118. Tooke's notion of grammatical time, appears to have been in several respects a strange one: he accords with those who call this a _past_ participle, and denies to the other not only the name and notion of _a tense_, but even the _general idea_ of time. In speaking of the old participial termination _and_ or _ende_,[304] which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors used where we write _ing_, he says, "I do not allow that there are any _present_ participles, or any _present tense_ of the verb." [305]--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 41.

OBS. 6.--The _Perfect_ participle of transitive verbs, being used in the formation of passive verbs, is sometimes called the _Passive_ participle. It usually has in itself a passive signification, except when it is used in forming the compound tenses of the active verb. Hence the difference between the sentences, "I have written a letter," and, "I have a letter written;" the former being equivalent to _Scripsi literas_, and the latter to _Sunt mihi literæ scriptæ_. But there are many perfect participles which cannot with any propriety be called passive. Such are all those which come from intransitive or neuter verbs; and also those which so often occur in the tenses of verbs not passive. I have already noticed some instances of this misnomer; and it is better to preclude it altogether, by adhering to the true name of this Participle, THE PERFECT. Nor is that entirely true which some assert, "that this participle in the _active_ is only found in combination;" that, "Whenever it stands alone to be parsed as a participle, it is passive."--_Hart's English Gram._, p. 75. See also _Bullions's Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p. 77; and _Greene's Analysis, or Gram._, p. 225. "Rebelled," in the following examples, cannot with any propriety be called a _passive_ participle:

"_Rebelled_, did I not send them terms of peace,
Which not my justice, but my mercy asked?"--_Pollok_, x, 253.

"Arm'd with thy might, rid Heav'n of these _rebell'd_,
To their prepar'd ill mansion driven down."--_Milton_, vi, 737.

OBS. 7.--The third participle has most generally been called the _Compound_, or the _Compound perfect_. The latter of these terms seems to be rather objectionable on account of its length; and against the former it may be urged that, in the compound forms of conjugation, the first or imperfect participle is a compound: as, _being writing, being seen_. Dr. Adam calls _having loved_ the _perfect_ participle _active_, which he says must be rendered in Latin by the _pluperfect_ of the subjunctive; as, he having loved, _quum amavisset_; (_Lat. and Eng. Gram._, p. 140;) but it is manifest that the perfect participle of the verb _to love_, whether active or passive, is the simple word _loved_, and not this compound. Dr. Adam, in fact, if he denies this, only contradicts himself; for, in his paradigms of the English Active Voice, he gives the participles as two only, and both simple, thus: "_Present_, Loving; _Perfect_, Loved:"--"_Present_, Having; _Perfect_, Had." So of the Neuter Verb: "_Present_, Being; _Perfect_, Been."--_Ib._, pp. 81 and 82. His scheme of either names or forms is no model of accuracy. On the very next page, unless there is a misprint in several editions, he calls the _Second_ participle the "_imperfect_;" saying, "The whole of the passive voice in English is formed by the auxiliary verb _to be_, and the participle _imperfect_; as, _I am loved, I was loved, &c_." Further: "In many verbs," he adds, "the _present_ participle also is used in a passive sense; as, _These things are doing, were doing_, &c.; _The house is building, was building_, &c."--_Ib._, p. 83. N. Butler, in his Practical Grammar, of 1845, names, and counts, and orders, the participles very oddly: "Every verb," he says, "has _two_ participles--the _imperfect_ and the _perfect_."--P. 78. Yet, for the verb _love_, he finds these six: two "IMPERFECT, _Loving_ and _Being loved_;" two "PERFECT, _Having loved_, and _Having been loved_;" one "AUXILIARY PERFECT, _Loved_," of the "_Active Voice_;" and one "PASSIVE, _Loved_," of the "_Passive Voice_." Many old writers erroneously represent the participle in _ing_ as always active, and the participle in _ed_ or _en_ as always passive; and some, among whom is Buchanan, making no distinction between the simple perfect _loved_ and the compound _having loved_, place the latter with the former, and call it passive also. The absurdity of this is manifest: for _having loved_ or _having seen_ is active; _having been_ or _having sat_ is neuter; and _having been loved_ or _having been seen_ is passive. Again, the triple compound, _having been writing_, is active; and _having been sitting_ is neuter; but if one speak of goods as _having been selling_ low, a similar compound is passive.

OBS. 8.--Now all the compound participles which begin with _having_ are essentially alike; and, as a class of terms, they ought to have a name adapted to their nature, and expressive of their leading characteristic. _Having loved_ differs from the simple participle _loved_, in signification as well as in form; and, if this participle is to be named with reference to its _meaning_, there is no more suitable term for it than the epithet PREPERFECT,--a word which explains itself, like _prepaid_ or _prerequisite_. Of the many other names, the most correct one is PLUPERFECT,--which is a term of very nearly the same meaning. Not because this compound is really of the pluperfect _tense_, but because it always denotes being, action, or passion, that is, or was, or will be, _completed before_ the doing or being of something else; and, of course, when the latter thing is represented as past, the participle must correspond to the pluperfect tense of its verb; as, "_Having explained_ her views, it was necessary she should expatiate on the vanity and futility of the enjoyments promised by Pleasure."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 181. Here _having explained_ is exactly equivalent to _when she had explained_. Again: "I may say, _He had commanded_, and we obeyed; or, _He having commanded_, we obeyed."--_Fetch's Comprehensive Gram._, p. ix. Here the two phrases in Italics correspond in import, though not in construction.

OBS. 9.--_Pluperfect_ is a derivative contracted from the Latin _plusquam-perfectum_, and literally signifies _more than complete_, or _beyond the perfect_; i. e., (as confirmed by use,) _antecedently finished_, or _completed before_. It is the usual name of our fourth tense; is likewise applicable to a corresponding tense in other tongues; and is a word familiar to every scholar. Yet several grammarians,--too ready, perhaps, for innovation,--have shown their willingness to discard it altogether. Bullions, Butler, Hiley, Perley, Wells, and some others, call the English _pluperfect tense_, the _past-perfect_, and understand either epithet to mean--"_completed at or before_ a certain _past_ time;" (_Bullions's E. Gram._, p. 39;) that is--"_finished or past, at_ some _past_ time."--_Butler's Pract. Gram._, p. 72. The relation of the _tense_ is _before the past_, but the epithet _pluperfect_ is not necessarily limited to this relation, any more than what is _perfect_ is necessarily past. Butler has urged, that, "_Pluperfect_ does not mean _completed before_," but is only "a technical name of a particular tense;" and, arguing from this erroneous assumption, has convinced himself, "It would be as correct to call this the _second future_ participle, as the _pluperfect_."--_Ib._, p. 79. The technical name, as limited to the past, is _preterpluperfect_, from the older term _præteritum plusquam perfectum_; so _preterperfect_, from _præteritum perfectum_, i. e. _past perfect_, is the name of an _other_ tense, now called the _perfect_: wherefore the substitution of _past-perfect_ for _pluperfect_ is the less to be commended. There may be a convenience in having the name of the tense to differ from that of the participle, and this alone induces me to prefer _preperfect_ to _pluperfect_ for the name of the latter.

OBS. 10.--From the participle in _ed_ or _en_, we form three tenses, which the above-named authors call _perfect_;--"the _present-perfect_, the _past-perfect_, and the _future-perfect_;"--as, _have seen, had seen, will have seen_. Now it is, doubtless, the _participle_, that gives to these their _perfectness_; while diversity in the auxiliaries makes their difference of time. Yet it is assumed by Butler, that, in general, the simple participle in _ed_ or _en_, "does not denote an action _done_ and _completed_," and is not to be called _perfect_; (p. 80;)--that, "If we wish to express by a participle, an action _completed at any time_, we use the compound form, and _this is_ THE _perfect participle_;" (p. 79;)--that, "_The characteristic_ of the participle in _ed_ is, that it implies the _reception_ of an action;" (p. 79;)--that, hence, it should be called _the passive_, though it "is _usually_ called the _perfect_ participle;" (p. 79;)--that, "The use of _this participle_ in the _perfect tenses_ of the active voice should not be taken into consideration in giving it a name or a definition;" (p. 80;)--that its _active, neuter_, or _intransitive_ use is not a primitive idiom of the language, but the result of a gradual _change_ of the term from the passive to the active voice; (p. 80;)--that, "the participle _has changed_ its mode of signification, so that, instead of being passive, it is now active in sense;" (p. 105;)--that, "having changed its original meaning so entirely, it should not be considered _the same_ participle;" (p. 78;)--that, "in such cases, it is a _perfect_ participle," and, "for the sake of distinction [,] this may be called the _auxiliary perfect_ participle."--_Ib._ These speculations I briefly throw before the reader, without designing much comment upon them. It will be perceived that they are, in several respects, contradictory one to an other. The author himself names the participle in reference to a usage which he says, "should not be taken into consideration;" and names it absurdly too; for he calls that "the _auxiliary_," which is manifestly the _principal_ term. He also identifies as one what he professes to distinguish as two.

OBS. 11.--Participles often become _adjectives_, and are construed before nouns to denote quality. The terms so converted form the class of _participial adjectives_. Words of a participial form may be regarded as adjectives, under the following circumstances: 1. When they reject the idea of time, and denote something customary or habitual, rather than a transient act or state; as, "A _lying_ rogue,"--i.e., one that is addicted to lying. 2. When they admit adverbs of comparison; as, "A _more learned_ man." 3. When they are compounded with something that does not belong to the verb; as, "_unfeeling, unfelt_:" there is no verb _to unfeel_, therefore these words cannot be participles. Adjectives are generally placed before their nouns; participles, after them. The words beginning with _un_, in the following lines may be classed with participial adjectives:

"No king, no subject was; unscutcheoned all;
Uncrowned, unplumed, unhelmed, unpedigreed;
Unlaced, uncoroneted, unbestarred."
--_Pollok, C. of T._, B. viii, l. 89.

OBS. 12.--Participles in _ing_ often become _nouns_. When preceded by an article, an adjective or a noun or pronoun of the possessive case, they are construed as nouns; and, if wholly such, have neither adverbs nor active regimen: as, "He laugheth at the _shaking_ of a spear."--_Job_, xli, 29. "There is _no searching_ of _his understanding_."--_Isaiah_, xl, 28. "In _their setting_ of their threshold by ray threshold."--_Ezekiel_, xliii, 8. "That any man should make _my glorying_ void."--_1 Cor._, ix, 15. The terms so converted form the class of _verbal_ or _participial_ nouns. But some late authors--(J. S. Hart, S. S. Greene, W. H. Wells, and others--) have given the name of participial nouns to many _participles_,--such participles, often, as retain all their verbal properties and adjuncts, and merely partake of some syntactical resemblance to nouns. Now, since the chief characteristics of such words are from the verb, and are incompatible with the specific nature of a noun, it is clearly improper to call them _nouns_. There are, in the popular use of participles, certain mixed constructions which are reprehensible; yet it is the peculiar nature of a _participle_, to participate the properties of other parts of speech,--of the verb and adjective,--of the verb and noun,--or sometimes, perhaps, of all three. A participle immediately preceded by a preposition, is not converted into a noun, but remains a participle, and therefore retains its adverb, and also its government of the objective case; as, "I thank you _for helping him so seasonably_." Participles in this construction correspond with the Latin gerund, and are sometimes called _gerundives_.

OBS. 13.--To distinguish the participle from the participial noun, the learner should observe the following four things: 1. Nouns take articles and adjectives before them; participles, as such, do not. 2. Nouns may govern the possessive case before them, but not the objective after them; participles may govern the objective case, but not so properly the possessive. 3. Nouns, if they have adverbs, require the hyphen; participles take adverbs separately, as do their verbs. 4. Participial nouns express actions as things, and are sometimes declined like other nouns; participles usually refer actions to their agents or recipients, and have in English no grammatical modifications of any kind.

OBS. 14.--To distinguish the perfect participle from the preterit of the same form, observe _the sense_, and see which of the auxiliary forms will express it: thus, _loved_ for _being loved_, is a participle; but _loved_ for _did love_, is a preterit verb. So _held_ for _did hold, stung_ for _did sting, taught_ for _did teach_, and the like, are irregular verbs; but _held_ for _being held, stung_ for _being stung, taught_ for _being taught_, and the like, are perfect participles.

OBS. 15.--Though the English participles have no inflections, and are consequently incapable of any grammatical agreement or disagreement, those which are simple, are sometimes elegantly taken in a plural sense, with the apparent construction of _nouns_; but, under these circumstances, they are in reality neither nouns nor participles, but participial adjectives construed elliptically, as other adjectives often are, and relating to plural nouns understood. The ellipsis is sometimes of a singular noun, though very rarely, and much less properly. Examples: "To them who are _the called_ according to his purpose."--_Rom._, x, 28. That is--"the called _ones_ or _persons_." "God is not the God of _the dead_, but of _the living_."--_Matt._, xxii, 32. "Neither is it found in the land of _the living_."--_Job_, xxviii, 13. "_The living, the living, he_ shall praise thee, as I do this day."--_Isaiah_, xxxviii, 19. "Till we are made fit to live and reign with him and _all his redeemed_, in the heavenly glory forever."--_Jenks's Prayers_, p. 18.

"_Ye blessed_ of my Father, come, _ye just_,
Enter the joy eternal of your Lord."--_Pollok_, B. x, l. 591.

"Depart from me, _ye cursed_, into the fire
Prepared eternal in the gulf of Hell."--_Id._, B. x, l. 449.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.

PRAXIS VII.--ETYMOLOGICAL.

_In the Seventh Praxis it is required of the pupil--to distinguish and define the different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the_ ARTICLES, NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, PRONOUNS, VERBS, and PARTICIPLES.

_The definitions to be given in the Seventh Praxis, are two for an article, six for a noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an infinitive, two for a participle,--and one for an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus_:--

EXAMPLE PARSED.

"Religion, rightly understood and practised, has the purest of all joys attending it."

_Religion_ is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.

_Rightly_ is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner.

_Understood_ is a perfect participle, from the irregular active-transitive verb, _understand, understood, understanding, understood_. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb. 2. The perfect participle is that which ends commonly in _ed_ or _en_, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion.

_And_ is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction, is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected.

_Practised_ is a perfect participle, from the regular active-transitive verb, _practise, practised, practising, practised_. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb. 2. The perfect participle is that which ends commonly in _ed_ or _en_, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion.

_Has_ is an irregular active-transitive verb, from _have, had, having, had_; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_. 2. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming _d_ or _ed_. 3. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or thing for its object. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one.

_The_ is the definite article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification. 2. The definite article is _the_, which denotes some particular thing or things.

_Purest_ is a common adjective, of the superlative degree; compared regularly, _pure, purer, purest_. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The superlative degree is that which is _most_ or _least_ of all included with it.

_Of_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun.

_All_ is a pronominal adjective, not compared. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its noun or represent it understood. 3. Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different degrees, cannot be compared.

_Joys_ is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

_Attending_ is an imperfect participle, from the regular active-transitive verb, _attend, attended, attending, attended_. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb. 2. The imperfect participle is that which ends commonly in _ing_, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion.

_It_ is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

LESSON I.--PARSING.

"A Verb is a word whereby something or other is represented as existing, possessing, acting, or being acted upon, at some particular time, past, present, or future; and this in various manners."--_White, on the English Verb_, p. 1.

"Error is a savage, lurking about on the twilight borders of the circle illuminated by truth, ready to rush in and take possession, the moment her lamp grows dim."--_Beecher_.

"The science of criticism may be considered as a middle link, connecting the different parts of education into a regular chain."--_Ld. Kames, El. of Crit._, p. xxii.

"When I see a man walking, a tree growing, or cattle grazing, I cannot doubt but that these objects are really what they appear to be. Nature determines us to rely on the veracity of our senses; for otherwise they could not in any degree answer their end, that of laying open things existing and passing around us."--_Id., ib._, i, 85.

"But, advancing farther in life, and inured by degrees to the crooked ways of men; pressing through the crowd, and the bustle of the world; obliged to contend with this man's craft, and that man's scorn; accustomed, sometimes, to conceal their sentiments, and often to stifle their feelings; they become at last hardened in heart, and familiar with corruption."--BLAIR: _Murray's Sequel_, p. 140.

"Laugh'd at, he laughs again; and stricken hard,
Turns to his stroke his adamantine scales,
That fear no discipline of human hands."--_Cowper's Task_, p. 47.

LESSON II.--PARSING.

"Thus shame and remorse united in the ungrateful person, and indignation united with hatred in the hearts of others, are the punishments provided by nature for injustice."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 288.

"Viewing man as under the influence of novelty, would one suspect that custom also should influence him?--Human nature, diversified with many and various springs of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expression, intricately constructed."--_Id., ib._, i, 325.

"Dryden frequently introduces three or four persons speaking upon the same subject, each throwing out his own notions separately, without regarding what is said by the rest."--_Id., ib._, ii, 294.

"Nothing is more studied in Chinese gardens, than to raise wonder and surprise. Sometimes one is led insensibly into a dark cavern, terminating unexpectedly in a landscape enriched with all that nature affords the most delicious."--_Id., ib._, ii, 334.

"The answer to the objection here implied, is obvious, even on the supposition of the questions put being answered in the affirmative."--_Prof. Vethake._

"As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also, he will deliver it; and, passing over, he will preserve it."--_Isaiah_, xxxi, 5.

"Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd."--_Goldsmith._

"Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him where in gore he lay insteeped."--_Shakspeare._

LESSON III.--PARSING.

"Every change in the state of things is considered as an effect, indicating the agency, characterizing the kind, and measuring the degree, of its cause."--_Dr. Murray, Hist. of En. L._, i, 179.

"Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, (the devil having now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his coat, and, taking a towel, girded himself: then he poured some water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded."--See _John_, xiii.

"Spiritual desertion is naturally and judicially incurred by sin. It is the withdrawal of that divine unction which enriches the acquiescent soul with moral power and pleasure. The subtraction leaves the mind enervated, obscured, confused, degraded, and distracted."--HOMO: _N. Y. Observer._

"Giving no offence in any thing, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God: as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."--_2 Cor._, vi.

"O may th' indulgence of a father's love,
Pour'd forth on me, be doubled from above."--_Young_.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

ERRORS OF PARTICIPLES.

[Fist] [As the principles upon which our participles ought to be formed, were necessarily anticipated in the preceding chapter on verbs, the reader must recur to that chapter for the doctrines by which the following errors are to be corrected. The great length of that chapter seemed a good reason for separating these examples from it, and it was also thought, that such words as are erroneously written for participles, should, for the sake of order, be chiefly noticed in this place. In many of these examples, however, the participle is not really a separate part of speech, but is in fact taken with an auxiliary to form some compound tense of its verb.]

LESSON I.--IRREGULARS.

"Many of your readers have mistook that passage."--_Steele, Spect._, No. 544.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the preterit verb _mistook_ is here used for the perfect participle. But, according to the table of irregular verbs, we ought to say, _mistake, mistook, mistaking, mistaken_; after the form of the simple verb, _take, took, taking, taken_. Therefore, the sentence should be amended thus: "Many of your readers have _mistaken_ that passage."]

"Had not my dog of a steward ran away."--_Addison, Spect._ "None should be admitted, except he had broke his collar-bone thrice."--_Spect._, No. 474. "We could not know what was wrote at twenty."--_Pref. to Waller_. "I have wrote, thou hast wrote, he has wrote; we have wrote, ye have wrote, they have wrote."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 62. "As if God had spoke his last words there to his people."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 462. "I had like to have came in that ship myself."--_N. Y. Observer_, No. 453. "Our ships and vessels being drove out of the harbour by a storm."--_Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass._, i, 470. "He will endeavour to write as the ancient author would have wrote, had he writ in the same language."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, i, 68. "When his doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his enemies."--_Atterbury_. "The immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion."--_Milton_. "Grease that's sweaten from the murderer's gibbet, throw into the flame."--_Shak., Macbeth_. "The court also was chided for allowing such questions to be put."--_Col. Stone, on Freemasonry_, p. 470. "He would have spoke."-- _Milton, P. L._, B. x, 1. 517. "Words interwove with sighs found out their way."--_Id., ib._, i, 621. "Those kings and potentates who have strove."--_Id., Eiconoclast_, xvii. "That even Silence was took."--_Id., Comus_, l. 557. "And envious Darkness, ere they could return, had stole them from me."--_Id., Comus_, 1. 195. "I have chose this perfect man."--_Id., P. R._, B. i, l. 165. "I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola."--_Shak., As You Like It_. "The fragrant brier was wove between."--_Dryden, Fables_. "Then finish what you have began."--_Id., Poems_, ii, 172. "But now the years a numerous train have ran."--_Pope's Odyssey_, B. xi, l. 555. "Repeats your verses wrote on glasses."--_Prior_. "Who by turns have rose."--_Id._ "Which from great authors I have took."--_Id., Alma_. "Ev'n there he should have fell."--_Id., Solomon._

"The sun has rose, and gone to bed,
Just as if Partridge were not dead."--_Swift_.

"And though no marriage words are spoke,
They part not till the ring is broke."--_Id., Riddles_.

LESSON II.--REGULARS.

"When the word is stript of all the terminations."--_Dr. Murray's Hist. of En. L._, i, 319.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the participle _stript_ is terminated in _t_. But, according to Observation 2d, on the irregular verbs, _stript_ is regular. Therefore, this _t_ should be changed to _ed_; and the final _p_ should be doubled, according to Rule 3d for Spelling: thus, "When the word is _stripped_ of all the terminations."]

"Forgive him, Tom; his head is crackt."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 397. "For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer hoist with his own petar."--_Hamlet_, Act 3. "As great as they are, I was nurst by their mother."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 310. "If he should now be cry'd down since his change."--_Ib._, p. 306. "Dipt over head and ears--in debt."--_Ib._, p. 312. "We see the nation's credit crackt."--_Ib._, p. 312. "Because they find their pockets pickt."--_Ib._, p. 338. "O what a pleasure mixt with pain!"--_Ib._, p. 373. "And only with her Brother linkt."--_Ib._, p. 387. "Because he ne'er a thought allow'd, That might not be confest."--_Ib._, p. 361. "My love to Sheelah is more firmly fixt."--_Ib._, p. 369. "The observations annext to them will be intelligible."--_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 457. "Those eyes are always fixt on the general principles."--_Ib._, i, 458. "Laborious conjectures will be banisht from our commentaries."--_Ib._, i, 459. "Tiridates was dethroned, and Phraates was reestablisht in his stead."--_Ib._, i, 462. "A Roman who was attacht to Augustus."--_Ib._, i, 466. "Nor should I have spoken of it, unless Baxter had talkt about two such."--_Ib._, i, 467. "And the reformers of language have generally rusht on."--_Ib._, i, 649. "Three centuries and a half had then elapst since the date."--_Ib._, i, 249. "Of such criteria, as has been remarkt already, there is an abundance."--_Ib._, i, 261. "The English have surpast every other nation in their services."--_Ib._, i, 306. "The party addrest is next in dignity to the speaker."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 66. "To which we are many times helpt."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 13. "But for him, I should have lookt well enough to myself."--_Ib._, p. 88. "Why are you vext, Lady? why do frown?"--_Milton, Comus_, l. 667. "Obtruding false rules prankt in reason's garb."--_Ib._, l. 759. "But, like David equipt in Saul's armour, it is encumbered and oppressed."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 378.

"And when their merchants are blown up, and crackt,
Whole towns are cast away in storms, and wreckt."
--_Butler_, p. 163.

LESSON III.--MIXED.

"The lands are holden in free and common soccage."
--_Trumbull's Hist_, i, 133.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the participle _holden_ is not in that form which present usage authorizes. But, according to the table of irregular verbs, the four parts of the verb _to hold_, as now used, are _hold, held, holding, held_. Therefore, _holden_ should be _held_; thus, "The lands are _held_ in free and common soccage."]

"A stroke is drawed under such words."--_Cobbett's E. Grammar_, Edition of 1832, ¶ 154. "It is striked even, with a strickle."--_Walkers Particles_, p. 115. "Whilst I was wandring, without any care, beyond my bounds."--_Ib._, p. 83. "When one would do something, unless hindred by something present."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 311. "It is used potentially, but not so as to be rendred by these signs."--_Ib._, p. 320. "Now who would dote upon things hurryed down the stream thus fast?"--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 89. "Heaven hath timely try'd their growth."--_Milton, Comus_, l. 970. "O! ye mistook, ye should have snatcht his wand."--_Ib._, p. 815. "Of true virgin here distrest."--_Ib._, p. 905. "So that they have at last come to be substitute in the stead of it."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 339. "Though ye have lien among the pots."--_Psal._, lxviii, 13. "And, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf pluckt off."--FRIENDS' BIBLE, and BRUCE'S: _Gen._, viii, 11. "Brutus and Cassius Are rid like madmen, through the gates of Rome."--_Shak_. "He shall be spitted on."--_Luke_, xviii, 32. "And are not the countries so overflown still situate between the tropics?"--_Bentley's Sermons_. "Not trickt and frounc't as she was wont, But kercheft in a comely cloud."--_Milton, Il Penseroso_, l. 123. "To satisfy his rigor, Satisfy'd never."--_Id., P. L._, B. x, l. 804. "With him there crucify'd."--_Id., P. L._, B. xii, l. 417. "Th' earth cumber'd, and the wing'd air darkt with plumes."--_Id., Comus_, l. 730. "And now their way to Earth they had descry'd."--_Id., P. L._, B. x, l. 325. "Not so thick swarm'd once the soil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon."--_Ib._, B. x, l. 527. "And in a troubled sea of passion tost."--_Ib._, B. x, l. 718. "The cause, alas, is quickly guest."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 404. "The kettle to the top was hoist"--_Ib._, p. 274. "In chains thy syllables are linkt."--_Ib._, p. 318. "Rather than thus be overtopt, Would you not wish their laurels cropt?"--_Ib._, p. 415. "The hyphen, or conjoiner, is a little line, drawed to connect words, or parts of words."--_Cobbett's E. Gram._, 1832, ¶ 150. "In the other manners of dependence, this general rule is sometimes broke."--_Joh. Gram. Com._, p. 334. "Some intransitive verbs may be rendered transitive by means of a preposition prefixt to them."--_Grant's Lat. Gram._, p. 66. "Whoever now should place the accent on the first syllable of _Valerius_, would set every body a-laughing."--_Walker's Dict._ "Being mocked, scourged, spitted on, and crucified."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 40.

"For rhyme in Greece or Rome was never known,
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown."--_Roscommon_.

"In my own Thames may I be drownded,
If e'er I stoop beneath a crown'd-head."--_Swift_.