90. "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 wor