ing _of_
large numbers."--_Hutton's Arith._, p. 5; so _Babcock's_, p. 12. It would
be quite as well to say, "For the _greater ease in_ reading large numbers."

OBS. 12.--Many words of a participial form are used directly as nouns,
without any article, adjective, or possessive case before them, and without
any object or adjunct after them. Such is commonly the construction of the
words _spelling, reading, writing, ciphering, surveying, drawing, parsing_,
and many other such _names_ of actions or exercises. They are rightly put
by Johnson among "_nouns_ derived from _verbs_;" for, "The [name of the]
action is the same with the participle present, as _loving, frighting,
fighting, striking_."--_Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 10. Thus: "I like
_writing_."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 171. "He supposed, with them, that
_affirming_ and _denying_ were operations of the mind."--_Tooke's
Diversions_, i, 35. "'Not rendering,' said Polycarp the disciple of John,
'evil for evil, or _railing_ for _railing_, or _striking_ for _striking_,
or _cursing_ for _cursing_."--_Dymond, on War_. Against this practice,
there is seldom any objection; the words are wholly nouns, both in sense
and construction. We call them _participial_ nouns, only because they
resemble participles in their derivation; or if we call them _verbal_
nouns, it is because they are derived from verbs. But we too frequently
find those which retain the government and the adjuncts of participles,
used as nouns before or after verbs; or, more properly speaking, used as
mongrels and nondescripts, a doubtful species, for which there is seldom
any necessity, since the infinitive, the verbal or some other noun, or a
clause introduced by the conjunction _that_, will generally express the
idea in a better manner: as, "_Exciting_ such disturbances, is unlawful."
Say rather, "_To excite_ such disturbances,--_The exciting of_ such
disturbances,--_The excitation of_ such disturbances,--or, _That one should
excite_ such disturbances, is unlawful."

OBS. 13.--Murray says, "The word _the_, before the _active participle_, in
the following sentence, and in all others of a similar construction, is
improper, and should be omitted: '_The_ advising, or _the_ attempting, to
excite such disturbances, is unlawful.' It should be, '_Advising_ or
_attempting_ to excite disturbances.'"--_Octavo Gram._, p. 195. But, by his
own showing, "the present participle, with the definite article _the_
before it, becomes a