f our best grammarians says, "The infinitive, in the
following sentences, _should be exchanged_ for the participle: 'I am weary
_to bear_ them.' Is. i, 14. 'Hast thou, spirit, perform'd _to point_ the
tempest?' Shak."--_Allen's Gram._, p. 172. This suggestion implies, that
the participle would be here not only equivalent to the infinitive in
sense, but better in expression. It is true, the preposition _to_ does not
well express the relation between _weary_ and _bear_; and, doubtless, some
regard should be had to the meaning of this particle, whenever it is any
thing more than an index of the mood. But the critic ought to have told us
how he would make these corrections. For in neither case does the
participle alone appear to be a fit substitute for the infinitive, either
with or without the _to_; and the latter text will scarcely bear the
participle at all, unless we change the former verb; as, "Hast thou,
spirit, _done pointing_ the tempest?" The true meaning of the other example
seems somewhat uncertain. The Vulgate has it, _"Laboravi sustinens_," "I
have laboured _bearing_ them;" the French Bible, "_Je suis las de les
souffrir_," "I am tired of _bearing_ them;" the Septuagint, "[Greek: Ouketi
anaeso tas hamartias humon,]" "I will no more forgive your sins."

OBS. 17.--In the following text, the infinitive is used improperly, nor
would the participle in its stead make pure English: "I will not reprove
thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, _to have been_ continually
before me."--_Ps. 1. 8._ According to the French version, _"to have been"_
should be _"which are;"_ but the Septuagint and the Vulgate take the
preceding noun for the nominative, thus: "I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices, _but thy burnt-offerings are_ continually before me."

OBS. 18.--As the preposition _to_ before the infinitive shows the latter to
be "_that towards which_ the preceding verb is directed," verbs of
_desisting, omitting, preventing_, and _avoiding_, are generally found to
take the participle after them, and not the infinitive; because, in such
instances, the direction of effort seems not to be so properly _to_, or
_towards_, as _from_ the action.[419] Where the preposition _from_ is
inserted, (as it most commonly is, after some of these verbs.) there is no
irregularity in the construction of the participle; but where the
participle immediately follows the verb, it is perhaps questionable whether
it ought to be considered th