ciple seems to be
improperly made _the object_ of the verb: "I intend _doing_ it."--"I
remember _meeting_ him." Better, "I intend _to do_ it."--"I remember _to
have met_ him." According to my notion, it is an error to suppose that
verbs in general may govern participles. If there are any proper instances
of such government, they would seem to be chiefly among verbs of _quitting_
or _avoiding_. And even here the analogy of General Grammar gives
countenance to a different solution; as, "They _left beating of_
Paul."--_Acts_, xxi, 32. Better, "They _left beating_ Paul;"--or, "They
_quit beating_ Paul." Greek, "[Greek: Epausanto tuptontes ton Paulon.]"
Latin, "Cessaverunt _percutientes_ Paulum."--_Montanus_. "Cessarunt
_coedere_ Paulum."--_Beza_. "Cessaverunt _percutere_ Paulum."--_Vulgate_.
It is true, the English participle in _ing_ differs in some respects from
that which usually corresponds to it in Latin or Greek; it has more of a
substantive character, and is commonly put for the Latin gerund. If this
difference does not destroy the argument from analogy, the opinion is still
just, that _left_ and _quit_ are here _intransitive_, and that the
participle _beating_ relates to the pronoun _they_. Such is unequivocally
the construction of the Greek text, and also of the literal Latin of Arias
Montanus. But, to the mere English grammarian, this method of parsing will
not be apt to suggest itself: because, at first sight, the verbs appear to
be transitive, and the participle in _ing_ has nothing to prove it an
adjunct of the nominative, and not the object of the verb--unless, indeed,
the mere fact that it is a participle, is proof of this.

OBS. 20.--Our great Compiler, Murray, not understanding this construction,
or not observing what verbs admit of it, or require it, has very
unskillfully laid it down as a rule, that, "The participle with its
adjuncts, may be considered as a _substantive phrase_ in the objective
case, governed by the preposition or verb, _expressed or understood_: as,
'By _promising much and performing but little_, we become despicable.' 'He
studied to avoid _expressing himself too severely_.'"--_Octavo Gram._, p.
194.[421] This very popular author seems never to have known that
participles, as such, may be governed in English by prepositions. And yet
he knew, and said, that "prepositions do not, _like articles and pronouns_,
convert the participle itself into the nature of a substantive."--_Ibid._
This he