ome of our
principal grammarians, bring likewise the weight of much authority and
reason against the custom of blending without distinction the
characteristics of nouns and participles in the same word or words; but
still they may not be thought sufficient to prove this custom to be
altogether wrong; nor do they pretend to have fully established the dogma,
that such a construction is in no instance admissible. They show, however,
that possessives before participles are _seldom_ to be approved; and
perhaps, in the present instance, the meaning might be quite as well
expressed by a common substantive, or the regular participial noun: as,
"Some of these irregularities arise from _our reception of_ the words--or
_our receiving of_ the words--through a French medium." But there are some
examples which it is not easy to amend, either in this way, or in any
other; as, "The miscarriages of youth have very much proceeded from _their
being imprudently indulged_, or _left_ to themselves."--_Friends' N. E.
Discipline_, p. 13. And there are instances too, of a similar character, in
which the possessive case cannot be used. For example: "Nobody will doubt
of _this being_ a sufficient proof."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 66. "But
instead of _this being_ the fact of the case, &c."--_Butlers Analogy_, p.
137. "There is express historical or traditional evidence, as ancient as
history, of the _system_ of religion _being taught_ mankind by
revelation."--_Ibid._ "From _things_ in it _appearing_ to men
foolishness."--_Ib._, p. 175. "As to the consistency of the _members_ of
our society _joining_ themselves to those called free-masons."--_N. E.
Discip._, p. 51. "In _either of these cases happening_, the _person
charging_ is at liberty to bring the matter before the church, who are the
only _judges_ now _remaining_."--_Ib._, p. 36; _Extracts_, p. 57. "Deriving
its efficacy from the _power of God fulfilling_ his purpose."--_Religious
World_, Vol. ii, p. 235. "We have no idea of any certain _portion of time
intervening_ between the time of the action and the time of speaking of
it."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 33: _Murray's_, i, 70; _Emmons's_, 41; and
others. The following example therefore, however the participle may seem to
be the leading word in sense, is unquestionably wrong; and that in more
respects than one: "The reason and time of the _Son of God's becoming_
man."--_Brown's Divinity_, p. xxii. Many writers would here be satisfied
with merely omi