tting the possessive sign; as does Churchill, in the
following example: "The chief cause of this appears to me to lie in
_grammarians having considered_ them solely as the signs of tense."--_New
Gram._, p. 243. But this sort of construction, too, whenever the noun
before the participle is not the leading word in sense, is ungrammatical.
In stead, therefore, of stickling for choice between two such errors, we
ought to adopt some better expression; as, "The reason and time of the
_Saviour's incarnation_."--"The chief cause of this appears to me to _be,
that_ grammarians _have_ considered them solely as signs of tense."

OBS. 29.--It is certain that the noun or pronoun which "limits the meaning
of a participle," cannot always be "put in the _genitive_" or _possessive_
case; for the sense intended sometimes positively forbids such a
construction, and requires the objective: as, "A syllable consists of one
or more _letters forming_ one sound."--_Allen's Gram._, p. 29. The word
_representing_ or _denoting_ would here be better than _forming_, because
the letters do not, strictly speaking, _form_ the sound. But chiefly let it
be noticed, that the word _letters_ could not with any propriety have been
put in the possessive case. Nor is it always necessary or proper, to prefer
that case, where the sense may be supposed to admit it; as, "'The example
which Mr. Seyer has adduced, of the _gerund governing_ the genitive of the
agent.' Dr. Crombie."--_Grant's Lat. Gram._, p. 237. "Which possibly might
have been prevented by _parents doing_ their duty."--_N. E. Discipline_, p.
187. "As to the seeming contradiction of _One being_ Three, and _Three_
One."--_Religious World_, Vol. ii, p. 113. "You have watched _them
climbing_ from chair to chair."--PIERPONT: _Liberator_, Vol. x, p. 22.
"Whether the world came into being as it is, by an intelligent _Agent
forming_ it thus, or not."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 129. "In the farther
supposition of necessary _agents being_ thus rewarded and
punished."--_Ib._, p. 140. "He grievously punished the _Israelites
murmuring_ for want of water."--_Leslie, on Tythes_, p. 21. Here too the
words, _gerund, parents, One, Three, them, Agent, agents_, and
_Israelites_, are rightly put in the objective case; yet doubtless some
will think, though I do not, that they might as well have been put in the
possessive. Respectable writers sometimes use the latter case, where the
former would convey the same meaning, and be