e
qualified by the adverb _to-day_.[422]

OBS. 38.--It is clear, that the participle in _ing_ partakes sometimes the
nature of its verb and _an adjective_; so that it relates to a noun, like
an adjective, and yet implies time, and, if transitive, governs an object,
like a verb: as, "Horses _running_ a race." Hence, by dropping what here
distinguishes it as a participle, the word may become an adjective, and
stand before its noun; as, "A _running_ brook." So, too, this participle
sometimes partakes the nature of its verb and _a noun_; so that it may be
governed by a preposition, like a noun, though in itself it has no cases or
numbers, but is indeclinable: as "In _running_ a race." Hence, again, by
dropping what distinguishes it as a participle, it may become a noun; as,
"_Running_ is a safer sport than _wrestling_." Now, if to a participle we
prefix something which makes it an adjective, we also take away its
regimen, by inserting a preposition; as, "A doctrine _un_deserving _of_
praise,"--"A man _un_compromising _in_ his principles." So, if we put
before it an article, an adjective, or a possessive, and thus give to the
participle a substantive character or relation, there is reason to think,
that we ought, in like manner, to take away its regimen, and its adverb
too, if it have any, and be careful also to distinguish this noun from the
participial adjective; as, "_The_ running _of_ a race,"--"_No_ racing _of_
horses,"--"_Your_ deserving _of_ praise."--"A _man's_ compromising _of_ his
principles." With respect to the articles, or any adjectives, it seems now
to be generally conceded, that these are signs of _substantives_; and that,
if added to participles, they must cause them to be taken, in all respects,
_substantively_. But with respect to possessives before participles, the
common practice of our writers very extensively indulges the mixed
construction of which I have said so much, and concerning the propriety of
which, the opinions of our grammarians are so various, so confused, and so
self-contradictory.

OBS. 39.--Though the participle with a nominative or an objective before
it, is not _in general_, equivalent to the verbal noun or the mixed
participle with a possessive before it; and though the significations of
the two phrases are often so widely different as to make it palpably absurd
to put either for the other; yet the instances are not few in which it
makes little or no difference _to the sense_, which o