foregoing example, it may easily be done, thus:
"There is no more of moral principle _to prevent abolitionists_ from
nominating their own candidates, than _to prevent them from_ voting for
those nominated by others." The following example is much like the
preceding, but less justifiable: "We see comfort, security, strength,
pleasure, wealth, and prosperity, all flowing from _men combining
together_; and misery, weakness, and poverty, ensuing from _their acting
separately_ or in opposition to each other."--_West's Letters_, p. 133. Say
rather,--"from _men's combining-together_," or, "from _the just combination
of men in society_;" and,--"from their _separate action_, or _their_
opposition to _one an other_." Take an other example: "If _illorum_ be
governed here of _negotii_, it must be in this order, _gratia negotii
illorum videndi_; and this is, for the sake of their _business_ being seen,
and not, for the sake of _them_ being seen."--_Johnson's Grammatical
Commentaries_, p. 352. Here the learned critic, in disputing Perizonius's
resolution of the phrase, "_illorum videndi gratia_" has written disputable
English. But, had he _affected the Latin idiom_, a nearer imitation of it
would have been,--"for the sake of their _business's being seen_, and not
for the sake of _their being seen_." Or nearer still,--"for the sake of
_seeing of their business_, and not, for the sake of _seeing of them_." An
elegant writer would be apt to avoid all these forms, and say,--"for the
sake of _seeing their business_;" and,--"_for the sake of seeing them_;"
though the former phrase, being but a version of bad Latin, makes no very
good sense in any way.

OBS. 41.--Idioms, or peculiarities of expression, are never to be approved
or valued, but according to their convenience, utility, or elegance. By
this rule, some phrases that are not positively barbarous, may yet be
ungrammatical, and a construction that is sometimes allowable, may yet be
quite unworthy to be made or reckoned, "the common mode of expression."
Thus, in Latin, the infinitive verb is occasionally put for a noun, and
taken to signify a property possessed; as, "_Tuum scire_, [thy to know,]
the same as _tua scientia_, thy knowledge. Pers."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 153.
So, in English, the participle in _ing_ is often taken substantively, when
it does not actually become a substantive or noun; as, "Thy _knowing_
this,"--"Our _doing_ so."--_West_. Such forms of speech, because they are
i