syntactical distinction between the participle and the
participial noun, by confounding them purposely, even in name; this author,
like Wells, whom he too often imitates, takes no notice of the question
here discussed, and seems quite unconscious that participles partly made
nouns can _produce_ false syntax. To the foregoing instructions, he
subjoins the following comment, as a marginal note: "_The participle used
as a noun_, still _retains its verbal properties_, and may govern the
objective case, or be modified by an adverb or adjunct, like the verb from
which it is derived."--_Ibid._ When one part of speech is said to be _used
as an other_, the learner may be greatly puzzled to understand _to which
class_ the given word belongs. If "_the participle used as a noun_, still
retains its verbal properties," it is, manifestly, not a noun, but a
participle still; not a participial noun, but a _nounal participle_,
whether the thing be allowable or not. Hence the teachings just cited are
inconsistent. Wells says, "_Participles_ are often used _in the sense of
nouns_; as, 'There was again the _smacking_ of whips, the _clattering_ of
hoofs, and the _glittering_ of harness.'--IRVING."--_School Gram._, p.
154. This is not well stated; because these are participial _nouns_, and
not "_participles_." What Wells calls "participial nouns," differ from
these, and are _all_ spurious, _all_ mongrels, _all_ participles rather
than nouns. In regard to possessives before participles, no instructions
appear to be more defective than those of this gentleman. His sole rule
supposes the pupil always to know when and why the possessive is _proper_,
and only instructs him _not to form it without the sign!_ It is this: "When
a noun or a pronoun, preceding a _participle used as a noun_, is _properly_
in the possessive case, the sign of possession should not be
omitted."--_School Gram._, p. 121. All the examples put under this rule,
are inappropriate: each will mislead the learner. Those which are called
"_Correct_," are, I think erroneous; and those which are called "_False
Syntax_," the adding of the possessive sign will not amend.

[349] It is remarkable, that Lindley Murray, with all his care in revising
his work, did not see the _inconsistency_ of his instructions in relation
to phrases of this kind. First he copies Lowth's doctrine, literally and
anonymously, from the Doctor's 17th page, thus: "When the thing to which
_another is said to belong