ithout agreement or government, are two
methods equally repugnant to reason. The last suggestion of Hart's is also
a false argument for a true position. The phrases, "_Its being me_," and
"_To be a good man_," are far from being constructed "_in like manner_."
The former is manifestly bad English; because _its_ and _me_ are not in the
_same case_. But S. S. Greene would say, "_Its being I_, is right." For in
a similar instance, he has this conclusion: "Hence, in _abridging_ the
following proposition, 'I was not aware _that it was he_,' we should say
'_of its being he_,' not '_his_' nor '_him_.'"--_Greene's Analysis_, 1st
Ed., p. 171. When _being_ becomes a noun, no case after it appears to be
very proper; but this author, thus "_abridging_" _four syllables into
five_, produces an anomalous construction which it would be much better to
avoid.

[361] Parkhurst and Sanborn, by what they call "A NEW RULE," attempt to
determine the doubtful or unknown case which this note censures, and to
justify the construction as being well-authorized and hardly avoidable.
Their rule is this: "A noun following a neuter or [a] passive participial
noun, is in the _nominative independent_. A noun or pronoun in the
_possessive_ case, always precedes the participial noun, either _expressed_
or _understood_, signifying the same thing as the noun does that follows
it." To this new and exceptionable' dogma, Sanborn adds: "This form of
expression is one of the most common idioms of the language, and _in
general composition_ cannot be well avoided. In confirmation of the
statement made, various authorities are subjoined. Two grammarians only, to
our knowledge, have remarked OH this phraseology: 'Participles are
sometimes preceded by a possessive case and followed by a nominative; as,
There is no doubt of _his_ being a great _statesman_.' B. GREENLEAF. 'We
sometimes find a participle that takes the same case after as before it,
converted into a verbal noun, and the latter word retained unchanged in
connexion with it; as, I have some recollection of his _father's_ being a
_judge_.' GOOLD BROWN."--_Sanborn's Analytical Gram._, p. 189. On what
principle the words _statesman_ and _judge_ can be affirmed to be in the
nominative case, I see not; and certainly they are not nominatives
"_independent_" because the word _being_, after which they stand, is not
itself independent. It is true, the phraseology is common enough to be good
English: but I dislike it;