ctives_.
His rule implicitly denies that they can either be parts of their verbs in
the formation of _tenses_, or be governed by prepositions in the character
of _gerunds_. To suppose that a _noun_ may govern the objective case, is
both absurd in itself, and contrary to all authority; yet, among his
forty-nine rules, this author has the following: "RULE XXV. A participial
_noun_ is sometimes governed by a preposition, and _may govern an objective
case_; as, 'George is too fond of _wasting time_ in trifles.'"--_Frost's
El. of Gram._, p. 47. Here again is the fault of which I am speaking, two
rules in one; and this fault is combined with an other still worse.
_Wasting_ is a participle, governed by _of_; and _time_ is a _noun_,
governed by _wasting_. The latter is a declinable word, and found in the
objective case; the former is indeclinable, and found in no case. It is an
error to suppose that cases are the only things which are susceptible of
being governed; nor is the brief rule, "Prepositions govern the objective
case," so very clear a maxim as never to be misapprehended. If the learner
infer from it, that _all_ prepositions must necessarily govern the
objective case, or that the objective case _is always_ governed by a
preposition, he will be led into a great mistake.

OBS. 9.--This error of crowding things together, is still more conspicuous
in the following examples: "RULE IV. Every article, adjective, and
participle, _must qualify_ some noun, or pronoun, either expressed or
understood."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 94. "RULE IX. The objective case is
governed by a transitive verb or a preposition, usually coming before
it."--_Ib._, p. 98. Here an author who separates participles from verbs,
has attempted first to compress the entire syntax of three different parts
of speech into one short rule; and, secondly, to embrace all the forms of
dependence, incident to objective nouns and pronouns, in an other as short.
This brevity is a poor exchange for the order and distribution which it
prevents--especially as none of its objects are here reached. Articles do
not relate to pronouns, unless the obsolete phrase _the which_ is to be
revived;[327] participles have other constructions than those which
adjectives admit; there are exceptions to the rules which tie articles to
nouns, and adjectives to nouns or pronouns; and the objective case may not
only be governed by a participle, but may be put in apposition with an
other objectiv