_substantive_."--_Ib._, p. 192. And substantives, or
nouns, by an other of his notes, can govern the infinitive mood, just as
well as participles; or just as well as the verbs which he thinks would be
very proper here; namely, "To _advise_ or _attempt_ to excite such
disturbances."--_Ib._, p. 196. It would be right to say, "_Any advice_, or
_attempt_, to excite such disturbances, is unlawful." And I see not that he
has improved the text at all, by expunging the article. _Advising_ and
_attempting_, being disjunct nominatives to _is_, are nothing but nouns,
whether the article be used or not; though they are rather less obviously
such without it, and therefore the change is for the worse.

OBS. 14.--Lennie observes, "When _a preposition_"--(he should have said,
When _an other_ preposition--) "follows the participle, _of_ is
inadmissible; as, _His_ depending _on_ promises proved his ruin. _His_
neglecting _to_ study when young, rendered him ignorant all his
life."--_Prin. of E. Gram._, 5th Ed., p. 65; 13th Ed., 91. Here _on_ and
_to_, of course, exclude _of_; but the latter may be changed to _of_, which
will turn the infinitive into a noun: as, "_His_ neglecting _of study_,"
&c. "_Depending_" and "_neglecting_," being equivalent to _dependence_ and
_neglect_, are participial nouns, and not "participles." Professor
Bullions, too, has the same faulty remark, examples and all; (for his book,
of the same title, is little else than a gross plagiarism from Lennie's;)
though he here forgets his other erroneous doctrines, that, "A
_preposition_ should never be used before the infinitive," and that,
"Active verbs do not admit a preposition after them." See _Bullions's Prin.
of E. Gram._, pp. 91, 92, and 107.

OBS. 15.--The participle in _ing_ is, on many occasions, equivalent to the
infinitive verb, so that the speaker or writer may adopt either, just as he
pleases: as, "So their gerunds are sometimes found _having_ [or _to have_]
an absolute or apparently neuter signification."--_Grant's Lat. Gram._, p.
234. "With tears that ceas'd not _flowing_" [or _to flow_].--_Milton_. "I
would willingly have him _producing_ [_produce_, or _to produce_] his
credentials."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 273. There are also instances, and
according to my notion not a few, in which the one is put _improperly_ for
the other. The participle however is erroneously used for the infinitive
much oftener than the infinitive for the participle. The lawful uses