diomatical, seldom admit of any literal translation, and are never
naturalized by any transfer from one language or dialect into an other; nor
is it proper for grammarians to justify them, in vernacular speech, except
as figures or anomalies that ought not to be generally imitated. It cannot
be truly affirmed, that the genius of our language ever requires that
participles, as such, should assume the relations of a noun, or govern the
possessive case; nor, on the other hand, can it be truly denied, that very
excellent and learned writers do sometimes make use of such phraseology.
Without disrespect to the many users and approvers of these anomalies, I
set down for bad English every mixed construction of the participle, for
which the language can furnish an equivalent expression that is more simple
and more elegant. The extent to which these comparative barbarisms now
abound in English books, and the ridiculous fondness for them, which has
been shown by some writers on English grammar, in stead of amounting to any
argument in their favour, are in fact, plain proofs of the necessity of an
endeavour to arrest so obvious and so pernicious an innovation.

OBS. 42.--A late author observes as follows: "That the English gerund,
participle, or verbal noun, in _ing_, has both an active and a passive
signification, there can be little doubt.[424] Whether the Latin gerund has
precisely a similar import, or whether it is only active, it may be
difficult, and, indeed, after all, it is not of much moment, to
ascertain."--_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 234. The gerund in Latin most
commonly governs the case of its own verb, as does the active participle,
both in Latin and English: as, "Efferor studio _patres vestros videndi_.
Cic. de sen. 23."--_Lily's Gram._, p. 96. That is, "I am transported, with
a desire of _seeing your fathers_." But sometimes we find the gerund taken
substantively and made to govern the genitive. Or,--to adopt the language
of an old grammarian:--"Interdum _non invenuste_ additur gerundiis in _di_
etiam genitivus pluralis: ut, 'Quum _illorum videndi_ gratia me in forum
contulissem.'--'_Novarum_ [qui] _spectandi_ faciunt copiam.' Ter. Heaut.
prol. 29."--_Lily's Gram._, p. 97. That is, "To gerunds in _di_ there is
sometimes _not inelegantly_ added a genitive plural: as, 'When, for the
sake _of seeing of them_, I went into the forum.'--'Who present an
opportunity of _attending of new ones_:' i.e., new comedies." Here the _of_