verbs of continuing the participle is not an object of government; though possibly it may be so, in these instances, which are somewhat different. 2.  After verbs of OMITTING; as, “He omits giving an account of them.”—­Tooke’s Diversions of Purley, i, 251.  I question the propriety of this construction; and yet, "omits to give" seems still more objectionable.  Better, “He omits all account of them.”  Or, “He neglects to give, or forbears to give, any account of them.”  L. Murray twice speaks of apologizing, “for the use he has made of his predecessors’ labours, and for omitting to insert their names.”—­Octavo Gram., Pref., p. vii; and Note, p. 73.  The phrase, "omitting to insert," appears to me a downright solecism; and the pronoun their is ambiguous, because there are well-known names both for the men and for their labours, and he ought not to have omitted either species wholly, as he did.  “Yet they absolutely refuse doing so, one with another.”—­Harris’s Hermes, p. 264.  Better, "refuse to do so." “I had as repeatedly declined going.”—­Leigh Hunt’s Byron, p. 15.

3.  After verbs of PREVENTING; as, “Our sex are happily prevented from engaging in these turbulent scenes.”—­West’s Letters to a Lady, p. 74.  “To prevent our frail natures from deviating into bye paths [write by-paths] of error.”—­Ib., p. 100.  “Prudence, prevents our speaking or acting improperly.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 99; Murray’s Gram., p. 303; Jamieson’s Rhet., p. 72.  This construction, though very common, is palpably wrong:  because its most natural interpretation is, “Prudence improperly prevents our speech or action.”  These critics ought to have known enough to say, “Prudence prevents us from speaking or acting improperly.”  “This, however, doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from singing.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 70.  Here the infinitive is used, merely because it does not sound well to say, "from borrowing from singing;" but the expression might very well be changed thus, "from being indebted to singing." “’This by no means hinders the book to be a useful one.’—­Geddes. It should be, ’from being.’”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. 318.

4.  After verbs of AVOIDING:  as, “He might have avoided treating of the origin of ideas.”—­Tooke’s Diversions, i, 28.  “We may avoid talking nonsense on these subjects.”—­Campbell’s Rhet., p. 281.  “But carefully avoid being at any time ostentatious and affected.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 233.  “Here I cannot avoid mentioning[420] the assistance I have received.”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. iv.  “It is our duty to avoid leading others into temptation,”—­West’s Letters, p. 33.  “Nay, such a garden should in some measure avoid imitating nature.”—­Kames,