in grammarians having considered them solely as the signs of tense.”—­New Gram., p. 243.  But this sort of construction, too, whenever the noun before the participle is not the leading word in sense, is ungrammatical.  In stead, therefore, of stickling for choice between two such errors, we ought to adopt some better expression; as, “The reason and time of the Saviour’s incarnation.”—­“The chief cause of this appears to me to be, that grammarians have considered them solely as signs of tense.”

OBS. 29.—­It is certain that the noun or pronoun which “limits the meaning of a participle,” cannot always be “put in the genitive” or possessive case; for the sense intended sometimes positively forbids such a construction, and requires the objective:  as, “A syllable consists of one or more letters forming one sound.”—­Allen’s Gram., p. 29.  The word representing or denoting would here be better than forming, because the letters do not, strictly speaking, form the sound.  But chiefly let it be noticed, that the word letters could not with any propriety have been put in the possessive case.  Nor is it always necessary or proper, to prefer that case, where the sense may be supposed to admit it; as, “’The example which Mr. Seyer has adduced, of the gerund governing the genitive of the agent.’  Dr. Crombie.”—­Grant’s Lat.  Gram., p. 237.  “Which possibly might have been prevented by parents doing their duty.”—­N.  E. Discipline, p. 187.  “As to the seeming contradiction of One being Three, and Three One.”—­Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 113.  “You have watched them climbing from chair to chair.”—­PIERPONT:  Liberator, Vol. x, p. 22.  “Whether the world came into being as it is, by an intelligent Agent forming it thus, or not.”—­Butler’s Analogy, p. 129.  “In the farther supposition of necessary agents being thus rewarded and punished.”—­Ib., p. 140.  “He grievously punished the Israelites murmuring for want of water.”—­Leslie, on Tythes, p. 21.  Here too the words, gerund, parents, One, Three, them, Agent, agents, and Israelites, are rightly put in the objective case; yet doubtless some will think, though I do not, that they might as well have been put in the possessive.  Respectable writers sometimes use the latter case, where the former would convey the same meaning, and be more regular; as, “Which is used, as active verbs often are, without its regimen’s being expressed.”—­Grant’s Lat.  Gram., p. 302.  Omit the apostrophe and s; and, if you please, the word being also.  “The daily instances of men’s dying around us.”—­Butler’s Analogy, p. 113.  Say rather,—­“of men dying around us.”  “To prevent our rashly engaging in arduous or dangerous enterprises.”—­Brown’s Divinity, p. 17.  Say, “To prevent us from,”