“Thou bowed’st thy glorious head to none, feared’st none.”
        —­Pollok, B. viii, l. 603.

   “Thou look’st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it.”
        —­N.  A. Reader, p. 320.

   “As once thou slept’st, while she to life was form’d”
        —­Milt., P. L., B. xi, l. 369.

   “Who finds the partridge in the puttock’s nest,
    But may imagine how the bird was dead?”
        —­SHAK.:  Joh.  Dict.

   “Which might have well becom’d the best of men.”
        —­Id., Ant. and Cleop.

CHAPTER VII.—­PARTICIPLES.

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb:  thus, from the verb rule, are formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, 1. ruling, 2. ruled, 3. having ruled.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in motion, or the privation of motion—­in acting, or ceasing to act.  And to all motion and rest, time and place are necessary concomitants; nor are the ideas of degree and manner often irrelevant.  Hence the use of tenses and of adverbs.  For whatsoever comes to pass, must come to pass sometime and somewhere; and, in every event, something must be affected somewhat and somehow.  Hence it is evident that those grammarians are right, who say, that “all participles imply time.”  But it does not follow, that the English participles divide time, like the tenses of a verb, and specify the period of action; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest, that they do not.  The phrase, “men labouring,” conveys no other idea than that of labourers at work; it no more suggests the time, than the place, degree, or manner, of their work.  All these circumstances require other words to express them; as, “Men now here awkwardly labouring much to little purpose.”  Again:  “Thenceforward will men, there labouring hard and honourably, be looked down upon by dronish lordlings.”

OBS. 2.—­Participles retain the essential meaning of their verbs; and, like verbs, are either active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, or neuter, in their signification.  For this reason, many have classed them with the verbs.  But their formal meaning is obviously different.  They convey no affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or pronouns, like adjectives, except when they are joined with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses of their verbs; or when they have in part the nature of substantives, like the Latin gerunds.  Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the adjectives.  The most discreet writers have commonly assigned them a separate place among the parts of speech; because, in spite of all opposite usages, experience has shown that it is expedient to do so.