She did not weep—­she did not break forth into
     reproaches.—­IRVING.

270.  The infinitive is sometimes active in form while it is passive in meaning, as in the expression, “a house to let.”  Examples are,—­

     She was a kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where
     there were no opera boxes to rent.—­DE QUINCEY.

     Tho’ it seems my spurs are yet to win.—­TENNYSON.

     But there was nothing to do.—­HOWELLS.

     They shall have venison to eat, and corn to hoe.—­COOPER.

     Nolan himself saw that something was to pay.—­E.E.  HALE.

271.  The various offices which the infinitive and the participle have in the sentence will be treated in Part II., under “Analysis,” as we are now learning merely to recognize the forms.

GERUNDS.

272.  The gerund is like the participle in form, and like a noun in use.

The participle has been called an adjectival verbal; the gerund may be called a noun verbal.  While the gerund expresses action, it has several attributes of a noun,—­it may be governed as a noun; it may be the subject of a verb, or the object of a verb or a preposition; it is often preceded by the definite article; it is frequently modified by a possessive noun or pronoun.

[Sidenote:  Distinguished from participle and verbal noun.]

273.  It differs from the participle in being always used as a noun:  it never belongs to or limits a noun.

It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec.  II).

The following are examples of the uses of the gerund:—­

(1) Subject:  “The taking of means not to see another morning had all day absorbed every energy;” “Certainly dueling is bad, and has been put down.”

(2) Object:  (a) “Our culture therefore must not omit the arming of the man.” (b) “Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus;” “I announce the good of being interpenetrated by the mind that made nature;” “The guilt of having been cured of the palsy by a Jewish maiden.”

(3) Governing and Governed:  “We are far from having exhausted the significance of the few symbols we use,” also (2, b), above; “He could embellish the characters with new traits without violating probability;” “He could not help holding out his hand in return.”

Exercise.—­Find sentences containing five participles, five infinitives, and five gerunds.

SUMMARY OF WORDS IN _-ING_.

274.  Words in -ing are of six kinds, according to use as well as meaning.  They are as follows:—­