defy correction. It would be improved by beginning at the other end

"The Russians may yet effect the march to Adrianople... if they can afford sufficient forces to mask Shumla; since the Turks are harassed in the south . . . and the quadrilateral," &c.]

"In the latter end of the year 1821, my wife's health being much impaired, and suffering myself from the effects of a disease prevalent in the island, it was deemed desirable to avail ourselves of an opportunity which was then offered of visiting N. South Wales." (Travels.)

[This is a good typical example of the kind of error we are dealing with. Correct by substituting the Indicative for the Participle—

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. . as my wife's health was much impaired, and I myself was suffering," &c.]

"The passage occupied three days, arriving in Hilo or Byron's Bay at 7 p.m." (Newspaper.)

[Taken as it stands, this states that the passage "arrived," &c.: correct thus:

"The passage occupied three days; and we (or they) arrived in Hilo at 7 p.m."]

...

"The path is gently undulating, caused by the lava flowing at different periods." (Ib.)

[Correct

"The path has gentle undulations caused by the lava," &c.]

"Often and often my day's wages were kept back, not having done this woman's task." (Edgeworth.)

[Correct

"Often and often my day's wages were kept back because I had not done," &c.]

"The kingdoms of Anahuac were in their nature despotic, attended with many mitigating circumstances unknown to the despotisms of the East." (Prescott, Mexico, i. 23.)

The fault here is less gross. Still it is clear the writer means not that the "kingdoms" were "attended with many mitigating circumstances," but that the despotism which characterized them was attended by those mitigating circumstances. Correct

"The kingdoms of Anahuac were in their nature despotic; but their despotism was attended," &c.]

A remarkable instance of this kind occurs in a fine passage of Pope, Essay, iv. 309-316

"Know then this truth, enough for man to know,
Virtue alone is happiness below:-

Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,

And if it lose, attended with no pain. . ."

What is "attended with no pain"? Clearly not the "joy." Neither can it well be "merit." It is evidently the verbal noun implied in "lose -the loss is "attended

with no pain." See Pattison, a. l. Clar. Press ed.

$ 64. The following passage may serve as an example of the confusion which not unfrequently arises from a lax attachment of a Participle, especially when it leads off the

sentence:

"Situated in a country that was like the lap of sensual pleasure, and with the means of enjoying it, [the reference is to Lafayette] how few are there to be found who would exchange such a scene for the woods and wildernesses of America, and pass the flowery years of youth in unprofitable danger and hardship! But such is the fact." (Paine, Rights, p. 18.)

Here it is clear that the word "situated was intended to attach itself to the antecedent noun ["Lafayette"]— not to the subsequent Nominative "how few." Yet, as the sentence stands, it must undoubtedly be referred to the latter, thus rendering the entire passage, especially the concluding remark (" But such is the fact,") incoherent. It may be corrected somewhat thus ::

"Situated as he was in a country that was like the lap of sensual pleasure, and with the means of enjoying it (? the country' or pleasure'), how improbable does it appear that he should be willing to exchange such a scene. . Yet such is the fact."

Or thus

"How few situated as he was in a country. . would exchange such a scene for the woods and wildernesses of America! Yet this is what he did."

§ 65. Sometimes, as in the following passage, a writer may be betrayed into leaving his sentence incomplete, by the fact of his having already introduced a quasi-predicate in the form of a Participle:

"It is only a spoon, but it too has a history. When the cause of the White Rose culminated in the bloody day of Towton on Palm Sunday,

G

in 1461, and Henry VI. with the Queen, the Prince, and a few followers, leaving many great lords and knights, and 28,000 men, numbered by heralds, as the Paston Letters tell us, dead on the field, we may be sure that he carried this spoon about with him." (Review.)

§ 66. The same cautions apply to the use of Verbal Nouns. It must be quite plain to what (virtual) Subject the Verbal Noun attaches itself, or an ambiguity is the result. Thus the following paragraph is faulty :—

"The opinion of the majority prevailed, and the army retired leisurely... without being disquieted in their retreat. But they were permanently severed from the division of Gielgud, who possibly might, by a prolonged stay at Ostrolenka, have been enabled, by a circuitous march, to rejoin the army." (Alison, ch. xxvi.)

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Stay" of whom? According to the grammar of the sentence, clearly of Gielgud. Yet such is certainly not the author's meaning. It should be, "by their prolonged stay."

In familiar writing it is no uncommon thing to meet with such a sentence as the following:

"On arriving at the chapel, which was the goal of the pilgrimage, the walls were found covered with pictorial representations of the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria and Herz-govina.' (Letter in Newspaper.)

Here the verbal noun "arriving" has no proper attachment. It should be

"On arriving..

they found the walls covered," &c.

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§ 67. Peculiarity in the use of Perfect or "Complete" form of Infinitive. There is a peculiar but idiomatic use of the Perfect Infinitive, which may cause some perplexity to the student. The Perfect Infinitive is used after a verb in the Past Tense, in speaking of something that was purposed or anticipated, but not actually accomplished:"I meant to have done so and so." He thought to have escaped;" see E. Gr. § 262. There is something not altogether logical about such expressions. By the Past Tense in the former part of the sentence we are thrown back into past time; and from that point, the action is seen as future. Hence the verb which follows does not logically admit a past or complete form. The purpose at the time referred to was, "to do some particular thing," not "to have done" it. So in the other example-" He thought," i.e. his intention or hope was "to escape," not "to have

escaped." (Compare Latin, ita facere volebam, not ita fecisse.)

§ 68. That this idiom is, however, deeply rooted in our language is seen further by an examination of the so-called compound Subjunctive forms-might have. . . could have ... should have . . .-to which precisely the same observations apply. Here again the comparison of another language the German-aids us in discerning the logical construction: "ich hätte es thun können [=gekonnt]: -with the Present not the Perfect Infinitive. But in this as in many other cases, we may discern the tendency of language to strike out and perpetuate useful practical distinctions. In the case of these quasi-auxiliaries (modal verbs) and also of the verb ought, it is only by the use of the Perfect Infinitive that it is possible to mark the whole transaction as past. 'I ought to do so and so" is present, and denotes a present obligation. "I ought to have done so and so" is past, and denotes a past obligation, usually with the associated idea of its being unfulfilled.* The auxiliary "have" is used purely as a mark of time with the latter verb, and without regard to the logical relation it bears to the former.

§ 69. But though the usage is thus seen to be both idiomatic and useful, the student will do well to be sparing in his use of it, and strictly to limit its application to cases in which the Infinitive is in immediate dependence upon some verb of the kind referred to― denoting purpose, expectation, &c., or a corresponding verbal noun. A few examples from popular authors are added for the purpose of study and criticism:

"I wished to have observed a country, the monument of freedom and industry; but my days were numbered, and a longer stay would have been ungraceful." (Gibbon, Autobiog. p. 50.)

"I should have been happy to have expressed my opinion of the scheme in the public presence of that gentleman.. (Beaconsf. Speeches, p. 67.)

"Had this been a conclave, and Lothair the future Pope, it would have been impossible to have treated him with more consideration than he experienced." (Id. Lothair, iii. 61.)

"Had the Mexicans made free use of a phonetic alphabet, it might have been originally easy, by mastering the comparatively few signs employed in this kind of communication, to have got a key to the whole." (Prescott, Mex. i. 81.)

* Compare in Greek xpý and éxpŷv: see Liddell and Scott, Lex. s.v.

"The parliament of 1688 might as well have passed an act to have authorized themselves to live for ever, as to make their authority live for ever." (Paine, Rights.)

Here the first example-"I wished to have observed" -is both correct and elegant. The mode of expression prepares us for what follows: "But my days were numbered;" and the Perfect Infinitive, "to have observed," is immediately dependent upon the Past Tense of a verb denoting purpose-"I wished." On the contrary, the other examples are inelegant; while the questionable use of the Perfect Infinitive adds nothing to the meaning. It would surely be better to say—

"I should have been happy to express .
"It would have been impossible to treat him
It might have been easy to get a key
"They might as well have passed an act to authorize

In each of these cases the associated idea of the thing not having been done is sufficiently conveyed by the antecedent conditional forms. The inappropriateness of the Perfect Tense may be further seen, in the third and fourth examples, by placing the Subject-Infinitive at the head of its sentence.

"To treat him with more consideration would have been impossible.

"To get a key to the whole might have been originally easy.

Here the Perfect forms "to have treated," "to have got," are plainly inadmissible.

§ 70. Use of Gerundial Forms.-The use of Gerundial forms with Poss. Pron. Adj. is briefly treated, E. Gr. §§ 272, 273:

"The gooseberries were of her gathering." (Vicar of W. ch. xvi.). "I remember his pointing with the wooden sword." (Ivan. ch. ii.) "His being involved in the riot, and his fatal encounter with the constable (Felix Holt, ch. xxxiii.)

This construction, though not generally considered elegant, has the high authority of Burke:

"If ever there was a time favourable for establishing the principle, that a king of popular choice was the only legal king, without all doubt, it was at the Revolution. Its not being done at that time is a proof that the nation was of opinion it ought not to be done at any time." (Fr. Rev. p. 23.)