OBS. 6.—As infinitives and participles have no nominatives of their own, such of them as are not transitive in their nature, may take different cases after them; and, in order to determine what case it is that follows them, the learner must carefully observe what preceding word denotes the same person or thing, and apply the principle of the rule accordingly. This word being often remote, and sometimes understood, the sense is the only clew to the construction. Examples: "Who then can bear the thought of being an outcast from his presence?"—Addison. Here outcast agrees with who, and not with thought. "I cannot help being so passionate an admirer as I am."—Steele. Here admirer agrees with I. "To recommend what the soberer part of mankind look upon to be a trifle."—Steele. Here trifle agrees with what as relative, the objective governed by upon. "It would be a romantic madness, for a man to be a lord in his closet."—Id. Here madness is in the nominative case, agreeing with it; and lord, in the objective, agreeing with man. "To affect to be a lord in one's closet, would be a romantic madness." In this sentence also, lord is in the objective, after to be; and madness, in the nominative, after would be.
"'My dear Tibullus!' If that will not do,
Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you."—Pope, B. ii, Ep. ii, 143.
OBS. 7.—An active-intransitive or a neuter participle in ing, when governed by a preposition, is often followed by a noun or a pronoun the case of which depends not on the preposition, but on the case which goes before. Example: "The Jews were in a particular manner ridiculed for being a credulous people."—Addison's Evidences, p. 28. Here people is in the nominative case, agreeing with Jews. Again: "The learned pagans ridiculed the Jews for being a credulous people." Here people is in the objective case, because the preceding noun Jews is so. In both instances the preposition for governs the participle being, and nothing else. "The atrocious crime of being a young man, I shall neither attempt to palliate or deny."—PITT: Bullions's E. Gram., p. 82; S. S. Greene's, 174. Sanborn has this text, with "nor" for "or."—Analytical Gram., p. 190. This example has been erroneously cited, as one in which the case of the noun after the participle is not determined by its relation to any other word. Sanborn absurdly supposes it to be "in the nominative independent." Bullions as strangely tells us, "it may correctly be called the objective indefinite"—like me in the following example: "He was not sure of its being me."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 82. This latter text I take to be bad English. It should be, "He was not sure of it as being me;" or, "He was not sure that it was I." But, in the text above, there is an evident transposition. The syntactical order is this: "I shall neither deny nor attempt to palliate the atrocious crime of being a young man." The words man and I refer to the same person, and are therefore in the same case, according to the rule which I have given above.
OBS. 8.—S. S. Greene, in his late Grammar, improperly denominates this case after the participle being, "the predicate-nominative," and imagines that it necessarily remains a nominative even when the possessive case precedes the participle. If he were right in this, there would be an important exception to Rule 6th above. But so singularly absurd is his doctrine about "abridged predicates," that in general the abridging shows an increase of syllables, and often a conversion of good English into bad. For example: "It [the predicate] remains unchanged in the nominative, when, with the participle of the copula, it becomes a verbal noun, limited by the possessive case of the subject; as, 'That he was a foreigner prevented his election,'='His being a foreigner prevented his election.'"—Greene's Analysis, p. 169. Here the number of syllables is unaltered; but foreigner is very improperly called "a verbal noun," and an example which only lacks a comma, is changed to what Wells rightly calls an "anomalous expression," and one wherein that author supposes foreigner and his to be necessarily in the same case. But Greene varies this example into other "abridged forms," thus: "I knew that he was a foreigner," = "I knew his being, or of his being a foreigner." "The fact that he was a foreigner, = of his being a foreigner, was undeniable." "When he was first called a foreigner, = on his being first called a foreigner, his anger was excited."—Ib., p. 171. All these changes enlarge, rather than abridge, the expression; and, at the same time, make it questionable English, to say the least of it.
OBS. 9.—In some examples, the adverb there precedes the participle, and we evidently have nothing by which to determine the case that follows; as, "These judges were twelve in number. Was this owing to there being twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?"—Webster's Essays, p. 263. Say rather: "Was this because there were twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?" "How many are injured by Adam's fall, that know nothing of there ever being such a man in the world!"—Barclay's Apology, p. 185. Say rather,—"who know not that there ever was such a man in the world!"
OBS. 10.—In some other examples, we find a possessive before the participle, and a doubtful case after it; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to make use of as the strongest argument of his being the promised Messiah"—Addison's Evidences, p. 81. "But my chief affliction consisted in my being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper."—Cowper's Memoir, p. 13. "[Greek: Tou patros [ontos] onou euthus hypemnæsthæ]. He had some sort of recollection of his father's being an ass"—Collectanea Græca Minora, Notæ, p. 7. This construction, though not uncommon, is anomalous in more respects than one. Whether or not it is worthy to form an exception to the rule of same cases, or even to that of possessives, the reader may judge from the observations made on it under the latter. I should rather devise some way to avoid it, if any can be found—and I believe there can; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to advance as the strongest proof that he was the promised Messiah."—"But my chief affliction consisted in this, that I was singled out," &c. The story of the mule is, "He seemed to recollect on a sudden that his father was an ass." This is the proper meaning of the Greek text above; but the construction is different, the Greek nouns being genitives in apposition.
OBS. 11.—A noun in the nominative case sometimes follows a finite verb, when the equivalent subject that stands before the verb, is not a noun or pronoun, but a phrase or a sentence which supplies the place of a nominative; as, "That the barons and freeholders derived their authority from kings, is wholly a mistake."—Webster's Essays, p. 277. "To speak of a slave as a member of civil society, may, by some, be regarded a solecism."—Stroud's Sketch, p. 65. Here mistake and solecism are as plainly nominatives, as if the preceding subjects had been declinable words.
OBS. 12.—When a noun is put after an abstract infinitive that is not transitive, it appears necessarily to be in the objective case,[360] though not governed by the verb; for if we supply any noun to which such infinitive may be supposed to refer, it must be introduced before the verb by the preposition for: as, "To be an Englishman in London, a Frenchman in Paris, a Spaniard in Madrid, is no easy matter; and yet it is necessary."—Home's Art of Thinking, p. 89. That is, "For a traveller to be an Englishman in London," &c. "It is certainly as easy to be a scholar, as a gamester."—Harris's Hermes, p. 425. That is, "It is as easy for a young man to be a scholar, as it is for him to be a gamester." "To be an eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is far from being a common or easy attainment."—Blair's Rhet., p. 337. Here attainment is in the nominative, after is—or, rather after being, for it follows both; and speaker, in the objective after to be. "It is almost as hard a thing [for a man] to be a poet in despite of fortune, as it is [for one to be a poet] in despite of nature."—Cowley's Preface to his Poems, p. vii.
OBS. 13.—Where precision is necessary, loose or abstract infinitives are improper; as, "But to be precise, signifies, that they express that idea, and no more."—Blair's Rhet., p. 94; Murray's Gram., 301; Jamieson's Rhet., 64. Say rather: "But, for an author's words to be precise, signifies, that they express his exact idea, and nothing more or less."
OBS. 14.—The principal verbs that take the same case after as before them, except those which are passive, are the following: to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is to be observed, that they are sometimes transitive, and govern the objective: as, "To commence a suit."—Johnson. "O continue thy loving kindness unto them."—Psalms, xxxvi, 10. "A feather will turn the scale."—Shak. "Return him a trespass offering."—1 Samuel. "For it becomes me so to speak."—Dryden. But their construction with like cases is easily distinguished by the sense; as, "When I commenced author, my aim was to amuse."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 286. "Men continue men's destroyers."—Nixon's Parser, p. 56. "'Tis most just, that thou turn rascal"—Shak., Timon of Athens. "He went out mate, but he returned captain."—Murray's Gram., p. 182. "After this event he became physician to the king."—Ib. That is, "When I began to be an author," &c.