You may now commit the order of parsing a participle, and then proceed with me.
SYSTEMATIC ORDER OF PARSING.
The order of parsing a PARTICIPLE, is—a participle, and why?—from what verb is it derived?—speak the three—present, perfect, or compound, and why?—to what does it refer or belong?—RULE.
"I saw a vessel sailing"
Sailing is a participle, a word derived from a verb, and partakes of the nature of a verb, and also of an adjective—it comes from the verb to sail—pres. sailing, perf. sailed, comp. having sailed—it is a present or imperfect participle, because it denotes the continuance of an unfinished action—and refers to the noun "vessel" for its subject, according to
RULE 27. The present participle refers to some noun or pronoun denoting the subject or actor.
"Not a breath disturbs the sleeping billow."
Sleeping is a participial adjective, a word added to a noun to express its quality—it cannot, with propriety, be compared—- it belongs to the noun "billow," agreeably to
RULE 18. Adjectives belong to, and qualify, nouns expressed or understood.
You will please to parse these two words several times over, and, by a little reflection, you will perfectly understand the 27th RULE. Recollect, the participle never varies its termination to agree with a noun or pronoun, for, as it has no nominative, it has no agreement; but it simply refers to an actor. Examples: I see a vessel sailing; or, I see three vessels sailing. You perceive that the participle sailing refers to a singular noun in the first example, and to a plural noun in the second; and yet the participle is in the same form in both examples. The noun vessel is in the objective case, and governed by the transitive verb see. But when a verb follows a noun, the ending of the verb generally varies in order to agree with the noun which is its nominative; as, the vessel sails; the vessels sail.