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
