have appeared without to, in the objective case of the infinitive. We may still discriminate between these uses of the infinitive, though the inflexion has vanished, and the preposition to has been attached to the simple infinitive. When the infinitive is employed with the meaning that something is purposed to be done, or that it is fit or necessary to be done, and in cases in which the gerund preceded by to, for, or similar prepositions, would express the same meaning, we call it the Gerundial Infinitive. The following examples illustrate its use:

'They came to tell me.' 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' 'He is much to be pitied.' 'These troubles are hard to bear.' 'These troubles are hard to be borne.' 'This is sad to tell.' 'Here is water to drink.' 'I have a house to let and a horse to sell.'

158. Verbal Forms in -ing. We now come to the forms in -ing, which are a cause of great perplexity to beginners. Beginners are disposed to describe every form. in -ing as a present participle. Now what we propose to do here is to deal with these forms as we find them existing to-day, and to give them such names as are in keeping with the functions which they perform in modern English. To discover the forms and the functions as they existed six hundred years ago is a worthy object of inquiry, but as the best authorities are at variance about the early history of our forms in -ing, we will approach the treatment of them without any historical encumbrances and will endeavour to give such a description of them as shall be appropriate to their character at the present day.

Let us take the sentence

(1) To heal the sick is a noble work.'

In what other ways can we make this assertion, employing some form in -ing of the verb heal for our subject and leaving the rest of the sentence unchanged?

We can say―

(2) The healing of the sick is a noble work,'-and

(3) Healing the sick is a noble work.'

And whether we say to heal, or the healing of, or healing, the meaning is the same as if we said 'The cure of the sick.'

Now cure is a noun. So it is clear that these various forms of the verb heal are equivalent to nouns. We have seen that to heal is the simple infinitive. In the healing of, healing is evidently a noun: it takes the article before it, and it is followed by a noun dependent on it in the possessive case. Thus only healing in the third sentence remains for consideration. What are we to call it?

(a) Some say a noun. But is it exactly like an ordinary noun? No, for it takes an objective case after it instead of being followed by a possessive.

(6) Some say an infinitive. Healing the sick' means just the same as 'to heal the sick': 'to heal' is infinitive, therefore healing is infinitive.

(c) Some say a gerund. The Gerund in Latin grammar is a verbal noun, occurring in certain cases, and possessing this peculiarity that, although a noun, it governs another noun, just as the verb from which it is formed governs a noun. This description seems to agree very well with the character of the word healing when we say 'Healing the sick is a noble work,' for healing is followed by the sick in the objective case.

Now if a person chooses to call healing in this context an Infinitive, or a Noun, or a Gerund, he is at liberty to do so, and it really is a matter of small importance which name he selects; for the Infinitive is a noun, and the Gerund is a noun. But as we already have two forms of the Infinitive with to on our hands, there is an advantage in not pressing the name 'Infinitive' into service to describe the form in -ing. And as we already have another form of the verbal noun, with the before it and of after it, there is an advantage in refraining from calling this form in -ing also a noun; so we may as well agree to call it a Gerund, and we will give its definition thus:

W. E. G.

ΙΟ

A Gerund is a verbal noun in -ing which, when formed from a transitive verb, can take after it an object.

159. Entirely different from all these noun-forms is the Participle in -ing. Participles are adjectives. To confound one of the preceding forms with a participle in -ing is to confound a noun with an adjective, a name of a thing with a word which limits the application of the name; and this is a very serious confusion indeed.

A Participle is a verbal adjective. The active participle of a transitive verb differs from an ordinary adjective in taking an object.

Thus in the sentence 'I saw a doctor healing his patients,' healing refers to 'doctor,' limiting the application of the name, and at the same time takes an object his patients, just as the verb in its finite forms would take as an object his patients: e.g. 'He healed his patients.'

Why are beginners inclined to describe every verbal form in -ing as a participle ?

Because, as a fact, we do make use of a large number of present participles in the conjugation of our verbs. All the tenses expressing incomplete action are formed by the aid of this participle in -ing; 'I am writing,' 'You were speaking,' 'He will be waiting,' 'They will have been searching,' are examples, and the reader will realise on reflexion that they illustrate a very common form of expression. Except in conjugating the imperfect tenses of our verbs, however, the participle in -ing is not largely used. Thus, though we might possibly say 'Meeting Smith and hearing you were in town, I came to see you,' yet we should be more likely to say 'I met Smith and heard you were in town, so I have come to see you.'

The Participle in -ing is an active participle. It is usually called the Present Participle, and we shall give it

this name, though it would be more properly termed the Imperfect or Incomplete Participle, as it denotes not time but unfinished action,-action still in progress: writing, healing.

Our other Participle is the Perfect Participle, denoting action which is completed and no longer in progress. This is usually called the Past Participle, and we shall employ the ordinary though less accurate name for it. It ends in -en, -n, beaten, shown, or -ed, -d, -t, healed, loved, slept. If the verb is a transitive verb, this Participle is passive.

160. Notice these points connected with the Participles:

(i) The Passive Participle combined with the verb have forms tenses of the active verb: thus, 'He has stolen the watch,' 'I had eaten my dinner.' The explanation of the construction is this: 'He has stolen the watch' was once expressed thus, 'He has (or holds, or possesses) the watch stolen,' stolen being originally in agreement with watch. So, 'I had eaten my dinner' was once 'I had (or held, or possessed) my dinner eaten.' Then came a time when the real force of have in this connexion was lost, its notional meaning disappeared, and it became a mere auxiliary, so that no contradiction was apparent, as it would formerly have been apparent, in saying 'I have lost my watch,' though it is obvious that, if the watch is lost, we cannot correctly say 'I have (or hold, or possess) my watch lost,' as in such a case I hold or possess it no longer.

(ii) We have adopted this use of have with the Past Participle of intransitive verbs, and we say 'I have been,' 'I have stood,' 'I have dreamt,' 'I have slept,' though we cannot say 'I am been,' 'I am stood,' 'I am dreamt,' 'I am slept.' The Participle of intransitive verbs is Perfect, or Past, but it is not Passive.

161. The results of this discussion of the Verb Infinite may be summarized in a convenient form thus:

1. Simple Infinitive: 'To work hard is the way to get on.' 'I can go.' 'We heard him call.' 'Better dwell in the midst of alarms 'Than reign in this horrible place.'

2. Gerundial Infinitive: 'The sower went forth to sow.' 'Bread to eat,' i.e. 'for eating.' 'Ears to hear,' i.e. 'for hearing.'

3. Verbal Noun: 'They brought flowers for the decorating of the altar.' 'The writing of the book was a protracted task.' 'The hunting of the fox is a national pastime.'

4. Gerund: 'Seeing is believing.' 'Seeing a conjuror is one thing and believing him is another.' 'I am fond of seeing a conjuror.' 'We were prevented from seeing the conjuror.' 'They asked about seeing the conjuror.'

5. The Participle in -ing. 'The company sat watching the conjuror performing his tricks.' 'They are watching the conjuror.' 'Seeing the conjuror there, I went in.'

6. The Participle in -en, -d, -t. This is stolen.' 'He has stolen it.' 'This is mended.' 'He has mended it.'

Compound Gerund Forms. It should be noticed that we use combinations of the Gerunds of the verbs have and be with Participles, as we use the simple Gerunds: the following are examples of these compound gerund forms: 'I was afraid of his having gone away.' 'The master charged him with having been wasting his time.' 'My having been struck explains my being exasperated.’

Observe that in compound nouns the form in -ing is frequently gerundive. Thus a walking-stick is a stick for walking, a fishing-rod is a rod for fishing. If these forms in -ing were participles, a walking-stick would be a stick that walked and a fishing-rod a rod that fished, just as a talking-fish is a fish that talks and a laughing-hyæna a hyæna that laughs.