Chapter VI: Verbs (5)

OBS. 2.--Verbs of this form have sometimes a passive signification; as, "The books _are now selling_."--_Allen's Gram._, p. 82. "As the money _was paying_ down."--_Ainsworth's Dict., w._ As. "It requires no motion in the organs whilst it _is forming_."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 8. "Those works _are long forming_ which must always last."--_Dr. Chetwood_. "While the work of the temple _was carrying_ on."--_Dr. J. Owen_. "The designs of Providence _are carrying on_."--_Bp. Butler_. "A scheme, which _has been carrying_ on, and _is_ still _carrying_ on."--_Id., Analogy_, p. 188. "We are permitted to know nothing of what _is transacting_ in the regions above us."--_Dr. Blair_. "While these things _were transacting_ in Germany."--_Russell's Modern Europe_, Part First, Let. 59. "As he _was carrying_ to execution, he demanded to be heard."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, Vol. i, p. 163. "To declare that the action _was doing_ or done."--_Booth's Introd._, p. 28. "It _is doing_ by thousands now."--_Abbott's Young Christian_, p. 121. "While the experiment _was making_, he was watching every movement."--_Ib._, p. 309. "A series of communications from heaven, which _had been making_ for fifteen hundred years."--_Ib._, p. 166. "Plutarch's Lives _are re-printing_."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 64. "My Lives _are reprinting_."--DR. JOHNSON: _Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dict._, p. xlvi. "All this _has been transacting_ within 130 miles of London."--BYRON: _Perley's Gram._, p. 37. "When the heart _is corroding_ by vexations."--_Student's Manual_, p. 336. "The padlocks for our lips _are forging_."--WHITTIER: _Liberator_, No. 993. "When his throat _is cutting_."--_Collier's Antoninus_. "While your story _is telling_."--_Adams's Rhet._, i, 425. "But the seeds of it _were sowing_ some time before."--_Bolingbroke, on History_, p. 168. "As soon as it was formed, nay even whilst it _was forming_."--_Ib._, p. 163. "Strange schemes of private ambition _were formed and forming_ there."--_Ib._, p. 291. "Even when it _was making and made_."--_Ib._, 299. "Which have been made and _are making_."--HENRY CLAY: _Liberator_, ix, p. 141. "And they are in measure _sanctified_, or _sanctifying_, by the power thereof."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 537. "Which _is_ now _accomplishing_ amongst the uncivilized countries of the earth."--_Chalmers, Sermons_, p. 281. "Who _are ruining_, or _ruined_, [in] this way."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 155. "Whilst they _were undoing_."--_Ibid._ "Whether he was employing fire to consume [something,] or _was_ himself _consuming_ by fire."--_Crombie, on Etym. and Syntax_, p. 148. "At home, the greatest exertions _are making_ to promote its progress."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. iv. "With those [sounds] which _are uttering_."--_Ib._, p. 125. "Orders _are now concerting_ for the dismissal of all officers of the Revenue marine."--_Providence Journal_, Feb. 1, 1850. Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics, under the notion that the participle in _ing_ must never be passive; but the usage is unquestionably of far better authority, and, according to my apprehension, in far better taste, than the more complex phraseology which some late writers adopt in its stead; as, "The books _are_ now _being sold_."--"In all the towns about Cork, the whiskey shops _are being closed_, and soup, coffee, and tea houses [are] _establishing_ generally."--_Dublin Evening Post_, 1840.

OBS. 3.--The question here is, Which is the most correct expression, "While the bridge _was building_,"--"While the bridge was _a_ building,"--or, "While the bridge _was being built_?" And again, Are they all wrong? If none of these is right, we must reject them all, and say, "While _they were building_ the bridge;"--"While the bridge _was in process of erection_;"--or resort to some other equivalent phrase. Dr. Johnson, after noticing the compound form of active-intransitives, as, "I _am going_"--"She _is dying_,"--"The tempest _is raging_,"--"I _have been walking_," and so forth, adds: "There is another manner of using the active participle, which gives it a _passive_ signification:[266] as, The grammar is now printing, _Grammatica jam nunc chartis imprimitur_. The brass is forging, _Æra excuduntur_. This is, in my opinion," says he, "a _vitious_ expression, probably corrupted from a phrase more pure, but now somewhat obsolete: The book is _a_ printing, The brass is _a_ forging; _a_ being properly _at_, and _printing_ and _forging_ verbal nouns signifying action, according to the analogy of this language."--_Gram. in Joh. Dict._, p. 9.

OBS. 4.--_A_ is certainly sometimes a _preposition_; and, as such, it may govern a participle, and that without converting it into a "_verbal noun_." But that such phraseology ought to be preferred to what is exhibited with so many authorities, in a preceding paragraph, and with an example from Johnson among the rest, I am not prepared to concede. As to the notion of introducing a new and more complex passive form of conjugation, as, "The bridge is _being built_," "The bridge _was being built_," and so forth, it is one of the most absurd and monstrous innovations ever thought of. Yet some two or three men, who seem to delight in huge absurdities, declare that this "modern _innovation_ is _likely to supersede_" the simpler mode of expression. Thus, in stead of, "The work _is now publishing_," they choose to say, "The work is _now being published_."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 82. This is certainly no better English than, "The work _was being published, has been being published, had been being published, shall or will be being published, shall or will have been being published_;" and so on, through all the moods and tenses. What a language shall we have when our verbs are thus conjugated!

OBS. 5.--A certain _Irish_ critic, who even outdoes in rashness the above-cited American, having recently arrived in New York, has republished a grammar, in which he not only repudiates the passive use of the participle in _ing_, but denies the usual passive form of the present tense, "_I am loved, I am smitten_" &c., as taught by Murray and others, to be good English; and tells us that the true form is, "_I am being loved, I am being smitten_," &c. See the 98th and 103d pages of _Joseph W. Wright's Philosophical Grammar_, (_Edition of_ 1838,) _dedicated_ "TO COMMON SENSE!" [267] But both are offset, if not refuted, by the following observations from a source decidedly better: "It has lately become common to use the present participle passive [,] to express the suffering of an action as _continuing_, instead of the participle in _-ing_ in the passive sense; thus, instead of, 'The house _is building_,' we now very frequently hear, 'The house _is being built_.' This mode of expression, besides being awkward, is incorrect, and _does not express the idea intended_. This will be obvious, I think, from the following considerations.

"1. The expression, '_is being_,' is equivalent to '_is_,' and expresses no more; just as, '_is loving_,' is equivalent to, '_loves_.' Hence, '_is being built_,' is precisely equivalent to, '_is built_.'

"2. '_Built_,' is a perfect participle; and therefore cannot, in any connexion, express an action, or the suffering of an action, _now in progress_. The verb _to be_, signifies _to exist_; '_being_,' therefore, is equivalent to '_existing_.' If then we substitute the synonyme, the nature of the expression will be obvious; thus, 'the house is _being built_,' is, in other words, 'the house is _existing built_,' or more simply as before, 'the house _is built_;' plainly importing an action not progressing, but now _existing in a finished state_.

"3. If the expression, '_is being built_,' be a correct form of the present indicative passive, then it must be equally correct to say in the perfect, '_has been being built_;' in the past perfect, '_had been being built_;' in the present infinitive,'_to be being built_;' in the perfect infinitive,'_to have been being built_;' and in the present participle, '_being being built_;' which all will admit to be expressions as incorrect as they are inelegant, but precisely analogous to that which now begins to prevail."--_Bullions's Principles of English Gram._, p. 58.

OBS. 6.--It may be replied, that the verbs _to be_ and _to exist_ are not always synonymous; because the former is often a mere auxiliary, or a mere copula, whereas the latter always means something positive, as _to be in being, to be extant_. Thus we may speak of a thing as _being destroyed_, or may say, it _is annihilated_; but we can by no means speak of it as _existing destroyed_, or say, it _exists annihilated_. The first argument above is also nugatory. These drawbacks, however, do not wholly destroy the force of the foregoing criticism, or at all extenuate the obvious tautology and impropriety of such phrases as, _is being, was being_, &c. The gentlemen who affirm that this new form of conjugation "_is being introduced_ into the language," (since they allow participles to follow possessive pronouns) may very fairly be asked, "What evidence have you of _its being being introduced_?" Nor can they, on their own principles, either object to the monstrous phraseology of this question, or tell how to better it![268]

OBS. 7.--D. H. Sanborn, an other recent writer, has very emphatically censured this innovation, as follows: "English and American writers have of late introduced a new kind of phraseology, which has become quite prevalent in the periodical and popular publications of the day. Their intention, doubtless, is, to supersede the use of the verb in the _definite form_, when it has a passive signification. They say, 'The ship is _being_ built,'--'time is _being wasted_,"--'the work is _being advanced_,' instead of, 'the ship is _building_, time is _wasting_, the work is _advancing_.' Such a phraseology is a solecism too palpable to receive any favor; it is at war with the practice of the most distinguished writers in the English language, such as Dr. Johnson and Addison. "When an individual says, 'a house is being burned,' he declares that a house is _existing, burned_, which is impossible; for _being_ means existing, and _burned, consumed by fire_. The house ceases to exist as such, after it is consumed by fire. But when he says, 'a house _is burning_,' we understand that it is _consuming by fire_; instead of inaccuracy, doubt, and ambiguity, we have a form of expression perfectly intelligible, beautiful, definite, and appropriate."--_Sanborn's Analytical Gram._, p. 102.

OBS. 8.--Dr. Perley speaks of this usage thus: "An attempt has been made of late to introduce a kind of passive participial voice; as, 'The temple is being built.' This ought not to be encouraged. For, besides being an innovation, it is less convenient than the use of the present participle in the passive sense. _Being built_ signifies action _finished_; and how can, _Is being built_, signify an _action unfinished?"--Perley's Gram._, p. 37.

OBS. 9.--The question now before us has drawn forth, on either side, a deal of ill scholarship and false logic, of which it would be tedious to give even a synopsis. Concerning the import of some of our most common words and phrases, these ingenious masters,--Bullions, Sanborn, and Perley,--severally assert some things which seem not to be exactly true. It is remarkable that critics can err in expounding terms so central to the language, and so familiar to all ears, as "_be, being, being built, burned, being burned, is, is burned, to be burned_," and the like. _That to be_ and _to exist_, or their like derivatives, such as _being_ and _existing, is_ and _exists_, cannot always explain each other, is sufficiently shown above; and thereby is refuted Sanborn's chief argument, that, "_is being burned_," involves the contradiction of "_existing, burned_," or "_consumed by fire_." According to his reasoning, as well as that of Bullions, _is burned_ must mean _exists consumed; was burned, existed consumed_; and thus our whole passive conjugation would often be found made up of bald absurdities! That this new _unco-passive_ form conflicts with the older and better usage of taking the progressive form sometimes passively, is doubtless a good argument against the innovation; but that "Johnson and Addison" are fit representatives of the older "practice" in this case, may be doubted. I know not that the latter has anywhere made use of such phraseology; and one or two examples from the former are scarcely an offset to his positive verdict against the usage. See OBS. 3rd, above.

OBS. 10.--As to what is called "_the present_ or _the imperfect participle passive_,"--as, "_being burned_," or "_being burnt_,"--if it is rightly interpreted in _any_ of the foregoing citations, it is, beyond question, very improperly _thus_ named. In participles, _ing_ denotes _continuance_: thus _being_ usually means _continuing to be; loving, continuing to love; building, continuing to build_,--or (as taken passively) _continuing to be built_: i. e., (in words which express the sense more precisely and certainly,) _continuing to be in process of construction_. What then is "being built," but "_continuing to be built_," the same, or nearly the same, as "_building_" taken passively? True it is, that _built_, when alone, being a perfect participle, does not mean "_in process of construction_," but rather, "_constructed_" which intimates _completion_; yet, in the foregoing passive phrases, and others like them, as well as in all examples of this unco-passive voice, continuance of the passive state being first suggested, and cessation of the act being either regarded as future or disregarded, the imperfect participle passive is for the most part received as equivalent to the simple imperfect used in a passive sense. But Dr. Bullions, who, after making "_is being built_ precisely equivalent to _is built_," classes the two participles differently, and both erroneously,--the one as a "_present_ participle," and the other, of late, as a "_past_,"--has also said above, "'_Built_,' is a _perfect_ participle: and THEREFORE cannot, in _any connexion_, express an action, or the suffering of an action, _now in progress_." And Dr. Perley, who also calls the compound of _being_ a "_present_ participle," argues thus: "_Being built_ signifies an _action, finished_; and how can _Is being built_, signify an _action unfinished_?" To expound a _passive_ term _actively_, or as "signifying _action_," is, at any rate, a near approach to absurdity; and I shall presently show that the fore-cited notion of "a perfect participle," now half abandoned by Bullions himself, has been the seed of the very worst form of that ridiculous neology which the good Doctor was opposing.

OBS. 11.--These criticisms being based upon the _meaning_ of certain participles, either alone or in phrases, and the particular terms spoken of being chiefly meant to represent _classes_, what is said of them may be understood of their _kinds_. Hence the appropriate _naming_ of the kinds, so as to convey no false idea of any participle's import, is justly brought into view; and I may be allowed to say here, that, for the first participle passive, which begins with "_being_," the epithet "_Imperfect_" is better than "_Present_," because this compound participle denotes, not always what is _present_, but always _the state_ of something by which an action is, _or was, or will be, undergone or undergoing--a state continuing_, or so regarded, though perhaps the action causative may be ended--or sometimes perhaps imagined only, and not yet really begun. With a marvellous instability of doctrine, for the professed systematizer of different languages and grammars, Dr. Bullions has recently changed his names of the second and third participles, in both voices, from "_Perfect_" and "_Compound Perfect_," to "_Past_" and "_Perfect_." His notion now is, that, "_The Perfect_ participle is always compound; as, _Having finished, Having been finished_."--_Bullions's Analyt. and Pract. Grammar_, 1849, p. 77. And what was the "_Perfect_" before, in his several books, is now called the "_Past_;" though, with this change, he has deliberately made an other which is repugnant to it: this participle, being the basis of three tenses always, and of all the tenses sometimes, is now allowed by the Doctor to lend the term "_perfect_" to the three,--"_Present-perfect, Past-perfect, Future-perfect,"_--even when itself is named otherwise!

OBS. 12.--From the erroneous conception, that a perfect participle must, in every connexion, express "_action finished_," _action past_,--or perhaps from only a moiety of this great error,--the notion that such a participle cannot, in connexion with an auxiliary, constitute a passive verb of the _present tense_,--J. W. Wright, above-mentioned, has not very unnaturally reasoned, that, "The expression, '_I am loved_,' which Mr. Murray has employed to exhibit the passive conjugation of the _present tense_, may much more _feasibly_ represent _past_ than _present_ time."--See _Wright's Philosophical Gram._, p. 99. Accordingly, in his own paradigm of the passive verb, he has formed _this_ tense solely from what he calls the participle _present_, thus: "I _am being smitten_, Thou _art being smitten_," &c.--_Ib._, p. 98. His "_Passed Tense_," too, for some reason which I do not discover, he distinguishes above the rest by a _double form_, thus: "I _was smitten, or being smitten_; Thou _wast smitten, or being smitten_;" &c.--P. 99. In his opinion, "Few will object to _the propriety of_ the more familiar phraseology, '_I am in the_ ACT,--or, _suffering_ the ACTION _of_ BEING SMITTEN;' and yet," says he, "in substance and effect, it is wholly the same as, '_I am being smitten_,' which is THE TRUE FORM of the verb in the _present_ tense of the _passive voice!_"--_Ibid._ Had we not met with some similar expressions of English or American blunderers, "the _act_ or _action of being smitten_," would be accounted a downright Irish bull; and as to this ultra notion of neologizing all our passive verbs, by the addition of "_being_,"--with the author's cool talk of "_the presentation of this theory, and_ [_the_] _consequent suppression of that hitherto employed_,"--there is a transcendency in it, worthy of the most sublime aspirant among grammatical newfanglers.

OBS. 13.--But, with all its boldness of innovation, Wright's Philosophical Grammar is not a little _self-contradictory_ in its treatment of the passive verb. The entire "suppression" of the usual form of its present tense, did not always appear, even to this author, quite so easy and reasonable a matter, as the foregoing citations would seem to represent it. The passive use of the participle in _ing_, he has easily disposed of: despite innumerable authorities for it, one false assertion, of seven syllables, suffices to make it quite impossible.[269] But the usual passive form, which, with some show of truth, is accused of not having always precisely the same meaning as the progressive used passively,--that is, of not always denoting _continuance in the state of receiving continued action_,--and which is, for that remarkable reason, judged worthy of _rejection_, is nevertheless admitted to have, in very many instances, a conformity to this idea, and therefore to "belong [thus far] to the present tense."--P. 103. This contradicts to an indefinite extent, the proposition for its rejection. It is observable also, that the same examples, '_I am loved_' and 'I _am smitten_,'--the same "_tolerated, but erroneous forms_," (so called on page 103,) that are given as specimens of what he would reject,--though at first pronounced "_equivalent_ in grammatical construction," censured for the same pretended error, and proposed to be changed alike to "_the true form_" by the insertion of "_being_,"--are subsequently declared to "belong to" different classes and different tenses. "_I am loved_," is referred to that "numerous" class of verbs, which "_detail_ ACTION _of prior, but retained, endured, and continued existence_; and therefore, in this sense, _belong to the present tense_." But "_I am smitten_," is idly reckoned of an opposite class, (said by Dr. Bullions to be "perhaps the greater number,") whose "ACTIONS described are neither _continuous_ in their nature, nor _progressive_ in their duration; but, on the contrary, _completed_ and _perfected_; and [which] are consequently descriptive of _passed_ time and ACTION."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 103. Again: "In what instance soever this latter form and signification _can_ be introduced, _their import should be, and, indeed, ought to be, supplied by the perfect tense construction_:--for example, '_I am smitten_,' [should] be, '_I have been smitten_.'"--_Ib._ Here is self-contradiction indefinitely extended _in an other way_. Many a good phrase, if not every one, that the author's first suggestion would turn to the unco-passive form, his present "_remedy_" would about as absurdly convert into "the perfect tense."

OBS. 14.--But Wright's inconsistency, about this matter, ends not here: it runs through all he says of it; for, in this instance, error and inconsistency constitute his whole story. In one place, he anticipates and answers a question thus: "To what tense do the constructions, 'I am pleased;' 'He is expected;' '_I am smitten_;' 'He is bound;' belong?" "We answer:--_So far as_ these and like constructions are applicable to the delineation of _continuous_ and _retained_ ACTION, they express _present_ time; and must be treated accordingly."--P. 103. This seems to intimate that even, "_I am smitten_," and its likes, as they stand, may have some good claim to be of the present tense; which suggestion is contrary to several others made by the author. To expound this, or any other passive term, _passively_, never enters his mind: with him, as with sundry others, "ACTION," "_finished_ ACTION," or "_progressive_ ACTION," is all any _passive_ verb or participle ever means! No marvel, that awkward perversions of the forms of utterance and the principles of grammar should follow such interpretation. In Wright's syntax a very queer distinction is apparently made between a passive verb, and the participle chiefly constituting it; and here, too, through a fancied ellipsis of "_being_" before the latter, most, if not all, of his other positions concerning passives, are again disastrously overthrown by something worse--a word "_imperceptibly understood_." "'_I am smitten_;' '_I was smitten_;' &c., are," he says, "the _universally acknowledged forms_ of the VERBS in these tenses, in the passive voice:--not of the _PARTICIPLE_. In all verbal constructions of the character of which we have hitherto treated, (see page 103) _and, where_ the ACTIONS described are _continuous_ in their _operations_,--the participle BEING is _imperceptibly omitted, by ellipsis_."--P. 144.

OBS. 15.--Dr. Bullions has stated, that, "The present participle active, and the present participle passive, are _not counterparts_ to each other in signification; [,] the one signifying the present doing, and the other the present suffering of an action, [;] for the latter _always intimates the present being of an_ ACT, _not in progress, but completed_."--_Prin. of Eng. Gram._, p. 58. In this, he errs no less grossly than in his idea of the "_action_ or the suffering" expressed by "a _perfect_ participle," as cited in OBS. 5th above; namely, that it must have _ceased_. Worse interpretation, or balder absurdity, is scarcely to be met with; and yet the reverend Doctor, great linguist as he should be, was here only trying to think and tell the common import of a very common sort of _English_ participles; such as, "_being loved_" and "_being seen_." In grammar, "_an act_," that has "_present being_," can be nothing else than an act now doing, or "_in progress_;" and if, "_the present being of an_ ACT _not in progress_," were here a possible thought, it surely could not be intimated by any _such_ participle. In Acts, i, 3 and 4, it is stated, that our Saviour showed himself to the apostles, "alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, _being seen_ of them forty days, and _speaking_ of the things _pertaining_ to the kingdom of God; and, _being assembled_ together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem." Now, of these misnamed "_present_ participles," we have here one "_active_," one "_passive_," and two others--(one in each form--) that are _neuter_; but _no present time_, except what is in the indefinite date of "_pertaining_." The events are past, and were so in the days of St. Luke. Yet each of the participles denotes _continuance_: not, indeed, in or to the _present time_, but _for a time_. "_Being seen_" means _continuing to be seen_; and, in this instance, the period of the continuance was "forty days" of time past. But, according to the above-cited "_principle of English Grammar_," so long and so widely inculcated by "the Rev. Peter Bullions, D. D., Professor of Languages," &c.,--a central principle of interpretation, presumed by him to hold "_always_"--this participle must intimate "_the present being of an act, not in progress, but completed_;"--that is, "_the present being of" the apostles' act in formerly seeing the risen Saviour_!

OBS. 16.--This grammarian has lately taken a deal of needless pains to sustain, by a studied division of verbs into two classes, similar to those which are mentioned in OBS. 13th above, a part of the philosophy of J. W. Wright, concerning our usual form of passives in the present tense. But, as he now will have it, that the two voices sometimes tally as counterparts, it is plain that he adheres but partially to his former erroneous conception of a perfect or "past" participle, and the terms which hold it "in any connexion." The awkward substitutes proposed by the Irish critic, he does not indeed countenance; but argues against them still, and, in some respects, very justly. The doctrine now common to these authors, on this point, is the highly important one, that, in respect to half our verbs, what we commonly take for the passive present, _is not such_--that, in "the _second_ class, (perhaps the greater number,) the _present-passive_ implies that _the act expressed by the active voice has ceased_. Thus, 'The house is built.' * * * Strictly speaking, then," says the Doctor, "the PAST PARTICIPLE with the verb TO BE _is not the present tense in the passive voice of verbs thus used_; that is, this form does not express passively the _doing_ of the act."--_Bullions's Analyt. and Pract. Grammar_, Ed. of 1849, p. 235. Thus far these two authors agree; except that Wright seems to have avoided the incongruity of _calling_ that "_the present-passive_" which he _denies_ to be such. But the Doctor, approving none of this practitioner's "remedies," and being less solicitous to provide other treatment than expulsion for the thousands of present passives which both deem spurious, adds, as from the chair, this verdict: "These verbs either _have no present-passive_, or it is made by annexing the participle in _ing_, in its passive sense, to the verb _to be_; as, 'The house _is building_.'"--_Ib._, p. 236.

OBS. 17.--It would seem, that Dr. Bullions thinks, and in reality Wright also, that nothing can be a present passive, but what "_expresses passively the_ DOING _of the act_." This is about as wise, as to try to imagine every active verb to _express actively the receiving of an act_! It borders exceedingly hard upon absurdity; it very much resembles the nonsense of "_expressing receptively the giving of something_!" Besides, the word "DOING," being used substantively, does not determine well what is here meant; which is, I suppose, _continuance_, or an _unfinished state_ of the act received--an idea which seems adapted to the participle in _ing_, but which it is certainly no fault of a participle ending in _d, t_, or _n_, not to suggest. To "_express passively the doing of the act_," if the language means any thing rational, may be, simply to say, that the act _is_ or _was done_. For "_doings_" are, as often as any-wise, "_things done_," as _buildings_ are _fabrics built_; and "_is built_," and "_am smitten_," the gentlemen's choice examples of _false passives_, and of "_actions finished_,"--though neither of them necessarily intimates either continuance or cessation of the act suffered, or, if it did, would be the less or the more passive or present,--may, in such a sense, "express _the doing_ of the act," if any passives can:--nay, the "finished act" has such completion as may be stated with degrees of progress or of frequency; as, "The house _is partly built_."--"I _am oftener smitten_." There is, undoubtedly, some difference between the assertions, "The house _is building_,"--and, "The house _is partly built_;" though, for practical purposes, perhaps, we need not always be very nice in choosing between them. For the sake of variety, however, if for nothing else, it is to be hoped, the doctrine above-cited, which limits half our passive verbs of the present tense, _to the progressive form only_, will not soon be generally approved. It impairs the language more than unco-passives are likely ever to corrupt it.

OBS. 18.--"No _startling novelties_ have been introduced," says the preface to the "Analytical and Practical Grammar of the English Language." To have shunned all shocking innovations, is only to have exercised common prudence. It is not pretended, that any of the Doctor's errors here remarked upon, or elsewhere in this treatise, will _startle_ any body; but, if errors exist, even in plausible guise, it may not be amiss, if I tell of them. To suppose every verb or participle to be either "_transitive_" or "_intransitive_," setting all _passives_ with the former sort, all _neuters_ with the latter; (p. 59;)--to define the _transitive_ verb or participle as expressing always "_an act_ DONE _by one person or thing to another_;" (p. 60;)--to say, after making passive verbs transitive, "The object of a transitive verb is in the _objective case_," and, "A verb that does not make sense with an objective after it, is intransitive;" (p. 60;)--to insist upon a precise and almost universal _identity of "meaning_" in terms so obviously _contrasted_ as are the two voices, "active" and "passive;" (pp. 95 and 235;)--to allege, as a general principle, "that whether we use the active, or the passive voice, _the meaning is the same_, except in some cases in the present tense;" (p. 67;)--to attribute to the forms naturally opposite in voice and sense, that sameness of meaning which is observable only in certain _whole sentences_ formed from them; (pp. 67, 95, and 235;)--to assume that each "VOICE is a particular _form of the verb_," yet make it include _two cases_, and often a preposition before one of them; (pp. 66, 67, and 95;)--to pretend from the words, "The PASSIVE VOICE represents the subject of the verb as _acted upon_," (p. 67,) that, "_According to the_ DEFINITION, the passive voice expresses, passively, _the same thing_ that the active does actively;" (p. 235;)--to affirm that, "'Cæsar _conquered_ Gaul,' and 'Gaul _was conquered_ by Cæsar,' express _precisely the same idea_,"--and then say, "It will be felt at once that the expressions, 'Cæsar _conquers_ Gaul,' and 'Gaul _is conquered_ by Cæsar,' _do not express the same thing_;" (p. 235;)--to deny that passive verbs or neuter are worthy to constitute a distinct class, yet profess to find, in one single tense of the former, such a difference of meaning as warrants a general division of verbs in respect to it; (_ib._;)--to announce, in bad English, that, "_In regard to this matter_ [,] there are evidently Two CLASSES of verbs; namely, those _whose_ present-passive expresses precisely the same thing, passively, as the active voice does actively, and those _in which it_ does not:" (_ib._;)--to do these several things, as they have been done, is, to set forth, not "novelties" only, but errors and inconsistencies.

OBS. 19.--Dr. Bullions still adheres to his old argument, that _being_ after its own verb must be devoid of meaning; or, in his own words, "that _is being built_, if it mean anything, can mean nothing more than _is built_, which is not the idea intended to be expressed."--_Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p. 237. He had said, (as cited in OBS. 5th above,) "The expression, '_is being_,' is equivalent to _is_, and expresses _no more_; just as, '_is loving_,' is equivalent to '_loves_.' Hence, '_is being built_,' is precisely equivalent to '_is built_.'"--_Principles of E. Gram._, p. 58. He has now discovered "that _there is no progressive form_ of the verb _to be_, and no need of it:" and that, "hence, _there is no such expression_ in English as _is being_."--_Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p. 236. He should have noticed also, that "_is loving_" is not an authorized "equivalent to _loves_;" and, further, that the error of saying "_is being built_," is only in the relation of the _first two words_ to each other. If "_is being_," and "_is loving_," are left unused for the same reason, the truth may be, that _is_ itself, like _loves_, commonly denotes "_continuance_;" and that _being_ after it, in stead of being necessary or proper, can only be awkwardly tautologous. This is, in fact, THE GRAND OBJECTION to the new phraseology--"_is being practised_"--"_am being smitten_"--and the like. Were there no danger that petty writers would one day seize upon it with like avidity, an other innovation, exactly similar to this in every thing but tense--similar in awkwardness, in tautology, in unmistakeableness--might here be uttered for the sake of illustration. Some men conceive, that "The _perfect_ participle is always compound; as, _having seen, having written_;"--and that the simple word, _seen_ or _written_, had originally, and still ought to have, only a passive construction. For such views, they find authorities. Hence, in lieu of the common phrases, "_had we seen_," "_we have written_," they adopt such English as this; "_Had we having seen_ you, we should have stopped."--"_We have having written_ but just now, to our correspondent." Now, "_We are being smitten_," is no better grammar than this;--and no worse: "The idea intended" is in no great jeopardy in either case.

OBS. 20.--J. R. Chandler, of Philadelphia, in his Common School Grammar of 1847, has earnestly undertaken the _defence_ of this new and much-mooted passive expression: which he calls "_the Definite Passive Voice_," or "_the Passive Voice of the Definite Form_." He admits it, however, to be a form that "does not _sound well_,"--a "_novelty_ that strikes the ear unpleasantly;" but he will have the defect to be, not in the tautologous conceit of "_is being_," "_was being_," "_has been being_," and the like, but in everybody's organ of hearing,--supposing all ears corrupted, "from infancy," to a distaste for correct speech, by "the habit of _hearing_ and using words _ungrammatically_!"--See p. 89. Claiming this new form as "_the true passive_," in just contrast with the progressive active, he not only rebukes all attempts "to evade" the use of it, "by some real or supposed _equivalent_," but also declares, that, "The attempt to deprive the transitive definite verb of [this] _its passive voice_, is _to strike at the foundation of the language_, and _to strip it of one of its most important qualities_; that of making both actor and sufferer, each in turn and at pleasure, the subject of conversation."--_Ibid._ Concerning _equivalents_, he evidently argues fallaciously; for he urges, that the using of them "_does not dispense with the necessity of the definite passive voice_."--P. 88. But it is plain, that, of the many fair substitutes which may in most cases be found, if any one is preferred, this form, and all the rest, are of course rejected for the time.

OBS. 21.--By Chandler, as well as others, this new passive form is justified only on the supposition, that the simple participle in _ing_ can never with propriety be used passively. No plausible argument, indeed, can be framed for it, without the assumption, that the simpler form, when used in the same sense, _is ungrammatical_. But this is, in fact, a begging of the main question; and that, in opposition to abundant authority for the usage condemned. (See OBS. 3d, above.) This author pretends that, "_The RULE of all grammarians_ declares the verb _is_, and a _present participle_ (_is building_, or _is writing_), to be in the active voice" only.--P. 88. (I add the word "_only_," but this is what he means, else he merely quibbles.) Now in this idea he is wrong, and so are the several grammarians who support the principle of this imaginary "_RULE_." The opinion of critics in general would be better represented by the following suggestions of the Rev. W. Allen: "When the English verb does not signify _mental affection_, the distinction of voice is often disregarded: thus we say, _actively_, they _were selling_ fruit; and, _passively_, the books _are_ now _selling_. The same remark applies to the participle used as a noun: as, actively, _drawing_ is an elegant amusement, _building_ is expensive; and, passively, his _drawings_ are good, this is a fine _building_."--_Allen's Elements of E. Gram._, p. 82.

OBS. 22.--Chandler admits, that, "When it is said, 'The house is _building_,' the meaning is easily obtained; though," he strangely insists, "_it is exactly opposite to the assertion_."--P. 89. He endeavours to show, moreover, by a fictitious example made for the purpose, that the progressive form, if used in both voices, will be liable to ambiguity. It may, perhaps, be so in some instances; but, were there weight enough in the objection to condemn the passive usage altogether, one would suppose there might be found, somewhere, _an actual example or two_ of the abuse. Not concurring with Dr. Bullions in the notion that the active voice and the passive usually "express precisely the same thing," this critic concludes his argument with the following sentence: "There is an _important difference_ between _doing_ and _suffering_; and that _difference is grammatically shown_ by the appropriate use of the active and passive voices of a verb."--_Chandler's Common School Gram._, p. 89.

OBS. 23.--The opinion given at the close of OBS. 2d above, was first published in 1833. An opposite doctrine, with the suggestion that it is "_improper_ to say, '_the house is building_,' instead of 'the house _is being built_,'"--is found on page 64th of the Rev. David Blair's Grammar, of 1815,--"Seventh Edition," with a preface dated, "_October 20th_, 1814." To any grammarian who wrote at a period much earlier than that, the question about _unco-passives_ never occurred. Many critics have passed judgement upon them since, and so generally with reprobation, that the man must have more hardihood than sense, who will yet disgust his readers or hearers with them.[270] That "This new form has been used by _some respectable writers_," we need not deny; but let us look at the given "_instances of it_: 'For those who _are being educated_ in our seminaries.' R. SOUTHEY.--'It _was being uttered_.' COLERIDGE.--'The foundation _was being laid_.' BRIT. CRITIC."--_English Grammar with Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dict._, p. xlvi. Here, for the first example, it would be much better to say, "For those who _are educated_," [271]--or, "who _are receiving their education_;" for the others, "It _was uttering_,"--"_was uttered_,"--or, "_was in uttering_."--"The foundation _was laying_,"--"_was laid_,"--or, "_was about being laid_." Worcester's opinion of the "new form" is to be inferred from his manner of naming it in the following sentence: "Within a few years, a _strange and awkward_ neologism has been introduced, by which the _present passive participle_ is substituted, in such cases as the above, for the participle in _ing_."--_Ibid._ He has two instances more, in each of which the phrase is linked with an expression of disapprobation; "' It [[Greek: tetymmenos]] signifies properly, though _in uncouth English_, one who _is being beaten_.' ABP. WHATELY.--'The bridge _is being built_, and other phrases of the like kind, _have_ pained the eye.' D. BOOTH."--_Ibid._[272]

OBS. 24.--Richard Hiley, in the third edition of his Grammar, published in London, in 1840, after showing the passive use of the participle in _ing_, proceeds thus: "No ambiguity arises, we presume, from the use of the participle in this manner. To avoid, however, affixing a passive signification to the participle in _ing_, an attempt has lately been made to substitute the passive participle in its place. Thus instead of 'The house was _building_,' 'The work _imprinting_,' we sometimes hear, 'The house was _being built_,' 'The work is _being printed_.' But this mode is _contrary to the English idiom_, and has not yet obtained the sanction of reputable authority."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 30.

OBS. 25.--Professor Hart, of Philadelphia, whose English Grammar was first published in 1845, justly prefers the usage which takes the progressive form occasionally in a passive sense; but, in arguing against the new substitute, he evidently remoulds the early reasoning of Dr. Bullions, errors and all; a part of which he introduces thus: "I know the correctness of this mode of expression has lately been very much assailed, and an attempt, to some extent successful, has been made [,] to introduce the form [,] _'is being built.'_ But, in the first place, the old mode of expression is a well established usage of the language, being found in our best and most correct writers. Secondly, _is being built_ does not convey the idea intended, [;] namely [,] that of _progressive action. Is being_, taken together, means simply _is_, just as _is writing_ means _writes_; therefore, _is being built_ means _is built_, a perfect and not a progressive ACTION. Or, if _being_ [and] _built_ be taken together, _they signify an_ ACTION COMPLETE, and the phrase means, as before, _the house is_ (EXISTS) _being built_."--_Hart's Gram._, p. 76. The last three sentences here are liable to many objections, some of which are suggested above.

OBS. 26.--It is important, that the central phraseology of our language be so understood, as not to be _misinterpreted with credit_, or falsely expounded by popular critics and teachers. Hence errors of _exposition_ are the more particularly noticed in these observations. In "_being built_," Prof. Hart, like sundry authors named above, finds nothing but "ACTION COMPLETE." Without doubt, Butler interprets better, when he says, "'The house _is built_,' denotes an _existing state_, rather than a _completed action_." But this author, too, in his next three sentences, utters as many errors; for he adds: "The name of the agent _cannot be expressed_ in phrases of this kind. We _cannot say_, 'The house is built _by John_.' When we say, 'The house is built by mechanics,' we _do not express an existing state_."--_Butler's Practical Gram._, p. 80. Unquestionably, "_is built by mechanics_," expresses _nothing else_ than the "_existing state_" of being "built by mechanics," together with an affirmation:--that is, the "existing state" of receiving the action of mechanics, is affirmed of "the house." And, in my judgement, one may very well say, "_The house is built by John_;" meaning, "_John is building the house._" St. Paul says, "Every house _is builded by_ SOME MAN."--_Heb._, iii, 4. In this text, the common "name of the agent" is "expressed."

OBS. 27.--Wells and Weld, whose grammars date from 1846, being remarkably chary of finding anything wrong in "respectable writers," hazard no opinion of their own, concerning the correctness or incorrectness of either of the usages under discussion. They do not always see absurdity in the approbation of opposites; yet one should here, perhaps, count them with the majorities they allow. The latter says, "The participle in _ing_ is sometimes used passively; as, forty and six years was this temple in _building_; not in _being built_."--_Weld's English Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 170. Here, if he means to suggest, that "_in being built_" would "not" be good English, he teaches very erroneously; if his thought is, that this phrase would "not" express the sense of the former one, "_in building_," he palpably contradicts his own position! But he proceeds, in a note, thus: "The form of expression, _is being built, is being committed_, &c., is almost universally condemned by grammarians; but it is _sometimes_ met with in respectable writers. It occurs most frequently in newspaper paragraphs, and in hasty compositions."--_Ibid._ Wells comments thus: "Different opinions have long existed among critics respecting this passive use of the imperfect participle. Many respectable writers substitute the compound passive participle; as, 'The house is _being built_;' 'The book is _being printed_.' But the prevailing practice of the best authors is in favor of the _simple form_; as, 'The house _is building_.'"--_Wells's School Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 148; 113th Ed., p. 161.[273]

OBS. 28.--S. W. Clark, in the second edition of his Practical Grammar, stereotyped and published in New York in 1848, appears to favour the insertion of "_being_" into passive verbs; but his instructions are so obscure, so often inaccurate, and so incompatible one with an other, that it is hard to say, with certainty, what he approves. In one place, he has this position: "The Passive Voice of a verb is formed by adding the _Passive Participle_ of that verb, to the verb _be_. EXAMPLES--To _be_ loved. I _am_ feared. They _are_ worshipped."--Page 69. In an other, he has this: "When the Subject is to be represented as receiving the action, _the Passive Participle_ should be used. EXAMPLE--Henry's _lesson_ is BEING RECITED."--P. 132. Now these two positions utterly confound each other; for they are equally general, and "_the Passive Participle_" is first one thing, and then an other. Again, he has the following assertions, both false: "The Present (or First) Participle _always_ ends in _ing_, and is _limited to the Active Voice_. The Past (or Second) Participle of Regular Verbs ends in _d_ or _ed_, and is _limited to the Passive Voice_."--P. 131. Afterwards, in spite of the fancied limitation, he acknowledges the passive use of the participle in _ing_, and that there is "_authority_" for it; but, at the same time, most absurdly supposes the word to predicate "_action_," and also to be _wrong_: saying, "_Action_ is _sometimes_ predicated of a _passive_ subject. EXAMPLE--'The _house is building_,.. for.. 'The _house is being built_,'.. which means.. The house _is becoming built_." On this, he remarks thus: "This is one of the instances in which _Authority_ is against _Philosophy_. For an _act_ cannot _properly_ be predicated of a _passive agent_. Many good writers _properly reject_ this idiom. 'Mansfield's prophecy _is being realized_.'--MICHELET'S LUTHER."--_Clark's Practical Gram._, p. 133. It may require some study to learn from this _which idiom it is_. that these "many good writers reject:" but the grammarian who can talk of "_a passive agent_," without perceiving that the phrase is self-contradictory and absurd, may well be expected to entertain a "Philosophy" which is against "Authority," and likewise to prefer a ridiculous innovation to good and established usage.

OBS. 29.--As most verbs are susceptible of both forms, the simple active and the compound or progressive, and likewise of a transitive and an intransitive sense in each; and as many, when taken intransitively, may have a meaning which is scarcely distinguishable from that of the passive form; it often happens that this substitution of the imperfect participle passive for the simple imperfect in _ing_, is quite needless, even when the latter is not considered passive. For example: "See by the following paragraph, how widely the bane _is being circulated!_"--_Liberator_, No. 999, p. 34. Here _is circulating_ would be better; and so would _is circulated_. Nor would either of these much vary the sense, if at all; for "_circulate_" may mean, according to Webster, "_to be diffused_," or, as Johnson and Worcester have it, "_to be dispersed_." See the second marginal note on p. 378.

OBS. 30.--R. G. Parker appears to have formed a just opinion of the "modern innovation," the arguments for which are so largely examined in the foregoing observations; but the "principle" which he adduces as "conclusive" against it, if _principle_ it can be called, has scarcely any bearing on the question; certainly no more than has the simple assertion of one reputable critic, that our participle in _ing_ may occasionally be used passively. "Such expressions as the following," says he, "have recently become very common, not only in the periodical publications of the day, but are likewise finding favor with popular writers; as, 'The house _is being built_.' 'The street _is being paved_.' 'The actions that _are_ now _being performed_,' &c. 'The patents _are being prepared_.' The usage of the best writers does not sanction these expressions; and Mr. Pickbourn lays down the following principle, which is conclusive upon the subject. '_Whenever the participle_ in _ing_ is joined by an auxiliary verb to a nominative capable of the action, it is taken actively; but, when joined to one incapable of the action, it becomes passive. If we say, _The man are building a house_, the participle _building_ is evidently used in an active sense; _because_ the men are capable of the action. But when we say, _The house is building_, or, _Patents are preparing_, the participles _building_ and _preparing_ must necessarily be understood in a passive sense; because neither the house nor the patents are capable of action.'--See Pickbourn on the English Verb, pp. 78-80."--_Parker's Aids to English Composition_, p. 105. Pickbourn wrote his Dissertation before the question arose which he is here supposed to decide. Nor is he right in assuming that the common Progressive Form, of which he speaks, must be either _active-transitive_ or _passive_: I have shown above that it may be _active-intransitive_, and perhaps, in a few instances, _neuter_. The class of the verb is determined by something else than the mere _capableness_ of the "_nominative_."

III. FORM OF PASSIVE VERBS.

Passive verbs, in English, are always of a compound form; being made from active-transitive verbs, by adding the Perfect Participle to the auxiliary verb BE, through all its changes: thus from the active-transitive verb _love_, is formed the passive verb _be loved_.

FIFTH EXAMPLE.

The regular passive verb BE LOVED, conjugated affirmatively.

PRINCIPAL PARTS or THE ACTIVE VERB.

_Present_. _Preterit_. _Imp. Participle_. _Perf. Participle_.

Love. Loved. Loving. Loved.

INFINITIVE MOOD. PRESENT TENSE. To be loved.

PERFECT TENSE. To have been loved.

INDICATIVE MOOD.

PRESENT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I am loved, 1. We are loved, 2. Thou art loved, 2. You are loved, 3. He is loved; 3. They are loved.

IMPERFECT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I was loved, 1. We were loved, 2. Thou wast loved, 2. You were loved, 3. He was loved; 3. They were loved.

PERFECT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I have been loved, 1. We have been loved, 2. Thou hast been loved, 2. You have been loved, 3. He has been loved; 3. They have been loved.

PLUPERFECT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I had been loved, 1. We had been loved, 2. Thou hadst been loved, 2. You had been loved, 3. He had been loved; 3. They had been loved.

FIRST-FUTURE TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I shall be loved, 1. We shall be loved, 2. Thou wilt be loved, 2. You will be loved, 3. He will be loved; 3. They will be loved.

SECOND-FUTURE TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I shall have been loved, 1. We shall have been loved, 2. Thou wilt have been loved, 2. You will have been loved, 3. He will have been loved; 3. They will have been loved.

POTENTIAL MOOD.

PRESENT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I may be loved, 1. We may be loved, 2. Thou mayst be loved, 2. You may be loved, 3. He may be loved; 3. They may be loved.

IMPERFECT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I might be loved, 1. We might be loved, 2. Thou mightst be loved, 2. You might be loved, 3. He might be loved; 3. They might be loved.

PERFECT TENSE. _Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I may have been loved, 1. We may have been loved, 2. Thou mayst have been loved, 2. You may have been loved, 3. He may have been loved; 3. They may have been loved.

PLUPERFECT TENSE.

_Singular_. _Plural_. 1. I might have been loved, 1. We might have been loved, 2. Thou mightst have been loved, 2. You might have been loved, 3. He might have been loved; 3. They might have been loved.

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

PRESENT TENSE.

_Singular_. _Plural_. 1. If I be loved, 1. If we be loved, 2. If thou be loved, 2. If you be loved, 3. If he be loved; 3. If they be loved.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

_Singular_. _Plural_. 1. If I were loved, 1. If we were loved, 2. If thou were loved, 2. If you were loved, 3. If he were loved; 3. If they were loved.

IMPERATIVE MOOD.

PRESENT TENSE.

_Singular_. 2. Be [thou] loved, _or_ Do thou be loved; _Plural_. 2. Be [ye or you] loved, _or_ Do you be loved.

PARTICIPLES.

1. _The Imperfect_. 2. _The Perfect_. 3. _The Preperfect_. Being loved. Loved. Having been loved.

FAMILIAR FORM WITH 'THOU.' NOTE.--In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more properly formed thus: IND. Thou art loved, Thou was loved, Thou hast been loved, Thou had been loved, Thou shall or will be loved, Thou shall or will have been loved. POT. Thou may, can, _or_ must be loved; Thou might, could, would, _or_ should be loved; Thou may, can, _or_ must have been loved; Thou might, could, would, _or_ should have been loved. SUBJ. If thou be loved, If thou were loved. IMP. Be [thou] loved, or Do thou be loved.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--A few active-intransitive verbs, that signify mere motion, change of place, or change of condition, may be put into this form, with a _neuter_ signification; making not _passive_ but _neuter_ verbs, which express nothing more than the state which results from the change: as, "_I am come_."--"She _is gone_."--"He _is risen_."--"They _are fallen_." These are what Dr. Johnson and some others call "_neuter_ passives;" a name which never was very proper, and for which we have no frequent use.

OBS. 2.--Most neuter verbs of the passive form, such as, "_am grown, art become, is lain, are flown, are vanished, are departed, was sat, were arrived_," may now be considered errors of conjugation, or perhaps of syntax. In the verb, _to be mistaken_, there is an irregularity which ought to be particularly noticed. When applied to _persons_, this verb is commonly taken in a _neuter_ sense, and signifies, _to be in error, to be wrong_; as, "I _am mistaken_, thou _art mistaken_, he _is mistake_." But, when used of _things_, it is a proper passive verb, and signifies, _to be misunderstood_, or _to be taken wrong_; as, "The sense of the passage _is mistaken_; that is, not rightly understood." See _Webster's Dict., w. Mistaken_. "I have known a shadow across a brook _to be mistaken_ for a footbridge."