the verb to be and the present participle passive. Now, let it be observed that the only verbs in which the present participle passive expresses a continued action are those mentioned above as the first class, in which the regular passive form expresses a continuance of the action; as, is loved, is desired, etc., and in which, of course, the form in question (is being built) is not required. Nobody would think of saying, 'He is being loved'; 'This result is being desired.'

"The use of this form is justified only by condemning an established usage of the language; namely, the passive sense in some verbs of the participle in ing. In reference to this it is flippantly asked, 'What does the house build?' 'What does the letter write?' etc.-taking for granted, without attempting to prove, that the participle in ing can not have a passive sense in any verb. The following are a few examples from writers of the best reputation, which this novelty would condemn: 'While the ceremony was performing.'-Tom Brown. 'The court was then holding.'-Sir G. McKenzie. 'And still be doing, never done.' -Butler. 'The books are selling.'-Allen's Grammar. 'To know nothing of what is transacting in the regions above us.'-Dr. Blair. The spot where this new and strange tragedy was acting.'-E. Everett. The fortress was building.'-Irving. An attempt is making in the English Parliament.'-D. Webster. 'The church now erecting in the city of New York.'-North Amer. Review. 'These things were transacting in England.'-Bancroft.

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"This new doctrine is in opposition to the almost unanimous judgment of the most distinguished grammarians and critics who have considered the subject and expressed their views concerning it. The following are specimens: 'Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics;

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.”—Goold Brown. '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. "The work is now being published" 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 !'—Brown's Gr. of Eng. Gr., p. 361. De War observes: The participle in ing is also passive in many instances; as, "The house is building," "I heard of a plan forming,"' etc.-Quoted in Frazee's Grammar, p. 49. 'It would be an absurdity, indeed, to give up the only way we have of denoting the incomplete state of action by a passive form (viz., by the participle in ing in the passive sense).'-Arnold's English Grammar, p. 46. The present participle is often used passively; as, "The ship is building." The form of expression, is being built, is being committed, etc., 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. See Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary.'-Weld's Grammar, pp. 118 and 180. 'When we say, "The house is building," the advocates of the new theory ask, "Building what?" We might ask, in turn, when you say, "The field plows well "—" Plows what?" "Wheat sells well "-"Sells what?" If usage

allows us to say, "Wheat sells at a dollar," in a sense that is not active, why may we not say, "Wheat is selling at a dollar," in a sense that is not active?'-Hart's Grammar, p. 76. The prevailing practice of the best authors is in favor of the simple form; as, “The house is building.' Wells' School Grammar, p. 148. 'Several other expres

sions of this sort now and then occur, such as the newfangled and most uncouth solecism is being done," for the good old English idiom "is doing"'—an absurd periphrasis driving out a pointed and pithy turn of the English language.'-North Amer. Review, quoted by Mr. Wells, p. 148. 'The phrase "is being built," and others of a similar kind, have been for a few years insinuating themselves into our language; still they are not English.'-Harrison's Rise, Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language. 'This mode of expression [the house is being built] is becoming quite common. It is liable, however, to several important objections. It appears formal and pedantic. It has not, as far as I know, the support of any respectable grammarian. The easy and natural expression is, "The house is building "'-Prof. J. W. Gibbs."

Mr. Richard Grant White, in his Words and Their Uses, expresses his opinion of the locution is being in this wise: "In bad eminence, at the head of those intruders in language which to many persons seem to be of established respectability, but the right of which to be at all is not fully admitted, stands out the form of speech is being done, or rather, is being, which, about seventy or eighty years ago, began to affront the eye, torment the ear, and assault the common sense of the speaker of plain and idiomatic English." Mr. White devotes thirty pages of his book to the discussion of the subject, and adduces evidence that is more than sufficient to convince those that are content with

an ex parte examination that "it can hardly be that such an incongruous and ridiculous form of speech as is being done was contrived by a man who, by any stretch of the name, should be included among grammarians.”

Mr. George P. Marsh, in his Lectures on the English Language, says that the deviser of the locution in question was "some grammatical pretender," and that it is "an awkward neologism which neither convenience, intelligibility, nor syntactical congruity demands."

To these gentlemen, and to those that are of their way of thinking with regard to is being, Dr. Fitzedward Hall replies at some length, in an article published in Scribner's Monthly for April, 1872. Dr. Hall writes:

"All really well educated in the English tongue lament the many innovations introduced into our language from America; and I doubt if more than one of these novelties deserve acceptation. That one is, substituting a compound participle for an active verb used in a neuter signification: for instance, " The house is being built," instead of, "The house is building." Such is the assertion and such is the opinion of some anonymous luminary,* who, for his liberality in welcoming a supposed Americanism, is somewhat in advance of the herd of his countrymen. Almost any popular expression which is considered as a novelty, a Briton is pretty certain to assume off-hand to have originated on our side of the Atlantic. Of the assertion I have quoted, no proof is offered; and there is little probability that its author had any to offer. 'Are being,' in the phrase are being thrown up,'† is spoken of in The North Ameri

*“L. W. K., CLK., LL. D., EX. SCH., T. C., D. Of this reverend gentleman's personality I know nothing. He does not say exactly what he means; but what he means is, yet, unmistakable. The extract given above is from Public Opinion, January 20, 1866."

+ "The analysis, taken for granted in this quotation, of 'are being

can Review* as 'an outrage upon English idiom, "to be detested, abhorred, execrated, and given over to six thousand" penny-paper editors'; and the fact is, that phrases of the form here pointed at have hitherto enjoyed very much less favor with us than with the English.

"As lately as 1860, Dr. Worcester, referring to is being built, etc., while acknowledging that 'this new form has been used by some respectable writers,' speaks of it as having 'been introduced' 'within a few years.' Mr. Richard Grant White, by a most peculiar process of ratiocination, endeavors to prove that what Dr. Worcester calls 'this new form' came into existence just fifty-six years ago. He premises that in Jarvis's translation of Don Quixote, published in 1742, there occurs were carrying,' and that this, in the edition of 1818, is sophisticated into 'were being carried.' 'This change,' continues our logician, and the appearance of is being with a perfect participle in a very few books published between A. D. 1815 and 1820, indicate the former period as that of the origin of this phraseology, which, although more than half a century old, is still pronounced a novelty as well as a nuisance.'

"Who, in the next place, devised our modern imperfects passive? The question is not, originally, of my asking; but, as the learned are at open feud on the subject, it should not be passed by in silence. Its deviser is, more than likely, as undiscoverable as the name of the valiant antediluvian who first tasted an oyster. But the deductive character of the miscreant is another thing; and hereon there is a war between the philosophers. Mr. G. P. Marsh, as if he had actually spotted the wretched creature, passionately

thrown up' into 'are being' and 'thrown up' will be dealt with in the sequel, and shown to be untenable."

*"Vol. xlv, p. 504 (1837)."

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