"The analogical justification of is being built which I have brought forward is so obvious that, as it occurred to myself more than twenty years ago, so it must have occurred spontaneously to hundreds besides. It is very singular that those who, like Mr. Marsh and Mr. White, have pondered long and painfully over locutions typified by is being built, should have missed the real ground of their grammatical defensibleness, and should have warmed themselves, in their opposition to them, into uttering opinions which no calm judgment can accept.

In

"One who is being beaten' is, to Archbishop Whately, ' uncouth English.'"The bridge is being built," and other phrases of the like kind, have pained the eye' of Mr. David Booth. Such phrases, according to Mr. M. Harrison, ' are not English.' To Prof. J. W. Gibbs this mode of expression . . . appears formal and pedantic'; and 'the easy and natural expression is "The house is building."'* all this little or nothing is discernible beyond sheer prejudice, the prejudice of those who resolve to take their stand against an innovation, regardless of its utility, and who are ready to find an argument against it in any random epithet of disparagement provoked by unreasoning aversion. And the more recent denouncers in the same line have no more reason on their side than their elder brethren.

"In Mr. Marsh's estimation, is being built illustrates 'corruption of language'; it is 'clumsy and unidiomatic';

more than once hinted to me that Miss Jervis loves to sit up late, either reading or being read to by Anne, who, though she reads well, is not fond of the task.'-Sir Charles Grandison, vol. iii, p. 46 (ed. 1754).

"The transition is very slight by which we pass from 'sits being read to' to 'is being read to.""

"I am here indebted to the last edition of Dr. Worcester's Dictionary, preface, p. xxxix."

it is 'at best but a philological coxcombry'; it 'is an awkward neologism, which neither convenience, intelligibility, nor syntactical congruity demands, and the use of which ought therefore to be discountenanced as an attempt at the artificial improvement of the language in a point which needed no amendment.' Again: 'To reject' is building in favor of the modern phrase is to violate the laws of language by an arbitrary change; and in this particular case the proposed substitute is at war with the genius of the English tongue.' Mr. Marsh seems to have fancied that wherever he points out a beauty in is building, he points out, inclusively, a blemish in is being built.

"The fervor and feeling with which Mr. White advances to the charge are altogether tropical. The full absurdity of this phrase, the essence of its nonsense, seems not to have been hitherto pointed out.' It is not 'consistent with reason'; and it is not 'conformed to the normal development of the language.' It is a monstrosity, the illogical, confusing, inaccurate, unidiomatic character of which I have at some length, but yet imperfectly, set forth.' Finally, 'In fact it means nothing, and is the most incongruous combination of words and ideas that ever attained respectable usage in any civilized language.' These be 'prave 'ords'; and it seems a pity that so much sterling vituperative ammunition should be expended in vain. And that it is so expended thinks Mr. White himself; for, though passing sentence in the spirit of a Jeffreys, he is not really on the judgment-seat, but on the lowest hassock of despair. As concerns the mode of expression exemplified by is being built, he owns that 'to check its diffusion would be a hopeless undertaking.' If so, why not reserve himself for service against some evil not avowedly beyond remedy?

Again we read: 'Some precise and feeble-minded soul, having been taught that there is a passive voice in English, and that, for instance, building is an active participle, and builded or built a passive, felt conscientious scruples at saying "The house is building." For what could the house build?' As children say at play, Mr. White burns here. If it had occurred to him that the 'conscientious scruples' of his hypothetical, 'precise, and feebleminded soul' were roused by been built, not by built, I suspect his chapter on is being built would have been much shorter than it is at present, and very different. 'The fatal absurdity in this phrase consists,' he tells us, 'in the combination of is with being; in the making of the verb to be a supplement, or, in grammarians' phrase, an auxiliary to itself—an absurdity so palpable, so monstrous, so ridiculous, that it should need only to be pointed out to be scouted.'* Lastly, 'The question is thus narrowed simply to this, Does to be being (esse ens) mean anything more or other than to be?'

Having convicted Mr. White of a mistaken analysis, I am not concerned with the observations which he founds on his mistake. However, even if his analysis had been correct, some of his arguments would avail him nothing. For instance, is being built, on his understanding of it, that is to say, is being + built, he represents by ens ædificatus est, as 'the supposed corresponding Latin phrase.' The Latin

*"'Words and their Uses,' p. 353."

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+ It is being is simply equal to it is. And, in the supposed corresponding Latin phrases, ens factus est, ens ædificatus est (the obsoleteness of ens as a participle being granted), the monstrosity is not in the use of ens with factus, but in that of ens with est. The absurdity is, in Latin, just what it is in English, the use of is with being, the making of the verb to be a complement to itself.'-Ibid., pp. 354, 355.

"Apparently Mr. White recognizes no more difference between sup

is illegitimate, and he infers that therefore the English is the same. But ædificans est, a translation, on the model which he offers, of the active is building, is quite as illegitimate as ens ædificatus est. By parity of non-sequitur, we are therefore to surrender the active is building. Assume that a phrase in a given language is indefensible unless it has its counterpart in some other language; from the very conception and definition of an idiom every idiom is illegitimate.

"I now pass to another point. To be and to exist are,' to Mr. White's apprehension, 'perfect synonyms, or more nearly perfect, perhaps, than any two verbs in the language. In some of their meanings there is a shade of difference, but in others there is none whatever; and the latter are those which serve our present purpose. When we say, "He, being forewarned of danger, fled," we say, “He, existing forewarned of danger, fled." When we say that a thing is done, we say that it exists done. . . . Is being done is simply exists existing done.' But, since is and exists are equipollent, and so being and existing, is being is the same as the unimpeachable is existing. Q. non E. D. Is existing ought, of course, to be no less objectionable to Mr. White than is being. Just as absurd, too, should he reckon the Italian sono stato, era stato, sia stato, fossi stato, saro stato, sarei stato, essere stato, and essendo stato. For in Italian both essere and stare are required to make up the verb substantive, as in Latin both esse and the offspring of fuere are required; and stare, primarily to stand,' is modified into a true auxiliary. The alleged 'full absurdity of this phrase,' to wit, is being built, 'the essence of its nonsense,' vanishes thus into thin air. So I was about to comment bluntly, not

plement and complement than he recognizes between be and exist. See the extract I have made above, from p. 353."

forgetting to regret that any gentleman's cultivation of logic should fructify in the shape of irrepressible tendencies to suicide. But this would be precipitate. Agreeably to one of Mr. White's judicial placita, which I make no apology for citing twice, 'no man who has preserved all his senses will doubt for a moment that "to exist a mastiff or a mule" is absolutely the same as "to be a mastiff or a mule." Declining to admit their identity, I have not preserved all my senses; and, accordingly-though it may be in me the very superfetation of lunacy-I would caution the reader to keep a sharp eye on my arguments, hereabouts particularly. The Cretan who, in declaring all Cretans to be liars, left the question of his veracity doubtful to all eternity, fell into a pit of his own digging. Not unlike the unfortunate Cretan, Mr. White has tumbled headlong into his own snare. It was, for the rest, entirely unavailing that he insisted on the insanity of those who should gainsay his fundamental postulate. Sanity, of a crude sort, may accept it; and sanity may put it to a use other than its propounder's.

"Mr. Marsh, after setting forth the all-sufficiency of is building, in the passive sense, goes on to say: 'The reformers who object to the phrase I am defending must, in consistency, employ the proposed substitute with all passive participles, and in other tenses as well as the present. They must say, therefore, "The subscription paper is being missed, but I know that a considerable sum is being wanted to make up the amount"; "the great Victoria Bridge has been being built more than two years"; "when I reach London, the ship Leviathan will be being built”; if my orders had been followed, the coat would have been being made yesterday"; "if the house had then been being built, the mortar would have been being mixed.” We may reply that, while