The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-06-22

,,r Counting g. Room, or the CoU'"My-I.oo "
LssroN EMNERsoN. AuctioneeTsI NO. 80 CrdW-
~ street, Portsmouth,.
- WEEKLY DAY Book toitl be mailed to Country
ne Ss.6,eriJers at the small sum Of ONE DOLLAR, in
S.cncs. IL toiU contain Editorials a full d.
a..t Of NsiOs, Book Notices, and items Of Com
yoSreial and Agricultural Intelligence No pains
or expense ,OiHbs spared in making 1t a desird-,
n. companion for the country fire side: and
from, its increasing patronage, 1t commsnds st
elf as good medium Of country advertising
TO the community.
an Communications for the DAY Book must be
." authenticated by the names Of the t0r'tsrs
SIS Being Built"
We wish editors and reporters, and all other
nsople who write, would leave off using such
aprnressions as "is being built, care being re-
moved" etc--[ Louisville Journal.
How does this sound; The capitol is re-
bodng and painting white? Wouldn't it
load better thus The capitol is being rebuilt
and painted white? The passive form is
coded and most writers naturally employ 1T
many of them without knowing that any
nrammar ever condemned its use. 10 say
hat pile of rubbish "is removing" implies
action on the part of the rubbish; while to say
That it is "being removed" expresses the idea
that some person is doing the work. The &C.
tive form is: "John is building house"
The passive form should be different: not "a
house is building by john" but ga house
;s being built by John" Result-old fogies
must yield the point, as many good scholars
have already done.-[Dispatcb R
We hear of delicate or good ear for
music but W. are not aware that the "cartlla-
piuous funnel"is an essential element i'll de-
termining grammatical construction.
According to LOCKE, sit is the sense, not
the sound, that must be the principle" 1t
might be safely said, no rigid grammaran
ever uses the ex preston sis being built" Sir
JOHN SropDABT, in his philosophy of gram
mar, notices it with disapprobation, as does
MARSH, in his lectures on grammar. 1t is
not only awkward, but incorrect, according to
BULLION who judiciously says, it does not ex-
tickle the ear, according to the commentary
on the Louisville Journal.
We give the substance of BULLIoNs dissec
tions: sis being" simply means IS. l love
or am loving she or it loves, or is toring;
is loving, therefore, is simply the equivalent
floves SIS being" then, being equivalent
to is, the expression sis being built means IS
built TO be, means to erist-"the house is
being built" is, the house is existing built.
A perfect participle cannot express, in any
connection, an action, or the suffering of an
action, notc, or at the time, in progress And
built is a perfect particple. To be, is to erist,
and BEING is eaisting. 1.-The house is being
built" is, in other words, the house is exist
ing built, or, more simply, the house is built,
importing an action not progressing, but
szisting in finished state
If, lis being built" be correct expression,
or correct form of the present indicative pas
.ve, then, "has been being built lin the pres
snt perfect; "had been being built" in the
past perfect; "to be being bull" in the pres
ent in6uitive; being being built" in the
present participle, are all expressions equally
correct, though really as equally incorrect and
ineegant as sis being built"
But it is asserted that, to say ga pile Of
rubbish is removing" implies action on the
part of the rubbish. We think not An
implication is something fairly to be under
stood; and, as spontaneous action on the part
Of rubbish or inert matter involves physical
law with which we are unacquainted, if not
an absurdity, we submit that the implication
Of action on the part of the rubbish, in the
form Of expression cited, is an implication
/ net fairly to be understood-but, on the con-
trary, the fair inference is, that the sense is
passive and that exterior action is to be in
ierred as applied to effect its removal True,
the expression may "sound" SO, but it is
sound and nothing more. at is the sense,
not the sound, that must be the principle"
ss LOCKE says.
Besides, the assertion that, so say pile of
rubbish is removing, implies action on the
part of the rubbish" loses sight of TIE fact,
that the present participle of the active voice
has IN many cases a passive Specification. AS,
Tor example, in the following expression, "the
house was building when the wall fell" and
Others ola similar character. The idiom of
the English language authorizes the express
SOn' which are allied to the passive form,
such as, for example, "this field ploaghs well"
These lines read smoothly" sells
leadily" no grammarian would say
mere was action implied" on the part of the
Pad, the lines, or the oheat.
lne grammatical canons are-"the present
alaclple In ing always expresses an action,
W We suffering OF an action, or the being,
"a'e'or condition of a thing as continuing and
pyrsss're' The presen participle of the
1e'He voice has an active Specification; as
vames Is building the house. In many of
aese' however it has also passive signifca-
s sun as "the house acas building when the wall
sA'--not the house was being built The
i present participle passive, has only passive
ssnlhcatlon, and intimates the present exist
'uVe OF an act as completed, but never as IN
%ogrsss' Thus, the arrangements being made,
~. w. now ready to proceed. In this sentence,
%s Engagements are evidently considered as
~upleted 70 represent them as in progress,
"swould say thus: while the arrangements
s Ss@aF'ng, not being made, bis snperintend-
S %se is lndispensable---u ing the participle
's%SEng" in the passive sense.
800 we nope, therefore, we shall hereafter not
nTs,,; Oelng built" or similar forms of ex-
nr r'sIon' In our excellent contemporary, which
nr eornuss'ently adheres to cold fogies' in its
s r,Dpsl retention of the apostrophic $, in the
e1messlon "Jones's hotel" and those of like
od' after, but repudiates "old fogies" in its