Birmingham state herald., 1895-10-27
For the State Herald.
 IFS BUlLDlNGn AND IFS BEING BUILT"

The State Herald expresses itself In such good and forcible English, so ably defends things old and things new, and has such wide Influence that I am sure it will take no offense at my defending a good old form of expression,s one COW cred with the rhyme of centuries. but one condemned in last Sundays paper In an editorial note the following appears:
 "The Mobile Register holds that the proper expression is, The house is build ing, and not The house Is being built Wrong again! What is the house build ing? The house is doing nothing"
 Now while it is true that many house, whether containing legislative body or a private family, often does nothing, or does something worse than nothing, ''the house is building" has long been a grammatical truth.
 Before I show this let me say that good usage, the usage of the best writers and speakers of our marvellous English tongue is the supreme court of our lan- guage, the august tribunal from whose decisions there is no appeal. l need not cite in support of the authority of usage the line of good old Horace; for all your classical readers know 1t by heart. We sometimes hear expressions, well author ized by the highest authority, censured because they De pdISSo ny my grammar" So much the worse is 1t Tor my grammar" Language was made before grammar. and it is the business of grammarians simply to record usage. Expressions are born, live and die; but "is building" is one that has been long with us and is destined, think, to have immortality. I know your printers will cheerfully excuse me from giving a null titude of the proofs now by me, but those printers must permit me to give a few.
 First, I must say that the word ending in ing, in such expressions as the house is building, Is not a participle, but is gerund, or verbal noun, which was orig finally governed by the proposition an on, or in, a proposition that was after wards worn down to the form a. and aft erwards discarded altogether. A few ex- amples will show this:
 a. The churche was in byldinge.-Rob- ert of Brunne (about A. D. 1340)
 b. We have a widow a worckyng,- Piers Ploughman GA. D. 1393)
 c. As this was a doyng.-Malorys Morte d'Arthur GA. D. 1470)
 d. Then they brake all dhe bridges) to peaces that had been long makynge.- Berners Froissart GA. D. 157S)
 e. Whilst these things were doing Stow, Survay of London GA. D. 159S)
 f. It was a doing. g.-Shakespeare. %
 g. In the dayes of Noah while the arke was a-preparing.-I Peter, iii 20. GA. D. 1611.)
 h. hope your new book is printing Johnson.
 l. He burst out a-laughing.-M
 Near the beginning of the eighteenth century the A begins to disappear and now appears only occasionally as a col loquialism. Examples of the use of the expressions without the A are all through our literature of today, and none need be quoted here.
 The ambiguity of such expressions was long ago felt by writers and speakers, as it is felt today; and hence, about the close of the last century such expressions as ':being built" was introduced. One of the earliest examples of this form is found in a letter of Robert Southey, written on the 9th of October, 1795. As has often been pointed out by writers upon our language, Coleridge, Lamb, Lander, Shelly and many other good writers, gave welcome to the new form. which is so common today.
 Fitzedward Hall, the eminent word gatherer, after citing a host of examples of the new conner, says: T need surely name no more among the dead who found is being built, or the like, acceptable" MT. Hall then arrays examples from great living writers. Among these are the following:
 (a) The ware which is being made there-MattheW Arnold.
 (b.) The corpuscles enter into the eggs while they are being formed.-Professor Huxley Qately deceased)
 But, MT. Editor, I can hear you crying out, not exactly in the unholy language or spirit of Macbeth, Hold, enough" have other sentences making, or being made, but will forbear, especially as the International, the Century the Standard and the Pathological society's great die tionary mow making, or being made,) fully discuss these usages The Century gives consolation to all that have used these expressions or written in regard to them when it says:
 "In modern use the proposition is omit ted; as, the house is building. But none of these forms of expression has become thoroughly popular, the popular instinct being shown in recent development of the desired progressive passive partici- pie; as, the house is being built. This construction, though condemned by logicians and puriSts, Is well established In popular speech, and will probably pass into current literary usage" Has not the time come to change, in this sen pass into," to has passed into? The new dictionary of the Pathological socie- ty certainly so thinks.
 Pardon me- MT. Editor, for this long note. upon expressions over which the late Richard Grant White and the acute ly Investigating Fitzedward Hall furi- ously crossed swords. Perhaps you will throw this article into your waste basket and write me- your communica- tion Is neither printing norsbeing print ed." Well, If you do, so be it. 'I had rather be right than be president"
 BENJAMIN F. MEEK.
 A I..lx n@k