Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/416



LESSON II.--MIXED.

"Three freemen were being tried at the date of our last information."--Newspaper.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the participle being is used after its own verb were. But, according to Observation 4th, on the compound form of the conjugation, this complex passive form is an absurd innovation. Therefore, the expression should be changed; thus, "Three freemen were on trial"--or, "were receiving their trial--at the date of our last information."]

"While the house was being built, many of the tribe arrived."--Ross Cox's Travels, p. 102. "But a foundation has been laid in Zion, and the church is being built upon it."--The Friend, ix, 377. "And one fourth of the people are being educated."--East India Magazine. "The present, or that which is now being done."--Beck's Gram., p. 13. "A new church, called the Pantheon, is just being completed in an expensive style."--G. A. Thompson's Guatemala, p. 467. "When I last saw him, he was grown considerably."--Murray's Key, p. 223; Merchants, 198. "I know what a rugged and dangerous path I am got into."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 83. "You were as good preach case to one on the rack."--Locke's Essay, p. 285. "Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation."--Psal., cxviii, 21. "While the Elementary Spelling-Book was being prepared for the press."--L. Cobb's Review, p. vi. "Language is become, in modern times, more correct and accurate."--Jamieson's Rhet., p. 16. "If the plan have been executed in any measure answerable to the author's wishes."--Robbins's Hist., p. 3. "The vial of wrath is still being poured out on the seat of the beast."--Christian Experience, p. 409. "Christianity was become the generally adopted and established religion of the whole Roman Empire."--Gurney's Essays, p. 35. "Who wrote before the first century was elapsed."--Ib., p. 13. "The original and analogical form is grown quite obsolete."--Lowth's Gram., p. 56. "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, are perished."--Murray's Gram., i, 149. "The poems were got abroad and in a great many hands."--Pref. to Waller. "It is more harmonious, as well as more correct, to say, 'the bubble is almost bursted.'"--Cobbett's E. Gram., ¶ 109. "I drave my suitor from his mad humour of love."--Shak. "Se viriliter expedivit. (Cicero.) He hath plaid the man."--Walker's Particles, p. 214. "Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday."--FRIENDS' BIBLE: Acts, vii, 28. "And we, methoughts, look'd up t'him from our hill."--Cowley's Davideis, B. iii, l. 386. "I fear thou doest not think as much of best things as thou oughtest."--Memoir of M. C. Thomas, p. 34. "When this work was being commenced."--Wright's Gram., p. 10. "Exercises and Key to this work are being prepared."--Ib., p. 12. "James is loved, or being loved by John."--Ib., p. 64. "Or that which is being exhibited."--Ib., p. 77. "He was being smitten."--Ib., p. 78. "In the passive state we say, 'I am being loved.'"--Ib., p. 80. "Subjunctive Mood: If I am being smitten, If thou art being smitten, If he is being smitten."--Ib., p. 100. "I will not be able to convince you how superficial the reformation is."--Chalmers's Sermons, p. 88. "I said to myself, I will be obliged to expose the folly."--Chazotte's Essay, p. 3. "When Clodius, had he meant to return that day to Rome, must have been arrived."--Adams's Rhetoric, i, 418. "That the fact has been done, is being done, or shall or will be done."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., pp. 347 and 356. "Am I being instructed?"--Wright's Gram., p. 70. "I am choosing him."--Ib., p. 112. "John, who was respecting his father, was obedient to his commands."--Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 69. "The region echos to the clash of arms."--Beattie's Poems, p. 63.

"And sitt'st on high, and mak'st creation's top   Thy footstool; and behold'st below thee, all." --Pollok, B. vi, l. 663.

"And see if thou can'st punish sin, and let   Mankind go free. Thou fail'st--be not surprised." --Id., B. ii, l. 118.

LESSON III.--MIXED.

"What follows, had better been wanting altogether."--Blair's Rhet., p. 201.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the phrase had better been, is used in the sense of the potential pluperfect. But, according to Observation 17th, on the conjugations, this substitution of one form for another is of questionable propriety. Therefore, the regular form should here be preferred; thus, "What follows, might better have been wanting altogether."]

"This member of the sentence had much better have been omitted altogether."--Ib., p. 212. "One or [the] other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted."--Ib., p. 212. "The whole of this last member of the sentence had better have been dropped."--Ib., p. 112. "In this case, they had much better be omitted."--Ib., p. 173. "He had better have said, 'the productions'"--Ib., p. 220. "The Greeks have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and Musæus."--Ib., p. 377. "It has been noticed long ago, that all these fictitious names have the same number of syllables."--''Phil. Museum'', i, 471. "When I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, I have determined to send him."--Acts, xxv, 25. "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God."--Ps., lxxxiv, 10. "As for such, I wish the Lord open their eyes."--Barclay's Works, iii. 263. "It would a made our passidge over the river very difficult."-- Walley, in 1692. "We should not a been able to have carried our great guns."--Id. "Others would a questioned our prudence, if wee had."--Id. See ''Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass.'', i, 478. "Beware thou bee'st not BECÆSAR'D; i.e. Beware that thou dost not dwindle into a mere Cæsar."--Harris's Hermes, p. 183. "Thou raisedest thy voice to record the stratagems of needy heroes."--ARBUTHNOT: ''in Joh. Dict., w. Scalade''. "Life hurrys off apace: thine is almost up already."--Collier's Antoninus, p. 19. "'How unfortunate has this accident made me!' crys