published in 1800. He then taught:
"We have no _passive_ verb in the language; and those which are called
_neuter_ are mostly _active_."--Page 14. But subsequently, in his
Philosophical, Abridged, and Improved Grammars, he recognized "a more
natural and comprehensive division" of verbs, "_transitive, intransitive,
and passive_."--_Webster's Rudiments_, p. 20. This, in reality, differs but
little from the old division into _active, passive_, and _neuter_. In some
grammars of recent date, as Churchill's, R. W. Bailey's, J. R. Brown's,
Butler's, S. W. Clark's, Frazee's, Hart's, Hendrick's, Perley's, Pinneo's,
Weld's, Wells's, Mulligan's, and the _improved_ treatises of Bullions and
Frost, verbs are said to be of _two_ kinds only, _transitive_ and
_intransitive_; but these authors allow to transitive verbs a "passive
form," or "passive voice,"--absurdly making all passive verbs transitive,
and all neuters intransitive, as if _action_ were expressed by both. For
this most faulty classification, Dr. Bullions pretends the authority of
"Mr. Webster;" and Frazee, that of "Webster, Bullions, and
others."--_Frazee's Gram._, Ster. Ed., p. 30. But if Dr. Webster ever
taught the absurd doctrine _that passive verbs are transitive_, he has
contradicted it far too much to have any weight in its favour.

OBS. 11.--Dalton makes only two classes; and these he will have to be
_active_ and _passive_: an arrangement for which he might have quoted
Scaliger, Sanctius, and Scioppius. Ash and Coar recognize but two, which
they call _active_ and _neuter_. This was also the scheme of Bullions, in
his Principles of E. Gram., 4th Edition, 1842. Priestley and Maunder have
two, which they call _transitive_ and _neuter_; but Maunder, like some
named above, will have transitive verbs to be susceptible of an active and
a passive voice, and Priestley virtually asserts the same. Cooper, Day,
Davis, Hazen, Hiley, Webster, Wells, (in his 1st Edition,) and Wilcox. have
three classes; _transitive, intransitive_, and _passive_. Sanders's Grammar
has _three_; "_Transitive, Intransitive_, and _Neuter_;" and two voices,
both _transitive!_ Jaudon has four: _transitive, intransitive, auxiliary_,
and _passive_. Burn has four; _active, passive, neuter_, and _substantive_.
Cardell labours hard to prove that all verbs are _both active and
transitive_; and for this, had he desired their aid, he might have cited
several ancient authorities.[227] Cutler avers, "_All verbs ar