besides being
awkward, is incorrect, and _does not express the idea intended_. This will
be obvious, I think, from the following considerations.

"1. The expression, '_is being_,' is equivalent to '_is_,' and expresses no
more; just as, '_is loving_,' is equivalent to, '_loves_.' Hence, '_is
being built_,' is precisely equivalent to, '_is built_.'

"2. '_Built_,' is a perfect participle; and therefore cannot, in any
connexion, express an action, or the suffering of an action, _now in
progress_. The verb _to be_, signifies _to exist_; '_being_,' therefore, is
equivalent to '_existing_.' If then we substitute the synonyme, the nature
of the expression will be obvious; thus, 'the house is _being built_,' is,
in other words, 'the house is _existing built_,' or more simply as before,
'the house _is built_;' plainly importing an action not progressing, but
now _existing in a finished state_.

"3. If the expression, '_is being built_,' be a correct form of the present
indicative passive, then it must be equally correct to say in the perfect,
'_has been being built_;' in the past perfect, '_had been being built_;' in
the present infinitive,'_to be being built_;' in the perfect
infinitive,'_to have been being built_;' and in the present participle,
'_being being built_;' which all will admit to be expressions as incorrect
as they are inelegant, but precisely analogous to that which now begins to
prevail."--_Bullions's Principles of English Gram._, p. 58.

OBS. 6.--It may be replied, that the verbs _to be_ and _to exist_ are not
always synonymous; because the former is often a mere auxiliary, or a mere
copula, whereas the latter always means something positive, as _to be in
being, to be extant_. Thus we may speak of a thing as _being destroyed_, or
may say, it _is annihilated_; but we can by no means speak of it as
_existing destroyed_, or say, it _exists annihilated_. The first argument
above is also nugatory. These drawbacks, however, do not wholly destroy the
force of the foregoing criticism, or at all extenuate the obvious tautology
and impropriety of such phrases as, _is being, was being_, &c. The
gentlemen who affirm that this new form of conjugation "_is being
introduced_ into the language," (since they allow participles to follow
possessive pronouns) may very fairly be asked, "What evidence have you of
_its being being introduced_?" Nor can they, on their own principles,
either object to the monstrous phraseology of thi