ther. Again, he has the following assertions, both
false: "The Present (or First) Participle _always_ ends in _ing_, and is
_limited to the Active Voice_. The Past (or Second) Participle of Regular
Verbs ends in _d_ or _ed_, and is _limited to the Passive Voice_."--P. 131.
Afterwards, in spite of the fancied limitation, he acknowledges the passive
use of the participle in _ing_, and that there is "_authority_" for it;
but, at the same time, most absurdly supposes the word to predicate
"_action_," and also to be _wrong_: saying, "_Action_ is _sometimes_
predicated of a _passive_ subject. EXAMPLE--'The _house is building_,..
for.. 'The _house is being built_,'.. which means.. The house _is becoming
built_." On this, he remarks thus: "This is one of the instances in which
_Authority_ is against _Philosophy_. For an _act_ cannot _properly_ be
predicated of a _passive agent_. Many good writers _properly reject_ this
idiom. 'Mansfield's prophecy _is being realized_.'--MICHELET'S
LUTHER."--_Clark's Practical Gram._, p. 133. It may require some study to
learn from this _which idiom it is_. that these "many good writers reject:"
but the grammarian who can talk of "_a passive agent_," without perceiving
that the phrase is self-contradictory and absurd, may well be expected to
entertain a "Philosophy" which is against "Authority," and likewise to
prefer a ridiculous innovation to good and established usage.

OBS. 29.--As
most verbs are susceptible of both forms, the simple active and the
compound or progressive, and likewise of a transitive and an intransitive
sense in each; and as many, when taken intransitively, may have a meaning
which is scarcely distinguishable from that of the passive form; it often
happens that this substitution of the imperfect participle passive for the
simple imperfect in _ing_, is quite needless, even when the latter is not
considered passive. For example: "See by the following paragraph, how
widely the bane _is being circulated!_"--_Liberator_, No. 999, p. 34. Here
_is circulating_ would be better; and so would _is circulated_. Nor would
either of these much vary the sense, if at all; for "_circulate_" may mean,
according to Webster, "_to be diffused_," or, as Johnson and Worcester have
it, "_to be dispersed_." See the second marginal note on p. 378.

OBS. 30.--R. G. Parker appears to have formed a just opinion of the "modern
innovation," the arguments for which are so largely examined in the
foregoing