verb, and signifies, _to be
misunderstood_, or _to be taken wrong_; as, "The sense of the passage _is
mistaken_; that is, not rightly understood." See _Webster's Dict., w.
Mistaken_. "I have known a shadow across a brook _to be mistaken_ for a
footbridge."

OBS. 3.--Passive verbs may be easily distinguished from neuter verbs of the
same form, by a reference to the agent or instrument, common to the former
class, but not to the latter. This frequently is, and always may be,
expressed after _passive_ verbs; but never is, and never can be, expressed
after _neuter_ verbs: as, "The thief has been caught _by the officer_."--
"Pens are made _with a knife_." Here the verbs are passive; but, "_I am not
yet ascended_," (John, xx, 17,) is not passive, because it does not convey
the idea of being ascended _by_ some one's agency.

OBS. 4.--Our ancient writers, after the manner of the French, very
frequently employed this mode of conjugation in a neuter sense; but, with a
very few exceptions, present usage is clearly in favour of the auxiliary
_have_ in preference to _be_, whenever the verb formed with the perfect
participle is not passive; as, "They _have_ arrived,"--not, "They _are_
arrived." Hence such examples as the following, are not now good English:
"All these reasons _are_ now ceased."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 157. Say,
"_have now_ ceased." "Whether he _were_ not got beyond the reach of his
faculties."--_Ib._, p. 158. Say, "_had_ not got." "Which _is_ now grown
wholly obsolete."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 330. Say, "_has_ now grown."
"And when he _was_ entered into a ship."--_Bible_. Say, "_had_ entered."--
"What _is_ become of decency and virtue?"--_Murray's Key_, p. 196. Say,
"_has_ become."

OBS. 5.--Dr. Priestley says, "It seems _not to have been determined_ by the
English grammarians, whether the _passive_ participles of verbs neuter
require the auxiliary _am_ or _have_ before them. The French, in this case,
confine themselves strictly to the former. 'What _has become_ of national
liberty?' Hume's History, Vol. 6. p. 254. The French would say, _what is
become_; and, in this instance, perhaps, with more propriety."--
_Priestley's Gram._, p. 128. It is no marvel that those writers who have
not rightly made up their minds upon this point of English grammar, should
consequently fall into many mistakes. The perfect participle of a neuter
verb is not "_passive_," as the doctor seems to suppose it to be; and the
mode of conjuga