that
the expressions, 'Caesar _conquers_ Gaul,' and 'Gaul _is conquered_ by
Caesar,' _do not express the same thing_;" (p. 235;)--to deny that passive
verbs or neuter are worthy to constitute a distinct class, yet profess to
find, in one single tense of the former, such a difference of meaning as
warrants a general division of verbs in respect to it; (_ib._;)--to
announce, in bad English, that, "_In regard to this matter_ [,] there are
evidently Two CLASSES of verbs; namely, those _whose_ present-passive
expresses precisely the same thing, passively, as the active voice does
actively, and those _in which it_ does not:" (_ib._;)--to do these several
things, as they have been done, is, to set forth, not "novelties" only, but
errors and inconsistencies.

OBS. 19.--Dr. Bullions still adheres to his old argument, that _being_
after its own verb must be devoid of meaning; or, in his own words, "that
_is being built_, if it mean anything, can mean nothing more than _is
built_, which is not the idea intended to be expressed."--_Analyt. and
Pract. Gram._, p. 237. He had said, (as cited in OBS. 5th above,) "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_.'"--_Principles of E.
Gram._, p. 58. He has now discovered "that _there is no progressive form_
of the verb _to be_, and no need of it:" and that, "hence, _there is no
such expression_ in English as _is being_."--_Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p.
236. He should have noticed also, that "_is loving_" is not an authorized
"equivalent to _loves_;" and, further, that the error of saying "_is being
built_," is only in the relation of the _first two words_ to each other. If
"_is being_," and "_is loving_," are left unused for the same reason, the
truth may be, that _is_ itself, like _loves_, commonly denotes
"_continuance_;" and that _being_ after it, in stead of being necessary or
proper, can only be awkwardly tautologous. This is, in fact, THE GRAND
OBJECTION to the new phraseology--"_is being practised_"--"_am being
smitten_"--and the like. Were there no danger that petty writers would one
day seize upon it with like avidity, an other innovation, exactly similar
to this in every thing but tense--similar in awkwardness, in tautology, in
unmistakeableness--might here be uttered for the sake of illustration. Some
men conceive, that "The _perfec