sembly."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 192. This implies that the orator's
_manner_ was _heard_! But the grammarian interprets his own meaning, by the
following alternative: "Or--_He spoke distinctly enough to be heard_ by the
whole assembly."--_Ibid._ This suggests that the man himself was heard.
"When they hit upon a figure that pleases them, they are loth to part with
it, and frequently continue it so long, as to become tedious and
intricate."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 341. Is it the _authors_, or their
_figure_, that becomes tedious and intricate? If the latter, strike out,
"_so long, as to become_," and say, "_till it becomes_." "Facts are always
of the greatest consequence _to be remembered_ during the course of the
pleading."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 272. The rhetorician here meant: "The facts
stated in an argument, are always those parts of it, which it is most
important that the hearers should be made to remember."

OBS. 30.--According to some grammarians, "The Infinitive of the verb _to
be_, is often _understood_; as, 'I considered it [_to be_] necessary to
send the dispatches.'"--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 166. In this example, as in
thousands more, of various forms, the verb _to be_ may be inserted without
affecting the sense; but I doubt the necessity of supposing an ellipsis in
such sentences. The adjective or participle that follows, always relates to
the preceding objective; and if a noun is used, it is but an other
objective in apposition with the former: as, "I considered _it_ an
_imposition_." The verb _to be_, with the perfect participle, forms the
passive infinitive; and the supposition of such an ellipsis, extensively
affects one's mode of parsing. Thus, "He considered himself _insulted_," "I
will suppose the work _accomplished_," and many similar sentences, might be
supposed to contain passive infinitives. Allen says, "In the following
construction, the words in _italics_ are (elliptically) passive
infinitives; I saw the bird _caught_, and the hare _killed_; we heard the
letters _read_."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 168. Dr. Priestley observes,
"There is a remarkable ambiguity in the use of the participle _preterite_,
as the same word may express a thing either doing, or done; as, I went to
see the child _dressed_."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 125. If the Doctor's
participle is ambiguous, I imagine that Allen's infinitives are just as
much so. "The _participle_ which we denominate _past_, often means an
action _whilst perfo