tract infinitive: but possibly a
_repetition_ of this sign may not always be necessary, when several such
infinitives occur in the same construction: as, "But, _to fill_ a heart
with joy, _restore_ content to the afflicted, or _relieve_ the necessitous,
these fall not within the reach of their five senses."--_Art of Thinking_,
p. 66. It may be too much to affirm, that this is positively ungrammatical;
yet it would be as well or better, to express it thus: "But _to relieve_
the necessitous, _to restore_ content to the afflicted, _and to fill_ a
heart with joy, these full not within the reach of their five senses."

OBS. 33.--In the use of the English infinitive, as well as of the
participle in _ing_, the distinction of _voice_ is often disregarded; the
active form being used in what, with respect to the noun before it, is a
passive sense: as, "There's no time _to waste_."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p.
82. "You are _to blame_."--_Ib._ "The humming-bird is delightful _to look_
upon."--_Ib._ "What pain it was _to drown_."--_Shak._ "The thing's _to
do_."--_Id._ "When deed of danger was _to do_."--_Scott_. "The evil I bring
upon myself, is the hardest _to bear_."--_Home's Art of Thinking_, p. 27.
"Pride is worse _to bear_ than cruelty."--_Ib._, p. 37. These are in fact
active verbs, and not passive. We may suggest agents for them, if we
please; as, "There is no time _for us_ to waste." That the simple
participle in _ing_ may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere. It
seems sometimes to have no distinction of voice; as, "What is worth
_doing_, is worth _doing well_."--_Com. Maxim._ This is certainly much more
agreeable, than to say, "What is worth _being done_, is worth _being done
well_." In respect to the voice of the infinitive, and of this participle,
many of our grammarians are obviously hypercritical. For example: "The
active voice should not be used for the passive; as, I have work _to do_: a
house _to sell, to let_, instead of _to be done, to be sold, to be
let_."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 220. "Active verbs are often used improperly
with a passive signification, as, 'the house is _building_, lodgings to
_let_, he has a house to _sell_, nothing is _wanting_;' in stead of 'the
house is _being built_, lodgings to _be lett_, he has a house to _be_ sold,
nothing is _wanted_.'"--_Blair's Gram._, p. 64. In punctuation,
orthography, and the use of capitals, here are more errors than it is worth
while to particularize. With regard