[265] The text in Acts, xxii, 20th, “I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death,” ought rather to be, “I also stood by, and consented to his death;” but the present reading is, thus far, a literal version from the Greek, though the verb “kept,” that follows, is not.  Montanus renders it literally:  “Et ipse eram astans, et consentiens interemptioni ejus, et custodiens vestimenta interficientium illum.”  Beza makes it better Latin thus:  “Ego quoque adstabam, et una assentiebar caedi ipsius, et custodiebam pallia eorum qui interimebant eum.”  Other examples of a questionable or improper use of the progressive form may occasionally be found in good authors; as, “A promising boy of six years of age, was missing by his parents.”—­Whittier, Stranger in Lowell, p. 100. Missing, wanting, and willing, after the verb to be, are commonly reckoned participial adjectives; but here “was missing” is made a passive verb, equivalent to was missed, which, perhaps, would better express the meaning. To miss, to perceive the absence of, is such an act of the mind, as seems unsuited to the compound form, to be missing; and, if we cannot say, “The mother was missing her son,” I think we ought not to use the same form passively, as above.

[266] Some grammarians, contrary to the common opinion, suppose the verbs here spoken of, to have, not a passive, but a neuter signification.  Thus, Joseph Guy, Jun., of London:  “Active verbs often take a neuter sense; as, A house is building; here, is building is used in a neuter signification, because it has no object after it.  By this rule are explained such sentences as, Application is wanting; The grammar is printing; The lottery is drawing; It is flying, &c.”—­Guy’s English Gram., p. 21. “Neuter,” here, as in many other places, is meant to include the active-intransitives. “Is flying” is of this class; and “is wanting,” corresponding to the Latin caret, appears to be neuter; hut the rest seem rather to be passives.  Tried, however, by the usual criterion,—­the naming of the “agent” which, it is said, “a verb passive necessarily implies,”—­what may at first seem progressive passives, may not always be found such. “Most verbs signifying action” says Dr. Johnson, “may likewise signify condition, or habit, and become neuters, [i. e. active-intransitives;] as I love, I am in love; I strike, I am now striking.”—­Gram. before Quarto Dict., p. 7.  So sell, form, make, and many others, usually transitive, have sometimes an active-intransitive sense which nearly approaches the passive, and of which are selling, is forming, are making, and the like, may be only equivalent expressions.  For example:  “It is cold, and ice forms rapidly—­is forming