The term, “imperfect passive tenses,” seems not a very accurate one; because the present, the perfect, &c., are included.  Pickbourn applies it to any passive tenses formed from the simple “imperfect participle;” but the phrase, “passive verbs in the progressive form,” would better express the meaning.  The term, “compound passive participle,” which Wells applies above to “being built,” “being printed,” and the like, is also both unusual and inaccurate.  Most readers would sooner understand by it the form, having been built, having been printed, &c.  This author’s mode of naming participles is always either very awkward or not distinctive.  His scheme makes it necessary to add here, for each of these forms, a third epithet, referring to his main distinction of “imperfect and perfect;” as, “the compound imperfect participle passive,” and “the compound perfect participle passive.”  What is “being builded” or “being printed,” but “an imperfect passive participle?” Was this, or something else, the desideratum of Beattie?

[274] Borne usually signifies carried; born signifies brought forth.  J. K. Worcester, the lexicographer, speaks of these two participles thus:  “[Fist] The participle born is used in the passive form, and borne in the active form, [with reference to birth]; as, ’He was born blind,’ John ix.; ‘The barren hath borne seven,’ I Sam. ii.  This distinction between born and borne, though not recognized by grammars, is in accordance with common usage, at least in this country.  In many editions of the Bible it is recognized; and in many it is not.  It seems to have been more commonly recognized in American, than in English, editions.”—­Worcester’s Universal and Critical Dict., w.  Bear.  In five, out of seven good American editions of the Bible among my books, the latter text is, “The barren hath born seven;” in two, it is as above, “hath borne.”  In Johnson’s Quarto Dictionary, the perfect participle of bear is given erroneously, “bore, or born;” and that of forbear, which should be forborne, is found, both in his columns and in his preface, “forborn.”

[275] According to Murray, Lennie, Bullions, and some others, to use begun for began or run for ran, is improper; but Webster gives run as well as ran for the preterit, and begun may be used in like manner, on the authority of Dryden, Pope, and Parnell.

[276] “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead, and hungry.”—­Isaiah, viii, 21.