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 to such phraseology as, “The house is being built,” see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Compound Form of Conjugation.  To say, “I have work to do,”—­“He has a house to sell,”—­or, “We have lodgings to let,” is just as good English, as to say, “I have meat to eat.”—­John, iv, 32.  And who, but some sciolist in grammar, would, in all such instances, prefer the passive voice?

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.  FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVIII.

INFINITIVES DEMANDING THE PARTICLE TO.

“William, please hand me that pencil.”—­R.  C. Smith’s New Gram., p. 12.

[FORMULE—­Not proper, because the infinitive verb hand is not preceded by the preposition to.  But, according to Rule 18th, “The preposition to governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb.”  Therefore, to should be here inserted; thus, “William, please to hand me that pencil.”]