OBS. 9.—­Dr. Adam’s distribution of verbs, is apparently the same as the first part of Murray’s; and his definitions are also in nearly the same words.  But he adds, “The verb Active is also called Transitive, when the action passeth over to the object, or hath an effect on some other thing; as, scribo literas, I write letters:  but when the action is confined within the agent, and passeth not over to any object, it is called Intransitive; as, ambulo, I walk; curro, I run:  [fist] which are likewise called Neuter Verbs.”—­Adam’s Latin and English Gram., p. 79.  But he had just before said, “A Neuter verb properly expresses neither action nor passion, but simply the being, state, or condition of things; as, dormio, I sleep; sedeo, I sit.”—­Ibid. Verbs of motion or action, then, must needs be as improperly called neuter, in Latin, as in English.  Nor is this author’s arrangement orderly in other respects; for he treats of “Deponent and Common Verbs,” of “Irregular Verbs,” of “Defective Verbs,” and of “Impersonal Verbs,” none of which had he mentioned in his distribution.  Nor are the late revisers of his grammar any more methodical.

OBS. 10.—­The division of our verbs into active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, and neuter, must be understood to have reference not only to their signification as of themselves, but also to their construction with respect to the government of an objective word after them.  The latter is in fact their most important distinction, though made with reference to a different part of speech.  The classical scholar, too, being familiar with the forms of Latin and Greek verbs, will doubtless think it a convenience, to have the arrangement as nearly correspondent to those ancient forms, as the nature of our language will admit.  This is perhaps the strongest argument for the recognition of the class of passive verbs in English.  Some grammarians, choosing to parse the passive participle separately, reject this class of verbs altogether; and, forming their division of the rest with reference to the construction alone, make but two classes, transitive and intransitive.  Such is the distribution adopted by C. Alexander, D. Adams, Bingham, Chandler, E. Cobb, Harrison, Nutting, and John Peirce; and supported also by some British writers, among whom are McCulloch and Grant.  Such too was the distribution of Webster, in his Plain and Comprehensive Grammar, as published in 1800.  He then taught:  “We have no passive verb in the language; and those which are called neuter are mostly active.”—­Page 14.  But subsequently, in his Philosophical, Abridged, and Improved Grammars, he recognized “a more natural and comprehensive division” of verbs, “transitive, intransitive, and passive.”—­Webster’s