The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

.—§ 41 THE VERR— VOICE. 87the verb as acting on some object ; as, amo te, "Ilove thee."2. The Passive Voice represents the subject ofthe verb as acted upon ; as, amdtv/r, " he is loved."136—OBSERVATIONS.1 In both voices, the act expressed by the verb is the same,but differently related to the subject of the verb. In theactive voice, the subject is the actor; in the passive, it is actedupon, as in the above examples. Hence, the same idea maybe expressed with equal propriety in either voice, by simplychanging the object of the active voice into the subject of thepassive : thus, by the active voice, Ccesar vicit Galliam, " Caesarconquered Gaul ;" by the passive, Gallia victa est a Ccesdre," Gaul was conquered by Caesar."This property of the transitive verb, enables the speaker orwriter not only to vary his form of expression at pleasure,but also, by means of the passive form, to direct the attentionto the act and the object acted upon, when the actor either isunknown, or, it may be, unimportant or improper to be mentioned: thus, " America was discovered and inhabited beforethe days of Columbus." So also the attention may be directedby means of the active voice to the act and the actor, withoutregard to the object. See 132, Obs. 7.2. Intransitive verbs, from their nature, do not admit a distinctionof voice. They are generally in the form of the activevoice, but are frequently used in the third person singular,passive form, as impersonal verbs. 223-3. Deponent intransitives,however, have the form of the passive.3. The passive voice, in Latin, is often used in a sense similarto the middle voice in Greek, to express actively what itssubject does to, or for itself; as, donee pan ci, qui prartio superfuerant,paludibus abderextur, "till the few who had survivedthe battle, concealed themselves in the marshes." Tag.The following are examples of the same kind : Columba— ferturin arva volans. Virg.— Nunc spicula vertunt infensi ; factapariternunc pace feruxtur. Id. E scopulo multa vix arterevulsus— ratem Sergestus agebat. Id.— Quis ignorat. ii, quimathemo tici vocantur, in quanta obscuritate rerum— versextur.Cic.— Cum igitur vehementius ixveheretur in causam princi-