Active-intransitive and passive verbs, the verb _to become_, and other
neuter verbs, have the same case after them as before them, when both
words refer to, and signify, the same thing; as, "_Tom_ struts a
_soldier_;" "_Will_ sneaks a _scrivener_;" "_He_ was called _Cesar_;"
"The _general_ was saluted _emperor_;" "_They_ have become _fools_."
NOTE 1. Active-intransitive verbs sometimes assume a transitive
form, and govern the objective case; as, "_To dream_ a _dream; To
run_ a _race; To walk_ the _horse; To dance_ the _child; To fly_ the
_kite_."
2. According to a usage too common in colloquial style, an agent not
literally the correct one, is employed as the nominative to a
passive verb, which causes the verb to be followed by an _objective_
case without the possibility of supplying before it a preposition:
thus, "_Pitticus_ was offered a large _sum_ by the king;" "_She_ was
promised _them_ (the _jewels_) by her mother;" "_I_ was asked a
_question_." It would be better sense, and more agreeable to the
idiom of our language, to say, "A large _sum_ was offered _to
Pitticus_;" "_They_ were promised _(to) her_;" "A _question_ was put
_to me_."
3. Some passive verbs are formed by using the participles of
compound active verbs. To _smile_, to _wonder_, to _dream_, are
intransitive verbs, for which reason they have no passive voice;
but, to _smile on_, to _wonder at_, to _dream of_, are compound
active-transitive verbs, and, therefore, admit of a passive voice;
as, "He _was smiled on_ by fortune; The accident is not _to be
wondered at_;"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
"Than _are dreamed of_ in your philosophy."