The book is _written_; i.e. it has received the _done_
or _finish-ed_ act of _writ-ing_ it.
Participles bear the same relation to verbs, that adnouns do to
nouns. They might, therefore, be styled _verbal adjectives_. But
that theory which ranks them with adnouns, appears to rest on a
sandy foundation. In classifying words, we ought to be guided more
by their _manner_ of meaning, and their _inferential_ meaning, than
by their primitive, essential signification. "I have a _broken_
plate;" i.e. I have a plate--_broken_; "I have _broken_ a plate." If
there is no difference in the _essential_ meaning of the word
_broken_, in these two constructions, it cannot be denied, that
there is a wide difference in the meaning--_inferred_ by custom;
which difference depends on the _manner_ in which the term is
applied. The former construction denotes, that I _possess_ a plate
which was _broken_, (whether with or without my agency, is not
intimated,) perhaps, one hundred or one thousand years ago; whereas,
the meaning of the latter is, that I _performed the act_ of reducing
the plate from a whole to a _broken_ state; and it is not intimated
whether I possess it, or some one else.
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