The English Master; Or, Student's Guide to Reasoning and Composition - Softcover

Reseña del editor

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1829. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... language is effectually answered. Some have alleged, that the English language is not so proper for poetry and oratory, as the Greek and Latin; but such an allegation is unsupported by proof. Addison says, indeed, that the English language sunk under Milton; but so would the Greek have sunk under Homer, had he written an epic poem on Milton's subject. English verse, to an English ear, is neither deficient in harmony nor variety. It has been found suitable to every subject to which it has yet been applied, and in no language with which we are acquainted, has so great a diversity of subjects been treated in a poetical manner. We have had orators in the pulpit, in the senate, and at the bar, who, for manly sense and sound argument, have not been surpassed by any of the orators of antiquity, and we may proudly boast, "That Chatham's language is our mother tongue." ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Though men, in every period of society, employ articulate sounds in communicating their thoughts to one another, they have generally made considerable progress in civilization, before language becomes in any degree an object of their attention; and the art of writing has been long practised before grammar has existed. Indeed, the rules of grammar, like those of any other art, are deduced from practice. "These rules of old discovered, not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodised." But though the instrument of thought has been long employed, without any inquiry respecting its nature, we must not hence infer, that such an inquiry is either unnecessary or unimportant. Between articulate sounds, and those ideas for which we employ them, there is no natural or necessary connexion; otherwise, men in all countries must have used the same sounds to signify the same things. ...