A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language For the Use of Schools Classic Reprint

Excerpt from A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language: For the Use of Schools

IT is generally admitted, at least by those persons who frequently have occa sion to write the English language, that the knowledge of this subject, obtained in our schools, is not sufficient for the various requirements of life. In the fol lowing pages I therefore offer to the public an English Grammar that is de signed to be, for practical purposes, more thorough than any other I have seen, the very largest not excepted.

In its matter, it does not differ much from other grammars, except that it has more, and that much of it is fresh from the original sources of the science. What ever has been written on the subject by other grammarians, I have endeavored to ascertain; though I trust I have treated them less piratically and censoriously than most of them have treated their predecessors. The incidfntal remarks on grammar, made by reviewers, philologists, and other writers, have been diligently sought and considered. The best grammars of foreign languages have also been consulted; especially those of Becker, Vivier, Andrews, Ciosby, and Kiihner. Of the exercises to be corrected, about one half are the best of those which form the common inheritance of the science; and for the others I have read some work or works from every State in the Union, in order that the book may show all the various kinds of errors which are now current, like undetected counter feit money, in the various parts of our country. If children imbibed LO errors at home, it were well to exclude such exercises from grammars; but when a person has already caught a disease, I suppose it is best to convince him of his condition, and show him how to get rid of it. Errors in spelling, and errors manufactured by grammarians, are of course objectionable; but errors that are gathered from the usage of good writers, are a very different thing. Besides, parsing and analysis when used alone, become too monotonous and wearisome, and hardly suflice to teach the correct use of the language.

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