Part 1 (1/2)

The Gralish Grammars

by Goold Brown

PREFACE

The present performance is, so far as the end could be reached, the fulfillo, of one day presenting to the world, if I uage;--not a mere work of criticism, nor yet a work too tame, indecisive, and uncritical; for, in books of either of these sorts, our libraries already abound;--not a eneral or universal in grammar, nor yet a y; for either of these plans falls very far short of such a purpose;--not awith other works already before the public; for, in the production of school grammars, the author had early performed his part; and, of s had a superabundance rather than a lack

After about fifteen years devoted chiefly to grayouth in four different languages, thinking it practicable to effect some improvement upon the manuals which explain our own, I prepared and published, for the use of schools, a duodecies; which, upon the presue, and well established thereby, I entitled, ”The Institutes of English Graradually gaining in reputation and demand ever since its first publication, there is no occasion to say ent study, and that it is, essentially, the nucleus, or the groundwork, of the present volume

With much additional labour, the principles contained in the Institutes of English Grammar, have here been not only reaffirmed and rewritten, but occasionally improved in expression, or amplified in their details New topics, new definitions, new rules, have also been added; and all parts of the subject have been illustrated by a multiplicity of new exa tie To the main doctrines, also, are here subjoined many new observations and criticis and reflection

Regarding it as , to work out the above-ht perenius, none to infallibility; but I have endeavoured to be accurate, and aspired to be useful; and it is a part of hit contains It is but the duty of an author, to give every needful facility for a fair estimate of his work; and, whatever authority there rammar, the precedent is always bad

The success of other labours, answerable to moderate wishes, has enabled me to pursue this task under favourable circumstances, and with an unselfish, independent airatitude to God, I acknowledge this advantage, giving thanks for the signal -continued effort Had the case been otherwise,--had the labours of the school-rooe volume would never have appeared I had desired son, and to it I scrupled not to sacrifice the profits of my main employ another chapter to ”the Calan of this treatise are perhaps sufficiently developed in connexion with the various topics which are successively treated of in the Introduction That , which I conceive to be the best, is also there described And, in the Grammar itself, there will be found occasional directions concerning the manner of its use I have hoped to facilitate the study of the English language, not by abridging our gray [sic--KTH] of its doctrines, but by extending the for both;--but stillnew illustrations of the subject, and arranging its vast number of particulars in such order that every item may be readily found

An other important purpose, which, in the preparation of this work, has been borne constantly in ed worthy of very particular attention, was the atteation and the fullest exhibition of proofs could do it, the multitudinous and vexatious disputes which have hitherto divided the sentira, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable, to the student whose taste deree of certainty

”Whenever labour iood, at least to the strong: when the saving of labour is a saving of thought, it enfeebles

The thened by hard exercise: but, to give this exercise all its salutary effect, it should be of a reasonable kind; it should lead us to the perception of regularity, of order, of principle, of a law When, after all the trouble we have taken, we usted hat is so uncongenial: and, as our higher faculties have not been called into action, they are not unlikely to be outgrown by the lower, and overborne as it were by the underwood of our e has been so norance prevails concerning its nature and history, is its unattractive, disheartening irregularity: none but Satan is fond of plunging into chaos”--_Philological Museu, 1832,) Vol i, p 666

If there be any renorance here spoken of, it rarammar can never have any beneficial influence over any person's , till by some process they are made so perfectly familiar, that he can apply them with all the readiness of a native power; that is, till he can apply them not only to what has been said or written, but to whatever he is about to utter They must present themselves to the ht; so as to regulate his language before it proceeds from the lips or the pen

If they come only by tardy recollection, or are called to ether too late; and servehim of some deficiency or inaccuracy which there may then be no chance to amend

But how shall, or can, this readiness be acquired? I answer, By a careful attention to such _exercises_ as are fitted to bring the learner's knowledge into practice The student will therefore find, that I have given hi to _learn_ But, by the formules and directions in this work, he is very carefully sho to proceed; and, if he be a tolerable reader, it will be his own fault, if he does not, by such aid, becora_ of what is right, and the _correcting_ of what is wrong; both, perhaps, equally important; and I have intended to ra can be more free from embarrassment, than the perforrahtly learned, institutes in thethe sorts, properties, and relations, of all the words which can be presented in any intelligible sentence; and, with the initiated, a perception of the construction will always instantly follow or accompany a discovery of the sense: and instantly, too, should there be a perception of the error, if any of the words are misspelled, misjoined, misapplied,--or are, in any way, unfaithful to the sense intended

Thus it is the great end of gra the principles on which language is constructed, if not to be constantly present to the h it more rapidly than either pen or voice can utter words And where this power resides, there cannot but be a proportionate degree of critical skill, or of ability to judge of the language of others Present what you will, grammar directs the mind immediately to a consideration of the sense; and, if properly taught, always creates a discri taste which is not less offended by specious absurdities, than by the common blunders of clownishness Every one who has any pretensions to this art, knows that, to _parse_ a sentence, is but to resolve it according to one's understanding of its import; and it is equally clear, that the power to _correct_ an erroneous passage, usually deht

But, if parsing and correcting are of so great practical iests, itthem The pupil who cannot perform these exercises both accurately and fluently, is not truly prepared to perforht to expect fro rehearsal of words clearly prescribed, yet neither fairly ren froance of diction Divide and conquer, is the rule here, as in in hat is simple; practise it till it becomes familiar; and then proceed No child ever learned to speak by any other process Hard things becoained by little and little Of the whole , it should be understood, that it is to be a critical exercise in utterance, as well as an evidence of previous study,--an exhibition of the learner's attainrammar; and that, in any tolerable performance of this exercise, there must be an exact adherence to the truth of facts, as they occur in the example, and to the forms of expression, which are prescribed as ree, a work of invention; but wholly an exercise, an exertion of skill It is, indeed, an exercise for all the powers of the e, memory, andis to be guessed at, or devised, or uttered at random If the learner can but rehearse the necessary definitions and rules, and perforement in their application, he cannot but perceive what he _ His principal difficulty is in deter the parts of speech To lessen this, the trial should commence with easy sentences, also with few of the definitions, and with definitions that have been perfectly learned This difficulty being surmounted, let him follow the forms prescribed for the several praxes of this work, and he shall not err The directions and exaiven at the head of each exercise, will show hiy, of the particulars to be stated; so that he e which a book can afford There is no hope of hi into chaos”

”Of all the works of , and partakes the ht can project itself into the future, seems likely to be coeval with the world, and to spread vastly beyond even its present immeasurable limits, there cannot easily be a nobler object of aical Museum_, Vol i, p 665

It was some ambition of the kind here meant, awakened by a discovery of the scandalous errors and defects which abound in all our corammars, that pro of a language, I understand little else than the extensive teaching of its just foreneral custo, however, may well embrace also, or be corammar by which inaccurate writers have corrupted, if not the language itself, at least their own style in it

With respect to our present English, I know not whether any other i and correcting of those improprieties and unwarrantable anonorance, and affectation, are ever tending to debase it, and the careful teaching of its true gra to its real importance in education What further ae attention, I will not pretend to say; nor do I claim to have been competent to so much as was manifestly desirable within these limits But what I lacked in ability, I have endeavored to supply by diligence; and what I could conveniently strengthen by better authority than my own, I have not failed to support with all that was due, of narammarian, I stake my reputation as an author, upon ”a certain set of opinions,” and a certain ood sense of my readers for the correctness of both All contrary doctrines are unavoidably censured by hiraht to be attached than what belongs to gramuage, is inconsistent with himself, if he be offended at verbal criticis his opinions rejected, is equally so, if he cannot prove them to be well founded It is only in cases susceptible of a rule, that any writer can be judged deficient I can censure nofroht to follow According to Lord Kames, the standard of taste, both in arts and in manners, is ”the common sense of mankind,” a principle founded in the universal conviction of a common nature in our species (See _Elements of Criticism_, Chap, xxv, Vol ii, p

364) If this is so, the doctrine applies to gra about which criticis student or teacher, I owe an apology for the abundant condescension hich I have noticed in this volurammarians For men of sense have no natural inclination to dwell upon palpable offences against taste and scholarshi+p; nor can they be easily persuaded to approve the course of an author who makes it his business to criticise petty productions And is it not a fact, that grammatical authorshi+p has sunk so low, that noits multitudinous errors, dares now stoop to notice the rant of its abuses, or the most successful of its abuses? And, of the quackery which is now so prevalent, what can be a eneral contey to the reader therefore is, that, as the honour of our language demands correctness in all the manuals prepared for schools, a just exposition of any that are lacking in this point, is a service due to the study of English grammar, if not to the authors in question

The exposition, however, that I have made of the errors and defects of other writers, is only an incident, or underpart, of the scheme of this treatise Nor have I anywhere exhibited blunders as one that takes delight in their discovery My n has been, to prepare a hich, by its own completeness and excellence, should deserve the title here chosen

But, a co confessedly the ht fit to supply this portion of my book, not from anonymous or uncertain sources, but from the actual text of other authors, and chiefly froards the laws of grammatical purity,” says Dr Campbell, ”the violation is much more conspicuous than the observance”--See _Philosophy of Rhetoric_, p 190 It therefore falls in withample work, a condensed mass of special criticise

And, if the littleness of the particulars to which the learner's attention is called, be reckoned an objection, the author last quoted has furnished for y ”The eleest bodies, are subtile and inconsiderable

The rudiments of every art and science exhibit at first, to the learner, the appearance of littleness and insignificancy And it is by attending to such reflections, as to a superficial observer would appear e must be improved, and eloquence perfected”--_Ib_, p 244