WITH FAMILIAR EXPLANATIONS IN THE LECTURE STYLE; APPROPRIATE PARSING EXAMPLES, BOTH IN ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX; QUESTIONS SUBJOINED FOR RECITATION; EXERCISES IN FALSE SYNTAX, HARVAR Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1836, BY DYER H. SANBORN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New Hampshire. PREFACE. THE utility and importance of grammatical science, must be obvi ous to every reflecting mind. On a correct and accurate knowledge of its principles, depends the literature of any language. Numberless disputes have agitated the literary world, in consequence of a misapprehension of the meaning of words, terms, and of their grammatical relation. Chasteness of style, elegance of diction, and correctness of enunciation, are easily acquired by a gradual induction into the primary principles of grammatical language. Education may do something towards preparing the mind of a child to commence the study of grammar; but a judicious control of the reasoning powers, mental discipline, and a comprehensive understanding of the force and use of words and language, are almost solely dependent on the text book which a scholar uses, its principles of illustration, its adaptation to his capacity, and on a just and practical application of its definitions. The system of Eng. lish Grammar here presented to the public, is the result of many years' experience in the business of teaching, and of much careful observation respecting various methods of imparting instruction and of communicating knowledge on a science too often deemed dry, irksome, and uninteresting. If teachers will acquaint themselves with the manner of applying the Lessons and Examples contained in this Grammar,-which can be done with little labor,-they will be enabled to satisfy themselves of the utility of the system, and of the superior advantages it secures to the scholar over many treatises of the kind in use. If well understood and faithfully taught, much time that is frequently wasted in the study of English Grammar, may be saved for valuable purposes. The method of teaching which is peculiar to this system, affords an excellent discipline for the mind. It alternately collects and diffuses the scattered rays of mental vision, concentrates its energies upon one specific object, expands the intellect, invigorates the mind, develops its faculties, unlocks the treasures of knowledge, and opens a vista to the inmost recesses of the Temple of Wisdom. The author has endeavored to be governed by those natural laws, through whose medium ideas are communicated the most easily, readily, and understandingly; and so to arrange his exercises that the student may be able to comprehend every definition as soon as it is pre sented to the mind. If the study is pursued in accordance with the general principles of the system, the scholar will learn to reason, to express himself correctly, and in the most appropriate and comprehensive manner. He will gain a more thorough knowledge of Rhetoric than can be obtained from the systems now in use. Rhetoric and Grammar should be studied together. The False Syntax affords a great variety of rules, formulas, and examples, for an exemplification of the right position and arrangement of words in a sentence; and a correction of the exercises renders the student conversant with the best modes of speech. This Grammar traces terms to their origin, interprets their primitive meaning philosophically in accordance with the principles laid down by J. H. Tooke in his Diversions of Purley, and our learned lexicographer, the venerable Dr. Webster; and after having defined their primitive import, uses the technical terms generally received and understood by grammarians, to avoid the embarrassing perplexity arising from innova tion. It is incumbent on every scientific writer that undertakes to find fault with received systems, and to tear them in pieces, to furnish better ones. |