nglish,
have been published and republished under different names, till in our
language grammar has become the most ungrammatical of all studies!
"Imitators generally copy their originals in an inverse ratio of their
merits; that is, by adding as much to their faults, as they lose of their
merits."--KNIGHT, _on the Greek Alphabet_, p. 117.

"Who to the life an exact piece would make,
Must not from others' work a copy take."--_Cowley_.

6. All science is laid in the nature of things; and he only who seeks it
there, can rightly guide others in the paths of knowledge. He alone can
know whether his predecessors went right or wrong, who is capable of a
judgement independent of theirs. But with what shameful servility have many
false or faulty definitions and rules been copied and copied from one
grammar to another, as if authority had canonized their errors, or none had
eyes to see them! Whatsoever is dignified and fair, is also modest and
reasonable; but modesty does not consist in having no opinion of one's own,
nor reason in following with blind partiality the footsteps of others.
Grammar unsupported by authority, is indeed mere fiction. But what apology
is this, for that authorship which has produced so many grammars without
originality? Shall he who cannot write for himself, improve upon him who
can? Shall he who cannot paint, retouch the canvass of Guido? Shall modest
ingenuity be allowed only to imitators and to thieves? How many a prefatory
argument issues virtually in this! It is not deference to merit, but
impudent pretence, practising on the credulity of ignorance! Commonness
alone exempts it from scrutiny, and the success it has, is but the wages of
its own worthlessness! To read and be informed, is to make a proper use of
books for the advancement of learning; but to assume to be an author by
editing mere commonplaces and stolen criticisms, is equally beneath the
ambition of a scholar and the honesty of a man.

"'T is true, the ancients we may rob with ease;
But who with that mean shift himself can please?"
_Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham_.

7. Grammar being a practical art, with the principles of which every
intelligent person is more or less acquainted, it might be expected that a
book written professedly on the subject, should exhibit some evidence of
its author's skill. But it would seem that a multitude of bad or
indifferent writers have judged themselves qualified to teach the a