st common elements of the orthography,
etymology, and syntax, of the English tongue--beyond which his scholarship
appears not to have extended. Whatsoever relates to derivation, to the
sounds of the letters, to prosody, (as punctuation, utterance, figures,
versification, and poetic diction,) found no place in his "comprehensive
system of grammar;" nor do his later editions treat any of these things
amply or well. In short, he treats nothing well; for he is a bad writer.
Commencing his career of authorship under circumstances the most
forbidding, yet receiving encouragement from commendations bestowed in
pity, he proceeded, like a man of business, to profit mainly by the chance;
and, without ever acquiring either the feelings or the habits of a scholar,
soon learned by experience that, "It is much better to _write_ than [to]
_starve_."--_Kirkham's Gram., Stereotyped_, p. 89. It is cruel in any man,
to look narrowly into the faults of an author who peddles a school-book for
bread. The starveling wretch whose defence and plea are poverty and
sickness, demands, and must have, in the name of humanity, an immunity from
criticism, if not the patronage of the public. Far be it from me, to notice
any such character, except with kindness and charity. Nor need I be told,
that tenderness is due to the "young;" or that noble results sometimes
follow unhopeful beginnings. These things are understood and duly
appreciated. The gentleman was young once, even as he says; and I, his
equal in years, was then, in authorship, as young--though, it were to be
hoped, not quite so immature. But, as circumstances alter cases, so time
and chance alter circumstances. Under no circumstances, however, can the
artifices of quackery be thought excusable in him who claims to be the very
greatest of modern grammarians. The niche that in the temple of learning
belongs to any individual, can be no other than that which his own labours
have purchased: here, his _own merit_ alone must be his pedestal. If this
critical sketch be unimpeachably _just_, its publication requires no
further warrant. The correction has been forborne, till the subject of it
has become rich, and popular, and proud; proud enough at least to have
published his utter contempt for me and all my works. Yet not for this do I
judge him worthy of notice here, but merely as an apt example of some men's
grammatical success and fame. The ways and means to these grand results are
what I purpose now