eech in their order, and comprised all the general principles of
relation, agreement, and government, in twenty-four leading Rules. Of these
rules, eight--(namely, the 1st, of _Articles_; the 4th, of _Possessives_;
the 9th, of _Adjectives_; the 20th, of _Participles_; the 21st, of
_Adverbs_; the 22d, of _Conjunctions_; the 23d, of _Prepositions_; and the
24th, of _Interjections_--) are used only in parsing. The remaining
sixteen, because they embrace principles that are sometimes violated in
practice, answer the double purpose of parsing and correcting. The
Exceptions, of which there are thirty-two, (all occasionally applicable in
parsing,) belong to nine different rules, and refer to all the parts of
speech, except nouns and interjections. The Notes, of which there are one
hundred and fifty-two, are subordinate rules of syntax, not designed to be
used in parsing, but formed for the exposition and correction of so many
different forms of false grammar. The Observations, of which there are, in
this part of the work, without the present series, four hundred and
ninety-seven, are designed not only to defend and confirm the doctrines
adopted by the author, but to explain the arrangement of words, and
whatever is difficult or peculiar in construction.

OBS. 2.--The rules in a system of syntax may be more or less comprehensive,
as well as more or less simple or complex; consequently they may, without
deficiency or redundance, be more or less numerous. But either complexity
or vagueness, as well as redundance or deficiency, is a fault; and, when
all these faults are properly avoided, and the two great ends of methodical
syntax, _parsing_ and _correcting_, are duly answered, perhaps the
requisite number of syntactical rules, or grammatical canons, will no
longer appear very indeterminate. In the preceding chapters, the essential
principles of English syntax are supposed to be pretty fully developed; but
there are yet to be exhibited some forms of error, which must be corrected
under other heads or maxims, and for the treatment of which the several
dogmas of this chapter are added. Completeness in the system, however, does
not imply that it must have shown the pupil how to correct every form of
language that is amiss: for there may be in composition many errors of such
a nature that no rule of grammar can show, either what should be
substituted for the faulty expression, or what fashion of amendment may be
the most eligible. The i