nd. Such facility of course supposes an intimate knowledge of all words
in common use, and also of the principles on which they are to be combined.

7. With a language which we are daily in the practice of hearing, speaking,
reading, and writing, we may certainly acquire no inconsiderable
acquaintance, without the formal study of its rules. All the true
principles of grammar were presumed to be known to the learned, before they
were written for the aid of learners; nor have they acquired any
independent authority, by being recorded in a book, and denominated
grammar. The teaching of them, however, has tended in no small degree to
settle and establish the construction of the language, to improve the style
of our English writers, and to enable us to ascertain with more clearness
the true standard of grammatical purity. He who learns only by rote, may
speak the words or phrases which he has thus acquired; and he who has the
genius to discern intuitively what is regular and proper, may have further
aid from the analogies which he thus discovers; but he who would add to
such acquisitions the satisfaction of knowing what is right, must make the
principles of language his study.

8. To produce an able and elegant writer, may require something more than a
knowledge of grammar rules; yet it is argument enough in favour of those
rules, that without a knowledge of them no elegant and able writer is
produced. Who that considers the infinite number of phrases which words in
their various combinations may form, and the utter impossibility that they
should ever be recognized individually for the purposes of instruction and
criticism, but must see the absolute necessity of dividing words into
classes, and of showing, by general rules of formation and construction,
the laws to which custom commonly subjects them, or from which she allows
them in particular instances to deviate? Grammar, or the art of writing and
speaking, must continue to be learned by some persons; because it is of
indispensable use to society. And the only question is, whether children
and youth shall acquire it by a regular process of study and method of
instruction, or be left to glean it solely from their own occasional
observation of the manner in which other people speak and write.

9. The practical solution of this question belongs chiefly to parents and
guardians. The opinions of teachers, to whose discretion the decision will
sometimes be left, must have a cer