tain degree of influence upon the public
mind; and the popular notions of the age, in respect to the relative value
of different studies, will doubtless bias many to the adoption or the
rejection of this. A consideration of the point seems to be appropriate
here, and I cannot forbear to commend the study to the favour of my
readers; leaving every one, of course, to choose how much he will be
influenced by my advice, example, or arguments. If past experience and the
history of education be taken for guides, the study of English grammar will
not be neglected; and the method of its inculcation will become an object
of particular inquiry and solicitude. The English language ought to be
learned at school or in colleges, as other languages usually are; by the
study of its grammar, accompanied with regular exercises of parsing,
correcting, pointing, and scanning; and by the perusal of some of its most
accurate writers, accompanied with stated exercises in composition and
elocution. In books of criticism, our language is already more abundant
than any other. Some of the best of these the student should peruse, as
soon as he can understand and relish them. Such a course, pursued with
regularity and diligence, will be found the most direct way of acquiring an
English style at once pure, correct, and elegant.

10. If any intelligent man will represent English grammar otherwise than as
one of the most useful branches of study, he may well be suspected of
having formed his conceptions of the science, not from what it really is in
itself, but from some of those miserable treatises which only caricature
the subject, and of which it is rather an advantage to be ignorant. But who
is so destitute of good sense as to deny, that a graceful and easy
conversation in the private circle, a fluent and agreeable delivery in
public speaking, a ready and natural utterance in reading, a pure and
elegant style in composition, are accomplishments of a very high order? And
yet of all these, the proper study of English grammar is the true
foundation. This would never be denied or doubted, if young people did not
find, under some other name, better models and more efficient instruction,
than what was practised on them for grammar in the school-room. No disciple
of an able grammarian can ever speak ill of grammar, unless he belong to
that class of knaves who vilify what they despair to reach.

11. By taking
proper advantage of the ductility of childhood,