of
composition, young fancy may spread her wings as soon as they are fledged;
and for this exercise the previous course of discipline will have furnished
both language and taste, as well as sentiment.

14. The regular grammatical study of our language is a thing of recent
origin. Fifty or sixty years ago, such an exercise was scarcely attempted
in any of the schools, either in this country or in England.[54] Of this
fact we have abundant evidence both from books, and from the testimony of
our venerable fathers yet living. How often have these presented this as an
apology for their own deficiencies, and endeavoured to excite us to greater
diligence, by contrasting our opportunities with theirs! Is there not
truth, is there not power, in the appeal? And are we not bound to avail
ourselves of the privileges which they have provided, to build upon the
foundations which their wisdom has laid, and to carry forward the work of
improvement? Institutions can do nothing for us, unless the love of
learning preside over and prevail in them. The discipline of our schools
can never approach perfection, till those who conduct, and those who
frequent them, are strongly actuated by that disposition of mind, which
generously aspires to all attainable excellence.

15. To rouse this laudable spirit in the minds of our youth, and to satisfy
its demands whenever it appears, ought to be the leading objects with those
to whom is committed the important business of instruction. A dull teacher,
wasting time in a school-room with a parcel of stupid or indolent boys,
knows nothing of the satisfaction either of doing his own duty, or of
exciting others to the performance of theirs. He settles down in a regular
routine of humdrum exercises, dreading as an inconvenience even such change
as proficiency in his pupils must bring on; and is well content to do
little good for little money, in a profession which he honours with his
services merely to escape starvation. He has, however, one merit: he
pleases his patrons, and is perhaps the only man that can; for they must
needs be of that class to whom moral restraint is tyranny, disobedience to
teachers, as often right as wrong; and who, dreading the expense, even of a
school-book, always judge those things to be cheapest, which cost the least
and last the longest. What such a man, or such a neighbourhood, may think
of English grammar, I shall not stop to ask.

16. To the following opinion from a writer o