nguage makes no part of the ordinary
method of instruction, which we pass through in our childhood; and it is
very seldom we apply ourselves to it afterward. Yet the want of it will not
be effectually supplied by any other advantages whatsoever. Much practice
in the polite world, and a general acquaintance with the best authors, are
good helps; but alone [they] will hardly be sufficient: We have writers,
who have enjoyed these advantages in their full extent, and yet cannot be
recommended as models of an accurate style. Much less then will, what is
commonly called learning, serve the purpose; that is, a critical knowledge
of ancient languages, and much reading of ancient authors: The greatest
critic and most able grammarian of the last age, when he came to apply his
learning and criticism to an English author, was frequently at a loss in
matters of ordinary use and common construction in his own vernacular
idiom."--DR. LOWTH, 1763: _Pref. to Gram._, p. vi.

23. "To the pupils of our public schools the acquisition of their own
language, whenever it is undertaken, is an easy task. For he who is
acquainted with several grammars already, finds no difficulty in adding one
more to the number. And this, no doubt, is one of the reasons why English
engages so small a proportion of their time and attention. It is not
frequently read, and is still less frequently written. Its supposed
facility, however, or some other cause, seems to have drawn upon it such a
degree of neglect as certainly cannot be praised. The students in those
schools are often distinguished by their compositions in the learned
languages, before they can speak or write their own with correctness,
elegance, or fluency. A classical scholar too often has his English style
to form, when he should communicate his acquisitions to the world. In some
instances it is never formed with success; and the defects of his
expression either deter him from appearing before the public at all, or at
least counteract in a great degree the influence of his work, and bring
ridicule upon the author. Surely these evils might easily be prevented or
diminished."--DR. BARROW: _Essays on Education_, London, 1804; Philad.,
1825, p. 87.

24. "It is also said that those who know Latin and Greek generally express
themselves with more clearness than those who do not receive a liberal
education. It is indeed natural that those who cultivate their mental
powers, write with more clearness than the