destined to
situations in which they will never hear or think of it afterwards. The
course of nature cannot be controlled; and fortune does not permit us to
prescribe the same course of discipline for all. To speak the language
which they have learned without study, and to read and write for the most
common purposes of life, may be education enough for those who can be
raised no higher. But it must be the desire of every benevolent and
intelligent man, to see the advantages of literary, as well as of moral
culture, extended as far as possible among the people. And it is manifest,
that in proportion as the precepts of the divine Redeemer are obeyed by the
nations that profess his name, will all distinctions arising merely from
the inequality of fortune be lessened or done away, and better
opportunities be offered for the children of indigence to adorn themselves
with the treasures of knowledge.

31. We may not be able to effect all that is desirable; but, favoured as
our country is, with great facilities for carrying forward the work of
improvement, in every thing which can contribute to national glory and
prosperity, I would, in conclusion of this topic, submit--that a critical
knowledge of our common language is a subject worthy of the particular
attention of all who have the genius and the opportunity to attain
it;--that on the purity and propriety with which American authors write
this language, the reputation of our national literature greatly
depends;--that in the preservation of it from all changes which ignorance
may admit or affectation invent, we ought to unite as having one common
interest;--that a fixed and settled orthography is of great importance, as
a means of preserving the etymology, history, and identity of words;--that
a grammar freed from errors and defects, and embracing a complete code of
definitions and illustrations, rules and exercises, is of primary
importance to every student and a great aid to teachers;--that as the vices
of speech as well as of manners are contagious, it becomes those who have
the care of youth, to be masters of the language in its purity and
elegance, and to avoid as much as possible every thing that is
reprehensible either in thought or expression.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR.

"Quomodo differunt grammaticus et grammatista? Grammaticus est qui
diligenter, acute, scienterque possit aut dicere aut scribere, et poetas
enarrare: idem literat