l to form those ideas exactly in our minds, and copy our
definitions from that appearance, much of the confusion and obscurity
complained of in languages might be prevented."--P. 70. Again he says: "The
writings of the mathematicians are a clear proof, how much the advancement
of human knowledge depends upon a right use of definitions."--P. 72.
Mathematical science has been supposed to be, in its own nature, that which
is best calculated to develop and strengthen the reasoning faculty; but, as
speech is emphatically _the discourse of reason_, I am persuaded, that had
the grammarians been equally clear and logical in their instructions, their
science would never have been accounted inferior in this respect. Grammar
is perhaps the most comprehensive of all studies; but it is chiefly owing
to the unskillfulness of instructors, and to the errors and defects of the
systems in use, that it is commonly regarded as the most dry and difficult.

5. "Poor Scaliger (who well knew what a definition should be) from his own
melancholy experience exclaimed--'_Nihil infelicius grammatico
definitore!_' Nothing is more unhappy than the grammatical
definer."--_Tooke's Diversions_, Vol. i, p. 238. Nor do our later teachers
appear to have been more fortunate in this matter. A majority of all the
definitions and rules contained in the great multitude of English grammars
which I have examined, are, in some respect or other, erroneous. The nature
of their multitudinous faults, I must in general leave to the discernment
of the reader, except the passages be such as may be suitably selected for
examples of false syntax. Enough, however, will be exhibited, in the course
of this volume, to make the foregoing allegation credible; and of the rest
a more accurate judgement may perhaps be formed, when they shall have been
compared with what this work will present as substitutes. The importance of
giving correct definitions to philological terms, and of stating with
perfect accuracy whatsoever is to be learned as doctrine, has never been
duly appreciated. The grand source of the disheartening difficulties
encountered by boys in the study of grammar, lies in their ignorance of the
meaning of words. This cause of embarrassment is not to be shunned and left
untouched; but, as far as possible, it ought to be removed. In teaching
grammar, or indeed any other science, we cannot avoid the use of many terms
to which young learners may have attached no ideas. Being