tiousness is not criticism. If the reader perceives in these strictures
any improper bias, he has a sort of discernment which it is my misfortune
to lack. Against the compilers of grammars, I urge no conclusions at which
any man can hesitate, who accedes to my preliminary remarks upon them; and
these may be summed up in the following couplet of the poet Churchill:

"To copy beauties, forfeits all pretence
To fame;--to copy faults, is want of sense."

CHAPTER XI.

BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS.

"Sed ut perveniri ad summa nisi ex principiis non potest: ita, procedente
jam opere, minima incipiunt esse quae prima sunt."--QUINTILIAN. _De Inst.
Orat._, Lib. x, Cap. 1, p. 560.

1. The _history_ of grammar, in the proper sense of the term, has
heretofore been made no part of the study. I have imagined that many of its
details might be profitable, not only to teachers, but to that class of
learners for whose use this work is designed. Accordingly, in the preceding
pages, there have been stated numerous facts properly historical, relating
either to particular grammars, or to the changes and progress of this
branch of instruction. These various details it is hoped will be more
entertaining, and perhaps for that reason not less useful, than those
explanations which belong merely to the construction and resolution of
sentences. The attentive reader must have gathered from the foregoing
chapters some idea of what the science owes to many individuals whose names
are connected with it. But it seems proper to devote to this subject a few
pages more, in order to give some further account of the origin and
character of certain books.

2. The manuals by which grammar was first
taught in English, were not properly English Grammars. They were
translations of the Latin Accidence; and were designed to aid British youth
in acquiring a knowledge of the Latin language, rather than accuracy in the
use of their own. The two languages were often combined in one book, for
the purpose of teaching sometimes both together, and sometimes one through
the medium of the other. The study of such works doubtless had a tendency
to modify, and perhaps at that time to improve, the English style of those
who used them. For not only must variety of knowledge have led to
copiousness of expression, but the most cultivated minds would naturally be
most apt to observe what was orderly in the use of speech. A language,
indeed, aft