however, it may be overcome by proper treatment, "Stammering,"
says a late author, "is occasioned by an _over-effort to articulate_; for
when the mind of the speaker is so occupied with his subject as not to
allow him to reflect upon his defect, he will talk without difficulty. All
stammerers can sing, owing to the continuous sound, and the slight manner
in which the consonants are touched in singing; so a drunken man can run,
though he cannot walk or stand still."--_Gardiner's Music of Nature_, p.
30.

"To think rightly, is of knowledge; to speak fluently, is of nature;
To read with profit, is of care; but to write aptly, is of practice."
_Book of Thoughts_, p. 140.

[58] "There is nothing more becoming [to] a _Gentleman_, or more useful in
all the occurrences of life, than to be able, on any occasion, to speak
well, and to the purpose."--_Locke, on Education_, Sec.171. "But yet, I think
I may ask my reader, whether he doth not know a great many, who live upon
their estates, and so, with the name, should have the qualities of
Gentlemen, who cannot so much as tell a story as they should; much less
speak clearly and persuasively in any business. This I think not to be so
much their fault, as the fault of their education.--They have been taught
_Rhetoric_, but yet never taught how to express themselves handsomely with
their tongues or pens in the language they are always to use; as if the
names of the figures that embellish the discourses of those who understood
the art of speaking, were the very art and skill of speaking well. _This,
as all other things of practice, is to be learned, not by a few, or a great
many rules given; but by_ EXERCISE _and_ APPLICATION _according to_ GOOD
RULES, _or rather_ PATTERNS, _till habits are got, and a facility of doing
it well_."--_Ib._, Sec.189. The forms of parsing and correcting which the
following work supplies, are "_patterns_," for the performance of these
practical "_exercises_;" and _such patterns_ as ought to be implicitly
followed, by every one who means to be a ready and correct speaker on these
subjects.

[59] The principal claimants of "the Inductive Method" of Grammar, are
Richard W. Green, Roswell C. Smith, John L. Parkhurst, Dyor H. Sanborn,
Bradford Frazee, and, Solomon Barrett, Jr.; a set of writers, differing
indeed in their qualifications, but in general not a little deficient in
what constitutes an accurate grammarian.