the language had received during the preceding two hundred years, ventures
to add, "but, whatever other improvements it may have received, it hath
made _no advances_ in grammatical accuracy." I do not quote this assertion
to affirm it literally true, in all its apparent breadth; but there is less
reason to boast of the correctness even now attained, than to believe that
the writers on grammar are not the authors who have in general come nearest
to it in practice. Nor have the ablest authors always produced the best
compends for the literary instruction of youth.

31. The treatises of the learned doctors Harris, Lowth, Johnson, Ash,
Priestley, Horne Tooke, Crombie, Coote, and Webster, owe their celebrity
not so much to their intrinsic fitness for school instruction, as to the
literary reputation of the writers. Of _Harris's Hermes_, (which, in
comparison with our common grammars, is indeed a work of much ingenuity and
learning, full of interesting speculations, and written with great elegance
both of style and method,) _Dr. Lowth_ says, it is "the most beautiful and
perfect example of analysis, that has been exhibited since the days of
Aristotle."--_Preface to Gram._, p. x. But these two authors, if their
works be taken together, as the latter intended they should be, supply no
sufficient course of English grammar. The instructions of the one are too
limited, and those of the other are not specially directed to the subject.

32. _Dr. Johnson_, who was practically one of the greatest grammarians that
ever lived, and who was very nearly coetaneous with both Harris and Lowth,
speaks of the state of English grammar in the following terms: "I found our
speech copious without order, and energetick _without rules_: wherever I
turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to
be regulated."--_Preface to Dict._, p. 1. Again: "Having therefore _no
assistance but from general grammar_, I applied myself to the perusal of
our writers; and noting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate
any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a
dictionary."--_Ibid._ But it is not given to any one man to do every thing;
else, Johnson had done it. His object was, to compile a dictionary, rather
than to compose a grammar, of our language. To lexicography, grammar is
necessary, as a preparation; but, as a purpose, it is merely incidental.
Dr. Priestley speaks of Johnson thus: "I must not conclude this pre