It is certain that we have
hitherto had, of our language, no complete grammar. The need of such a work
I suppose to be at this time in no small degree felt, especially by those
who conduct our higher institutions of learning; and my ambition has been
to produce one which might deservedly stand along side of the Port-Royal
Latin and Greek Grammars, or of the Grammaire des Grammaires of Girault Du
Vivier. If this work is unworthy to aspire to such rank, let the patrons of
English literature remember that the achievement of my design is still a
desideratum. We surely have no other book which might, in any sense, have
been called "_the Grammar of English Grammars_;" none, which, either by
excellence, or on account of the particular direction of its criticism,
might take such a name. I have turned the eyes of Grammar, in an especial
manner, upon the conduct of her own household; and if, from this volume,
the reader acquire a more just idea of _the grammar_ which is displayed in
_English grammars_, he will discover at least one reason for the title
which has been bestowed upon the work. Such as the book is, I present it to
the public, without pride, without self-seeking, and without anxiety:
knowing that most of my readers will be interested in estimating it
_justly_; that no true service, freely rendered to learning, can fail of
its end; and that no achievement merits aught with Him who graciously
supplies all ability. The opinions expressed in it have been formed with
candour, and are offered with submission. If in any thing they are
erroneous, there are those who can detect their faults. In the language of
an ancient master, the earnest and assiduous _Despauter_, I invite the
correction of the candid: "Nos quoque, quantumcunque diligentes, cum a
candidis tum a lividis carpemur: a candidis interdum juste; quos oro, ut de
erratis omnibus amice me admoneant--erro nonnunquam quia homo sum."

GOOLD BROWN.

_New York_, 1836.

THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.

Grammar, as an art, is the power of reading, writing, and speaking
correctly. As an acquisition, it is the essential skill of scholarship. As
a study, it is the practical science which teaches the right use of
language.

_An English Grammar_ is a book which professes to explain the nature and
structure of the English language; and to show, on just authority, what is,
and what is not, good English.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR, in itself, is the art of reading, writing, and