e, and grammar becomes, like
navigation, a practical science. _Fourthly_, It is as a chart, to a coast
which we would visit. In this relation, our grammar is a text-book, which
we take as a guide, or use as a help to our own observation. _Fifthly_, It
is as a single voyage, to the open sea, the highway of nations. Such is our
meaning, when we speak of the grammar of a particular text or passage.

4. Again: Grammar is to language a sort of self-examination. It turns the
faculty of speech or writing upon itself for its own elucidation; and makes
the tongue or the pen explain the uses and abuses to which both are liable,
as well as the nature and excellency of that power, of which, these are the
two grand instruments. From this account, some may begin to think that in
treating of grammar we are dealing with something too various and
changeable for the understanding to grasp; a dodging Proteus of the
imagination, who is ever ready to assume some new shape, and elude the
vigilance of the inquirer. But let the reader or student do his part; and,
if he please, follow us with attention. We will endeavour, with welded
links, to bind this Proteus, in such a manner that he shall neither escape
from our hold, nor fail to give to the consulter an intelligible and
satisfactory response. Be not discouraged, generous youth. Hark to that
sweet far-reaching note:

"Sed, quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes,
Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla."
VIRGIL. Geor. IV, 411.

"But thou, the more he varies forms, beware
To strain his fetters with a stricter care."
DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

5. If for a moment we consider the good and the evil that are done in the
world through the medium of speech, we shall with one voice acknowledge,
that not only the faculty itself, but also the manner in which it is used,
is of incalculable importance to the welfare of man. But this reflection
does not directly enhance our respect for grammar, because it is not to
language as the vehicle of moral or of immoral sentiment, of good or of
evil to mankind, that the attention of the grammarian is particularly
directed. A consideration of the subject in these relations, pertains
rather to the moral philosopher. Nor are the arts of logic and rhetoric now
considered to be properly within the grammarian's province. Modern science
assigns to these their separate places, and restricts grammar, which at one
per