acities, and previous acquirements, of a variety of pupils; but in
a private education, undoubtedly the task may be rendered much easier
to the scholar and to the teacher; much jargon may be omitted; and
what appears from want of explanation to be jargon, may be rendered
intelligible by proper skill and attention. During the first lessons
in grammar, and in Latin, the pupil need not be disgusted with
literature, and we may apply all the principles which we find on other
occasions successful in the management of the attention.[2] Instead of
keeping the attention feebly obedient for an idle length of time, we
should fix if decidedly by some sufficient motive for as short a
period as may be requisite to complete the work that we would have
done. As we apprehend, that even where children are to be sent to
school, it will be a great advantage to them to have some general
notions of grammar, to lead them through the labyrinth of common
school books, we think that we shall do the public preceptor an
acceptable service, if we point out the means by which parents may,
without much labour to themselves, render the first principles of
grammar intelligible and familiar to their children.

We may observe, that children pay the strictest attention to the
analogies of the language that they speak. Where verbs are defective
or irregular, they supply the parts that are wanting with wonderful
facility, according to the common form of other verbs. They make all
verbs regular. I go_ed_, I read_ed_, I writ_ed_, &c. By a proper
application of this faculty, much time may be saved in teaching
children grammar, much perplexity, and much of that ineffectual labour
which stupifies and dispirits the understanding. By gentle degrees, a
child may be taught the relations of words to each other in common
conversation, before he is presented with the first sample of
grammatical eloquence in Lilly's Accidence. "There be eight parts of
speech." A phrase which in some parts of this kingdom would perhaps be
understood, but which to the generality of boys who go to school,
conveys no meaning, and is got by heart without reflection, and
without advantage. A child can, however, be made to understand these
formidable parts of speech, if they are properly introduced to his
acquaintance: he can comprehend, that some of the words which he hears
express _that something is done_; he will readily perceive, that if
something is done, somebody, or something must do it