is purely for critical purposes.
It is no more than a standard measuring stick by which to try the
work that has been done and find out if it is imperfect at any point.
Of course constant correction of inaccuracies schools the mind and
puts it on its guard so that it will be more careful the next time
it attempts expression; but we cannot avoid the conclusion that if
the mind lacks material, lacks knowledge of the essential elements
of the language, it should go to the original source from which it got
its first supply, namely to reading and hearing that which is acknowledged
to be correct and sufficient---as the child learns from its mother.
All the scholastic and analytic grammar in the world will not
enrich the mind in language to any appreciable extent.

And now we may consider another objector, who says, "I have studied
grammar for years and it has done me no good." In view of what has
just been said, we may easily concede that such is very likely to
have been the case. A measuring stick is of little value unless you
have something to measure. Language cannot be acquired, only tested,
by analysis, and grammar is an analytic, not a constructive science.

We have compared bad use of language to a scurvy condition of the skin.
To cure the skin we must doctor the blood; and to improve the language
we should begin by teaching the mind to think. But that, you will say,
is a large undertaking. Yes, but after all it is the most direct and
effective way. All education should be in the nature of teaching
the mind to think, and the teaching of language consists in teaching
thinking in connection with word forms and expression through language.
The unfortunate thing is that teachers of language have failed
to go to the root of the trouble, and enormous effort has
counted for nothing, and besides has led to discouragement.

The American people are noted for being hasty in all they do.
Their manufactures are quickly made and cheap. They have not
hitherto had time to secure that perfection in minute details which
constitutes "quality." The slow-going Europeans still excel in
nearly all fine and high-grade forms of manufacture---fine pottery,
fine carpets and rugs, fine cloth, fine bronze and other art wares.
In our language, too, we are hasty, and therefore imperfect.
Fine logical accuracy requires more time than we have had
to give to it, and we read the newspapers, which are very poor
models of language, instead of