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Title: A Short System of English Grammar
For the Use of the Boarding School in Worcester (1759)

Author: Henry Bate

Release Date: October 22, 2008 [EBook #26991]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A

Short _System_

OF

English GRAMMAR.

For the use of the

BOARDING SCHOOL

In WORCESTER.

_By_ HENRY BATE _A. B._

_Worcester:_ Printed by R. LEWIS,
Bookseller, in _High-Street_.

THE PREFACE.

_Usage and Custom are the Rules and Measures of every_ Language, _and
the Rules of_ GRAMMAR _have nothing more to do, than to teach it. The_
GRAMMAR _is to be fashioned from the particular_ Language, _it treats
of, and not the Language from the_ GRAMMAR. _For want of following this
regular Plan, our Modern_ GRAMMARIANS_ have introduced the_ GRAMMAR
Rules _of other_ Languages _into their own; as if all_ Language _was
founded on_ GRAMMAR, _and the Rules in one_ Language _would serve the
same End and Purpose in another._

The Latin, _for Instance, has only_ eight Parts of Speech, _and the
Writers of_ English GRAMMAR _have unthinkingly adopted the same Number;
whereas with the Article, which the_ Latin _has not, and which is of
great Service in a_ Language, _we have no less than nine. The_ Latin
_admits of_ Cases; _but as different_ Cases, _properly speaking, are
nothing more than the different Inflections and Terminations of Nouns_,
English Nouns _have no_ Cases. _It is not agreeable to the Principles
of_ GRAMMAR _to say that_--of a Rose--_is the Genitive Case of_--Rose,
_or_--to a Rose, _the Dative; for_ of _and_ to _are no Part of the
Word_ Rose, _but only_ prefix Particles _or_ Prepositions, _which shew
the different Relation of the Word_ Rose. _So likewise when we say_
Alexander's Horse, _the Word_ Alexander's _is not the Genitive Case of_
Alexander; _for strictly speaking the_ 's _is no Part of the Word_
Alexander _but the final Letter of the Pro