s are very deficient, at least,
in _manner,_ if not in _matter_; and this conviction, he believes, will
be corroborated by a majority of the best judges in community. It is
admitted, that many valuable improvements have been made by some of our
late writers, who have endeavored to simplify and render this subject
intelligible to the young learner, but they have all overlooked what the
author considers a very important object, namely, _a systematic order of
parsing;_ and nearly all have neglected to _develop and explain_ the
principles in such a manner as to enable the learner, without great
difficulty, to comprehend their nature and use.

By some this system will, no doubt, be discarded on account of its
_simplicity_; while to others its simplicity will prove its principal
recommendation. Its design is an humble one. It proffers no great
advantages to the recondite grammarian; it professes not to instruct the
literary connoisseur; it presents no attractive graces of style to
charm, no daring flights to astonish, no deep researches to gratify
him; but in the humblest simplicity of diction, it attempts to
accelerate the march of the juvenile mind in its advances in the path of
science, by dispersing those clouds that so often bewilder it, and
removing those obstacles that generally retard its progress. In this way
it endeavors to render interesting and delightful a study which has
hitherto been considered tedious, dry, and irksome. Its leading object
is to adopt a correct and an easy method, in which pleasure is blended
with the labors of the learner, and which is calculated to excite in him
a spirit of inquiry, that shall call forth into vigorous and useful
exercise, every latent energy of his mind; and thus enable him soon to
become thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the principles, and with
their practical utility and application.

Content to be useful, instead of being brilliant, the writer of these
pages has endeavored to shun the path of those whose aim appears to have
been to dazzle, rather than to instruct. As he has aimed not so much at
originality as utility, he has adopted the thoughts of his predecessors
whose labors have become public stock, whenever he could not, in his
opinion, furnish better and brighter of his own. Aware that there is, in
the public mind, a strong predilection for the doctrines contained in
Mr. Murray's grammar, he has thought proper, not merely from motives of
policy, but from cho