Project Gutenberg's The Grammar of English Grammars, by Goold Brown

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Title: The Grammar of English Grammars

Author: Goold Brown

Release Date: March 17, 2004 [EBook #11615]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS ***

Produced by Karl Hagen and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Transcriber's Notes: Despite the severity with which the author of this work treats those who depart from his standard of correctness, the source text does contain a small number of typographical errors. Missing punctuation has been supplied silently, but all other errors have been left uncorrected. To let the reader distinguish such problems from any inadvertent transcription errors that remain, I have inserted notes to flag items that appear errors by Brown's own standard. Spellings that are simply different from current practice, e.g., 'Shakspeare' are not noted. Special characters: vowels with macrons are rendered with an equals sign (=) before the vowel. Vowels with breve marks are rendered with tildes (~) before the vowels.—KTH.

THE

GRAMMAR

OF

ENGLISH GRAMMARS,

WITH

AN INTRODUCTION

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL;

THE WHOLE

METHODICALLY ARRANGED AND AMPLY ILLUSTRATED;

WITH

FORMS OF CORRECTING AND OF PARSING, IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION, EXAMPLES FOR PARSING, QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION, EXERCISES FOR WRITING, OBSERVATIONS FOR THE ADVANCED STUDENT, DECISIONS AND PROOFS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTED POINTS, OCCASIONAL STRICTURES AND DEFENCES, AN EXHIBITION OF THE SEVERAL METHODS OF ANALYSIS,

AND

A KEY TO THE ORAL EXERCISES:

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

FOUR APPENDIXES,

PERTAINING SEPARATELY TO THE FOUR PARTS OF GRAMMAR.

BY GOOLD BROWN,

AUTHOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, THE FIRST LINES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, ETC.

"So let great authors have their due, that Time, who is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, which is, farther and farther to discover truth."—LORD BACON.

SIXTH EDITION—REVISED AND IMPROVED.

ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF A COPIOUS INDEX OF MATTERS.

BY SAMUEL U. BERRIAN, A. M.

PREFACE

The present performance is, so far as the end could be reached, the fulfillment of a design, formed about twenty-seven years ago, of one day presenting to the world, if I might, something like a complete grammar of the English language;—not a mere work of criticism, nor yet a work too tame, indecisive, and uncritical; for, in books of either of these sorts, our libraries already abound;—not a mere philosophical investigation of what is general or universal in grammar, nor yet a minute detail of what forms only a part of our own philology; for either of these plans falls very far short of such a purpose;—not a mere grammatical compend, abstract, or compilation, sorting with other works already before the public; for, in the production of school grammars, the author had early performed his part; and, of small treatises on this subject, we have long had a superabundance rather than a lack.

After about fifteen years devoted chiefly to grammatical studies and exercises, during most of which time I had been alternately instructing youth in four different languages, thinking it practicable to effect some improvement upon the manuals which explain our own, I prepared and published, for the use of schools, a duodecimo volume of about three hundred pages; which, upon the presumption that its principles were conformable to the best usage, and well established thereby, I entitled, "The Institutes of English Grammar." Of this work, which, it is believed, has been gradually gaining in reputation and demand ever since its first publication, there is no occasion to say more here, than that it was the result of diligent study, and that it is, essentially, the nucleus, or the groundwork, of the present volume.

With much additional labour, the principles contained in the Institutes of English Grammar, have here been not only reaffirmed and rewritten, but occasionally improved in expression, or amplified in their details. New topics, new definitions, new rules, have also been added; and all parts of the subject have been illustrated by a multiplicity of new examples and exercises, which it has required a long time to amass and arrange. To the main doctrines, also, are here subjoined many new observations and criticisms, which are the results of no inconsiderable reading and reflection.

Regarding it as my business and calling, to work out the above-mentioned purpose as circumstances might permit, I have laid no claim to genius, none to infallibility; but I have endeavoured to be accurate, and aspired to be useful; and it is a part of my plan, that the reader of this volume shall never, through my fault, be left in doubt as to the origin of any thing it contains. It is but the duty of an author, to give every needful facility for a fair estimate of his work; and, whatever authority there may be for anonymous copying in works on grammar, the precedent is always bad.

The success of other labours, answerable to moderate wishes, has enabled me to pursue this task under favourable circumstances, and with an unselfish, independent aim. Not with vainglorious pride, but with reverent gratitude to God, I acknowledge this advantage, giving thanks for the signal mercy which has upborne me to the long-continued effort. Had the case been otherwise,—had the labours of the school-room been still demanded for my support,—the present large volume would never have appeared. I had desired some leisure for the completing of this design, and to it I scrupled not to sacrifice the profits of my main employment, as soon as it could be done without hazard of adding another chapter to "the Calamities of Authors."

The nature and design of this treatise are perhaps sufficiently developed in connexion with the various topics which are successively treated of in the Introduction. That method of teaching, which I conceive to be the best, is also there described. And, in the Grammar itself, there will be found occasional directions concerning the manner of its use. I have hoped to facilitate the study of the English language, not by abridging our grammatical code, or by rejecting the common phraseolgy [sic—KTH] of its doctrines, but by extending the former, improving the latter, and establishing both;—but still more, by furnishing new illustrations of the subject, and arranging its vast number of particulars in such order that every item may be readily found.

An other important purpose, which, in the preparation of this work, has been borne constantly in mind, and judged worthy of very particular attention, was the attempt to settle, so far as the most patient investigation and the fullest exhibition of proofs could do it, the multitudinous and vexatious disputes which have hitherto divided the sentiments of teachers, and made the study of English grammar so uninviting, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable, to the student whose taste demands a