ENGLISH ᏀᎡᎪᎷᎷᎪᎡ, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. By R. G. LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S., LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. UPPER GOWER STREET; AND IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1851. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. A PASSAGE from the Preface to Professor De Morgan's "Elements of Arithmetic" so completely represents my own views upon the character of the following work, that, instead of making any original remark of my own, I transfer it. It is only necessary to substitute the word Grammar for Arithmetic, and the application of the extract becomes exact. "Since the publication of the First Edition of this work, though its sale has sufficiently convinced me that there exists a disposition to introduce the principles of Arithmetic into schools, as well as the practice, I have often heard it remarked that it was a hard book for children. I never dared to suppose it would be otherwise. All who have been engaged in the education of youth are aware that it is a hard thing to make them think; so hard, indeed, that masters had, till within the last few years, almost universally abandoned the attempt, and taught them rules instead of principlesby authority instead of demonstration. This system is now passing away, and many preceptors may be found, who are of opinion, that, whatever may be the additional trouble to themselves, their pupils should always be induced to reflect upon, and know the reason for, what they are doing. Such I would advise not to be discouraged by the failure of a first attempt to make the learner understand the principle of a rule. It is no exaggeration to say, that, under the present system, five years of a boy's life are partially spent in merely learning the rules contained in this Treatise, and those for the most part in so imperfect a way, that he is not fit to encounter any question unless he sees the head of the book under which it falls. On a very moderate computation of the time thus bestowed, the pupil would be in no respect worse off, though he spent five hours on every page of this work." Now I am not only prepared to admit, that what is learned from the following pages will, probably, be learned slowly, but I recommend that it should be so learned. On the other hand, however, I insist upon the certainty, that, when the book has once been mastered, the student will have been brought sufficiently far in Philology to find all that comes afterwards easy beyond expectation. He will have as much Logic as explains the structure of propositions, and that is nearly as much as is wanted at all for philological purposes, and a great deal more than is at present known generally. He will also have the elements of Philological Classification; inasmuch as, having learned from practice the value of such a division in language as the one which comprises the English, Dutch, German, and Scandinavian languages, he will find no trouble in understanding the higher groups, called Indo-European, Semitic, &c. Lastly, he will have compared the inflected character of the Anglo-Saxon stage of our own language with the uninflected structure of the present English, and have done something in observing the transition from the one state to the other. This prepares him for an Historical view of Language in its broadest form. What he has learned with difficulty concerning the relations between the English and Anglo-Saxon, he will perceive at once in a comparison between either the Latin and Italian, or between any other ancient tongue and its modern derivative. Hence, those who mean to go further into the studies of Grammar and Etymology are prepared for their researches by a preliminary discipline; and it is believed that this discipline is sufficient to carry them to some distance beyond the threshold of even the highest works on those subjects. Such, at least, is the aim of the present writer, who has enlarged upon these points, solely for the sake of shewing that slow steps in the beginning, may lead to a rapid progress in the conclusion of a study. With those, however, who are satisfied with simply learning what is called the grammar of their mothertongue, and who merely require the rules for speaking English correctly, the previous statements are insufficient. Such readers are neither learning special Grammar nor Philology in general. They are simply studying English; and they wish to study it as quickly and as easily as possible. To them I would submit, that, under the usual course of English, they learn either too much or too little. If they merely mean to speak and write with average correctness, they can get what |