ENGLISH GRAMMAR;

IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES OF THAT SCIENCE

ARE FULLY EXPLAINED, AND

ADAPTED TO THE COMPREHENSION OF YOUNG PERSONS;

CONTAINING A

SERIES OF EXERCISES

FOR PARSING, FOR ORAL CORRECTION, AND FOR WRITING;

WITH

QUESTIONS FOR EXAML

Edited by

THE REV. BRANDON TURNER, M.A.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR SCOTT, WEBSTER, AND GEARY,

CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE;

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1840.

386.

PREFACE.

Among the serious defects that have prevailed in our systems of elementary instruction, none has been more evident than the imperfect manner in which the grammar of our own language has been taught. In many schools, instruction in the principles of English grammar has been wholly omitted; as if correctness in speaking and writing would be acquired by practice, or in the study of other languages. Even in those schools where a different system has prevailed, the pupils have derived but little practical benefit; for the text-books in use have been so complex and obscure, or so brief and defective, and the plan of teaching so entirely a work of memory, that many of our countrymen in the present day, whose education has been confined to their own language, are unable to speak or even write grammatically. This national defect is to be attributed, in a great measure, to the almost exclusively classical character of our educational establishments; which has led those learned men, who have been engaged in the teaching of youth, to employ their talent in illustrating the languages of Greece and Rome rather than in elucidating their own; and, therefore, the task of constructing an English Grammar has been left to less qualified individuals.

Nothing can more thoroughly illustrate this fact than the circumstances under which the popular Grammar of Lindley Murray was composed. It appears, from his own account, that the science of grammar had occupied but little of his attention until he was employed to prepare a new compilation on that subject. But, notwithstanding, the work which he produced was so superior to any then in use, that immediately on its appearance it became the text-book in almost every school; and the continuance of its popularity has led many to believe that no farther improvement could be made. Yet, how