English Forms, be inferted in an English Grammar, as Patterns by which to vary other Nouns and Verbs? Does not this Proceeding accuftom Children to reduce their Conceptions into general Claffes? And is not fuch Reduction the Foundation of all general Reasoning? Why therefore fhould Juch remarkable Inftances of this Reduction, as the Declenfions and Conjugation afford, be omitted in an Englifo Grammar that is defigned for the Use of Children and meer Learners? If it be said that the Grammar is made shorter by omitting them: I anfwer, that it is not thereby made more eafy in any Inftance, but more difficult in many; and if you will permit me to fuppofe the Grammar of other Languages known, and to make an English Grammar as difficult as I please, I can reduce it to a very small Compass. Dr. Wallis, as I think, was the first who propofed the concife Method with regard to the English Language: But be writes in Latin, for the Ufe of Foreigners who are acquainted with the Grammar of that Language: Yet he has omitted, or at least touched very flightly, many Parts of his Subject, which yet are of chief Difficulty to Foreigners: As for Inftance, the Formation of the irregular Verbs; Rules for the Order of Pofition in the English Conftruction; and indeed almost the whole Syntax of the Language. In this be bas been too clofely followed by fucceeding Writers (for an Authority that exempts Men from taking Pains on difficult Subjects will eafily meet with Approbation): But all that he fays to fhew that we have neither Cafes in our Nouns, nor Tenfes in our Verbs, is only difputing about the Names, Cafes, and Tenfes: For we have grammatic Forms of the fame Effect with those which are called Cafes and Tenfes in Latin and Greek; and if you will not allow the English Forms to be called by thefe Names, you may give them others ž and must do it if you would reduce the English Conftruction to Rule. Several Pieces on English Grammar have been

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published fince the Time of Dr. Wallis; and very lately we have been favoured with one by the learned Dr. Louth, now Lord Bishop of Oxford. This Piece is excellent on account of the Notes, in which are shewn the grammatic Inaccuracies that have efcaped the Pens of our most diftinguifhed Writers. This Way of Inftruction, by fhewing what is wrong in English, in order to teach us to avoid it, is certainly very proper, where no Set of Rules are given that fhew what is right in every Part of English Conftruction : But when fuch Rules are laid down, the Learner should be taught to refer to them continually. And if your Scholars are Children or Foreigners, you need not' doubt but in their daily Exercifes they will offend against almost every Rule: So that you will, from their own Miftakes, have fufficient Opportunity of fhewing them what is wrong, and how to correct it by the Rules. But if your Scholars are Natives of England, and grown up to Years of Confideration, false English pointed out to them may be of the greatest Use: For they are apt to follow Cuftom and Example, even where it is faulty, till they are apprized of their Miftake: And therefore by fhewing where Cuftom is erroneous, his Lordfhip has well deferved the Thanks of every one who values the English Language and Literature.

If you follow the Latin or Greek Grammar and Idiom too closely, (especially the Latin) when you are writing English, your Stile will be what is called ftiff. i. e. your Words will ftand in fuch an Order, that it will not be very eafy to pronounce them, or to comprehend their Meaning. Now as the Generality of Scholars have taken their Conceptions of Stile from the Latin, they are too apt to frame their English Stile according to these Conceptions. Thefe Perfons are fuppofed to understand Grammar, and to regulate their Expreffions by the Rules of it; and hence a Notion b

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has been entertained, that a Regard to Rules is apt to make a Writer's Stile harsh, and stiff, and fcholaftic: But if any one pleases to examine Mr. Addison's Stile, he will find that it eafily, and of itself, falls in with the English Rules, which the Stile of feveral of the other Writers in the Spectator does not. We, at this School, bave daily Occafion to obferve this in our Teaching; for we make much Use of the Spectator as an English Claffic. Now I think it is agreed on all Hands, that no Writer's Stile is lefs ftiff than Mr. Addison's, so that the above mentioned Notion is certainly groundless. In short, a very blameable Neglect of grammatic Propriety has prevailed amongst the Englife Writers, and at length we seem to be growing generally fenfible of it; as likewife of the Use which may be made of a Knowledge of the English Grammar, towards affifting Children to comprehend the general Import and Advantage of Rules concerning Language. If this Treatife fhall appear in any Degree ferviceable to those who are engaged in an Office fo very useful, and so very laborious, and yet, till of late, fo little regarded, I shall think all the Time and Labour, and Thought, amply repaid, which, for fo many Years together, have been spent on the Treatife.

Our Way of using the Book is this: If a Child has not learned any Thing of the Latin Declenfions and Conjugations, we make him get the English Forms by Heart: If otherwife, we make him read the English Forms several Times over, till be rémembers them in a good Meafure: Then we hear him read the Defcriptions of the feveral Parts of Speech; and after he has done fo, and has fome Notion of the Meaning of each, we oblige him for fome Weeks to read three or four Sentences twice or thrice a Day, in any eafy English Book, and to tell the Part of Speech to which each Word belongs. When the Child is pretty ready` at diftinguishing the Parts of Speech, we make him get by Heart the Rules of Concord in Verfe, and teach him how to apply them,

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by refolving the Sentences of fome English Book. When this is learnt, we make bim write out feveral of the other Rules, and get them by Heart, and fhew him how to apply them likewise, by parfing, or refolving what he reads by thefe Rules: And thus, by Degrees, Children become Mafters of all the material Parts of the Book without much Difficulty. As for Foreigners who are grown up to Manhood, I have usually obliged them to copy the greatest Part of the Book, and have found it of the greatest Service to them: But, as it is now printed in a small Size, the Labour of copying may be spared, and the Book read over several Times; and, if it be carefully explained and exemplified by the Teacher, the Effect will probably be as great as that which has arose from copying it over.

It were to be wished that the Spelling of the English could be made more regular and eafy: But, as it is now eftablished by general Ufe, it does not. feem adviseable to attempt any. Alterations in it: Therefore thofe little Books, called Spelling Dictionaries, may be very proper for Learners, till they are become well acquainted with the Spelling of the Nouns and Verbs in their Capital Forms. The Rules of Grammar fhew the Modes of Spelling, by which the Plural of Substantives is formed from the Singular; the Comparative and Superlative of Adjectives, from the Adjectives themselves; and the Persons of the Verbs, from the first of each Tenfe; and likewife by which the Roots of the fame Verb are formed one from another: And Conftancy of copying and compofing will supply the reft,

If those who teach Writing and Arithmetic would hear their Scholars fay a Lefon or two in English every Day, according to Jome Method like this which is above defcribed, and oblige them to write an English Letter every Night, by Way of Excercife, it would be of very great Service to them when they come to tranfact real Business by Letters and other Compofitions in Writing. And if any one has a Mind to fee the comparative

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Effects of this Manner of Teaching, let him put one Child to a Grammar School, and have another taught by this Method, and at the End of a Year or two, let him compare the Children's Proficiency in Grammar. A Girl may be taught by this Method, and a Boy fent to the Grammar School, and if so, you will find that he will write English much more correctly, and apply the Rules more readily, than the Boy will then do.

As to the Account of the Principles of Grammar, it is not intended for the Use of meer Learners; yet it may be of great Service to every one who would have clear Conceptions of the Reasons of Conftruction. Both it and the practical Treatife are derived from a larger Work on Grammar, which I pub-` lifhed a few Years ago, and which has given Occafion to this which Inow lay before the Reader. The former Treatife was not adapted to the Ufe of Schools; but was defigned for the Confideration of Men of Science, and chiefly of those who have been much converfant in the Theory of Grammar: For as feveral of the Principles which are investigated and applied in that Work, are confiderably different from those which have hitherto been admitted in Grammar, I was defirous that they should be publickly examined before I attempted to found a Method of publick and general Inftruction upon them. My Analyfis indeed led me to conclude that my Principles were right: For the Reason of every Part of Conftruction evidently follows from them; and this (as I think) cannot be truly faid of any other Principles of Grammar which have been hitherto published. It is true, that many very useful Obfervations have been made on the Subject, by the antient Philofophers, Rhetoricians, and Grammarians; the Principal of which may be seen in a very learned Treatife, published in English fome Years ago, under the Title of HERMES, by James Harris, Efq; And many amongst the Moderns have likewise made confiderable Advances in the Science of Grammar; as, SCALIGER, SANCTIUS, the Writers