CHAPTER XI.

BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS.

“Sed ut perveniri ad summa nisi ex principiis non potest:  ita, procedente jam opere, minima incipiunt esse quae prima sunt.”—­QUINTILIAN. De Inst.  Orat., Lib. x, Cap. 1, p. 560.

1.  The history of grammar, in the proper sense of the term, has heretofore been made no part of the study.  I have imagined that many of its details might be profitable, not only to teachers, but to that class of learners for whose use this work is designed.  Accordingly, in the preceding pages, there have been stated numerous facts properly historical, relating either to particular grammars, or to the changes and progress of this branch of instruction.  These various details it is hoped will be more entertaining, and perhaps for that reason not less useful, than those explanations which belong merely to the construction and resolution of sentences.  The attentive reader must have gathered from the foregoing chapters some idea of what the science owes to many individuals whose names are connected with it.  But it seems proper to devote to this subject a few pages more, in order to give some further account of the origin and character of certain books.

2.  The manuals by which grammar was first taught in English, were not properly English Grammars.  They were translations of the Latin Accidence; and were designed to aid British youth in acquiring a knowledge of the Latin language, rather than accuracy in the use of their own.  The two languages were often combined in one book, for the purpose of teaching sometimes both together, and sometimes one through the medium of the other.  The study of such works doubtless had a tendency to modify, and perhaps at that time to improve, the English style of those who used them.  For not only must variety of knowledge have led to copiousness of expression, but the most cultivated minds would naturally be most apt to observe what was orderly in the use of speech.  A language, indeed, after its proper form is well fixed by letters, must resist all introduction of foreign idioms, or become corrupted.  Hence it is, that Dr. Johnson avers, “The great pest of speech is frequency of translation.  No book was ever turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its native idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehensive innovation.”—­Preface to Joh.  Dict., 4to, p. 14.  Without expressly controverting this opinion, or offering any justification of mere metaphrases, or literal translations, we may well assert, that the practice of comparing different languages, and seeking the most appropriate terms for a free version of what is ably written, is an exercise admirably calculated to familiarize and extend grammatical knowledge.