5.  Paul’s Accidence is therefore probably the oldest grammar that can now be found in our language.  It is not, however, an English grammar; because, though written in antique English, and embracing many things which are as true of our language as of any other, it was particularly designed for the teaching of Latin.  It begins thus:  “In speech be these eight parts following:  Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Participle, declined; Adverb, Conjunction, Preposition, Interjection, undeclined.”  This is the old platform of the Latin grammarians; which differs from that of the Greek grammars, only in having no Article, and in separating the Interjection from the class of Adverbs.  Some Greek grammarians, however, separate the Adjective from the Noun, and include the Participle with the Verb:  thus, “There are in Greek eight species of words, called Parts of Speech; viz.  Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction.”—­Anthon’s Valpy, p. 18.  With respect to our language, the plan of the Latin Accidence is manifestly inaccurate; nor can it be applied, without some variation, to the Greek.  In both, as well as in all other languages that have Articles, the best amendment of it, and the nearest adherence to it, is, to make the Parts of Speech ten; namely, the Article, the Noun, the Adjective, the Pronoun, the Verb, the Participle, the Adverb, the Conjunction, the Preposition, and the Interjection.

6.  The best Latin grammarians admit that the Adjective ought not to be called a Noun; and the best Greek grammarians, that the Interjections ought not to be included among Adverbs.  With respect to Participles, a vast majority of grammarians in general, make them a distinct species, or part of speech; but, on this point, the English grammarians are about equally divided:  nearly one half include them with the verbs, and a few call them adjectives.  In grammar, it is wrong to deviate from the old groundwork, except for the sake of truth and improvement; and, in this case, to vary the series of parts, by suppressing one and substituting an other, is in fact a greater innovation, than to make the terms ten, by adding one and dividing an other.  But our men of nine parts of speech innovated yet more:  they added the Article, as did the Greeks; divided the Noun into Substantive and Adjective; and, without good reason, suppressed the Participle.  And, of latter time, not a few have thrown the whole into confusion, to show the world “the order of [their] understanding.”  What was grammar fifty years ago, some of these have not thought it worth their while to inquire!  And the reader has seen, that, after all this, they can complacently talk of “the censure so frequently and so justly awarded to unfortunate innovators.”—­KIRKHAM’S Gram., p. 10.