9.  R. Johnson speaks at large of the relation of words to each other in sentences, as constituting in his view the most essential part of grammar; and as being a point very much overlooked, or very badly explained, by grammarians in general.  His censure is just.  And it seems to be as applicable to nearly all the grammars now in use, as to those which he criticised a hundred and thirty years ago.  But perhaps he gives to the relation of words, (which is merely their dependence on other words according to the sense,) an earlier introduction and a more prominent place, than it ought to have in a general system of grammar.  To the right use of language, he makes four things to be necessary.  In citing these, I vary the language, but not the substance or the order of his positions. First, That we should speak and write words according to the significations which belong to them:  the teaching of which now pertains to lexicography, and not to grammar, except incidentally. “Secondly, That we should observe the relations that words have one to another in sentences, and represent those relations by such variations, and particles, as are usual with authors in that language.” Thirdly, That we should acquire a knowledge of the proper sounds of the letters, and pay a due regard to accent in pronunciation. Fourthly, That we should learn to write words with their proper letters, spelling them as literary men generally do.

10.  From these positions, (though he sets aside the first, as pertaining to lexicography, and not now to grammar, as it formerly did,) the learned critic deduces first his four parts of the subject, and then his definition of grammar.  “Hence,” says he, “there arise Four Parts of Grammar; Analogy, which treats of the several parts of speech, their definitions, accidents, and formations; Syntax, which treats of the use of those things in construction, according to their relations; Orthography, which treats of spelling; and Prosody, which treats of accenting in pronunciation.  So, then, the true definition of Grammar is this:  Grammar is the art of expressing the relations of things in construction, with due accent in speaking, and orthography in writing, according to the custom of those whose language we learn.”  Again he adds:  “The word relation has other senses, taken by itself; but yet the relation of words one to another in a sentence, has no other signification than what I intend by it, namely, of cause, effect, means, end, manner, instrument, object, adjunct, and the like; which are names given by logicians to those relations under which the mind comprehends things, and therefore the most proper words to explain them to others.  And if such things are too hard for children, then grammar is too hard; for there neither is, nor can be, any grammar without them.  And a little experience will satisfy any man, that the young will as easily apprehend them, as gender, number, declension, and other grammar-terms.”  See R.  Johnson’s Grammatical Commentaries, p. 4.