16.  But Murray’s grammatical works, being extolled in the reviews, and made common stock in trade,—­being published, both in England and in America, by booksellers of the most extensive correspondence, and highly commended even by those who were most interested in the sale of them,—­have been eminently successful with the public; and in the opinion of the world, success is the strongest proof of merit.  Nor has the force of this argument been overlooked by those who have written in aid of his popularity.  It is the strong point in most of the commendations which have been bestowed upon Murray as a grammarian.  A recent eulogist computes, that, “at least five millions of copies of his various school-books have been printed;” particularly commends him for his “candour and liberality towards rival authors;” avers that, “he went on, examining and correcting his Grammar, through all its forty editions, till he brought it to a degree of perfection which will render it as permanent as the English language itself;” censures (and not without reason) the “presumption” of those “superficial critics” who have attempted to amend the work, and usurp his honours; and, regarding the compiler’s confession of his indebtedness to others, but as a mark of “his exemplary diffidence of his own merits,” adds, (in very bad English,) “Perhaps there never was an author whose success and fame were more unexpected by himself than Lindley Murray.”—­The Friend, Vol. iii, p. 33.

17.  In a New-York edition of Murray’s Grammar, printed in 1812, there was inserted a “Caution to the Public,” by Collins & Co., his American correspondents and publishers, in which are set forth the unparalleled success and merit of the work, “as it came in purity from the pen of the author;” with an earnest remonstrance against the several revised editions which had appeared at Boston, Philadelphia, and other places, and against the unwarrantable liberties taken by American teachers, in altering the work, under pretence of improving it.  In this article it is stated, “that the whole of these mutilated editions have been seen and examined by Lindley Murray himself, and that they, have met with his decided disapprobation.  Every rational mind,” continue these gentlemen, “will agree with him, that, ’the rights of living authors, and the interests of science and literature, demand the abolition of this ungenerous practice.’” (See this also in Murray’s Key, 12mo, N. Y., 1811, p. iii.) Here, then, we have the feeling and opinion of Murray himself, upon this tender point of right.  Here we see the tables turned, and other men judging it “scarcely necessary to apologize for the use which they have made of their predecessors’ labours.”