FOR THE USE OF
HIGH SCHOOL, ACADEMY, AND COLLEGE CLASSES
PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATUREIN VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY NASHVILLE, TENN.
OF THE FOGG HIGH SCHOOL, NASHVILLE, TENN.
Of making many English grammars there is no end; nor shouldthere be till theoretical scholarship and actual practice are morehappily wedded. In this field much valuable work has already beenaccomplished; but it has been done largely by workers accustomed totake the scholar's point of view, and their writings are addressedrather to trained minds than to immature learners. To find anadvanced grammar unencumbered with hard words, abstruse thoughts,and difficult principles, is not altogether an easy matter. Thesethings enhance the difficulty which an ordinary youth experiencesin grasping and assimilating the facts of grammar, and create adistaste for the study. It is therefore the leading object of thisbook to be both as scholarly and as practical as possible. In itthere is an attempt to present grammatical facts as simply, and tolead the student to assimilate them as thoroughly, as possible, andat the same time to do away with confusing difficulties as far asmay be.
To attain these ends it is necessary to keep ever in theforeground the real basis of grammar; that is, goodliterature. Abundant quotations from standard authors have beengiven to show the student that he is dealing with the facts of thelanguage, and not with the theories of grammarians. It is alsosuggested that in preparing written exercises the student useEnglish classics instead of "making up" sentences. But it is notintended that the use of literary masterpieces for grammaticalpurposes should supplant or even interfere with their proper useand real value as works of art. It will, however, doubtless befound helpful to alternate the regular reading and æstheticstudy of literature with a grammatical study, so that, while themind is being enriched and the artistic sense quickened, there mayalso be the useful acquisition of arousing a keen observation ofall grammatical forms and usages. Now and then it has been deemedbest to omit explanations, and to withhold personal preferences, in order that the student may,by actual contact with the sources of grammatical laws, discoverfor himself the better way in regarding given data. It is not thegrammarian's business to "correct:" it is simply to record and toarrange the usages of language, and to point the way to thearbiters of usage in all disputed cases. Free expression within thelines of good usage should have widest range.
It has been our aim to make a grammar of as wide a scope as isconsistent with the proper definition of the word. Therefore, inaddition to recording and classifying the facts of language, wehave endeavored to attain two other objects,—to cultivatemental skill and power, and to induce the student to prosecutefurther studies in this field. It is not supposable that in sodelicate and difficult an undertaking there should be an entirefreedom from errors and oversights. We shall gratefully accept anyassistance in helping to correct mistakes.
Though endeavoring to get our material as much as possible atfirst hand, and to make an independent use of it, we desire toexpress our obligation to the following books andarticles:—
Meiklejohn's "English Language," Longmans' "School Grammar,"West's "English Grammar," Bain's "Higher English Grammar" and"Composition Grammar," Sweet's "Primer of Spoken English" and "NewEnglish Grammar," etc., Hodgson's "Errors in the Use of