LATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON; AND MARY CAROLINE MABERLY. LONDON: UPPER GOWER STREET, AND IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW; PATERNOSTER ROW. 1861. 302-6 PREFACE. IT has been said that Grammar is a dry study. And, perhaps, the way in which it has been commonly taught justifies the assertion. But let it be viewed as an essential stepping-stone to the study of Language, a subject than which, surely, no nobler can occupy the human mind, and Grammar may be redeemed from the despised position it has held in our schools as a system of difficult and unmeaning technicality. Let us be first interested in feeling that our intellectual life, as a nation and as individuals, is intimately interwoven with the recognition of the rules and principles of the language through which we express our ideas; and, feeling this, we shall think it worth while to impress the mind of even a young pupil with some degree of interest in the origin and growth of our language. It is therefore desirable to begin, as the following work does, with some insight into its history. To an intelligent mind, every step in grammar will open new ideas and fresh associations; but to secure this, our grammatical studies must be as thorough as possible, and must habitually lead us to trace connecting links with the groundwork of other languages than our own. The present work will, it is hoped, be found to embody b |
