A comprehensive grammar

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Dedication

To John H. Sandfort, Esq., Jostak R. Lamkin, Esq., and Dr. Bernard Bruns, as a memorial of early friendship, of constant friendship, of friendship to endure forever; to President William W. Hudson* and Ex-Governor Sterling Price, who befriended rae at ihe threshold of manhood when I most stood in need of friends, whose memory is Imperishably blended with many of the dearest recollections of my life, and whose great merits and services in public life are surpassed only fey their private virtues; and to Richard G. Woodson, Esq., Charles D. Drake, Esq., and Gen. Livingston Edwards, whose kindness and favors have much facilitated the publication of the following pages, — - this volume is affectionately and gratefully inscribed.

*Since the last pages have been sent to press, the green sod and the silence of the tomb ha^e closed over him, my worthy instructor, whom, if any one, it would have been a pleasure for me to gratify by the results of my labor. Those eyes which ever beamed the goodness of the heart, those lips which were so often eloquent with instruction or wreathed with social smiles, are now sealed in death. And the noble heart which mingled with so many others in the hallowed sympathy of pure affection, has forever ceased to throb. Often in familiar places often in the friendly group, shall we miss, with aching loneliness of tieart, the form of him whose learning and wisdom, whose manly and sraiable qualities, were such as will ever endear and sanctify the grave.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Preface

To condense into one volume of convenient size and moderate price a comprehensive, minute, accurate, practical, interesting, well-methodized, and well-illustrated system of the principles which determine the proper use of the English language; to furnish authors, editors, printers, teachers, lawyers, physicians, and clergymen, or any other persons that take some pride in keeping out of low and slovenly habits in the use of speech, with a convenient manual sufficient with a good dictionary to supply them with whatever may be ordinarily needed to test the propriety of any phrase, sentence, or paragraph, that can be formed in our language ; to compress into one treatise what may have all the advantages of a series of books without their disadvantages, and be essentially equivalent to a multitude of books now used in our schools under the various names of Primary Grammar, First Lessons, Elementary Grammar, Practical Grammar, Analytical Grammar, Grammar of Grammars, English Language, Analysis, Teacher, Murray's Exercises, Scholar's Companion, Etymology, Pronunciation, Punctuation, Rhetoric, Elements of Logic, Aids to Composition, &c, &c. ; to make it, in practical value, for the present age what Murray's large Grammar was for its age, -and adapt it to all kinds of learners by making it simple, progressive, practical, and philosophical ; to embody in it whatever seems worthy of preservation in all the best similar treatises one century back, and all the sound improvements of modern times, together with the various criticisms scattered over our literature, and made by authors upon authors, by comedians in their ridicule of current faults in speech, and by critics and reviewers upon the prevailing literature ; to enrich the entire subject by a personal survey of the best portions of our literature, by new illustrations and examples, by constant comparison of the idioms and analogies of our language with those of the languages which have furnished or influenced it, by what teachers, logicians, and mental philosophers have said and written on the art of communicating knowledge, and by observations and meditations of my own; to avoid whatever seems objectionable in kindred treatises,

Vlll PREFACE.

improve what is capable of improvement, bring down to their proper sphere those parts which have been heretofore overrated, and bring out fairly and fully those parts, which, from the great difficulty of mastering them — such as Figures, Versification, Punctuation, Capital Letters — have been left deficient ; to interweave with the materials throughout the easiest and best modes of learning and of teaching, and to impart to the whole a sort of Shakespearian comprehensiveness, and fitness for the world, and make it what intelligent teachers have often described as a desideratum, — are the principal aims which have swayed me in the writing of this volume. So great a result I of course do not pretend to have achieved. It is, indeed, with a trembling and misgiving heart that I venture to offer my labors to the world, when I think how densely and brilliantly the intellectual firmament is already oversprinkled with the stars of mind ; and how much is expected, at this old age of the world, of the man who presumes to write a new book on a trite yet critical and difficult subject. And when I consider, that the majority of mankind care but little for what is not immediately essential to their happiness, that my subject has not the novelty to be of general interest, that it is supposed to be already harvested and even gleaned by much finer heads, that new things are very apt to be distrusted, that most men prefer to let the wagon run in the rut while it will run at all, that it is human nature to judge new authors by their faults and old ones by their merits, that I have not the fame to speak with that authority which would set upon my production the seal of " Standard Work ; " when I consider all these things, and then reflect how often our best endeavors and the best auspices end in failure, — I feel that there is but too much cause for my fears and anxieties. If man is, as the poet says, a harp of a thousand strings, it is reasonable to suppose that he must often experiment a long time, before he finds that particular chord which makes the music that will please the fastidious world. When a lawyer, a physician, a clergyman, an editor, or even a politician, has determined to build his nest in some community, he soon gains, by ordinary prudence of conduct, the confidence of those around him, and finds a comfortable sphere in which he is accredited ; the manes of his illustrious predecessors do not crowd him out or diminish his. prosperity, and his mighty cotemporaries in distant parts of the world never revolve into his own sphere : but the author at once comes in competition with the collected wisdom and mental activity of all ages and climes ; and unless he can grasp, condense, and adorn all the good of his predecessors, and with this and his own intellectual vigor move a step or two in advance of his age, it is very probable that he will have toiled in vain.

PREFACE. IX

As a preparation for the task before me, my plan was, to read all the best, most influential authors from the days of Chaucer to the present time, that I might obtain the standard of good usage ; to read all the respectable books on English grammar and philology, one century back, or from 1750 to the present time ; to read the most approved metaphysicians, that I might better learn the nature of the mind, and acquire greater skill for making definitions ; to read some of the best writers on education ; to be myself a teacher from time to time ; to read something from every State in the Union, that I might obtain all the kinds of errors or improper expressions throughout our country ; and, finally, to bring to the illumination of the subject as much knowledge as I could, from the Greek language, the Latin, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the Italian. This stupendous undertaking has not been fully accomplished ; yet so much of it, that it is hoped the corresponding effects will not unfavorably distinguish this book from others. A strong objection against most grammars is, that the authors have too generally devoured other grammarians rather than gone to the original fountains of fact and truth.

The plan of the present work is simply this : It is divided into three parts, which I have ventured to call Books ; because the wordpartf is already excessively used, and the word book seems to be a more appropriate term for denoting what is complete by itself. Book First is a comprehensive outline of grammar, leaching the pupil to analyze and parse plain literature ; Book Second aims to present, in a most systematic form, the language as it is in its correct state ; Book Third, as it is misused, — or it aims to present, in accordance with Book Second, all the kinds of errors ordinarily made inadvertently by people of at least some education. The principles to be taught in the three Books are accompanied by such an abundance of the best illustrations and exercises, that the whole treatise may be rendered in the highest degree intelligible, entertaining, and efficient.

After the work was undertaken, my first object was to determine what it should communicate ; and the next, how this knowledge might be best communicated. After this I classified the entire subject as the black figures show, and then resolved to complete the treatise section after section, by writing each one again and again, until I thought it, after due comparison, the best then extant, or felt that I could not possibly improve it. Book First has been written nine times, and no other part of the work has been written fewer than four times.

In the writing of Book First, I have tried to imagine myself in the child's situation, — to think and feel as he thinks and feels, — that I might thus see what things are best for him, and then furnish them ac-

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cordingly. It has been the constant effort to make this part as concise and pithy as possible, without omitting any exercises or illustrations that it could not well spare. The attention of inquiring teachers is invited to the exercises, the illustrations, the modes of parsing, the rules of syntax, and the arrangement and comprehensiveness of the principles taught. To the questions, though not made silly, prolix, and mechanical, some will doubtless object; yet what may not suit a man, may sometimes best suit a child; and a mode of teaching that has survived many fine theories, and come down to us from the days of Socrates, has very probably some intrinsic value, or is backed by Nature. With the addition of ten or twelve pages, which are already prepared, this nrst part is itself a complete treatise for beginners, and I purpose to have it thus published apart as an introduction to the main work.

On Book Second, much labor and care have been bestowed ; and the attention of teachers is especially invited to the arrangement of the matter throughout, to what is said about verbs and substantives, and to all the portion from the end of Interjections to the close. The questioning has been omitted, or so modified by interrogation points at the left of each page, as to be convenient and adequate without being in the way. Such written exercises are also required of the student, by the numbers placed on the left of each page, as are perhaps best adapted to his capacity and improvement. Some erroneous examples for correction are given occasionally, in order that the student may see the application and utility of what he is learning, and also guard himself against some of the most common kinds of errors. Besides, such is the arrangement, that the student who wishes, at the end of any section, to go more thoroughly into the subject, needs but to turn to the corresponding part of Book Third, in which he will find all the violations of the principles which he has just learned. Something of Punctuation is also given with the elements requiring it ; because it is doubtless better, not to defer the teaching of a thing till the knowledge requisite for understanding it has been forgotten. Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody, have not been kept so distinct as they are usually kept ; for the design was everywhere to follow nature, with a proper regard to the entertainment and ability of the mind, rather than to follow the arbitrary distinctions of books. So closely is grammatical etymology related to syntax, that the very existence of many of its properties is syntactical, or arises from the fact that words acquire properties from their relations to one another in the structure of sentences ; and to stop with the etymological parsing, is generally to stop almost in the middle, and leave the work unfinished. I have aimed to present first in full what is essential to speech, and then (at the close of the Interjections) to proceed and

PBEEACE. XI

rise from one beautifying and invigorating property to another, and end with Versification, the one requiring the greatest skill. After this, a condensed and brief but fully adequate section on Analysis is introduced; and lastly, Punctuation. The sections on Figures, Versification, and Punctuation, are the result not only of very extensive research, but of much thinking ; and I trust they will not be altogether unworthy of perusal. I have often heard competent judges say, that these topics, as they are usually presented in our grammars, are absolutely worth nothing. The figures are not only a principal ingredient in the beauty and vigor of style, but the principles which they comprise lie at the very foundation of language or words, showing how their various established meanings are derived, and how genius may still extend legitimately their power and flexibility. There is too much of truth, beauty, and divinity in poetry, for its principles to be unworthy of being understood ; and no one will deny the importance of a sound, complete, and attainable system of punctuation. As to the best mode of treating this last subject, I was not a little perplexed. To give a multitude of rules, and append a comet's tail of exceptions to each, as Mr. Wilson has done in his valuable treatise, seemed plainly objectionable; for not even the whole of his exhaust the subject, and perhaps but few heads can be found that have ever been able to learn, retain, and apply them all. At last it occurred to me to present the subject like a complete, wellclassified, and labeled cabinet of minerals, with not more precepts than seemed absolutely necessary; and I have accordingly endeavored to do so. Here and elsewhere examples are numerous, not because I could think of many, but because I always wished to give all the different ones to which the principle is applicable. It may, indeed, seem to some, that there are, throughout the volume, too many illustrations and exercises; and that these things, if deemed necessary, might be better supplied from reading-books and by teachers. But my experience in teaching is to the contrary. It is generally best that a book depend not too much on its neighbors; and teachers have not always time, nor always feel inclined, nor are everywhere competent, to supply these things. Children often forget to bring these auxiliary books, or have them not, and parents refuse to purchase them. Besides, the true mode of attaining a good Botany, for instance, is to begin with the collecting of plants; and I have tried to select sentences of every structure in the language, so that the volume, in this respect, might be to a considerable extent equivalent to Mr. Mandeville's Reading and Oratory. Nor are these illustrations Ollendorfian babblement, but many of them are the richest gems in our literature ; so that the student may not only read them with pleasure, but indirectly imbibe a good taste, as well as a knowledge of

Xll PREFACE.

the various structures of language. Finally, every teacher and every student can take of them what suits his purpose : a full shop orderly furnished for all purposes, is better than one sparingly furnished for but one purpose.

In Book Third I have revolutionized the common classification of false syntax ; and endeavored to give the new classification something of the beauty, precision, and comprehensiveness, which Blackstone, Kent, and Parsons, have bestowed upon systems of law. The entire collection is, I believe, more comprehensive than any other either in Europe or in America. Perhaps nearly all the most pithy and generally current errors collected by preceding critics, and deemed common property, have been appropriated ; and at least as many new ones have been added from my own reading of the most popular literature. The criticisms of authors, reviewers, and comedians, have also been carefully noticed, and used to the best advantage. Since not only the ignorance of natives, but also the influx of foreigners, is daily corrupting our language, it is the more important to guard its purity. It is surprising to observe what quantities of ungrammatical English are daily uttered; and how much our best literature is freckled with errors, — errors that are too gross and glaring to allow quibbling, yet are constantly corrupting the speech of the nation. Those teachers who are so enraptured with " Analysis " as to use it exclusively, will at last find out, I think, that it is not a little akin to the world-admired and fruitful speculations of Thomas Aquinas ; and that a part of the time wasted in superfluous analysis, may be spent as well in the correcting of false syntax.

The corrections should be brief and spirited, and according to the General Direction given at the beginning of the Book. At any suitable point the teacher may question the pupil more particularly, and thus ascertain how w T ell he understands the corresponding and more definite principles of Book Second, and assure himself that the class see to the bottom of the subject. Those who think these errors too numerous, may take of them what they want ; but let them remember, that 125 pages of errors, designed to cleanse a person's speech for his lifetime, or to root out the errors in the speech of fifty millions of people, are still a very small quantity in comparison with the end to be attained. The errors, as well as the illustrations, have nearly all been taken from authors that range from medium to supreme greatness ; but their names have generally been omitted, in order to save space, and to avoid the uncouthness which a multitude of references give to a book. If I shall sometimes appear to have been evidently hypercritical, let it be remembered that the momentum of a body will sometimes carry it a little too far. To the exercises for correction will be furnished hereafter, should the book be acceptable to the public

PREFACE. Xlll

a cheap Key in pamphlet form, which will be more convenient for use than a Key appended to the end of the book. The Aids, Remarks, and Observations, are rather informal or familiar criticisms, or else illustrations of chief principles, and can perhaps be read with profit and pleasure sometimes by teachers as well as by students. The two sections in the Appendix comprise each of them the germ of a book ; and a wise teacher or a thoughtful student will best know what to do with them. Of rhetoric and logic I have endeavored to incorporate with the other matter about all that a person of strong common sense will need; and if he wants more, he will know where to find it.

Such, then, is a brief sketch of this treatise. It is throughout practical rather than historical or metaphysical : one special purpose, namely, that of teaching the learner to speak and write correctly, and of furnishing incidentally only what may have a tendency to develop his powers as a writer or a speaker, has been constantly kept in view, and pursued in a purely scientific manner. The flavor and utility of tea, for instance, are independent of its history ; and a man may see enough of the world for all his comforts, without a transcendental ascension in a balloon. I have also constantly studied how to adapt the book to all kinds of learners, and what are the best modes of learning and of teaching. Books for men are made chiefly to please, and why should this be forgotten in making books for children ? For these especially, since their attention is vagrant, books should be made entertaining as well as useful. When properly interested, their diligence and sagacity, like the courage of women, will do wonders ; but when their daily tasks so overburden and worry them as to crush their nimble spirits and implant dislike, the injurious effects are apt to last through life. Hope and pride should be ever kept alive and active. Neither memory, nor judgment, nor imagination, should be alone exerted ; but all three should act together harmoniously. Principles should be so well inculcated by exercises, as to operate in future practice with the promptness and facility of instinct. The world is and ever will be governed more by habits than by precepts. It is better to teach a child the color and fragrance of the rose by leading him to the bush, than by showing him the essence in an apothecary's bottle. Mechanical trumpery is as deleterious to the intellect as sweetmeats are to the body and temper. The true, the only right mode of teaching, is by definition and example. Let two men meet on the street, and one state a principle to the other; if the latter does not comprehend it, the former at once begins with, "For instance" &c. Every person comprehends principles according to his knowledge of facts, however vague this may be. Every additional fact gained, but

2*

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strengthens or modifies the principles of a thoughtful mind, or suggests new principles. The inexperienced child has not the facts, or, if he has them, is perhaps without the judgment to apply them rightly; so that abstract definitions without illustrations are not merely disagreeable to him, but have absolutely no soil into which they can strike their roots. Hence the necessity of furnishing abundant examples and exercises. Children are not quite angels, but have so much of earth in their composition that they would famish on pure ambrosia and nectar. Refined theorists generally fail in practice, simply because they overshoot the world. Though some things must be taken in and digested long afterwards, yet the mind should not be thus made dyspeptic.

Such are the quantity of matter and its arrangement, that the volume may be learned by average pupils in three sessions of five months each, the time usually allowed to this study ; though three years, if it be studied in connection with other things, will not be too long a time. Parents foolishly estimate children's advancement by the number of books through which they pass, and then complain because they must buy so many. Each book is by itself a complete division in the flight of stairs, — a solid and valuable acquisition ; and the treatise may be learned and taught in a variety of ways, so that teachers may find it adapted to learners of any age, capacity, or attainments. Great care has been taken to preserve uniformity, and not to worry the student and break up his local associations of memory by useless variation; nor has the same thing been presented again and again in unprofitably different ways, when all the novelty and attraction are worn off. To every subject I have endeavored to give such a place and so much attention as it seemed to deserve ; and difficulties have been honestly met, and investigated to the best of my ability. I have been careful not to be unduly swayed either by conservatism or by popular novelties: I have inquired impartially, listened to every man's opinion, and at last followed my own judgment. I have ever kept in mind that the greatest object of thinking is truth and that this is most acceptable when it is arrayed in a seemly or handsome garb. Innovations have been cautiously avoided, or made only where it seemed obvious that they would be improvements. I have strong faith in the deliberate, sober sense of mankind ; and believe, with Pope, that common sense is always good sense, and good sense common sense. Severe judges will doubtless find in this work but too many imperfections; yet, from the care bestowed upon it, I can not forbear to have some hope, that it will not suffer materially when it is compared with other similar books. In spite of all the vigilance used, it is still very probable that pome errors and omissions have escaped notice; for in a science not do-

PREFACE. XV

veloped from a few indubitable axioms, not growing out of itself, and not dependent on demonstrative reasonings, but marshaled out of a vast chaos of innumerable particulars, and depending on moral reasoning, perfection is impossible. An ocean of learning and thinking would be inadequate. The work has therefore not been stereotyped, in order that I may avail myself of all the suggestions and criticisms of those persons who will be kind enough to make them. To be a respectable grammarian, however humble it may be, is no every-day affair. It requires such attainments, acumen, and taste, as are seldom found in the same individual. Many able men have written on grammar, with the most sanguine expectations of success ; yet, because their minds were warped by some darling grand absurdity, some long-petted dogma or oddity, the world has looked into their productions as into a distorting mirror, and turned away in disgust. Many rashly conclude that one man's language is as good as another's, that every person's language is good enough, and that "disciples are free when doctor's disagree." That a Shakspeare sometimes wrote ungrammatically, is put forth as a shield by thousands of idlers and ignoramuses. I have also frequently met with persons that utterly repudiated the expediency of studying grammar or language, and that seemed to think their own piebald gleanings at the ragfairs of polite company the standard of propriety and elegance. To these self-crowned Tom-Thumb Napoleons in literature, it is not easy to give an answer to their satisfaction. Suffice it to say, that I have never yet conversed with one of them, whose sentences were not as full of refuting ignorance as of presumptuous vanity. Language, as well as everything else, requires care and culture. Indeed, to make it in the highest degree available, there is nothing else under the sun, that demands such intense and soul-absorbing study. Besides, what a noble, what a venerable inheritance is the English language! How our hearts, our very beings, seem to cling to the sweet sounds, the more than Castilian richness, of its words! What other language is superior to it in all that can rouse, instruct, or delight? What other production can be compared with it in antiquity, ubiquity, utility, durability, and

and now it bids fair to encompass the spoken or listened to by at least two hundred millions of people. It skims like the fabled fairies and genii over all parts of the land, and is now even diving the ocean, and gliding from continent to continent, with the rapidity of thought. Its greatest depth has perhaps never yet been fathomed, its highest heaven never been seen, and its farthest bounds never been reached, by all the genius and diligence of fifty generations. There came into it a Bacon to lay out

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the intellectual empire, but the grand foundations reached no place where they could not rest firmly and securely upon it. There came into it a Shakspeare, and at once it made room for all the sallies of the mighty and darling genius, who, though he may have spurned the bounds of existence, must have often felt that he had not yet reached its own bounds. There came a Milton, who turned seraph while even yet mortal, but the historian of heaven never soared so far " beyond the bounds of all created things," never so far into the joys of Elysium, never so far into the woes and horrors of Pandemonium, never so far into the primeval beauties of Paradise, never so far into the glories of Divinity, that the language was ever exhausted, or unable to proceed still farther. It went with a Locke into the innermost recesses of the mind; and it accompanied a Newton in "unwinding the eternal dances" and glories of the sky, as well as in the illimitable reaches of mathematical abstraction. And when a Chatham and a Webster came forth, it denied them not the world-shaking artillery of a Demosthenes. Indeed, what other agency, wielded by man, can be compared with language in power? The cannonry, "pomp, and glorious circumstance of war," may terrify nations and shake the earth, but the voice of the orator can rise above and sway all these, "wield the fierce democracy," "wrench the unworthy sceptre from tyrants," and throw into collision the empires of the world. It has no respect to persons. It is not the peculiar luxury of wealth and aristocracy: whoever seeks it rightly, generally finds it ; and its treasures, like the beauty and magnificence of nature, lie equally open to all. And then, it is everywhere. It cheers the winter fireside, tells "love's delightful story," pours the joyful tidings of salvation into the heart, reigns in the councils of nations. It drops from the sweet, prattling lips of infancy, summers high in bliss with the glowing imagination of youth, embodies the grave transactions of manhood, whispers the last tender and hopeful farewell of the dying Christian. It enters the most secret thought of man, links thought with thought through the whole journey of life, or forms the golden chain of memory and hope from the cradle to the grave. It is the great bond between the material and the spiritual world. It makes visible and audible the invisible soul. What else has such power of revealing the inner, the most exquisite flowerings of the heart; or of giving such glimpses into the innermost, cloistered divinity of the soul? In this, as in coral or in adamant, that divine essence perpetuates its own existence on earth, and lives and communes forever with the future minds of the world. In this it builds its noble palaces of thought; palaces that are a wealth and a joy forever, — that are more splendid, more