OUTLINES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. This work is intended to replace the Author's "First Steps in English Grammar;" but copies of the latter, in its original form, may still be obtained from the Publishers, Messrs. BELL & DALDY. By the same Author, price 8d. cloth. FOR YOUNG LEARNERS. Seventeenth Edition, price 38. cloth. ENGLISH GRAMMAR, INCLUDING THE PRINCIPLES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS. C. P. MASON, B.A., FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. LONDON: BELL & DALDY, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN. 1872. PREFACE. THIS work is a modified and enlarged edition of the author's "First Steps in English Grammar." In the judgment of many, the latter was too difficult for mere beginners, and too brief for classes in which some progress had already been made in the study of the first elements of grammar. To meet the former objection, the author published a new elementary work-" First Notions of Grammar"-designed to render the first principles of the science intelligible to young beginners, without perplexing them with the difficult terms and definitions of systematic grammar. In the present work the conceptions so acquired are reduced to regular form, and presented in orderly sequence, by means of careful definitions and plain rules, without digressions into the more recondite portions of the subject, which can be better appreciated at a later stage, and are taken up in the author's "English Grammar, including the Principles of Grammatical Analysis."* In the "First Steps," the analysis of sentences was not treated of, being considered too difficult for the class of learners for whom the work was intended. In these "Outlines of English Grammar" the elementary principles of analysis are introduced, and set forth in as simple a manner as possible; but no attempt is made to deal with the subject exhaustively, or to introduce the young learner to difficulties which he would be incapable of solving. A superficial discussion of the intri cacies of contracted and elliptical sentences is worse than useless, as the knowledge to be derived from it proves valueless at the first strain of actual practice, and results in disappointment and disgust. Many of the little Manuals Seventeenth edition, 1872. Covent-garden. Bell and Daldy, York-street, |