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complement to a dictionary, that each prefixed one to his large work.

II. Grammar in its higher aspects is well characterized by the great Anglo-Saxon grammarian Ælfric as the key that unlocks the books, Seô cœg pe pârâ bôcâ andyyt unlice, the master key of literature. The peculiarity of Fowler's Grammar is that it exhibits grammar in its relation with the history of language, with logic, and rhetoric, ready for use as the master key.

Practical exercises, therefore, for this Grammar could not be merely forms for writing short sentences, or collections of erroneous phrases to be corrected, or even single paragraphs from books to be criticised. Generous rep resentative portions of the representative works of the great representative English authors were to be thor oughly discussed, and the application of the philological laws of the grammar to the criticism and comprehension of literature shown by urging and directing the student to apply them in these discussions.

This has been done in March's Method of Philological Study of the English Language. Extracts from Bunyan, Milton, Shakespeare, Spenser, Chaucer, are there subjected to such a discussion by means of questions put in the very words which a teacher would use, and which the student answers for himself with the help of abundant references to the sections of the Grammar. The method is progressive, taking up one division after another of the Grammar until the manner of working every part of it in recitation drill has been thoroughly exemplified. The adjustment and use of the master key is thus made familiar to the student. This work is kept bound with Fowler's 12mo Grammar, but is sold separately for use with the larger work, to the more copious philological matter of which it has spe cial adaptation. W. C. F.

Durham, Conn., November, 1867.

PREFACE

TO THE REVISED EDITION.

THE improvements in this revised edition consist, I. In the addition of a large amount of New and Valuable Matter, with the omission of certain portions of the old not deemed so important.

II. In the annexation of Questions to most of the chapters, for the aid both of the pupil and the teacher.

III. In the annexation of Exercises in Analysis and Synthesis to each of the eight parts. In the use of these exercises, the learner, by taking the language to pieces, and by putting its component parts together, in eight several ways, can become intimately acquainted with it, in all its elements and forms. To thorough practice in these exercises, namely, in decomposing the language, and composing it in accordance with established principles and rules, the author attaches great importance.

IV. In certain portions of it being Recast, in order to make it better adapted to be used as a text-book in classes. In some cases, where the pupils are favorably situated, the whole book can be advantageously studied and recited. To do this for obtaining a thorough knowledge of the English language would not require near as much time as is often devoted to the acquisition of a superficial knowledge of the Greek, the Latin, or the French. But in other cases, certain portions of it can be selected by the teacher for recitation, while other portions the learner can read at his pleas ure, and consult in the way of reference.

Not long after the publication of the first edition, a gentleman, as well qualified as any other to appreciate the character of the work, said to the author, "Your work has been very favorably received by learned men and by the public generally. There is a wide opening for it, treating as it does of a subject which concerns all who speak and write the language. Why do you not, in the next edition, make it a national work?" Such a work I have endeavored to make it.

In preparing it for publication, I have taken great pains in collecting and combining the materials. I have consulted the best authorities in the most extensive libraries in this country and in Europe. I have sought and obtained the aid and advice of learned men and of judicious friends. I have also derived advantage from those candid critics in the public prints who have 'pointed out errors or suggested improvements.

In this edition, the sections furnished by Professor Josiah W. Gibbs, LL.D., are 78, 92, 94, 159, 162, 163, 167, 280, 290, 302, 318, 358, 359, 364, 366, 370, 374, 381, from 383 to 422, 434 and 439.

I can not permit this edition to go forth from the press without expressing my grateful acknowledgments to those learned men, whether at home or abroad, and to those practical teachers, who bestowed their approbation on the first edition. I may also be allowed to congratulate the cultivators of English philology upon the increasing interest that is taken in the study of the English language; an interest which has evidently increased in five years, since the publication of the first edition of this work; an interest which, it is hoped, ere long may be commensurate with, the increasing numbers who speak and write that language as their mother-tongue. W. C. F.

Amherst, September, 1855.

PREFACE

то THE FIRST EDITIO N.

In preparing this work for publication, my attention has been constantly fixed upon the wants of the Students in the Higher Institutions of learning. Were the president of one of these institutions asked why the systematic study of the English language is neglected in his college, his reply would very likely be, "There is no suitable text-book; our pupils, when boys, studied English Grammar superficially in the primary schools. Afterward, when older, in the academy, during their preparation for college, they perhaps despised it, in comparison with the Latin and the Greek; and in the college they do not systematically study the language after they come to maturity. Hence it often happens that they go into their professional studies without a thorough and extensive acquaintance with their mother tongue."

Ought the English language, as a study, to be confined to the lower schools, and excluded from col leges? Is there not in its matter and in its forms; in its historical elements and relations; in its grammat ical and logical structure; in its ordinary uses, whether by the lips or the pen, for the common purposes of life; in its esthetical applications to eloquence and poetry; in it, as a portraiture of the soul of the Anglo-Saxon race, enough to attract, and task, and reward the mind in the full maturity of its powers? Besides what it has in common with other languages, is there not in it enough of inherent interest, enough of difficulty, enough

of fruit in disciplinal influence and practical knowledge to entitle it to a place in colleges by the side of the Classical languages as a part of a liberal education? "The grammar of a language," says Locke, "is sometimes to be studied by a grown man.

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My attention has also been directed to the wants of Teachers in the Primary Schools throughout our land. In giving instruction, questions concerning the language frequently arise in their minds, or are proposed to them by their pupils, which are not solved by the compendious books in use. They feel the need of collateral aid. It has been my endeavor to furnish intelligent teachers with helps for answering these questions; to exhibit historical facts and reasonings not found in the smaller works, or, indeed, in any one work; and not only to furnish rules and examples, but also to exhibit the foundation-principles of the rules, the leges legum of the language. In short, I have endeavored to furnish not only a text-book for the higher institutions, but also a reference-book for teachers in the primary schools, which may help to give breadth and exactness to their views, and thus qualify them to impart oral instruction to their pupils who study some smaller work.

It has also been my endeavor to furnish men in Professional life with a work for occasional reference or perusal, to keep alive and extend in their minds their knowledge of the principles of the language. President Dwight made the remark, that "every graduate should keep his Murray's Grammar"—a work then used as a text-book in Yale College-"and read the more important parts of it at least once a year." Unless men, at least occasionally, bestow their attention upon the science and the laws of the language, they are in some danger, amid the excitements of professional life,

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