The Grammar of English Grammars Part 3

needed to be retouched, the book is presented to the world under the following pretensions:

"The author of this production has endeavoured to condense _all the most important subject-matter of the whole science_, and present it in so small a compa.s.s that the learner can become familiarly acquainted with it in a _short time_. He makes but small pretensions to originality in theoretical matter. Most of the principles laid down, have been selected from our _best modern philologists_. If his work is ent.i.tled to any degree of _merit_, it is not on account of a judicious selection of principles and rules, but for the easy mode adopted of communicating _these_ to the mind of the learner."--_Kirkham's Grammar_, 1825, p. 10.

23. It will be found on examination, that what this author regarded as _"all the most important subject-matter of the whole science" of grammar_, included nothing more than the most common elements of the orthography, etymology, and syntax, of the English tongue--beyond which his scholarship appears not to have extended. Whatsoever relates to derivation, to the sounds of the letters, to prosody, (as punctuation, utterance, figures, versification, and poetic diction,) found no place in his "comprehensive system of grammar;" nor do his later editions treat any of these things amply or well. In short, he treats nothing well; for he is a bad writer.

Commencing his career of authorship under circ.u.mstances the most forbidding, yet receiving encouragement from commendations bestowed in pity, he proceeded, like a man of business, to profit mainly by the chance; and, without ever acquiring either the feelings or the habits of a scholar, soon learned by experience that, "It is much better to _write_ than [to]

_starve_."--_Kirkham's Gram., Stereotyped_, p. 89. It is cruel in any man, to look narrowly into the faults of an author who peddles a school-book for bread. The starveling wretch whose defence and plea are poverty and sickness, demands, and must have, in the name of humanity, an immunity from criticism, if not the patronage of the public. Far be it from me, to notice any such character, except with kindness and charity. Nor need I be told, that tenderness is due to the "young;" or that n.o.ble results sometimes follow unhopeful beginnings. These things are understood and duly appreciated. The gentleman was young once, even as he says; and I, his equal in years, was then, in authorship, as young--though, it were to be hoped, not quite so immature. But, as circ.u.mstances alter cases, so time and chance alter circ.u.mstances. Under no circ.u.mstances, however, can the artifices of quackery be thought excusable in him who claims to be the very greatest of modern grammarians. The niche that in the temple of learning belongs to any individual, can be no other than that which his own labours have purchased: here, his _own merit_ alone must be his pedestal. If this critical sketch be unimpeachably _just_, its publication requires no further warrant. The correction has been forborne, till the subject of it has become rich, and popular, and proud; proud enough at least to have published his utter contempt for me and all my works. Yet not for this do I judge him worthy of notice here, but merely as an apt example of some men's grammatical success and fame. The ways and means to these grand results are what I purpose now to consider.

24. The common supposition, that the world is steadily advancing in knowledge and improvement, would seem to imply, that the man who could plausibly boast of being the most successful and most popular grammarian of the nineteenth century, cannot but be a scholar of such merit as to deserve some place, if not in the general literary history of his age, at least in the particular history of the science which he teaches. It will presently be seen that the author of "English Grammar in Familiar Lectures," boasts of a degree of success and popularity, which, in this age of the world, has no parallel. It is not intended on my part, to dispute any of his a.s.sertions on these points; but rather to take it for granted, that in reputation and revenue he is altogether as preeminent as he pretends to be.

The character of his alleged _improvements_, however, I shall inspect with the eyes of one who means to know the certainty for himself; and, in this item of literary history, the reader shall see, in some sort, _what profit_ there is in grammar. Is the common language of two of the largest and most enlightened nations on earth so little understood, and its true grammar so little known or appreciated, that one of the most unscholarly and incompetent of all pretenders to grammar can have found means to outrival all the grammarians who have preceded him? Have plagiarism and quackery become the only means of success in philology? Are there now instances to which an intelligent critic may point, and say, "This man, or that, though he can scarcely write a page of good English, has patched up a grammar, by the help of Murray's text only, and thereby made himself rich?" Is there such a charm in the name of _Murray_, and the word _improvement_, that by these two implements alone, the obscurest of men, or the absurdest of teachers, may work his pa.s.sage to fame; and then, perchance, by contrast of circ.u.mstances, grow conceited and arrogant, from the fortune of the undertaking? Let us see what we can find in Kirkham's Grammar, which will go to answer these questions.

25. Take first from one page of his "hundred and fifth edition," a few brief quotations, as a sample of his thoughts and style:

"They, however, who introduce _usages which depart from the a.n.a.logy and philosophy_ of a language, _are conspicuous_ among the number of those who _form that language_, and have power to control it." "PRINCIPLE.--A principle in grammar is a _peculiar construction_ of the language, sanctioned by good usage." "DEFINITION.--A definition in grammar is a _principle_ of language expressed in a _definite form_." "RULE.--A rule describes _the peculiar construction_ or circ.u.mstantial relation of words, _which_ custom has established for our observance."--_Kirkham's Grammar_, page 18.

Now, as "a rule describes a peculiar construction," and "a principle is a peculiar construction," and "a definition is a principle;" how, according to this grammarian, do a principle, a definition, and a rule, differ each from the others? From the rote here imposed, it is certainly not easier for the learner to conceive of all these things _distinctly_, than it is to understand how a departure from philosophy may make a man deservedly "_conspicuous_." It were easy to multiply examples like these, showing the work to be deficient in clearness, the first requisite of style.

26. The following pa.s.sages may serve as a specimen of the gentleman's taste, and grammatical accuracy; in one of which, he supposes the neuter verb _is_ to express an _action_, and every _honest man_ to be _long since dead!_ So it stands in all his editions. Did his praisers think so too?

"It is correct to say, _The man eats, he eats_; but we cannot say, _The man dog eats, he dog eats_. Why not? Because the man _is here represented_ as the possessor, and dog, the property, or thing possessed; and the genius of our language requires, that when we add _to the possessor_, the _thing_ which _he_ is represented as possessing, _the possessor_ shall take a particular form to show ITS case, or relation to the property."--_Ib._, p.

52.

THE PRESENT TENSE.--"This tense is sometimes applied to represent the _actions_ of persons _long since dead_; as, 'Seneca _reasons_ and _moralizes_ well; An HONEST MAN IS the n.o.blest work of G.o.d.'"--_Ib._, p.

138.

PARTICIPLES.--"The term _Participle_ comes from the Latin word _participio_,[10] which signifies to _partake_."--"Participles are formed by adding to the verb the termination _ing, ed_, or _en_. _Ing_ signifies the same thing as the noun _being_. When _postfixed_ to the _noun-state_ of the verb, the _compound word_ thus formed expresses a continued state of the _verbal denotement_. It implies that what is meant by the verb, is _being_ continued."--_Ib._, p. 78. "All participles _are compound_ in their meaning and office."--_Ib._, p. 79.

VERBS.--"Verbs express, not only _the state_ or _manner of being_, but, likewise, all the different _actions_ and _movements_ of all creatures and things, whether animate or inanimate."--_Ib._, p. 62. "It can be easily shown, that from the noun and verb, all the other parts of speech have sprung. Nay, more. _They_ may even be reduced to _one_. _Verbs do not, in reality, express actions_; but they are intrinsically _the mere_ NAMES _of actions_."--_Ib._, p. 37.

PHILOSOPHICAL GRAMMAR.--"I have thought proper to intersperse through the pages of this work, under the head of '_Philosophical Notes_,' an entire system of grammatical principles, as deduced from what _appears[11] to me_ to be the _most rational and consistent_ philosophical investigations."-- _Ib._, p. 36. "Johnson, and Blair, and Lowth, _would have been laughed at_, had they essayed to thrust _any thing like our_ modernized philosophical grammar _down the throats of their cotemporaries_."--_Ib._, p. 143.

Is it not a pity, that "more than one hundred thousand children and youth"

should be daily poring over language and logic like this?

27. For the sake of those who happily remain ignorant of this successful empiricism, it is desirable that the record and exposition of it be made brief. There is little danger that it will long survive its author. But the present subjects of it are sufficiently numerous to deserve some pity. The following is a sample of the gentleman's method of achieving what he both justly and exultingly supposes, that Johnson, or Blair, or Lowth, could not have effected. He scoffs at his own grave instructions, as if they had been the production of some _other_ impostor. Can the fact be credited, that in the following instances, he speaks of _what he himself teaches_?--of what he seriously p.r.o.nounces _"most rational and consistent?"_--of what is part and parcel of that philosophy of his, which he declares, "will _in general be found to accord_ with the _practical theory_ embraced in the body of his work?"--See _Kirkham's Gram._, p. 36.

"Call this '_philosophical parsing_, on reasoning principles, according to the original laws of nature and of thought,' and _the pill will be swallowed_, by pedants and their dupes, with the greatest ease imaginable."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 144. "For the _satisfaction_ of those teachers who prefer it, and _for their adoption, too_, a modernized philosophical theory of the moods and tenses is here presented. If it is not quite so convenient and useful as the old one, they need not hesitate to adopt it. It has the advantage of being _new_; and, moreover, it sounds _large_, and will make the _commonalty stare_. Let it be distinctly understood that you teach '[_Kirkham's_] _philosophical grammar_, founded on reason and common sense,' and you will pa.s.s for a very learned man, and make all the good housewives wonder at the rapid march of intellect, and the vast improvements of the age."--_Ib._, p. 141.

28. The _pretty promises_ with which these "Familiar Lectures" abound, are also worthy to be noticed here, as being among the peculiar attractions of the performance. The following may serve as a specimen:

"If you _proceed according to my instructions_, you will be sure to acquire a practical knowledge of Grammar in _a short time_."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p.

49. "If you have sufficient _resolution to do this_, you will, in a short time, _perfectly understand_ the nature and office of the different parts of speech, their various properties and relations, and the rules of syntax that apply to them; _and, in a few weeks_, be able to speak and write accurately."--_Ib._, p. 62. "You will please to turn back and read over again _the whole five lectures_. You must exercise _a little_ patience."--_Ib._, p. 82. "By studying these lectures with attention, you will acquire _more grammatical_ knowledge in three months, than is commonly obtained in _two years_."--_Ib._, p. 82. "I will conduct you _so smoothly through the moods and tenses_, and the conjugation of verbs, that, instead of finding yourself involved in obscurities and deep intricacies, you will scarcely find _an obstruction to impede your progress_."--_Ib._, p. 133.

"The supposed Herculean task of learning to conjugate verbs, will be transformed into _a few hours of pleasant pastime_."--_Ib._, p. 142. "_By examining carefully_ the conjugation of the verb through this mood, you will find it _very easy_."--_Ib._, p. 147. "By pursuing the following direction, you can, _in a very short time_, learn to conjugate any verb."--_Ib._, p. 147. "Although this mode of procedure _may, at first, appear to be laborious_, yet, as it is necessary, I trust you will not hesitate to adopt it. _My confidence in your perseverance_, induces me to recommend _any course_ which I know will tend to facilitate your progress."--_Ib._, p. 148.

29. The grand boast of this author is, that he _has succeeded_ in "pleasing himself and the public." He trusts to have "gained the latter point," to so great an extent, and with such security of tenure, that henceforth no man can safely question _the merit_ of his performance. Happy mortal! to whom that success which is the ground of his pride, is also the glittering aegis of his sure defence! To this he points with exultation and self-applause, as if the prosperity of the wicked, or the popularity of an imposture, had never yet been heard of in this clever world![12] Upon what merit this success has been founded, my readers may judge, when I shall have finished this slight review of his work. Probably no other grammar was ever so industriously spread. Such was the author's perseverance in his measures to increase the demand for his book, that even the attainment of such accuracy as he was capable of, was less a subject of concern. For in an article designed "to ward off some of the arrows of criticism,"--an advertis.e.m.e.nt which, from the eleventh to the "one hundred and fifth edition," has been promising "to the _publick another and a better_ edition,"--he plainly offers this urgent engagement, as "an apology for its defects:"

"The author is apprehensive that his work is _not yet as_ accurate and as much simplified as it _may be_. If, however, the disadvantages of lingering under a broken const.i.tution, and of being able to devote to this subject _only a small portion of his time_, s.n.a.t.c.hed from the _active pursuits of a business life_, (active as far as imperfect health permits him to be,) are any apology for his defects, he hopes that the candid will set down _the apology to his credit_.--Not that he would beg a truce with the gentlemen _criticks_ and reviewers. Any compromise with them would betray a want of _self-confidence_ and _moral courage_, which he would by no means, be willing to avow."--_Kirkham's Gram._, (Adv. of 1829,) p. 7.

30. Now, to this painful struggle, this active contention between business and the vapours, let all _credit_ be given, and all _sympathy_ be added; but, as an aid to the studies of healthy children, what better is the book, for any forbearance or favour that may have been won by this apology? It is well known, that, till _phrenology_ became the common talk, the author's princ.i.p.al business was, to commend his own method of teaching _grammar_, and to turn this publication to profit. This honourable industry, aided, as himself suggests, by "not much _less_ than one thousand written recommendations," is said to have wrought for him, in a very few years, a degree of success and fame, at which both the eulogists of Murray and the friends of English grammar may hang their heads. As to a "_compromise_"

with any critic or reviewer whom he cannot bribe, it is enough to say of that, it is morally impossible. Nor was it necessary for such an author to throw the gauntlet, to prove himself not lacking in "_self-confidence_." He can show his "_moral courage_," only by daring do right.

31. In 1829, after his book had gone through ten editions, and the demand for it had become so great as "to call forth twenty thousand copies during the year," the prudent author, intending to veer his course according to the _trade-wind_, thought it expedient to retract his former acknowledgement to "our best modern philologists," and to profess himself a modifier of the Great Compiler's code. Where then holds the anchor of his praise? Let the reader say, after weighing and comparing his various pretensions:

"Aware that there is, in the _publick_ mind, a strong predilection for the doctrines contained in Mr. Murray's grammar, he has thought proper, not merely from motives of policy, but from choice, _to select his principles chiefly from that work_; and, moreover, to adopt, as far as consistent with his own views, _the language of that eminent philologist_. In no instance has he varied from him, unless he conceived that, in so doing, _some practical advantage_ would be gained. He hopes, _therefore_, to escape the censure so frequently and so justly awarded to those _unfortunate innovators_ who have not scrupled to alter, mutilate, and torture the text of that able writer, merely to gratify an itching propensity to figure in the world _as authors_, and gain an ephemeral popularity by arrogating to themselves _the credit due to another_." [13]--_Kirkham's Gram._, 1829, p.

10.

32. Now these statements are either true or false; and I know not on which supposition they are most creditable to the writer. Had any Roman grammatist thus profited by the name of Varro or Quintilian, he would have been filled with constant dread of somewhere meeting the injured author's frowning shade! Surely, among the professed admirers of Murray, no other man, whether innovator or copyist, unfortunate or successful, is at all to be compared to this gentleman for the audacity with which he has "not scrupled to alter, mutilate, and torture, the text of that able writer."

Murray simply intended to do good, and good that might descend to posterity; and this just and generous intention goes far to excuse even his errors. But Kirkham, speaking of posterity, scruples not to disavow and to renounce all care for them, or for any thing which a coming age may think of his character: saying,

"My pretensions reach not so far. To the _present generation only_, I present my claims. Should it lend me a listening ear, and grant me its suffrages, _the height of my ambition_ will be attained."--_Advertis.e.m.e.nt, in his Elocution_, p. 346.

His whole design is, therefore, upon the very face of it, a paltry scheme of present income. And, seeing his entered cla.s.ses of boys and girls must soon have done with him, he has doubtless acted wisely, and quite in accordance with his own interest, to have made all possible haste in his career.

33. Being no rival with him in this race, and having no personal quarrel with him on any account, I would, for his sake, fain rejoice at his success, and withhold my criticisms; because he is said to have been liberal with his gains, and because he has not, like some others, copied me instead of Murray. But the vindication of a greatly injured and perverted science, constrains me to say, on this occasion, that pretensions less consistent with themselves, or less sustained by taste and scholarship, have seldom, if ever, been promulgated in the name of grammar. I have, certainly, no intention to say more than is due to the uninformed and misguided. For some who are ungenerous and prejudiced themselves, will not be unwilling to think me so; and even this freedom, backed and guarded as it is by facts and proofs irrefragable, may still be ingeniously ascribed to an ill motive. To two thirds of the community, one grammar is just as good as an other; because they neither know, nor wish to know, more than may be learned from the very worst. An honest expression of sentiment against abuses of a literary nature, is little the fashion of these times; and the good people who purchase books upon the recommendations of others, may be slow to believe there is no merit where so much has been attributed.

But facts may well be credited, in opposition to courteous flattery, when there are the author's own words and works to vouch for them in the face of day. Though a thousand of our great men may have helped a copier's weak copyist to take "some practical advantage" of the world's credulity, it is safe to aver, in the face of dignity still greater, that testimonials more fallacious have seldom mocked the cause of learning. They did not read his book.

34. Notwithstanding the author's change in his professions, the work is now essentially the same as it was at first; except that its errors and contradictions have been greatly multiplied, by the addition of new matter inconsistent with the old. He evidently cares not what doctrines he teaches, or whose; but, as various theories are noised abroad, seizes upon different opinions, and mixes them together, that his books may contain something to suit all parties. "_A System of Philosophical Grammar_,"

though but an idle speculation, even in his own account, and doubly absurd in him, as being flatly contradictory to his main text, has been thought worthy of insertion. And what his t.i.tle-page denominates "_A New System of Punctuation_," though mostly in the very words of Murray, was next invented to supply a deficiency which he at length discovered. To admit these, and some other additions, the "comprehensive system-of grammar" was gradually extended from 144 small duodecimo pages, to 228 of the ordinary size. And, in this compa.s.s, it was finally stereotyped in 1829; so that the ninety-four editions published since, have nothing new for history.

35. But the publication of an other work designed for schools, "_An Essay an Elocution_" shows the progress of the author's mind. Nothing can be more radically opposite, than are some of the elementary doctrines which this gentleman is now teaching; nothing, more strangely inconsistent, than are some of his declarations and professions. For instance: "A consonant is a letter that cannot be perfectly sounded without the help of a vowel."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 19. Again: "A consonant is not only capable of being perfectly sounded without the help of a vowel, but, moreover, of forming, like a vowel, a separate syllable."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 32.

Take a second example. He makes "ADJECTIVE p.r.o.nOUNS" a _prominent division_ and _leading t.i.tle_, in treating of the p.r.o.nouns proper; defines the term in a manner peculiar to himself; prefers and uses it in all his parsing; and yet, by the third sentence of the story, the learner is conducted to this just conclusion: "Hence, such a thing as an _adjective-p.r.o.noun_ cannot exist."--_Grammar_, p. 105. Once more. Upon his own rules, or such as he had borrowed, he comments thus, and comments _truly_, because he had either written them badly or made an ill choice: "But some of these rules are foolish, trifling, and unimportant."--_Elocution_, p. 97. Again: "Rules 10 and 11, rest on a sandy foundation. They appear not to be based on the principles of the language."--_Grammar_, p. 59. These are but specimens of his own frequent testimony against himself! Nor shall he find refuge in the impudent falsehood, that the things which I quote as his, are not his own.[14] These contradictory texts, and scores of others which might be added to them, are as rightfully his own, as any doctrine he has ever yet inculcated. But, upon the credulity of ignorance, his high-sounding certificates and unbounded boasting can impose any thing. They overrule all in favour of cue of the worst grammars extant;--of which he says, "it is now studied by more than one hundred thousand children and youth; and is more extensively used than _all other English grammars_ published in the United States."--_Elocution_, p. 347. The booksellers say, he receives from his publishers _ten cents a copy_, on this work, and that he reports the sale of _sixty thousand copies per annum_. Such has of late been his public boast. I have once had the story from his own lips, and of course congratulated him, though I dislike the book. Six thousand dollars a year, on this most miserable modification of Lindley Murray's Grammar! Be it so--or double, if he and the public please. Murray had so little originality in his work, or so little selfishness in his design, that he would not take any thing; and his may ultimately prove the better bargain.

36. A man may boast and bless himself as he pleases, his fortune, surely, can never be worthy of an other's envy, so long as he finds it inadequate to his own great merits, and unworthy of his own poor grat.i.tude. As a grammarian, Kirkham claims to be second only to Lindley Murray; and says, "Since the days of Lowth, no other work on grammar, Murray's only excepted, has been so favourably received by the _publick_ as his own. As a proof of this, he would mention, that within the last six years it has pa.s.sed through _fifty_ editions."--_Preface to Elocution_, p. 12. And, at the same time, and in the same preface, he complains, that, "Of all the labours done under the sun, the labours _of the pen_ meet with the poorest reward."--_Ibid._, p. 5. This too clearly favours the report, that his books were not written by himself, but by others whom he hired. Possibly, the anonymous helper may here have penned, not his employer's feeling, but a line of his own experience. But I choose to ascribe the pa.s.sage to the professed author, and to hold him answerable for the inconsistency. Willing to ill.u.s.trate by the best and fairest examples these fruitful means of grammatical fame, I am glad of his present success, which, through this record, shall become yet more famous. It is the only thing which makes him worthy of the notice here taken of him. But I cannot sympathize with his complaint, because he never sought any but "the poorest reward;" and more than all he sought, he found. In his last "Address to Teachers," he says, "He may doubtless be permitted emphatically to say with Prospero, '_Your breath has filled my sails_.'"--_Elocution_, p. 18. If this boasting has any truth in it, he ought to be satisfied. But it is written, "He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase." Let him remember this.[15] He now announces three or four other works as forthcoming shortly. What these will achieve, the world will see. But I must confine myself to the Grammar.

37. In this volume, scarcely any thing is found where it might be expected.

"The author," as he tells us in his preface, "has not followed the common 'artificial and unnatural arrangement adopted by most of his predecessors;'

_yet he_ has endeavoured to pursue a more judicious one, namely, '_the order of the understanding_.'"--_Grammar_, p. 12. But if this is the order of his understanding, he is greatly to be pitied. A book more confused in its plan, more wanting in method, more imperfect in distinctness of parts, more deficient in symmetry, or more difficult of reference, shall not easily be found in stereotype. Let the reader try to follow us here. Bating twelve pages at the beginning, occupied by the t.i.tle, recommendations, advertis.e.m.e.nt, contents, preface, hints to teachers, and advice to lecturers; and fifty-four at the end, embracing syntax, orthography, orthoepy, provincialisms, prosody, punctuation, versification, rhetoric, figures of speech, and a Key, all in the sequence here given; the work consists of fourteen chapters of grammar, absurdly called "Familiar Lectures." The first treats of sundries, under half a dozen t.i.tles, but chiefly of Orthography; and the last is three pages and a half, of the most common remarks, on Derivation. In the remaining twelve, the Etymology and Syntax of the ten parts of speech are commingled; and an attempt is made, to teach simultaneously all that the author judged important in either.

Hence he gives us, in a strange congeries, rules, remarks, ill.u.s.trations, false syntax, systematic parsing, exercises in parsing, two different orders of notes, three different orders of questions, and a variety of other t.i.tles merely occasional. All these things, being additional to his main text, are to be connected, in the mind of the learner, with the parts of speech successively, in some new and inexplicable catenation found only in the arrangement of the lectures. The author himself could not see through the chaos. He accordingly made his table of contents a mere meagre alphabetical index. Having once attempted in vain to explain the order of his instructions, he actually gave the matter up in despair!

38. In length, these pretended lectures vary, from three or four pages, to eight-and-thirty. Their subjects run thus: 1. Language, Grammar, Orthography; 2. Nouns and Verbs; 3. Articles; 4. Adjectives; 5.

Participles; 6. Adverbs; 7. Prepositions; 8. p.r.o.nouns; 9. Conjunctions; 10.

Interjections and Nouns; 11. Moods and Tenses; 12. Irregular Verbs; 13.

Auxiliary, Pa.s.sive, and Defective Verbs; 14. Derivation. Which, now, is "more judicious," such confusion as this, or the arrangement which has been common from time immemorial? Who that has any respect for the human intellect, or whose powers of mind deserve any in return, will avouch this jumble to be "the order of the understanding?" Are the methods of science to be accounted mere hinderances to instruction? Has grammar really been made easy by this confounding of its parts? Or are we lured by the name, "_Familiar Lectures_,"--a term manifestly adopted as a mere decoy, and, with respect to the work itself, totally inappropriate? If these chapters have ever been actually delivered as a series of lectures, the reader must have been employed on some occasions eight or ten times as long as on others! "People," says Dr. Johnson, "have now-a-days got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by _lectures_. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as a private reading of the books from which the lectures are taken. I know of nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shown. You may teach chymistry by lectures--you _might_ teach the making of shoes by lectures."

--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_.

39. With singular ignorance and untruth, this gentleman claims to have invented a better method of a.n.a.lysis than had ever been practised before.

Of other grammars, his preface avers, "They have _all overlooked_ what the author considers a very important object; namely, _a systematick order of parsing_."--_Grammar_, p. 9. And, in his "Hints to Teachers," presenting himself as a model, and his book as a paragon, he says: "By pursuing this system, he can, with less labour, advance a pupil _farther_ in the practical knowledge of this _abstruse science_, in _two months_, than he could in _one year_, when he taught in the _old way_."--_Grammar_, p. 12.

What his "_old way_" was, does not appear. Doubtless something sufficiently bad. And as to his new way, I shall hereafter have occasion to show that _that_ is sufficiently bad also. But to this gasconade the simple-minded have given credit--because the author showed certificates that testified to his great success, and called him "amiable and modest!" But who can look into the book, or into the writer's pretensions in regard to his predecessors, and conceive the merit which has made him--"preeminent by so much odds?" Was Murray less praiseworthy, less amiable, or less modest? In ill.u.s.tration of my topic, and for the sake of literary justice, I have selected that honoured "_Compiler_" to show the abuses of praise; let the history of this his vaunting _modifier_ cap the climax of vanity. In general, his amendments of "that eminent philologist," are not more skillful than the following touch upon an eminent dramatist; and here, it is plain, he has mistaken two nouns for adjectives, and converted into bad English a beautiful pa.s.sage, the sentiment of which is worthy of an _author's_ recollection:

"The evil _deed_ or _deeds_ that men do, _lives_ after them; The good _deed_ or _deeds is_ oft interred with their bones." [16]

_Kirkham's Grammar_, p. 75.

40. Lord Bacon observes, "Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person as his letter; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation." It is to this mischievous facility of recommendation, this prost.i.tuted influence of great names, that the inconvenient diversity of school-books, and the continued use of bad ones, are in a great measure to be attributed. It belongs to those who understand the subjects of which authors profess to treat, to judge fairly and fully of their works, and then to let the _reasons_ of their judgement be known.

For no one will question the fact, that a vast number of the school-books now in use are either egregious plagiarisms or productions of no comparative merit. And, what is still more surprising and monstrous, presidents, governors, senators, and judges; professors, doctors, clergymen, and lawyers; a host of t.i.tled connoisseurs; with incredible facility lend their names, not only to works of inferior merit, but to the vilest thefts, and the wildest absurdities, palmed off upon their own and the public credulity, under pretence of improvement. The man who thus prefixes his letter of recommendation to an ill-written book, publishes, out of mere courtesy, a direct impeachment of his own scholarship or integrity. Yet, how often have we seen the honours of a high office, or even of a worthy name, prost.i.tuted to give a temporary or local currency to a book which it would disgrace any man of letters to quote! With such encouragement, nonsense wrestles for the seat of learning, exploded errors are republished as novelties, original writers are plundered by dunces, and men that understand nothing well, profess to teach all sciences!

41. All praise of excellence must needs be comparative, because the thing itself is so. To excel in grammar, is but to know better than others wherein grammatical excellence consists. Hence there is no fixed point of perfection beyond which such learning may not be carried. The limit to improvement is not so much in the nature of the subject, as in the powers of the mind, and in the inducements to exert them upon a theme so humble and so uninviting. Dr. Johnson suggests, in his masterly preface, "that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be sufficient." Who then will suppose, in the face of such facts and confessions as have been exhibited, that either in the faulty publications of Murray, or among the various modifications of them by other hands we have any such work as deserves to be made a permanent standard of instruction in English grammar? With great sacrifices, both of pleasure and of interest, I have humbly endeavoured to supply this desideratum; and it remains for other men to determine, and other times to know, what place shall be given to these my labours, in the general story of this branch of learning. Intending to develop not only the principles but also the history of grammar, I could not but speak of its authors. The writer who looks broadly at the past and the present, to give sound instruction to the future, must not judge of men by their shadows. If the truth, honestly told, diminish the stature of some, it does it merely by clearing the sight of the beholder. Real greatness cannot suffer loss by the dissipating of a vapour. If reputation has been raised upon the mist of ignorance, who but the builder shall lament its overthrow? If the works of grammarians are often ungrammatical, whose fault is this but their own? If _all_ grammatical fame is little in itself, how can the abatement of what is undeserved of it be much? If the errors of some have long been tolerated, what right of the critic has been lost by nonuser? If the interests of Science have been sacrificed to Mammon, what rebuke can do injustice to the craft? Nay, let the broad-axe of the critic hew up to the line, till every beam in her temple be smooth and straight. For, "certainly, next to commending good writers, the greatest service to learning is, to expose the bad, who can only in that way be made of any use to it." [17] And if, among the makers of grammars, the scribblings of some, and the filchings of others, are discreditable alike to themselves and to their theme, let the reader consider, how great must be the intrinsic worth of that study which still maintains its credit in spite of all these abuses!