GRAMMAR.

THE UTILITY AND IMPORTANCE OF ITS STUDY.

"They who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order, are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order.-Blair.

GRAMMAR is a term the definition of which can be scarcely said to be philosophically adjusted. The number and the nature of the ideas which it comprehends, are subjects upon which opinions and decisions are conflicting and diversified. A clear and certain exposition of the meaning of the term is perhaps nowhere to be found. In one view it assumes the dignity and claims the consideration of a SCIENCE;—in another its pretensions appear restricted to the more limited proportions of an art. Of the former, reason may be considered as the authority, and the standard ;-of the latter there is no authority or standard but custom. The utility-the importance and the necessity of the study of this science, or art, are obvious-are self-evident. "As words," says an eminent writer upon it,* "are the signs of our ideas, and the medium by which we perceive the sentiments of others, and communicate our own, and as signs exhibit the things which they are intended to represent, more or less accurately, according as their real or established conformity to those things is more or less exact; it is evident, that in proportion to our knowledge of the nature and properties of words, or of their relation to each other, and of their established connexion with the ideas to which they are applied, will be the certainty and ease with which we transfuse our sentiments into the minds of one another; and that, without a competent knowledge of this kind, we shall frequently be in hazard of misunderstanding others, and of being misunderstood ourselves. Introduction to Murray's Grammar, p. 6.

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It may, indeed, be justly asserted, that many of the differences in opinion amongst men, with the disputes, contentions, and alienations of heart, which have too often proceeded from such differences, have been occasioned by a want of proper skill in the connexion and meaning of words, and by a tenacious misapplication of language.' "All that regards the study of composition," says the eloquent writer upon language and composition whose words we have prefixed to these observations, "merits the highest attention, upon this account, that it is intimately connected with the improvement of our intellectual powers. For we must be allowed to say, that when we are employed, after a proper manner, in the study of composition, we are cultivating the understanding itself. The study of arranging and expressing our thoughts with propriety, teaches us to think, as well as to speak, accurately." One of the best supports which the recommendation of this study can receive, in small compass, may be derived from these sentiments. The great and the important object of language is, to express the various wants and affections of those by whom it is spoken. In the earlier stages of civil society, man is contented with such comforts as are easily procured, and the operations of the mind are circumscribed within narrow limits. His vocabulary is consequently scanty, though at the same time it may be fully adequate to every purpose to which it is applied. But as luxury and refinement advance in their gradual progress, the language of the community becomes more copious and elegant it not only oversteps its ancient boundaries, but hastens to lay aside its ancient rudeness and barbarism. Material improvements, however, cannot be introduced by any sudden exertion;they must be the result of experience and experience time only can bestow.

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During the last fifty years, English literature has been enriched with many valuable compositions in prose and verse. Many wise and learned men have made use of our language in communicating their sentiments concerning all the important branches of science and art. All kinds of subjects have been skilfully treated in it, and many works of taste and genius have been written with great and well-deserved success: yet perhaps it will appear, upon a careful view of these compositions, that, whatsoever credit their authors are entitled to, for acuteness of understanding, strength of imagination, delicacy of taste, or energy of expression, there are but few of them that deserve the praise of having expressed themselves in a pure and genuine strain of English. In general

they have preferred such a choice and arrangement of words, as an early acquaintance with some other language, and the neglected study of their own, would naturally incline them to. Sometimes, also, we find them expressing a mean opinion of their native tongue. This, however, I am the less inclined to wonder at, as I am convinced that those only can speak of our language without respect, who are ignorant of its nature and qualities. Perhaps it is as capable of receiving any impressions that a man of taste and genius may choose to stamp upon it, and is as easily moulded into all the various forms of passion, elegance, and sublimity, as any language, ancient or modern.

Some men of eminence in letters, having seen how well the fashionable world has succeeded in imitating the manners of our neighbours, the French, have endeavoured to raise themselves into reputation by importing their forms of speech; and, not contented with the good old English idiom, have dressed out their works in all the tawdriness of French phraseology. But this injudicious fashion of adulterating our language with foreign mixtures, is more especially the case with respect to the Latin:-to the laws of which, many of our writers, and indeed some also of our grammarians, have so strenuously endeavoured to subject our language, that an old author's prophecy seems at length to have come to pass, and "we are now forced to study Latin in order to understand English."* The complaint was not new in his timebut the practice complained of is now become more frequent and more extensive than ever. Our elegant and idiomatic satirist, POPE, ridicules that

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easy Ciceronian style,

So Latin, yet so English all the while."

Pope's Epilogues to Satires. Not only Latin words, but Latin idioms, are now invading us with so much success, that, do what we can, I fear we must submit to the yoke; and, as our country was formerly compelled to become a province of the Roman empire, so must our language sink at last into a dialect of the Roman tongue. This event has been much hastened of late years. Some men, whose writings do honour to their country and to mankind, have, it must be confessed, written in a style that no Englishman will own; a sort of Anglicised Latin, and chiefly distinguished from it by a trifling difference of termination: yet so excellent are these works in other respects, that a man might deserve well of the public who would take the trouble of *Brown's Vulgar Errors.-See Preface.

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translating them into English. As I do not notice these alterations in our language in order to commend them, I shall not produce any particular instances; I shall content myself with supporting the fact by the evidence of the greatest critic and master of it that ever lived. In the preface to his Dictionary, Dr. Johnson says, so far have I been to grace my page with modern decorations, that I have studiously endeavoured to collect my examples and authorities from the writers before the Restoration, whose works I regard as the WELLS OF ENGLISH UNDEFILED as the pure sources of genuine diction. Our language, for almost a century, has, by the concurrence of many causes, been gradually departing from its ancient Teutonic character, and deviating towards a Gallic structure and phraseology; from which it ought to be our endeavour to recall it ;—by making our ancient volumes the groundwork of our style, admitting among the additions of later times only such as may supply real deficiencies, such as are readily adopted by the genius of our tongue, and incorporate easily with our native idioms."

In his preface to the Works of Shakspeare, we also find the following very applicable sentiments:-"I believe there is in every nation a style that never becomes obsolete, a certain mode of phraseology so consonant and congenial to the principles of its respective language, as to remain settled and unaltered. The polite are always catching modish innovations, and the learned depart from established forms of speech in hopes of finding or making better: those who write for distinction, forsake the vulgar, when the vulgar is right; but there is a conversation, above grossness and below refinement, where propriety resides, and where Shakspeare seems to have gathered his comic dialogue. He is, therefore, more agreeable to the ears of the present age than any other author equally remote, and, among his other excellences, deserves to be studied as ONE OF THE ORIGINAL MASTERS OF OUR LANGUAGE." These passages I have inserted, because such a testimony from this great man will, at least, be thought impartial by every person acquainted with the characteristics of his style.

The alterations in our language here mentioned are certainly not for the better:-they give the phraseology a disgusting air of study and formality: they have their source in affectation, not in taste: yet novelty has its attractions. Though such exotic terms and phrases as are here referred to, are not better than our homebred English, yet their newness gives them a spurious sort of beauty:-though they