PREFACE.

FROM THE NINTH CENTURY down to the present, one language -English-has always been spoken by the people of our land. To make this clear is the aim kept in view throughout all the etymological sections of this handbook. For obvious reasons, Orthography and Orthoëpy are but briefly noticed.

The repetitions seen in the earlier sections on Etymology are traits belonging to the plan of the book. There are readers who would first of all notice chiefly our modern forms and their classification. Others would

study the union of the old and the new. For the convenience of the former, an asterisk is here and there prefixed to historical paragraphs that may be omitted, and facts, already given in treating of old forms, are named again where new forms are classified. In the Table of Contents titles of elementary sections, and parts of sections, are set in capitals. These parts of the work may be viewed as a first course of lessons.

For the parts of speech, their old nomenclature is mostly retained. Adjectives are sometimes called "Participles,' because their stems are used in verbs, and for the same reason certain Nouns are described as Gerunds.' At the same time some errors of classifica

tion have been avoided, alterations in uses have been noticed, and many words practically vague, as regards the classes to which they belong, are here called 'Vague Words' (pp. 276, 284).

Old Verbs are arranged in seven classes, and so as to show their historical connection with earlier forms, which are more distinctly classified as regards their changes of vowels (pp. 89-95, 121-30). New Verbsincluding those sometimes called 'irregular '-are also distinctly and historically classified (pp. 101-5, 132-36).

Secondary Derivatives, Compounds, Divisions of Syllables, Sources of Words and Alterations of their formsthese are the subjects treated of in several later sections, where references are given to many useful books. All the books, grammatical and lexicographical, to which the writer is more or less indebted are named, and several are named of which he knows nothing more than their general characteristics.

Reading is the first and the best way of studying Syntax. Our best prose-writers are our teachers, and their permanent usages are our rules. Still a grammarian may render good service when he collects numerous examples, and classifies them so that they may be readily found. He may afterwards frame some rules, and these may indeed be defective; but there will be one good result of the plan: the reader who may not like the rules will first of all have the facts laid before him, and then will be able to make rules for his own guidance. His knowledge of the freedom allowed by usage will serve as a defence against small criticism, and the observance of a few rules will make his confidence secure.

Accordingly, throughout all the sections on Syntax, the method pursued is inductive: examples precede rules, and while these are comparatively few, those are very

numerous—so numerous, indeed, that, if printed in a large type, they would fill a volume of some considerable size. Excepting only a few of the shortest excerpts, and some specimens of familiar prose (mostly followed by G), these examples have been selected, not from Grammars and Dictionaries, but from writings belonging to our best standard literature. They represent, therefore, the laws of construction observed during the last three centuries, and many excerpts from the writings of earlier times are given. One of the writer's aims is to direct attention to works in which Old English is made a special subject of study. Here Modern English is predominant.

The nomenclature employed in Syntax is one that might have been suggested by the words of an old author — All things are as is their use.' For the most part this nomenclature has already been employed in an excellent English Grammar. The limitation introducing the fact here stated implies no wish to attenuate the force of words in a confession of obligation. In classifying under their common name, Adverbials, a large number of words and phrases the latter including many translations of Latin cases the writer of this manual is supported, as he believes, by the authority of clear definitions given in the work referred to. At the same time it is right to add that he alone is responsible for the details of that classification given in pp. 230-32, 327-44, 354-62.

The Rules of Syntax are arranged in an order corresponding with that of preceding observations and examples, and the numbers of the paragraphs consisting mostly of examples correspond with those prefixed to observations. Accordingly, the facts on which each rule is based may be readily found. The rule given (p. 373) for distinct uses

English Grammar; including the Principles of Grammatical Analysis. By C. P. MASON, B.A., Fellow of University College, London.

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of that and which may be noticed here, and for other examples the reader may turn to the rules of concord for Subjects and Verbs (pp. 373-74).. There under each rule is given at least one reference, while the number that refers to observations points also to examples. References are thus made more useful than rules. The Verb agrees with the Subject in number and person.' There are many apparent exceptions, and of these some have been hastily condemned as bad grammar. Here, then, as in other instances, the chief use of the rule is to direct attention to examples and to certain formal or merely apparent anomalies: in other words, the references are more useful than the rule itself, which-left alone-might leave room for doubt, or lead to error. Facts and rules rarely agree together exactly.

The Rules of Syntax are followed by tabular forms for analyses of sentences, and in later sections the following subjects are noticed:-Parsing, Punctuation, Order, Inversions, Ellipses. These sections, taken together, may serve as an Introduction to Composition. Of Composition itself only a few words are said, but these may possibly lead to the study of books in which the subject is more largely treated.

Verse is not Poetry; but ideas and their appropriate forms are closely united in the works of true poets; and as Poetry itself is a theme of large extent and variety, so its true form-good versification-must have various and harmonious changes, such as cannot be well shown in mechanical tables of measures and accents. It does not follow that, because one knows a little of Grammar, he is therefore able to describe well such versification as is found in the poetry of SHAKESPEARE, of MILTON, of COLERIDGE. Prosody has been viewed as a subject too extensive to be treated of in this compendium.