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PRINCIPLES

OF

ENGLISH GRAMMAR;

COMPRISING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE MOST APPROVED
ENGLISH GRAMMARS EXTANT.

WITH

COPIOUS EXERCISES

IN

PARSING AND SYNTAX,

FOR THE USE OF ACADEMIES AND COMMON SCHOOLS.

A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED;

WITH

AN APPENDIX

OF VARIOUS AND USEFUL MATTER.

BY THE REV. PETER BULLIONS, D. D.

PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES IN THE ALBANY ACADEMY: AUTHOR
OF PRINCIPLES OF LATIN GRAMMAR; AND PRINCIPLES
OF GREEK GRAMMAR.

TEENTH

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY PRATT, WOODFORD & CO.,

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[Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by PETER BULLIONS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New-York.]

PREFACE.

A KNOWLEDGE of English Grammar is very properly considered ar indispensable part of an English education; and is now taught as such, in all our Academies and Common Schools. The great number of elementary works which have recently appeared on this subject, is a pleasing evidence of the attention which has been bestowed upon it. Among these, none has enjoyed greater favour than the Grammar of LINDLEY MURRAY; and the high rank which it still holds among the numerous works which have appeared since its publication, is a decided testimony to the soundness of its principles and the excellence of the system. With all its excellence, however, it is far from being incapable of improvement; and the attempt to add to its value as a manual for schools, by correcting what is erroneous, retrenching what is superfluous or unimportant, compressing what is prolix, elucidating what is obscure, determining what was left doubtful, supplying what is defective, and bringing up the whole to that state of improvement to which the labours of eminent scientific and practical writers of the present day have so greatly contributed, can hardly fail, if well executed, to prove acceptable to the public. Such was my design; and though there may be reason to regret that it has not been undertaken by some one more capable of doing justice to the subject, still it is hoped that the labour bestowed, in order to carry it into effect, will not be altogether in vain.

In endeavouring to avoid the minutiæ and diffuseness of the larger Grammar, care has been taken to guard against the opposite extreme. The abridgments of Murray now in use, are little more than a synopsis of the larger work; presenting a mere outline of the subject, altogether too meagre to be of much service to the learner. The same remark is applicable to a great number of smaller works which have been published with a similar view; namely, to serve as an introduction to a more extended system. They are incapable themselves of imparting a satisfactory knowledge of the subject; and yet it often happens, perhaps even in a majority of cases, that those who have

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