PREFACE.

IN the following pages an attempt has been made to discuss the principles, grammatical and logical, of the English Language.

In Part I., the discussions are confined to Forms of Expression. There are in our language certain generic forms, which are here classified under the heads of Wordforms, Phrase-forms, and Clause-forms, in some one of which as a fixed organic structure of language, thought is always embodied. These generic forms, or moulds of thought, are moreover the same, substantially, in organic form and character, in all languages. Hence, in these organic verbal structures, all written thought, whether ancient or modern, finds its constant expression. While, therefore, a knowledge of these forms is indispensable to a clear understanding of the syntactical structure of the English, and to the philosophy of verbal combination generally in our tongue, such knowledge becomes of immense value, the moment the pupil enters upon the study of the syntax of a foreign language; for the leading grammatical principles, here discussed, are the same in all tongues. Hence the pupil enters upon the study of his Latin, his Greek, his French, or his German syntax,

with a perfect knowledge, already gained, of the underlying principles of verbal combination, upon which the rules of syntax in these various languages are based. Hence the mastery of the syntax in any foreign language is accomplished with ease and pleasure, and in a tithe of the time usually expended under the present method. Upon this, the author speaks not unadvisedly, but after an experience in this method of teaching language of, at least, fifteen years.

The methods now in vogue always give the pupil the false impression, that every language has methods of syn tactical structure peculiar to itself, and that consequently, with each new tongue all the principles of syntax must be learned again de novo. Thus the pupil traverses the same road again and again, without knowing the fact, or indeed so much as dreaming that there is anything in common between the old path and the new. He comes to look upon the syntax of each new language as a field of investigation entirely new; and what is worse, he leaves the study of the same, under the same erroneous impression.

All this is exceedingly unfortunate. Impenetrable partition walls are erected thus between the different languages pursued, in the department under consideration, and thus the pupil receives neither light nor help from the work already accomplished; and, of course, never secures any broad or extended view of the generic forms of expression common to all tongues, and consequently of the science or philosophy of the same..

In Part II., the discussions have to do with the elements

of thought. The logical methods of the human mind are always and everywhere the same. When therefore the pupil has learned these logical elements in his own tongue he has learned them for all tongues. Hence, these once mastered, he has only to inquire, what the specific vertal expression of these known elements in a given tongue is, and he has at once and more perfectly than any other method or system can give him, the complete syntax of that language. And this last he acquires with great ease and facility, because, as has been before remarked, he has already become familiar with all the regular generic forms of thought-expression to be found in the language pursued. He knows, in advance, that every one of the logical elements he is now to meet with must take on some one of these generic forms of expression, as its appropriate lingual dress. Hence, toilsome study becomes enthusiastic curiosity, since the pupil is ever on the alert to discover what peculiar form of outward clothing a given thought, in the language now pursued, will put on; for it is one of the distinctive excellences of this method, as it is believed, that it leads the pupil constantly to work from the thought outward to its appropriate form of expression, and not from the expression inward to the thought. Thus the pupil's mind is held constantly to the unchanging logical basis of language as a stand-point of investigation, as he proceeds from tongue to tongue, and not to the mere grammatical turns of verbal expression which are merely accidental, and vary in their details with every new language pursued.

This book is not a Grammar, and does not occupy the

place of a Grammar. It is rather related to Grammar, much as Algebra is related to Arithmetic. It presupposes at least a knowledge of Etymology, and in our schools should follow directly a thorough acquaintance with the same. Classical pupils should commence it when they commence their Latin Grammar (if they have not before), and thus, by the time they have mastered their Latin Etymology, they will also have mastered this; and then the work of Latin and of Greek Syntax, including Latin and Greek Prose Composition, will be found to be very greatly facilitated.

It is confidently believed that this work, binding together, as it does, the syntax of all languages on the common basis of universal generic forms of expression, will be found to supply a want, which thoughtful educators have long felt, in the study of language.

The author has in process of preparation the same method as adapted to the Latin and the Greek. As the great majority of the discussions here apply as perfectly to the classical tongues (indeed to all tongues) as to the English, a very small volume will be sufficient to indicate the specific modifications peculiar to these languages. This fact of itself indicates the peculiar advantages of this method. The author has also nearly ready for the press, a little work designed to precede this, embodying in clear and compact form the real essentials of English Etymology and Syntax; and likewise, soon to follow this little Grammar and designed to supplement the present volume, a Rhetoric arranged in conformity with the purely analytical method of this work.