support,--the present large volume would never have appeared. I had desired
some leisure for the completing of this design, and to it I scrupled not to
sacrifice the profits of my main employment, as soon as it could be done
without hazard of adding another chapter to "the Calamities of Authors."

The nature and design of this treatise are perhaps sufficiently developed
in connexion with the various topics which are successively treated of in
the Introduction. That method of teaching, which I conceive to be the best,
is also there described. And, in the Grammar itself, there will be found
occasional directions concerning the manner of its use. I have hoped to
facilitate the study of the English language, not by abridging our
grammatical code, or by rejecting the common phraseolgy [sic--KTH] of its
doctrines, but by extending the former, improving the latter, and
establishing both;--but still more, by furnishing new illustrations of the
subject, and arranging its vast number of particulars in such order that
every item may be readily found.

An other important purpose, which, in the preparation of this work, has
been borne constantly in mind, and judged worthy of very particular
attention, was the attempt to settle, so far as the most patient
investigation and the fullest exhibition of proofs could do it, the
multitudinous and vexatious disputes which have hitherto divided the
sentiments of teachers, and made the study of English grammar so
uninviting, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable, to the student whose taste
demands a reasonable degree of certainty.

"Whenever labour implies the exertion of thought, it does good, at least to
the strong: when the saving of labour is a saving of thought, it enfeebles.
The mind, like the body, is strengthened by hard exercise: but, to give
this exercise all its salutary effect, it should be of a reasonable kind;