When we bring into consideration the numerous productions of those
learned philologists who have labored so long, and, as many suppose, so
successfully, in establishing the principles of our language; and, more
especially, when we view the labors of some of our modern compilers, who
have displayed so much ingenuity and acuteness in attempting to arrange
those principles in such a manner as to form a correct and an easy
medium of mental conference; it does, indeed, appear a little like
presumption for a young man to enter upon a subject which has so
frequently engaged the attention and talents of men distinguished for
their erudition. The author ventures forward, however, under the
conviction, that most of his predecessors are very deficient, at least,
in _manner,_ if not in _matter_; and this conviction, he believes, will
be corroborated by a majority of the best judges in community. It is
admitted, that many valuable improvements have been made by some of our
late writers, who have endeavored to simplify and render this subject
intelligible to the young learner, but they have all overlooked what the
author considers a very important object, namely, _a systematic order of
parsing;_ and nearly all have neglected to _develop and explain_ the
principles in such a manner as to enable the learner, without great
difficulty, to comprehend their nature and use.

By some this system will, no doubt, be discarded on account of its
_simplicity_; while to others its simplicity will prove its principal
recommendation. Its design is an humble one. It proffers no great
advantages to the recondite grammarian; it professes not to instruct the
literary connoisseur; it presents no attractive graces of style to
charm, no daring flights to astonish, no deep researches to gratify
him; but in the humblest simplicity of diction, it attempts to
accelerate the march of the juvenile mind in its advances in the path of