with text-books that group all grammatical instruction around the eight
parts of speech, making eight independent units, will not, in the following
lessons, find everything in its accustomed place. But, when it is
remembered that the thread of connection unifying this work is the
sentence, it will be seen that the lessons fall into their natural order of
sequence. When, through the development of the sentence, all the offices of
the different parts of speech are mastered, the most natural thing is to
continue the work of classification and subdivide the parts of speech. The
inflection of words, being distinct from their classification, makes a
separate division of the work. If the chief end of grammar were to enable
one to parse, we should not here depart from long-established precedent.

+Sentences in Groups--Paragraphs+.--In tracing the growth of the sentence
from the simplest to the most complex form, each element, as it is
introduced, is illustrated by a large number of detached sentences, chosen
with the utmost care as to thought and expression. These compel the pupil
to confine his attention to one thing till he gets it well in hand.
Paragraphs from literature are then selected to be used at intervals, with
questions and suggestions to enforce principles already presented, and to
prepare the way informally for the regular lessons that follow. The lessons
on these selections are, however, made to take a much wider scope. They
lead the pupil to discover how and why sentences are grouped into
paragraphs, and how paragraphs are related to each other; they also lead
him on to discover whatever is most worthy of imitation in the style of the
several models presented.

+The Use of the Diagram+.--In written analysis, the simple map, or diagram,
found in the following lessons, will enable the pupil to present directly
and vividly to the eye the exact function of every clause in the sentence,
of every phrase in the clause, and of every word in the phrase--to picture