HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by A. S. BARNES & COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Stereotyped by C. Davison, 33 Gold Street, New York. PREFACE. "LANGUAGE is the expression of thought and feeling." Then the Science of Language is necessarily connected with the Science of Mind. In the use of language, thought is clothed in words: the immaterial essence puts on material form-speech becomes the "body of thought." Hence, the Science of language has for its province the exhibition of thought through its appropriate symbols; while the Art of language determines the proper words as symbols of thought, and the proper arrangement and combination of words to express the various relations of thought. In order, then, to acquire the Art, we must learn the Science; and, to learn the science, we must deduce its principles from facts as they exist. This is best done by analyzing the finished productions of leading literary men-acknowledged models in style and diction. From the nature of the science, it is obvious that the basis of analysis must be the sentiment-the intellectual element of a sentence. In the following pages, the author has endeavored to discuss this foundation of the Science of the English Language; -to show what the language is; to investigate the theory of sentence-making; to determine what are Elements in a sentence, and what are not; to distinguish proximate from ultimate elements; to classify sentences according to their forms and offices; and to furnish appropriate examples, illustrative of each Element in the language, and of each class and variety of sentence. It is not claimed for this little work, that it is a Grammar. Its proper place is introductory to that science. It discusses principles which necessarily lie at the foundation of any rational system of English Grammarleaving undiscussed those mooted questions touching the minutiae of the science, which have given rise to so many theories and theorizing textbooks on Grammar. For the convenience of private learners, and as suggestions to Teachers, the author has given MODELS for analyzing Sentences. These mod els suggest four distinct METHODS-each adapted to a different stage of the pupil's advancement in the science. The first Method is given in the Introductory Exercises on pp. 7-8, in which a sentence is analyzed by appropriate answers to judicious questions. By this method the principal labor is done by the teacher-the pupil requiring no previous knowledge of the technical terms used in Grammar. By the second Method-indicated also in the Introductory Exercises and on p. 20-the constructive offices of words in a sentence are determined as a result of the proper answers to the questions in the first Method. The third Method-given on page 21-taxes the judgment of the pupil, and requires some knowledge of technical terms-and some previous study. In this method the Chart is of service. The fourth Method is given on p. 22; and serves as a test of the pupil's proficiency in determining the Elements of a sentence-the various offices of words and their relations to each other. The CHART is of service, chiefly, in presenting to the class a systematic method of analysis. It suggests a natural and philosophical order of progress in determining the various individual offices of words. The manner of using it is suggested on pages 22, and 127–33. The DIAGRAMS-constituting as they do a perfect system, in which words find a position according to their offices-are useful in presenting the Analysis of language to the eye, enabling the whole class, however large, to concentrate their thoughts upon the same point at the same time. They exhibit not only the individual offices of words, but also their relations to each other. While this Introduction to the Science of the English Language may profitably precede the use of any text-book on Grammar, it is peculiarly serviceable in introducing the use of CLARK'S PRACTICAL GRAMMAR-the superstructure is fitted to the foundation. EAST BLOOMFIELD ACADEMY, } September, 1851. |