A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. BY W. H. WELLS, M. A., INSTRUCTOR IN PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER, MASS. Twenty-second Thousand. ANDOVER: PUBLISHED BY ALLEN, MORRILL, AND WARDWELL. BOSTON: JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. 1847. HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE A. CURTIS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, BOSTON. PREFACE. A BRIEF notice of the circumstances under which the following work has been written, will give a general idea of its prominent characteristics. About nine years since, while engaged in the instruction of a class of teachers, the author commenced a critical examination of several grammatical works, in connection with a systematic course of English reading. All the important principles of the language were familiarly discussed before the class. The definitions and rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with each other, and tested by constant reference to the usage of standard writers. In conducting the exercises of successive classes of teachers, a similar course has been repeated from year to year till the present time. The result of these labors is embodied in the work now offered to the public.* English Grammar is too often taught as if it were merely the art of parsing. It is hoped that instructors will find the present work adapted to teach "the art of speaking and writing." Copious exercises and illustrations have been *In pursuing this investigation, the author has collected between three and four hundred different treatises on English Grammar, and noted above eighteen thousand illustrative examples in the productions of the best English writers. |