EASY LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, DESIGNED FOR USE IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS, AND FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES IN SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES. BY LIONEL EDWARDES, A.M. THIRD EDITION. DUBLIN: ALEXANDER THOM, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER, SOLD BY LONGMANS, GREEN & Co.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co.; GEO. ROBERTSON, MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, AND ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA, 1877. PREFACE. THIS little treatise, which has been prepared by one who has had forty years' experience in connexion with the education of youth, is specially designed for use in Primary Schools and for the Junior Classes in Seminaries and Colleges. In its preparation these three objects have been kept constantly in view : (1.) That it should comprise everything necessary to qualify pupils to speak and write the English language correctly. (2.) That everything not necessary for the attainment of that end, everything fanciful, crotchety, or far-fetched, should be rigidly excluded. (3.) That the lessons should be conveyed in the simplest terms possible, so as to be intelligible to all children who are learning to read words of three syllables. To attain the first of these objects, the author has never lost sight of the simple definition with which his little treatise commences, viz., that "English Grammar is the art of speaking and writing the English Language correctly;" and accordingly he has not only given full and systematic instructions regarding Etymology and Syntax, but has also added Lessons on the Idioms of the language, on the uses of those puzzling auxiliaries, Shall and Will, and on Vulgarisms and other prevalent grammatical errors. To attain the second object, he has reduced Orthography, which is to children a most uninteresting subject and a matter of mere drudgery, within very moderate limits, by excluding all those details which practically belong to the Spelling Book rather than to Grammar. He has also excluded Figures of Speech and Prosody, which may be said to belong to the luxuries rather than to the necessaries of grammatical knowledge, and also Derivations, which are generally learned from other treatises than Grammar. To attain the third object, special care has been taken to exclude from the Lessons, particularly the earlier ones, as far as possible, all terms not in current use amongst the classes for whom the treatise is designed. With the same view the author has retained the old, familiar, stereotyped nomenclature of Grammar, such as Past Tense, Perfect Tense, Present Participle, Past Participle, Regular Verb, Irregular Verb, &c., &c. This nomenclature has been sanctioned by the usage of centuries, and still holds its ground against modern innovations, which are in many cases only fanciful, and in all cases appertain rather to the domain of the Philosophy of Grammar, than to the plain, unpretentious "Art of speaking and writing the English Language correctly." |