Aitken A VALUABLE BOOK OF REFERENCE. The Standard Authority in the Correct Use of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE. A THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL BY GOOLD BROWN, Author of "The Institutes of English Grammar," "The First Lines of English Grammar," &c. TENTH EDITION-REVISED AND IMPROVED. ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF A COPIOUS INDEX OF MATTER, BY SAMUEL U. BERRIAN, A.M. "This book of reference should stand in every teacher's library by the side of the Unabridged Dictionary. It is the great thesaurus of grammatical knowledge. In its present form it is a beautiful specimen of varied and elaborate typography, -corresponding herein to the high scientific character of the work. We can name no publication on English grammar, from any other source, which makes any approaches to the copiousness, critical character, and completeness of Brown's Grammar of English Grammars. It should lie on the teacher's desk of every public school, be referred to as the accredited standard of English, and be made the source whence the teacher is to draw his inspiration of grammar."-New England and National Journal of Education. "Why any student or teacher should be without this great and indispensable work, and why teachers in high places should not urge their pupils and friends to obtain it, is inconceivable to me." O. H. ROBERTS, Prof. and formerly Acting Prin. of Pacific Meth. College, Santa Rosa, Cal. "I am an almost constant user of Brown's Grammar of Grammars." WILLIAM RICHARDSON, "It is a work of superior merit, both as to contents and mechanical make up." J. FRAISE RICHARDS, Mansfield, Ohio. 1100 Pages. Royal Octavo. Price, bound in Leather, $5; Half Morocco, $6.25. PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY, BROWN'S LANGUAGE LESSONS WITH GRADED EXERCISES IN ANALYSIS, PARSING, CONSTRUCTION, AND COMPOSITION AN INTRODUCTION TO GOOLD BROWN'S SERIES OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS BY HENRY KIDDLE, A.M. Late Superintendent of Schools, New York City NEW YORK WILLIAM WOOD AND COMPANY 1889 PREFACE. THE publication of this little manual is due to a demand, on the part of teachers who use Goold Brown's admirable system of English grammar, for an introductory work simpler and more elementary than the "First Lines," and supplied with more copious written exercises, and a system of diagrams for the illustration of sentential analysis. In compliance with this demand, the book has been divided into easy lessons, and the development system has been more fully carried out in the presentation and elucidation of the whole subject. The work has, in this manner, been divested of the character of a formal treatise while the logical order of the topics has been still preserved. Nor is it a mere epitome of Brown's larger work, "The Institutes of English Grammar," but is to be regarded as a series of simple Language Lessons, involving the rudimentary principles, definitions, and rules of English Grammar, with abundant practice in their use and application, by means of both oral and written exercises, thus forming an introduction to the study of the larger work. In all the lessons, the aim has been to divest the subject of the arbitrary and abstract character which has too often been given to grammatical study, and of which much complaint has justly been made. This has been avoided by developing in the mind of the pupil, by means of an easy and almost obvious analysis of simple examples, the ideas and distinctions designed to be imparted, after which formal definitions may properly be given. Thus every lesson, with its illustrative exercises in analysis and construction, becomes a step in training the pupil in the science and art of verbal expression, or language, and in leading him to the acquisition of correct habits in both speaking and writing. This is at present a very great desideratum in elementary education, not to be attained, as some think, by the abolition of what they are pleased to call "technical grammar," and the substitution of an arbitrary, hap-hazard method of practice, with no guide, principle, or rule, but by initiating the pupil into the knowledge and constant ap |