TO YOUNG STUDENTS.

THE Compiler of these elements of the English lan guage, hopes it will not be deemed inconsistent with the nature and design of his work, to make a short address to the young persons engaged in the study of it, respecting their future walks in the paths of literature, and the chief purpose to which they should apply their ac quisitions.

In forming this Grammar, and the volume of Illustrations; connected with it, the author was influenced by a desire to facilitate your progress in learning, and, at the same time, to impress on your minds principles of piety and virtue. He wished also to assist, in some degree, the labours of those who are cultivating your un derstandings, and providing for you a fund of rational and useful employment; an employment calculated to exclude those frivolous pursuits, and that love of ease and sensual pleasure, which enfeeble and corrupt the minds of many inconsiderate youth, and render them useless to society.

Without your own best exertions, the concern of others for your welfare, will be of little avail: with them, you may fairly promise yourselves success. The writer of this address, therefore, recommends to you, an earnest co-operation with the endeavours of your friends to promote your improvement and happiness. This co-operation, whilst it secures your own progress, will afford you the heart-felt satisfaction, of knowing that you are cherishing the hopes, and augmenting the pleasures of those with whom you are connected by the most endearing ties. He recommends to you also, serious and elevated views of the studies in which you may be engaged. Whatever may be your attainments, never allow yourselves to

rest satisfied with mere literary acquisitions, nor with a selfish or contracted application of them. When they advance only the interests of this stage of being, and look not beyond the present transient scene, their influence is circumscribed within a very narrow sphere. The great business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better, by cultivating a pure and humble state of mind, and cherishing habits of piety towards God, and benevolence to men. Every thing that promotes or retards this important work, is of great moment to you, and claims your first and most serious attention.

If, then, the cultivation of letters, and an advancement in knowledge, are found to strengthen and enlarge your minds, to purify and exalt your pleasures, and to dispose you to pious and virtuous sentiments and conduct, they produce excellent effects; which, with your best endeavors to improve them, and the Divine blessing superadded, will not fail to render you, not only wise and good yourselves, but also the happy instruments of diffusing wisdom, religion, and goodness around you. Thus improved, your acquisitions become handmaids to virtue; and they may event. ually serve to increase the rewards, which the Supreme Being has promised to faithful and well-directed exertions, for the promotion of truth and goodness amongst

men.

But if you counteract the hopes of your friends, and the tendency of these attainments; if you grow vain of your real or imaginary distinctions, and regard with contempt, the virtuous, unlettered mind; if you suffer yourselves to be absorbed in over-curious or trifling speculations; if your heart and principles be debased and poisoned, by the influence of corrupting and pernicious books, for which no elegance of composition can make amends; if you spend so much of your time in literary engagements, as to make them interfere with higher oc cupations, and lead you to forget, that pious' and benevolent action is the great end of your being: if such be the

unhappy misapplication of your acquisitions and advantages, instead of becoming a blessing to you, they will prove the occasion of greater condemnation; and, in the hour of serious thought, they may excite the painful reflections, that it would have been better for you, to have remained illiterate and unaspiring; to have been confined to the humblest walks of life; and to have been even hewers of wood and drawers of water all your days.

Contemplating the dangers to which you are exposed, the sorrows and dishonour which accompany talents misapplied, and a course of indolence and folly, may you exert your utmost endeavours to avoid them! Seriously reflecting on the great end for which you were brought into existence; on the bright and encouraging examples of many excellent young persons; and on the mournful deviations of others, who once were promising; may you be so wise as to choose and follow that path, which leads to honour, usefulness, and true enjoyment! This is the morning of your life, in which pursuit is ardent, and obstacles readily give way to vigour and perseverance. Embrace this favourable season; devote yourselves to the acquisition of knowledge and virtue; and humbly pray to God that he may bless your labours. Often reflect on the advantages you possess, and on the source from whence they are all derived. A lively sense of the privileges and blessings, by which you have been distinguished, will induce you to render to your heavenly Father, the just returns of gratitude and love: and these fruits of early goodness will be regarded by him as acceptable offerings, and secure to you his favour and protection.

Whatever difficulties and discouragements may be found in resisting the allurements of vice, you may be humbly confident that Divine assistance will be afforded to all your good and pious resolutions; and that every virtuous effort will have a correspondent reward. You may rest assured too, that all the advantages arising from vicious indulgences, are light and contemptible, as well as exceedingly transient, compared with the sub

F f

stantial enjoyments, the present pleasures and the future hopes, which result from piety and virtue. The Holy Scriptures assure us, that "The ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and that all her paths are peace :" "that religion has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come:" and that the truly good man, whatever may be the condition allotted to him by Divine Providence, "in all things gives thanks, and rejoices even in tribulation."-Some of these sentiments have been finely illustrated by a celebrated poet. The author of this address presents the illustration to you, as a striking and beautiful portrait of virtue: with his most cordial wishes, that your hearts and lives may correspond to it; and that your happiness here, may be an earnest of happiness hereafter.

Know then this truth, (enough for man to know,) Virtue alone is happiness below:

The only point where human bliss stands still;
And tastes the good, without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is bless'd in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequall'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain:
Without satiety, though e'er so bless'd;
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd:
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd;
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;

Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected, while another's bless'd:
And where no wants, no wishes can remain ;
Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain.—
For him alone hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens still and opens on his soul;
Till lengthen'd on to faith, and unconfin'd,
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.”

THE END..

Recommendations of this work, the Abridged Grammar, the Exercises and Key.

"Mr. Murray's Grammar, Exercises, and Key to the Exercises, form altogether, by far, the most complete and judicious analysis of the English language, that has hitherto been published. The rules for composition are excellent; the examples are selected with taste and judgment; and the execution of the whole displays an unusual degree of critical acuteness and sagacity."

Annual Review, 1802.

"Mr. Murray's English Grammar, English Exerci ses, and Abridgment of the Grammar, claim our atten tion on account of their being composed on the principle we have so frequently recommended, of combining religious and moral improvement with the elements of scientific knowledge. But as it is not a part of our plan, to enter into a particular examination of works of this nature, we shall only say, that they have long been in high estimation."

"The late learned Dr. Blair gave his opinion of them in the following terms:-Mr. Lindley Murray's Grammar, with the Exercises and the Key in a separate ' volume, I esteem as a most excellent performance. I 'think it superior to any work of that nature we have yet • had; and am persuaded that it is, by much, the best Grammar of the English language extant. On Syntax, in particular, he has shown a wonderful degree of ' acuteness and precision, in ascertaining the propriety of language, and in rectifying the numberless errors which writers are apt to commit. Most useful these 'books must certainly be to all who are applying themselves to the arts of composition.'

Guardian of Education, July, 1803.

"This Grammar is a publication of much merit, and fully answers the professions in the title. The Appendix