THE Compiler of these elements of the English language, 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 acquisi tions. In forming this Grammar, and the volume of Exercises 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 understandings, 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. He hopes that, whatever may be your attainments, you will not rest satisfied with mere literary acquisitions, nor with a selfish or contracted application of them. When they advance only the interest 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 endeavours 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 eventually 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 occupations, 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. THE END. ALL LINDLEY MURRAY'S WORKS, of which the following is a list. 1. A First Book for Children. 4. English Exercises to the Grammar. 9. Sequel to the English Reader. 11. The Power of Religion on the Mind. Recommendations of some of the above. "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 Exercises, and Abridgment of the Grammar, claim our attention, 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 Gram mar, On with the Exercises and the Key in a separate vo lume, I esteem as a most excellent performance. I think it superiour 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. 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 contains some of the best rules for writing elegantly, and with propriety, that we recollect to have seen. "We have been much pleased with the perusal of Mr. Murray's "English Exercises." They occupy, with distinguished excellence, a most important place in the science of the English language; and, as such, we can warmly recommend them to the teachers of schools, as well as to all those who are desirous of attaining correctness and precision in their native tongue.” Monthly Review, 1796, 1797. "Mr. Lindley Murray's grammar of the English tongue, has grown into high repute. The demand for it is so frequent, that already a ninth edition is published. This contains many corrections and additions, by which it is greatly improved, as well as somewhat enlarged. In Great Britain, the sale and circulation are uncommonly rapid and extensive. And as a proof of the good opinion entertained of it in America, the professors of the colleges at New-York, at Princetown, and at New-Haven, have adopted it as an elementary book of instruction, in their respective seminaries. A work so well calculated to be useful and popular; so judiciously arranged; and executed with so much taste and critical skill; well deserves to be put into the hands of every person who studies the language which it is intended to elucidate." Medical and Literary Repository, for May, June, and July, 1804, published at New-York. |