Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-10-08
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR: Simple Concise and Comprfheasir
Manual u he English Language Designed for the uss
Of Schools, Academies, and as Book for Geheral ne
ference in the Language In four parts. BY Rev. r.
w. BAILEY, AN. Philadelphia Clark Hesser 1858.
In some recent observations under the head OF
Mr. BAILEYs Treatise on English Grammar we
took occasion to suggest few reflections on the
utility and expediency of the grammatical study Of
our own tongue. We are not disposed to under
rate the importance of this Of any other study be-
cause it cannot be directly and Immediately utilized
for the practical purposes of everyday life There
is class of shallowbrained people and of sefstyled
" educational reformers" who propose greatly to
expedite the processes and more certainly to
secure the end of education by combining its range
within the sphere of such studies as shall be capa
BILE of immediate adaptation to the wants of the
learner In the profession or ayocaton of his choice
For all such narrow views and for all such bread
and-butter study" as the Germans call it, we con-
fess most thorough and unmitigated contempt
Regarding education as means and not as an end
we are disposed to regard with favor every study
which contributes to mental discipline and general
intellectual development, even though there may
not be the remotest probability that the learner will
ever find occasion to convert the specific educational
capital thus acquired into dollars and cents We.
propose to ourselves some higher object in the
learning of liberal arts than their immediate as
much more respect for the doctrine of expediency
in morals than in education.
These remarks were perhaps needed to guard US
from an imputation which our objections to the al
legged utility of grammatical study might seem to
justify We advocate the study Of English Gram
mar, but more as a science to discipline the mind
than means to the art Of speaking and writing
our own language correctly. We are still con-
strained to believe that the study Of the science
l,x s,loral
the art. But the study of grammar, by awakening
in the mind of the pupil a habit of attention, by
cutvating the memory, and by gradually superinducng
the faculty of memory the higher faculty of reasoning
on the principles which have been memorized, tends
greatly towards mental improvement, and deserves the
place it has acquired in every educational system and in
all schools and where these ends secured we
conceive higher and greater advantage have accrued
to the student than would have been acquired in the
practical art Of speaking and writing correctly sup
posing the art could be thus attained, which all expe
rence proves is not the fact Many speak and write their
mother tongue with general accuracy without knowing
scientifically the rules of its grammatical structures
ny possess scientific knowledge of its rules but habiu
ally violate them from that force of habit which has be-
come second natures Where the grammatical rule
ncdes with the habit the rule is needed where the
rule conflicts with the habit the rule is found powerless
to mend the breach.
All that the grammar Of our tongue do, in
view is to nculcate science that which has been al
ready learned That this study viii be directly
available to the improvement of the art have given
for doubng but that its indirect and collateral
advantages in the general culture of the human under
standing neither. few slight we readily admit,
and SO far from banshng it from our schools we are
ready hail every publication which offers better
for the study of this science of language in
raj and of language particular 1t is in this
view that accept the contribution Of Mr. BAILEY to
this department of knowledge. We have examined his
treatise with than the hasy reviewers Of a
daily Journal it commonly comes within power to give
the most Of the books which make the subject
Of such crude remark find time to indte. 1t is
what it purports to be, simple concise and compre
hensive manual Of the English language" admirably
adapted for the Of schools and academies and as
book for general reference in the legitimate usages and
iioms Of our mother We have hesitation in
pronouncng the best exposition of the principles and
construction Of the English language with which
acquainted as comprised in work Of small compass.
Its definitions are exact and its Technology and
synax less cumbrous than those contained in most OF the
works on English grammar. Part l. is an elementary
treatise containing in concise manual what is essential
TO general grammar and essential to the English Part H.
Celebrates the subject fully minutely and compre-
hensvey, that important difficulty in the language,
author hopes, mas
ed and no result wanting far grammarans and men
of letters have decided If We have answered OBJ
jec says Mr. B., "a grammaris here furnished for the
child and the philosopher. Both must have the same.
Part ILL., comprises collection Of English idioms, diff
cult grammatical constructions obsolete words and
phrases &c. the whole being to the most interesting
part of the work. and not the least valuable
to the student bringing into exercise does the logic
Of language and the polcmics Of grammar. Part ~.
Of prosody and photography though why ortho-
graphy" If inserted in the work at all should be placed
on the very last pages Of the volume at loss to
discover.
Having expressed ourselves thus freely and canddly
TO the general merits of this excellent treatise English
grammar, trust the author will bear with If
ture state few Of the points which deem it
ceptible OF still further improvement Some Of the def
nitions in parts and IL need be and other:
ampifcd in order to be critically exact and the disqu
trely rewritten, whether regarded from the author
point Of view own, which is quite different Ac
cording to Mr.. Baeys infection Of the English regular
verb we possible Of retaining the srunc
a distinctive mood If, he says, the subjunctve
mood is formed through all the merely by adding
the conjunction IL though, &C. to the indicative form, and
if the old form Of the subjunctive still preserved BY
good writer's, is far obsolescent long
to deserve place in the conjugaton Of the verb,
propose that grammatical nomenclature shall keep
pace par passu with this modification and sinpfcaor
Of the language spoken and written. If the distnc
tive subunctvc form is obsolescen let the term itself al