The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-17

dulged myself only because in some of the
comments, private as well as public, which
have been made upon these articles, have
seen myself called grammarian. God
forbid that | should be anything of the sort
That | am unversed in the rules OF English
grammar (so called), l am not ashamed to
confess; for special ignorance is no reproach
| when unaccompanied with presumption. Aud
| what | confess that l have not acquired,
| have not undertaken to teach. That task 1
| leave to those who are capable of the subject,
! and who feel its necessity.
If grammar is what it has been defined as
being, the science which has for its object the
| laws which regulate language, the remarks
| just made cannot be justified; for in this
| sense, grammar is as much concerned with
words by themselves with their Specification
and their origin, and with their rightful use
| in those regards, as with their relation to each
| other in the sentence; and it is in this sense
| but another name for the science of language
| for philOlogy. But Notwithstanding that de-
! hnltlon, and its acceptance by some gramma-
! rians aud some compilers of dictionaries, this
! is not the sense in which the word grammar
! is generally used. Nor can the position which
| have now taken be maintained if grammar
is regarded as the science of the rightful or
reasonable expression of thought by language;
| for grammar, in this aspect, would be so closely
connected with logic as to be part of it TO all
intents and purposes.
But grammar, in its usual sense, is the art
of speaking and writing language correctly,
in which definition the word CORRECTLY means
in accordance with laws which are based upon
the relations, not of thoughts, but of words,
and which are determined by verbal forms. 1t
Is this formal, constructive grammar which
seems to me almost If not entirely superfuous,
in regard to the English language. Long ago,
before any attempt had been made to write its
! grammar, that language had worked itself
| linguistic contraction, and therefore free in
! the same degree from the needs and
| the control OF formal, constructive grammar.
| And, strangely, ii was not until English had
cast itself firmly and sharply into its present
| simple mould that scholars undertook to fur
njsh it with grammar, the nomenclature
| and the rules of which they took from Ian
| guages-the Latin and the Greek-with which
it had no formal affinity, to which it had no
! formal likeness, and by the laws of which it
could not be bound except so far as they We're
the universal laws of human thought. Allu-
! siOns to grammar and to its importance as a
! part of education abound in our early litera-
! ture. In a rhymiDg exhortation to a child,
| written in the fifteenth century, these lines
| occur:-
''My lefo chyld kownsel ye
To iuTme hi vi tens, thou awYse ye;
And have mind OF thy clensoune
| Both of nOwne and OF pronoWne,
| And ilk case in plurele
| How thai sal end, awyse the wele:
Aud tht parGclpyIs forgete thou nowih,
| And thi comparisons be yn tbi LhOwth;
| Thypk OF the revele OF the relavyfe:
Andth schalle thou the better thryfe;
And how u VERDE schalle be furmede,
Take code bede that thou be not stunnede;
The ablatyfe case thou hafe in mynd,
| That he be saved in hys kync;
Take code hedc qwat he Wylle do.
! And how nowne substantyfe
Wylle cOrde with q VERDE and retalyfe,
! POScuIo, pOScO peto,
But, as appears OH It's face, this exhortation
refers not to English but to Latin grammar,
which was the only grammar then taught or
thought of. That was the day of the esta-
blishirg and endowment of grammar schools
in England, but the grammar taught in them
was the Latin, and afterwards a little of the
Greek. Chaucer and Wyclife had written,
but in English grammar schools no man
thought of teaching English. When, at last,
it dawned upon the pedagogues that English
was a language, or rather, in their significant
phrase, avulgar tongue, and they set themselves
to giving rules for the art OF writing and speak
ing it correctly, they attempted to form these
rules upon the models furnished by the Latin
language. And what wonder for those were
the only rules they knew. But the con-
struction of the English language was even
less like that OF the Latin than English words
were like Latin. From this heterogeneous
union sprang that hybrid monster known as
| English grammar, before whose frutless
! lOlDS we nave SdCIluCeU, lOr nearly Llfe6 nun
dren years, our children and the strangers
within our gates.
T. W. Parsons contributes little poem
entitled "Swallows." The GaLary Miscellany
has several interesting articles titled as fol-
lows:-"The Last of the Mammies,' by John
Esten Cooke; $50 Patrocino," by Theodore
Johnson; ga Charleston Vendue in 1912, -
by N. S. Dodge; "Mr. Grant White under
Discipline;" care we inferior2" womans S
question, by Sarah L. Henshaw. The book
notices, art reviews, and gossip are appreci
alive and interesting. The first chapters Of
Mrs. Edwards new novel of 'Susan Field ng''
are given as a supplement.
There was some talk about an American
magazine having secured the advance sheets
of Charles Reade's new serial story for which
he is to receive in all the sum of fifty thou.
sand dollars. 1t appears that The GALAXY i;
the successful competitor on this side of the
Atlantic for this literary prize, and it is an
nOunced that the publication of the story viii
shortly be commenced. This, with Mrs. Ell
wards new novel, will make The Gaiary fol
1869 unusually attractive. Mr.. Richard
Grant White will contribute series of papers
ON "Americanisms." DR.. w. A Hammonc
will furnish some papers on diseases of th
mind and nerves. Mr.. Eugene Benson will
analyze the characteristics of the leading
journalists of New York. Besides the scien