THE

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED.

BY THE REV. ALEX. CROMBIE,

LL.D., F.R.S., M.R.S.L., AND F.Z.S.

THE THIRD EDITION,

CORRECTED AND ENLARGED.

LONDON.

PRINTED FOR JOHN TAYLOR,
Bookseller and Publisher to the University of London,

30, UPPER GOWER-STREET.

1830

159281

LONDON:

PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE

TO

THE SECOND EDITION.

THE success, with which the principles of any art or science are investigated, is generally proportioned to the number of those, whose labours are directed to its cultivation and improvement. Inquiry is necessarily the parent of knowledge; error itself, proceeding from discussion, leads ultimately to the establishment of truth.

Were we to estimate our progress in the knowledge of English grammar from the number of works already published on the subject, we should perhaps be prompted to infer, that in a field so circumscribed, and at the same time so often and so ably explored, no object worthy of notice could have escaped attention. And yet in this, as

in every other at or scris. Sit camination will corving 1. tr.

may have been arron pistet, sill ma
mains, to stimulate the ins, mu
cise the ingenuity, offre LIPS
author indeed is fully persuaded, and I >
impossible to examine the EngiSI MITHRUS
with any degree of critical acerIT, LÄ
not perceive, that is syntactical przegies
especially are yet but imperfectly iscrted.
and that there are many of its käians with
have entirely eluded the attention of our
grammarians. That these defects are all
supplied by the present work, the author is
far from having the vanity to believe. That
he has examined a few peculiarities, and ela-
cidated some principles, which have escaped
the observation of other grammarians, he
trusts the intelligent reader will remark.

The Treatise, the second edition of which now solicits the notice of the public, is intended chiefly for the improvement of those, who have made some advancement in classic literature. That an acquaintance with Greek and I'n facilitates the acquisition of every age, and that by a knowledge of