THE

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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1

IONDON:

PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.

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

!

The

in every other art of sciel SPIT sami-
nation wil copemee ust meer
may have been acconguishet, sl nuc
mains. to stimule the indus, mus
cise the ingenuity, of furore NEPOS
author indeed is foly perstaей
impossible to examine the English nagage
with any degree of critical accu
not perceive, that its syntactical proges
especially are yet but imperfectly tasemed
and that there are many of its icons which
have entirely eluded the attention of ocr
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 ge, and that by a knowledge of