A COMMON-SCHOOL GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. AUTHOR OF BY SIMON KERL, A. M., 66 COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR," "FIRST LESSONS IN GRAMMAR," ETC. "Sacred Interpreter of human thought, How few respect or use thee as they ought!" COWPER, on Language. NEW YORK: EducT 758.66.453 MARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GEORGE ARTHU CLIMPTON JANUARY 25, 1924 KERL'S SERIES OF GRAMMARS. Kerl's First Lessons in English Grammar. - Designed as an introduction to the Common-School Grammar. The plan, definitions, observations, and exercises, are in the simplest style, and suited to the capacity of children. Kerl's Common-School Grammar. A simple, thorough, and practical grammar of the English language. Great care has been taken to make it, if possible, the best treatise of its kind now before the public. The parts relating to Idioms, Analysis, and False Syntax, will be found particularly valuable. Kerl's Comprehensive Grammar. An original work, that breaks up the old stereotyped method of English grammars, and re-arranges matter more nearly in accordance with the genius of the language. The articles on Versification, Punctuation, and Capital Letters, throw new light on these subjects; and in False Syntax, and the Analysis of Sentences, the exercises are fresh, pithy, and exhaustive. The work is especially useful to every speaker, writer, or teacher, as a book of reference. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. "LANGUAGE," said Sheridan, "is the great instrument by which all the faculties of the mind are brought forward, moulded, and polished." He who travels over our extensive country can easily observe that wherever the people have a limited and obscure knowledge of language, there all the other elements of civilization and refinement are in a correspondingly undeveloped state; but that wherever a home is surrounded by the beauties of nature and art, there is also generally heard such language as reveals the presence of literature and the cultivation of thought and sensibility. Language is at once the most useful, powerful, delicate, and durable instrument wielded by man. It materializes thought, so as to make it tangible, permanent, and transmissible; and it thus carries civilization into every nook and corner of the world. It receives the intellect, heart, and achievements of every generation; and bears forward the responsible burden to be judged by every future generation. While the marble crumbles, and the canvas fades, an embodiment of great thoughts in glorious language lives through all time; renewing its youth, like the phoenix, with every edition from the printing-press, and, like the sun, spreading its light and beneficence round the whole globe. But how many literary productions are more or less disfigured with inaccuracies of grammar; and what an injurious influence is often exerted on the language of the people, by the hasty and crude literature of the daily press! How often do men express their thoughts, even on important occasions, inaccurately, obscurely, ambiguously, or ridiculously; and what a multitude of bickerings, lawsuits, and contentions arise from language misapplied or misunderstood! It was the opinion of a late AttorneyGeneral of the United States, that the people of this country pay at least twenty millions of dollars a year for the abuse of the English language in matters of contract and legislation alone. Till the excellent treatise of Murray made its appearance, the study of English grammar had hardly become a branch of common-school education; but since that time the importance of the science has been so far established in the convictions of the public, that grammar is now everywhere one of the leading studies in common schools. Corresponding textbooks have constantly increased, until we have a superabundance; yet there is doubtless always room for an improved system in every science. |