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OF

MURRAY'S

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

WITH AN

APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

EXERCISES IN ORTHOGRAPHY, IN PARSING, IN SYNTAX, AND IN

PUNCTUATION.

DESIGNED FOR THE

YOUNGER CLASSES OF LEARNERS

BY LINDLEY MURRAY.

FROM THE TWENTIETH ENGLISH EDITION, CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.

TROY.

PRINTED BY PARKER AND BLISS,

SOLD AT THE TROY BOOKSTORE, SIGN OF THE BIBLE.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Compiler of "English Grammar adap

ted to the different Claffes of Learners," having been frequently folicited to publish an Abridgment of that work, for the ufe of children commencing their grammatical studies, he hopes that the epitome which he now offers to the public, will be found useful and fatisfactory.

His chief view in presenting the book in this form, is to preferve the larger work from being torn and defaced by the younger fcholars, in their first study of the general outline which it prescribes; and, confequently, to render their application to each part both new and inviting. If a small volume is better adapted to the taste of children than a large one; and more readily engages their attention, from the apparent fhortnefs of the road they have to travel, the Abridgment will thence derive additional recommendations. To give thefe arguments the greatest weight,

the book is neatly bound, and printed with a fair letter, and on good paper.

A flight infpection of the manner in which the work is executed, will fhow that it is not intended to fupply the place, or fuperfede the ufe of the original Grammar. If, however, the teachers of fuch children as can devote but a small part of their time to this study, fhould think proper to make use of it, they will not, it is imagined, find it more defective than abridgments commonly are. It exhibits a general scheme of the fubjects of Grammar; and contains definitions and rules, which the compiler has endeavoured to render as exact, concife, and intelligible, as the nature of the fubject would admit.

The tutors who may adopt this Abridgment merely as an introduction to the larger Grammar, will perceive in it a material advantage, which other fhort works do not poffefs; namely, that the progrefs of their pupils will be accelerated, and the pleasure of study increased, when they find themselves advanced to a grammar, which exactly pursues the plan of the book they have fstudied; and which does not perplex them with new definitions, and difcordant views of the fubject. The scholars alfo, who, in other feminaries, may be confined to this epitome, will be more readily invited afterwards to pursue the study

of Grammar, when they perceive, from the intimate connection of the books, the facility with which they may improve themselves in the art.

It may juftly be doubted, whether there is any ground for objection to the following compilation, on account of the additional coft it will occafion. The prefervation of the larger Grammar, by ufing the Abridgment, may, in moft inftances, make amends for the charge of the latter. But were this not the cafe, it is hoped the period has paffed away, in which the important bufinefs of education was, too often, regulated or influenced by a parfimonious economy.

The Compiler prefumes that no objection can properly be made to the phrafeology, from an idea that, in books of this kind, the language fhould be brought down to the level of what is familiar to children. It is indeed indifpenfable, that our words and phrases should, without requiring much attention and explanation, be intelligible to young perfons; but it will scarcely be controverted, that it is better to lead them forward, and improve their language, by proper examples, than to exhibit fuch as will confirm them in a feeble and puerile mode of expreffion. Children have language, as well as other things, to learn

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