ALGER'S MURRAY. Boston English Grammar—Improved Stereotype Edition. (834 TO WHICH QUESTIONS ARE ADDED-PUNCTUATION AND THE NOTES UNDER RULES IN SYNTAX, SUPPLIED FROM THE STEREOTYPED BY S. WALKER & Co. 1826. 2016 DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT : Be it remembered, that on the twenty-fourth day of March, A. 1824, in the forty-eighth year of the independence of the Uni States of America, Israel Alger, Jun., Ensign Lincoln, & Tho Edmands, Jun., of the said District, have deposited in this office title of a book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in words following, to wit: "Alger's Murray. English Grammar-Improved Stereoty Edition. Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, with Appendix, containing Exercises in Orthography, in Parsing, in Syntax, and in Punctuation. Designed for the younger classes of learners. By LINDLEY MURRAY. To which Questions are added-Punctuation and the Notes under rules in Syntax, supplied from the author's large Grammar :-being his own abridgment en tire; revised, prepared, and adapted to the use of the English Exercises.' By ISRAEL ALGER, JUN. A. M." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to an Act entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Ac for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copie during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefit thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Extract from the Records of the School Committee of Boston. "At a meeting of the School Committee, held at the Mayor an Aldermen's Rooms, May 5th, 1824, it was Voted, That Alg r Abridgment of Murray's Grammar, Boston Stereotyped Edition introduced into the publick Reading and Grammar Schools of city. John Pierpont, Secretary. Boston, 15th June, 1824. THE Compiler of "English Grammar, adapted to the different Classes of Learners," having been frequently solicited to publish an Abridgment of that work, for the use of children commencing their grammatical studies, he hopes that the epitome which he now offers to the publick, will be found useful and satisfactory. His chief view in presenting the book in this form, is, to preserve the larger work from being torn and defaced by the younger scholars, in their first study of the general outline which it prescribes; and, consequently, to render their application to each part both new and inviting. If a he small volume is better adapted to the taste of children than a large one; and more readily engages their attention, from the apparent shortness of the road they have to travel, the Abridgment will thence derive additional recommendations To give these arguments the greatest weight, the book is neatly bound, and printed with a fair letter, Maand on good paper. ls of A SLIGHT inspection of the manner in which the dicork is executed, will show that it is not intended supply the place, or supersede the use, of the riginal Grammar. If, however, the teachers of uch children as can devote but a small part of their time to this study, should 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 subjects of Grammar; and contains definitions and rules, which the Compiler has endeavoured to render as exact, concise, and intelligible, as the nature of the subject 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 short works do not possess; namely, that the progress 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 studied; and which does not perplex them with new definitions, and discordant views of the subject. The scholars also, who, in other seminaries, may be confined to this epitome, will be more readily invited afterwards to pursue the study of Grammar, when they perceive, from the intimate connexion of the books, the facility with which they may improve themselves in the art. Ir may justly be doubted, whether there is any ground for objection to the following compilation, on account of the additional cost it will occasion The preservation of the larger Grammar, by using the Abridgment, may, in most instances, make amends for the charge of the latter. But were this not the case, it is hoped the period has passed away, in which the important business of education was, too often, regulated or influenced by a parsimonious economy. THE Compiler presumes that no objection can properly be made to the phraseology, from an idea that, in books of this kind, the language should be rought down to the level of what is familiar to achildren. It is indeed indispensable, that our words and phrases should, without requiring much ttention and explanation, be intelligible to young ersons; but it will scarcely be controverted, that et is better to lead them forward, and improve their anguage, by proper examples, than to exhibit uch as will confirm them in a feeble and puerile node of expression. Children have language, as well as other things, to learn and cultivate; and if good models are set before them, instruction and iligence will soon make them understood, and abit will render them familiar and pleasing. Perhaps there is no method by which this advanage may, in general, be more readily and effectully produced, than by accustoming children to ommit to memory, sentences in which the words tre properly chosen, and the construction and arangement correct. This was one object which he Compiler had in view, when he composed the Grammar of which this is an epitome; and he hopes that he has not altogether failed in his enleavours to attain it.-But on this point, or on any ther part of the work, it belongs not to him to letermine: the whole must be referred to the deision of the impartial and judicious reader. Holdgate, near York, 1797. |