Modem Languages. 105 



Notwithstanding the splendid excellences of 

 composition displayed in the writings of Addison, 

 Pope, and Swift, all the treatises on English 

 Grammar in use when they wrote were crude and 

 unsatisfactory. The principles of the Greek and 

 Latin tongues were transferred to the English, and 

 grammatical works formed accordingly. On this 

 plan every writer upon English grammar had pro- 

 ceeded anterior to the time of Dr. Lowth. The 

 number and value of his improvements are Gene- 

 rally known to grammarians. Since his time the 

 labours of Priestley, Sheridan, Ash, Tooke, 

 Pickburn, Walker, Webster, Murray, and 

 others, have produced additional light and im- 

 provement in the grammar of our language* The 

 best English grammar now extant is that by the 

 last named writer, Mr. Lindley Murray, who, 

 by this publication, and by several others con- 

 nected with it, and designed as auxiliaries to its 

 principal purpose, has become entitled to the gra- 

 titude of every friend to English literature, and to 

 true virtue/'' 



At the beginning of the century in question, 

 there was no Dictionary of the English language 

 which deserved the name. Not long afterwards 

 there appeared one superior to all that had gone 

 before k, by Mr. Bailey. This work, though 

 possessing considerable merit, especially in the 

 •etymological department, was still defective in so 

 many respects, that it was by no means a safe or 



m Mr. Lindley Murray is a native of Pennsylvania, but resided during 

 the early part of his life chiefly in the city of New-York. Having removed 

 to Great-Britain, for the benefit of his health, he has employed his leisure, 

 tor a number of years, in improving the grammar of his native tongue, 

 and in making such other publications as have a tendency to form the 

 minds of youth to a love of literature and of virtue. The excellence of 

 all his hterary labours, and the charitable appropriation of the product of 

 his works, to which he has long rigidly adhered, have secured for him a 

 station in the public esteem too high to render eulogiuw necessary in thj* 



VOL. II, P 



