306 Modern Languages. [Chap. XV. 



avoided many of their mistakes ; to have supplied 

 a large portion of their defects ; and, on the 

 whole, to have furnished the republic of English 

 literature with the best standard of pronunciation, 

 which the language affords. 



Notwithstanding the splendid excellencies 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, Pickburn, Wal- 

 ker, Webster, Murray, but far beyond all others. 

 Home Tooke, have produced additional light and 

 improvement in the grammar of our language. 

 The best English grammar now extant is that by 

 Mr. Lindley Murray, who, by this publication, 

 and by several others connected with it, and de- 

 signed as auxiliaries to its principal purpose, has 

 become entitled to the gratitude 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 



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

 during the early part of his life chiefly in tlie city of New York. 



