"The Saxons did not long remain in quiet possession of the kingdom; for before the middle of the ninth century, the Danes, a hardy and adventurous nation, who had long infested the northern seas with their piracies, began to ravage the English coasts. Their first attempts were, in general, attended with such success, that they were encouraged to a renewal of their ravages; till, at length, in the beginning of the eleventh century, they made themselves masters of the greater part of England.

"Though the period, during which these invaders occupied the English throne, was very short, not greatly exceeding half a century, it is highly probable that some change was introduced by them into the language spoken by those, whom they had subdued: but this change cannot be supposed to have been very considerable, as the Danish and Saxon languages arose from one common source, the Gothic being the parent of both.

"The next conquerors of this kingdom, after the Danes, were the Normans, who, in the year 1066, introduced their leader William to the possession of the English throne. This prince, soon after his accession, endeavoured to bring his own language (the Norman-French) into use among his new subjects; but his efforts were not very successful, as the Saxons entertained a great antipathy to these haughty foreigners. In process of time, however, many Norman words and phrases were incorporated into the Saxon language: but its general form and construction still remained the same.

"From the Conquest to the Reformation, the language continued to receive occasional accessions of foreign words, till it acquired such a degree of copiousness and strength, as to render it susceptible of that polish, which it has received from writers of taste and genius, in the last and present centuries. During this period, the learned have enriched it with many significant expressions, drawn from the treasures of Greek and Roman literature; the ingenious and the fashionable have imported occasional supplies

of French, Spanish, Italian, and German words, gleaned during their foreign excursions; and the connexions which we maintain, through the medium of government and commerce, with many remote nations, have made some additions to our native vocabulary.

"In this manner did the ancient language of the AngloSaxons proceed, through the various stages of innovation, and the several gradations of refinement, to the formation of the present English tongue."

See the Twelfth chapter of the OCTAVO Grammar.

PART III.

SYNTAX.

THE third part of grammar is SYNTAX, which treats of the agreement and construction of words in a sentence.

A sentence is an assemblage of words, forming a complete sense.

Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound.

A simple sentence has in it but one subject, and one finite* verb: as, "Life is short.”

A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences connected together: as, "Life is short, and art is long." "Idleness produces want, vice, and misery."

As sentences themselves are divided into simple and compound, so the members of sentences may be divided likewise into simple and compound members: for whole sentences, whether simple or compounded, may become members of other sentences, by means of some additional connexion; as in the following example: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider." This sentence consists of two compounded members, each of which is subdivided into two simple members, which are properly called clauses.

There are three sorts of simple sentences; the explicative, or explaining; the interrogative, or asking; the imperative, or commanding.

An explicative sentence is when a thing is said to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer, in a

Finite verbs are those to which number and person appertain. Verbs in the infinitive mood have no respect to number or person.

direct manner: as, "I am; thou writest; Thomas is loved." If the sentence be negative, the adverb not is placed after the auxiliary, or after the verb itself when it has no auxiliary: as, "I did not touch him;" or, "I touched him not."

In an interrogative sentence, or when a question is asked, the nominative case follows the principal verb or the auxiliary: as, "Was it he?" "Did Alexander conquer the Persians?"

In an imperative sentence, when a thing is commanded to be, to do, to suffer, or not, the nominative case likewise follows the verb or the auxiliary: as, 66 Go, thou traitor!" "Do thou go:" "Haste ye away:" unless the verb let be used; as, "Let us be gone."

A phrase is two or more words rightly put together, making sometimes part of a sentence, and sometimes a whole sentence.

The principal parts of a simple sentence are, the subject, the attribute, and the object.

The subject is the thing chiefly spoken of; the attribute is the thing or action affirmed or denied of it; and the object is the thing affected by such action.

The nominative denotes the subject, and usually goes before the verb or attribute; and the word or phrase, denoting the object, follows the verb; as, "A wise man governs his passions." Here, a wise man is the subject; governs, the attribute, or thing affirmed; and his passions, the object.

66

Syntax principally consists of two parts, Concord and Government.

of

Concord is the agreement which one word has with another, in gender, number, case, or person. Government is that power which one part speech has over another, in directing its mood, tense, or case.

To produce the agreement and right disposition of words in a sentence, the following rules and observations should be carefully studied.

RULE I.

A verb must agree with its nominative case, in number and person: as, "I learn;" "Thou art improved;" "The birds sing."

Exercises, p. 67. Key, p. 29.

The following are a few instances of the violation of this rule. "What signifies good opinions, when our practice is bad?" "what signify." "There's two or three of us, who have seen the work:" "there are." "We may suppose there was more impostors than one:" "there were more." "I have considered what have been said on both sides in this controversy:" "what has been said." "If thou would be healthy, live temperately:" "if thou wouldst." "Thou sees how little has been done:" "thou seest." 66 Though thou cannot do much for the cause, thou may and should do something:" "canst not, mayst, and shouldst." "Full many a flower are born to blush unseen:" "is born." "A conformity of inclinations and qualities prepare us for friendship:" "prepares us." "A variety of blessings have been conferred upon us:" "has been." "In piety and virtue consist the happiness of man:" "consists." "To these precepts are subjoined a copious selection of rules and maxims:" "is subjoined."

"To see

* 1. The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put as the nominative case to the verb: as, the sun is pleasant;" "To be good is to be happy;" "A desire to excel others in learning and virtue is commendable;" "That warm climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, is very rea*The chief practical notes under each Rule, are regularly numbered, in order to make them correspond to the examples in the volume of Exercises.