THE REFORMED GRAMMAR, OR PHILOSOPHICAL TEST OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION; WRITTEN FOR THE Assistance of Teachers and Satisfaction of Learners, BY GERALD MURRAY. Price, Bound, Four Shillings. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY DARTON AND CO. HOLBORN HILL. 1847. Copies without the Author's written signature infringe his right. BRITISH MUSEUM 430 LONDON: PRINTED BY W. AND R. WOODCOCK, WARWICK LANE, CITY. PREFACE. THE Author's aim in publishing the present work, is to excite in youth a passion for grammatical knowledge, to facilitate its acquisition, to multiply the number of those who study the English language critically and with pleasure, to raise learners from the degradation of being mere senseless parrots, to the dignity of rational youth, by substituting the exercise of reason for the slavish abuses of the memory. How the work will answer the design teachers will decide. The author knows their independence and impartiality, and confidently submits his humble efforts to their unbiased decision. He owns no man's grammatical infallibility, and is convinced that the present work must have its imperfections. The author of a school book, who familiarizes learners with the misapplication of words, who sterilizes their minds by unmeaning assertions, poisons genius, renders ignorance impregnable, knowledge inaccessible, and prepares victims for imposition in later years. As the interests of learners will be best promoted by the earliest exposure of the errors in all books for their |