A
ShortSystem
OF
EnglishGrammar.
For the use of the
BoardingSCHOOL
In WORCESTER.
ByHENRY BATEA. B.
Worcester:Printed byR. Lewis,
Bookseller, inHigh-Street.
[ii]
[iii]
THE
PREFACE.
Usageand Custom are the Rules and Measures of everyLanguage,and the Rules ofGrammarhave nothing more to do, than to teach it. TheGrammaris to be fashioned from the particularLanguage,it treats of, and not the Language from theGrammar.For want of following this regular Plan, our ModernGRAMMARIANShave introduced theGrammarRulesof otherLanguagesinto their own; as if allLanguagewas founded onGrammar,and the Rules in oneLanguagewould serve the same End and Purpose in another.
The Latin,for Instance, has onlyeight Parts of Speech,and the Writers ofEnglishGrammarhave unthinkingly adopted the same Number; whereas with the Article,[iv]which theLatinhas not, and which is of great Service in aLanguage,we have no less than nine. TheLatinadmits ofCases;but as differentCases,properly speaking, are nothing more than the different Inflections and Terminations of Nouns, English Nounshave noCases.It is not agreeable to the Principles ofGrammarto say that—of a Rose—is the Genitive Case of—Rose,or—to a Rose,the Dative; forofandtoare no Part of the WordRose,but onlyprefix ParticlesorPrepositions,which shew the different Relation of the WordRose.So likewise when we sayAlexander's Horse,the WordAlexander'sis not the Genitive Case ofAlexander;for strictly speaking the'sis no Part of the WordAlexanderbut the final Letter of the Pronoun Possessivehis,and without theApostrophewe shou'd read it thus;Alexander his Horse.If any of theParts of SpeechhaveCases,thePronounshave, and some of thePronounsmay perhaps havetwo;but for the Sake of making every Thing as easy as I can to the Learner, I have taken the Liberty of distinguishing suchPronounsintoPrefixandSubsequent,and entirely laid asideCasesas useless and unnecessary. TheLatinhasGende