"My main design has been, to prepare a work which, by its own completeness and excellence, should deserve the title here chosen. But, a comprehensive code of false grammar being confessedly the most effectual means of teaching what is true, I have thought fit to supply this portion of my book, not from anonymous or uncertain sources, but from the actual text of other authors, and chiefly from the works of professed grammarians.

"It was some ambition of the kind here meant, awakened by a discovery of the scandalous errors and defects which abound in all our common English grammars, that prompted me to undertake the present work. Now, by the bettering of a language, I understand little else than the extensive teaching of its just forms, according to analogy and the general custom of the most accurate writers. This teaching, however, may well embrace also, or be combined with, an exposition of the various forms of false grammar by which inaccurate writers have corrupted, if not the language itself, at least their own style of it. "With respect to our present English, I know not whether any other improvement of it ought to be attempted, than the avoiding and correcting of those improprieties and unwarrantable anomalies by which carelessness, ignorance, and affectation, are ever tending to debase it, and the careful teaching of its true grammar, according to its real importance in education. What further amendmen: is feasible, or is worthy to engage attention, I will not pretend to say."

Punctuation, when used to indicate a greater or less degree of separation in the relations of the thought, as by division into sentences, clauses, and phrases, to aid in the better comprehension of the meaning and grammatical relation of words, is known as grammatical punctuation. In general its purpose is to enable the reader to note the different pauses and inflections required to produce the effect which the writer desires to convey. The system of punctuation used in English resembles that common to the European languages. The Germans favor open rather than

close punctuation, and consequently make less frequent use of the comma than most writers in English. If this subject is to be applied intelligently it must be studied carefully, and the relative length of the different pauses mastered in connection with the points which represent them before it is possible to make a correct use of them. The chief points used to denote the different pauses are the comma (,) which denotes the shortest pause, the semicolon (;) a pause double the length of that of the comma, the colon (:) a pause double the length of the semicolon, and the period (.) double the length of the colon. The value of the other four points depends upon the structure of the sentences in which they are used. In marking pauses they may be the equal of any of the foregoing, but two of them serve in a measure to mark the inflections. These are the dash (—), the note of interrogation (?), the note of exclamation (!), and the parenthesis [()]. The dash is used chiefly to indicate an emphatic or unexpected pause of variable duration. It is used also to denote hesitancy as in speech. The note of interrogation, as its name implies, is used to designate a question; the note of exclamation indicates a pause denoting joy, grief, or other strong emotion or marked astonishment, in which case sometimes it is repeated-a practise commonly condemned as inelegant nowadays, but one which formerly had some vogue. "Grammatical consistency!!!" wrote John Pierce, and added "What a gem!" The parentheses are used to enable the writer to inject into a sentence an incidental clause which does not properly belong there. In reading, this is generally spoken in a lower tone and faster than the principal sentence.

"A Plain and Easy Introduction of English Grammar," page 352, Philadelphia, 1804.

The late Dr. Theodore De Vinne, in his "Correct Composition,''1o says, "A working knowledge of punctuation is not to be acquired by merely learning rules. . . . The great object of punctuation is to make clear to the reader the meaning of the author. Rules are of value, but the unfolding of obscure sense is the object of most importance." In the work referred to, Dr. De Vinne includes an excellent essay on punctuation that presents the subject clearly and tersely. A brief explanation of the subject, with examples illustrating the correct application of points, may be found in the writer's "Preparation of Manuscripts for the Printer."

10 P. 293.

IX

Phonetics, Pronunciation, and Reading

AMONG the essentials of English speech the most important is a knowledge of how to pronounce words correctly, for correct pronunciation is the evidence of education, and it may be fostered and developed by a course of intelligent and useful reading. But to be able to read correctly one must be well grounded in the different values of the letters of the English alphabet in their various combinations. Hence, a few words upon the means employed to teach the young idea how to speak its mother tongue and how to read to advantage are given below.

1. PHONETICS AND PRONUNCIATION

Those of us who have attended public school know of the efforts made to stimulate good-natured competition among boys and girls to acquire a thorough knowledge of spelling and a correct pronunciation, for these two branches of education are highly valued by teachers.

As a rule, modern methods of teaching these necessary adjuncts to a thorough understanding of the English language are complex. They are beset by so many difficulties, especially in the field of pronunciation, in the guise of dots and dashes, curves and curlicues, that the child who studies English by these methods is greatly retarded in its studies. The powers of memory of a child are severely taxed when it is condemned to labor over chaotic aggregations of signs for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the arbitrary

rules that govern the various combinations of letters that enable it to read and write. These chaotic aggregations form a chief stumbling-block to the progress of a child. But it is not only the child that suffers; the teacher too is beset with perplexities difficult to solve, as has been evidenced recently at Kings College, London,' where a conference was held to consider the best means for teaching pronunciation.

At this conference two methods of teaching pronunciation were considered. Professor H. Caldwell Cook, representing the University of Cambridge, advocated the pronunciation of unstressed vowels. He declared that what was wrong with English pronunciation was that it was slipshod and careless-a declaration with which any one who has studied the subject should agree. But in this case, as in many another which comes up in the teaching of the English language, the doctors disagree. Professor H. C. K. Wyld, of Liverpool University, attacked this theory, and said that careful speech was either ludicrous or vulgar. He thought the best pronunciation to teach was that which would not make a boy appear ludicrous when he went out into the world, and perhaps the best type is that of the army officer of the old school. But the worthy Professor has evidently forgotten that "the army officer of the old school" is a law unto himself as much in the pronouncing of words as in his interpretation of their meaning. The writer, who in the course of his career has come into contact with army men of "the old school," from Major to General,2 has had ample opportunity to judge of the quality of this pronunciation, both in formal address and in conversation, and his judgment is that the army man's lead is a poor one