It will poffibly be afked here, Is Grammar then of no ufe? and have thofe who have taken fo much pains in reducing feveral Languages to Rules and Obfervations; who have writ fo much about Declenfions and Conjugations, about Concords and Syntaxis, loft their Labour, and been learned to no purpofe? I fay not fo, Grammar has its place too. But this I think I may fay, There is more Stir a great deal made with it than there needs, and thofe are tormented about it to whom it does not at all belong. I mean Children at the Age, wherein they are ufually perplexed with it, in GrammarSchools.

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There is nothing more evident, than that Languages learnt by roat ferve well enough for the common Affairs of Life and ordinary commerce. Nay Perfons of Quality of the Softer Sex, and fuch of them as have fpent their Time, in Well-bred Company, fhews us, that this plain Natural way without the leaft Study or Knowledge of Grammar, can carry them to a great Degree of Elegancy and Politenefs in their Language: And there are Ladies who without Knowing what Tenfes and Participles, Adverbs and Prepofitions are, fpeak as properly and as correctly (they might take it for an ill Complement if I faid as any Coun try School-Mafter) as moft Gentlemen who have been Bred up in the ordinary Methods of Grammar-Schools. Grainmar therefore

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we fee may be fpared in fome Cafes. The queftion then will be, To whom should it be Taught, and when? To this I Answer,

1. Men learn Languages for the ordinary intercourfe of Society and Communication of thoughts in common Life without any farther defign in their ufe of them. And for this purpose, the Original way of Learning a Language by Converfation, not only ferves well enough, but is to be prefer'd as the moft Expedite, Proper and Natural. Therefore, to this ufe of Language one may Anfwer, That Grammar is not Neceffary. This fo many of my Readers must be forced to allow, as underftand what I here fay, and who converfing with others, understand them without having ever been taught the Grammar of the English Tongue. Which I fuppofe is the Cafe of incomparably the greatest Part of English Men; of whom I have never yet known any one who learn'd his Mother Tongue by Rules.

2. Others there are, the greatest Part of whofe Business in this World is to be done with their Tongues and with their Pens; and to thofe it is convenient, if not neceffa

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that they fhould speak properly and correctly, whereby they may let their Thoughts into other Mens Minds the more easily and with the greater Impreffion. Upon this Account it is, that any fort of fpeaking, fo as will make him be underftood, is not thought enough for a Gentleman. He ought

to

to ftudy Grammar amongst the other Helps of fpeaking well, but it must be the Grainmar of his own Tongue, of the Language he uses, that he may underftand his own Country Speech nicely, and fpeak it properly without fhocking the Ears of thofe it is addreffed to with Solicifms and offenfive Irregularities And to this Purpose Grammar is neceffary. But it is the Grammar only of their own proper Tongues, and to thofe only who would take Pains in cultivating their Language, and in perfecting their Stiles. Whether all Gentlemen fhould not do this I leave to be confidered, fince the want of Propriety and Grammatical Exactnefs, is thought very mifbecoming one of that Rank, and ufually draws on one guilty of fuch Faults the Cenfure of having had a lower Breeding and worfe Company than fuits with his Quality. If this be fo, (as I fuppofe it is) it will be Matter of Wonder why young Gentlemen are forced to learn the Grammars of foreign and dead Languages, and are never once told of the Grammar of their own Tongues: They do not fo much as know there is any fuch Thing, much lefs is it made their Business to be inftructed in it. Nor is their own Language ever propofed to them as worthy their Care and Cultivating, though they have daily ufe of it, and are not feldom in the future Courfe of their Lives judg'd of by their handsome or awkward Way of expreffing

expreffing themselves in it. Whereas the Languages, whofe Grammars they have been fo much employed in, are fuch as probably they fhall fearce ever fpeak or write; or if upon Occafion this fhould happen, they fhall be excufed for the Miftakes and Faults they make in it. Would not a Chinéfe, who took Notice of this Way of breeding, be apt to imagine that all our young Gentlemen were defign'd to be Teachers and Profeffors of the dead Languages of foreign Countries, and not to be Men of Bufinefs in their own?

3. There is a third fort of Men, who apply themselves to two or three foreign, dead, and (which amongft us are called the) learned Languages; make them their Study, and pique themselves upon there Skill in them. No doubt those who propofe to themselves the learning of any Language with this View, and would be critically exact in it, ought carefully to ftudy the Grammar of it. I would not be mistaken here. as if this were to under-value Greek and Latin: I grant thefe are Languages of great Ufe and Excellency, and a Man can have no Place amongst the Learned in this Part of the World who is a Stranger to them. But the Knowledge a Gentleman would ordinarily draw for his Ufe out of the Roman and Greek Writers, I think he may attain without ftudying the Grammars of thofe Tongues, and by bare reading, may come

to

to understand them fufficiently for all his Purposes. How much farther he fhall at any Time be concerned to look into the Grammar and critical Niceties of either of thefe Tongues, he himself will be able to determine when he comes to propofe to himfelf the Study of any Thing that shall_require it. Which brings me to the other Part of the Enquiry, viz.

When Grammar fhould be Taught. To which, upon the premifed Grounds, the Anfwer is obvious, viz.

That if Grammar ought to be taught at any Time, it must be to one that can speak the Language already, how elfe can he be taught the Grammar of it? This at least is evident from the Practice of the Wife and Learned Nations amongst the Antients. They made it a Part of Education to cultivate their own, not foreign Tongues. The Greeks counted all other Nations barbarous,and had a Contempt for their Languages. And tho the Greek Learning grew in Credit amongst the Romans, towards the end of their Com mon-wealth, yet it was the Roman Tongue that was made the Study of their Youth: Their own Language they were to make use of, and therefore it was their own Language they were inftructed and exercised in.

But more particularly to determine the proper Seafon for Grammar, I do not fee how it can reasonably be made any ones Study, but as an Introduction to Rhetorick;

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