THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. BY DAVID BOOTH, AUTHOR OF THE ANALYTICAL DICTIONARY. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT AND CO. 22, LUDGATE STREET. 1837. 33. PREFACE. PREFACES are postscripts; for, though placed before, they are written after, the books to which they belong. This is especially the case in the present instance; for, now that I have concluded the volume, I am at a loss to find any thing further to add to what have already written. Although I have endeavoured all along to be intelligible, I cannot conscientiously recommend this work as fitted for children; indeed I know no book of the kind that is so. Grammar in its simplest form is a critical examination of language; and the pupil must be able to read, and, in some degree at least, to understand the passage which he has to examine, before he is capable of distinguishing the parts of speech from one another, which is the first grammatical step |