Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835,

BY ROSCOE G. GREENE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

047*172

RECOMMENDATIONS.

THE Publishers solicit the attention of the public to the following certificates of recommendation, given either by gentlemen who have witnessed the effects of Mr. Greene's system by a personal and critical examination of pupils instructed upon it-or by practical teachers, who have tested its utility by using it in their schools.

"Messrs. COLMAN, HOLDEN, & Co.

"It has been suggested to me that you intend to publish the former part of Mr. Roscoe G. Greene's Grammar, as a Text-Book for the younger class of pupils.

"This Grammar, in all its parts, needs no recommendation from myself. Its best praise is, that no other Grammar has to my knowledge been substituted for this, where it has been once introduced; and I am of the opinion that no other can be substituted without injury.

"Of all who have bestowed but even a cursory examination of the masterly manner in which the subject is presented to the mind of the pupil, I never knew an individual to withhold the fullest expression of his approbation. It unites in an eminent degree the qualities of comprehensiveness and conciseness, of vigor and simplicity. The cheapness of the former part, printed separately, will remove every impediment to the introduction of either the smaller or larger Grammar into every school throughout the State, as soon as its merits are known. B. CUSHMAN," Principal of the Portland Academy.

"Mr. R. G. GREENE has been for several years advantageously known for his success in teaching the principles of grammar. In his Grammar, of which a new and improved edition is now published, he has exhibited his own mode of teaching in so perspicuous and intelligible a manner, that any other teacher may easily pursue the same mode with similar success. The excellence of this method consists in presenting one thing only at a ume, and that perfectly; thus giving to the pupil a clear and distinct comprehension of every principle, before he advances to a new one. Under each rule he leaves nothing unexplained, which is necessary to be known, without embarrassing the subject with explanations that are unnecessary. The DIAGRAMS illustrating the variations of the verbs have the advantage of speaking to the eye as wel as the understanding; and aid the learner at once in comprehending and re

membering the distinction of the tenses. His Grammar is far best, for begin ners, of any with which I am acquainted; and I am happy to learn, that the public is beginning to be sensible of its merits; and that it is fast taking the place of the Grammars that have been, hitherto, used in our schools.

ASHUR WARE,"

Judge of the U. S. District Court for Maine District,
Formerly Professor of Languages in Harvard College.

"Portland, June 30, 1832.'

"We have had the pleasure of witnessing the success of Mr. Roscoe G. Greene's mode of teaching English Grammar, by occasional examinations of a class of young pupils, in this town, to whom he was giving instruction on the subject. Although they had received but few lessons, and devoted little time to the study, the distinctness and accuracy with which they comprehended whatever they had gone over, was strongly contrasted with the indefiniteness and confusion which is usually perceptible in the minds of beginners, and demonstrated the excellence of the system of instruction adopted by Mr. Greene.

"In his Grammar he has selected the general principles or definitions, which are necessary to be first understood by the learner, arranged them in a natural and progressive order, and presented them unencumbered with superfluous matter, and, at the same time, illustrated by such a variety of judicious examples for parsing, that the pupil may be made to understand clearly each principle as he advances. This we consider the distinguishing merit of the work, adapting it, in a superior degree, to the wants of our schools, and recommending it to the favorable notice of the public.

"Augusta, Dec. 29, 1832."

"MR. HYDE,

BENJAMIN TAPPAN,
ALLEN PUTNAM,
J. W. BRADBURY,

Superintending School Committee of Augusta."

"Sir: In answer to your request to the School Committee of Portland, in relation to Greene's Grammar, I am directed by that Board to reply, that it was introduced into our Public Schools more than three years since, and that it has superseded all others which were in use in said schools.

Respectfully yours,
CHARLES HOLDEN,

Secretary of the School Committee.

"GREENE'S GRAMMAR.-We have examined this book with great satisfaction. It is a decided advance upon all the other grammatical works which we have seen. It does not aim at new principles, but it introduces a new and improved arrangement of the parts of speech, and, by means of some visible representations, presents to the learner the powerful aids of association. Definitions and rules are expressed in familiar language. Elementary works are often rendered unintelligible, and therefore irksome, by the premature use of scientific and technical words, of which the learner has never heard, and which are themselves to be explained in some subsequent page. To take a single instance; what idea of the Article can a child form, by learning that it is a word prefixed to a Noun, while as yet he has never been informed what a Noun is? This evil, which is of frequent occurrence, Mr. Greene has happily avoided. Parsing is connected with every exercise in this book, and the reasoning powers, rather than the memory, are called into action.

"The great theorem in the philosophy of the human mind, that only one thing can be learned at one time, is the basis of Mr. Greene's arrangement. Ac