A SYSTEM OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR; CONSTRUCTED UPON THE BASIS OF MURRAY'S GRAMMAR, AND ADAPTED TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND PRIVATE LEARNERS. BY REV. CHARLES ADAMS, A. M. PRINCIPAL OF NEWBURY SEMINARY. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY D. S. KING, No. 32 Washington Street. 1838. HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by D. S. KING, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. D. H. ELA, PRINTER, PREFACE. My reasons for issuing the following little work on Grammar are mainly these: 1. I wished to see a Grammar which, in a plain, direct and scientific form, canyasses the subject on which it treats, making use of no more words or illustrations than are absolutely necessary, at the same time being sufficiently explicit to set forth clearly every important principle. 2. I desired a Grammar which not only presents the application of every important principle as soon as it is introduced, but teaches the learner precisely how that application is to be made. 3. There are a few principles connected with the business of parsing, which I have never seen embodied in any grammar heretofore published, and which appear to me of some consequence to be prescribed to the beginner in this study. 4. I have hoped, from considerations hinted at in the foregoing statements, to render the study of grammar, by many complained of as dry and tedious, somewhat more pleasant and attractive. 5. I wish to compass the above objects, while, at the same time, I present to the public a book, which, by its conciseness, may be afforded at a trifling expense. o assist me in accomplishing the objects I had in view, I have not failed to consult all the Grammars within my reach. Murray, however, I have consulted more especially, and his Grammar forms the basis of the following work, as, indeed, of about all the numerous Grammars now in use in the country. If his definitions pleased me, I used them; if not, as |