edition of the Gospel of St. Mark I derived great help in obtaining an insight into the "Period of Confusion" in early English. I have had the less hesitation in occasionally referring to statements and examples about early English found in the Shakespearian Grammar, because all of these were supervised and many of them originated by Mr. Skeat, but for whose kindness and learning I should scarcely have ventured on ground of which it may be said, no less than of the field of criticism, that "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." The chapter on Poetical Constructions will, I hope, be found as useful as any in the book. It is an attempt to draw out in grammatical detail the principles of poetry as laid down by Professor Seeley and myself in English Lessons for English People, and to lead the pupil to see the reason and the beauty of " "poetical irregularities." In the Appendix on the "Growth of the English Language," I have ventured so far to differ from Dr. Morris, in his account of the "Periods of the English Language," as to assign a separate period to the sixteenth century, and also to give names to the several periods. I do not think boys will find it easy to remember the periods without epithets of a rather more picturesque nature than ordinal numbers. I have also added some remarks on the Elizabethan period. A few tables of the Early Forms are added in the Appendix with the view of illustrating remarks scattered through the book. But no attempt has been made to give any complete system of Accidence. To try to do this completely, in the face of Dr. Morris's Accidence, would have been superfluous: and to do it imperfectly, in the way in which it has been done in many Grammars, under the title of " Etymology," 1 The Gospel according to St. Mark, in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions, Synoptically Arranged. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, & Co. 1871. would have been worse than superfluous, mystifying English children by telling them what, when they know what well enough already, and need only to be told why. But to tell the why of English Accidence requires and it is useless disguising the fact a great deal of knowledge in the teacher and not a little in the pupil. If it is to be done at all, it should be done thoroughly, with the aid of such a book as Dr. Morris's, and by pupils old enough to appreciate it. Consequently, though the pupil will find "strong" and "weak" verbs defined in the Glossary, he will see no lists of them in the book. Lists of irregular plurals will also be missing; the teacher will look in vain for focus, foci; datum, data; nebula, nebula. The only apparent sacrifice to the mania for "learning something by heart" is this, that the modern verb will be found conjugated" in the Appendix to Part II. But this has been done, not to give the pupil something to learn by heart, but to enable him to compare the old verb with the new at a glance. Throughout the book, the author has endeavored to keep in view the main object of a teacher teaching English grammar to English children, viz., to teach, not so much what as why. 66 an The division of the book into parts, the first of which is differently arranged from the second, might cause some difficulty in referring, were it not that a full Alphabetical Index is inserted at the endappendage that, in the Author's opinion, may fairly claim to be accepted as a compensation, in a book of this kind, for many faults of non-arrangement or misarrangement. In passing the book through the press I have derived most valuable assistance from the two gentlemen whose names I had occasion to mention in the preface to How to Tell the Parts of Speech, viz., Mr. G. S. Brockington, one of the Assistant Masters of King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Mr. T. W. Chambers, B.A., Scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, one of the Assistant Masters of the City of London School, whose sound judgment and practical experience have frequently induced me to modify or even re-cast large portions of the First Part. I must also mention two others among my colleagues, Mr. T. Todd, and Mr. James Pirie, M.A., whose criticism and corrections have been of very great service. Lastly, while expressing my obligations to the admirable"Shakespeare Lexicon," compiled by Dr. Schmidt, and published by Messrs. Williams & Norgate, I may be also permitted, coming nearer home, to say that I have gained much help and many apt examples from the inspection of the proof-sheets of a Complete Concordance to the Poetical Works of Pope, compiled by my father, and now in course of publication. |