"Versification," says a work now before me, of
which the accuracy is far more than usual- the "English Grammar" of
Goold Brown- "Versification is the art of arranging words into lines
of correspondent length, so as to produce harmony by the regular
alternation of syllables differing in quantity." The commencement of
this definition might apply, indeed, to the art of versification,
but not to versification itself. Versification is not the art of
arranging, etc, but the actual arranging- a distinction too obvious to
need comment. The error here is identical with one which has been
too long permitted to disgrace the initial page of every one of our
school grammars. I allude to the definitions of English Grammar
itself. "English Grammar," it is said, "is the art of speaking and
writing the English language correctly." This phraseology, or
something essentially similar, is employed, I believe, by Bacon,
Miller, Fisk, Greenleaf, Ingersoll, Kirkland, Cooper, Flint, Pue,
Comly, and many others. These gentlemen, it is presumed, adopted it
without examination from Murray, who derived it from Lily (whose
work was "quam solam Regia Majestas in omnibus scholis docendam
praecipit"), and who appropriated it without acknowledgment, but
with some unimportant modification, from the Latin Grammar of
Leonicenus. It may be shown, however, that this definition, so
complacently received, is not, and cannot be, a proper definition of
English Grammar.
Pages:
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258