‘A volume of exercises which seem to have been selected with a ripe judgment.’

Spectator.

‘This treatise contains not merely the ordinary grammatical rudiments, but exercises in punctuation, prosody, and versification. It will be found very useful, especially to learners who are somewhat advanced.’

Weekly Dispatch.

‘So far as we have examined this work, its nomenclature seems much more simple than that of the majority of English grammars published of late years. The chief feature, however, of Mr. Graham’s book is the abundance of its exercises; and these can be worked out after each rule, so that the young learner can really confirm his own progress step by step. There are also appended copious exercises in prosody and versification—a branch of English grammar not usually studied in schools as thoroughly as its importance deserves.’

Critic.

‘Not only are the rules here expressed in very simple and intelligible language, but each is immediately followed by an exercise, in which the principle on which the rule rests is illustrated and enforced by repeated examples. This is, we think, the only method of making a clear impression upon a mind of average capacity; and even where unusually good abilities make its adoption not absolutely necessary, it may be employed with considerable advantage in stimulating the pupil’s zeal by enabling him to feel at every successful application of the principle involved a very encouraging sense of progress.... The most novel feature in Mr. Graham’s book is a treatise on prosody, which, though a very necessary part of English grammar, we do not remember to have seen in any previous work of this kind.’

Parthenon.

‘Mr. Graham’s volume of grammar-practice aims at being more practical than grammars usually are. The rules are concise; the exercises full and numerous; there are sections on correct spelling, and others on the logical analysis of sentences. This book should be specially acceptable to the masters of private academies, where, too often, the grammar lessons are as useless as they are antiquated.’

Papers for the Schoolmaster.

‘Mr. Graham’s purpose in this practical little volume is to impress upon the young learner’s mind the definitions and rules of grammar, by setting him a series of progressive exercises, arranged under and exemplifying each rule successively. As such practice may be begun with the accidence of English Grammar, the study, although commonly regarded as dry and repulsive, may obviously on this plan be made both amusing and useful to the beginner from his first steps.’

Educational Times.

‘The principle adopted in this little work is a sound one. Most English grammars consist exclusively of abstract rules intended to be committed to memory. But it may be reasonably doubted whether rules are of much value to a young student, as in many cases they are not clearly understood. To be of real utility, a grammatical rule should be immediately followed by an exercise, in which the principle is practically applied and illustrated. On this plan Mr. Graham has aimed at exciting an interest in the youthful mind by the simplicity and clearness of his rules, and by the exercises which serve alike to illustrate them and to test the extent of the scholar’s comprehension of them. We warmly commend his thoroughly practical work to the attention of teachers and of parents generally.’

Midland Counties Herald.

The object of this little work, which is an improved Spelling and Reading made Easy combined, is to give the child who has mastered the alphabet distinct ideas on the nature of words and the grammatical structure of sentences; and it is intended to be put into the pupil’s hands before he begins the regular study of grammar. The principle of the work is illustration by example and by frequent repetition, with a view to bring into action a child’s powers of discrimination from his earliest conception of a combination of spoken or written words to convey an idea. In order to accomplish this end, neither a rule nor an explanation is given which is not immediately exemplified in an exercise.

The book having no higher aim than to prepare the pupil’s mind for grammatical studies, syntax and prosody are entirely omitted; and the abstruse nomenclature of the rudiments is freed from technicality. The simpler definitions are addressed to the eye, wherever practicable, in woodcuts; and the arrow is adopted to show the connection by action or motion between persons and things. Great care has been taken to make the rules and explanations as clear as possible, in the hope of lightening the labour of the teacher, and of exciting the learner’s interest in what he too commonly finds a dry and repulsive task.

This work was written with a view to supply what the Author believed to be a desideratum in elementary education. ‘The great source of a loose style,’ says Dr. Blair, in his ‘Lectures upon the English Language,’ ‘is the injudicious use of synonymous terms.’ For one fault in construction or idiom, at least twenty incorrect applications of words will be found in the periodical and light literature of the day. The want of a critical knowledge of verbal

distinctions is obviously the cause of these errors. The Author is far from considering this work as complete, but he hopes it will be found to contain principles sufficiently suggestive to enable those who use it to continue the study to any extent for themselves. In this edition, the work has undergone a thorough revision, the number of Synonymes in Section IV. has been considerably increased, and a General Index has been added.