How to parse. ...

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HOW TO PARSE.

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, nebulce. 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.
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 end - an
appendage 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