Education > British grammar: or, an essay, in four parts, towards speaking and writing the English language grammatically, and inditing elegantly

xviii The PREFACE.
alone, and not Authorities, ought to weigh,
and determine the Reader’s Judgment and
Affent in a Matter of fuch Importance to
the Youth of thefe Kingdoms.
Notwithftanding I may appear to be
animated with a more than ordinary, tho’
I hope, becoming Zeal in the Caufe of a
proper Englifh Education, and cannot give
my Aflent to the whole of a young Gemle-
man’s Time being engroffed and facrificed
to a dead Verbality ; yet I would by no
Means be underilood, as if I decried the
Learning of the Latin and Greek Lan¬
guages, the Knowledge of which, is abfo-
lutely necefiary for fome Profeflions in ci¬
vil Life, as well as for Perfons intended
for the Service of the Church •, and ought
to be the Study of every Gentleman, as he
cannot be faid to have a liberal Education,
or a Place among the Learned, who is a
Stranger to them. But what I would
(agreeable to the moft judicious Writers on
Education) contend for, is, that there is
Time enough for teaching Youth the dead
Languages, without negle&ing the Study
of their own, or excluding real and ufeful
Knowledge ; and that of all Grammars that
of their own Language ought chiefly to be
minded.
Let us hear what the judicious Author of
an anonymous Letter in Turnbull’s Obfer-
vations on a liberal Education fays, con¬
cerning