and custom. Of reason the chief ground is
analogy, but sometimes etymology. Ancient things have a certain majesty,
and, as I might say, religion, to commend them. Authority is wont to be
sought from orators and historians; the necessity of metre mostly excuses
the poets. When the judgement of the chief masters of eloquence passes for
reason, even error seems right to those who follow great leaders. But, of
the art of speaking, custom is the surest mistress; for speech is evidently
to be used as money, which has upon it a public stamp. Yet all these things
require a penetrating judgement, especially analogy; the force of which is,
that one may refer what is doubtful, to something similar that is clearly
established, and thus prove uncertain things by those which are
sure."--QUINT, _de Inst. Orat._, Lib. i, Cap. 6, p. 48.

24. The science of grammar, whatever we may suppose to be its just limits,
does not appear to have been better cultivated in proportion as its scope
was narrowed. Nor has its application to our tongue, in particular, ever
been made in such a manner, as to do _great_ honour to the learning or the
talents of him that attempted it. What is new to a nation, may be old to
the world. The development of the intellectual powers of youth by
instruction in the classics, as well as the improvement of their taste by
the exhibition of what is elegant in literature, is continually engaging
the attention of new masters, some of whom may seem to effect great
improvements; but we must remember that the concern itself is of no recent
origin. Plato and Aristotle, who were great masters both of grammar and of
philosophy, taught these things ably at Athens, in the fourth century
_before_ Christ. Varro, the grammarian, usually styled the most learned of
the Romans, was _contemporary_ with the Saviour and his apostles.
Quintilian lived in the _first_ century of our era, and before he wrote his
most celebrated book, taught a school twenty years in Rome, and received
from the state a salary which made him rich. This "consummate guide of
wayward youth," as the poet Martial called him, being neither ignorant of
what had been done by others, nor disposed to think it a light task to
prescribe the right use of his own language, was at first slow to undertake
the work upon which his fame now reposes; and, after it was begun, diligent
to execute it worthily, that it might turn both to his own honour, and to
the real advancement of learn