ghtly judged
to excel the generality of those which they were intended to supersede; and
both, in their day, may have been highly serviceable to the cause of
learning. For all excellence is but comparative; and to grant them this
superiority, is neither to prefer them now, nor to justify the praise which
has been bestowed upon their authorship. As the science of grammar can
never be taught without a book, or properly taught by any book which is not
itself grammatical, it is of some importance both to teachers and to
students, to make choice of the best. Knowledge will not advance where
grammars hold rank by prescription. Yet it is possible that many, in
learning to write and speak, may have derived no inconsiderable benefit
from a book that is neither accurate nor complete.

4. With respect to time, these two grammarians were three centuries apart;
during which period, the English language received its most classical
refinement, and the relative estimation of the two studies, Latin and
English grammar, became in a great measure reversed. Lily was an
Englishman, born at Odiham,[6] in Hampshire, in 1466. When he had arrived
at manhood, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and while abroad studied
some time at Rome, and also at Paris. On his return he was thought one of
the most accomplished scholars in England. In 1510, Dr. John Colet, dean of
St. Paul's church, in London, appointed him the first high master of St.
Paul's School, then recently founded by this gentleman's munificence. In
this situation, Lily appears to have taught with great credit to himself
till 1522, when he died of the plague, at the age of 56. For the use of
this school, he wrote and published certain parts of the grammar which has
since borne his name. Of the authorship of this work many curious
particulars are stated in the preface by John Ward, which may be seen in
the edition of 1793. Lily had able rivals, as well as learned coadjutors
and friends. By the aid of the latter, he took precedence of the former;
and his publications, though not voluminous, soon gained a general
popularity. So that when an arbitrary king saw fit to silence competition
among the philologists, by becoming himself, as Sir Thomas Elliott says,
"the chiefe authour and setter-forth of an introduction into grammar, for
the childrene of his lovynge subjects," Lily's Grammar was preferred for
the basis of the standard. Hence, after the publishing of it became a
privilege patente