often placed in
as awkward a dilemma, as that which was contrived when grammar was
identified with compilation. I should have much to say, were I to show them
all in their true light.[9] Few of them have had such success as to be
worthy of notice here; but the names of many will find frequent place in my
code of false grammar. The one who seems to be now taking the lead in fame
and revenue, filled with glad wonder at his own popularity, is SAMUEL
KIRKHAM. Upon this gentleman's performance, I shall therefore bestow a few
brief observations. If I do not overrate this author's literary importance,
a fair exhibition of the character of his grammar, may be made an
instructive lesson to some of our modern literati. The book is a striking
sample of a numerous species.

22. Kirkham's treatise is entitled, "English Grammar _in familiar
Lectures_, accompanied by a _Compendium_;" that is, by a folded sheet. Of
this work, of which I have recently seen copies purporting to be of the
"SIXTY-SEVENTH EDITION," and others again of the "HUNDRED AND FIFTH
EDITION," each published at Baltimore in 1835, I can give no earlier
account, than what may be derived from the "SECOND EDITION, enlarged and
much improved," which was published at Harrisburg in 1825. The preface,
which appears to have been written for his _first_ edition, is dated,
"Fredericktown, Md., August 22, 1823." In it, there is no recognition of
any obligation to Murray, or to any other grammarian in particular; but
with the modest assumption, that the style of the "best philologists,"
needed to be retouched, the book is presented to the world under the
following pretensions:

"The author of this production has endeavoured to condense _all the most
important subject-matter of the whole science_, and present it in so small
a compass that the learner can become familiarly acquainted with it in a
_short time_. He makes but small pretensions to originality in theoretical
matter. Most of the principles laid down, have been selected from our _best
modern philologists_. If his work is entitled to any degree of _merit_, it
is not on account of a judicious selection of principles and rules, but for
the easy mode adopted of communicating _these_ to the mind of the
learner."--_Kirkham's Grammar_, 1825, p. 10.

23. It will be found on examination, that what this author regarded as
_"all the most important subject-matter of the whole science" of grammar_,
included nothing more than the mo