iod embraced all learning, to the knowledge of language, as respects its
fitness to be the vehicle of any particular thought or sentiment which the
speaker or writer may wish to convey by it. Accordingly grammar is commonly
defined, by writers upon the subject, in the special sense of an art--"the
_art_ of speaking or writing a language with propriety or
correctness."--_Webster's Dict._

6. Lily says, "Grammatica est recte scribendi atque loquendi ars;" that is,
"Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly." Despauter, too, in
his definition, which is quoted in a preceding paragraph, not improperly
placed writing first, as being that with which grammar is primarily
concerned. For it ought to be remembered, that over any fugitive colloquial
dialect, which has never been fixed by visible signs, grammar has no
control; and that the speaking which the art or science of grammar teaches,
is exclusively that which has reference to a knowledge of letters. It is
the certain tendency of writing, to improve speech. And in proportion as
books are multiplied, and the knowledge of written language is diffused,
local dialects, which are beneath the dignity of grammar, will always be
found to grow fewer, and their differences less. There are, in the various
parts of the world, many languages to which the art of grammar has never
yet been applied; and to which, therefore, the definition or true idea of
grammar, however general, does not properly extend. And even where it has
been applied, and is now honoured as a popular branch of study, there is
yet great room for improvement: barbarisms and solecisms have not been
rebuked away as they deserve to be.

7. Melancthon says, "Grammatica est certa loquendi ac scribendi ratio,
Latinis Latine." Vossius, "Ars bene loquendi eoque et scribendi, atque id
Latinis Latine." Dr. Prat, "_Grammatica est recte loquendi atque scribendi
ars._" Ruddiman also, in his Institutes of Latin Grammar, reversed the
terms _writing_ and _speaking_, and defined grammar, "_ars rece loquendi
scribendique_;" and, either from mere imitation, or from the general
observation that speech precedes writing, this arrangement of the words has
been followed by most modern grammarians. Dr. Lowth embraces both terms in
a more general one, and says, "Grammar is the art of _rightly expressing_
our thoughts by words." It is, however, the province of grammar, to guide
us not merely in the expression of our own thoughts, but al