n the subject, he
issued a new grammar in 1807, based this time on Horne Tooke's
Diversions of Purley, an author with whom Webster would naturally be in
sympathy. This grammar never had a firm hold of the public, and was
subsequently incorporated into the prefatory matter of his great
dictionary, where he says: "My researches into the structure of language
had convinced me that some of Lowth's principles are erroneous and that
my own grammar wanted material corrections. In consequence of this
conviction, believing it to be immoral to publish what appeared to be
false rules and principles, I determined to suppress my grammar, and
actually did so."

Here we have his frankness of character, his honesty, his force of will,
and the impulsiveness with which he took up attractive theories. Perhaps
the most comprehensive statement of his ruling principle is that he was
governed by usage, but did not sufficiently discriminate between usage
by educated and usage by uneducated people; he had, indeed, so violent a
prejudice against grammarians in general, and so much respect for
popular instinct, that it was a recommendation to him when a phrase was
condemned by the grammarians, while in common use by the people. For
example he says in a Letter to the Governors, Instructors, and Trustees
of the Universities and other Seminaries of Learning in the United
States, "According to the grammars, the pronoun _you_, being originally
plural, must always be followed by a plural verb, though referring to a
single person. This is not correct, for the moment the word is generally
used to denote an individual, it is to be considered as a pronoun in the
singular number, the following verb should be regulated by that
circumstance and considered as in the singular.... Indeed, in the
substantive verb, the word has taken the singular form of the verb, _you
was_, which practice is getting the better of old rules and probably
will be established." But old rules have considerable vitality, and the
general opinion still is that if an individual permits himself to be
represented by a plural pronoun he must accept all the grammatical
consequences. "I will even venture to assert," he continues in the same
letter, "that two thirds of all the corruptions in our language have
been introduced by _learned_ grammarians, who, from a species of
pedantry acquired in schools, and from a real ignorance of the original
principle of the English tongue, have been for ages