As, however, it is not my intention to write a grammar here, but merely to throw out a few hints on the subject, I shall leave the further development of the plan to the ingenuity of those who may think fit to adopt its principles, as above laid down.
English Grammar doth us teach, That it hath nine parts of speech;-- Article, adjective, and noun, Verb, conjunction, and pronoun, With preposition, and adverb, And interjection, as I've heard.
The letters are just twenty-six, These form all words when rightly mix'd.
The vowels are a, e, o, i, With u, and sometimes w and y.
Without the little vowels' aid, No word or syllable is made; But consonants the rest we call, And so of these we've mention'd all.
Three little words we often see, Are articles,--_a, an_, and _the_.
A noun's the name of any thing-- As _school_, or _garden, hoop,_ or _swing_.
Adjectives tell the kind of noun-- As _great, small, pretty, white,_ or _brown_.
Instead of nouns the pronouns stand, John's head, _his_ face, _my_ arm, _your_ hand.
Verbs tell of something being done-- To _read, write, count, sing, jump_, or _run_.
How things are done the adverbs tell-- As _slowly, quickly, ill_, or _well_.
Conjunctions join the nouns together-- As men _and_ children, wind _or_ weather.
A preposition stands before A noun, as _in_ or _through_ a door.
The interjection shows surprise-- As, _oh!_ how pretty, _ah!_ how wise.
The whole are called nine parts of speech, Which, reading, writing, speaking teach.
THE ARTICLES.
Three little words we hear and see In frequent use, _a, an_, and _the_; These words so useful, though so small, Are those which articles we call.
The first two, _a_ and _an_, we use When speaking of one thing alone; For instance, we might wish to say An _oak_, a _man_, a _dog_, a _bone_.
_The_ speaks of either one or more,-- The cow, the cows, the pig, the pigs, The plum, the plums (you like a score), The pear, the pears, the fig, the figs.
An oak, a man; means _any_ oak, Or _any_ man of all mankind; A dog, a bone, means _any_ dog, Or _any_ bone a dog may find.
This article we only use Whenever it may be our wish To speak of some determined thing, As thus;--_the_ bird, _the_ ox, _the_ fish.
By which we mean not _any_ bird, That flying in the air may be, Or _any_ ox amongst the herd, Or _any_ fish in stream or sea.
But some one certain bird or ox, Or fish (let it be which it may) Of which we're speaking, or of which We something mean to write or say.
Remember these things when you see The little words, a, an, and the.
These words so useful, though so small Are those which articles we call.
Nothing can be more absurd than to compel young children to commit to memory mere abstract rules expressed in difficult and technical language.

Such requires a painful effort of the mind, and one calculated to give a disgust against learning.

_Grammar was formed on language and not language by grammar_, and from this it necessarily follows, that children should acquire a considerable store of words from a knowledge of reading and of things, before their minds are taxed by abstract rules.

To be thoroughly understood they require words to be compared with words, and one word to be compared with another; and how can this be done without the memory being amply supplied with them previously.

Such simple instruction as this chapter directs may easily be given; but to attempt much more would be like endeavouring to build an elegant and ornamental structure before you had collected materials to build with..