They must present themselves to the mind as by intuition, and with the quickness of thought; so as to regulate his language before it proceeds from the lips or the pen.
If they come only by tardy recollection, or are called to mind but as contingent afterthoughts, they are altogether too late; and serve merely to mortify the speaker or writer, by reminding him of some deficiency or inaccuracy which there may then be no chance to amend.
But how shall, or can, this readiness be acquired?
I answer, By a careful attention to such _exercises_ as are fitted to bring the learner's knowledge into practice.

The student will therefore find, that I have given him something to _do_, as well as something to _learn_.

But, by the formules and directions in this work, he is very carefully shown how to proceed; and, if he be a tolerable reader, it will be his own fault, if he does not, by such aid, become a tolerable grammarian.

The chief of these exercises are the _parsing_ of what is right, and the _correcting_ of what is wrong; both, perhaps, equally important; and I have intended to make them equally easy.

To any real proficient in grammar, nothing can be more free from embarrassment, than the performance of these exercises, in all ordinary cases.