18/33 If any imagine they can catch it merely by the ear, or acquire it by the slight perusal of some of our good authors, they will find themselves much disappointed. The many errors, even in point of grammar, the many offences against purity of language, which are committed by writers who are far from being contemptible, demonstrate, that a _careful study_ of the language is previously requisite, in all who aim at writing it properly."-- _Blair's Rhetoric_, Lect. "To think justly, to write well, to speak agreeably, are the three great ends of academic instruction. |