CHAPTER X.
OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS.
"Scientiam autem nusquam esse censebant, nisi in animi motionibus atque rationibus: qua de causa _definitiones_ rerum probabant, et has ad omnia, de quibus disceptabatur, adhibebant."-- CICERONIS _Academica_, Lib.

i, 9.
1.

"The first and highest philosophy," says Puffendorf, "is that which delivers the most accurate and comprehensive _definitions_ of things." Had all the writers on English grammar been adepts in this philosophy, there would have been much less complaint of the difficulty and uncertainty of the study.

"It is easy," says Murray, "to advance plausible objections against almost every definition, rule, and arrangement of grammar."-- _Gram._, 8vo, p.59.But, if this is true, as regards his, or any other work, the reason, I am persuaded, is far less inherent in the nature of the subject than many have supposed.[64] Objectionable definitions and rules are but evidences of the ignorance and incapacity of him who frames them.

And if the science of grammar has been so unskillfully treated that almost all its positions may be plausibly impugned, it is time for some attempt at a reformation of the code.