119; _Improved Gram._, p.78.So much for _unlettered erudition!_ 12.

If every thing that has been taught under the name of grammar, is to be considered as belonging to the science, it will be impossible ever to determine in what estimation the study of it ought to be held; for all that has ever been urged either for or against it, may, upon such a principle, be _proved_ by reference to different authorities and irreconcilable opinions.

But all who are studious to know, and content to follow, _the fashion_ established by the concurrent authority of _the learned_,[4] may at least have some standard to refer to; and if a grammarian's rules be based upon this authority, it must be considered the exclusive privilege of the unlearned to despise them--as it is of the unbred, to contemn the rules of civility.

But who shall determine whether the doctrines contained in any given treatise are, or are not, based upon such authority?
Who shall decide whether the contributions which any individual may make to our grammatical code, are, or are not, consonant with the best usage?
For this, there is no tribunal but the mass of readers, of whom few perhaps are very competent judges.

And here an author's reputation for erudition and judgement, may be available to him: it is the public voice in his favour.
Yet every man is at liberty to form his own opinion, and to alter it whenever better knowledge leads him to think differently.
13.