It might easily be shown that almost every rule laid down in the book for the observance of the learner, was repeatedly violated by the hand of the master.

Nor is there among all those who have since abridged or modified the work, an abler grammarian than he who compiled it.
Who will pretend that Flint, Alden, Comly, Jaudon, Russell, Bacon, Lyon, Miller, Alger, Maltby, Ingersoll, Fisk, Greenleaf, Merchant, Kirkham, Cooper, R.G.Greene, Woodworth, Smith, or Frost, has exhibited greater skill?
It is curious to observe, how frequently a grammatical blunder committed by Murray, or some one of his predecessors, has escaped the notice of all these, as well as of many others who have found it easier to copy him than to write for themselves.

No man professing to have copied and improved Murray, can rationally be supposed to have greatly excelled him; for to pretend to have produced an _improved copy of a compilation_, is to claim a sort of authorship, even inferior to his, and utterly unworthy of any man who is able to prescribe and elucidate the principles of English grammar.
16.

But Murray's grammatical works, being extolled in the reviews, and made common stock in trade,--being published, both in England and in America, by booksellers of the most extensive correspondence, and highly commended even by those who were most interested in the sale of them,--have been eminently successful with the public; and in the opinion of the world, success is the strongest proof of merit.

Nor has the force of this argument been overlooked by those who have written in aid of his popularity.