The Grammar of English Grammars, page 110 by Gould Brown
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this success has been founded, my readers may judge, when I shall have finished this slight review of his work. Probably no other grammar was ever so industriously spread. Such was the author's perseverance in his measures to increase the demand for his book, that even the attainment of such accuracy as he was capable of, was less a subject of concern. For in an article designed "to ward off some of the arrows of criticism,"--an advertisement which, from the eleventh to the "one hundred and fifth edition," has been promising "to the publick another and a better edition,"--he plainly offers this urgent engagement, as "an apology for its defects:"
"The author is apprehensive that his work is not yet as accurate and as much simplified as it may be. If, however, the disadvantages of lingering under a broken constitution, and of being able to devote to this subject only a small portion of his time, snatched from the active pursuits of a business life, (active as far as imperfect health permits him to be,) are any apology for his defects, he hopes that the candid will set down the apology to his credit.--Not that he would beg a truce with the gentlemen criticks and reviewers. Any compromise with them would betray a want of _self-confidence_ and moral courage, which he would by no means, be willing to avow."--_Kirkham's Gram._, (Adv. of 1829,) p. 7.
30. Now, to this painful struggle, this active contention between business and the vapours, let all credit be given, and all sympathy be added; but, as an aid to the studies of healthy children, what better is the book, for any forbearance or favour that may have been won by this apology? It is well known, that, till phrenology became the common talk, the author's principal business was, to commend his own method of teaching grammar, and to turn this publication to profit. This honourable industry, aided, as himself suggests, by "not much less th