THE DEFINITIONS IN GRAMMAR.
ANY subject that has to deal with a large mass of complicated and wayward facts, such as the usages of a modern cultivated language, would need, for its own sake, to have all its classes well marked and defined. Still more would this be demanded, if the subject is also to be put forward as an instrument of mental training.
In Grammar, the operation of defining is required mainly for the Parts of Speech. For although we might be expected at the outset to define the scope or province of the subject itself, we are precluded from doing so by the neglect of Grammarians to observe a clear line of distinction between Grammar and the allied departments-Philology on the one hand, and Rhetoric on the other. Thus-to compare Grammar with Rhetoric and the higher elements of Composition-while there are well-marked differences in the extremes of the two subjects, as for example the contrast between the Inflexion of Words or the rules of Concord in Syntax on the one hand, and the Figures of Speech or the laws of Description on the other, there are matters treated indifferently in both departments; such as the placing of qualifying words and the disposition of the clauses in a sentence. In a practical subject like Grammar, we do not gain much by drawing a severe boundary line; the thing to be most considered is at what points, or in what connexions, an important rule can be most effectively taught.
The defining of the Parts of Speech is a serious affair. The whole fabric of Grammar rests upon the classifying of words according to their function in the sentence. A loose