I shall write. I am going to write. I am about to write. I shall be writing. I am going to be writing. To these might be added perhaps the interesting Hibernianism, 66 "I'll be afther writing." "Is to be" is one of the most common future phrases, as, "He is to be married to-morrow." The ordinary present tense may be used with future signification, as, I go to-morrow," and most of the potential auxiliaries may also be used so as to convey a future idea. It may fairly be said that in the abundance and flexibility of its verbal combinations English is not surpassed or perhaps equalled by any other language in the world. English is not particularly rich in adjectives. "Ho, for an epithet" is the mental ejaculation of many a writer in search of choice and fitting words with which to clothe his thoughts. In passing from one language into another adjectives change their meaning more than nouns or verbs do, and English adjectives are often quite different in meaning from the foreign adjectives to which by form they are allied. A few idioms are very peculiar to English. Among these may be mentioned the use of the same term self as both a reflexive and an emphatic pronoun; the free omission of a relative pronoun in a restrictive adjective clause, as, "The man I met," and the double or cumulative possessive, as, "This speech of Caesar's." To these may be added that form of a passive sentence in which the indirect object is made the subject, and the direct object is left in the predicate as a retained object, as, “I was given some oranges. But the phenomena of modern English are not very thoroughly classified and known. The older stages of the language are of much interest to scholars and are more studied than the shifting phases of the present. Grammars and dictionaries are necessarily conservative, and are never quite up-to-date. But the study of these flowing currents and marks of modern English usage should be of great interest to students of language and of life. As has been well said, Those who are born to be heirs of a highly analytical language must needs learn to think up to it.-THOMSON'S OULTINES OF THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. 1 PART SECOND I RELATION OF GRAMMAR TO OTHER KINDS OF LANGUAGE STUDY Even the analysis of sentences, important as it is, has its limits as a means of instruction and training.—BUEHLER. It is intended that the study of literature be taken up as early in the course as is practicable, and continued in such a way as to supplement the technical part of the instruction. -LOCKWOOD. To the question of how to become familiar with the best use, the first answer is, Read the best literature.-BUEHLER. Practice in writing should be constant.-Lockwood. The teaching of English is difficult, its results often unsatisfactory.-JOYNES. Hamlet.-Will you play upon this pipe? Gilderstern. My lord, I cannot. Hamlet.-I pray you. Gilderstern. I cannot, I know no touch of it, my lord. Hamlet.-'Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops. Gilderstern.-But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony.-I have not the skill.-SHAKESPEARE. There are three distinct kinds of English study that must enter into school work. They are adapted to different ends, and pursued by different methods. All of them are important, and each is defective if not supplemented by both of the others. There is the formal or structural study of the language itself, known specifically as language study or linguistics. In this department, grammar is the central study. But the formal study of language includes also all that relates to spelling, pronunciation, etymology and all else that belongs to the scientific or formal make-up of spoken or written English. This line of work is chiefly technical. Its primary aim is to give the student control of his native tongue as an instrument that may be used for the higher ends of self expression. Yet grammatical study, by its appeal to the logical faculties has educative elements that are broader and deeper than belong to mere technical training. This study of English on the structural side begins with the earliest grades of school; but it also reaches on with increasing interest and importance, through the historic and comparative philological study that belongs to high school and collegiate work. A second kind of English study for schools is that which is pursued by literary methods and devoted to literary ends. The study of the literary treasures of a language has elements of culture which the structural study of language can never give. It touches the emotions and cultivates the taste. Its appeal is to the motives and the spiritual life of the soul. It is there Relation of Grammar to Other Language Study 323 fore a corrective for certain faults of mind that merely technical study sometimes induces. The study of literature used to be thought of as belonging to the later part of school life. Yet even for the youngest children in schools there is literary material in abundance which can be studied for artistic ends. The study of literature, not in name but in its essence, should begin in the kindergarten and extend through all stages of school and college life. But literary study as well as the technical study of language has its limitations. The study of a literary masterpiece is in a degree a receptive study. It does not always lead to active effort in the use of one's own language powers. It may even have a tendency to paralyze active literary effort, as one yields himself to the passive enjoyment of the work of others, or to the sense of discouragement sometimes induced by the disparaging comparisons which great writings invite toward all humbler performances. While the critical taste is cultivated, the creative faculty is not always aroused by the study of noble writings. Both literary study and formal language study therefore need to be reinforced by plenty of practical composition work. By well-graded exercises and the use of stimulating motives the teacher should call forth the best creative energies of the pupil and lead him to the habit of free and correct expression of his own thoughts in both spoken and written English. From the primary school to the university, then, these three lines of English study, the formal or |