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PREFACE.

Analysis of sentences, which may be called the rationale of grammar, has now become a subject of study, even in the humbler classes of our schools. As tending to exercise the thinking and discriminative powers of the pupil, it is, perhaps, excelled by no branch of study with which we are acquainted. Practically, it accustoms the pupil to the exercise of a keen insight into the laws which regulate correct synthesis or composition, and to an intelligent appreciation of the elegances of style.

Moreover, grammatical analysis is generally one of the prescribed subjects in all our competitive and other examinations; and it is mainly a due regard to this fact which has called for the publication of the present work. True to the monitor of an extensive practical experience, the author has used his best endeavour to render the treatment of the subject much simpler and more comprehensible than that observed in any previous work; while he has, at the same time, aimed at making his manual