OBS. 5.—Wells, in the early copies of his School Grammar, as has been hinted, adopted a method of analysis similar to the Second one prescribed above; yet referred, even from the first, to "Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar," and to "De Sacy's General Grammar," as if these were authorities for what he then inculcated. Subsequently, he changed his scheme, from that of Parts Principal and Adjuncts, to one of Subjects and Predicates, "either grammatical or logical," also "either simple or compound;"—to one resembling Andrews and Stoddard's, yet differing from it, often, as to what constitutes a "grammatical predicate;"—to one resenbling [sic—KTH] the Third Method above, yet differing from it, (as does Andrews and Stoddard's,) in taking the logical subject and predicate before the grammatical. "The chapter on Analysis," said he then, "has been Revised and enlarged with great care, and will be found to embody all the most important principles on this subject [.] which are contained in the works of De Sacy, Andrews and Stoddard, Kühner, Crosby, and Crane. It is gratifying to observe that the attention of teachers is now so generally directed to this important mode of investigating the structure of our language, in connection with the ordinary exercises of etymological and syntactical parsing."—Wells's School Gram., New Ed., 1850, p. iv.
OBS. 6.—In view of the fact, that Wells's chief mode of sentential analysis had just undergone an almost total metamorphosis, a change plausible perhaps, but of doubtful utility,—that, up to the date of the words just cited, and afterwards, so far and so long as any copies of his early "Thousands" remain in use, the author himself has earnestly directed attention to a method which he now means henceforth to abandon,—in this view, the praise and gratulation expressed above seem singular. If it has been found practicable, to slide "the attention of teachers," and their approbation too, adroitly over from one "important mode of investigating the structure of our language," to an other;—if "it is gratifying to observe," that the direction thus given to public opinion sustains itself so well, and "is so generally" acquiesced in;—if it is proved, that the stereotyped praise of one system of analysis may, without alteration, be so transferred to an other, as to answer the double purpose of commending and superseding;—it is not improbable that the author's next new plates will bear the stamp of yet other "most important principles" of analysis. This process is here recommended to be used "in connection with the ordinary exercises of etymological and syntactical parsing,"—exercises, which, in Wells's Grammar, are generally, and very improperly, commingled; and if, to these, may be profitably conjoined either his present or his former scheme of analysis, it were well, had he somewhere put them together and shown how.
OBS. 7.—But there are other passages of the School Grammar, so little suited to this notion of "connection" that one can hardly believe the word ought to be taken in what seems its only sense. "Advanced classes should attend less to the common Order of Parsing, and more to the Analysis of language."—Wells's Grammar, "3d Thousand," p. 125; "113th Thousand," p. 132. This implies, what is probably true of the etymological exercise, that parsing is more rudimental than the other forms of analysis. It also intimates, what is not so clear, that pupils rightly instructed must advance from the former to the latter, as to something more worthy of their intellectual powers. The passage is used with reference to either form of analysis adopted by the author. So the following comparison, in which Parsing is plainly disparaged, stands permanently at the head of "the chapter on Analysis," to commend first one mode, and then an other: "It is particularly desirable that pupils should pass as early as practicable from the formalities of common PARSING, to the more important exercise of ANALYZING critically the structure of language. The mechanical routine of technical parsing is peculiarly liable to become monotonous and dull, while the practice of explaining the various relations and offices of words in a sentence, is adapted to call the mind of the learner into constant and vigorous action, and can hardly fail of exciting the deepest interest,"—Wells's Gram., 3d Th., p. 181; 113th Th., p. 184.
OBS. 8.—An ill scheme of parsing, or an ill use of a good one, is almost as unlucky in grammar, as an ill method of ciphering, or an ill use of a good one, would be in arithmetic. From the strong contrast cited above, one might suspect that, in selecting, devising, or using, a technical process for the exercising of learners in the principles of etymology and syntax, this author had been less fortunate than the generality of his fellows. Not only is it implied, that parsing is no critical analysis, but even what is set in opposition to the "mechanical routine," may very well serve for a definition of Syntactical Parsing—"the practice of explaining the various relations and offices of words in a sentence!" If this "practice," well ordered, can be at once interesting and profitable to the learner, so may parsing. Nor, after all, is even this author's mode of parsing, defective though it is in several respects, less "important" to the users of his book, or less valued by teachers, than the analysis which he sets above it.
OBS. 9.—S. S. Greene, a public teacher in Boston, who, in answer to a supposed "demand for a more philosophical plan of teaching the English language," has entered in earnest upon the "Analysis of Sentences," having devoted to one method of it more than the space of two hundred duodecimo pages, speaks of analysis and of parsing, thus: "The resolving of a sentence into its elements, or of any complex element into the parts which compose it, is called analysis."—Greene's Analysis, p. 14. "Parsing consists in naming a part of speech, giving its modifications, relation, agreement or dependence, and the rule for its construction. Analysis consists in pointing out the words or groups of words which constitute the elements of a sentence. Analysis should precede parsing."—Ib., p. 26.
"A large proportion of the elements of sentences are not single words, but combinations or groups of words. These groups perform the office of the substantive, the adjective, or the adverb, and, in some one of these relations, enter in as the com-
