As to a "_compromise_" with any critic or reviewer whom he cannot bribe, it is enough to say of that, it is morally impossible.

Nor was it necessary for such an author to throw the gauntlet, to prove himself not lacking in "_self-confidence_." He can show his "_moral courage_," only by daring do right.
31.

In 1829, after his book had gone through ten editions, and the demand for it had become so great as "to call forth twenty thousand copies during the year," the prudent author, intending to veer his course according to the _trade-wind_, thought it expedient to retract his former acknowledgement to "our best modern philologists," and to profess himself a modifier of the Great Compiler's code.

Where then holds the anchor of his praise?
Let the reader say, after weighing and comparing his various pretensions: "Aware that there is, in the _publick_ mind, a strong predilection for the doctrines contained in Mr.Murray's grammar, he has thought proper, not merely from motives of policy, but from choice, _to select his principles chiefly from that work_; and, moreover, to adopt, as far as consistent with his own views, _the language of that eminent philologist_.

In no instance has he varied from him, unless he conceived that, in so doing, _some practical advantage_ would be gained.