Intending to develop not only the principles but also the history of grammar, I could not but speak of its authors.

The writer who looks broadly at the past and the present, to give sound instruction to the future, must not judge of men by their shadows.

If the truth, honestly told, diminish the stature of some, it does it merely by clearing the sight of the beholder.

Real greatness cannot suffer loss by the dissipating of a vapour.

If reputation has been raised upon the mist of ignorance, who but the builder shall lament its overthrow?
If the works of grammarians are often ungrammatical, whose fault is this but their own?
If _all_ grammatical fame is little in itself, how can the abatement of what is undeserved of it be much?
If the errors of some have long been tolerated, what right of the critic has been lost by nonuser?
If the interests of Science have been sacrificed to Mammon, what rebuke can do injustice to the craft?
Nay, let the broad-axe of the critic hew up to the line, till every beam in her temple be smooth and straight.