English Grammar

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(For the Scientiflc American.). "The republic of letters" seems to be a favorite phrase with us American Anglo-Saxons1, but it seems to me that a portion of our literature is as worthy of the appellation "Anarchy of Letters," or "Babelism of Letters," as the "Republic of Letters." It is ag reed among all the learned that the Eng-lis h language is one of the most copious and pe rspicuous languages on earth; but we have no code of laws enacted by a Congress of the les rned for its government. Our country, ho1 wever, is flooded with grammars, each au-thd r professing to have discovered the true pa-rjac ea tor all difficulties. We have not time tcs j;lance hastily at a new author before ano-t-hisi appears. This is'a sore evil in our schools. Paje nts, already too highly taxed for bundles of "?_ gibberish," receive a galling note from their children's teacher to procure copies of the new grammar, before their children have become familiar with the old one. Now is such a state of things to continue 1 Are we to remain in such a state of anarchy, without a code of inflexible laws to govern our language ? I admit that much improvement has been made, but of all the authors known to me, I would express a decided preference to have one good grammar only. B. W.W.

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