How to Get on in the World: As Demonstrated by the Life and Language of William Cobbett; To Which Is Added Cobbett's English Grammar with Notes (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from How to Get on in the World: As Demonstrated by the Life and Language of William Cobbett; To Which Is Added Cobbett's English Grammar With Notes

I have heard of a lawyer who, at a banquet of gentle men oi his cloth, brought out a toast To the man who writes his own will. Why? Because he is likely to make use of language that will admit of question as to its meaning; and thus give work to the lawyers. Now I maintain that the man who acquires a clear comprehension of the principles of our language may write in such a manner as to defy the astutest lawyer to make his words mean. Anything else than what he intends them to mean; which is something that cannot be said of the man who learns only by talking and reading. Such a man lives in the land of uncertainty, and never knows whither he is going or whence he has come.

Grammar, properly considered and properly taught, is nothing but an unfolding of general principles, which must be applied, more or less, in all languages; every one of which principles has a reason for its existence, and the majority of which may be made as plain and evident as a statement in mathematics. Mr. White says that nobody that thinks of his grammar while writing will ever write a sentence worth reading. Of course, no boy or girl ought for a moment to think of his grammar while writing a composition; in fact, nobody ever does think of his grammar while intent on putting down his thoughts. But when the work is done, when he has written it, then he ought to be able to review it understandingly, and see that it conforms to the laws 'of reason and the order which we call logical; otherwise he will, in nine cases out of ten, write incorrectly.

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