Publisher's Synopsis
To many it may seem useless to go on multiplying grammars of a language that, like the Greek, can never change; but although the language is invariable, constant progress is made in the knowledge of it, and it is this progress which renders new grammars necessary. In this department of learning, the scholars of Germany have uniformly taken the lead, and philology is mainly indebted to them for the great advances it has made in the present century; but it is commonly found that their books, however, well they may suit their own methods of instruction, need revision by our own teachers before they can be used to advantage in our schools. In such revisions, Dr. Anthon has done good service, as is shown by the extensive adoption of his whole series of school classics. Combining the experience of a practical teacher with the learning of an indefatigable student and a philosophic critic, his books are well adapted to the minds for which they are intended. The grammar before us contains all the important improvements to be found in Kühner's recent grammar, which are held in the highest estimation both in England and in our own country. In the inflections, particularly in the paradigm of the verbs, Dr. Anthon has closely followed Kühner's admirable arrangement; but in the syntax he has followed his own judgment in adapting it to our own forms of expression and modes of thought. The German is the more purely philosophical-Dr. Anthon's the more intelligible and the better suited to the comprehension of young minds; and one has only to compare it with any other Greek syntax existing in our language to be satisfied of its superiority for every purpose of instruction.
