A copy of the second, corrected edition, dated 1885. The author is one of the ministers of the High Church and Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh. A collection of lectures from twenty-four years of Blair's instruction. Blair claims that he has only published these lectures as a result of their circulation in uncertain forms without his consent. The lectures cover taste, genius, the sublime, beauty and other pleasures, the rise and progress of language, structure of language and the English tongue, perspicuity and precision, structure of sentences, harmony of structure, figurative language, and figures of speech.The Schultz Archive only includes a few excerpted lectures from the various volumes. The quality of the text in the collection is good.
This excerpt of the third American edition (with additions and improvements) was published in 1819. The preface states its from the eight British edition. The author, Reverend David Blair, is credited for authoring several other books on grammar and juvenile letters. Blair's work, which only briefly discusses grammar from a broad, and colonial historical perspective, seeks to advance a scientific understanding of many subjects, including the English language. It is Blair's assertion that language instruction should build on and be part of a holistic education that enables the students to better understand all educational subjects. The Universal Preceptor includes chapters on various subjects, including the arts, mathematics, the sciences, government, agriculture, etc. The Schultz Archive only includes a brief excerpt (focusing on geography and grammar), and the scans are not very good quality (but they are legible).
This is an excerpt of the 1868 printing of the 1867 copyrighted text. The author has a Master of Arts and is the superintendent of the Bingham School. The work professes to innovation in response to the study of philology of the period; it discusses grammar as a science with laws. It professes an interest in plain English to foreign words. Its definitions are identical to those in Latin grammar. Credits the influence of Mulligan, Latham, Richardson, Goold Brown, and Butler. Its etymology and syntax are derived from German grammars of Latin and Greek. Rules and their explanations are followed by the copious parsing exercises. Excerpt includes preface, ToC, and chapters on orthography and nouns.