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AUTHOR'S PREFACE 3 it. I shall not however judge others, being about myself to be judged of all. But since I have paid some attention to the more elegant dialect, from which, as from a fountain, we know the common to flow, I have learnt many things which in the course of time have become corrupted in the common dialect and which are justly condemned even by those Natives who are not altogether unpolished, This Grammar is divided into Five Chapters. The First will give the Tamul Letters and Rules of Ortho- graphy. The Second will explain the Nouns and Pronouns. The Third will treat of the Verbs. The Fourth will give certain Rules of Syntax. The Last will give the Numbers and certain other things necessary for beginners. I shall howevet omit many things which I have not judged to be so necessary, lest, as if desiring to make a floutish of unseasonable erudition, with the acaumulated mass, I might seem either purposely to frighten away those who are anew approaching the wondrous spectre, or to weigh down the still tender shoulders by too great a weight. If any one desires anything more, let him not disdain to consult the Grammar of the more elegant dialect, which, shortly, we shall publish. Moreover of the very Rules which I shall here give, many are not to be proposed to learners at first, which I have explained in their proper places following them in order. It will be for the prudence of teachers to determine for each the mode and time in which it may be fit to read them.
