A GRAMMAR OF LATE MODERN ENGLISH FOR THE USE OF BY H. POUTSMA, English Master in the "Vierde Hoogere Burgerschool The second section of this grammar has been a few months longer in seeing the light than was anticipated. This delay is chiefly due to the fact that a considerable length of time was required for the preparing of a detailed and somewhat descriptive index, which formed no part of the original plan, but for which from the date of publication of the first section there has been an incessant demand. I have but little to add to what I observed the, preface of the first section. In dealing with the use of the infinitive as compared with the gerund my path was beset with extraordinary difficulties. The subject is one of peculiar interest to foreigners, especially from a practical point of view. Yet there is not to my knowledge a grammar or grammatical treatise in which it is discussed with anything like the affention it deserves. In most of them, indeed, we find a statement to the effect that after prepositions the gerund-construction is obligatory, and an enumeration of a few words after which it can or cannot be replaced by the infinitiveconstruction; but apart from the fact that this statement, as it stands, requires in some respects qualification, we are left in the dark as to the respective use of the two constructions in a host of cases in which the foreign student certainly requires enlightenment. Even the New English Dictionary, although, of course, containing much illustrative matter bearing upon the subject, in many articles ignores the difficulty altogether, or at least fails to throw out any hint as to which of the two is most in favour. I was, therefore, chiefly thrown upon my own resources, and owing to the scantiness of the illustrative quotations at my command, some of conclusions arrived at are offered with more than ordinary diffidence. As the work neared its completion, the number of paragraphs that seemed to require rehandling, and of special points that seemed to want further elucidation, has been constantly increasing. I have, indeed, had some thought of subjoining a running commentary to the whole book, a proceeding which would have had the advantage of enabling me to remove a few decided errors which in the printed stage of the work have revealed themselves. On consideration, I have, however, esteemed it a better |