"This Syriac grammar was undertaken six years ago at the suggestion of Professor W. R. Harper, PhD. It is designed to do in a measure for the Syriac language that which Professor Harper's text-books have done for the Hebrew. In the orthography and etymology the author has sought to draw his illustrative examples, as far as possible, from the chrestomathy published in his Manual of Syriac." -- From the Preface
