948470 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by ELDREDGE & BROTHER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. WESTCOTT & THOMSON, THE indications of a growing demand for more practical methods of instruction in English Composition are unmistakable. To meet this demand is the object of the present book. In pursuance of such an object I have consistently refrained from touching upon the theory of Rhetoric, or upon the relations of Rhetoric to Grammar, Logic, and Esthetics, and have tried to state-in the plainest way possible-only those things which every educated person ought to know. In this Preface I take the liberty of calling attention to two general features. First, it has been my constant endeavor to make the book interesting and stimulating. Second, it has been no less my endeavor to make the book available both for school and for college. How far I may have succeeded, must be left to the reader's judgment. I do not believe that anything here treated, possibly the chapter on Argumentation excepted, is too difficult for the boy or girl of average ability; or, on the other hand, that any rules are here laid down which one would be tempted to discard in maturer years. After all, the doctrine which teaches from these pages is not of my invention; it is merely the formulated practice of the best writers, exemplified in the illustrative extracts. The statement of Sequence in paragraphs of Exposi- A suggestion of the best plan of using the book in I would recommend that the beginning be made with Chapters II.-IV. Here the student should be required to search for similar paragraphs in other books of general reading. Next Chapter XIII. should be mastered, and the student required to write a number of simple narra- tive and descriptive pieces, exemplifying both the inde- pendent paragraph and connected paragraphs. Having thus acquired some facility in expression, the student should then take up Chapters IX.-XI., and Chapter XIV., with further writing along the lines indicated in This would be enough for the first year. In the second year may be taken up Chapters V.-VIII., Chapter XII., Lastly, in a third year, there should be a general review Part IV. is not offered as a substitute for the systematic or at home. In this part I have endeavored to awaken Still more obviously is the chapter upon the History of CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. J. M. HART. |