THE ESSENTIALS or PROSE COMPOSITION BY JAMES MORGAN HART PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE 1902 EMB Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1902, by in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ELECTROTYPED BY PRESS OF FERGUSON BROS. & CO., PHILADA. PREFACE. THE first three chapters of this book are in the main a reproduction of the lectures delivered to the Freshman class in Cornell University during a number of years. Chapters IV. and V. have been taken, in outline, from the author's Handbook, but with very many alterations and additions; practically they have been rewritten. Chapter VI. is entirely new; it may be said to represent the Cornell experience and views, not only of myself, but also-and chiefly-of the instructors in charge of a Freshman class of nearly two hundred and fifty students. In the preparation of this book my steadfast aim has been to offer something practical, simple, and inexpensive, something adapted to the needs of young persons between the ages of sixteen and twenty. This book is not too difficult for the upper classes of any good high school; in an incomplete edition it has, in fact, been already tested in the classes of one such high school. Nor is it too elementary for the lower classes of a college. It represents, unless I am greatly mistaken, those working principles which the young, in their formative period, between sixteen and twenty, most need in acquiring the gift of correct and easy expression. It embodies the essentials of good every-day prose. I am prepared to admit unhesitatingly, of course, that no two minds will agree entirely upon the essentials of any subject. The value of every book like the present will depend in great measure upon the experience and position of the writer. What, then, are the qualifications of the present writer? For twelve years I have been the responsible head of an English department which now numbers two assistant professors, four instructors, one assistant, and nearly six hundred students. Of the students, over five hundred are in courses iii |