student will have the main procedures of the rhetorical art in a nutshell. The object of numbering these rules consecutively is to facilitate reference from part to part of the book, and to give aid in correcting the student's written work. To this end, a digest of rules is given as an appendix.

2. The exercises, being in many respects a rather bold departure from what has hitherto been attempted, must of course await the verdict of actual use. In the first place, it will be observed that they are founded not on single rules, but on groups of rules, the groups representing some prevailing procedure, or quality of style, or mental attitude. If sentences to be corrected are referred to single precepts, then every sentence advertises its error, and the correction of it by the student soon becomes mechanical; he can do it in his sleep, or, at least, in his laziness. If, however, they are referred to a group of precepts, the student must, in order to justify his correction, discriminate among at least three or four specific principles; he must use his head. More than this, the sentences requiring correction are so made as to compel constant review of what the student has had before; it being taken for granted that what has once been learned has become a permanent and usable possession.

Following the collections of detached sentences are compositions to be rewritten. These, it is believed, are a unique feature of the present book. Reconstructed, with proper observation of the copious notes and references appended, they become well-written compositions, written as well, that is, as a beginner could be required to write. Here the author is well aware of some temerity in venturing to set up his own composition as a model for students; but no other course seemed on the whole to make his purpose practicable. For he felt that the compositions should be so constructed as to impart one procedure, or one class of procedures, at a time; and, while the student is concerned with, say, choice of words,

he is to take the sentence structure, the punctuation, and the general building of the piece for granted, copying them, but not giving them special study until the time comes for them in course. This could not be effected so well by making the student, in his reconstructing, build up a passage from Burke or Macaulay; he would be building up, at best, only detached paragraphs, and would, besides, run the risk of being bewildered by the number and variety of rhetorical procedures that they, and all great writers, exemplify at once. Then, further, a student does not think as Burke and Macaulay do. Their thought-region is too mature for him, too high; he cannot interest himself in their lofty principles of political morality or of literary criticism, and the attempt to make that thought and its appropriate style their own can only be a dead grind. On the whole, then, it seemed necessary to prepare a series of compositions on themes presumably interesting to pupils of the grade contemplated, and embodying such thoughts as they may be supposed competent to think. Thus, it is hoped that they may be interested to make not only the style but the thought their own, in the process of bringing the essay out of chaos into system. It is hoped, further, that these little pieces may do something toward answering a question very prevalent among students. "How shall I go to work to write a composition?" they say; "I am all at sea; I don't know how to begin or what to write." In copying these pieces, they may, perhaps, gain by the mere imitation some idea how to go to work, what to put in and what to leave out, in that formidable thing, a composition. It is very possible that teachers of English may have underrated the utility of imitation, as a means of gaining facility in many details of composition. By it, if the student is observant and thoughtful, may be gained many touches and turns of expression, many ways of handling thoughts, many practical ideas of style, which no rules or precepts alone could

impart. Is the author too presumptuous in hoping that these school-boy pieces of his may contribute in some small degree to this happy result?

To amend incorrect sentences, while of course necessary, is after all a negative thing, and the mental attitude it requires is the critical. Composition is positive, requiring the constructive attitude on the part of the writer. It seems a pity to keep the student working exclusively at crooked English, without doing something even from the outset to foster that desire to contrive, to build, to bring to pass, which is so necessary to any fruitful literary work. For this reason, there are introduced from the beginning of the book certain problems to solve, the object being to give the student all along something creative to do. As the book progresses, the relative proportion of this constructive work is increased, while the merely critical, which was so predominating at first, becomes more and more subordinate. It is not in theology alone that the law of "Thou shalt not" should be swallowed up in the gospel of "Thou shalt"; in composition, too, as in many other things, the ideal must be borne constantly in mind, to be effected as rapidly as the man can be trusted in obeying the gospel not to discard the law.

3. Attention is finally called to the Appendix part of the book, which contains, besides the Digest of Rules already mentioned and one or two other things, a Glossary of Words and Forms needing study or caution. In this Glossary will be found, arranged under one alphabet, not only whatever the student needs in order to work out the exercises, but a large number of words and phrases in excess of this requirement; the design being to make it complete enough to be a vade mecum for any writer in the locutions concerning which there is most liability of doubt or mistake. It is hoped that this feature will give the book a value beyond the schools for whose use it is primarily intended, and make it a practical aid in private study or private practice of composition.