BY PRACTICE, WITH EXERCISES, ADAPTED FOR USE IN HIGH BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS B.A., EDITOR OF GOLDSMITH'S "Deserted Village," Cowper's "TASK," ETC. REVISED AND ENLARGED. BOSTON, U.S.A.: D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1901 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUAMAN SOCIETY COPYRIGHT, 1890, By D. C. HEATH & CO. PREFACE. THIS is, first of all, a practical book; not that it excludes theory, but that it gives prominence to practice. If this were not the case, it need not have been written. There are already books enough that deal ably with the theoretical part of the subject, but there are none that combine with theory a sufficient amount of practice. As composition is both a science and an art, no system of teaching it can be successful that does not recognize both of these departments. Young people do not acquire facility and correctness of expression merely by memorizing rules or by poring over methods of sentential structure. Repeated and varied experience in the making of sentences is necessary as well. Still, the learning of principles is not to be neglected; for, although it is not the whole, it is an essential part. How, then, can these two departments of the subject be most advantageously presented to the pupil? Every discerning teacher must have found that little theory and much practice is by far the most effective method of teaching composition. On this maxim this book is based; and its purpose is to furnish the teacher with the means of carrying into effect the plan here indicated. It proceeds on the simple method of laying down a few principles at a time, and then illustrating them with such number and variety of exercises that the pupil may fully master the practical application of these principles, and thereby learn not only to write, but to write correctly. JANUARY 21, 1891. iii |