SPECIMENS OF

PROSE COMPOSITION

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

CHARLES READ NUTTER, A.B.

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH AT HARVARD COLLEGE, FORMERLY
MASTER IN ENGLISH AT GROTON SCHOOL

FRANK WILSON CHENEY HERSEY, A.M.

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH AT HARVARD COLLEGE

AND

CHESTER NOYES GREENOUGH, PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

PREFACE

The editors of this book have compiled these specimens of prose composition because they have not found an entirely satisfactory volume of a similar nature. They have tested this book by actual use in their own class-room practice. The book has several special features. In one volume it illustrates all the kinds of writing. It includes good compositions by students themselves. Its classification is more explicit and suggestive than can be found elsewhere. Its introduction points out, with special reference to these particular selections, that the principles of composition, usually studied as if they applied inflexibly to all kinds of writing, really undergo important modifications according as the writer's purpose is to analyze or to depict.

In choosing these selections careful attention has been paid to length and to quality. Most of the specimens are so short that the student is able to get a total impression of structure and of style, and to make a careful analysis of entire selections, in a single recitation. Many others, of greater length and of greater complexity, permit the study of problems of material and of structure, — notably in the case of Argument and of Narration, which the shorter selections do not afford. As regards quality, these models have been drawn from the writings of the best authors,

but neither in style nor in material are they so far beyond the student's reach as to be discouraging. Believing that English Composition should not be based exclusively upon subject-matter of a literary nature, but that, particularly for elementary students, it should be based upon familiar and interesting material, the editors have chosen extracts from books on widely varied subjects. For example, in Exposition the selections deal with government, history, biography, science, war, literature, pioneer life, farming, economics, etc.; in Narration they deal with such simple. topics as fishing and hunting, as well as with more complicated subjects. Nor are the models chosen entirely from masters of style: students' themes have been added which will be not only interesting but encouraging to young

writers.

The editors take pleasure in returning thanks to the following authors and publishers, who have kindly permitted the reproduction of portions of their books: to Professor G. L. Kittredge, Professor G. H. Palmer, Captain A. T. Mahan, President Roosevelt, the Right Honorable James Bryce, President C. W. Eliot, Mr. C. T. Copeland, President A. T. Hadley, the Reverend Lyman Abbott, Mr. Joseph Conrad, Professor Brander Matthews, Mr. G. W. Cable, Mr. John Burroughs, Mr. W. D. Howells, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. H. M. Rideout, Miss S. O. Jewett, Mr. W. A. White, and Mr. Thomas Hardy; and to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Little, Brown & Co., T. Y. Crowell & Co., G. P. Putnam's Sons, D. Appleton & Co.,

Charles Scribner's Sons, the American Unitarian Association, the Century Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., The Outlook, Henry Holt & Co., Harper & Bros., Doubleday, Page & Co., and McClure, Phillips & Co.; to Mr. E. R. Lewis for the use of his brief and argument on the question "Should the United States Collect the Debts of San Domingo?", and to Mr. W. H. Bishop for the use of his brief and argument on the question "Should a National Forest Reserve be Established in the White Mountains?", as well as to the other students who, in permitting the reproduction of their themes, have furnished an indispensable part of these specimens of composition.

Particular thanks are due to Mr. C. T. Copeland, of Harvard College, for suggestions, and to Mr. W. S. Booth, of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for invaluable counsel.

THE EDITORS