Know well your subject; and the words will go
To the pen's point, with steady, ceaseless flow.
PENTLAND.

The first aim of a student of style should be to write as well as possible, and as to quickness, it will be acquired by habit. Materials for writing will offer themselves more readily every day; words will flow in upon him, and composition become easy. Upon the whole, by writing quickly, you will never be able to write well; but by writing well, you will soon learn to write quickly.-QUINCT. INSTIT. ORAT., book x., cap. iv.

When we speak of anything as peculiarly English, we mean to say that— whatever it may lack-it is straightforward, practical, and honest.-MINTO.

Thought and language act and re-act upon each other mutually. Logic and rhetoric have here, as in many other cases, a strict connection; and he that is learning to arrange his sentences with accuracy and order, is learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order.-BLAIR.

Language is sound significant by compact, of which the parts are also significant.-ARISTOTLE.

Of all the arts in which the learn'd excel,
The first in rank is that of writing well.

ROSCOMMON.

Never write about any matter that you do not well understand. If you clearly understand all about your matter, you will never want thoughts, and thoughts instantly become words.-COBBETT、

The matter should be supplied.-PROF. BAIN.

PREFACE.

IT has always seemed to the compiler of this book, that in almost all English schools the art of writing English was taught on a principle fundamentally wrong. The attention of the pupil was called, not to the thoughts and facts in his mind, but solely to words and phrases, which are in themselves unintelligent symbols of these thoughts and facts. He was led to theorise, before he had begun to practise. He was instructed in the Analysis of Phraseology, before he had been well trained in the Synthesis. The error was much the same as if we should not allow people to eat their dinners until they had fully mastered the anatomy and physiology of the teeth, tongue, and palate. It was the same as if a child could not be taught to walk until he had learned the name of all the muscles required in the exercise; nay more, as if, when he was being taught, he were advised not to imitate others, but to put in motion first this muscle, then another, then a third.

But the attitude of the mind in Composition is one of pure SYNTHESIS; and it is opposed to and exclusive of ANALYSIS. The attitude of the mind is, from another point of view, one of IMITATION, which again is opposed to and exclusive of CRITICISM or SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. But in all, or almost all, school-books of Composition, Analysis and Criticism have been taught, and never Synthesis and Imitation.

Now the consequences of this fundamental error in starting have been manifold. In the first place, the pupil has not gained power, which is really the end of all instruction. Instead of free confidence and a feeling of mastery, he has been paralysed by the sight of the innumerable rules he might find himself going to break. Instead of acquiring a strong, clear, and manly style, he gets-if he gets anything—a shallow knack of stringing empty phrases together. Then he is also asked to write Essays (they are sometimes called Themes) on Adversity, Clemency, Contentment, Generosity, Hypocrisy, or some of the other virtues and vices. But as he never had an honest thought of his own about any one of these abstract ideas, he only puts upon paper vapid and windy commonplaces. Thus he does not learn to think, but to write phrases: to substitute bad money for the real bullion of

knowledge and ideas. He is, in fact, trained in a course of mental dishonesty and weakness.

The loss is even greater than this. The weakness generated by this false practice reproduces itself in his other work, and even in examinations he makes a poor figure. In translating from another language, it again shows itself; and it also prevents his taking a strong mental hold of the words and thoughts of our best and most vigorous writers.

In most books on Composition, the aim has been twofold: to teach the young writer" to name his tools" and not to use them; and, secondly, to teach accuracy of expression, and not to train and to produce mental muscle. Hence, in most papers written by young pupils, a total absence of animal spirits, of vigour and vividness, of fulness of expression; but, instead, feebleness, vapidity, and looseness of style. The multitude of rules acts like a torpedo, and his mind is paralysed. The only remedy for this is larger practice, with the matter supplied, and the form at least suggested. In this book, have been substituted

IMITATION for CRITICISM,

The matter in all the exercises in this book has been supplied; and in many instances the form also. The pupil will not therefore have to search his brains for " sense or "ideas" or knowledge, but will spend that time in introducing order and proportion among the facts that have been supplied to him; and, while he is learning to state a case, he will also be learning to think about it. It is only young people who are ever expected to make “bricks without straw "—and, in fact, even without clay, and then to build a house with them.

The early parts of this book consist entirely of interesting Narrative. It was felt that it was necessary to enlist both the feelings and the imagination of the pupil, if anything like natural and vigorous writing is to be got out of him. Almost all of these narratives have been rewritten. The Correction of Errors then follows; but, as has been said, "you cannot steer a ship that has no way on," and it was felt that the pupil ought to have had large practice before he begins criticism. The later parts are intended for more advanced pupils.

It is earnestly recommended that every class in the school should have a paper in Composition to write two, three, or four times a week. Such an amount of practice will quickly tell on all the other subjects.

PART I.

INTRODUCTION.