duction and substitution, and condensing the matter of several pages into a single paragraph. This exercise may be performed with the book open, or from memory, and has the practical advantage of cultivating the faculty of abridging or epitomizing a detailed statement of facts or events.

The student should select the important matter from the passage to be condensed, and should take care that in the work of abridging he does not omit any matter necessary for making the abstract coherent and intelligible. He is not to pick out a sentence here and another there; but each sentence of the abstract should cover the ground of several sentences, if not several paragraphs, of the original. A good recitation in history is a fair example of a verbal abstract of the book studied. A poor recitation is often made by dwelling on a detail, and forgetting the general current of events.

If the class is studying history, or if it has recently studied history, the best practice in writing abstracts will be found by assigning work from the book used in the history class. Familiar poems, ballads, or legends are excellent for this purpose.

EXERCISE.

Condense into three or four hundred words the subject matter of one of the following poems: "The Loss of the Galleon," by Bret Harte; "The Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge; "Count Robert of Sicily," by Longfellow.

IV. TRANSLATION.

Advantages of Written Translation. If a class has made sufficient progress in the study of any foreign

language to translate extracts from that language, the writing of translations will be found one of the best exercises in English composition. The advantages of writing translations are evident from the fact that the thought is furnished, and can be kept constantly in view, while no English words are present. The choice and arrangement of words is often treated in a very slovenly manner in oral translations; and through such carelessness, pupils often do their English much harm. Whether speaking or writing, the student should make his translation thoroughly English, not only by using English words, but by using only English idioms and constructions; and should never follow the order of the original words, or the foreign idioms, to the loss of a good English

sentence.

It is not necessary to give extracts for use in translation; for they must be taken from books that the class is familiar with. Any French, German, or Latin reader may be used for this purpose, as may any foreign author that the class has studied.

Advantages of Exercises from Extracts. - In the exercises given thus far, we have paid little attention to the subject, or theme; for this in its full development, as well as the order of statement, has been provided in the extracts used as models. The aim in the foregoing exercises has been to start the work of composition with the least possible hindrance from the lack of thoughts suitable for written work. It is to be hoped that the practice in writing thus acquired has done much to secure an easy advance in the more difficult work we are about to take up, in which the student must find the materials for his composition from wider sources than a single extract.

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The following books contain many passages suitable for work in reproduction, substitution, and condensation, and are well adapted for use in class:

Irving's "Sketch Book."

Scott's "Lady of the Lake" and "Marmion."

Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," and Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare.”

Addison's "Roger de Coverley Papers."

Scott's "Ivanhoe."

Franklin's " Autobiography."

Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield."

Thackeray's" Henry Esmond."

Cooper's "Spy."

Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies."

CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION AND NARRATION.

I. DESCRIPTION.

Most Natural Kind of Composition. After practice in exercises based on extracts from the writings of others, the easiest advance for the pupil is to describe what he has seen or to narrate events that he has witnessed himself. Here the material for the composition is either before the writer's eyes or in his memory. But there are other equally good reasons for placing description first in the list of exercises in original composition; for description enters into every other form of writing; and the initial step toward attaining power with the voice or with the pen is the exercise of a close and acute observation.

Ample Scope for Genius. At first thought it may seem that one who has been traveling, or living in strange surroundings, will have the only subjects on which to write entertaining descriptions or stories. However, no form of writing affords greater scope for genius than does the description of ordinary sights or the recital of ordinary events. The charm of the writings of Addison, Hawthorne, or Irving lies in the wonderful power possessed by them to paint in words the beauty which they were able to discover in the simple everyday affairs of life. It is said that Charles Dickens had a power of

The

observation equal to that of nine ordinary men. close attention to details which he practiced in the reporter's gallery of the House of Commons reappears in all his works in the faithful touches of his pen. The opening of the fifth chapter of "Pickwick" is especially noticeable for the beauty of the description; and it is well known now, that the picture there given, in a few touches of the magic pencil of the great master of modern fiction, was one of the most familiar to his eye, and which had painted itself on his memory in his earliest days, as he loitered on the old stone bridge of the city of Rochester, close by his native place.

On the left lay the ruined wall, broken in many places, and in some overhanging the narrow beach below in rude and heavy masses. Huge knots of seaweed hung upon the jagged and pointed stones, trembling in every breath of wind; and the green ivy clung mournfully around the dark and ruined battlements. Behind it rose the ancient castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its old might and strength, as when, seven hundred years ago, it rang with a clash of arms or resounded with the noise of feasting and revelry. On either side, the banks of the Medway, covered with cornfields and pastures, with here and there a windmill or a distant church, stretched away as far as the eye could see, presenting a rich and varied landscape, rendered more beautiful by the changing shadows which passed swiftly across it, as the thin and half-formed clouds skimmed away in the light of the morning sun. The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on; and the oars of the fishermen dipped into the water with a clear and liquid sound, as their heavy but picturesque boats glided down the stream.