stance writers who observe them? Are we not apt to think that with this our work as author fitly ends; or, if not, that the teacher will take up our unfinished task, and, without models, hints, suggestions, outlines, directions-work of any kind laid out for him will go on to teach the pupils to translate into product and make available in speech the theory unfolded and the knowledge imparted? The Text-book Teachers Demand. The cry coming up from teachers on all sides is, that they need something more in the text-book, something that, after the principles of the science have been fully and clearly unfolded, shall go on immediately to mark out work for the pupil to do in illustration of what he has learned, and shall exact the doing of it, not in the recitation-room, but in preparation for it and as the burden of his lesson. We believe, with such teachers, that the aim of the study should be to put the pupil in possession of an art; and that this cannot be done by forcing the science into him through eye and ear, but must largely be accomplished by drawing it out of him, in products, through tongue and pen. In this belief the author has prepared this work. In it all explanations of principles are, one at a time and immediately, supplemented by exhaustive practice in composition. The plan pursued in the book is simple. The work stands under three heads - Invention, Qualities of Style, and Productions. Rhetoric, the Art of Invention. Great stress is laid upon invention, the finding of the thought, the most important element in discourse of any kind. While, strictly speaking, rhetoric cannot —nothing can teach the pupil to think, rhetoric can bring the pupil into such relations with his subject that he shall find much thought in it, and be led to put this into the most telling place in his oral and written efforts. Having learned what thinking is, and what a sentence is as the embodiment of a thought and the instrument of its expression, the pupil is gradually led up through the construction of sentences of all conceivable kinds from the simplest to the most intricate, and these transformed by substitution and by contraction and expansion, — through the synthesis of such sentences into paragraphs, and through the analysis of subjects and the preparation of frameworks, to the finding of the thought for his themes. Rhetoric, the Art of Expression. Under qualities of style, the pupil is made familiar with perspicuity, imagery, energy, wit, pathos, and elegance, learns in detail what he must do to secure these qualities, and has placed before him pages of extracts from the best writers for the critical study of style. Under productions, all discourse is divided into oral and written, and written into prose and poetry. These are subdivided, and the requisites and functions of the grand divisions and of their subdivisons are explained. Special attention is given to those productions exacted of the pupil, - debates, orations, letters, essays. The rhythm and the meter of poetry and the substitution of feet are made level to the pupil's comprehension, and extracts are given for the critical study of poetry. The Doing, the Essential Thing. But whether, under the head of invention, the author is conducting the pupil up through the construction of sentences and paragraphs, and through the analysis of subjects and the preparation of frameworks, to the finding of thought for his theme; or, under the head of style, he is acquainting the pupil with its cardinal qualities; or, under the head of productions, he is dividing and subdividing discourse, noting the nature and offices of each division; - every where he is keeping in sight the fact that the pupil is to acquire an art, and that to attain this he must constantly do what he has learned, from the study of the theory and the study of authors, that it is "good to do." Rhetoric, a Preparation for Literature. But the ability to do is not everything. The capacity to appreciate what others have done is something. This book is a way of approach to literature, a preparation for it, and it is meant to be more. In the work required by the directions and in the study of the extracts from prose and poetry, the pupil has to make frequent and prolonged incursions into the field of literature itself. What he is to look for and look at there, what value he is to attach to his findings, and what enjoyment he may derive from them, he is taught. The Revision. The first edition of this work the author has used for twelve years in the class-room. This book is a revision of that. While some things in the original work have been dropped from this, and many things, not in the original, may be found in this, the lesson numbers are not changed — the new edition can be used without confusion in the same classes with the old. Under the head of propriety may be found a defence of many expressions unjustly condemned by recent critics; and, under simple words, some original work respecting the Latin and the AngloSaxon in our vocabulary. POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 1, 1892. |