Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by

WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Electrotyped by SMITH & MCDOUGAL, 82 Beekman St., N. Y.

LANGE, LITTLE & Co., Printers, 108, 110, 112 and 114 Wooster Street, N. Y.

To my Father,

My first fruitful and my most fruitful teacher in the practice of English composition;

and

To my Mother,

My earliest and my best example in strict literary conscience and long literary art,

This volume is affectionately inscribed

by their grateful son,

The Author.