2. Skill in applying this information to our own writing.

3. Taste for good literature, of all periods, from Old English to Kipling.

Several texts already consider one or more of these aims. A few possibly have sought to combine all three. Many books stress grammar; others, literature; still others, composition as a personal matter. Yet few authors seem to think it worth while to include something on them all. Almost no book mingles, in anything like the right proportions, the study of typical mistakes in grammar, the elements of rhetoric and English style, and the study of our great classics. The sole aim of the text we are to use together is to unify the knowledge and the skill, relating to English, in one volume.

Many good grammars give their whole attention to formal rules and precepts. Other texts skip these altogether, and assume that the student knows how to write, and is now ready to enjoy and appreciate good literature. Alas, many a high school senior, and many a freshman in college, has only learned the mere rudiments of correct expression. Much in addition needs to be accomplished to make him effective either in college or in business. If the pupil is to enter directly from the high school into the tasks of business or professional life, he should all the more thoroughly know the essentials of how to write good English. If he is to enter college after his preparatory course, he may have one more chance to help himself, but his chance he, with far too many, may scorn and reject, if he can only find a way to slight his work in the composition class. Let us agree in frankness that one who does not learn to write well, either in school or college, only cheats himself out of his natural birthright as an American citizen.

No textbook, therefore, can wholly succeed without active coöperation between pupil and teacher. Contrary to common notions, English is not the easiest study in the school curriculum. To learn well, without wasted time or effort, it is one of the hardest. More time can be wasted in superficial or misdirected studies in English than in almost any other field of human learning. Always remember that, to learn your language thoroughly, you must study as hard as you do to acquire a knowledge of geometry, or to distinguish the ordinary chemical compounds by laboratory experiment, or to make a beautiful table in the manual training shop. To some an aquirement like these mentioned may come easily; to others, with great struggle. It is the same with English study and English writing.

What interesting problems, what stern limitations of thought, what ranges for the development of ingenuity, what actual powers of brain and of heart, or knowledge of human life, or weighty responsibilities for good or evil, lie hidden, but not inert, in the written and spoken word! Great world empires have risen and declined with the rise and decline of their orators and poets.

Thus no developing mind has its full chance without a share in the appreciation of great literature. Insist that you shall have your merited opportunity. Read a masterpiece by an author like Charles Dickens; read it again and again, with adding interest, and what a knowledge of humanity there stands revealed! Fall into the metrical swing of Scott's Marmion or Lady of the Lake, and what young person can escape the contagious joy of mere living, or the glamor of the past ages of chivalry, or the romances of noble and heroic men and women! With genuine emotion read of the struggles of John Ridd and Lorna Doone, as narrated by Blackmore in his lyrical romance, and how can even the most indifferent escape the dignity and nobility of these two characters!

Not all readers, however, understand how to obtain the best results from their literary pursuits. Beyond the understanding of mere thought, or in case of the narrative, the bare essentials of the story, they do not know how to penetrate. Chapters in this book seek to introduce the student to some beneficial methods of studying literary classics. The outlines attempt to guide one to a fuller realization of the worth of essays, short stories, novels, and other types of composition. We must do something besides read words, words, words, as Hamlet does to old Polonius. Without trying to dissect too minutely, we have planned to notice some of the best forms that dignify our English language.

Few directions may be offered to either the teacher or the pupil in the use of a book of this type. The study must be carefully balanced, and sometimes adapted to the class that uses the book. Many teachers prefer to begin with spelling. Many wish to set students to work gathering material for their papers, and so spelling and punctuation, according to the custom of most recent books, are placed in the appendix. Perhaps it seems best to commence with the study of the sentence, or with the type of composition that best suits the previous training of the class, or the purpose of the teacher. In any case, chapters should not be assigned in regular order as they come in the book. Too much study of the grammar, and too much time devoted

to writing, at the start, may blight the interests of younger students. If four or five hours a week are devoted to English in the school program, two may be given to composition, and three to the use of the literary classics. Thus, for at least half the time the work will be in literature itself. As a preparation for the reading of an essay, or the study of a Shakespeare drama, the account of that type, with the brief history, should be taken up. By following a plan of this sort, the book may be used in two or three years of the high school course; and so some of the chapters may be taken up for a second time, whenever occasion warrants a repetition.

Teachers will observe that the book presents the material on exposition first among the forms of discourse. This method seems natural, though it is not the conventional one. Before students can write good stories, they must be taught to observe, to write good sentences, to gather little by little into one cumulation all the material that promises to be effective. No study accomplishes all this better than exposition. Yet there is no reason why those who desire may not study the later chapters early in the school year. Thus, story writing may come first, if that order promises greater success or interest to the class.

At almost every point it is assumed that the teacher will supplement the text with comments and additional material. Trying to cover more than the average book proposes, we are under the necessity of abbreviating, and sometimes of reducing the theory to the form of brief notes. Illustrations, illuminating examples, and supplementary material of various sorts will occur to every teacher who has had experience with our English courses. All these should be used freely.

An abundance of exercises is provided for several reasons. Frequently teachers like to make individual assignments; or to change from year to year; or to adapt the assignment to some form of study, or even to the library equipment. In some cases only a few of the exercises can be attempted in a single year. It is best not to attempt many compositions, or extensive writing, unless papers can be observed somewhat closely. The busy teacher will probably gain as much by frequent oral compositions as by written ones. The class learns more sometimes from hearing a good recitation than from studying the best of textbooks, or hearing the most competent of instructors. By offering the study of oral English early in the book, a better chance is given to follow up these initial assignments with others taken from

the exercises primarily designed for written papers, as they appear at the end of the various sections.

To all who have labored faithfully to improve our written and spoken language every modern book is under some obligation. The author of this book can do little more than hint his special debts to many who have instructed and inspired him, both in his school and college days, and in later life as he has learned to know many of his fellow-workers. Some obligations will have to remain unacknowledged, but they are not forgotten. Especial thanks are due to the works written by Canby and Others, Espenshade, Genung, Hitchcock, Lockwood and Emerson, Lomer and Ashmun, Newcomer, Scott and Denney, Winchester (Principles of Literary Criticism), and Winans (Public Speaking). Not a little of the method of treatment has been suggested by numerous of the author's students during the last twelve years as a teacher of English in both preparatory school and college.

WASHINGTON, PA.,

October 15, 1921.