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 University of California 
 
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 Form L 1 
 
 
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 Form L-9-15m-10'25
 
 IV 
 
 PRACTICAL 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN L. MILLER, A.M. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THB NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL 
 DETROIT, MICHIGAN 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 28 196
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY EDWIN L. MILLER 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published October zgi$ 
 
 Reprinted November 1915; December 1Q15; June 1916; 
 
 December 1916 
 
 Wnt »ti>trsO>t £re«2 
 
 CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 U . S . A
 
 PE 
 
 
 
 "Whoever wishes to attain an English 
 style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant 
 but not ostentatious, must give his days and 
 nights to the volumes of Addison." 
 
 Samuel Johnson. Life of Addison. 
 
 "Children learn to speak by watching the 
 lips and catching the words of those who 
 know how already; and poets learn in the 
 same way from their elders." 
 
 James Russell Lowell. Essay on Chaucer. 
 
 "Grammars of rhetoric and grammars of 
 logic are among the most useless furniture of 
 a shelf. Give a boy Robinson Crusoe. That 
 is worth all the grammars of rhetoric and 
 logic in the world. . . . Who ever reasoned 
 better for having been taught the difference 
 between a syllogism and an enthymeme? 
 Who ever composed with greater spirit and 
 elegance because he could define an oxy- 
 moron or an aposiopesis? " 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulat. 
 
 Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay. Chapter VI.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book may be used during the eighth, ninth, or 
 tenth year of school. It is the first in a series of four, 
 each of which has been planned to cover one stage in 
 the composition work of the secondary school course. 
 These volumes are all designed to furnish material 
 adapted as exactly as possible to the capacity of the 
 pupils. The exercises which they contain have been 
 devised with the idea of reproducing the methods of 
 self-instruction which have been employed by success- 
 ful writers from Homer to Kipling. Most of them have 
 been subjected to the test of actual classroom use on 
 a large scale. They may be used independently or 
 as supplementary to a more formal textbook. Each 
 volume contains rather more work than an ordinary 
 class can do in one hundred recitations. 
 
 In each volume will be found some exercises that 
 involve each of the four forms of discourse; but em- 
 phasis is placed in Books I and II on description and 
 narration, in Book III on exposition, and in Book IV 
 on argumentation. Similarly, while stress is laid in 
 Book I on letter-writing, in Book II on journalism, in 
 Book III on literary effect, and in Book IV on the civic 
 aspects of composition, all of these phases of the sub- 
 ject receive attention in each volume. 
 
 In every lesson of every book provision is made for 
 oral work: first, because it is an end valuable in itself; 
 second, because it is of incalculable use in preparing 
 the ground for written work; third, because it can be 
 made to give the pupil a proper and powerful motive
 
 PRACTICAL ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 "Of all those arts in which the wise excel 
 Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well." 
 
 L Introduction 
 
 Composition is the art of putting ideas together in 
 words so that the words, whether oral or written, will 
 make an impression on somebody. Whenever you write 
 or speak you compose. Whenever you compose you aim 
 to cause somebody to think, to feel, or to act. Com- 
 position is, therefore, the most practical of all studies. 
 Some people can go through life with a fair degree of 
 credit and yet be profoundly ignorant of mathematics, 
 science, history, and shorthand; but the person who 
 cannot write and speak fluently and correctly is at 
 once set down as ignorant and inefficient. The reason 
 for this is noteworthy. Relatively few persons need to 
 be experts in science and mathematics; everybody has 
 to speak and write. The result is that, while ignorance 
 of chemistry or trigonometry is seldom discovered, a 
 lack of skill in composition is instantly detected and 
 punished. It is punished by that loss of the power to 
 influence other people which is its inevitable conse- 
 quence. Remember, therefore, that composition is the 
 most practical of all subjects, because in studying com- 
 position you are acquiring an art which you will have
 
 2 COMPOSITION 
 
 occasion to practice every clay and all day throughout 
 your life. 
 
 II. Nature of Composition 
 
 From the definition of composition you will perceive 
 that, in order to compose, you must have something 
 to say and somebody to whom to say it. This really 
 means that composition consists usually of three 
 processes : 
 
 I. Gathering material, or getting something to say. 
 II. Putting this material together, which involves : 
 (1) Arranging it; (2) Oral discussion or oral 
 composition; (3) Writing; (4) Revision. 
 
 III. Publication, which includes the presentation 
 of the finished product to an audience and the 
 reaction of that audience. 
 
 In other words, the student of composition must not 
 make the mistake of thinking that composition is 
 merely writing. There are seven steps in composition : 
 (1) Gathering material; (2) Arranging material; (3) 
 Oral composition; (4) Writing; (5) Revision; (6) Publi- 
 cation; (7) The Reaction (that is, Approval or Disap- 
 proval). Writing is therefore only one of the seven 
 processes that compose composition. In relation to the 
 composition as a whole it stands in importance about 
 as a postage stamp stands in size to the envelope which 
 it carries. 
 
 A concrete example will make this clearer. We will 
 take the case of a book with which most boys and girls 
 of fourteen are familiar. We will take Macaulay's 
 Lays of Ancient Rome. From boyhood Macaulay stud- 
 ied Roman history and read Roman poetry. In this 
 way he gathered a great mass of material. This was 
 Step 1. While he was still a small boy, Macaulay read
 
 COMPOSITION 3 
 
 Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. It fired his 
 mind. He learned it by heart. Doubtless he thought to 
 himself: "If I could only write like that, how happy I 
 should be!" At all events, after a while, — that is, 
 when he was about forty years old, — he organized 
 some of his Roman material into poems of the same 
 kind as Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, calling these 
 poems Lays of Ancient Rome. This was Step 2. Then 
 he discussed with a friend of his, Mr. Thomas Flower 
 Ellis, what he had done, and at his suggestion changed 
 some passages. He even went so far as to go to Rome 
 to study his poem in the light of what he could learn 
 there. That was his way of accomplishing Steps 3 and 
 4. Step 5 consisted of getting the poems set up in type 
 and reading the proof. Macaulay was particular about 
 this. He did not despise spelling and punctuation, but 
 he did despise people who despise spelling and punctu- 
 ation. As a matter of fact, the only people who do not 
 believe in these things are those who can neither spell 
 nor punctuate. But that is another story. The Lays 
 were published in 1842, which was Step 6, and were 
 greeted with a chorus of approval, which must have 
 been highly gratifying to Macaulay. At all events it 
 brought him money and fame, which was Step 7. 
 
 III. The Audience 
 
 When Macaulay wrote, when anybody writes, he 
 writes for an audience. In the approval of an audience 
 lie the reason and reward of composition. No man ex- 
 cept a blockhead or an angel ever wrote except for an 
 audience. In beginning a course in composition, the 
 first thing to do is, therefore, to provide an audience. 
 We shall accomplish this by organizing ourselves as a 
 literary club.
 
 4 COMPOSITION 
 
 This is effected as follows: 
 
 1. Elect a chairman. 
 
 2. Elect a secretary. 
 
 3. Appoint a committee to choose a name. 
 
 4. Appoint a committee to draw iid a constitution. 
 This probably will be quite enough work for one day. 
 The second and third days will perhaps suffice for 
 
 the discussion and adoption of the constitution. The 
 fourth will be needed for the election of officers and 
 the fifth for copying the constitution into every- 
 body's notebook. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States will afford a 
 good model. Two points, however, need particular 
 attention: 
 
 1. The section dealing with the order of business 
 should be carefully drawn. 
 
 2. Every member of the class should be a permanent 
 recording secretary, whose duty it should be each 
 day to keep careful notes of the transactions of 
 the club, to copy these in ink into a notebook, and 
 to be ready when called upon to read them to the 
 club. Their value for review work is obvious. 
 
 IV. Order of Business 
 
 1. Roll call. It is suggested that the class should 
 each month learn a poem, and that each member 
 may respond at roll call by giving one line or 
 one sentence. 
 
 2. Minutes of the last meeting. 
 
 3. Discussion of the minutes. 
 
 4. Reports of committees and officers. 
 
 5. New business. 
 
 6. Unfinished business. 
 
 This arrangement lends itself well to the methodical
 
 COMPOSITION 5 
 
 transaction of the business of a class; affords training in 
 citizenship ; keeps the teacher where he belongs — in 
 the background; gives daily practice in oral expression; 
 and, above all, causes the boys and girls to feel that 
 they have a vital share in the conduct and success of 
 the work. A pupil may be appointed each day as critic. 
 The teacher, as permanent critic of the club, will report 
 daily on the work of the other members, and, under the 
 order of new business, will assign the work of the next 
 meeting. From time to time contests may be arranged 
 with other classes and semi-public programs presented 
 in the school auditorium. In this connection, it may be 
 suggested that the teacher should often sit, not in the 
 front, but in the back of the room. The use of a dig- 
 nified current periodical as a basis for these discus- 
 sions may serve a useful purpose. 
 
 V. Model Minutes 
 
 At the meeting of the Holmes Literary Club Mon- 
 day, December 14, 1914, Mr. John Murray presided. 
 Roll call, which was effected by the Critic, Mr. Edwin 
 L. Miller, by requiring the members of the club each 
 to give a line of Kipling's "If," as their names were 
 read, showed nineteen present and one absent. The 
 minutes of the meeting of December 11 were read by 
 William Penn and ordered rewritten. The Critic re- 
 turned to their authors for revision a set of reports 
 on lectures, taking occasion to discuss in connection 
 therewith the following topics : 
 
 1. The fundamental law of punctuation. 
 
 2. Festina lente = "Hurry slowly" = "Safety first." 
 
 3. Carpe diem = "Do it now." 
 
 4. "Facts are the soul of reporting." 
 
 Under the head of new business he directed each
 
 6 COMPOSITION 
 
 member of the class in preparation for to-morrow's 
 meeting to perform the following tasks: 
 
 1. Write up the minutes. 
 
 2. Be prepared to discuss orally the topics suggested 
 in the next paragraph. 
 
 This was followed by a debate between the Greeks 
 and Romans on the resolution that " Admiral 
 Mahan's thesis that sea-power is essential to world- 
 power is sound." The Romans won by 568 points to 
 550. 1 
 
 VI. Oral Composition 
 
 Everybody composes orally whenever he speaks. 
 As a rule people speak better than they write. Just as 
 the legs are usually stronger than the arms, the tongue 
 is apt to be quicker than the fingers. For this reason 
 the art of oral composition is too often neglected. Its 
 importance, however, cannot be overrated. It is not 
 only an essential step in the preparation of written 
 compositions, but has a value of its own to all public 
 speakers, to all salesmen, and to all persons who meet 
 other persons in social intercourse. As a beginning in 
 this art, the pupil is therefore directed to prepare, 
 without writing it, a three-minute speech on some 
 topic suggested by the preceding pages. The following 
 may serve: 
 
 1. What is Composition? 
 
 2. The Practical Value of Composition. 
 
 3. Seven Keys to Composition. 
 
 4. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 5. The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 6. Thomas Babington Macaulay. 
 
 7. The Lays of Ancient Rome. 
 
 8. Literary Clubs. 
 
 1 The teacher may keep the score.
 
 COMPOSITION 7 
 
 VII. Memorize 
 
 As an aid to composition, the process of learning 
 poetry by heart is of great value. It increases one's 
 vocabulary, develops a feeling for sentence structure, 
 gradually teaches without seeming to teach the subtler 
 methods of securing literary effect, and gives to what 
 might otherwise be a too prosaic task a little touch of 
 that finer stuff which we call idealism. The poem, or 
 part of a poem, at the end of each chapter, has been 
 selected with special reference to its value for being 
 memorized. 
 
 THE BUILDERS 
 
 All are architects of Fate, 
 
 Building in these halls of Time, 
 
 Some with massive deeds and great, 
 Some with ornaments of rhyme. 
 
 Nothing useless is or low; 
 
 Each thing in its place is best; 
 And what seems but idle show 
 
 Strengthens and supports the rest. 
 
 For the structure that we raise 
 
 Time is with materials filled; 
 Our to-days and yesterdays 
 
 Are the blocks with which we build. 
 
 Truly shape and fashion these; 
 
 Leave no yawning gaps between; 
 Think not, because no man sees, 
 
 Such things will remain unseen. 
 
 (Continued on Page 11.)
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LETTER WRITING — EXCUSES FOR ABSENCE 
 
 "Conspicuous by his absence." 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 Everybody has to write letters. Some people have 
 occasion to write nothing else. The first task of the 
 beginner in composition, therefore, should be to learn 
 how to write a good letter. Letters are of two kinds, 
 business and social. Business letters are formal; social 
 letters are informal. We shall begin with some simple 
 business letters, shall vary these with a few social 
 letters, and shall then compose some more difficult 
 business letters. 
 
 II. Exercise 
 
 Write an excuse for absence from school. Use the 
 form of a business letter. Address it to the proper 
 school official. 
 
 III. Model 
 
 Washington High School, 
 Adams, Maine. 
 
 October 1, 1914. 
 Mr. Richard Mulcaster, 
 Washington High School, 
 
 Adams, Maine. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 My absence September 28, 29, and 30 was due to illness. 
 I therefore ask that I be allowed to reenter my classes. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Erasmus Darwin.
 
 LETTER WRITING 9 
 
 IV. Practical Application 
 
 Absence from school or business is in itself an un- 
 mixed evil. Sickness is the only valid excuse for ab- 
 sence. In the eyes of business men even sickness does 
 not constitute a valid excuse. An employee who is 
 often absent does not hold a job long. To teach the 
 value of regularity of attendance is therefore one of the 
 first duties of a school. One of the objects of this chap- 
 ter is to extract from the evil of absence a grain of good 
 by making it the occasion for a useful exercise in letter- 
 writing. l 
 
 V. Notes and Queries 
 
 1. Observe that the heading tells where and when the 
 letter is written. Usually the where is printed on 
 business letter heads. 
 
 2. Observe that in Line 3 there is a comma after 
 "October 1" and a period after "1914." The 
 comma indicates that the word "in" is omitted. 
 Commas are often used thus to indicate that 
 words are omitted. Find some examples. 
 
 3. Observe that in Lines 4, 5, and 6 we have a copy 
 of the address as it appears on the outside of 
 the envelope. 
 
 4. Why are there periods after "Mr.," "1914," 
 
 1 To Teachers. In some schools the pupil who has been absent 
 or tardy, in addition to being required to bring a note from parent 
 or guardian, is required to write a letter such as is here presented, 
 not being readmitted to any class until he produces a document 
 neat, legible, and perfect in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, 
 form, and all of the other essentials of good usage. This letter 
 is countersigned by each of his teachers when the writer presents 
 himself for recitation, and at the close of the day is filed in the school 
 archives. If resolutely adhered to, this plan produces admirable 
 results.
 
 10 LETTER WRITING 
 
 and "Maine"? Commas after "Muleaster" and 
 "Adams"? 
 
 5. Nota bene: "Mr.," "Dear," and "I" begin on the 
 same vertical line. 
 
 6. Why is the colon used after "Sir"? 
 
 7. Observe that Sentence 1 tells when and why the 
 absence occurred, while Sentence 2 asks that it be 
 excused. The body of an excuse should always 
 contain these three elements. 
 
 8. What word joins Sentence 2 to Sentence 1? 
 
 9. What is the grammatical construction of "yours "? 
 Of "truly"? Of "Erasmus Darwin"? 
 
 10. What are the "Four W's"? Should any of them 
 be omitted from any composition? Answer: The 
 "Four W's" are Who, What, When, and Where. 
 These must stand at the beginning of every com- 
 position, oral or written. That is to say, no com- 
 position makes a situation clear to a reader unless 
 it explains four things : (1) W 7 ho is concerned; (2) 
 What is in question; (3) When it happened; (4) 
 Where it happened. When the situation has been 
 established by means of these four pillars, we are 
 ready for the fifth "W," or Why. But more of 
 this anon. 
 
 VI. Method of Presentation 
 
 A note for teachers 
 
 1. On Monday and Tuesday dictate to the class 
 the form of excuse customarily used in the school. 
 Have one pupil write it on the board. Let pupils 
 exchange papers while the teacher corrects the 
 copy on the board. The outcome of this work 
 must be that each pupil has a perfect copy in his
 
 LETTER WRITING 11 
 
 notebook. This should be accomplished not later 
 than Wednesday morning. 
 
 2. Let the "Notes and Queries" be studied for 
 Thursday. 
 
 3. Friday — Public Speaking, or Oral Composition. 
 
 4. Fill in spare time, if there is any, with oral compo- 
 sition based on the work being done by pupils in 
 other classes. 
 
 VII. Subjects for Oral Composition 
 
 1. Why is absence bad for a pupil? 
 
 2. Why is absence bad for a class? 
 
 3. Why is absence bad for a school? 
 
 4. There are two hundred school days in a year. A 
 school cannot do efficient work unless its attend- 
 ance record averages 97.5 per cent. If a pupil is 
 absent ten days in four weeks or twenty days, 
 how many times at the same rate will he be ab- 
 sent in a year? How many pupils with perfect 
 records will be required to offset the damage done 
 by this one delinquent? 
 
 5. Are there any sufficient excuses for absence ex- 
 cept illness? If so, what are they? Why are they 
 sufficient? 
 
 VIII. Memorize 
 
 THE BUILDERS (continued from Page 7 ) 
 
 In the elder days of Art, 
 
 Builders wrought with greatest care 
 
 Each minute and unseen part, 
 For the gods see everywhere. 
 
 Let us do our work as well, 
 
 Both the unseen and the seen; 
 Make the house, where gods may dwell, 
 
 Beautiful, entire, and clean.
 
 12 LETTER WRITING 
 
 Else our lives are incomplete. 
 Standing in these walls of Time, 
 
 Broken stairways, where the feet 
 Stumble as they seek to climb. 
 {Continued on Page 16.)
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 LETTER WRITING —   EXCUSES FOR TARDINESS 
 "An ounce of success is worth a ton of excuses." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write in the form of a business letter an excuse for 
 tardiness. If you are tardy, you will not be permitted 
 to enter any of your classes until you have succeeded 
 in producing a letter which is satisfactory in content 
 and flawless in technique down to the last dot. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Lincoln High School, 
 Pomona, California. 
 
 Sept. 21, 1914. 
 
 Miss Sadie Jean Fox, 
 
 Lincoln High School, 
 
 Pomona, California. 
 Dear Miss Fox: 
 
 I reached school at8.01 this morning and am therefore late 
 for my first class. This misfortune is due to no fault of my 
 own, but to the fact that a coal wagon, which had broken 
 down on the track, delayed my car about ten minutes. If you 
 will excuse me, I will promise hereafter to start from home so 
 early that no similar accident will produce a similar result. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 III. Time Schedule 1 
 
 Monday 
 
 (a) Dictation of model. 
 
 (b) Discussion of the following topics: 
 
 1 To Teachers. The time schedule offered here is of course merely 
 suggestive. Varying conditions demand various arrangements; and 
 deviations from this and the following schedules may and should fre-
 
 14 LETTER WRITING 
 
 1. Point out the "Four W's." 
 
 2. Give the reason for each mark of punctuation 
 in the model. 
 
 3. Tell whether each sentence is simple, com- 
 plex, or compound. 
 
 4. Tell what part of speech each word is. 
 
 5. Why is there a period after "Mr." but none 
 after "Miss"? 
 
 6. Explain the construction of morning, first, 
 due, wagon, which, down, car. 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 (a) Reading of minutes of Monday's lesson. 
 (6) Review of Monday's lesson and of last week's 
 "Notes and Queries." 
 
 (c) Observe that Sentence 1 in the model states the 
 facts of the case, that Sentence 2 offers an excuse, 
 and that Sentence 3 contains a promise. These are 
 the three essentials of an excuse for tardiness. 
 
 (d) What is wrong with the following excuse? Why 
 does it seem ludicrous? 
 
 Dear Mr. Corns: 
 
 Please excuse Reginald's tardiness. He fell down 
 in the mud. You will greatly oblige me by doing the 
 
 same. 
 
 Mrs. Smith. 
 
 (e) In the model what word or words connect 
 Sentence 2 to Sentence 1 and Sentence 3 to Sen- 
 tence 2? 
 
 (/) Observe that these excuses are in reality business 
 letters. You are asked to learn to write them 
 
 quently be made in order to get the best results. They are inserted 
 in the hope and belief that they may be helpful to teachers whose 
 experience in composition teaching is limited and to pupils who find 
 the study of English indefinite.
 
 LETTER WRITING 15 
 
 with absolute accuracy because every man and 
 woman needs this skill. 
 
 (g) Write in class an excuse for tardiness, being care- 
 ful to embody in it all of the essentials shown in 
 the model. 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 (a) Reading and discussion of the excuses written 
 Tuesday. Writers must be ready to defend their 
 reasons and their English. 
 
 (b) Questions for Oral Discussion. 
 
 1. Why is tardiness bad for a school? 
 
 2. For a pupil? 
 
 3. If there are two hundred school days in a year 
 and the superintendent expects that each 
 school shall have a percentage of 99.5 in 
 punctuality, how many pupils with perfect 
 records are required to offset the sins of one 
 boy who is tardy five times in fifty school 
 days? If a boy is tardy five times in fifty 
 days, he will probably be tardy twenty times 
 in two hundred days. 
 
 4. Find, copy into your notebook, and bring to 
 class three quotations on the subject of 
 promptness. When the roll is called, you will 
 be expected to answer with one of these. 
 Quotations previously given will not be ac- 
 cepted. The following may help : 
 
 (a) Procrastination is the thief of time. 
 
 Edward Young (1684-1765). 
 
 (b) Time, sir, time is everything. Five minutes 
 make the difference between victory and de- 
 feat. 
 
 Horatio Nelson (1758-1805).
 
 16 LETTER WRITING 
 
 (c) I owe all that I have achieved to being ready a 
 quarter of an hour before it was deemed neces- 
 sary to be so. 
 
 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington 
 (1769-1852). 
 
 Thursday 
 
 (a) Oral Composition on topics drawn from current 
 work in other subjects. 
 
 (b) Hand finished excuses to teacher. 
 Friday 
 
 Public Speaking. The programs for Friday 
 should be arranged by a committee of club mem- 
 bers appointed by the president of the club. It 
 should include the recitation of poems, declama- 
 tions, exceptionally good finished themes, de- 
 bates, and short plays. The teacher should see 
 to it that everybody takes part in these exercises, 
 and as Critic should offer criticisms on the follow- 
 ing Monday morning. On Friday, however, he 
 should be seen, not heard. 
 
 IV. Memorize 
 
 THE BUILDERS (continued from Page 12) 
 
 Build to-day, then, strong and sure, 
 With a firm and steadfast base; 
 
 And, ascending and secure, 
 Shall to-morrow find its place. 
 
 Thus alone can we attain 
 
 To those turrets, where the eye 
 
 Sees the world as one vast plain 
 And one boundless reach of sky. 
 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP — YOUR SCHOOL 
 
 "Work with your eye on the clock — result misery; work with 
 your eye on your work — result happiness." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write to a friend a letter describing your school. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Shelford, February 22, 1813. 
 My dear Papa: 
 
 As this is a whole holiday, I cannot find a better time for 
 answering your letter. With respect to my health, I am very 
 well and tolerably cheerful, as Blundell, the best and most 
 clever of all the scholars, is very kind, and talks to me, and 
 takes my part. 
 
 In my learning I do Xenophon every day and twice a 
 week the Odyssey, in which I am classed with Wilber- 
 force, whom all the boys allow to be very clever, very 
 droll, and very impudent. We do Latin verses twice a week, 
 and I have not yet been laughed at. We are also exercised 
 once a week in English composition and once in Latin com- 
 position and letters of persons renowned in history to each 
 other. We get by heart Greek grammar or Virgil every even- 
 ing. As for sermon writing, I have hitherto got off with 
 credit. 
 
 We had the first meeting of our debating society the other 
 day, when a vote of censure was moved for upon W r ilber- 
 force; but he, getting up, said: "Mr. President, I second the 
 motion." By this means he escaped. 
 
 My room is a delightful little chamber, which nobody can 
 enter, as there is a trick about opening the door. I sit like a 
 king, with my writing-desk before me, for (would you believe 
 it?) there is a writing-desk in my chest of drawers, my books 
 on one side, my box of papers on the other, with my arm-
 
 18 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 chair and my candle, for every boy has a candlestick, snuf- 
 fers, and extinguisher of his own. 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 Thomas B. Macaulay. 
 
 III. Suggested Time Schedule 
 
 Monday — Dictation. 
 Tuesday — Notes and Queries. 
 Wednesday — Oral Composition. 
 Thursday — Oral Composition. 
 
 Friday — (a) Hand in Written Composition. 
 (b) Public Speaking. 
 
 IV. Notes and Queries 
 
 Macaulay wrote this letter when he was not quite 
 thirteen years old. You can probably do as well, if you 
 try. In order to prepare to do so, answer the following 
 questions : 
 
 1. What did Macaulay do when he grew up? If you 
 do not know, tell how you would go to work to 
 find out. 
 
 2. What is the subject of the whole letter? Of each 
 paragraph? In your letter use the same para- 
 graph subjects. Instead of your room at home, 
 you may describe your school room. 
 
 3. How many simple sentences does the letter con- 
 tain? Compound? Complex? 
 
 4. Explain the construction of: "holiday" (1. 1); 
 "week" (1. 6); "whom" (1. 6); "twice" (1. 8); 
 "hitherto" (1. 12). 
 
 5. (a) Had Macaulay been long at Shelf ord when he 
 
 wrote this? 
 
 (b) What course was he taking? 
 
 (c) What did he have to do in English? 
 
 (d) Find a simile.
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 19 
 
 6. Is there any practical good which can come from 
 an exercise like this? If so, what? 
 
 V. Oral Composition 
 
 Prepare yourself to dictate to the class without notes 
 a letter planned after the model. Be sure that it 
 has four paragraphs, as follows: 
 
 1. My Health. 
 
 2. My Work. 
 
 3. My Play. 
 
 4. My Room, Private Refuge, or Den. 
 
 If you do a good piece of work, your classmates 
 and teacher will praise you. If you are careless, 
 you may expect a storm of criticism, against 
 which you must defend yourself as well as you 
 can. 
 
 VI. Written Composition 
 
 Write your letter, bring it to class, and on entering 
 hand it to your teacher, who will proof-read it 
 and return it to you on Monday. Write with the 
 greatest care. Use black ink. Rewrite your letter 
 until you are sure that it is perfect in form, spell- 
 ing, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. 
 Gibbon rewrote the first sentence of his Decline 
 and Fall of the Roman Empire no less than thir- 
 teen times. Chaucer says: 
 
 "There n' is ne werkeman, whatever he be, 
 That can both werken wel and hastile." 
 
 One per cent will be deducted from your standing 
 for each mistake in spelling, punctuation, capi- 
 talization, grammar, and the other essentials of 
 good usage. If you make more than ten of these 
 you will be required to rewrite your letter. Two
 
 50 
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 per cent will be deducted for each error in this 
 revision. If you make more than five errors in 
 each one hundred words, you will be required to 
 rewrite your letter a second time. This process 
 of revision will continue until your composition 
 is letter perfect or until your teacher succumbs 
 to old age. The following table of standards is 
 suggested to teachers: 
 
 First Revision 
 Second Revision 
 Third Revision 
 Fourth Revision 
 Fifth Revision 
 
 Scale of marks 
 
 — 2 for each error in 
 one hundred words 
 
 — 4 for each error in 
 one hundred words 
 
 — 8 for each error in 
 one hundred words 
 
 — 16 for each error in 
 one hundred words 
 
 Maximum percentage of 
 errors allowed ' 
 
 Five in one hundred 
 words 
 
 Three in one hundred 
 words 
 
 One in one hundred 
 words 
 
 None 
 
 "Diseases desperate grown by desperate appli- 
 ance are relieved or not at all." Shakespeare. 
 
 1 This means that, if the maximum number of errors allowed be exceeded, the 
 composition must be rewritten. 
 
 VII. Memorize 
 
 THE RIGHT WAY TO READ 
 
 We get no good 
 By being ungenerous, even to a book, 
 And calculating profits, — so much help 
 By so much reading. It is rather when 
 We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge 
 Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, 
 Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth — 
 'T is then we get the right good from a book. 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PROOF-READING 
 
 "Genius is only a very great capacity for taking pains." 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 The subject of this chapter is the correction of proof. 
 When the type is set in a printing-office, the first 
 impression, called a proof, is sent for correction to an 
 employee called a proof-reader, and then to the editor, 
 or to the author. The mistakes are corrected by means 
 of a system of shorthand which is described in full on 
 Page 2550 of Webster's New International Dictionary. 1 
 In the correction of themes teachers, as far as possible, 
 will use the proof-readers' signs to indicate mistakes. 
 A knowledge of them is a necessary part of a liberal 
 education; and, since thousands of people earn their 
 living by reading proof, it may have a direct vocational 
 value. Moreover, nearly every person is called upon 
 occasionally to read proof. 
 
 II. Time Schedule 
 
 Monday 
 
 Write these questions and the answers in ink in your 
 notebook : 
 
 What mark signifies 
 
 1. Delete or expunge? 
 
 2. A space or more space between words, letters, or 
 
 lines? 
 
 1 If dictionaries are scarce, certain members of the club (or class) 
 may be appointed as a committee to find the answers and report 
 them to the others.
 
 S2 PROOF-READING 
 
 3. Less space or no space between words or let- 
 ters? 
 
 4. Carry a word farther to the left? To the right? 
 
 5. Indent? 
 
 6. Straighten a margin? 
 
 7. Make new paragraphs? 
 
 8. Put in italics? 
 
 9. Put in small capitals? 
 
 10. Put in capitals? 
 
 11. Transpose? 
 
 12. Put in small letters a word or letter that is in 
 capitals? 
 
 Tuesday and Wednesday 
 
 1. Learn the answers to Monday's questions. 
 
 2. Dictation and correction, by the signs, of the 
 following verses, which in themselves constitute 
 a system of shorthand. This exercise will also 
 extend through Wednesday. 1 
 
 AN A-Z (AISY) METHOD FOR MARKING THEMES 
 
 A is for Accurate; you have not said 
 
 Precisely the thing that you had in your head. 
 
 B is for Bravo; it means you have won 
 
 Your teacher's approval; your work is well done. 
 
 1 Every school has, or should have, some system of shorthand to 
 supplement the standard proof-readers' signs. Of these systems it 
 may be said: " 'T is with our systems as our watches; no two go just 
 alike, yet each believes his own." These verses constitute such a 
 system, probably neither better nor worse than hundreds of others. 
 Pupils whose teachers use "The A-Z Method" will perceive that the 
 scheme consists in indicating a mistake in grammar by placing a G 
 in the margin of a composition opposite the line containing the error, 
 etc. One letter thus means as much as a whole couplet. The verses 
 at least have the merit of being easily memorized and remembered 
 by pupilsand the corrections do not much fatigue a teacher's fingers. 
 It may be added that a standard system of marks universally used 
 would be a blessing to the human race.
 
 PROOF-READING 23 
 
 C stands for Construction; your sentence is weak 
 Because it was not built with care, so to speak. 
 
 D is for Doubtful; your meaning's in doubt; 
 Ambiguity's fatal; cast the oaf out. 
 
 E is for Emphasis; points that are strong 
 
 First or last in the theme or the sentence belong. 
 
 F is for Facts; you will scribble in vain 
 
 If a grip on these churls you don't get and retain 
 
 G is for Grammar; your grammar's at fault; 
 
 On the fortress of syntax you've made an assault. 
 
 H is for Hackneyed; the story you've told 
 In the days of Nebuchadnezzar was old. 
 
 I stands for Instructions. Learn to obey. 
 
 He who humbles himself is exalted, they say. 
 
 J is for Joining; each sentence should lead 
 
 By an easy transition from those which precede. 
 
 K is for Key- Word; your title should be 
 To open your subject an accurate key. 
 
 L is for Length; your story's too long; 
 
 Brevity marks most writing that's strong. 
 
 M is for Manuscript. Do please take pains. 
 
 Careless handwriting does not bespeak brains. 
 
 N is for Number; pray take it from me 
 
 That subject and verb should in number agree. 
 
 O is for Order; your words are arranged 
 
 In an order which may to advantage be changed. 
 
 P Punctuation! Such errors can mostly be traced 
 To a lack of grammatical training, — or haste. 
 
 Q stands for Quotation. Quotation marks show 
 How much of your wit to others you owe. 
 
 R stands for Redundant. Pray note and take heed: 
 
 Don't repeat words or thoughts unless there is need.
 
 24 PROOF-READING 
 
 S is for Spelling; you've misspelled a word; 
 
 Noah Webster will teach you wherein you have erred. 
 
 T is for Tense; don't flounder and flop 
 
 From Father Time's feet to Eternity's top. 
 
 U is for Unity; ash-pile and dough 
 
 Were never designed in the parlor to go. 
 
 V is for Vulgar, and slang is a thing 
 
 That a parrot can use as well as a king. 
 
 W is for Words; they are quaint in their ways; 
 Some other word here will better the phrase. 
 
 X stands for Unknown. Your error to find 
 
 As an X-ray employ right now your own mind. 
 
 Y is for Youth; if you're indolent now. 
 
 You'll be ditto when age has wrinkled your brow. 
 
 Z is for Zero; pray take up your pen, 
 
 And with painstaking care write this paper again. 
 
 Thursday 
 
 Notes and Queries 
 
 1. What part of speech is each word in A ? 
 
 2. What kind of sentence is B ? 
 
 3. Define "ambiguity" and "oaf." 
 
 4. What are the emphatic places in a sentence? 
 
 5. What is a metaphor? Explain the metaphor in 
 
 1 A simile is an expressed comparison between two things or per- 
 sons that are essentially unlike. For instance, when Goldsmith, in 
 writing of a village preacher, said he stood 
 
 "As some tall mount, that rears its awful form, 
 Swells from the plain and midway leaves the storm; 
 Though round its base the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head," 
 
 he used what has been called the best simile in the English language. 
 
 A metaphor is an implied simile. Thus Burns, in the line, 
 
 "Of night's black arch the keystoao,"
 
 PROOF-READING 25 
 
 6. Define "hackneyed." Write a note of 25 words 
 about Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 7. Explain the oxymoron l in /. 
 
 8. How are the couplets in this poem joined? 
 
 9. What figure of speech have we in K ? 
 
 10. What is brevity? Why is it " the soul of wit " ? 
 
 11. What does M mean? 
 
 12. What kind of sentence is N ? 
 
 13. Is it vulgar to punctuate correctly? 
 
 14. Why do so many people find it hard to punctuate 
 correctly? 
 
 15. Define "redundant." See the dictionary. 
 
 16. Find in the verses an example of "redundancy." 
 
 17. In what tense is it best to write a story? 
 
 18. How many ideas should a sentence contain? A 
 paragraph? An essay? A poem? A novel? A 
 play? 
 
 19. What is slang? What can you say for it? Against 
 it? 
 
 III. Memorize 
 
 COLUMBUS 
 
 Behind him lay the gray Azores, 
 Behind the Gates of Hercules; 
 Before him not the ghost of shores, 
 Before him only shoreless seas. 
 The good mate said: "Now must we pray, 
 For lo! the very stars are gone. 
 Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?" 
 "Why, say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!" 
 
 implies that the hour of twelve midnight is like the keystone of an 
 arch, as the figure XII on the face of a clock occupies the same 
 relative position as that of a keystone in an arch. 
 
 1 An oxymoron (Greek oxy — "sharp" + moron = " foolishness ") 
 is a phrase or sentence which, though nonsense when taken liter- 
 ally, yet really contains much wisdom. "Make haste slowly" is a 
 good example of oxymoron,
 
 26 PROOF-READING 
 
 "My men grow mutinous day by day; 
 My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 
 The stout mate thought of home; a spray 
 Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
 
 "What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, 
 If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" 
 
 "Why, you shall say at break of day, 
 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'" 
 
 They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, 
 Until at last the blanched mate said: 
 "Why, now not even God would know 
 Should I and all my men fall dead. 
 These very winds forget their way, 
 For God from these dread seas is gone. 
 Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say" — 
 He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!" 
 
 They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate; 
 "This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. 
 
 He curls his lip, he lies in wait, 
 
 With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 
 
 Brave Admiral, say but one good word: 
 
 What shall we do when hope is gone?" 
 
 The words leapt as a leaping sword: 
 "Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!" 
 
 Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, 
 
 And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
 
 Of all dark nights! And then a speck — 
 
 A light! A light! A light! A light! 
 
 It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! 
 
 It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. 
 
 He gained a world; he gave that world 
 
 Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!" 
 
 Joaquin Miller.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 "Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves or we 
 know where we can find information upon it." 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 The object of this chapter is to furnish in a compact 
 form an explanation of the principles back of the 
 statements made in the " A-Z Method." It really con- 
 tains a brief treatise on the principles of rhetoric. It 
 may be used either for recitation or for reference. It is 
 designed, however, to cover only those points which 
 experience has shown to be peculiarly difficult for high- 
 school pupils. 
 
 II. Explanation of the A-Z Method 
 A. Accuracy 
 
 Always to say exactly what you mean and mean 
 exactly what you say is difficult. Not to do so is to be 
 misunderstood or ridiculous. 
 
 Note the fault in each of these sentences and rewrite 
 it so as to eliminate the inaccuracy: 
 
 1. "In 1709 was born a most eccentric, gruff, and fat old 
 man." — Essay by a Pupil in High School. 
 
 2. "Between 1759 and 1760 Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote a 
 dictionary of the English language." — Ibid. 
 
 3. "New York is larger than any city in America." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 4. "One sees him sitting at the table writing Paradise Lost, 
 while his daughters unwillingly read to him." — Ibid. 
 
 5. "Venice is a city in Italy built on water. Its longest
 
 28 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 bridge expands the Grand Canal, which is 158 feet 
 long." — Ibid. 
 
 6. "Longfellow was married twice, both his wives having 
 died." — Ibid. 
 
 7. A Case of Gravity. — The latest Boston story is about 
 a small child who fell out of a window. A kind- 
 hearted lady came hurrying up with the anxious ques- 
 tion, "Dear, dear! How did you fall?" 
 
 The child looked up at the questioner and replied, 
 in a voice choked with sobs, "Vertically, ma'am." — 
 Tit-Bits. 
 
 8. A Docile Gun. — The Daily Chronicle on the latest 
 submarine: "It will also be equipped with a quick- 
 firing gun, which disappears when the vessel is sub- 
 merged." This is far the best arrangement; it would 
 never do for it to be left floating where any passer-by 
 could pick it up. — Punch. 
 
 9. Hardly Possible. — Riding in an omnibus up Regent 
 Street last evening, I heard an old lady annoying the 
 other passengers by her remarks. The conductor re- 
 monstrated with her, saying, "Ma'am, remember you 
 are in a public vehicle, and behave as such." — C. G., in 
 the London Spectator. 
 
 B. Bravo! 
 
 Teachers should use this mark often. It is better to 
 concentrate attention on what is good than on what is 
 bad. The world forgets or overlooks the errors of great 
 men, but remembers their positive achievements. Let 
 us revise Antony's statement thus: 
 
 " The good deeds which men do live after them; 
 The bad should be interred with their bones." 
 
 C. Construction 
 
 The construction of sentences is an art which it takes 
 years to acquire, but these hints may help : 
 
 1. Buy and study Bartlett's Dictionary of Familiar Quota- 
 tions. It is one of the greatest books that America has 
 produced. Some people use it more than any other
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 29 
 
 book. Your father might be induced to buy it for you 
 as a present. 
 
 2. Keep a notebook and enter therein any sentence which 
 you particularly like. 
 
 3. Observe that skillful writers obtain variety in sentence 
 structure by using a judicious mixture of simple, com- 
 pound, and complex, long and short, loose, periodic, 
 and balanced sentences. Try to use a reasonable num- 
 ber of complex sentences. 
 
 4. Contrast your own sentence structure with that of your 
 favorite author or with the models for composition in 
 this book. 
 
 D. Doubtful 
 
 A statement is ambiguous when it may mean two or 
 more things. Note the following and rewrite them in 
 such a fashion that their meaning will be unmistak- 
 able: 
 
 1. The minister's resignation was admirable. 
 
 2. Jack promised him never to abandon his friends. 
 
 3. The janitor was discharged from the position which he 
 had held for eight years on account of his indolence. 
 
 4. D's fortune is equal to half of E's, which is ten thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 5. The Romans understood liberty at least as well as we. 
 
 6. The aviator was a sober man; he had not taken a drop 
 for two years. 
 
 E. Emphasis 
 
 The beginning and end are the emphatic places in a 
 sentence. Emphasis should be secured, not by italics, 
 but by placing important words first or last. A devia- 
 tion from the usual order will also emphasize a word. 
 In rare cases the repetition of words will secure the 
 same result. Note these examples: 
 
 1. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 
 
 2. The boy — oh! where was he? 
 
 3. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
 
 30 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 F. Facts 
 
 Facts are the soul of composition. If you have some- 
 thing to say, and if you tell the truth, you can hardly 
 fail as a writer or speaker. The greatness of books 
 depends on their contents. Too much pains cannot be 
 taken in gathering facts. Don't deceive yourself with 
 the idea that you can dash off a composition in fifteen 
 minutes without knowing anything about the subject. 
 
 The stock in trade of the professional humorist con- 
 sists largely of sarcasm aimed at ignorance of facts. 
 For example: 
 
 1. In a certain textbook on arithmetic designed for use in 
 schools appears the following ingenious problem: "A 
 cannon ball travels 540 feet in one second. How far 
 will it be from the muzzle of the gun after the lapse of 
 thirty-five minutes?" — Sacred Heart Review. 
 
 2. The little agricultural village had been billed with 
 "Lecture on Keats" for over a fortnight. The evening 
 arrived at length, bringing the lecturer ready to dis- 
 course on the poet. The advertised chairman, taken 
 ill at the last moment, was replaced by a local farmer. 
 This worthy introduced the lecturer and terminated his 
 remarks by saying: "And now, my friends, we shall 
 soon all know what I personally have often wondered 
 — what are Keats?" — Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. 
 
 3. Old Lady — "I've brought back this war-map you 
 sold me yesterday, Mr. Brown. It's not up to date. 
 I ' ve been looking all the morning for Armageddon, and 
 can't find it marked anywhere." — Punch. 
 
 4. "Papa, what is an escutcheon?" 
 "Why?" 
 
 "This story says there was a blot on his escutcheon." 
 "Oh, yes! An escutcheon is a light-colored vest. He 
 had probably been carrying a fountain pen." — Hous- 
 ton Post. 
 
 5. Mischa Elman tells a story of his early youth. He was 
 playing at a reception given by a Russian prince, and 
 played Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, which has several
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 31 
 
 long and impressive rests in it. During one of these 
 rests a motherly old lady leaned forward, patted him 
 on the shoulder, and said: "Play something you know, 
 dear." — Argonaut. 
 
 G. Grammar 
 I. Answer the following questions : 
 
 (a) State the rule for the agreement of subject and verb. 
 
 (b) What do adverbs modify? 
 
 (c) What caution must be exercised in the use of the 
 definite article? 
 
 (d) In the use of coordinate conjunctions? 
 
 (e) What is a restrictive clause? How may it be recog- 
 nized? 
 
 Why should it not be set off by a commaP 
 (/) What is a dangling participle? 
 (g) A cleft, or split, infinitive? 
 
 II. Correct the following sentences, and tell what is 
 the matter with each : 
 
 1. While gone, his house burns down. 
 
 2. While bathing in the river at the foot of Riopelle St., 
 a $20.00 watch was lost by James Grogan yesterday. 
 
 3. Each of the four rules are as important as the other. 
 
 4. When seven years of age, Lincoln and his parents went 
 to Illinois. 
 
 5. Each one washed their face. 
 G. Give that book to John or I. 
 
 H. Hackneyed 
 
 "Hackneyed" means "worn out," "battered," 
 'decrepit," "second-hand," "on the verge of col- 
 lapse." Do your own thinking and writing. Don't 
 repeat like a parrot the stock phrases of other people. 
 Morally, the person who passes off as his own the ideas 
 of another is a thief. Intellectually, he is a pauper. 
 Artistically, he is a pest and a bore. 
 
 I. Instructions 
 
 The ability to follow instructions is a prerequisite to
 
 32 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 the ability to command. If you wish to rise in the 
 world you must learn to do what you are told. It in- 
 volves the will to do right and an intelligent compre- 
 hension of the task to be done. Some years ago there 
 was an outcry in Chicago to the effect that high-school 
 graduates were worthless as employees. Accordingly 
 a committee of high-school teachers waited on various 
 business men for the purpose of finding out what sort 
 of training they deemed desirable. Almost to a man 
 they replied: "We want boys and girls who have been 
 trained to do what they have been told." 
 
 J. Joining 
 
 In the following poem, note how the italicized 
 words hook the sentences together. Apply the same 
 test: (1) To the editorials in to-day's paper; (2) To 
 your own compositions. 
 
 Mary had a little lamb, 
 
 Its fleece was white as snow. 
 And everywhere that Mary went 
 
 The lamb was sure to go. 
 
 He followed her to school one day, 
 
 Which was against the rule, 
 For it made the children laugh and play 
 
 To see that lamb in school. 
 
 A distinguished French writer, Taine, says that the 
 whole art of composition consists in writing with hooks 
 and eyes. 
 
 K. Key -Words 
 
 The title of a book or a composition should be brief 
 and should arouse curiosity sufficient to lead people to 
 read what follows. The best titles consist of single 
 words or phrases. Verbs, adjectives, and adverbs 
 should be avoided in titles. All nouns in titles should 
 begin with capital letters.
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 33 
 
 L. Length 
 
 The length of a composition should be determined 
 by the importance of the subject and the character of 
 the audience. Brevity is usually, though not always, 
 the soul of wit. One rule is, however, universally ap- 
 plicable: "Stop a little before you reach your wit's 
 end." 
 
 M . Manuscript 
 
 Each school should have a standard form for the 
 preparation of manuscript. It is important that 
 students in all classes observe the following points in 
 this connection: • 
 
 1. Use the standard paper of the school. ' 
 
 2. Use black ink and good pens. 
 
 3. Write legibly. 
 
 4. Write on only one side of the paper. 
 
 5. Watch your margins. 
 
 6. Number each page. 
 
 7. Write your name and the title of your theme on each 
 page. 
 
 N. Number 
 
 The subject should agree with the verb in number 
 and in person. 
 
 0. Order 
 
 1. Order is heaven's first law. Put your ideas in an 
 order determined by a definite plan. There are several 
 good arrangements: 
 
 1. The order of time. Arrange your items in the order in 
 which they occurred. 
 
 2. The order of logic. Put the cause first and the result 
 last. 
 
 3. The order of climax. Begin with the least and end with 
 the most striking item. 
 
 4. The military order. Put first your second best and end 
 with your best point.
 
 34 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 II. Modifiers should stand close to the words they 
 modify. Observe how the shifting of the word "only" 
 shifts the meaning of these sentences: 
 
 1. Only John and I go to ball games in the summer. 
 
 2. John and I only go to ball games in the summer. 
 
 3. John and I go only to ball games in the summer. 
 
 4. John and I go to ball games only in the summer. 
 
 P. Punctuation 
 
 I. Learn by heart the following: 
 
 Theorem: The Fundamental Law of Punctuation is that 
 words, phrases, and clauses which are logically disjoined shall 
 be set off by marks of punctuation. 
 
 Corollary I. From this fundamental law is derived the 
 Law of Isolating Parenthetical Expressions. This provides 
 that vocatives, explanatory expressions, and non-restrictive 
 clauses shall be set off by commas. 
 
 Corollary II. The need of having large marks to dis- 
 tinguish large breaks in syntax from small results in the Laio 
 of Gradation, which requires that we shall use a period at the 
 end of a sentence, and a semicolon at the end of a main 
 clause in a compound sentence. 
 
 Corollary III. The fundamental law conversely requires 
 that we shall not separate expressions that are closely united 
 by the bonds of logic or grammar. Hence it follows that there 
 must be no comma between a restrictive clause and its ante- 
 cedent, between a subject and its verb, or between a verb 
 and its object. There may, however, be two commas, when 
 they are required by the law of isolating parenthetical 
 expressions. 
 
 II. Answer the following questions: 
 
 1. When is it proper to use a semicolon in a simple sen- 
 tence? In a complex sentence? In a compound sen- 
 tence? See Corollary II. 
 
 2. When is it proper to use one comma between the sub- 
 ject and verb? Between the verb and object? Why? 
 See Theorem. 
 
 3. When is it proper to use two commas between the
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 35 
 
 subject and verb? Between the verb and object? 
 Why? See Theorem. 
 
 4. What is the rule for punctuating words in a series? 
 Answer: Do it thus: "Tom, Dick, and Harry"; "Eng- 
 land, France, and Germany." Remember, however, 
 that a series means three or more items. 
 
 5. What is the rule for punctuating two or more adjectives 
 preceding one noun? Answer: "It is best never to use 
 more than one adjective before one noun." Lowell's 
 rule was: "Cut out the adjectives and adverbs. Let the 
 nouns and verbs do the work." If you must use several 
 adjectives the rule is this: 1. Adjectives of the same 
 class are to be separated by commas; as "A red, white, 
 and blue flag." 2. Adjectives of different classes are not 
 to be separated; as, "A fine bright moonlight night." 
 
 III. Some relative clauses are essential to the mean- 
 ing of the sentences in which they stand; they cannot 
 be removed without reducing them to nonsense. Ex- 
 amine the following sentences and tell which clauses 
 can be removed and which cannot without destroying 
 the meaning: 
 
 1. He who buys needs a hundred eyes, while he who sells 
 has occasion for only one. — Italian Proverb. 
 
 2. All's well that ends well. — Shakespeare. 
 
 3. Here lies our sovereign lord, the King, 
 
 Whose word no man relies on; 
 He never says a foolish thing 
 And never does a wise one. 
 
 Earl of Rochester. 
 
 4. Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey 
 Dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 5. Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; 
 
 He who would search for pearls must dive below. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 6. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 7. It is unreasonable and unwholesome in all months that 
 have not an R in their name to eat an oyster. 
 
 Butler, Dyefs Dry Dinner. (1599.)
 
 36 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 8. They were at their wits' end, which was no long journey 
 
 9. Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast 
 
 The little tyrant of his fields withstood, 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 
 
 Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. 
 
 Gray. 
 10. Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, 
 Who wrote like an angel and talked like poor poll. 
 
 Garrick. 
 
 Observe: (1) that those clauses which cannot be 
 removed narrow or restrict the number of objects to 
 which their antecedents can refer, while those which 
 can be removed simply add some information; (2) that 
 these subtracting clauses are called restrictive and 
 these adding clauses non-restrictive; (3) that restric- 
 tive clauses are closely and non-restrictive loosely con- 
 nected with their antecedents; and (4) that, in conse- 
 quence, the fundamental law of punctuation requires 
 that restrictive clauses shall not be separated from 
 their antecedents by commas, but that non-restrictive 
 clauses shall be. 
 
 This rule is important. Unless you know it and can 
 apply it, you cannot be sure of punctuating correctly 
 any sentence that contains a relative clause. 
 
 Exercise : Find in this book five restrictive and five 
 non-restrictive clauses. 
 
 Q. Quotations 
 
 If you quote, use quotation marks. Otherwise you 
 are guilty of larceny. The following story illustrates 
 the value of an apt quotation and at the same time 
 shows how quotation marks should be used: 
 
 At a recent election the candidate was "heckled" by the 
 local butcher. At last he grew tired of it, and hinted that the 
 man was wasting time by asking silly questions. 
 
 The butcher, enraged, retorted:
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 37 
 
 "If I had you in my sausage-machine I'd make mincemeat 
 
 of you." 
 
 The candidate turned to him, and asked gently: 
 
 "'Is thy servant a dog that thou shouldst do this 
 
 thing?'" l — Tit-Bits. 
 
 R. Repetition 
 
 I. The technical name for the unskillful repetition of 
 words or ideas is tautology. Avoid it, lest you fall into 
 pitfalls like the following: 
 
 1. "During the entire treatise fragments of humor are 
 scattered throughout." — Johnny Jones. 
 
 2. "Let observation, with extensive view, 
 
 Survey mankind from China to Peru." — Samuel 
 Johnson. 
 
 Sometimes, however, words are purposely re- 
 
 II. 
 
 Note 
 
 2. 
 
 S. 
 
 peated to secure effect. This is called anaphora 
 
 these examples : 
 
 1. Government of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people. — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 That it exists cannot be denied. That it is an evil can- 
 not be denied. That it is a growing evil cannot be 
 denied. — Macaulay. 
 
 Spelling 
 
 I. The following words are fairly entitled to be 
 called the hundred worst words. Probably they are 
 more often misspelled by high-school pupils than are 
 any other 100 words in the language: 
 
 19 diner 
 
 20 dining 
 
 21 dinner 
 
 22 disappear 
 
 23 disappoint 
 
 24 effect 
 
 25 eighth 
 
 1 accept 
 
 2 accommodate 
 
 3 affect 
 
 4 all right 
 
 5 already 
 
 6 angel 
 
 7 angle 
 
 8 athletics 
 
 9 believe 
 
 10 benefit 
 
 11 business 
 
 12 calendar 
 
 13 committee 
 
 14 complement 
 
 15 compliment 
 
 16 describe 
 
 17 din 
 
 18 dine 
 
 26 equal 
 
 27 equation 
 
 1 2 Kings, vin, 13. 
 
 28 except 
 
 29 forty 
 
 30 forty-five 
 
 31 fourth 
 
 32 government 
 
 33 grammar 
 
 34 hoping 
 
 35 hopping 
 
 36 immediately
 
 88 
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 37 judgment 
 
 38 laboratory 
 3!) lead 
 
 40 led 
 
 41 loose 
 12 lose 
 43 losing 
 
 41 necessary 
 
 45 niece 
 
 46 ninety 
 
 47 occasion 
 
 48 occurred 
 
 49 parallel 
 
 50 Parliament 
 
 51 peace 
 
 52 piece 
 
 53 plain 
 
 54 plane 
 
 55 planed 
 
 56 planned 
 
 57 precede 
 
 58 prejudice 
 
 59 preparation 
 
 60 principal 
 
 61 principle 
 
 62 privilege 
 
 63 proceed 
 
 64 professor 
 
 65 quiet 
 
 66 quite 
 
 67 receive 
 
 68 recommend 
 
 69 refer 
 
 70 referred 
 
 71 seize 
 
 72 separate 
 
 73 shepherd 
 
 74 siege 
 
 75 similar 
 
 76 stationary 
 
 77 stationery 
 
 78 stopped 
 
 79 studying 
 
 80 there 
 
 81 their 
 
 82 to 
 
 83 together 
 
 84 too 
 
 85 truly 
 
 86 two 
 
 87 until 
 
 88 village 
 
 89 villain 
 
 90 weather 
 
 91 weird 
 
 92 where 
 
 93 whether 
 
 94 which 
 
 95 whose 
 
 96 writ 
 
 97 write 
 
 98 writer 
 
 99 writing 
 100 written 
 
 Define each of these words, spell it, and use it in 
 a sentence. 
 
 II. Some results of careless spelling: 
 
 1. I was helled for an hour in the office. Tardy Pupil. 
 
 2. We ascended Vesuvius to see the creator smoke. 
 
 One who is not intentionally blasphemous. 
 
 III. Capitalization is one branch of spelling. The 
 fundamental law of capitalization is: "All proper 
 names must be capitalized." Why do we write this 
 sentence thus: "The Franklin High School is the 
 largest high school in Athens"? 
 
 IV. The spelling of the possessive case is a source of 
 trouble to many high-school pupils. Pray remember: 
 
 1. The possessive singular of nouns is formed by 
 adding 's to the nominative singular. Example: 
 Nominative, "boy"; Possessive, "boy's." 
 
 "X. The possessive plural of a noun is formed by 
 adding an apostrophe to the nominative plu- 
 ral. Example : Nominative, "boys"; Possessive, 
 "boys'." 
 
 3. If the singular ends in s, the preceding rules hold.
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 39 
 
 Thus we write: "Burns's poems"; "Dickens's 
 novels." 
 
 4. Apostrophes are never used to form the posses- 
 sive case of pronouns. 
 
 5. The possessive plural of "man" is. "men's"; of 
 "woman," "women's"; of "child," "children's"; 
 ot ox, oxen s. 
 
 T. Tense 
 
 1. If you begin a story in the present tense, use the 
 present tense throughout. 
 
 2. If you begin with the past tense, use the past 
 tense throughout. 
 
 U. Unity 
 
 1. The law of sentence unity requires that each 
 sentence should contain only one idea. 
 
 2. The law of paragraph unity requires that each 
 paragraph should contain only one topic. 
 
 3. The law of unity also requires that each composi- 
 tion have only one subject. 
 
 Compositions are like houses. Each paragraph is a 
 room. If the laws of unity are observed, the effect is 
 agreeable; it is like that produced by a respectable 
 home, in which the right things are in each room. If 
 the laws of unity are violated, the composition be- 
 comes as unattractive as the cabin of a shiftless family 
 in which the same room is occupied by the piano, 
 the trundle bed, the washtub, and the cooking-stove. 
 A lack of unity ruins the effect of a composition. 
 Concentrate your effort always on one point. Do not 
 divide your forces. A composition without unity is a 
 mob; with unity, an army. 
 
 V. Vulgarity 
 
 Never use a word that is not modern, national, and 
 reputable. Otherwise you will endanger your reputa-
 
 40 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 tion and will run some risk of being misunderstood. 
 Some slang phrases are clever; so, too, are some jokes; 
 but both slang and jokes become wearisome after one 
 has heard them repeatedly. Somebody has denned 
 slang as an invention of the Arch Enemy to enable 
 wretched unideaed persons to chatter. Amuse yourself 
 by translating into English, if you can, the following 
 weird sentences: 
 
 1. The Swede was dispert because the gent threw him 
 down. 
 
 2. He sure is some swimmer. 
 
 3. The Georgia peach pulled several good stunts. 
 
 4. The easy mark was up against the real thing. 
 
 5. When it comes to a jolly, you are there with the 
 goods. 
 
 6. It is better to be the main stem in Fostoria than to cut 
 no ice in little old New York. 
 
 7. The scrappy kid thought it was up to h im . 
 
 W. Words 
 
 I. Never use a word unless you know what it means. 
 Consult the dictionary. The following sentences afford 
 "horrible examples" of the results of carelessness in 
 this particular: 
 
 1. Me and ma has been in Paris so long you might call 
 us Parisites. We think the Apollo Belladonna and the 
 Dying Gladiolus just lovely. 
 
 2. What is more sympathetic than a lost baby? 
 
 3. The gods intercepted in their favor. 
 
 4. The orator's perforation was grand. 
 
 5. Chiasmus is the inversion of words which have sub- 
 sequently been referred to in the preceding word or 
 phrase. 
 
 6. He went abroad to study moderate languages. 
 
 7. Our stock is full paid and non-accessible. 
 
 8. We are studying dismal fractions. 
 
 9. The Crusaders fought with the infielders. 
 10. The Pope lives in a vacuum.
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 41 
 
 II. "Very." Use this word sparingly. 
 
 III. Write sentences containing each of the follow- 
 ing pairs of words: 
 
 (a) "Affect" and "effect." 
 
 (b) "Coherent" and "adherent." 
 
 (c) "In" and "into." 
 
 (d) "There" and "their." 
 0) "Two" and "couple." 
 (/) "Middle" and "center." 
 (g) "A" and "an." 
 
 (h) "Expose" and "exposition." 
 
 IV. Write a sentence containing "to," "too," and 
 two. 
 
 V. The definite article must never be used except 
 under the following conditions : 
 
 1. When it precedes a noun that refers and can refer to 
 only one thing or person; as, for example, "the definite 
 article," "the President," "the White House." 
 
 2. When the person or thing to which it refers has been 
 defined by something which precedes. 
 
 3. When the noun which it precedes is followed by a 
 restrictive phrase or clause. 
 
 VI. The following jokes illustrate the fact that a 
 nice sense of the value of words may bring sweetness 
 and light into life: 
 
 1. "What is the difference," asked the teacher, "be- 
 tween caution and cowardice?" 
 
 Johnny, who observed things carefully for so youth- 
 ful a person, answered: 
 
 "Caution is when you're afraid and cowardice is 
 when the other fellow's afraid." — Ladies' Home 
 Journal. 
 
 2. Rich Papa — "You foolish girl, that English noble- 
 man who's courting you really does n't look on you as 
 his equal." 
 
 Wilful Heiress — "I don't care for that, papa, as 
 long as he's my peer." — Tit-Bits.
 
 42 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 
 
 3. He — "Can you suggest a title for my new book? " 
 She — "What is it about?" 
 
 He — "England's most famous battles." 
 She — "Ah! Why not call it 'Scraps of English 
 History'?" — Tit-Bits. 
 
 4. Among the Monday morning culprits haled before a 
 Baltimore police magistrate was a darky with no visible 
 means of support. 
 
 "What occupation have you here in Baltimore?" 
 asked His Honor. 
 
 "Well, jedge," said the darky, "I ain't doin' much 
 at present — jest circulatin' round, suh." 
 
 His Honor turned to the clerk of the court and said : 
 "Please enter the fact that this gentleman has been 
 retired from circulation for sixty days." — Green Bag. 
 
 X. The Unknoivn Quantity 
 
 Often it is best for pupils to discover their own mis- 
 takes. This letter means that you have made an error 
 and that the teacher expects you to find it. Turn the 
 X-ray of your mind on the line, determine what is 
 wrong, and make the necessary corrections. 
 
 Y. Youth 
 
 Modern science has proved that the habits formed 
 before the age of twenty -one are the habits that last 
 throughout life. After that age the gray matter of the 
 brain becomes set, so to speak, so that it is as hard to 
 make an impression on it as it is to make a dent in a 
 block of solid concrete. The moral is obvious. Force 
 yourself to be industrious now; if you do not, you can- 
 not do it later. If you do, it will become second nature. 
 Good habits are as easily formed as are bad ones. 
 Verburn sapienti. 
 
 Z. Zero 
 
 A very wise man once loved to say: "Let us proceed 
 slowly that we may the sooner make an end." The
 
 THE CORRECTION OF THEMES 43 
 
 Romans had a good maxim, Festina lente. Haste 
 makes waste. Hurry is the mother of delay. Do your 
 work carefully. Then you will not have to do it over. 1 
 
 1 Most printing offices have what are called style books or form 
 sheets. In these minute directions are laid down for the instruction 
 of authors, compositors, and proof-readers on such matters as punc- 
 tuation, capitalization, the use of abbreviations, spelling, etc. It is 
 desirable that every school also have its style book or form sheet. 
 The Handbook of Style in use at The Riverside Press, which may be 
 procured for 50 cents from Houghton Mifflin Company, is an admir- 
 able one. Frequently the editor of a local newspaper is glad to help 
 a school by furnishing copies of his form sheet.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP — YOUR DAY 
 
 "The gods look with favor on superior courage." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write a letter describing the manner in which you 
 ordinarily spend each day. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin * 
 
 608 Bush St., San Francisco, 
 January 10, 1880. 
 My dear Colvin: 
 
 This is a circular letter to tell my estate fully. You have 
 no right to it, being the worst of correspondents, but I wish 
 to efface the impression of my last, so to you it goes. 
 
 Any time between eight and half-past nine in the morning 
 a slender gentleman in an ulster, with a volume buttoned 
 into the breast of it, may be observed leaving No. 608 Bush 
 and descending Powell with an active step. The gentleman 
 is R. L. S.; the volume relates to Benjamin Franklin, on 
 whom he meditates one of his charming essays. He descends 
 in Sixth on a branch of the original Pine Street Coffee House, 
 no less; I believe he would be capable of going to the original 
 itself, if he could only find it. In the branch he seats himself 
 at a table covered with waxcloth, and a pampered menial, of 
 High Dutch extraction, and, indeed, as yet only partially 
 extracted, lays before him a roll, a pat of butter, and a cup of 
 coffee, all, to quote the deity, very good. A while ago, and 
 R. L. S. used to find the supply of butter insufficient; but he 
 
 1 From Letters and Miscellanies of Robert Louis Stevenson. Se- 
 lected and edited by Sidney Colvin, vol. i, p. 108. By permission 
 of Charles Scribner's Sons.
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 45 
 
 has now learned the art to exactitude, and butter and roll 
 expire at the same moment. For this refection, he pays ten 
 cents, or five pence sterling. 
 
 Half an hour later the inhabitants of Bush Street observe 
 the same slender gentleman armed, like George Washington, 
 with his little hatchet, splitting kindling, and breaking coal 
 for his fire. He does this quasi-publicly upon the window-sill; 
 but this is not to be attributed to any love of notoriety, 
 though he is indeed proud of his prowess with the hatchet 
 (which he persists in calling an axe) and daily surprised at 
 the perpetuity of his fingers. The reason is this: that the sill 
 is a strong supporting beam, and that blows of the same 
 emphasis in other parts of his room might knock the entire 
 shanty into hell. Thenceforth, for from three to four hours, 
 he is engaged darkly with an ink-bottle. 
 
 His next appearance is at the restaurant of one Donadieu 
 in Bush Street, between Dupont and Kearney, where a co- 
 pious meal may be procured for the sum of four bits, alias fifty 
 cents, i.e., 2*. 2d. sterling. He is again armed with a book, 
 but his best friends will observe with pain that he seems at 
 this hour to have deserted the more serious studies of the 
 morning. When last observed, he was studying with appar- 
 ent zest the exploits of one Rocambole by the late Vicomte 
 Ponson du Terrail. 
 
 Then the being walks; where, it is not certain. But by 
 about half-past four a light beams from the window of G08 
 Bush, and he may be observed sometimes engaged in corre- 
 spondence, sometimes again plunged in the mysterious rites 
 of the forenoon. About six he returns to the Branch Original, 
 where he once more imbrues himself to the worth of fivepence 
 in coffee and roll. The evening is devoted to writing and 
 reading, and, by eleven or half past, darkness closes over this 
 weird and truculent existence. 
 
 Ever your 
 
 R. L. S. 
 
 III. Suggested Time Schedule 
 
 First Week 
 
 Monday — Dictation, Notes, and Queries. 
 Tuesday —
 
 46 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 Wednesday — Dictation, Notes, and Queries. 
 Thursday — 
 
 Friday — Program. 
 
 (a) Biography of Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 (/;) Treasure Island. 
 
 (c) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 
 
 (d) Kidnapped. 
 
 (e) Recitation. (One of Stevenson's poems.) 
 (/) The Wrecker. 
 
 (g) Critical Essay. (His Place in Literature.) 
 (h) " " (His Poems.) 
 
 (/) " " (His Essays.) 
 
 (j) His Farewell Poem. 
 
 Second Week 
 Monday 
 
 Oral Composition. Letters by pupils about their 
 
 own days, to be read and criticized. 
 Tuesday 
 
 (a) Written Composition. Letters read on Monday 
 to be corrected and handed to the teacher. 
 
 (b) Review of Proof-reading. 
 Wednesday 
 
 (a) Compositions returned. 
 
 (b) Discussion of mistakes. 
 
 (c) Oral Composition. 
 Thursday 
 
 Prepared recitation on mistakes. 
 Friday 
 Program — Reading of best letters and recitation 
 of poems. 
 
 IV. Notes and Queries 
 
 1. Who were Stevenson and Colvin? 
 
 2. What is a circular letter?
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 47 
 
 3. Be sure that you understand every word. 
 
 4. Look up the derivation of ulster. 
 
 5. What is the subject of each paragraph? 
 
 6. Point out the "Four W's" of each paragraph. 
 
 7. Tell whether each sentence is simple, complex, 
 or compound. 
 
 8. Write an essay of one hundred words on Ben- 
 jamin Franklin. 
 
 9. Observe that Stevenson uses concrete terms. 
 Instead of "breakfast," he says "coffee, a roll, 
 and a pat of butter." Which expression is more 
 vivid? 
 
 V. Memorize 
 
 UNCONQUERED 
 
 Out of the night that covers me, 
 Black as the Pit from pole to pole, 
 
 I thank whatever gods may be 
 For my unconquerable soul. 
 
 In the fell clutch of circumstance 
 I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
 
 Under the bludgeonings of chance 
 My head is bloody, but unbowed. 
 
 Beyond this place of wrath and tears 
 Looms but the horror of the shade, 
 
 And yet the menace of the years 
 Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. 
 
 It matters not how strait the gate, 
 
 How charged with punishments the scroll, 
 
 I am the master of my fate: 
 I am the captain of my soul. 
 
 William Ernest Henley.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP — YOUR YEAR 
 "A scholar is a man who reads Plato with his feet on the fender." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write a letter to a friend describing the manner in 
 which you have spent the last year. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Calcutta, Nov. 30, 1836. 
 Dear Ellis: 
 
 How the months run away! Here is another cold season: 
 morning fogs, cloth coats, green pease, new potatoes, and all 
 the accompaniments of a Bengal winter. As to my private 
 life, it has glided on, since I wrote to you last, in the most 
 peaceful monotony. If it were not for the books which I 
 read, and for the mental and bodily growth of my dear little 
 niece, I should have no mark to distinguish one part of the 
 year from another. Greek and Latin, breakfast, business, an 
 evening walk with a book, a drive after sunset, dinner, coffee, 
 my bed — there you have the history of a day. My classical 
 studies go on vigorously. I have read Demosthenes twice — 
 I need not say with what delight and admiration. I am now 
 deep in Isocrates, and from him I shall pass to Lysias. I 
 have finished Diodorus Siculus at last, after dawdling over 
 him at odd times ever since last March. He is a stupid, cred- 
 ulous, prosing old ass; yet I heartily wish that we had a good 
 deal more of him. I have read Theocritus again and like him 
 better than ever. As to Latin, I made a heroic attempt on 
 Pliny's "Natural History," but, I stuck after getting through 
 about a quarter of it. I have read Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 the worst written book in ancient Latin. I am now busy 
 with Quintilian and Lucan, both excellent writers. I am glad
 
 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 49 
 
 that you have so much business, and sorry that you have so 
 little leisure. Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Ellis. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 T. B. Macaulay. 
 III. Time Schedule 
 
 Monday — Organization 
 
 1. Make an outline of this letter showing: (a) how it 
 should be divided into paragraphs; (6) the subject 
 of each paragraph; (c) the subject of the whole 
 letter. 
 
 2. Where is Calcutta? 
 
 3. Who was Macaulay? 
 
 4. Name five Greek and four Latin authors not 
 mentioned in this letter. 
 
 5. Point out in Macaulay 's letter an example of 
 antithesis. 
 
 6. Point out one simple, one compound, and one 
 complex sentence. 
 
 7. Go without your book to the blackboard and 
 write from dictation the model or such portions 
 of it as your teacher may select. 1 
 
 Tuesday — Oral Composition 
 
 Three-minute speeches on the following topics: 
 
 1. The "Four W's" in the Model. 
 
 2. Calcutta. 
 
 3. Macaulay in India. 
 
 4. Demosthenes. 
 
 5. Lysias. 
 
 6. Theocritus. 
 
 7. Pliny. 
 
 8. Quintilian. 
 
 9. Lucan. 
 
 1 The following plan interests pupils and at the same time affords 
 qn invaluable exercise in spelling, punctuation, handwriting, inden- 
 tion, and margins: (1) Divide the class into rival factions. (2) Have 
 them correct and mark each other's work by means of the proof- 
 readers' signs and the "A-Z Method." (3) Deduct a fixed amount 
 from his own mark for each mistake not discovered by the marker.
 
 50 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 10. The Reading Habit. 
 
 11. The Five Best Books. 
 
 12. The Ten Best Books. 
 
 Wednesday — Oral Composition 
 
 Plan a letter describing your life for the last year 
 in general, and in particular discussing the books you 
 have read during that time. Include the following 
 topics, allotting a paragraph to each: (1) General 
 News; (2) My Chief Interest; (3) Your Correspondent 
 and his Family. Be prepared to give this orally to the 
 class, just as a business man dictates a letter to his 
 stenographer. 
 
 Thursday — Written Composition 
 
 In class, under your teacher's eye, write your letter. 
 
 Friday — Public Speaking 
 
 Program to be arranged by the officers of the club 
 with the advice and aid of the teacher. 
 
 rV. Memorize 
 
 OPPORTUNITY 
 
 This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream : — 
 
 There spread a cloud of dust along a plain; 
 
 And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged 
 
 A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords 
 
 Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner 
 
 Wavered, then staggered back, hemmed in by foes. 
 
 A craven hung along the battle's edge, 
 
 And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel — 
 
 That blue blade that the king's son bears, — but this 
 
 Blunt thing — !" he snapt and flung it from his hand, 
 
 And lowering crept away and left the field. 
 
 Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead, 
 
 And weaponless, and saw the broken sword, 
 
 Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, 
 
 And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout 
 
 Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down, 
 
 And saved a great cause that heroic day. 
 
 Edward Rowland Sill.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 LETTERS OF INVITATION 
 
 "A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write to your best friend a letter of invitation to 
 visit you. Make it so persuasive that he (or she) 
 cannot resist. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Madeira Hall, Ventnor, 
 September 3, 1850. 
 Dear Ellis: 
 
 Here I am, lodged most delightfully. I look out on one 
 side to the crags and myrtles of the undercliff, against which 
 my house is built. On the other side I have a view of the 
 sea, which is at this moment as blue as the sky and as calm as 
 the Serpentine. My little garden is charming. 
 
 Will you come? Take your own time, but I am rather 
 anxious that you should not lose this delicious weather and 
 defer your trip till the equinoctial storms are setting in. I 
 can promise you plenty of water and of towels; good tea; 
 good cheese from town; good eggs, butter, and milk from the 
 farm at my door; a beautiful prospect from your bedroom 
 window; and, if the weather keeps us within doors, Plautus's 
 Comedies, Plutarch's Lives, twenty or thirty comedies of 
 Calderon, Fra Paolo's History, and a little library of 
 novels. 
 
 I am just returned from a walk of near seven hours and of 
 full fifteen miles, part of it as steep as the Monument. In- 
 deed I was so knocked out with climbing Black Gang Chine 
 that I lay on the turf at the top for a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 T. B. Macaulay.
 
 52 LETTERS OF INVITATION 
 
 III. Notes 
 
 1. Ventnor. A famous resort on the south coast of 
 the Isle of Wight. 
 
 2. Ellis. Thomas Flower Ellis, "that one friend who 
 had a share in the familiar confidence which 
 Macaulay otherwise reserved for his nearest rela- 
 tives." He was an acute and industrious lawyer. 
 They had in common an insatiable love of the 
 classics. 
 
 3. The Serpentine. A pond in Hyde Park, London. 
 
 4. The Monument. A fluted column, 202 feet high, 
 erected 1671-77 in London to commemorate the 
 Great Fire of 1666. It is ascended by a winding 
 staircase of 845 steps. 
 
 5. Black Gang Chine. A ravine, through which a 
 path, partly cut into steps, descends. The rocks 
 here are 400 feet high. 
 
 TV. Time Schedule 
 
 Monday — Study of Model 
 Part I. Queries 
 
 1. What do you know about Macaulay? 
 
 2. About the Isle of Wight? 
 
 3. What is the subject of this letter? 
 
 4. What is its purpose? 
 
 5. What is the subject of each paragraph? 
 
 6. (a) Does Macaulay use short or long words? 
 
 (b) Does he write about anything that Ellis 
 would not understand? 
 
 7. Point out an example of antithesis. 
 
 8. Point out one simple, one complex, and one com- 
 pound sentence. 
 
 9. On what principle does Macaulay use semicolons 
 after "towels," "tea," "town," etc.? 
 
 10. How far is Black Gang Chine from Ventnor?
 
 LETTERS OF INVITATION 53 
 
 Part II. Dictation as in Chapter vni. 
 
 Tuesday — Oral Composition 
 
 Find a better invitation than Macaulay's, copy it 
 into your notebook, bring it to class, and be ready to 
 write it on the blackboard and explain why you think 
 it is better. Perhaps your teacher can tell you where to 
 find a better invitation. If not, what do you think of 
 this: 
 
 TO THE REVEREND F. D. MAURICE 
 
 Come, when no graver cares employ, 
 Godfather, come and see your boy; 
 
 Your presence will be sun in winter, 
 Making the little one leap for joy. 
 
 Should all our churchmen foam in spite 
 At you, so careful of the right, 
 
 Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome. 
 Take it, and come to the Isle of Wight. 
 
 Where, far from noise and smoke of town, 
 I watch the sunset falling brown 
 
 All round a careless order'd garden 
 Close to the ridge of a noble down. 
 
 You '11 have no scandal while you dine, 
 But honest talk and wholesome wine, 
 
 And only hear the magpie gossip 
 Garrulous under a roof of pine; 
 
 For groves of pine on either hand. 
 To break the blasts of winter, stand; 
 And further on the hoary Channel 
 Tumbles a billow on chalk and sand, 
 
 Where, if below the milky steep 
 Some ship of battle slowly creep, 
 
 And on through zones of light and shadow 
 Glimmer away to the lonely deep,
 
 54 LETTERS OF INVITATION 
 
 We might discuss the Northern sin 
 Which made a selfish war begin, 
 
 Dispute the claims, arrange the chances, 
 Emperor, Ottoman, which shall win; 
 
 Or whether war's avenging rod 
 Shall lash all Europe into blood; 
 
 Till you should turn to dearer matters, 
 Dear to the man who is dear to God; 
 
 How best to help the slender store, 
 How mend the dwellings of the poor; 
 
 How gain in life, as life advances, 
 Valor and charity more and more. 
 
 Come, Maurice, come; the lawn as yet 
 Is hoar with rime, or spongy wet; 
 
 But when the wreath of March has blossom'd 
 Crocus, anemone, violet, 
 
 Or later, pay one visit here, 
 
 For those are few we hold as dear; 
 
 Not pay but one, but come for many, 
 Many and many a happy year. 
 
 Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 
 
 Wednesday — Oral and Written Composition 
 Prepare in writing an invitation to a friend. Be 
 ready either to read it to the class or write it on the 
 blackboard. In either case you must be ready to 
 defend your work. 
 
 Observe that Macaulay's letter includes the follow- 
 ing topics in the following order: The "Four W's," his 
 lodging, the environment, the weather, water, towels, 
 food, views, books, a way of spending the time. Make 
 a similar list of Tennyson's topics. Which is the more 
 complete list? Which is in the better order? This exer- 
 cise will help you to decide what to say in your invi-
 
 LETTERS OF INVITATION 55 
 
 tation. By the way, what topic does Tennyson omit 
 which Macaulay discusses? 
 Thursday — Revision 
 
 1. Rewrite your letter in the light of Wednesday's 
 discussion, and hand it for proof-reading to your 
 teacher. 
 
 2. Review the chapter on proof-reading. 
 Friday — Public Speaking
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ORDER LETTERS 
 
 "Order is heaven's first law." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write an order letter; that is, a letter ordering a bill 
 of goods from a merchant or manufacturer. This exer- 
 cise is practical, for everybody, from the housekeeper 
 who deals with the grocer, the baker, and the candle- 
 stick-maker down to the captain of industry who em- 
 ploys twenty thousand men, has frequent occasion to 
 write such letters. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Emerson High School, 
 Concord, Illinois. 
 
 August 7, 1914. 
 
 Concord Book Exchange, 
 1809 Jackson Ave., 
 Concord, 111. 
 Dear Sirs: 
 
 During the semester beginning September 14, 1914, the 
 pupils of this school will probably buy books in the quanti- 
 ties shown below: 
 
 TITLES 
 
 Elomentary Algebra 
 
 New Commercial Arithmetic 
 
 P.jokkeeping 
 
 New High School Botany 
 
 Essentials of Chemistry 
 
 ( !hemistry-Laboratory Manual 
 
 Elements of English Grammar 
 
 Elementary Composition 
 
 David Copperfield 
 
 Homer's Odyssey 
 
 Ivanhoe 
 
 AUTHORS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 NO. 
 
 Young and Jackson 
 
 Appleton 
 
 200 
 
 Moore 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 50 
 
 Miner 
 
 Gjnn 
 
 150 
 
 Atkinson 
 
 Holt 
 
 25 
 
 Hessler and Smith 
 
 Sanborn 
 
 15 
 
 Morse and Irwin 
 
 Appleton 
 
 50 
 
 Webster 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 125 
 
 Webster 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 200 
 
 Dickens 
 
 Rand-McNally 
 
 125 
 
 Palmer's translation 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 200 
 
 Scott 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 75
 
 ORDER LETTERS 
 
 57 
 
 Lady of the Lake 
 
 Scott 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 75 
 
 As You Like It 
 
 Shakespeare 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 75 
 
 Silas Marner 
 
 Eliot 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 15 
 
 Speeches 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Scott Foresman 
 
 15 
 
 Life of Johnson 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 15 
 
 Macbeth 
 
 Shakespeare 
 
 Newson 
 
 15 
 
 First French Book 
 
 Newson 
 
 Newson 
 
 25 
 
 Second French Book 
 
 Newson 
 
 Newson 
 
 20 
 
 Le Comte de Monte Cristo 
 
 Dumas 
 
 Heath 
 
 5 
 
 Physical Geography 
 
 Davis 
 
 Ginn 
 
 40 
 
 Plane and Solid Geometry 
 
 Sanders 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 40 
 
 Elements of German 
 
 Becker-Rhoades 
 
 Scott Foresman 
 
 60 
 
 Glueck Auf 
 
 Mueller-Wenckebach 
 
 Ginn 
 
 60 
 
 Greek Primer 
 
 Gleason 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 10 
 
 Ancient History 
 
 Morey 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 120 
 
 Mediaeval and Modern Europe 
 
 Davis 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 20 
 
 History of the United States 
 
 Thwaites and Kendall 
 
 Houghton Mifflin 
 
 20 
 
 Latin for Beginners 
 
 D'Ooge 
 
 Ginn 
 
 100 
 
 First Latin Reader 
 
 Nutting 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 40 
 
 Latin Grammar 
 
 Bennett 
 
 Allyn and Bacon 
 
 50 
 
 Cicero 
 
 Bishop 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 10 
 
 Amanuensis Phonography 
 
 Graham 
 
 Graham and Co. 
 
 60 
 
 Physiology 
 
 Colton 
 
 Heath 
 
 20 
 
 Please inform me as soon as possible at what price you will 
 sell each of these books at retail to individual pupils, and at 
 what price you will sell the number specified to me at whole- 
 sale. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Roger Ascham, Principal. 
 
 III. Notes and Queries 
 
 1. Tell the reason for each mark of punctuation in 
 this letter. 
 
 2. Explain the syntax of "please," "inform," "as 
 soon as possible," "and," and "at what price." 
 
 3. Define the following words and explain their 
 etymology: September, semester, algebra, arith- 
 metic, botany, chemistry, laboratory, manual, 
 composition, physical geography, geometry, 
 primer, phonography, physiology. 
 
 4. On what principle is the list of books arranged? 
 
 5. In writing a letter such as this, about what point 
 is it necessary to be most careful? 
 
 6. How many misspelled words, misplaced capitals.
 
 58 ORDER LETTERS 
 
 and errors in punctuation is a stenographer 
 allowed to make in each letter? 
 7. Consult Dwyer's The Business Letter, published 
 by Houghton Mifflin Company, for complete and 
 invaluable assistance in composing business let- 
 ters of every sort. 
 
 IV. Review 
 
 1. Explain what is wrong about each of the follow- 
 ing sentences, and rewrite it in such a way as to 
 eliminate the error: 
 
 (a) Detroit is larger than any city in Michigan. 
 
 (b) Each one washed their face. 
 
 2. Why do we capitalize this sentence thus: "The 
 Detroit Central High School is the largest high 
 school in Michigan?" 
 
 3. (a) When is it proper to use a semicolon in a 
 
 simple sentence? In a complex sentence? In 
 a compound sentence? 
 
 (b) When is it proper to use two commas between 
 the subject and the verb? Between the verb 
 and the object? Why? 
 
 (c) When is it proper to use one comma between 
 the subject and the verb? Between the verb 
 and the object? Why? 
 
 4. Use each of the following pairs of words together 
 in a sentence: 
 
 (a) In and into. 
 
 (b) There and their. 
 
 (c) Two and couple. 
 
 (d) Middle and center. 
 
 5. Write a sentence containing "to," "too," and 
 "two."
 
 ORDER LETTERS 59 
 
 V. Spelling Contest 
 
 For material use the words that, up to date, have 
 been misspelled in the class. 
 
 VI. Composition 
 
 Order for the school an invoice of goods covering one 
 of the following items : 
 
 (a) The twenty-five volumes most needed in the library. 
 
 (b) The equipment needed for the football, basketball, or 
 baseball team for a season. 
 
 (c) Supplies to last the domestic science department one 
 week. 
 
 (d) Two hundred dollars' worth of equipment for the phys- 
 ical geography laboratory. 
 
 (e) Two hundred dollars' worth of pictures for the school. 
 (/) Fifty dollars' worth of lantern slides for the history 
 
 department. 
 
 (g) Fifty dollars' worth of books for the Latin, French, or 
 German department. 
 
 (h) Fifty dollars' worth of maps for the history depart- 
 ment. 
 
 (i) Two thousand dollars' worth of equipment for the 
 gymnasium. 
 
 In order to do this intelligently and accurately, you 
 will need to do some careful thinking, to consult vari- 
 ous catalogues, to arrange your list on some definite 
 plan, and to say in your letter exactly what you mean. 
 Above all, you will find it advantageous to consult 
 your teacher of science, history, drawing, cooking, or 
 gymnastics, as your choice of subject may require. 
 
 VII. Oral Discussion 
 
 A discussion in class of the items included in these 
 lists will be useful, the question always being: "Would 
 it not be better to omit this article and substitute 
 another?"
 
 60 ORDER LETTERS 
 
 VIII. Suggested Time Schedule 
 
 Monday may be devoted to the gathering of ma- 
 terial; Tuesday, to its arrangement; Wednesday, to 
 oral discussion; Thursday, to writing, preferably in 
 class under the teacher's eye; Friday, to the oral pres- 
 entation of lessons in other subjects or to reports on 
 home reading. 
 
 IX. Memorize 
 
 THE FLAG GOES BY 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 Along the street there comes 
 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 
 
 A flash of color beneath the sky: 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 The flag is passing by! 
 
 Blue and crimson and white it shines, 
 
 Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 The colors before us fly; 
 
 But more than the flag is passing by. 
 
 » 
 
 Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, 
 Fought to make and to save the State: 
 Weary marches and sinking ships; 
 Cheers of victory on dying lips; 
 
 Days of plenty and years of peace; 
 March of a strong land's swift increase; 
 Equal justice, right, and law, 
 Stately honor and reverend awe; 
 
 Sign of a nation, great and strong 
 To ward her people from foreign wrong: 
 Pride and glory and honor, — all 
 Live in the colors to stand or fall.
 
 ORDER LETTERS 61 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 Along the street there comes 
 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; 
 
 And loyal hearts are beating high: 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 The flag is passing by! 
 
 Henry Holcomb Bennett.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 LETTERS OF APPLICATION 
 "Keep the golden mean between saying too much and too little." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write a letter applying for a position. 
 
 II. In Explanation 
 
 The first business letter written by most young men 
 is a letter of application for a position. To be success- 
 ful, it must get the position. In order to get the posi- 
 tion, it must be better than the letter of any other 
 applicant. 
 
 The composition of such letters therefore requires 
 extreme care. A mistake in spelling, punctuation, capi- 
 talization, form, or grammar is usually fatal to the 
 writer's chances. The quality of the stationery is im- 
 portant. The character of the handwriting is still 
 more so; if you write carelessly, you write for the 
 wastebasket. 
 
 Care in these technical matters is not, however, all 
 that is required. The contents must be concise, clear, 
 correct, and courteous. Tell all the essential facts, but 
 only the essential facts. The essential facts are those 
 which concern your fitness for the position sought. 
 Avoid joking, frivolity, and slang — if you really want 
 your application considered. 
 
 The man who employs help wishes to know two 
 things: (1) Is the applicant reliable? (2) Is the appli-
 
 LETTERS OF APPLICATION 63 
 
 cant intelligent? He can satisfy himself on these points 
 by referring to people who know the applicant or by a 
 close scrutiny of his letter. The latter is really a safer 
 guide than the former, because, as Buffon said long 
 ago, "the style is the man." In other words, your let- 
 ter is sure to reveal to your prospective employer your 
 real character. Therefore, before you can write a sat- 
 isfactory letter of application, you must be honest, 
 industrious, dignified, exact, serious, and alert. 
 
 IH. Model 
 
 511 Tremont St., Boston, Mass., 
 September 24, 1910. 
 Mr. Peter Faneuil, 
 4 Park Street, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I wish to apply for the position referred to in the enclosed 
 advertisement cut from the Transcript of Saturday, Septem- 
 ber 23. Will you be kind enough to grant me an interview? I 
 can give good references. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Henry Bessemer. 
 IV. Notes 
 
 1. Observe the simplicity and directness of the style. 
 It is natural. The English used is of the same 
 quality as that employed by Macaulay, Steven- 
 son, and all other educated people. It is to be 
 noted, in this connection, that there are only two 
 kinds of English, good English and bad English. 
 Business English is nothing but good English 
 used for the transaction of business. 
 
 2. A letter of application should contain: first, a 
 clear statement of the reason why it is written, 
 such as is found in the first sentence of the model ; 
 and, second, either a statemeii&«f ;the reasons
 
 64 LETTERS OF APPLICATION 
 
 why the applicant is fitted to fill the position 
 desired, or, as in the model, a statement of where 
 and how this information may be secured. 
 
 V. Queries 
 
 1. What is the real test of the merit of a letter of 
 application? 
 
 2. .What degree of correctness is satisfactory in the 
 case of such a letter? 
 
 3. What seven matters of technique are important 
 in its composition? 
 
 4. What is chirography? 
 
 5. What are the "Four C's"? 
 
 6. What facts should such a letter contain? 
 
 7. Discuss the tone of such letters. 
 
 8. What does a prospective employer wish to know 
 about an applicant? 
 
 9. In what ways can he learn? 
 
 10. Discuss the saying, "The style is the man." 
 
 11. How many kinds of English are there? 
 
 12. What is business English? 
 
 13. What two parts should a letter of application 
 contain? 
 
 VI. Composition 
 
 Write a letter applying for one of the positions 
 advertised in a current newspaper, or for some other 
 real position. All the members of the class may write 
 applications for the same position, if the teacher de- 
 sires to start a contest to determine who ought to get 
 the position. Perhaps the applications will be written 
 on the blackboard, so that the class may impersonate 
 a board of directors met to pick the successful appli- 
 cant.
 
 LETTERS OF APPLICATION 65 
 
 VII. Memorize 
 
 RECESSIONAL 
 
 God of our fathers, known of old, 
 Lord of our far-flung battle line — 
 Beneath whose awful hand we hold 
 Dominion over palm and pine — 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 
 
 The tumult and the shouting dies — 
 The Captains and the Kings depart — 
 Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, 
 An humble and a contrite heart. 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 
 
 Far-called our navies melt away — 
 On dune and headland sinks the fire — 
 Lo, all our pomp of yesterday 
 Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! 
 Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget! 
 
 If, drunk with sight of power, we loose 
 Wild tongues that have not Thee in aw; — 
 Such boastings as the Gentiles use, 
 Or lesser breeds without the Law — 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget — lest we forget! 
 
 For heathen heart that puts her trust 
 In reeking tube and iron shard — 
 All valiant dust that builds on dust, 
 And guarding calls not Thee to guard, 
 For frantic boast and foolish word, 
 Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord ! 
 
 Rudyard Kipling,
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 VADE MECUM OR CATECHISM 
 "A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 A letter-perfect knowledge of this catechism is a 
 prerequisite for entrance to high school, for promotion 
 from any course in high school, for graduation from 
 high school, for entrance to college, and for graduation 
 from college. Nobody but millionaires and college 
 professors can afford to be ignorant of it. It should 
 be reviewed frequently and vigorously. It might be 
 learned and retained by being used at roll call. Course 
 Two pupils might be sent to Course One classes to 
 examine the pupils for the purpose of ascertaining if 
 they are qualified to enter Course Two, and so on up. 
 
 II. Catechism 
 
 Question 1. What is the fundamental law of capitalization? 
 
 Answer. Proper names shall be capitalized. 
 
 Q. 2. What is a simple sentence? 
 
 A. A simple sentence is a sentence which contains only 
 
 one subject and one predicate, either or both of 
 
 which may be compound. 
 Q. 3. What is a complex sentence? 
 A. A sentence containing a principal clause and one or 
 
 more subordinate clauses. 
 Q. 4. What is a compound sentence? 
 A. A sentence consisting of several independent and 
 
 coordinate sentences joined together. 
 Q. 5. What does "subordinate" mean?
 
 VADE MECUM OR CATECHISM 67 
 
 A. "Subordinate" (L. sub = "under," plus ordo = 
 "class," "rank," or "order") means "of a lower 
 rank." 
 
 Q. 6. What does "coordinate" mean? 
 
 A. "Coordinate" (L. co = "equal," plus ordo) means 
 "of equal rank." 
 
 Q. 7. What is the fundamental law of punctuation? (See 
 page 3-t.) 
 
 A. The fundamental law of punctuation is that words, 
 phrases, and clauses which are logically disjoined 
 shall be set off by marks of punctuation. 
 
 Q. 8. What is the first corollary of the fundamental law 
 of punctuation? 
 
 A. From the fundamental law is derived the law of 
 isolating parenthetical expressions. This provides 
 that vocatives, explanatory expressions, and non- 
 restrictive clauses should be set off by commas. 
 
 Q. 9. What is the second corollary of the fundamental 
 law of punctuation? 
 
 A. The need of having large marks to distinguish large 
 breaks in syntax from small results in the law of 
 gradation, which requires that we shall use a period 
 at the end of a sentence and a semicolon at the end 
 of a main clause in a compound sentence. 
 
 Q. 10. What is the third corollary of the fundamental law 
 of punctuation? 
 
 A. The fundamental law conversely requires that we 
 shall not separate expressions that are closely 
 united by the bonds of logic or grammar. Hence it 
 follows that there must be no comma between a 
 restrictive clause and its antecedent, between a 
 subject and its verb, or between a verb and its 
 object. There may, however, be two commas, 
 when they are required by the law of isolating 
 parenthetical expressions. 
 
 Q. 11. What is a loose sentence? 
 
 A. A loose sentence is a sentence so constructed that it 
 might end before it does and still be a complete and 
 perfect sentence. 
 
 Q. 12. What is a periodic sentence? 
 
 A. A periodic sentence is a sentence so constructed
 
 8 VADE MECITM OR CATECHISM 
 
 that, if the last word be omitted, it is no longer a 
 sentence. 
 Q. 13. What is a balanced sentence? 
 
 A. A balanced sentence is a compound sentence with 
 
 two main clauses so constructed that each word in 
 
 the first clause is balanced by a word in the second. 
 
 Q. 14. When is it proper to use a semicolon in a simple or 
 
 complex sentence? 
 A. Never. If they are required by the law of grada- 
 tion, the sentence is ill-constructed and should be 
 rewritten. 
 Q. 15. In a compound sentence? 
 
 A. Between the main clauses when these are not con- 
 nected by a coordinate conjunction. 
 Q. 16. When is a compound sentence periodic? 
 A. Never, except when it contains correlatives. 
 Q. 17. When is it proper to use one comma between the 
 
 subject and verb? 
 A. Never. 
 
 Q. 18. Between the verb and object? 
 A. Never. 
 Q. 19. Why? 
 
 A. Because of Corollary 3 of the fundamental law of 
 
 punctuation, which requires that words which are 
 
 grammatically united shall not be separated by 
 
 marks of punctuation. 
 
 Q. 20. When is it proper to use two commas between the 
 
 subject and verb, or verb and object? 
 A. When a parenthetical expression intervenes. 
 Q. 21. State the rule for the agreement of subject and 
 
 verb. 
 A. The subject and verb should agree in number and 
 
 person. 
 Q. 22. What do adverbs modify? 
 A. Verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. 
 Q. 23. What caution must be exercised in the use of the 
 
 definite article? 
 A. It must never be used unless the object to which 
 its noun refers has been identified by previous 
 discussion, is followed by a restrictive phrase or 
 clause, or is the only object of its kind in existence.
 
 A 
 
 24 
 
 Q- 
 
 A 
 
 25 
 
 si . 
 
 26 
 
 VADE MECUM OR CATECHISM 69 
 
 What caution must be exercised in the use of coor- 
 dinate conjunctions? 
 
 They should always connect words, phrases, or 
 clauses of the same class. 
 
 What is the rule for punctuating words in a series? 
 Do it thus: "Tom, Dick, and Harry." 
 What is the rule for punctuating two or more ad- 
 jectives preceding the same noun? 
 
 A. If they are of the same class, separate them by com- 
 mas; if of different classes, do not separate them. 
 "Never burden one noun with more than one 
 adjective" is a still better rule. 
 
 Q. 27. What is a restrictive clause? 
 
 A. A restrictive clause is a clause that narrows, limits, 
 lessens, or restricts the number of objects to which 
 its antecedent can refer. 
 
 Q. 28. How may a restrictive clause be recognized? 
 
 A. By the fact that, if omitted, its absence will reduce 
 the sentence to nonsense. 
 
 Q. 29. Why should a restrictive clause not be set off by a 
 comma? 
 
 A. Because of Corollary 3 of the fundamental law of 
 punctuation, which requires that words which are 
 grammatically united shall not be separated by 
 marks of punctuation. 
 
 Q. 30. What is a dangling participle? 
 
 A. A dangling participle is a participle that, agreeing 
 with nothing, so to speak, dangles in the air. 
 
 Q. 31. What is a cleft or split infinitive? 
 
 A. A cleft infinitive is an infinitive in which the "to" 
 has been separated by a word or words from the 
 verb.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 KINDS OF COMPOSITION 
 " Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. ' 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 Description, narration, exposition, and argumen- 
 tation are the four kinds of composition. You have 
 already used all of them in the exercises which precede 
 this chapter. For the purpose of understanding them 
 more thoroughly, we shall now study each of them by 
 itself. 
 
 Description is based on the five senses. Anything 
 that you can see, hear, feel, smell, or taste can be 
 described. 
 
 Narration is story-telling. It often includes descrip- 
 tion, from which it differs as a picture-play differs from 
 ordinary pictures. 
 
 Exposition is explanation. It may include descrip- 
 tion and narration, but it goes deeper. Its aim is to 
 explain the nature of things. 
 
 Argumentation is designed to persuade people to 
 think and act as the speaker or writer wishes. It is the 
 most difficult form of composition, as it includes all 
 of the others, and requires close reasoning. We shall 
 merely mention it in this book. 
 
 II. Exercises for Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Find examples of description, narration, exposi- 
 tion, and argumentation in the preceding chap- 
 ters.
 
 KINDS OF COMPOSITION 71 
 
 2. Are the books which you like best descriptive, 
 expository, narrative, or argumentative? 
 
 3. Mention one book which is chiefly descriptive, 
 one which is chiefly narrative, one which is chiefly 
 expository, and one which is chiefly argumenta- 
 tive. 
 
 4. Find in a current paper examples of each of the 
 four kinds of writing. 
 
 III. Memorize 
 
 FORBEARANCE 
 
 Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? 
 
 Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk? 
 
 At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? 
 
 Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? 
 
 And loved so well a high behavior, 
 
 In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, 
 
 Nobility more nobly to repay? 
 
 O be my friend, and teach me to be thine! 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 DESCRIPTION 
 
 "Simonides called painting silent poetry, and poetry speaking 
 painting." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 To paint in words a picture. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 A HUNTING SCENE 
 
 Hills and fields were covered with glittering snow; 
 the sky wore the rosy garment of sunrise. There I saw 
 three hunters, who stood beneath a tall oak. The 
 larger limbs of the trees bore a heavy load of snow; the 
 smaller were decorated with frost. The costumes of 
 the hunters were light green in color, which was set off 
 by big white buttons. At their feet lay a stag, whose 
 red blood stained the white snow. Three dark-brown 
 dogs sat around the body and permitted their red 
 tongues to hang out longingly. — Carl Schurz, A 
 School Composition, Lebenserrinerungen. 
 
 III. Notes and Queries 
 
 1. Carl Schurz wrote this description when he was 
 a boy. It was included by his teacher, Heinrich 
 Bone, in a reader which, up to 1900, had passed 
 through fifty-three editions. Perhaps you can 
 write one equally good. 
 
 2. Write a biographical note of one hundred words 
 on Carl Schurz.
 
 DESCRIPTION 73 
 
 3. Does the effect of this description depend on 
 color, sound, or form? 
 
 4. Are the sentences simple, complex, or compound? 
 
 5. Explain the syntax of each noun. 
 
 6. Are the "Four W's" sufficiently clear? 
 
 7. Explain the reason for each mark of punctuation. 
 
 8. Make a list of the color words. 
 
 9. Explain how each sentence is hooked to that 
 which precedes. Make a list of the transition 
 words. 
 
 10. Why do we put commas between the adjectives 
 in this sentence, "We saw a red, white, and blue 
 flag," and yet omit them in this: "Three gay 
 young men came down the walk." 
 
 11. Has this paragraph unity? If so, what elements 
 produce it? 
 
 12. Find and copy into your notebook a better color 
 description. 
 
 13. Find and copy into your notebook descriptions 
 that depend on sound, taste, smell, touch, and 
 combinations of one or more of these. 
 
 IV. Composition Subjects 
 
 1. Examine one of the pictures in the school and 
 describe it orally, basing your work on its colors. 
 
 2. Make a similar description of some scene which 
 you see between now and 6 p.m. to-day. 
 
 3. Describe according to the same plan the cover of 
 some current weekly or monthly magazine. 
 
 V. Suggested Time Schedule 
 Monday — Dictation. 
 Tuesday — Notes and Queries. 
 Wednesday — Oral Composition.
 
 74 DESCRIPTION 
 
 Thursday — (a) Written Composition; (b) Reviews. 
 Friday — Speaking. 
 
 VI. Memorize 
 
 THE DAFFODILS 
 
 I wandered lonely as a cloud 
 
 That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 
 
 When all at once I saw a crowd, — 
 A host of golden daffodils 
 
 Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 
 
 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 
 
 Continuous as the stars that shine 
 
 And twinkle in the Milky Way, 
 They stretched in never-ending line 
 
 Along the margin of a bay; 
 Ten thousand saw I at a glance 
 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 
 
 The waves beside them danced, but they 
 Outdid the sparkling waves in glee; 
 
 A poet could not but be gay 
 In such a jocund company; 
 
 I gazed and gazed but little thought 
 
 What wealth to me the show had brought. 
 
 For oft, when on my couch I lie 
 
 In vacant or in pensive mood, 
 They flash upon that inward eye 
 
 Which is the bliss of solitude. 
 And then my heart with pleasure fills 
 And dances with the daffodils. 
 
 William Wordsworth (1770-1850),
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 DESCRIPTION A BUILDING 
 
 "Architecture is frozen music." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Describe any building in the range of your personal 
 observation — house, store, theater, school, church — 
 old or new — good or bad. In John Burroughs's " Roof- 
 Tree" you will find some good examples of the way in 
 which a master artist can do this. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 THE OBSOLETEST RAILWAY STATION 
 
 Sir: Hold ! No one who has seen it dare deny that the very 
 obsoletest railway station is the Grand Trunk dippo in South 
 Bend. As a landmark it is unique. Some believe that it 
 was built by LaSalle to commemorate his visit to St. Joseph 
 valley; others claim it was slung together by Daniel Boone 
 for a blockhouse. The latter theory is borne out by the many 
 battle scars still visible on its hoary walls. The style is prin- 
 cipally Gothic, with a little Hun and a bit of Cuckoo Clock. 
 The interior is done in the quaint rustic style peculiar to 
 lumber camps, the mural decorations departing somewhat 
 from the original idea, being a clever interweave of marine 
 and Kickapoo Indian. They were executed by Al Fresco. 
 He died. 
 
 In the matter of furniture a pursy self-satisfied stove that 
 apparently never had any use for Flynn's hip-reducing move- 
 ments radiates hope from the center of the room. It has a 
 charging door small enough to prevent small children and pet 
 dogs making an excursion into the interior, and located high 
 enough to discourage any one who is of a mind to put coal 
 into it. The women's room has three Queen Anne rockers. 
 One marvels at the shape Queen Anne must have had.
 
 76 DESCRIPTION 
 
 A yielding wooden platform surrounds the structure, with 
 the planks placed near enough together to prevent trunks 
 and other small objects from falling through. Tastefully 
 arranged here and there is a herd of hump-backed baggage 
 trucks laden with milk cans, and, being in the down town 
 district, this lends a very metropolitan touch to our growing 
 city. 
 
 The population of South Bend is 60,000. Exactly 59,999 
 citizens agree that the Grand Trunk dippo is the very obso- 
 letest. The 60,000th is the crossing flagman, who won't com- 
 mit himself for fear that the superintendent will make him 
 use the dippo for a shelter. — Sib. {Chicago Tribune.) 
 
 HI. Topics for Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Obsolete and Obsolescent. 
 
 2. Depot and Station. 
 
 3. South Bend. 
 
 4. La Salle. 
 
 5. Daniel Boone. 
 
 6. Gothic, Hun, and Cuckoo Clock. 
 
 7. The Kickapoo Indians. 
 
 8. Al Fresco. 
 
 9. Queen Anne. 
 
 10. Dangling Participles. 
 
 11. Metaphors in the Model. 
 
 12. The Paragraphing of the Model. 
 
 13. The Unity of the Model. 
 
 14. The Grand Trunk. 
 
 IV. Written Composition 
 
 Write a description of a building which you have 
 opportunity to study with your own eyes. Adapt the 
 tone of what you write to the character of the building. 
 Use the following framework: 
 
 Paragraph 1. Strike the Keynote. 
 
 Paragraph 2. Exterior.
 
 DESCRIPTION 77 
 
 Paragraph 3. Interior. 
 Paragraph 4. Surroundings. 
 Paragraph 5. Conclusion. 
 
 V. Memorize 
 
 THE SNOW-STORM 
 
 Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 
 Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, 
 Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air 
 Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven, 
 And veils the farm-house at the garden's end. 
 The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet 
 Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit 
 Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed 
 In a tumultuous privacy of storm. 
 
 Come see the north wind's masonry. 
 Out of an unseen quarry evermore 
 Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer 
 Curves his white bastions with projected roof 
 Round every windward stake, or tree, or door. 
 Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work 
 So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he 
 For number or proportion. Mockingly, 
 On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths; 
 A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn; 
 Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall, 
 Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate 
 A tapering turret overtops the work. 
 And when his hours are numbered, and the world 
 Is all his own, retiring, as he were not, 
 Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art 
 To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone, 
 Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work, 
 The frolic architecture of the snow. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 DESCRIPTION — A TOWN 
 
 "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 
 As those move easiest who have learned to dance." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Describe so that a stranger can see it the town in 
 which you live. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 In the Acadian land, on the shore of the basin of Minas, 
 
 Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand Pre 
 
 Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the 
 eastward, 
 
 Giving the village its name and pasture to flocks without 
 number. 
 
 Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor 
 incessant, 
 
 Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood- 
 gates 
 
 Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the 
 meadows. 
 
 West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and 
 cornfields 
 
 Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the 
 northward 
 
 Blomidon rose and the forests old, and aloft on the moun- 
 tains 
 
 Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty 
 Atlantic e 
 
 Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station 
 descended. 
 
 There, in the midst of the farms, reposed the Acadian village. 
 
 Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of 
 chestnut
 
 DESCRIPTION 79 
 
 Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the 
 Henries. 
 
 Thatched were the roofs, with dormer windows; and gables 
 projecting 
 
 Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway. 
 
 There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the 
 sunset 
 
 Lighted the village street and gilded the vanes of the chim- 
 neys 
 
 Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles 
 
 Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden 
 
 Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within 
 doors 
 
 Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the 
 songs of the maidens. 
 
 Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and the 
 children 
 
 Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless 
 them. 
 
 Reverend walked he among them; and up rose matrons and 
 maidens, 
 
 Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate wel- 
 come. 
 
 Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the 
 sun sank 
 
 Down to his rest and twilight prevailed. Anon from the 
 belfry 
 
 Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village 
 
 Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending, 
 
 Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and con- 
 tentment. 
 
 HI. Analysis of Model 
 
 1. Framework. 
 
 Lines 1- 3. The "Four W's." 
 
 Lines 3-12. The Country North, South, East, 
 
 and West. 
 Lines 13-33. The Village Itself — 
 
 (a) The Houses (lines 13-17).
 
 80 DESCRIPTION 
 
 (b) A Slimmer Evening — 
 Weathei (lines 18-19). 
 
 (c) Summer Evening — Women 
 — Priest — Children — Men 
 (lines 20-29). 
 
 (d) Sights and Sounds (lines 30- 
 32). 
 
 2. Keynote = Peace. Make a list of the words that 
 suggest peace. 
 
 3. Words. 
 
 Line 1. Acadian. Do not confuse with Arca- 
 dian. 
 2. Grand Pre" — Big Meadow. 
 10. Blomidon. Consult the atlas. 
 15. Normandy. Where is it ? 
 
 15. Who were the Henries ? 
 
 16. Explain Thatched, Dormer, and 
 Gables. 
 
 19. Explain Vanes. 
 
 23. What is made from flax ? 
 
 29. Define Anon. 
 
 30. What is the Angelus ? 
 i„ Figures of Speech. 
 
 Line 4. Note that the participle "giving" has 
 two direct and two indirect objects 
 and that their order is reversed. This 
 is called Chiasmus, from the Greek 
 letter Chi, which is somewhat like an 
 X. In the same line we have an ex- 
 ample of Zeugma, which in Greek 
 means "yoke"; that is, two nouns of 
 different classes are joined by the 
 coordinate conjunction "and." 
 
 Line 7. The verbs ' ' welcome ' ' and ' ' wander ' '
 
 DESCRIPTION 81 
 
 imply that the sea is like a guest. 
 Similarly, in Line 10, "pitched their 
 tents" implies that the sea-fogs were 
 like a hostile army. Such implied 
 comparisons are called metaphors. 
 Find another. 
 
 Line 20. Matrons and Maids. The jingle pro- 
 duced by the fact that both these 
 words begin with the same sound is 
 called alliteration. Are there any 
 other examples of alliteration in the 
 description ? 
 
 Line 23. Whir of the Wheels. Such sound imi- 
 tation is called onomatopoeia. 
 5. Descriptive Words and Phrases. 
 Find in the model a half-dozen words that appeal to 
 the eye and two or three that appeal to the ear. 
 
 IV. Topics for Three-Minute Speeches 
 
 1. Longfellow. 
 
 2. The Story of Evangeline. 
 
 3. Parkman's Account of the Acadians. 
 
 4. Metaphor. 
 
 5. Alliteration. 
 
 6. Onomatopoeia. 
 
 V. Written Composition 
 
 Write a description of your own town. Use the fol- 
 lowing plans and specifications: 
 
 1. Strike a keynote — cultured, provincial, sleepy, smoky, 
 busy, breezy, etc. Hit this key several times during 
 your description and be sure that you hit no other. 
 
 2. Use this framework: 
 
 Paragraph 1. The "Four W's." 
 
 2. The Surrounding Country. 
 
 3. The Buildings.
 
 82 DESCRIPTION 
 
 4. The Streets. 
 
 5. A Picture of Evening, Noon, Morning, 
 or Midnight, which will include chil- 
 dren, women, men, and some impor- 
 tant central figure such as that occupied 
 by the priest in Longfellow's descrip- 
 tion. The time of year and the hour of 
 the day you choose will be somewhat 
 determined by the keynote. 
 
 3. Do not try to write in verse. 
 
 4. Use a few figures of speech. 
 
 VI. Memorize 
 
 POLONIUS'S ADVICE TO LAERTES 
 
 Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
 Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 
 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 
 Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware 
 Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in 
 Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. 
 Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; 
 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 
 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 
 But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; 
 For the apparel oft proclaims the man, 
 And they in France of the best rank and station 
 Are most select and generous in that. 
 Neither a borrower nor a lender be; 
 For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 
 This above all: to thine own self be true, 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 
 
 Shakespeare.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 DESCRIPTION — A PERSON 
 "What a piece of work is a man!" 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write a description of a friend. Let it be good- 
 natured and complimentary. If you cannot say any- 
 thing good of a man or a woman, say nothing. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 Mr. Squeers' appearance was not prepossessing. He had 
 but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two. 
 The eye he had was unquestionably useful, but decidedly not 
 ornamental, being of a greenish gray and in shape resembling 
 the fanlight of a street door. The blank side of his face was 
 much wrinkled and puckered up, which gave him a very sin- 
 ister appearance, especially when he smiled, at which times 
 his expression bordered closely on the villainous. His hair 
 was very flat and shiny, save at the ends, where it was 
 brushed stiffly up from a low protruding forehead, which 
 assorted well with his harsh voice and coarse manner. He 
 was about two or three and fifty and a trifle below the middle 
 size; he wore a white neckerchief with long ends and a suit of 
 scholastic black; but his coat sleeves being a great deal too 
 long and his trousers a great deal too short, he appeared ill 
 at ease in his clothes and as if he were in a perpetual state of 
 astonishment at finding himself so respectable. — Charles 
 Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby. 
 
 III. Topics for Oral Composition 
 
 1. Charles Dickens. 
 
 2. Nicholas Nickleby. 
 
 3. Unity in the Model.
 
 84 DESCRIPTION 
 
 4. Antithesis in the Model. 
 
 5. Color in the Model. 
 
 6. The Order of the Items in the Model: Can it be 
 improved ? 
 
 7. Hard Words in the Model. 
 
 IV. Written Composition 
 
 1. Write a description of one of the following: 
 
 Julius Caesar. Horatio Nelson. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte. Andrew Jackson. 
 
 George Washington. Daniel Webster. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Any other famous man or woman whose picture is 
 familiar to all of the class will be an equally good sub- 
 ject. Do not name him, but let the class guess from 
 your description who is meant. 
 
 2. Write a description of one of your teachers. 
 
 3. Write a description of one of your classmates. 
 
 Before writing observe (1) that Dickens's descrip- 
 tion of Mr. Squeers has a topic sentence, which strikes 
 the keynote of the paragraph; (2) that every item is in 
 harmony with this keynote ; and (3) that the following 
 items are used in the following order: 
 
 1. Eye. 
 
 7. Manner. 
 
 2. Face. 
 
 8. Age. 
 
 3. Smile. 
 
 9. Height. 
 
 4. Hair. 
 
 10. Neckerchief 
 
 5. Forehead. 
 
 11. Clothes. 
 
 6. Voice. 
 
 
 Examination shows that the first sentence strikes 
 the keynote of the paragraph; sentences 2-5 inclusive 
 describe Mr. Squeers' face; and the last sentence is 
 devoted to the rest of him. Note the words that 
 hook the sentences together. Note also the words that
 
 DESCRIPTION 85 
 
 keep constantly before the reader the idea that Squeers 
 is unprepossessing. 
 
 Your description must be constructed according to 
 the following specifications: 
 
 1. First sentence = keynote. 
 
 2. At least ten items. 
 
 3. Transition words in each sentence. 
 
 4. Repetition of keynote several times. In the model 
 it is struck first by the phrase " not prepossessing." It is 
 repeated bv (1) " but one eye "; (2) " not ornamental "; 
 (3) "sinister"; (4) "villainous"; (5) "low"; (6) "harsh"; 
 (7) " coarse "; (8) " ill at ease "; (9) " in a perpetual state 
 of astonishment at finding himself so respectable." 
 
 V. Memorize 
 
 THE SCHOOL GIRL 
 
 From some sweet home, the morning train 
 
 Brings to the city, 
 Five days a week, in sun or rain, 
 Returning like a song's refrain, 
 
 A school girl pretty. 
 
 A wild flower's unaffected grace 
 
 Is dainty miss's; 
 Yet in her shy expressive face 
 The touch of urban arts I trace, 
 
 And artifices. 
 
 No one but she and Heaven knows 
 
 Of what she's thinking: 
 It may be either books or beaux, 
 Fine scholarship or stylish clothes, 
 
 Per cents or prinking. 
 
 Is she familiar with the wars 
 
 Of Julius Caesar? 
 Do crucibles and Leyden jars, 
 And Browning, and the moons of Mars, 
 
 And Euclid, please her?
 
 86 DESCRIPTION 
 
 A charm attends her everywhere — 
 
 A sense of beauty; 
 Care smiles to see her free of care; 
 The hard heart loves her unaware; 
 
 Age pays her duty. 
 
 Her innocence is panoply, 
 
 Her weakness, power; 
 The earth her guardian, and the sky; 
 God's every star is her ally, 
 
 And every flower. 
 
 William Henry Venable. 1 
 
 1 Reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NARRATION 
 
 "Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Tell in about one hundred and fifty words a good 
 story. 
 
 II. Model 
 
 When Prince Alexander of Battenberg, one of the youngest 
 of Queen Victoria's many grandsons, was at Eton, he found, 
 as often happens with boys, whether royal or not, that he had 
 spent his allowance of pocket money long before the next 
 allowance was due. He thereupon wrote to his illustrious 
 grandmother, asking her to relieve his financial straits. The 
 expected remittance did not come; but the prince received 
 instead a letter from the queen, in which she very sensibly 
 reminded her extravagant little grandson that it was the 
 duty of little boys to keep within their allowance. The an- 
 swer to this grandmotherly piece of advice was: "My dear 
 Grandmama: I am sure you will be glad to know that I need 
 not trouble you for any money just now, for I sold your last 
 letter to another boy for thirty shillings." 
 
 III. Notes 
 
 1. Eton. A famous English school. 
 
 2. Thirty Shillings. A shilling is worth about 
 twenty-four cents. 
 
 IV. Queries 
 
 1. What do you know about Queen Victoria? 
 
 2. About how old do you think Prince Alexander 
 was at the time this incident occurred?
 
 88 NARRATION 
 
 3. Point out in the model one simple, one compound, 
 and one complex sentence. 
 
 4. Why is the semicolon used after "come," in line 
 7? The colon after "was," in line 11? 
 
 V. Analysis of Model 
 
 Every good story consists of three parts, a situation, 
 
 a climax, and a denouement. The situation includes 
 
 the "Four W's." In the model they are as follows: 
 
 Who — Prince Alexander and Queen Victoria. 
 
 What — A schoolboy's impecuniosity and a queen's wealth. 
 
 When — When the Prince was at Eton. 
 
 Where — Eton. 
 
 Note that "Who" includes two people, and that in 
 "What" there are two contrasted factors. 
 
 The climax is a second situation which grows out of 
 the first and is so difficult for the hero that it cannot 
 continue. In this case it is supplied by the Prince's 
 embarrassment at his grandmother's refusal. In other 
 words, the boy's poverty is not relieved by the grand- 
 mother's wealth. 
 
 The denouement is the way out. It introduces sud- 
 denly a new factor, not mentioned before, which solves 
 the hero's problem. This new factor is that peculiar 
 human characteristic which makes people wish to own 
 the autographs of distinguished people. The hero is 
 clever enough to take advantage of it. 
 
 Every good story has these same elements. 
 
 VI. Exercises 
 
 Analyze the following anecdotes according to the 
 model in V: 
 
 1 
 
 Much Worse. — "Mirandy, fo' de Lawd's sake, don't let 
 dem chickens outer dis here yard. Shut dat gate." "What
 
 NARRATION 89 
 
 fur, Aleck; dey'll come home, won't dey?" " Deed dey 
 won't. Dey'll go home." — Columbia Jester. 
 
 2 
 
 Kate Douglas Wiggin's choicest possession, she says, is a 
 letter which she once received from the superintendent of a 
 home for the feeble-minded. He spoke in glowing terms of 
 the pleasure with which the "inmates" had read her little 
 book, "Marm Lisa," and ended thus superbly: "In fact, 
 madam, I think I may safely say that you are the favorite 
 author of the feeble-minded!" — Woman s Home Companion. 
 
 Opportunity. — A young suburban doctor whose practice 
 was not very great sat in his study reading away a lazy after- 
 noon in early summer. His man servant appeared at the door. 
 
 "Doctor, them boys is stealin' your green peaches again. 
 Shall I chase them away?" 
 
 The doctor looked thoughtful for a moment, then leveled 
 his eyes at the servant. 
 
 "No," he said. — LippincotCs Monthly Magazine. 
 
 A sergeant calling the roll for a company of the new 
 "sportsmen" battalion for the first time had a terrible expe- 
 rience recently. Having disposed successfully of a few "Har- 
 pers," "Mitchells," etc., he came to the name "Montague." 
 
 "Private Montaig," shouted the sergeant. 
 
 There was no reply, but when the name was repeated a 
 half-hearted "Here, sir," came from the ranks. 
 
 "Why didn't you answer before?" demanded the ser- 
 geant. "Because my name is Mon-ta-gue," replied the recruit. 
 
 "Well," snapt the sergeant, "you'll do seven days' 
 fatigew." 
 
 The next name on the list, Majoribanks, brought no 
 response, for the sergeant pronounced it "Majoreybanks." 
 
 A second call brought the mild response; "I expect you 
 mean me, sir. My name is 'Marshbanks." 
 
 The sergeant almost reeled, but proceeded bravely with 
 "Colquhoun,"
 
 90 NARRATION 
 
 "Private Col-kew-houn," he called. "Coohoon, sir, that's 
 me," came a hri.sk reply from the front rank. 
 
 The drill-instructor gave up and, closing his book, he 
 wearily gave the order "number." When this was completed 
 he said : 
 
 "One hundred and twenty-one. That's right. Now, if 
 there are any more of you with fancy names just come to me 
 after drill and tell me how you would like to be called." — 
 Philadelphia Ledger. 
 
 VII. Written Composition 
 
 1. Do one of the following exercises: 
 
 (a) Write Prince Alexander's letter to Queen 
 Victoria. 
 
 (b) Write Queen Victoria's reply. 
 
 (c) Write the letter in- which Queen Victoria 
 afterward informed Prince Alexander's father 
 of the circumstance. 
 
 (d) Write the letter in which Prince Alexander 
 told his sister of the incident. 
 
 (e) Write the letter in which the purchaser of the 
 letter told his cousin. 
 
 VIII. Oral Composition 
 
 Organize a banquet with a toastmaster. Each mem- 
 ber of the class must respond to his call with a story 
 that is at once mirth-provoking and dignified. It must 
 be a story, not a mere joke. The success of each 
 speaker will be measured by the heartiness of the 
 laughter that he or she produces. 
 
 IX. Memorize 
 
 "THE BOYS" J 
 
 Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys? 
 If he has, put him out without making a noise. 
 
 1 This poem was written by Oliver Wendell Holmes to be read at 
 the 1859 reunion of the class that was graduated in 1829 from Har.-
 
 NARRATION 91 
 
 Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite ! 
 Old Time is a liar! We're twenty tonight! 
 
 We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we are more? 
 He's tipsy — young jackanapes! — show him the door! 
 "Gray temples at twenty?" — Yes! white, if we please; 
 Where the snownakes fall thickest there's nothing can 
 freeze ! 
 
 • •••••••.• 
 
 We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told, 
 Of talking (in public) as if we were old; 
 That boy we call "Doctor" and this we call "Judge"; 
 It's a neat little fiction; of course it's all fudge. 
 
 That fellow's the "Speaker" — the one on the right; 
 " Mr. Mayor," my young one, how are you tonight ? 
 That's our "Member of Congress," we say when we chaff; 
 There's the "Reverend" — what's his name? — don't make 
 me laugh! 
 
 That boy with the grave mathematical look 
 Made believe he had written a wonderful book, 
 And the Royal Society thought it was true! 
 So they chose him right in — a good joke it was, too. 
 {Continued on Page 94-) 
 
 vard. In it he tries to make his classmates forget their years and 
 their honors so that for one night at least they may be boys again. 
 But the poem has a wider message. It has a message for every boy 
 who aspires to be great or useful. It means to him that some day he 
 may be doctor, judge, Speaker, Member of Congress, Fellow of the 
 Royal Society, poet, or philanthropist.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 NARRATION — THE WIT OF CHILDREN 
 
 "The child is father of the man." 
 
 I. Problem 
 
 Write in about one hundred words an account of 
 some bright saying by a child. A child is specified, 
 because the bright sayings of older people are usually 
 stolen without quotation marks. 
 
 II. Models 
 
 1 
 
 Little four-year-old Stanley's uncle was engaged to be 
 married and therefore was seldom at home when Stanley and 
 his parents came to visit grandmother's. One Sunday after- 
 noon, however, he was at home, and, seeing Stanley playing 
 on the front lawn, jokingly said to him, "Here, get off my 
 grass." Whereupon Stanley answered, "This isn't your 
 grass; you don't live here — you only sleep here." — Chicago 
 Tribune. 
 
 2 
 
 A boy of six was being shown through the Art Institute 
 by his mother, who stopped before one of the "old masters," 
 and, after explaining the beauty and value of the picture, 
 said, "Now, dearie, won't you promise to remember all I 
 have told you about this picture?" The young hopeful said, 
 "Yes, I will — if you will promise never to bring me here 
 again." — Ibid. 
 
 3 
 
 Marjorie — "Will I get everything I pray for, mama?" 
 Mother (cautiously) — "Everything that's good for you, 
 dear."
 
 NARRATION 93 
 
 Marjorie (disgustedly) — "Oh, what's the use, then; I get 
 that anyway." — Life. 
 
 4> 
 
 Hostess (at party) — "Does your mother allow you to have 
 two pieces of pie when you are at home, Willie?" 
 
 Willie (who has asked for a second piece) — "No, 
 ma'am." 
 
 "Well, do you think she'd like you to have two pieces 
 here?" 
 
 "Oh," confidently, "she wouldn't care. This isn't her 
 pie!" — Louisville Times. 
 
 5 
 
 Little Bobby Beatem went with his mother to buy a pair 
 of knickerbockers. When he had looked at all the varieties in 
 the store, he was still dissatisfied. 
 
 "I want that pair in the window," he protested. 
 
 "These are just exactly like them," assured the clerk; 
 " but if you want that particular pair, I '11 get them for you." 
 
 And he produced them, much to Bobby's satisfaction. 
 They bore a sign which read, " These knickerbockers can not 
 be beat." — Judge. 
 
 6 
 
 The kindergarten teacher recited to her pupils the story 
 of the wolf and the lamb. As she completed it she said: 
 
 "Now, children, you see that the lamb would not have 
 been eaten by the wolf if he had been good and sensible." 
 
 One little boy raised his hand. 
 
 "Well, John," asked the teacher, "what is it?" 
 
 "If the lamb had been good and sensible," said the little 
 boy, gravely, "we should have had him to eat, wouldn't 
 we?" — New York Times. 
 
 III. Topics for Oral Discussion 
 
 1. Can these stories be analyzed on the same prin- 
 ciple as those in the preceding chapter? 
 
 2. What is the advantage of the dialogue form?
 
 94 NAKRATION 
 
 3. On what principle are the stories paragraphed? 
 
 4. State the principles on which the quotation marks 
 are used in each. 
 
 5. Suggest a title for each model. 
 
 IV. Composition 
 
 1. Oral. Tell your story to the club. 
 
 2. Written. Write it. 
 
 3. Pay especial attention to spelling, punctuation, 
 capitalization, grammar, and sentence structure. 
 
 V. Memorize 
 
 THE BOYS (continued from Page 90) 
 
 There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain, 
 
 That could harness a team with a logical chain; 
 
 When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire, 
 
 We called him "The Justice," but now he's "The Squire." 
 
 And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith; 
 Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; 
 But he shouted a song for the brave and the free; 
 Just read on his medal, "My country," "of thee!" 
 
 You hear that boy laughing? — You think he's all fun; 
 But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done; 
 The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, 
 And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all. 
 
 Yes, we 're boys — always playing with tongue or with pen ; 
 And I sometimes have asked, "Shall we ever be men?" 
 Shall we always be youthful and laughing and gay 
 Till the last dear companion drops smiling away? 
 
 Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! 
 The stars of its winter, the dews of its May! 
 And when we have done with its lifedasting toys, 
 Dear Father, take care of thy children, the boys ! 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 EXPOSITION 
 
 " Make it a point to do something every day that you don't want 
 to. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your 
 duty without pain." 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 Somebody has called this the age of exposition. 
 Probably more people have occasion to explain than 
 have occasion to describe, narrate, or argue. Captains 
 of industry, salesmen, foremen, writers of advertise- 
 ments employ it constantly. Housekeepers in giving 
 instruction to their cooks and football coaches in ex- 
 plaining plays and in training players alike use expo- 
 sition. Exposition, too, is the special business of the 
 teacher, and most text-books are full of expositions. 
 
 II. Problem 
 
 1. What do you know how to make or do? 
 
 2. Tell in about 200 words how to do it or make it. 
 
 m. Model 
 
 The proper way to make a smudge is this: begin with a 
 'very little lowly fire. Let it be bright but not ambitious. 
 Don't try to make a smoke yet. 
 
 Then gather a good supply of stuff which seems likely to 
 suppress fire without smothering it. Moss of a certain kind 
 will do, but not the soft feathery moss that grows so deep 
 among the spruce trees. Half-decayed wood is good; spongy 
 moist unpleasant stuff, a vegetable wet blanket. The bark of 
 dead evergreen trees, hemlock, spruce, or balsam, is better 
 still. Gather a plentiful store of it. But don't try to make a 
 smoke yet.
 
 96 EXPOSITION 
 
 Let your fire burn awhile longer; cheer it up a little. Get 
 some clear resolute unquenchable coals aglow in the heart of 
 it. Don't try to make a smoke yet. 
 
 Now pile on your smoldering fuel. Fan it with your hat. 
 Kneel down and blow it, and in ten minutes you will have a 
 smoke that will make you wish you had never been born. 
 
 That is the proper way to make a smudge. But the easiest 
 way is to ask your guide to make it for you. — Henry van 
 Dyke. x 
 
 IV. Topics for Oral Composition 
 
 1. Does Henry van Dyke make the various pro- 
 cesses of making a smudge stand out clearly? 
 How does he do it? 
 
 2. Who is Henry van Dyke? 
 
 3. What is a smudge good for? 
 
 4. Are there any metaphors in the model? 
 
 5. Explain the subject of each paragraph. 
 
 6. What is the fundamental difference between van 
 Dyke's style and that of the typical cook-book? 
 
 V. Exercises 
 
 Write an exposition on one of the following topics : 
 
 1. Building a Furnace Fire. 
 
 2. Planting Corn. 
 
 3. Milking. 
 
 4. Making Chickens Profitable. 
 
 5. Constructing a Box. 
 
 6. How a city boy or girl can make money. 
 
 7. How a village boy or girl can make money. 
 
 8. How a country boy or girl can make money. 
 0. How to sew on a Button. 
 
 10. Keeping Books. 
 
 11. Operating a Typewriter. 
 
 12. How to start an Automobile. 
 
 13. Running a Base-burner. 
 
 1 From Fisherman's Luck. Reprinted by permission of Charles 
 Scribner's Sons.
 
 EXPOSITION 97 
 
 14. The Care of a Horse. 
 
 15. How to play Tennis. 
 
 16. Any other subject which your teacher approves. 
 
 In writing, use the following framework: 
 
 Paragraph 1. Introduction. 
 
 Paragraphs 2-4. Allot one of these paragraphs to 
 each process. If there are more than three processes, 
 use a larger number of paragraphs. 
 
 Paragraph 5. Conclusion. 
 
 To illuminate your exposition, as Henry van Dyke 
 does, with a metaphor or so or with a touch of humor, 
 is neither a sin nor a crime. 
 
 Write as if your audience were composed of chil- 
 dren. In other words, assume that they know noth- 
 ing of the subject. Be as clear and as simple as you 
 can. This is the secret of popularity. It is the chief 
 reason why Shakespeare, Macaulay, and Rudyard 
 Kipling are read more than Ben Jonson, Carlyle, and 
 William de Morgan. 
 
 VI. A Poor Specimen 
 
 Cream of Wheat and Chopped Figs 
 $ c. cream of wheat. 4 c. boiling water. Salt. Stir wheat 
 slowly into boiling water. Steam thirty to forty minutes 
 until soft and add chopped figs when cream of wheat is one- 
 half done. 
 
 VII. Analysis 
 
 This is a typical recipe, as recipes appear in cook- 
 books. It is really a series of rough notes. It lacks 
 coherence; sentence structure is conspicuous by reason 
 of its absence; the style is characterized by a fine dis- 
 regard of the articles; and its structure is conspicu- 
 ous by its absence. If we rewrite it, we shall get 
 something like this:
 
 98 EXPOSITION 
 
 The proper way to make cream of wheat and chopped 
 figs is this. First, take half a cup of cream of wheat, a few 
 chopped figs, four cups of boiling water, and a little salt. 
 Second, stir the wheat slowly into the boiling water. Third, 
 allow the mixture to steam about fifteen minutes. Fourth, 
 add the chopped figs. Fifth, let the mixture steam until the 
 wheat is soft, that is, between fifteen and twenty-five min- 
 utes longer. 
 
 VIII. Exercises 
 
 1. Translate into plain English one of the recipes 
 given below. 
 
 2. Translate another of them into literary English, 
 that is, English enlivened by wit, humor, sar- 
 casm, metaphor, or contrast. 
 
 3. Write a recipe for some dish that you know how 
 to make. 
 
 Caution 1. Please remember that in the English 
 language there are three little words called arti- 
 cles. These are "a," "an," and "the." There is 
 no law forbidding their use, even when one is 
 writing recipes. 
 
 Caution 2. Make the different processes stand 
 out clearly from each other. 
 
 Cocoa. 
 
 \ c. milk. J t. cocoa. 
 
 \ c. water. 1 t. sugar. 
 
 Mix cocoa with sugar, then stir in the water, either hot or 
 
 cold. Cook directly over the flame. Add to scalded milk and 
 
 let it blend from five to ten minutes. Beat with Dover Egg 
 
 beater just before serving. 
 
 Pan Broiled Chops. 
 Use frying pan heated hot. Rub over quickly with tiny bit 
 of fat, so meat will not stick. Put in meat. Sear on one side, 
 then the other. Lower temperature and cook slowly until 
 done. Do not fry. Pour out fat as it melts.
 
 EXPOSITION S9 
 
 Codfish Balls. 
 1 c. potatoes — cut into small pieces. 
 \ c. fish. 
 1 t. butter. 
 
 Pepper and salt. 
 Cook fish and potatoes together until potatoes are soft. 
 Drain and mash with fork. Add beaten egg, butter and sea- 
 soning. Beat until light. Take up by spoonfuls. Pat lightly 
 and fry until brown. 
 
 . Poaclwd Egg. 
 Break egg carefully into saucer. Have ready a frying pan 
 with water enough to cover egg. Bring water to boiling 
 point. Slip in egg. Lower temperature immediately. Cook 
 till white is of desired consistency. If the yolk comes out of 
 water, pour spoonful of water on it. 
 
 IX. Memorize 
 
 SUCCESS 
 
 That low man seeks a little thing to do, 
 
 Sees it. and does it; 
 This high man, with a great thing to pursue, 
 
 Dies ere he knows it. 
 That low man goes on adding one to one; 
 
 His hundred's soon hit; 
 This high man, aiming at a million, 
 
 Misses an unit. 
 That has the world here; should he need the next, 
 
 Let the world mind him! 
 This throws himself on God, and unperplexed 
 
 Seeking shall find him. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 A Grammarian's Funeral.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES 
 
 I. Introduction 
 
 Every school library should contain several collec- 
 tions of letters and a number of biographies rich in 
 correspondence. In addition each pupil should own a 
 collection of letters such as is found in H. J. Anderson's 
 English Letters (Longmans); Cook and Benham's 
 Specimen Letters (Ginn & Co.); or Claude M. Fuess's 
 Selected English Letters (Riverside Literature Series; 
 Houghton Mifflin Co.). The references in parentheses 
 in the following exercises are to these three books. 
 
 II. Exercises in Business Letters 
 
 1. Make a collection of business letters; study them in 
 order to determine their relative merit; mark them with 
 reference to stationery, neatness, form, spelling, punctu- 
 ation, grammar, and rhetorical excellence; paste them 
 on cardboard and hang them in the English room, thus 
 making an instructive exhibit. 
 
 2. Make a similar exhibit of friendly letters. 
 
 3. Make an exhibit of formal invitations and replies. 
 
 4. Write the letters needed to issue a school annual. 
 
 5. Carry on the correspondence involved in the production 
 of a school play, the purchase of a class picture, the 
 management of a base-ball team, or the organization of 
 a track meet. 
 
 6. Write all of the letters, advertisements, invitations, and 
 programs required for the proper management of a 
 school dance or banquet. 
 
 7. After finding suitable models, write the following cycle 
 of business letters, preserving them as an evidence of 
 your fitness for a business position: (a) A Letter of
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES 101 
 
 Application; (b) An Order Letter; (c) A Letter of Com- 
 plaint; (d) A Sales Letter; (e) A Letter inclosing a 
 Check; (f) An Answer to an Order Letter; (g) An 
 Answer to a Letter of Complaint; {h) A Letter request- 
 ing Payment; (i) A Letter acknowledging Payment. 
 (Consult Dwyer's The Business Letter.) 
 
 III. Exercises in Friendly Letters 
 
 1. Advice. Write a letter of advice to yourself from your 
 father or mother or from yourself to a friend. For 
 models see "Susanna Wesley to Her Son," July 24, 
 1732 (Anderson, page 12) and "Sidney Smith to Lucy," 
 July 22, 1835 (Fuess, page 41; Anderson, page 75). 
 
 2. Books. In a letter to a friend tell your real opinion of 
 one of the books you have read in school. Model: 
 William Cowper to the Reverend Thomas Unwin, 
 October 31, 1779 (F. 30). 
 
 3. Children. Write a friendly letter to a child. Models: 
 "Francis Jeffrey to his Grand-daughter," June 20, 1848 
 (A. 105); "Thomas Hood to May," April, 1844 (F. 59); 
 "John Brown to his Son," 1856 (A. 107); "Lewis Car- 
 roll to Jessie," January 22, 1878 (A. 119); "Robert 
 Louis Stevenson to Tom Archer," 1888 (A. 126), 
 (C. B. 124). 
 
 4. Consolation, (a) Write a letter announcing a piece of 
 bad news, (b) Write a letter designed to hearten some 
 friend who is in trouble. Models: "Oliver Cromwell to 
 Colonel Valentine Walton," July 5, 1644 (A. 2); "The 
 Duke of Wellington to a Lady," January 21, 1812 
 (A. 36); "Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby," Novem- 
 ber 21, 1864 (C. B. 100); "William Vaughn Moody 
 to Daniel Gregory Mason," February 16, 1896 (F. 
 103). 
 
 5. Description. Write a letter describing a city, a state, or 
 a country. Models: "Lady Mary Wortley Montague 
 on Holland," August 3, 1716 (A. 10), (C. B. 2) ; " Robert 
 Southey on Lisbon," February 1, 1796 (A. 49); "Laf- 
 cadio Hearn on New York," 1889 (F. 99); "Phillips 
 Brooks on India," February 22, 1883 (C. B. 118). 
 
 6. Farewells. Write a letter bidding good-bye to a friend
 
 102 SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES 
 
 whom you do not expect soon to see. See "Thackeray 
 to Fitzgerald," October 27, 1852 (F. 76). 
 
 7. Homesickness. Write a letter to your mother telling 
 how you wish you were home or to a friend explaining a 
 desire to be with him or her. Model: "Lord to Lady 
 Collingwood," June 16, 1806 (A. 32). 
 
 8. Hotels. Describe a hotel at which you have been a 
 guest. "O. W. Holmes to James T. Fields," October 
 23, 1867 (F. 69). 
 
 9. Invitation. " George Washington to Dr. John Coch- 
 rane " (C. B. 41). 
 
 10. Journeys. Write a letter describing a journey you have 
 made. Models: "Lady Anne Barnard to Henry Dun- 
 das," May 7, 1798 (A. 11); "Samuel Rogers to Thomas 
 Moore," October 17, 1814 (A. 61); "T. B. Macaulay to 
 T. F. Ellis," July 1, 1834 (A. 79). 
 
 11. Luck. Write a letter announcing a piece of good or ill 
 luck. Model: "Horatio Nelson to his Wife," August 
 18. 1794 (A. 30), (C. B. 41). 
 
 12. Nothing. Write a letter about nothing. See " Alexander 
 Pope to Henry Cromwell," April 17, 1708 (A. 9), 
 (C. B. 2). 
 
 13. Paper Cutter. In the name of your watch, knife, hand- 
 kerchief, or any other article that is yours, write a letter 
 to the person who gave it to you. Model: "Robert 
 Louis Stevenson to Miss Adelaide Boodle," October 10, 
 1888 (A. 131). 
 
 14. Pet. Write a letter about one of your pets. Model: 
 "Charles Dickens to Maclise," March 12, 1841 (A. 97). 
 
 15. Public Ceremony. Write a letter describing a proces- 
 sion, pageant, or great public ceremony of any kind. 
 Model: "Lucy Aikin to Mrs. Taylor," July, 1806 
 (A. 35). 
 
 16. Public Opinion. Write a letter explaining the state of 
 public opinion on any live question. Model: "Benja- 
 min Franklin to Joseph Priestley," October 3, 1775 
 (F. 20). 
 
 17. Rebuke. Write a letter rebuking a sinner. Models: 
 "Samuel Johnson to the Earl of Chesterfield," Febru- 
 ary, 1755 (F. 21), (C. B. 19); "Abraham Lincoln to 
 Horace Greeley," August 22, 1862 (F. 67), (C. B. 97).
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES 103 
 
 18. Request. Write a letter requesting a favor. See "Robert 
 Burns to the Earl of Glencairn," 1787 (F. 36). 
 
 19. Sight of a Personage. Describe in a letter to a friend a 
 glimpse of a great man or woman. Model: "Amelia 
 Opie to Dr. Alderson," 1802 (A. 37). 
 
 20. Thanks. Write a letter of thanks for a favor or a gift. 
 Models: "Samuel Johnson to Mrs James Boswell," 
 July 22, 1777 (A. 18), (C. B. 27)- "Joseph Addison to 
 Chamberlain Dashwood," July 1702 (F. 8), (C. B. 1); 
 "Thomas Bailey Aldrich to William Dean Howells," 
 December 13, 1875 (F. 93). 
 
 21. Toothache. Describe a cold, a toothache, or some other 
 ill. Model: "Lafcadio Hearn to Mitchell McDonald," 
 July, 1898 (F. 101). 
 
 22. Train. Write a letter from a train telling what impres- 
 sions you received while on board. Model: "Robert 
 Louis Stevenson to W. E. Henley," 1879 (A. 121), 
 (C. B. 114). 
 
 23. Umbrella. Write a letter imploring a delinquent friend 
 to restore a book, umbrella, or other missing article. 
 See "Thomas Huxley to Matthew Arnold," June 9, 
 1869 (A. 116), (C. B. 104). 
 
 24. Visits from People. Describe a visit that a friend or 
 relative has paid you. Models: "Cicero to Atticus," 
 B.c. 45 (A. 1); "William Cowper to the Reverend John 
 Newton," March 29, 1784 (A. 23). 
 
 25. Visits to People. Tell of a visit you have paid to a 
 friend or relative. Models: "Charles Lamb to Thomas 
 Manning," September 24, 1802 (A. 55); "Thomas B. 
 Macaulay to his Father," July 26, 1826 (F. 62). 
 
 26. Voyage. Describe a voyage. Model: "Robert Louis 
 Stevenson to Henry James," 1887 (A. 124). 
 
 27. Warning. Write a letter warning a friend against some 
 fault or danger. Model: "Sidney Smith to Lord Mur- 
 ray," September 29, 1843 (A. 76).
 
 104 SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES 
 
 IV. Memorize 
 A TROOP OF THE GUARD RIDES FORTH TO-DAY 1 
 
 There's trampling of hoofs in the busy street, 
 There's chinking of sabers on floor and stair, 
 
 There's sound of restless, hurrying feet, 
 
 Of voices that whisper, of lips that entreat, 
 
 Will they live, will they die, will they strive, will they dare? 
 
 The houses are garlanded, flags flutter gay, 
 
 For a Troop of the Guard rides forth to-day. 
 
 Oh, the troopers will ride and their hearts will leap, 
 
 When it's shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend — 
 But it's some to the pinnacle, some to the deep, 
 And some in the glow of their strength to sleep, 
 
 And for all it's a fight to the tale's far end. 
 And it's each to his goal, nor turn nor sway, 
 When the Troop of the Guard rides forth to-day. 
 
 The portals are open, the white road leads 
 
 Through thicket and garden, o'er stone and sod. 
 On, up! Boot and saddle ! Give spurs to your steeds! 
 There's a city beleaguered that cries for men's deeds, 
 For the faith that is strength and the love that is God ! 
 On through the dawning ! Humanity calls ! 
 
 Life's not a dream in the clover! 
 On to the walls, on to the walls, 
 On to the walls, and over! 
 
 Hermann Hagedorn. 
 
 1 Read before the Graduating Class of Harvard University, 
 June 21, 1907.
 
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 Los Angeles 
 
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