PREFACE The author of this manual is strongly of the belief that it is the business of text-books only to suggest; of teachers, to direct and guide; and of pupils, to work. No attempt has been made in the following pages to "say it all". The most that has been attempted is to be wisely suggestive, more work being left for the teacher to do than has been done by the author, and much more being left for the pupil than has been delegated to the teacher. The illustrative material has, therefore, been kept at a minimum, it being much better for the pupil to seek and find his own illustrations for principles he has studied than to have them served up for him. Particularly has it been the intention to throw him on his own responsibility in the last four or five chapters of the book. Here the knowledge gleaned from the earlier chapters should stand him in such stead, if he has done the work faithfully, as to enable him to proceed in planning the various types of composition with but little suggestion and guidance. His progress always, everywhere, means the mastery of elementary details to such a degree that he can proceed with fewer and fewer of such details as he pursues any subject. However, consecutiveness of development along any hard and fixed line is impossible in so fluid a subject as English composition. It may be necessary, it may indeed be very wise, to ignore the order in which the various subjects are treated, and to take them up for study most irregularly. This depends, of course, upon the individual needs of pupils. It is quite conceivable, for instance, that Chapter X should precede Chapter II; that Chapter V should per |