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New York 
 
 State College of Agriculture 
 
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 Library 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014561066 
 
THE PROBLEM 
 
 Elementary Composition 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS SOLUTION 
 
 ELIZABETH H. SPALDING 
 
 Teacher of English in Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 1897 
 
Copyright, 1896, 
 By Elizabeth H. Spalding. 
 
 Ttpoorapht by C. J. Peteks ifc Son, Boston. 
 
 PRKB5W0RK BY BoCKWELL & CUUKCHILL. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A Word to the Reader .... . 1 
 
 II. Lbtter-Wkiting .... 4 
 
 III. Stoky-Telling 14 
 
 IV. Word-Collecting : Etymology 27 
 
 V. Descriptions 38 
 
 VI. The Simile and Personification 51 
 
 VII. Finding Much in Little : Elaboration of Sen- 
 tences into Paragraphs 64 
 
 VIII. Building : Outlining Compositions Y6 
 
 IX. A Word About : Weeding ; Synonyms ; Imitative 
 Words ; The Simple Future and the Future 
 OF Volition ; The Miskelated Participle ; 
 The Sequence op Tenses ; The Lack of Di- 
 rect Discourse ; The Chain Construction of 
 Relative Clauses ; The Use of Explana- 
 tory AND Restrictive Relative Clauses ; 
 The Separation of the Infinitive and Its 
 Sign ; Cultivating the Power to Think and 
 THE Power to Feel ; Examination Questions. 88 
 X. Talking it Over : Criticism 105 
 
THE PROBLEM 
 
 OF 
 
 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS SOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A WORD TO THE READER. 
 
 These chapters were written for delivery before the 
 Brooklyn Teachers' Association, and without thought 
 of subsequent publication. They are now gathered 
 into a book in response to the request of many inter- 
 ested in elementary composition. It has seemed de- 
 sirable to retain them in their original form, familiar 
 and unconventional as that is. 
 
 The writer believes that composition work need not 
 be restricted to the production of written themes, but 
 that it may include speaking as well as writing, work 
 by a little community as well as work by individuals, 
 and interesting conversations to rouse thought and 
 deepen feeling. 
 
 Another chapter might have been added, on the sub- 
 ject of versification. There appears to be no reason 
 
2 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 why children should not write songs, even at a com- 
 paratively early age. A class might select a well- 
 known air from the song-book, mark on the blackboard 
 its metre, choose a subject, and, as a class, find words 
 to suit both subject and metre. The rhyme would fur- 
 nish material for a second exercise. It is true that 
 inspiration might seem to follow rather than precede 
 such work ; it would be felt, however, as soon as the 
 stanza had begun to take shape, and it would be more 
 fully felt when the stanza was sung. The words 
 would very likely reproduce the class environment, 
 experience, wishes, or aspirations. By degrees consid- 
 erable knowledge of versification would be acquired, 
 and a teacher might be surprised by original arrange- 
 ments. Is there danger that such study of ways and 
 means would make children lovers of mere form ? 
 Hardly, if at the same time they were reading poems 
 that stirred their blood or charmed their fancy. Quite 
 spontaneous efforts of their own might come later. 
 
 Who that has had children stand beside him, trem- 
 bling with eagerness to attempt his work, and has lis- 
 tened to their " Let me try ! " would refuse them their 
 opportunity? Does not expression, like every other 
 natural thing, grow into the perfection of power? 
 Had not logic its beginning in a first judgment, and 
 the novel in a narrative sentence or paragraph? Is 
 not race history being used as a key to child develop- 
 ment? Because the child cannot write the logic or 
 
A WORD TO THE READER. 3 
 
 the novel, shall we invent for his outreaching mind 
 a barrier of formulas and conventionality, thicker and 
 thornier than the hedge which shut in the Sleeping 
 Beauty and all that she influenced; shut them in with 
 their beauty and their torpor — away from the awak- 
 ening presence ? 
 
 These pages are for those who would give life to 
 grammar and rhetoric by means of original and vigor- 
 ous effort in composition. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 liETTER-WEITING. 
 
 To enable a student to grasp another's thought, 
 and appreciate the force or beauty of another's lan- 
 guage; to enable him, also, to utter himself, either 
 by voice or by pen, ■ — this, no one will dispute, should 
 be the chief aim of the teacher of composition. 
 
 How shall we begin elementary instruction in com- 
 position? I am convinced that, in order to gain co- 
 operation from the pupil, — and this is absolutely es- 
 sential, — two things must be given .to him : a sense 
 of security, of confidence ; and a glow of delight. 
 The sense of security, the feeling of confidence, will, 
 I believe, best be gained by working together at the 
 very outset. A dozen timid souls, if companions, 
 gain courage to brave work as well as danger; and, 
 while so entirely untrained and unaccustomed to the 
 work, their union of effort, under intelligent guid- 
 ance, is likely to give a result more tangible, more 
 effective, and so more encouraging, than the single 
 effort of any one of them — unless a genius — could 
 have given. Self-reliance is, undoubtedly, a neces- 
 sity ; but theie is a genial something infused into 
 
 4 
 
LETTER-WRITING. 5 
 
 composition work bj-- a combined effort at the start. 
 We all are friendly, are working at the same thing ; 
 there is no cause for painful self-consciousness nor 
 for embarrassment, surely none for fear. The feel- 
 ing of confidence may be heightened later on by con- 
 versations about the mother-tongue. A pupil may 
 realize that his native language is his rightful posses- 
 sion — veritably the " mother "-tongue and his ; that 
 it will aid him to utter himself, to set free, his other- 
 wise imprisoned thoughts ; that it will make fruitful 
 the work of his brain ; that it will make helpful the 
 love in his heart. He may also come to understand 
 that his mother-tongue deserves his respect and pro- 
 tection, that it is beautiful, that the greatest minds 
 have reverenced it, that its purity should be even 
 jealously guarded. 
 
 What shall be the first work done together? Not 
 written work, by any means. I should be tempted 
 to "spring " my first lesson on the unsuspecting chil- 
 dren. There would be some event, some happening, 
 that might be orally told, one and another contribut- 
 ing to the narration of the incident. " Why, how 
 easily you talk, do you not? Did you ever try talk- 
 ing with your pens or pencils? What is the use of 
 trying it, anjrhow ? " Among the many, some an- 
 swers there will be making clear to the boys and 
 girls that there is a use, even a need, for writing ; 
 that he who cannot write is to a degree dumb. 
 
6 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 The natural way to show this need, this useful- 
 ness, is, I think, to write a school-letter — a simple, 
 brief little letter, contrived by putting all the heads 
 together; a letter neatly written out, and actually 
 sent somewhere — • to another school ? from No. 11 to 
 No. 15 ? from No. 15 to No. 45 ? to an absent friend 
 across the sea? There is a sense of neighborliness 
 born of a letter and its quick reply, as there is a 
 zest in communicating with far-off lands. 
 
 Of course in such instruction we shall not be hyper- 
 critical, but we may be discriminating. " Oh, dear ! 
 would you put that in? It is so unpleasant; and 
 what good does it do? Would you care for it your- 
 self ? " The Golden Rule applies here as elsewhere. 
 
 So, discriminating we will be ; but we will be tol- 
 erant, generous. The little artist shall feel his power, 
 and shall delight in it too. We will give him his 
 opportunity. He shall share his gifts, shall bestow 
 something of his own insight upon his duller neigh- 
 bor. It may be that the children in their letter 
 have said that the wind " sounded strange." We 
 shall find some one ready, perhaps after a quiet min- 
 ute for thought, with a good verb for that "sounded 
 strange." It "howled" or "sighed," it "shrieked"' or 
 " whispered." Suppose the children have told of the 
 flight of birds. Did these " swoop," or " flutter," or 
 "circle," or what? Some one thing they certainly 
 did do, and not the others. The fitting in of the 
 
LETTER-WRITING. 7 
 
 proper word will have given an impetus to an entire 
 class. This is nice work? It is what the children 
 like; and it is what kindergartens are making pos- 
 sible, because they cultivate the power to observe ac- 
 curately. It is in just such ways that delight takes 
 possession of the child. He intuitively appreciates 
 words that are exact; he is a lover of the truth. 
 
 The actual sending off of the little paragraph, or 
 page or two, helps. Why ? Because it makes all 
 the work very real ; because, too, it will bring up for 
 discussion many of the points of letter-writing, and it 
 will do this most naturallJ^ For instance, the boys 
 and girls eagerly await a reply. Promptness in an- 
 swering a correspondent is considered, and a second 
 time that embodiment of ethics, the Golden Rule, 
 determines; or, possibly, the hurry and keen compe- 
 tition of the business world — so apparent, alas ! even 
 to childish eyes — decides. 
 
 Perhaps the letter went astray ! Was it properly 
 addressed? The right way, the usual way, is empha- 
 sized, — it has already been taught, — and the horizon 
 of the little people may be widened by an imaginary 
 peep into the Dead-Letter Office, and by a little clear 
 information regarding the postal systems of long ago 
 and of now. Some knowledge of the blessings of 
 civilization and government may be acquired, while 
 the little correspondents, in imagination, follow their 
 letter as it is carried in safety to streets or cities or 
 
8 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 lands quite new to them. And why should not patri- 
 otism begin to be ; or, if already existing, why should 
 it not thus be fostered? 
 
 Our first letter accomplished together, others will 
 naturally follow, done by individuals, but not too 
 many, nor all at once ; for letter-writing may be kept 
 up for years : moreover, monotony is killing to the 
 spirit. 
 
 Surely, although we would not be mere imitators, 
 it is not amiss very early in this work to read some 
 of the letters of Phillips Brooks and of other lovers 
 of children. Bishop Brooks's Letters of Travel, es- 
 pecially those to " Gertie " in A Year in Europe and 
 India., are a veritable mine. How living a thing geog- 
 raphy becomes with such parallel work. From Kandy 
 he wrote : — 
 
 "Oh, this beautiful island of Ceylon! 
 
 With th.e cocoanut-trees on the shore; 
 is shaped like a pear with the peel on, 
 And Kandy lies in at the core." 
 
 The rhyme sent from the P. and O. steamship Verona 
 to "Little Mistress Josephine," and the letters to 
 " Gertie " from Jeypore and Venice, could not be 
 passed by. His visit to Tennyson is charmingly told 
 to one of his correspondents. His letters unify them- 
 selves not only with geography, history, and literature, 
 but also with the glad nature of the child. 
 
 Some of the older pupils will appreciate Benjamin 
 
LETTER- WRITING. 9 
 
 Franklin's letter to Noah Webster, written while the 
 latter was compiling his dictionary. I refer, of course, 
 to the correspondence " On New-Fangled Modes of 
 Writing and Printing." To know that the man who 
 was stiff-necked before royalty could beg Webster to 
 guard the purity of • our language, might add to a 
 pupil's respect for English. 
 
 Holmes's letter to the school-children of Cincinnati 
 on their celebration of his seventy-first year, would 
 have a personal interest for any class. 
 
 We would not forget some of Eugene Field's letters, 
 Edwin Booth's to his daughter, Macaulay's to his little 
 niece Margaret, some of Marjorie Fleming's, many of 
 Chesterfield's to his son, the Familiar Letters of Sir 
 Walter Scott, extracts from Cowper's letters, and count- 
 less others, — all interesting, and more or less educa- 
 tive. 
 
 Charm and Courtesy in Letter -Writing, by Callaway, 
 is profitable collateral reading. 
 
 It will easily be perceived that letters bring us closer 
 to men and women than does any other kind of writ- 
 ing; closer, sometimes, than conversation could bring 
 us. For instance, will not this extract from Keats, 
 printed in The Outlook of Oct. 26, 1895, not only 
 amuse a class, but also help to a conception of the 
 personality of the poet whose genius they will some 
 day reverence ? This letter is to Keats's sister 
 Fanny : — ■ 
 
10 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 " I get so hungry a ham goes but very little way, and 
 fowls are like larks to me ; a batch of bread I make no 
 more ado about than a sheet of Parliament, and I can 
 eat a bull's head as easily as I used to do a bull's eye. 
 I take a whole string of sausages down as easily as a 
 pen'orth of lady's fingers. Ah, dear, I must soon be con- 
 tented with an acre or two of oaten cake, a hogshead of 
 milk, and a clothes-basket of eggs. 
 
 "My dear Fanny, I am ashamed of writing you such 
 stuff, nor would I if it were not for being tired after my 
 day's walking, and ready to tumble into bed so fatigued 
 that when I am asleep you might sew my nose to my 
 great toe, and trundle me round the town, like a hoop, 
 without waking me." 
 
 And is not the man who could love a nation with 
 absorbing devotion and yet have a haunting pity and 
 tenderness for others sacrificing themselves for the 
 same nation, revealed in more than one of Lincoln's 
 brief letters ? To Mrs. Bixby of Massachusetts, whose 
 five sons had died on the battlefield, Lincoln wrote 
 with warm sympathy, hoping that the anguish of her 
 bereavement might be assuaged, and there be left only 
 the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and a 
 solemn pride to have laid such a sacrifice upon the 
 altar of freedom. Such words teach more than the 
 art of letter- writing : patriotism is in them ; and those 
 who read may some day assume with " solemn pride " 
 responsibility for the land that such men and such 
 women bid them love. 
 
LETTER-WRITING. 11 
 
 It would increase both interest and friendliness to 
 have a letter-box in the room, and, of course, that box 
 would have a key; otherwise, how much of impor- 
 tance and of mystery would be lost, and what a reward 
 of merit would be overlooked. Each row of pupils 
 might have their day for writing to the class. Some 
 homely thing would be attempted, — the telling about 
 a pet, or about anything dear to the writer's heart. 
 The most desolate child finds something to love, and 
 about that something it will think, and chatter, and 
 — write. 
 
 During these exercises, each member of the class 
 will have learned how to fold and address a letter, 
 how to begin and end it, and will have indicated the 
 proper place for the stamp. Even the very young 
 members might learn at least the how and wherefore 
 of letter-writing. 
 
 In connection with such practice in correspondence, 
 the making of a scrap-book would be quite absorbing. 
 There might be pictures of the old mail-coach, of the 
 modern mail-car, of steamships, of monograms, of pos- 
 tage-stamps fi-om different countries. How much of 
 history postage-stamps reveal, with their changing 
 national devices and their heads of leaders or of 
 sovereigns. 
 
 Should we hesitate to make use of the dictionary, 
 even in the primary school ? I have heard the puz- 
 zling question of a four-year-old boy answered in this 
 
12 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 way : "I do not know ; I am learning just as you 
 are. I like to learn, don't you? I have been learn- 
 ing longer than you have been, and I ought to know 
 a good deal more. And I do know where to find out 
 about that." Then the boy and his friend — truly she 
 is his friend — sought for the information together ; 
 and the little fellow was more than satisfied with the 
 result, especially since there was a picture of just what 
 he had asked about. He now pulls out the dictionary 
 when perplexed; and although he cannot read, — hav- 
 ing spent nearly all his life in alternate sleep and out- 
 of-door play, — he knows a good deal about sources 
 of information and how to utilize them. 
 
 It is difficult to understand, moreover, why the upper 
 schools have the most of the ease and joy of work — 
 the most of the fine tools. Surely they do not wish 
 to monopolize them. A primary school needs its well- 
 selected library of wonderful scientific facts, of charm- 
 ing correspondence, of true or fanciful descriptions, of 
 fascinating, stories, of instructive travels. And why 
 should it not have its dictionaries ■ — the usual diction- 
 ary, and, in addition, at least a dictionary of names ? 
 And who, with the teacher to simplify and interpret, 
 would forbid a free use of the books? Suppose they 
 do become shabby? Suppose they wear out? So 
 much the better, if the wearing out be not the result 
 of carelessness. Fresh books may be had, and the 
 keener intelligence of the class will pay for them. 
 
LETTER-WRITING. 13 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 During this one set of exercises, then, — 
 I. We shall have either created or increased : a feeling of 
 friendliness, of fellowship ; a sense of power ; that 
 delight which comes from the fine accomplishment 
 of any worthy thing; appreciation of another's 
 work ; and a realization of the value of composi- 
 tion, — perhaps especially of written composition, 
 — which value we shall have illustrated. 
 II. We shall have begun to think about purity, propriety, 
 and precision, although we may not have breathed 
 their names. 
 
 III. We shall have connected our little letters with the 
 
 postal systems of the world, shall have roused an 
 interest in foreign nations, and shall have in- 
 creased the love for our own. 
 
 IV. We shall have met familiarly, by means of their cor- 
 
 respondence, a few great men and women. 
 V. We shall have begun the collection of interesting 
 
 material into scrap-books. 
 VI. We shall have located and looked into some of the 
 sources of general and special information. 
 How much more any one of us might do, who will ven- 
 ture to say ? These are the merest general suggestions. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 STORY-TELLING. 
 
 Narration presupposes, of course, the possession 
 of imagination by the narrator: sometimes, of only 
 the imagination that represents, calling to mind what 
 has been tasted or felt or seen or heard; sometimes, 
 of the inventive imagination, which creates. To de- 
 scribe a city so that those who actually dwell in it 
 will feel at home in your pictured city, requires the 
 imagination that reproduces ; to make an ingenious 
 plot requires inventive imagination. Perhaps I can- 
 not do better, just here, than to quote half a page 
 from Compayre on this subject : — 
 
 " Let us then," he says, " nourish the imagination 
 of the child with noble images taken either from real 
 history or from the purest inventions of human genius. 
 But let us not think that our task, even in the pri- 
 mary school, is confined to this somewhat passive edu- 
 cation of the imagination. To this must be joined 
 a sort of active education, by discreetly exercising 
 the pupil at brief efforts in literary composition. 
 To get pupils to acquire a taste for this exercise 
 [exercise in literary composition], and to succeed in 
 
 14 
 
STORY-TELLING. 15 
 
 it, is not, perhaps, so difficult a task as is generally 
 believed." 
 
 Compayre then quotes Tolstoi's opinion, that "in- 
 structors are deceived when they choose for the sub- 
 jects of early composition the description of an object, 
 as a table or a bench for example ; " adding that 
 Tolstoi " maintains, and not without reason, that 
 those descriptions which bring into play only the rep- 
 resentative imagination interest the child much less 
 than the relation of a story. ' The same pupil,' says 
 he [Tolstoi], 'who weeps over having a bench to de- 
 scribe, will give ready expression to a sentiment of 
 love or hate.' " 
 
 Agreeable as it may be to have Compayr^ and Tol- 
 stoi indorse us in the teaching of narration to young 
 children, I fancy that it will be quite satisfactory to 
 be assured that we may do so by the children them- 
 selves, as we watch them at their work or- at their 
 play. After we have seen them construct men, women, 
 and furniture from mere nothings ; make bird-cages 
 out of disks of pasteboard, with pins for cage-bars 
 and with flies for birds ; and go to sea in a hammock, 
 riding safe over imagined rough waves, — we may be- 
 ready to grant that they have a good deal of inventive 
 power ; if we are still sceptical, they will eventually 
 convince us by a thousand ingenious contrivances. 
 Everybody knows that some children prefer imagined 
 playmates to real ones, and will perplex a more 
 
16 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 practical brother or sister by crying out, "Oh, please 
 don't sit there ! Alice is in that chair ! " Alice being 
 nothing but air to those who live altogether in 
 the world of realities. I have known a little bit of 
 a gu-1, just for the delight of romancing, tell of an 
 afternoon walk full of imagined, but not improbable, 
 adventures. Later it transpired that she could not 
 have taken the walk. It is, indeed, sometimes diffi- 
 cult to know, unless we can read the face, when a 
 child is deliberately falsifying, and when he is inno- 
 cently inventing. 
 
 Children may have, too, a sense of plot-construc- 
 tion. I have known a boy of four, without a hint 
 from any one, so to fit parts of several songs together 
 as to weave them into a story. He had often heard 
 the song, "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are march- 
 ing." One day he said, "Sing about the boy that 
 cried." He listened throughout the stanza : — 
 
 " In the prison-cell I sit, thinking, mother dear, of you, 
 And the bright and happy home so far away ; 
 And the tears they fill my eyes, spite of all that I can do, 
 Though I try to cheer my comrades and be gay." 
 
 Then, alive with excitement, he exclaimed, " Stop right 
 there ! Now sing, ' Marching through Georgia.' " He 
 allowed that to go on until he had evoked the fifty 
 thousand troops marching through Georgia. Then, 
 just as excited, he said, "Now go back; sing, 'Tramp, 
 
STOBT-TELLlNG. 17 
 
 tramp, tramp, the boys came marching,' " which was 
 the chorus of the first song; and, having thus pro- 
 vided the fifty thousand necessary troops by means of 
 " Marching through Georgia," he listened with sliining 
 eyes to the account of how the prisoners were set free. 
 Then he concluded with a sigh of relief, "Now sing, 
 ' When Johnny comes marching home again.' " His 
 eyes beamed as he remarked, "I suppose the boy that 
 cried must have lived in Georgia ; " adding, with great 
 content, " He is at home now." 
 
 How shall we manage work in narration ? As hith- 
 erto, we will make it oral at the start, and we will do 
 it together. We will read and discuss short stories. 
 For purposes of illustration, let me outline one from 
 the German, with which you may not be familiar : — 
 
 A humpbacked child has a loving mother, who 
 strives to shield her. Mother and child walk out to- 
 gether daily; when they return the little girl asks, 
 " Mother, why does everybody look at me so ? " The 
 mother answers, "Perhaps because of your pretty 
 dress ; " then she catches the child to her heart, sob- 
 bing, " No one would care for you as I care for you." 
 One day the loving mother dies; and, after a while, 
 the little humpback has a new mother, not so loving. 
 This new mother never takes the child out-of-doors ; 
 day after day the humpback looks wistfully through 
 the window. Finally she gains courage enough to 
 ask the step-mother to take her out. " Hunchbacks 
 
18 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 stay in the house," answers the new mother. That 
 day, after the step-mother has gone for her afternoon 
 walk, the child climbs upon a chair and peers into a 
 mirror. She sees the ugly hump and wonders what 
 is within it. Days go by, and the little humpback 
 begins to droop. She grows weak, and at last cannot 
 leave her bed. There she lies, thinking of her own 
 sweet mother, or wondering and wondering what is 
 within her hump. By and by an angel comes to her, 
 and asks if she would like to go to heaven. " Oh, 
 / couldn't go ; nobody wants a hunchback ! " she cries 
 out sadly but submissively. The angel smiles, and 
 with her beautiful strong hand strokes the ugly hump, 
 saying, " You have no hump. Look ! " The child 
 peeps over her shoulder ; the hump opens like a shell 
 and falls off, leaving two lovely white wings that had 
 been growing within it. With a glad cry, the child 
 floats away and into her own sweet mother's arms. 
 
 Suspense, surprise, and suggestion are, I think, the 
 main points to bring out in the teaching of elemen- 
 tary narration; and skilful questioning will enable the 
 children to make their own discoveries here. For 
 instance, after reading the story just outlined, we may 
 ask, " What did you like best in the story ? " I fancy 
 that nearly every one will have been especially pleased 
 by the finding of the beautiful wings within the ugly 
 shell of a hump. "Did you suspect that they were 
 there ? " Surely nobody did. " Do you think that 
 
STORY-TELLING. 19 
 
 you would have been so delighted had you known 
 all along that there were wings in the hump?" By 
 means of this and similar stories, the children will 
 discover that suspense and surprise are likely to add 
 to the enjoyment of a story. Even that surprise 
 which comes from making the climax of a story 
 utterly unlike what one has been led to look for, is 
 by no means beyond the appreciation of a very little 
 boy or girl. Often such a contrast has in it some- 
 thing akin to the spirit of mischief that will lead a 
 child to ask you what "soft, cunning little speckled 
 thing " is in his hands, letting a toad hop out. 
 
 By means of this same method of questioning, we 
 may enable our class to prove that a hint, now and 
 then, of something that is coming will keep the reader 
 or the listener alert, because- it will rouse expectation. 
 " Did you begin to get curious about that hump ? " — 
 "Why?" Very Hkely some of the class will have 
 noticed that the hunchback herself wondered and won- 
 dered about it; for the original story makes a good 
 deal of her perplexity. The children ought to appre- 
 ciate this principle of narration, that indefinite sugges- 
 tion — a hint of something on the wajr — may prove 
 valuable. Do they not make use of the same principle 
 in other ways ? At Christmas time, for example, how 
 many hints they give of something that may happen 
 sometime, hoping in this way to excite curiosity ; and 
 that is just what the story-teller plans to do by means 
 
20 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 of his hiirts — to excite curiosity, and keep alive his 
 ier'sinterest. 
 
 Although we may content ourselves in elementary 
 narration with the teaching of these three points : sus- 
 pense, surprise, — sometimes the surprise that comes 
 from a contrast, — and suggestion, yet later, in another 
 grade, we may show that we should always work for 
 the climax of our story, that we should bring into 
 it only what will help it, and that its climax is not 
 necessarily at its end. 
 
 After reading many stories together and talking 
 about them, the children will be I'eady to set to work 
 on something original. Another story from the Ger- 
 man may be suggestive : • — 
 
 The attendant spirits of a good man wished to bless 
 him ; he was always blessing others, and his guardian 
 spirits would bless him. But the good man, when 
 they asked what he would have, could not help them ; 
 he knew of nothing to wish for, helping others was 
 his happiness. Then his guardian spirits consulted 
 together. They were in despair until one cried, " If 
 we cannot bless him, let us bless his shadow ! " and 
 tliat is what they did. 
 
 Without finishing the original story, — it does not 
 end here, — we might get each member of our class 
 to invent for himself " What Happened Where the 
 Shadow Fell ; " for marvellous things might come to 
 pass. 
 
STOnr-TELLING. 21 
 
 Personification will help some of the class. It will 
 be natural for them to write about what the brook 
 told of its run to the sea; or how a mast felt as it 
 sailed by the point on which it grew ; or how a fern, 
 taken from the woods and planted in a window-box 
 in the school-room, liked the change. Somebody else, 
 more practical, may tell " How a Little Boy Helped a 
 Big One," or, " How Uncle Jack Walked Home in 
 the Blizzard." 
 
 Does the work as thus far sketched cultivate inven- 
 tive rather than representative imagination? No: for 
 we cannot write of the brook without picturing it, 
 nor of Uncle Jack without a mental image of him; 
 our representative imagination is always serving us. 
 We will insist upon accurate observation, — which is 
 so important a part of primary instruction, — requir- 
 ing true pictures in words, and this truthfulness on 
 the part of the representative imagination, which will 
 give careful reproductions of persons and things, will 
 be likely to counteract any tendency to extravagance 
 on the part of the inventive powers. 
 
 But the teaching of narration will be a failure unless 
 it cultivates the sensibilities. Whatever else it may 
 do, it must do this. A question of the right sort will 
 set pupils thinking. Suppose we should ask, after 
 the story outlined at the beginning of this talk had 
 been read, "Wouldn't you have liked to be that an- 
 gel ? Wouldn't you have liked to stroke the awk- 
 
22 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 ward hump, and show the little girl the graceful white 
 wings that she had never dreamed of ? " This would 
 start conversation. By degrees, we might get well 
 into ethics ; and likely enough this story, with its 
 patient hunchback, its loving and its unloving mother, 
 and its helpful angel, would symbolize a good deal 
 for the children, some of which they might assimilate 
 and use in their daily life. At least they might real- 
 ize that, if not angels, yet they may do angelic things. 
 Suppose to an older class we had read from The Talis- 
 man the trial of strength and skill between King Rich- 
 ard and the Saracen, giving necessary explanations. 
 We might say, " Isn't it a fine thing to be strong ? " 
 Then, by means of other questions, we might bring 
 out the fact, that the strength of the tiger is one 
 thing, and that of the man or woman, of the boy or 
 girl, which comes from a loving heart or a pure soul, 
 is quite another ; that we fear the strength of the un- 
 tamed beast, a strength which tortures and kills ; while 
 we seek the strength of a strong friend, the strength 
 which protects and keeps. We might show that power 
 to resist, to dare to turn one's back on baseness, is of 
 a superior kind. We might throw a bomb into the 
 class, and exercise their memories at the same time, 
 by declaring, " Do you know, I think that the little 
 hunchback we read about last year was strong." Pos- 
 sibly some one will see that it was in patient endu- 
 rance and uncomplaining submission. Before leaving 
 
STOBY-TELLING. 23 
 
 the subject, we might be able to show that a strong 
 spirit can do most when it has a strong body to act 
 for it; and, on the other hand, that the strong body 
 needs the strong will and the strong spirit to control 
 it. Suppose we had read a little from Uncle TowHs 
 Cabin, making the extract easily intelligible by means 
 of our own explanations. That might call out the 
 question, "What is it to be a slave?" You will 
 readily see how interesting and profitable a conversa- 
 tion with this for its topic might become. For the 
 first time, the children might behold their own fetters, 
 and they might break some of them ; and tlie thought 
 of helping those enslaved by poverty, or crime, or 
 appetite, or disease, thus germinating, might in later 
 years bear fruit in fine action. Suppose we had briefly 
 told Edward E. Hale's story of The Man Without a 
 Country, letting the class read parts of it aloud, per- 
 haps some of Philip Nolan's words to the midship- 
 man: "And for your country, boy, and for that flag, 
 never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids 
 you. . . . Never let a night pass but you pray God 
 to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind these 
 men you have to do with, behind ofiicers, and govern- 
 ment, and people even, there is the Country Herself, 
 your Country, and that you belong to Her as you be- 
 long to your own mother." Our questions might be : 
 "When you look at the flag, what do you see?" — 
 " When armies salute the flag, to what do they do 
 
24 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 reverence?" — "When men give their lives to rescue 
 their flag, what is it that their blood flows for ? " A 
 good many will see red, white, and blue bunting when 
 they look at the Stars and Stripes: but some young 
 patriots are likely to feel that it is a symbol; and, 
 putting all our heads together, we may at last perceive 
 that it is the symbol of a land and a wonderful history. 
 Little patriots will have stirred the blood of their in- 
 different neighbors, and will have made the banner of 
 dullest stuff a splendid thing. 
 
 Where shall this work in composition be done ? 
 By all means, in the school-room. There we may 
 create the proper atmosphere, may push the little 
 boats off rocks or sand-bars, may stimulate and en- 
 courage. We shall expect very little, but we must 
 get something. 
 
 Practice in story-telling may most profitably be uni- 
 fied with work in science and history ; for the tell- 
 ing of true stories will be helpful, whether they be 
 of plants or of animals, of patriots or of discoveries. 
 
 But it is to literature that the teacher will natu- 
 rally go for much of her material. There she will 
 find illustrations for every phase of narration : stories 
 to warn, or to encourage, or to excite pity, or to 
 rouse heroism, or to increase generosity, or to foster 
 tenderness, — stories that will cultivate the sensibil- 
 ities. Is there a possibility of life or of the soul 
 that is not vividly revealed in some story ? 
 
STOBY-TELLING. 25 
 
 I think that our scrap-book work will now be most 
 interesting if mainly given up to the authors of those 
 stories read and discussed together. Pictures of the 
 writers, of their homes, of their families, will make 
 the men and women seem less mythical. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 If this chapter has accomplished its purpose, it has 
 shown : — 
 
 I. That narration is natural to young children. 
 
 II. That the early work in it should be oral, and done 
 
 by teacher and pupils together. 
 
 III. That the first work will naturally be the reading 
 
 and discussion of short stories or of extracts 
 from longer ones. 
 
 IV. That, by means of skilful questioning regarding the 
 
 stories read, we may show how the effect of nar- 
 ration is enhanced by means of suspense, sur- 
 prise, and suggestion. 
 V. That we shall probably leave for later years spe- 
 cial consideration of the climax and the end of 
 stories. 
 VI. That original work will be helped by a wise choice 
 of subjects. 
 
 VII. That work in narration gives opportunities for the 
 cultivation of both the representative and the in- 
 ventive imagination. 
 
 VIII. That exercise of the representative imagination will 
 act as a check upon any tendency to extravagance 
 in invention, 
 
26 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 IX. That, above all else, the study of narration should 
 cultivate the sensibilities, and that this is likely 
 to be most successfully done by means of conver- 
 sations. 
 
 X. That work in narration should be unified with that 
 
 in science and history. 
 XI. That to literature we shall naturally go for much of 
 our illustrative material. 
 XII. That scrap-books will enable us to know the authors 
 of stories knd to feel a personal friendship for 
 them. 
 
 Truly, the universe serves the story-teller. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WOBD-COLLECTING : ETYMOLOGY. 
 
 May we not, in a third series of exercises, venture 
 upon simple work in etymology ? The need of larger 
 vocabularies has been felt in letter-writing and descrip- 
 tions, as well as in reading; pupils have not always 
 had ready the proper words for their own thoughts, 
 and have often found their book friends using expres- 
 sions altogether unfamiliar. If, then, there is to be 
 scope to this composition work, vocabularies must be 
 enriched ; new words, with their fresh mental images, 
 must be acquired. Therefore, for a third series, I sug- 
 gest digging-exercises, — mining-work among the treas- 
 ures of language, where so much knowledge and so 
 many nuggets of wisdom are hidden away. 
 
 How is it best to set about the work? Perhaps 
 your classes have made a collection of flowers or of 
 minerals? At all events, I should suggest to the 
 children that we make a collection of words as we 
 would make one of minerals ; and that we be just as 
 inquisitive about the words as about the minerals, 
 finding out whence they come, what they are good 
 for, why they wore made. A pupil likes to know 
 
 27 
 
28 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 if his granite came from Maine or from Massachu- 
 setts, his crystals from the Carolinas or from Colo- 
 rado, his malachite from Russia or from Arizona; he 
 likes to know, too, the uses of his minerals : and 
 why should he not like to know whence his words 
 came, and what they may do for him ? Some of them 
 sailed into our harbors with a ship's cargo ; one of 
 them holds the legend of a mythical hero ; in an- 
 other is a chapter of veritable history. The faith- 
 ful seeker, willing to do a little digging among the 
 roots of language, will look up from his discoveries 
 with sparkling eyes. 
 
 Suppose we give our class an inkling of what is 
 coming ? "I knew that I was going to ask you to 
 begin to-day a collection of words, so I got a little bit 
 ahead of you and started on a word-hunt yesterday, 
 all by myself. I will tell you about some of the 
 things I c/ime upon. The strangest thing is, that I 
 first heard some news — it was news to me — about 
 very old acquaintances ; about the words squirrel, and 
 daisy, and biscuit, and buckle, and petrel, and pilgrim. 
 I learned that the family to which our little squirrels 
 belong was named, hundreds of years ago, by the old 
 Greeks, who lived — where ? Does anybody know ? 
 Yes: away off there in the south of Europe. These 
 old Greeks called our shy friends skiouroi ; and skiouros 
 means, in the Greek language, 'shadow-tail.' Was 
 there any sense in calling them by such a name?" 
 
WORD-COLLECTING: ETYMOLOGY. 29 
 
 Of course somebodj', probably many, will see the 
 reason for the name ; and surely all will do so if the 
 picture of a squirrel sitting under the shadow of 
 his bushy tail be at hand, and such a picture is in 
 many dictionaries. It will be easy to show that the 
 word squirrel actually means nothing for us unless 
 we know its meaning fo the Greeks that gave the 
 name; just as the word Mississippi holds little or no 
 significance unless we know its full significance to 
 the Indians. That daisy means the eye of day, that 
 its yellow centre and white rays have classed it in 
 men's minds with the real eye of day, the sun, will 
 be interesting enough. The derivation of buckle from 
 bueca, a face, because buckles originally bore the cast 
 of a human face, will hold the attention that has been 
 roused. Biscuit, and pilgrim, and petrel — the last es- 
 pecially satisfying to a child's fancy — may be looked 
 up together. , 
 
 This will be the natural time to enforce the truth, 
 that in word-collecting, it is not safe to accept the 
 statement of anyone without verifying it, not even 
 the statement of our sister or brother or teacher. 
 Before we label our words, we must have actually 
 seen their meaning and derivation. 
 
 While we are busy looking up words and talking 
 about them, we will satisfy ourselves that the children 
 appreciate the fact that this work is worth while, that 
 we are going to make something, and that words are 
 
30 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 our implements ; that we need them, just as the farmer 
 needs his plough, the carpenter his plane, the fine 
 sewer her needle, and the artist his brush. That we 
 are going to make letters and stories and songs, as 
 the farmer makes ready his field, as the carpenter 
 makes his box, the fine sewer her garment, and the 
 artist his picture ; that we are going to write of the 
 sky and the earth and the sea, of storms and of sun- 
 shine, of deep mines and of ripening fields, and of 
 people — down to the funny old man grinding away 
 this very minute at his organ under the school-room 
 window. Can we ever get words enough? We shall 
 need words that will roll for the thunder, and words 
 that will dance for the sea, and words that will laugh 
 for the brook, and words that will grin for the organ- 
 grinder. To find them we shall have to look, and 
 listen, and think. If we use our ears we shall hear 
 new words ; if we use our eyes we shall see them on 
 the printed page ; if we think and go to our diction- 
 aries, we shall find in familiar words meanings that 
 we never dreamed they held. 
 
 Attention has already been called to the necessity 
 of verifying all statements in this language work. It 
 is, of course, equally needful to have a clear idea of 
 the primary meaning of each word. Coleridge's ad- 
 vice, to make a mind-picture of what any word sym- 
 bolizes in its first meaning, is worth following. 
 
 Now for a detailed plan of work. How would it 
 
WORD-COLLECTING: ETYMOLOGY. 31 
 
 do for the class to learn each day one word? That 
 word might be contributed by a member of the class, 
 who should be able to tell all about it. Collections 
 of minerals are kept in the school-room; I should 
 keep this collection of words there, written on a large, 
 stiff sheet of paper, and pinned in some conspicuous 
 place. A collection of minerals would be labelled ; 
 these words should be — from the Latin, from the 
 Anglo-Saxon, from the Greek. And I should add 
 something more, a sort of second history, telling 
 how the boy or girl came upon the word.; for in- 
 stance, — 
 
 Margaret — 
 
 History of the word according to the dictionary ; con- 
 tributed by Margaret Peabody, who, while writing her 
 name, wondered what it meant. 
 
 At the end of the month the list would be pastfid 
 into the scrap-book, and a fresh piece of paper would 
 be pinned up for the second month's memoranda. 
 
 This word-collecting will naturally lead to the con- 
 sideration of synonyms ; moreover, it will be inter- 
 esting, before filing away any paper, to group the words 
 on it according to derivation. Candy, candid, candi- 
 date, candle, candytuft, Candia, make an interesting 
 group. 
 
 Surely, nobody will deny that these exercises may 
 continue as long as a pupil goes to school. Wisely 
 
32 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 taught, they will suit any grade from the primary 
 school throughout the high school, and beyond it. 
 The teacher will be at the elbows of her class at 
 first, not to make parasites of the children, but to in- 
 terpret what would otherwise be incomprehensible. 
 
 I could not carry on this research satisfactorily to 
 myself, even with an elementary class, if I did not 
 first succeed in giving to them some notion of the 
 history of our language, and of the peoples that have 
 contributed to it. Reality in their work appeals to 
 children; and when they feel, as Trench says, that 
 "words are not, like the sands of the sea, innumerable 
 disconnected atoms, but growing out of roots, cluster- 
 ing in families, connecting and intertwining themselves 
 with all that men have been doing and thinking and 
 feeling from the beginning of the world till now," — 
 then they will have that sense of reality which comes 
 from grasping the actual. A child old enough to 
 understand and appreciate one of Grimm's fairy-tales 
 can understand and appreciate the story of the English 
 language, especially if maps, and blackboards, and blue- 
 prints are used to illustrate it. The early Britons in 
 their rude huts, the conquering Roman legions, the 
 fierce Teutonic sea-wolves, the gay but brave Normans, 
 furnish material for a continued story so interesting 
 that each chapter will be anticipated, and, better still, 
 will be remembered. 
 
 While we may easily leave derivatives from other 
 
WOBD-COLLECTING : ETYMOLOGY. 33 
 
 tongues than those mentioned to be accounted for as 
 they occur, this bit of history just outlined will prove 
 valuable at the start. Without it, we shall have to 
 confine ourselves to mere definitions ; with it, we 
 may acquire the habit of searching into the origin 
 of words, Coleridge's habit of "reflecting on words 
 — their birth, derivation, and history." ^.^S*., O.-E'., 
 L.Gr., will no longer be mere cabalistic signs. 
 
 It will be in line with our synonym work to 
 show how its different elements make English especi- 
 ally rich in synonyms, giving to the worker with 
 words as many shades and tints as any painter can 
 command ; so that the fresh greens on a hillside in 
 spring, — a hillside of fields and woods, — or the faces 
 of an excited group at the street-corner, will be no 
 truer as represented on the painter's canvas than as 
 they take form and color on the printed page. 
 
 For practice in synonym work, some of the older 
 pupils will like to take Anglo-Saxon rhymes — per- 
 haps even Mother-Goose Melodies, as Mrs. Lockwood 
 suggests — ^and substitute for their simple words those 
 derived from the Greek or the Latin. The simplicity 
 of many of the original rhymes will be appreciated 
 after such translations. A class that had been re- 
 quested to tell of any benefit derived from making 
 a classical version of an Anglo-Saxon exti'act, said, 
 " The exercise has added to our vocabularies, has 
 given practice in the use of the dictionary, and has 
 
34 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 made us appreciate as never before the yalue of the 
 two chief elements of our language." 
 
 The children may be made to realize that Anglo- 
 Saxon words are likely to lie very near our homes 
 and hearts, as they tell of life by the hearth or 
 in the field, and of all that is dearest in that life. 
 Almost any stirring line or sentence that appeals 
 to all men — to their sympathy, to their love, to 
 their patriotism — may be read and appreciated, and 
 then translated into tamer classical language. Take, 
 for instance, Halleck's lines, as applicable to Ameri- 
 cans as to Greeks: — 
 
 "Strike — till the last armed foe expires; 
 Strike — for your altars and your fires; 
 Strike — for the green graves of your sires ; 
 God and your native land." 
 
 How spirited this is will be more evident after we 
 have made a classical version, whether better or worse 
 than the following : — ■ 
 
 "Sacrifice your existences till all enemies have per- 
 ished; defend your Lares and Penates, your domi- 
 ciles, and the mausoleums of your ancestors ; defend 
 your tutelary deities and your native territory." 
 
 The value of the classical element might be proved 
 by quotations from Milton alone. In whatever is 
 meant to be sonorous its usefulness is evident ; while 
 the pleasing variety to be gained by drawing wisely 
 
WORD-COLLECTING : ETYMOLOGY. 35 
 
 from the two principal elements of our language may- 
 be made very clear by means of illustrative extracts. 
 There will be little of this work in very elementary 
 classes, however, and that little will be done together. 
 
 How grateful in after years will our classes be 
 that they acquired the habit of studying words — 
 their origin, their proper use, and the distinction be- 
 tween one and another; that they learned thus early 
 to value them. For it has been truly said, that " Lan- 
 guage is the amber in which a thousand precious and 
 subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and pre- 
 served." The Roman empire is gone, but we teach 
 her language; Christ no longer walks the earth, but 
 his words are the world's spiritual life. Though the 
 coloi-s on the canvas pale or fade altogether, }'et the 
 light of the first morning, caught and held in a word, 
 pulsates still; safely still, single words guard their 
 treasures — too well, often, for the careless to dis- 
 cover them. 
 
 Happy is the child that has the power of expres- 
 sion, that can utter again what The Infinite tells to 
 him in secret ; for each has his own message, and joy 
 comes only with its utterance: happier the world, 
 too, that it does not lose the message. 
 
 How much literature offei-s in its connection with 
 word-study. There are Oilman's Short Stories from 
 the Dictionary, Palmer's Folk-Etymology, Trench's The 
 Study of Words, Waites's Forgotten Meanings, Swin- 
 
36 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 ton's Ramhles Among Words, and many another vol- 
 ume of the same sort. And then there are Norse sagas, 
 stories and songs of vikings ; glimpses from the Idylls 
 of the King of Arthur and his knights ; glimpses 
 from Ivanhoe of sturdy Saxon and of bold Norman ; 
 glimpses, too, of Roman legions and eagles and — of 
 what not? 
 
 Not less enticing will be scrap-book work — that 
 already indicated, the lists of words, and, beside these 
 lists, pictures of Celtic cross, of Druidical ruins, of 
 fragments of Roman roads and walls, of archer and 
 Crusader, of joust, of tournament; and accounts of 
 friendly or of hostile invasions of land and language. 
 
 SUMMABY. 
 
 During this third set of exercises, (i.) we shall have 
 gained : — 
 
 1. A knowledge, however meagre, of our heritage in 
 
 language, becoming grateful to peoples and to cen- 
 turies. 
 
 2. An appreciation of the value of words, and a desire 
 
 to discover their origin, their uses, etc. 
 
 3. A realization of the fact that the study of language 
 
 is an exact science, that nothing is to be assumed, 
 that statements must be verified. 
 
 4. A perception of the truth, that, as the archer needs 
 
 a full quiver, so the writer needs a full vocabulary. 
 
 II. We shall have sketched a plan for work : — 
 
 1. A little work each day ; that work thoroughly done. 
 
WORD-COLLECTING: ETYMOLOGY. 37 
 
 2. The work to be written out and placed where it may 
 
 be read over and over. 
 
 3. Each word to have not only the history given in the 
 
 dictionary, but also the history of its discovery by 
 our pupil, thus introducing the personal element 
 and making legitimate use of self-love. 
 
 III. We shall have considered some synonyms. 
 
 IV. We shall have felt the reciprocal influence of litera- 
 
 ture and word-study. 
 
 V. We shall have added to our scrap-books. 
 
 What study will not feel an impetus from this work 
 with words ? 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DESCBIPTIONS. 
 
 A SERIES of descriptions is another, set of exercises 
 that I shall suggest for composition work. 
 
 We first select an object familiar to us all, and 
 within our range of vision. Once again, oral work 
 precedes written work ; and work in common comes 
 before individual effort. The object chosen, one child 
 and another is asked to mention a characteristic. 
 These are jotted down. Very soon the truth taught 
 by the old story of the shield with its gold and its 
 silver side will again be exemplified. For one child, 
 the shield will be yellow ; for another, silvery. A 
 little questioning brings out the fact that there have 
 been different points of view, that this group of pupils 
 caught a glimpse of something quite out of sight for 
 the others ; that, moreover, any one describing any 
 thing should stand here or there, on this side or on 
 that, should carefully select the place from which to 
 make his observations. 
 
 We will try again. Shall we look at our shield 
 from the front or from the back? Let it be from 
 the front. Then follows a second description, but 
 
 38 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. 39 
 
 again there is a difference in the classes of facts con- 
 tributed; for those who sit at a distance, there have 
 been color and general outline, while those near hj 
 have discovered details of the design. Why is this? 
 The children themselves will tell. And then they 
 will have learned experimentally that the point of 
 view — which means not only where, but also how 
 far off, we are — determines the relative dimensions 
 and details of our description ; that it is one thing to 
 describe a river from its bank, and another to pictui'e 
 it from a mountain-top ; that to one near by it may 
 be a noisy torrent plunging over hidden rocks, or a 
 singing stream, sunnj- and serene ; while from the 
 mountain-top it is only a shining thread binding the 
 fields of grain together, or, as Lowell says, " a jewelled 
 arm clasping cloudy heaps of forest." 
 
 It is a sort of surprise and a corresponding delight 
 to come upon these facts, and so to realize that there 
 is law and order in the world of composition ; and it 
 will be pure joy to make use of the facts. We will 
 keep the work largely oral and common to both class 
 and teacher as long as need be. Perhaps a tree is 
 easily accessible. If so, we will sketch that together 
 as we see it from the window, and again as it looks 
 to us when we stand under its branches. For the 
 wet black trunk and mass of shining foliage that we 
 describe as we look at the tree from our window, we 
 substitute details as we stand under its boughs : the 
 
40 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 roughness or smoothness of the bark, the peculiar 
 branching of the tree, the shape of its leaves, even 
 the life upon it — surely insect life, and perhaps we 
 may be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of birds 
 or squirrels that make it their haunt or home. Our 
 descriptions shall be short, and they shall be the 
 children's; we will be satisfied with a little original, 
 genuine, intelligent work. 
 
 After some time and a good deal of practice, there 
 will come a day when it will be right to ask for 
 individual description. Why not have this almost a 
 game ? " Now, don't tell anybody but me what you 
 are going to write about. Choose something in the 
 room, and keep it just as secret as can be. Then, 
 after everybody has done two or three lines, we will 
 read your paragraphs and guess what each one is 
 meant for." The clock, with its face and hands, its 
 figures and case, would be suggestive. 
 
 This, of course, will be no time for the teacher to 
 stand aloof; it is a critical hour, and she will move 
 round among the writers, holding whispered consulta- 
 tions with them ; for each one must accomplish, with 
 some degree of satisfaction to himself, what he has 
 attempted. There must be no complete failure for 
 any one. 
 
 This set of exercises, descriptions, should, like letter- 
 writing, extend over a period of years, and become 
 more and more skilful. Even older pupils will now 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. 41 
 
 and then enjoy this guessing-game. They will, how- 
 ever, make the solving of their problems a less easy 
 matter. The clock, for instance, may be personified, 
 and, if a dainty one, may become a lady discovered 
 peeping inquisitively through her window, and hold- 
 ing her hands before her face, abashed ; or, if the clock 
 be plain and prim, up may go its hands to shut out 
 the sight of school-room pranks. 
 
 While in this earliest work there may, perhaps, be 
 no occasion to speak of local coloring, and while it 
 may be wise not to touch upon the necessity for out- 
 lining, for using economy in details, for choosing only 
 those features most characteristic of an object, I should 
 surely teach the value of onomatopoetic words — words 
 that by their sound tell their meaning. The fact that 
 these words are of value will, after all, require no 
 teaching; it will need only emphasizing, for children 
 know it of themselves. If they are telling of some- 
 thing huge, they will unwittingly try to make their 
 description sound huge. If they say only, " It was so 
 big ! " they will make over that hig, by elocutionary 
 means, into a huge or a monstrous ; they will make it 
 hold, and carry, their meaning. And is not that ono- 
 matopoeia ? Does not Browning do the same thing, — 
 though he does more, too, — and does he not mean to 
 do the same thing, when he writes of the ivy that 
 " winks through the chinks," and of the sheep that 
 "tinkle homeward"? Artists have been children. 
 
42 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 Almost any class, be they novices or adepts, will 
 enjoy practice in the use of these imitative words. 
 Here are several original uncorrected paragraphs. The 
 requirement was : " Write a paragraph in which you 
 try to use imitative words — words that by their sound 
 convey their meaning. Be wise in selecting a subject. 
 ' Early Morning at the Farm,' and ' A Busy Street ' are 
 suggestive, but you will think of better ones. After 
 finishing, look over your work, substitute for general 
 words those more specific, descriptive, or imitative, 
 and cut out any word or expression that is doing 
 nothing for you." These are several of the paragraphs 
 written in class, without preparation, altogether unex- 
 pectedly : — 
 
 1. The Eaob. 
 
 First, the flutter of the starter's flag, a few sharp cracks 
 of the whip, and, in a cloud of dust, a dash of color flies 
 past you. Up the track like a whirlwind speeds that 
 streak of dust, round the turn, rushing down the home- 
 stretch; the jockeys yelling at their horses, and the 
 crowd madly calling out the names of favorites. The 
 horses dash under the wire, three so close together that 
 no one can tell which wins. 
 
 2. (Without a Title.) 
 
 The roaring fire wrenches piece after piece from the 
 burning building, and, whirling them round and round 
 with a crack of the golden tongues, sends them flying 
 into the calmer air above. The hissing and seething of 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. 43 
 
 the flames, the crash of falling timbers, the shouts of 
 frenzied men mingled with the bellowing of the engines, 
 the thrill of horror, the tranquil heavens above the war- 
 ring earth, the grandeur of a conflagration, — who can 
 forget the picture ? 
 
 3. SuNEisE ON A Spring Morning at a Farm. 
 
 A faint glow in the east, tinting the few scattered 
 clouds with a delicate pink, heralds the morning sun. 
 The slam of a kitchen door, a cheery whistle, and the 
 squeak of a pump-handle indicate that the day's chores 
 have begun. The rattling of a barn-door, the " co-boss," 
 the snap of a whip, and the tinkling of bells tell that 
 the cows are being pastured. The sun rises, the air 
 grows warm, the locust begins to sing, and the farmer 
 takes his plough to begin his day's work. 
 
 4. Lost on a Eapt. 
 
 Two children played on a broken raft of rotten wood. 
 They chattered merrily, while around them the waves 
 lapped the sandy beach. The raft was fastened to a pile 
 by a rope sawn almost in two from its constant contact 
 with the wood, while the waves swung it to and fro. 
 The stillness was broken only by the prattle of the chil- 
 dren and the roar and swish of the waves. Suddenly a 
 creak, then a jerk ! and the raft floated slowly out to 
 sea. At first the novelty of the situation kept both 
 from realizing their position ; but before they had drifted 
 far the boy screamed lustily, while the girl cried hot 
 tears into her drenched apron. 
 
44 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 Wlio will not grant that beginners should not be 
 expected to grow if nourished on skimmed milk ; that 
 they need the fruit, not its husk ; that the difference 
 between them and maturer pupils is this : beginners 
 should not be troubled with too much analysis, but 
 should do, and do, and do ; if the simpler things, yet 
 the interesting things, the wonderful things, gradually 
 rounding out their course with the years, doing work 
 that becomes more and more skilful and scholarly? 
 
 Can it be necessary to suggest that work in descrip- 
 tion, from first to last, be connected in thought with 
 the painting of pictures? While at the very beginning 
 we are discussing point of view and scale of descrip- 
 tion, — although probably we have used simpler terms, 
 — it will be easy to ask, " What other class of workers 
 are equally careful about such things ? " And, no 
 doubt, some one will say, "Painters!" or, it may be, 
 " People that take photographs ! " " Sure enough. 
 Do you know that some wonderful writers are said 
 to paint with words? I wonder how they get their 
 colors?" If no one suggests, you can afford to let 
 the question wait for its answer. Later, when to- 
 gether you are reading some word-painting by a mas- 
 ter hand, — something that has in it the rosy wonder 
 of the dawn, the green beauty of the heaving sea, 
 or the white splendor of sun-swept snow^ hills and 
 fields, — the answer will come. 
 
 It seems to me that these little word-painters should 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. 45 
 
 be as happily busy during their English lessons as 
 they usually are when at work with brush and colors. 
 Surely, the results in one case may be as promising 
 as in the other, provided that we are wise, and ask for 
 only the possible. 
 
 It helps the children even to call them word-painters ; 
 they are then keenly alive to what they are attempting : 
 "Come, little word-painter's, are your brushes ready? 
 Shall we get out our colors? But how can we until 
 we know what we are going to paint?" We ought 
 to be of service in selecting a good subject. Some- 
 thing suggestive of picturesque language almost writes 
 itself. What a wealth of topics comes to mind for the 
 country child. But even the city boy and girl have 
 their glimpses of green grass and blue sky, of sunset 
 flushes and of shining river. Even they, bless their 
 hearts! have a black cat with yellow eyes and white 
 velvety paws, or a snowy one, or a tawny one. 
 
 While they themselves are writing, we shall, of 
 course, introduce our class to the fine things that the 
 years have been sifting out for them. Great minds 
 are childlike, and the creations of their wisdom and 
 genius hold many things for little people. These, 
 selected, make for the children a long panorama of 
 delight. It unrolls for them pictures of jolly Dutch- 
 men and stern Puritans, of mailed knight and archer 
 in Lincoln green, of Greek and Trojan heroes, of 
 magic, haunted wood. The panorama is endless; it 
 
46 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 will unroll as long as we can look — with our ears. 
 What child will not appreciate the pictures in Snow- 
 bound, — the happy fireside group, each member of it ; 
 the "whirl-dance of the blinding storm;" and, next 
 day, the beautiful new world, the universe of sky and 
 snow, — snow that puts a fantastic hat upon the bridle- 
 post, and gives a Chinese roof to the well-curb? And, 
 after two or three years of work, perhaps, will they 
 not like to go sight-seeing, picture-hunting, in Little 
 Britain ? Yes : they will enjoy all this literature 
 work if we are wise and watchful, if we cut short 
 details, and even throw aside what the world honors, 
 provided it does not appeal to this little handful of 
 humanity just now. 
 
 They will like some things well enough to learn 
 and remember . them easily. Shall we give them the 
 reins once in a while, especially at first, and let them 
 choose their own course — what they will learn, 
 what one or more of the stanzas or paragraphs read 
 together ? 
 
 Many a little gardener that knows the shapes of his 
 flowers will appreciate Keats's : — 
 
 " Open afresh your round of starry folds, 
 Ye ardent marigolds ! 
 Dry up the moisture from your golden lids ; " 
 
 and the fortunate child that has stretched out among 
 the grasses and clover will remember it all as he 
 memorizes Lanier's ; — 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. i7 
 
 " Now the little winds, as bees. 
 Bowing the blooms, come wandering where I lie." 
 
 Some there are who will like the smell of powder 
 and the shock of armies in Victor Hugo's " Water- 
 loo ;" or, it may be, the Sir Galahad of Tennyson will 
 touch them, and the poet's onomatopoetic words will 
 appeal to their ears as the knight's chivalry appeals to 
 their hearts. 
 
 The combined narration and description in the Song 
 of the Chattahoochee wiU catch the fancy, and train ear 
 and mind as well, while the class learn what would 
 make the Chattahoochee tarry on its way : — 
 
 "The wilful waterweeds held me thrall," 
 
 sings the river, 
 
 " The laving laurel turned my tide. 
 
 The ferns and the fondling grass said, Stay, 
 
 The dewberry dipped for to work delay. 
 And the little reeds sighed, Alride, abide.'''' 
 
 Both the practical and the poetic will be interested 
 in Scott's description of Robin Hood and in Hugo's of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The very practical ma}' fancy: — 
 
 " The cart-chain clinks across the slanting shafts, 
 And kitchenward the rattling bucket plumps — 
 Souse down the well, where quivering ducks quack loud. 
 And Susan Cook is singing ; " 
 
 which is full of words that .adapt sound to sense, and 
 which will be as a stepping-stone to higher things. 
 
48 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 Is there a boy or girl that will turn away from the 
 following ? — 
 
 " I was rich in flowers and trees, 
 Humming-birds and hioney-bees ; 
 For my sport tlie squirrel played, 
 Plied the snouted mole his spade ; 
 For my taste the blackberry cone 
 Purpled over hedge and stone ; 
 Laughed the brook for my delight 
 Through the day and through the night." 
 
 What if the child with slowly-awakening mind 
 choose a material theme? So much the better for 
 him, if this means something to him and the others 
 nothing. He will grow, but neither by abstaining 
 altogether nor by taking indigestible food. Next time, 
 or some time, he will crave something finer ; the other 
 children, with their selections, may have helped him. 
 And this occasional freedom of choice exercised by 
 the pupil will give the teacher an insight into his 
 nature, especially if he tells why the selection ap- 
 pealed to him, why he chose it, what he likes in it: 
 she may learn something of his aspirations, or of his 
 lack of them; she will have, too, a new way of noting 
 his mental and moral progress. 
 
 Scrap-books, during this second set of exercises, will 
 grow apace. Pictures of town or country, of highway 
 or byway, of familiar or historic figures, will be pasted 
 in ; and under them descriptions of similar scenes or 
 personages, — perhaps, happily, of the same, — descrip- 
 
DESCRIPTIONS. 49 
 
 tions by those who knew them and loved them, and 
 knew how to write about them. Side by side with 
 these might be anecdotes of writers. Boys might like 
 Keats better if they knew what a fighter — • for the 
 right — he was, and that everybody thought he was 
 going to be a soldier, — this poet of marvellous power. 
 They would appreciate his standing guard with an old 
 sword at his mother's door, lest any one should dis- 
 turb her needed rest, all about which Kenyon West 
 tells in his charming article for young people. They 
 might have an added fondness for Scott, if they had 
 learned about his love for animals, and how when his 
 favorite. Camp, died, he declined an invitation to 
 dinner "on account of the death of an old friend." 
 
 Is there not material enough, even if we confine 
 ourselves to that herein considered, for our fourth set 
 of exercises? 
 
 I. We have tried to make the picture of something. 
 In so doing, we have learned : — 
 
 1. That we must have and keep a point of view. 
 
 2. That our point of view will determine for us many 
 
 things : relative dimensions, details, etc. 
 
 3. That words expressing our meaning in their sound 
 
 will help us. 
 
 II. We have, therefore, learned that law and order 
 rule in the composition world as in the natural world. 
 
 m. We have found that there are food values to 
 be recognized in the teaching of composition, and that 
 
50 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 the assimilation, as well as the provision, of food is 
 essential. 
 
 IV. We have read together iine descriptions, being 
 mindful of their authors, and so have added to our list 
 of book friends. 
 
 V. We have, to a degree, made their occasional un- 
 guided choice of selections to be memorized an open 
 sesame to the nature of our pupils, as well as a means 
 of registering growth. 
 
 VI. We have noted the kinship of writing and draw- 
 ing — painting, sculpture ; and our work in literature 
 has doubtless given opportunity to unify the study of 
 composition with that of history and of geography, as 
 we have described persons and places. 
 
 VII. We have continued to recognize the whole prov- 
 ince of composition, teaching it by means of both oral 
 
 and written exercises. 
 t 
 
 VIII. We have embodied in a scrap-book something 
 
 of our work. 
 
 IX. We have, above all, created a genial atmosphere, 
 in which growing minds and hearts and souls could 
 expand, opening out into life and upward toward the 
 light. 
 
 Note. — We shall, of course, seek to obtain descriptions that will 
 appeal to our class through the senses of hearing, touch, taste, and 
 smell, as well as those which call up visions. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SIMILE AND PEBSONIFICATION. 
 
 "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 
 Swells from the vale, and midway' leaves the storm, 
 Tho' round its breast tlie rolling clouds are spread 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 Is it a very long step downward from this simile 
 of Goldsmith's to " Tom runs like a fire-engine," 
 or " That pond-lily- bud looks like one of grandma's 
 pickles," as a very little boy said last summer ? 
 Assuredly not; a long series of steps leads from the 
 boy's figures to that of the poet; but the same prin- 
 ciple of construction underlies the three, and their 
 purpose is identical. Boy and poet have, more or 
 less intentionalljf, illustrated the thought by a kind 
 of picture, and both have bound thought and picture 
 together by a word of comparison. Goldsmith's pic- 
 ture is that of the master, clear and strong, artisti- 
 cally conceived and executed ; but the boy's pictures 
 are as truly spontaneous, and, although crude, clearlj^ 
 illustrate how swiftly Tom can run and what the 
 shape of the closed pond-lily is. 
 
 Everybody knows that children are forever noting 
 resemblances and differences ; shall we, then, be un- 
 
 51 
 
62 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 wise to try some very elementary work \^ith figures 
 for a fifth set of exercises ? Genung says : " The fact 
 that figurative language deviates from ordinary ex- 
 pression is not to be taken as an argument against 
 its naturalness. It is just as spontaneous and artless 
 in its place as any manner of speaking for cultured 
 and unci^ltured alike." 
 
 For some time our work will naturally be oral, 
 and done together, and will be confined to two fig- 
 ures — the simile and personification. At first we 
 shall simply read aloud simile after simile; but we 
 shall talk about each one, and we shall discover for 
 ourselves truths that rhetoricians learned long ago. 
 Our discoveries will be made through the curiosity 
 of the children, which psychologists declare to be a 
 legitimate and most useful aid to the educator. Per- 
 tinent questions will set minds agog, and, sooner or 
 later, the class will evolve their page of rhetoric. 
 
 First of all, they will become convinced that the 
 office of the simile is to illustrate, to make a picture, 
 of their thoughts. They will realize that the thought 
 is of prime importance, and that the simile merely 
 re-presents what has already been expressed ; but that 
 it does this in a new way, figuratively. 
 
 "I found the Battery unoccupied, save by children, 
 whom the weather made as merry as birds," gives a 
 tolerably clear notion of the mood of the little people 
 on the Battery ; and, were our own little people from 
 
THE SIMILE AND PERSONIFICATION. 53 
 
 the kindergarten, they would become birds for the 
 time being, to illustrate for us the illustration. 
 
 " Patter — patter — 
 Listen how the raindrops clatter, 
 Falling on the shingle roof; 
 
 How they rattle 
 Like the rifles' click in battle, 
 Or the charger's iron hoof ! " 
 
 The children will find this a representation — a pic- 
 ture — of sound. 
 
 There is an appeal to eyes rather than to ears in 
 the following; : — 
 
 " Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, 
 Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid." 
 
 It will not be difficult for our class to realize that 
 these pictures are not photographs of children, rain- 
 drops, and stars, but of the merriment of the chil- 
 dren, of the patter and clatter of the raindrops, and 
 of the glitter of the stars ; that children are quite 
 unlike birds in very many wa3's ; that raindrops by 
 no means resemble rifles and horses' hoofs ; and that 
 stars have not the heads, nor the wings, nor the mo- 
 tion of fireflies. So, after a while, they will come 
 to see, that it is one point of resemblance common 
 to two otherwise unlike things that we seize upon for 
 our simile. The child that said, " Tom runs like a 
 fire-engine," did not for a minute think that Tom 
 and fire-engines had much in common except swift- 
 
54 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 ness of motion; and the little boy that noted the 
 resemblance in coloring and shape of his closed pond- 
 lily to a small rounded pickle, discovered that simi- 
 larity alone. 
 
 As time goes on, and their acquaintance with similes 
 grows, the class may be led to see that surprise has 
 a good deal to do with our enjoyment of them ; that 
 we laugh most heartily over the humor of one be- 
 cause it greets us unexpectedly, and that the beauty 
 of another especially satisfies because unlooked-for, 
 just as the flower that smiles up at us, as, unawares, 
 we are about to crush it, seems sweeter for its escape 
 and for the surprise of its presence. It follows that 
 a comparison of man to man, of beast to beast, of 
 flower to flower, — in short, a comparison between 
 the members of a class, — will not be a simile. 
 
 Pupils will enjoy finding these expressed compari- 
 sons in many of Longfellow's poems ; as, for instance, 
 in The Children's Hour, in ITie Village Blacksmith, in 
 Main in Summer; and they will feel the beauty and 
 the vigor of these and others from Revelation : — 
 
 1. " And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even 
 
 as a fig-tree castetli her imtimely figs, when she 
 is shaken of a mighty wind." 
 
 2. " And there fell a star from heaven, burning as it 
 
 were a lamp." 
 
 3. " And the sound of their wings was as the sound 
 
 of chariots of many horses running to battle." 
 
THE SIMILE AND PERSONIFICATION. 65 
 
 Shall we end our work here? Shall we be content 
 with enjoyment of what others have done, with drink- 
 ing in beauty ? I have just read, in a much-prized 
 text-book written by a man of ripe experience, the 
 following : " Figures have been defined and illustrated, 
 not with a view to giving the student something new 
 to put into his writing; for the charm of a,x\.j produc- 
 tion would be entirely lost if the writer should feel 
 that, having just finished a chapter on figures of speech, 
 he must keep on the lookout for a chance to put in 
 a simile, or ask himself what would be a good meta- 
 phor for this thought, or how this idea could be best 
 personified." 
 
 Nevertheless, I should surely aid the children to 
 put into use what they had learned about the simile. 
 Benjamin Franklin's verses helped him, though he 
 called them trash ; and I believe that the making of 
 similes will help a class, at least in closeness of obser- 
 vation, as they mark likenesses and differences ; and 
 observation comes within the province of the most 
 elementary instruction. Moreover, genuine artistic 
 power, if it exists, is likely to be developed. So it 
 would not be unwise, I think, to encourage a class to 
 make similes, somewhat after this fashion, perhaps : 
 "Whenever you are writing a letter, or a description, 
 or anything, you may have a chance to use a simile in 
 the right way. Perhaps you will be telling of some- 
 thing unfamiliar to the one who is to read your letter 
 
66 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 or description. You may be writing about a new pupil 
 whom you like ever so much, but who has a funny 
 way of shaking hands. You are puzzled enough to 
 think how to describe that hand-shake. All at once 
 you seem to see an old pump that your correspondent 
 and you used to play round, and there you have your 
 simile : ' When he shakes hands, his arm goes up and 
 down just like the handle of that old pump in Jack 
 Smith's yard.' Or it may be that one of you girls is 
 writing to a friend, and is telling how sweet and 
 fresh your little bit of a sister looks, but she is so 
 rosy and lovely that you cannot think how to tell 
 it ; then suddenly, perhaps just because your thoughts 
 are of things sweet and fresh, you seem to be picking 
 cherry blossoms again, and there is your simile : ' She 
 is as pink-and-white and sweet as the blossoms on the 
 tree by our gate.' " 
 
 Let me give several original figures. The first is 
 taken from a familiar letter, and was written by a 
 girl just from the grammar school : — 
 
 1. " We used to bring up an umbrella and a book, the 
 former to keep the sun off, and the latter to 
 read when we got tired watching the river 
 plunge headlong, and of seeing the mountains 
 frown gloomily at the happy little hills. These 
 were continually waving their flags of apple and 
 peach blossoms in joy at the approach of sum- 
 mer. But the trouble was, that, as we would get 
 
THE SIMILE AND PERSONIFICATION. 67 
 
 very much interested in our book, along would 
 come the wind and say, 'Come, little umbrella, 
 and have some fun ! ' and then the umbrella 
 would fly over the railing down into the yard ; 
 and either Beth or I would have to go down five 
 flights of stairs to get it." 
 
 2. "The windows that we make now are like eyes 
 
 without lids." 
 
 3. The third was so spontaneous that its five-year-old 
 
 author was unconscious of his figure : " Where is 
 my magazine's little coat ? " referring to its 
 brown-paper envelope. 
 
 4. The same boy exclaimed, on glancing at some shelves 
 
 that held pamphlets, as well as books substantially 
 bound, "Why do you put your thick-skinned books 
 on one shelf, and your thin-skinned ones on an- 
 other ? " 
 
 5. While watching bonfires spread, a little child cried 
 
 out, " See them root ! " He added later, " They 
 look like a string of jewels." 
 
 Must we prove it right to teach personification to 
 children? Rather let us prove that they might teach 
 it to us. 
 
 Wise men say that a child typifies in his growth 
 the growth or development of a race. The Greeks, 
 for example, in the childhood of their race personified 
 all things in nature. For them the trees had tongues ; 
 for them the sun, the winds, the sea, had a life lite 
 their own. The river flowed because it willed to flow ; 
 
58 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 the sun rose because it willed to rise; the sea beat 
 fiercely against the shore because it was angry with 
 a human anger, or broke into smiles because of its 
 "good-will; and flowers wished to poison, or to heal, 
 or to gladden. 
 
 As a race in its childhood, so is a child. He 
 looks on the world around him with believing won- 
 der : the wind whispers to him ; the stars wink at 
 him; the little waves actually chase him and try to 
 give his feet a wetting ; the slippery rocks mean to 
 trip him ; the flowers nod, and the brooks sing. Your 
 story of wood or shore is no story for a child if your 
 bears cannot talk, if your brooks cannot carry mes- 
 sages ; if you do not bestow human powers upon 
 plant and animal; if, in short, you do not per- 
 sonify. 
 
 You will remember that Tennyson writes in an 
 idyl:- 
 
 " ' O babbling brook,' says Edmund in his rhyme, 
 ' whence come you ? ' and the brook, why not ? re- 
 plies." The poet is not less, nor more, imaginative 
 than the child ; " Why should not the brook reply ? " 
 he asks, and expects no answer to his query. 
 
 One might teach personification with only Tenny- 
 son's idyl for an illustration. What stanzas will the 
 children enjoy best? One that has leaned from a 
 little bridge to watch a hurrying stream maj choose 
 for his stanza : — 
 
THE SIMILE AND PERSONIFICATION. 69 
 
 " By thirty hills I hurry down, 
 Or slip between the ridges, 
 By twenty thorps, a little town. 
 And half a hundred bridges. 
 
 If another has waded barefoot over pebbles, with the 
 water bubbling over his toes, he will, perhaps, espe- 
 cially enjoy : — 
 
 " I chatter over stony ways. 
 In little sharps and trebles, 
 I bubble into eddying bays, 
 I babble on the pebbles." 
 
 If another has sailed leaves and blossoms down his 
 brook, he may best like : — 
 
 " I wind about, and in and out. 
 With here a blossom sailing. 
 And here and there a lusty trout, 
 And here and there a grayling." 
 
 It may be that our pupils will have their own ex- 
 amples of personification to contribute. It would not 
 be strange, for instance, if some one knew the lul- 
 laby in The Princess. 
 
 This work-in figures will be play as well; but we 
 have the word of Compayrd and others who have 
 studied the mind, that " we should, as far as possi- 
 ble, eliminate from instruction its asperities and use- 
 less rigors, and render it in some measure attractive." 
 Moreover, the study of figures has a charm all its 
 own. 
 
60 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 We will not, however, let the pendulum swing too 
 far toward the side of mere pleasure. There shall 
 be effort too ; otherwise, these same psychologists 
 might take issue with us. Gradually, we will choose 
 examples of personification that it will require some 
 thought to explain. This from The Lotus-Waters, 
 for instance, would be less simple than the brook's 
 song : — 
 
 " And thro' the moss the ivies creep, 
 And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, 
 And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep." 
 
 This work will, of course, make use of literature 
 all the time. Our care will be to choose wisely just 
 what is adapted to the needs of our own class. It 
 may be something quite simple, like Ruskin's " Here 
 at the fruiterer's, where the dark-green watermelons 
 are heaped upon the counter like cannon-balls;" or 
 it may be something more difficult to grasp, like 
 Hawthorne's "The cold regions of the North, almost 
 within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Cir- 
 cle, sent him [Mr. Gathergold] their tribute in the 
 shape of furs ; hot Africa sifted for him the golden 
 sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks 
 of her great elephants out of the forests ; the East 
 came, bringing him the rich shawls, and spices, and 
 teas, and the effulgence of diamonds, and the gleam- 
 ing purity of large pearls." But, whatever it is, 
 
THE SIMILE AND PERSONIFICATION. 61 
 
 the results of its use will prove — they must not 
 disprove — the wisdom of our choice. 
 
 I believe that scrap-book work in connection with 
 the study of figures may be made both inviting and 
 helpful, especially in the case of similes. The line, 
 or sentence, or stanza containing the simile might be 
 copied into the scrap-book, and beside it might be 
 put a picture showing the value of the figure. For 
 instance, there might be the sentence of the little 
 girl that wrote of her sister, "She is as sweet as 
 the blossoms on the tree by our gate," and a picture 
 of a branch of cherry or of apple blossoms ; or there 
 might be two pictures, as of a boy running and of 
 a fire-engine dashing along. To render the exercise 
 not only pleasing but also profitable as calling out 
 effort, the point of likeness should be noted. Under 
 the picture of Tom and that of the fire-engine might 
 be written, " Both are swift." Under the branch of 
 blossoms and its accompanying sentence might be 
 written, " Both child and blossoms have sweetness 
 and pretty coloring." I infer from experience that 
 pupils will be able to find pictures for a good many 
 similes. The most interesting collection under pei- 
 sonification will be that of original figures contrib- 
 uted by the class, who may also find pictures to show 
 "whispering trees," "proud ships," and other personi- 
 fied objects. 
 
62 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 During this series of exercises, — 
 I. We shall have considered : -^ 
 
 1. The naturalness of figures. 
 
 2. The nature of the simile and of personification, both 
 
 of which lead up to the metaphor. 
 
 II. We shall have found : — 
 
 1. That the office of the simile is to make even clearer 
 
 our statements, which should, nevertheless, have 
 their own clearness. 
 
 2. That the simile gives clearness by making a picture, 
 
 not of the whole thing talked about, but of some 
 one or more of its properties or characteristics. 
 
 3. That surprise should have its part in the simile, 
 
 and that, as a consequence, the comparison of one 
 member of a class to another will not be a simile. 
 
 III. We shall have learned to recognize similes, to enjoy 
 
 them, and to make them. 
 
 IV. We shall have become familiar with the figure per- 
 
 sonification, also ; and in the study of both figures 
 we shall have cultivated the power of accurate 
 observation, shall have given pleasure, and shall 
 have required effort on the part of our pupils. 
 V. We shall not have made the most of our opportunities 
 if we have not connected this series of exercises 
 with that in which onomatopoetic words were 
 considered ; for in quoted examples of simile and 
 personification will have occurred many words car- 
 rying their meaning in their sound. 
 
THE slillLE AST) PERSOSIFICATIOX. ' 63 
 
 VI. We shall have added to the word-collection — to 
 which our third set of exercises was especially 
 devoted, but which was to have no end — the 
 words simile, ■personification, figure. But we shall 
 have looked up the exact definition and the deriva- 
 tion of these words after we have become familiar 
 with the figures themselves, I fancy. 
 VII. We shall have profited by literature, and we shall 
 
 have added to scrap-books. 
 VIII. And we shall have deepened the feeling for the 
 beautiful, ■'• the sovereign smile of God, eternal 
 loveliness." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 FINDING MUCH IN LITTLE: ELABORATION OF SEN- 
 TENCES INTO PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 It will be remarkable if the work thus far done 
 has shown much skill in elaboration. The observa- 
 tions of the children may have furnished abundant 
 material for composition, but the expression of it has 
 been difficult. Probably letters have been abrupt, de- 
 scriptions inadequate, and stories but a paragraph. 
 This abridged kind of writing is far better, it is true, 
 than the use of too many words ; but it shows that 
 pupils need wisely-conducted exercises in elaboration. 
 I think of none more helpful in improving a tongue- 
 tied condition than the making of paragraphs out. of 
 sentences that actually contain material for paragraphs. 
 
 By this time we shall have a good deal of original 
 matter on file. Let us refer to it, and choose half a 
 dozen sentences that are kernels of paragraphs. Sup- 
 pose that one of those selected is : "It was a beautiful 
 morning," this statement being unsupported by detail. 
 We may have the sentence read aloud, and then ask: 
 
 "A , how do you imagine that morning, as warm 
 
 or cold?" — "Had there been a snow-storm that would 
 make good sleighing, or was there a stiff summer 
 
 64 
 
ELABORATION OF SENTENCES. 65 
 
 breeze just right for sailing? What do you think, 
 
 B ?" Answers will Yary as tastes differ, one 
 
 pupil picturing a clear, crisp day in winter, another a 
 warm June morning. It will be evident that the 
 writer has left his reader in perplexity with reference 
 to every thing but the general beauty of the daj-. 
 We may, therefore, let the class guess to what time 
 of the year allusion is made. Suppose they fancy it 
 to be the early spring. We may ask for suggestions 
 as to what goes to make up a beautiful morning in the 
 early spring. Our request will undoubtedly excite 
 effort, and call into action both representative imagi- 
 nation and memory. As a result, we shall obtain 
 data enough. Suppose the data to be ; a soft air, a 
 warm sun, swelling buds, crocuses and snowdrops in 
 gardens ; and suppose this list to have been written 
 on the blackboard. Together we may coimect the 
 data and form a simple paragraph, perhaps something 
 like this : — 
 
 " It was a beautiful day in the early spring, with a soft 
 air and a warm sun. Buds had begun to swell on many 
 of the trees, and, in some sunny gardens, crocuses and 
 snowdrops were up. It was just the day for our ride up 
 the river." 
 
 Next let us try the same sentence elaborated to 
 suit an autumn day. The data contributed will per- 
 haps be something like the following: bright leaves. 
 
66 slementahy composition. 
 
 nuts falling, squirrels on the walls, children in the 
 woods. Together, using the blackboard, we might 
 make our autumn paragraph : — 
 
 " Eed and gold leaves fell softly to the ground, ripened 
 nuts dropped with a little thud, frisky squirrels ran along 
 the walls ; it was a beautiful October day, and we were 
 glad to be out in its sunshine." 
 
 By this time, very likely, the class will wish to make 
 a summer morning and a winter morning. Or perhaps 
 they will choose to do something with the following: 
 (1) The orchard was the pleasantest spot on the 
 farm. (2) Boys were playing leap-frog. (3) The 
 river seemed alive with boats. (4) The kitchen looked 
 inviting. (.5) The dog was a pitiful sight. 
 
 The following are original uncorrected paragraphs 
 elaborated from original sentences, and let me add 
 that the boys and girls who did tlie work heartily 
 enjoyed it. 
 
 1. 
 
 Sentence: -The river presented a picturesque appear- 
 ance." 
 
 Paragraph : " The river rippled and murmured as it 
 lazily flowed along. On the banks were beautiful oaks 
 covered with spring foliage, the branches of which nearly 
 met in the middle of the stream. Here and there might 
 be seen a quaint-looking old negro in his heavy bateau, 
 either fishing, or taking his little pickaninnies out for a 
 ride." 
 
ELABORATION OF SENTENCES. 67 
 
 2. 
 
 Sentence : " Tools are interesting and useful to me." 
 Paragraph : " Tools possess a peculiar fascination for 
 me. I view them as if they were the mystic key to a 
 secret they invited me to discover. They seem to say : 
 'We don't tell,' 'We won't tell,' 'We will tell if we 
 must.' I handle them as new friends, awkwardly; as 
 old friends, with skill, learning to fashion things of use 
 and things of beauty. They say to me : ' Though we 
 pick the lock for the burglar, beware how you slander us ; 
 for the things that we destroy we also make ; and remem- 
 ber the spacious halls and the vast cathedrals we build. 
 Even the home you live in was fashioned by us.' " 
 
 3. 
 
 Sentence : " The scenery around the railroad station 
 was grand and imposing." 
 
 Paragraph : " The little raUroad station was nestled in 
 the valley made by two towering mountains, the sides of 
 which, covered with grisly coats of forest, were broken 
 only here and there by a few bare spots of rocks or by 
 small cataracts that plunged to join the broad stream in 
 the valley beneath." 
 
 Having properly constructed many paragraphs, the 
 class may study them carefully and find out some 
 truths about them. 
 
 First they may learn, that a paragraph is actually 
 an elaborated sentence, and that, consequently, its 
 sense may be given in a sentence. Some practice in 
 
68 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 reducing paragraphs to their simplest forms will not 
 be amiss. Irving and Hawthorne furnish good ma- 
 terial for this work, both because they are specially 
 skilful in construction and because they have written 
 much that children like. But there are Addison and 
 Burke and De Quincey and Macaulay and many others 
 to help us. Naturally, if the paragraph may be con- 
 densed into a sentence, there must be something in 
 it that is talked about, — the topic, — which corre- 
 sponds to the subject of a sentence ; and something 
 must be said of the topic, as something is said of 
 the subject in a sentence. The class may with ad- 
 vantage find the topic of a paragraph and then make 
 a list of what is said about it. 
 
 " So his mother told him a story that her own mother 
 had told to her, when she herself was younger than little 
 Ernest ; a story, not of things that were past, but of what 
 was yet to come ; a story, nevertheless, so very old, that 
 even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had 
 heard it, from their forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, 
 it had been murmured by the mountain streams, and whis- 
 pered by the wind among the tree-tops." 
 
 I think that we should be warranted in taking this 
 first half of a paragraph from Hawthorne for the use 
 of an elementary class. The topic is made so promi- 
 nent by means of repetition that it will be easily 
 found, and the predicative matter makes an interest- 
 
ELABORATION OF SENTENCES. 69 
 
 ing list ; for the story — " story " is, of course, the 
 topic — is told to Ernest by his mother, was told to 
 her by her mother, is not a story of the past, is a 
 story of the future, is very old, is so old that the 
 Indians who used to live where Ernest now lives 
 had heard it from their forefathers, and was whis- 
 pered to the early Indians by Nature herself. 
 
 After the extract just quoted, follows a brief par- 
 agraph of which the topic is Ernest's exclamation 
 after hearing the story of " The Great Stone Face ; " 
 then comes his mother's response, — a topic for a new 
 paragraph, — with an allusion to the wisdom that led 
 to her response. An understanding of the fact that 
 the topic naturally limits is more easily obtained if 
 successive paragraphs are read. 
 
 We may take for further illustration of these same 
 truths the first paragraph of Hawthorne's " The Am- 
 bitious Guest," in which the family forms the topic, 
 and from which the predicative matter may be easily 
 selected : — 
 
 " One September night, a family had gathered round 
 their hearth, and piled it high with the drift-wood of 
 mountain streams, the dry cones of the pine, and the 
 splintered ruins of great trees, that had come crashing 
 down the precipice. Up the chimney roared the fire, and 
 brightened the room with its broad blaze. The faces of 
 the father and mother had a sober gladness; the children 
 laughed ; the eldest daughter was the image of Happiness 
 
70 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 at seventeen ; and the aged grandmother, who sat knitting 
 in the warmest place, was the image of Happiness grown 
 old. They had found the 'herb, heart's ease,' in the 
 bleakest spot of all New England. This family were sit- 
 uated in the Notch of the White Hills, where the wind 
 was sharp throughout the year, and pitilessly cold in the 
 winter, giving their cottage all its fresh inclemency before 
 it descended on the valley of the Saco. They dwelt in 
 a cold spot and a dangerous one ; for a mountain towered 
 above their heads, so steep that the stones would often 
 rumble down its sides, and startle them at midnight." 
 
 Just here, the coming of the stranger introduces a 
 new topic, and consequently a new paragraph. 
 
 We may, moreover, note how these two paragraphs 
 are connected : the second as you khow begins, " The 
 daughter had just uttered sotae simple jest," and, 
 the family being the topic in paragraph one, this 
 mention of one member of it at the beginning of 
 paragraph two serves as a connecting link. It will 
 always be interesting to observe how ingeniously au- 
 thors bind together the parts of their work. In 
 classes not too elementary we may be able to show, 
 that an author welds together his paragraphs and 
 chapters as a skilful mechanic welds his metal. If 
 the connection is very close, one thought naturally 
 suggesting another, he may do without connecting 
 links, as a mechanic needs no link when he welds 
 the ends of his metal bar together. If, however, the 
 
ELABORATION OF SENTENCES. 71 
 
 connection is less close, the writer may use a con- 
 junction, as the mechanic uses a link or a hook. 
 
 Now, as heretofore, our method of eliciting and 
 giving information regarding the topic and its limita- 
 tions, predicative matter, and means of connection, 
 will be that of question and answer. Suppose that 
 a brief paragraph has been read aloud and copied upon 
 the blackboard ; this one, for example, from Irving's 
 Bracebridge Mall : — 
 
 " They found the doctor seated in an elbow-chair, in one 
 corner of the study, or laboratory, with a large volume, in 
 German print, before him. He was a short, fat man, with 
 a dark, square face, rendered more dark by a black velvet 
 cap. He had a little, knobbed nose, not unlike the ace of 
 spades, with a pair of spectacles gleaming on each side of 
 his dusky countenance, like a couple of bow-windows." 
 
 We may ask, " What is this all about ? " And the 
 class must, sooner or later, decide that it is all about 
 " the doctor." Then predicative matter may be picked 
 out, and a sentence — as simple in form as possible — 
 may be formed from the topic and what has been said 
 about it. Successive paragraphs in this chapter may 
 then be considered with reference to one another, and 
 their connecting links — whether they be words or 
 thoughts — may be designated. This somewhat ana- 
 lytical work will, of course, come after a good deal of 
 original construction. 
 
72 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 Having had much practice, not only in making clear 
 in paragraphs what has been implied in original sen- 
 tences, but also in reducing paragraphs to sentences, — 
 which will have involved a knowledge of topic and 
 of predicative matter, — having also noted that para- 
 graphs may be bound together, and that they should 
 have a sequence, the class will be ready for another 
 question : " What may be put into a paragraph ? " 
 The answer to this question will show that we are 
 always in a world of law and order, and that what 
 constitutes our paragraph is not determined by our 
 whim. We shall, thus early, attempt to do little more 
 than show that whatever directly pertains to our topic 
 may. be included under it. The most elementary class 
 will see that in the same paragraph mention may be 
 made of a horse, a broken window, a hat rolling down 
 the street, and two frightened boys, if our topic is 
 " The Runaway." While a hat rolling down the street 
 has not, necessarily, anything to do with two fright- 
 ened boys, yet, the condition of both being the result 
 of one accident, they may be alluded to in the same 
 paragraph. 
 
 Some day, in our reading, we may come across a 
 paragraph that tells of war and peace, of storm and 
 sunshine, or of any other thing and its opposite. The 
 class may — let us hope that they will — question such 
 an arrangement of material ; but a little thought should 
 convince them that storm may suggest sunshine, and 
 
ELABOBATION OF SENTENCES. 73 
 
 war may suggest peace, as any one thing may suggest 
 its opposite ; and that, consequently, there may be men- 
 tion of opposites in one paragraph. 
 
 It will hardly be desirable, in this elementary work, 
 to consider more specifically paragraph construction: 
 we will, however, note, that, while a sentence has a 
 capital to mark its beginning, a paragraph is indented ; 
 and that, if several successive paragraphs are quoted, 
 each will take the inverted commas at its beginning, 
 but only the last will have the apostrophes at the 
 end to mark the close of the quotation. 
 
 Work in paragraphing may be unified with almost 
 every study, for it will aid any topical arrangement. 
 Note-books in other classes than ours should begin 
 to have order and system as a result of this analytical 
 and constructive work. 
 
 But this set of exercises brings us dangerously near 
 reefs that have wrecked many a class in composition ; 
 for, although children like to investigate, much analy- 
 sis with a dearth of original writing may give a life- 
 long distaste for composition. Literature has been 
 our friend all along ; will it not help us here ? Let 
 us go to the humorists and the story-tellers for our 
 illustrative extracts, choosing such as have not already 
 been culled for the reading-books. After a hearty 
 laugh over a paragraph from Holmes or from Irving, 
 we may analyze its structure closely, yet with zest; 
 after a page or two of "Rip Van Winkle " we are ready 
 
74 ELEMENT ABY COMPOSITION. 
 
 to search out even a remote cause of its author's 
 charm. We would by no means coddle the class; 
 but we would occasionally take advantage of humor 
 — that sunshine of the mind — to help us through 
 a difficult task. 
 
 We would, however, above all, go again and again 
 to the class scrap-books, choosing therefrom suitable 
 sentences for elaboration into interesting and original 
 paragraphs. To give to the merest hint of something 
 both shape and beauty will fascinate any pupil. I 
 think that the most interesting work to select for 
 our scrap-book will be original sentences with origipal 
 amplifications. 
 
 Intelligent work in paragraphing will give oppor- 
 tunities for continued practice in descriptive writing 
 and the use of onomatopoetic words, for word-collecting, 
 for the finding or use of similes and personification, 
 and for the telling of short stories. It will also culti- 
 vate both judgment and taste, and prepare the w^y 
 for the consideration of entire compositions. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 During this set of exercises, — 
 I. We shall have helped expression by means of elaborating 
 original sentences into paragraphs. This work will 
 have called forth effort, and may have cultivated 
 both the representative imagination and the memory. 
 II. We shall have carefully studied paragraph construc- 
 tion, learning : — 
 
ELABORATION OF SENTENCES. 7o 
 
 1. That a paragraph, is an elaborated sentence, with a 
 
 topic corresponding to the subject of a sentence, 
 and with predicative matter corresponding to the 
 predicate of a sentence. 
 
 2. That the topic sets limitations to the paragraph. 
 
 3. That successive topics have a sequence, and that 
 
 the passage from one to another is often marked 
 by a word of connection. 
 
 III. As heretofore, we shall have begun ^^ith oral work 
 
 done together, and we shall have used question 
 and answer to elicit information. 
 
 IV. We shall have noted the proper arrangement of a 
 
 paragraph upon the printed page, and the punctu- 
 ation of quoted successive paragraphs. 
 V. We shall have continued to use literature. 
 VI. We shall have begun to refer to old scrap-book work 
 for material. 
 
 VII. We shall have incidentally reviewed descriptive 
 writing and onomatopoetic words, etymology, the 
 simile and personification, and story-telling. 
 
 viii. We shall have prepared the way for the successful 
 consideration of entire compositions. 
 
 Note. — Edwin Herbert Lewis's The History of the English 
 Paragraph may prove helpful as a reference-book. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 
 
 The Indian woman weaving at her wigwam door 
 chooses her withes with critical eye, and in her mind 
 ah-eady exists the shape of the completed basket her 
 iingers are beginning to fashion. Birds select with 
 no less fastidious care such straws and feathers and 
 hairs as will best serve them for a nest lining, cling- 
 ing obstinately to a specially suitable bit ; perhaps 
 they see just the coming place for it. He that is to 
 create a parthenon for the world not only has careful 
 plans for design and materials ; he also sees his fin- 
 ished temple already marking the sky, while the first 
 stone is yet unlaid. The sculptor thinks, and dreams, 
 and thinks of his work, until in his mind it rises, so 
 fair or so strong in its ideal perfection that he may 
 never equal it with reality. Just as surely does the 
 little child, building his house, marking out its 
 grounds, or constructing a bridge over a stream, often 
 work with reference to a model that memory or im- 
 agination furnishes. It is clear enough that anything 
 worthy of construction requires a definite idea of its 
 completed self. 
 
 76 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 11 
 
 In composition work, our class should by this time 
 have acquired some freedom of thought, some power 
 of execution, some knowledge of words, some under- 
 standing of simple construction, even some apprecia- 
 tion of the elements of style. We shall not, then, be 
 too bold if we now venture upon the designing and 
 building of compositions. 
 
 I think that we may simplify such work, which at 
 first will be oral and done together, if we associate 
 it at every stage with the construction of an object — 
 a building, for instance. By means of questions and 
 answers, it may be made evident that we can do noth- 
 ing until we know our subject ; as the builder can do 
 nothing, either with materials or designs, until he 
 knows whether his work is to be a house, a bridge, a 
 cathedral, or what. Suppose, to begin with, we decide 
 to describe an object in the school-room. If we do 
 this, we shall profit by the ease that comes from writ- 
 ing of a thing actually before the eyes ; for neither 
 the representative imagination nor the memory will be 
 taxed: moreover, our class has already learned how 
 to manage descriptive writing. All effort thus saved 
 by a wise choice of subject may be given to thinking 
 out a plan. Our subject may easily be a fanciful and 
 amusing one, which will rouse inventive imagination, 
 and which will satisfy the liking for fun that every 
 young thing ought to have. Suppose we suggest : 
 *' A Ruler that I Know," 
 
78 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 What is the second thing that the builder must 
 know ? Surely he must know the general style of 
 his structure; if a place of worship, whether it is 
 to be a vast cathedral or a modest chapel. Let us 
 choose our style. Shall we make our composition mat- 
 ter-of-fact or fanciful ? Shall we write of some king, 
 or of the ruler that is on our desk, or shall we write 
 of the desk-ruler as if it were a king? The fanciful 
 and humorous treatment of our subject may be the 
 most likely to keep us awake and call forth interested 
 effort on the part of our pupils. 
 
 Our style is chosen, and we are ready for the next 
 step. Questions and answers should enable us to draw 
 attention to the fact that everything has its frame- 
 work — its skeleton, as it were. It may be that we 
 shall say : " All of you have watched the building of 
 houses. What was first put up ? — framework ? or 
 walls ? or roof ? " — " Has any one ever visited a ship- 
 yard ? " — • " Did you see men beginning to make a 
 ship?" — " How did it look?" We may show that a 
 fish, a leaf, our own bodies, have framework, and that, 
 if we are going to make a composition, we would best 
 make its skeleton, its outline, first. So we will next 
 get together our materials ; afterward we may dispose 
 of them to advantage. 
 
 " If you were describing a real ruler, — a man or a 
 woman, — what would you be likely to mention? " is 
 now our inquiry. We may hear for answers ; " His 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. (9 
 
 looks ! " _ " His name ! " — " Where lie lives ! " — 
 "The people he rules over!" Under our subject, 
 written on the blackboard, we wUl add these as topics, 
 reminding the class — or letting them remind us — - 
 that each one of these topics will form a paragraph. 
 We will head each topic with a Roman numeral, and 
 we will suggest that the name come last, as a sort 
 of surprise. These, then, will be the big bones of our 
 skeleton : — 
 
 A Ruler that I Know. 
 I. His looks. III. His kingdom. 
 
 II. His subjects. lY. His name. 
 
 Now for the little bones. We will have somebody 
 hold up a good-sized ruler with metal edge while 
 we ask, " Well, what does he look like ? Is he straight 
 or crooked ? " Of course, he is straight and thin, and 
 has a stiff back. These facts may be added under 
 the Arabic numeral 1. Next, we may inquire, " How 
 about his face?" Perhaps we shall learn that it is 
 lined with fine regular lines. If so, we will add that 
 to our first topic under the Arabic numeral 2. " Has 
 the ruler any deformity or peculiarity ? " may bring 
 out the fact that he has but one foot, which may 
 make a third entry under topic I. and headed by the 
 Arabic numeral 3. And under topic II. — " His sub- 
 jects " — won't the class enjoy outlining themselves 
 as : 1. A race of dwarfs ; 2. Wonderfully industri- 
 
80 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 ous, etc.? About as well, I fancy, they will like 
 jotting down points about his kingdom, — the school- 
 room, — which we have taken for a third topic and 
 paragraph. Although we might do many other things 
 with this subject, we will be satisfied with four short 
 paragraphs, making the topic for the last one "His 
 name." The class could now utilize in some way 
 the divisions of the ruler, or call him "Ruler of 
 the Metal Back," or "The Twelve-Inch King." 
 
 Suppose, for a second exercise in outlining, we choose 
 a subject suited to the guessing-game described in Chap- 
 ter V. " Something Flat that ought to be Round " 
 would do, if it had reference to a flat map of the world. 
 The children should be able to outline this with little 
 help. How shall this second composition be ended? 
 Shall we proclaim what we have been describing, or 
 shall we mystify our readers? Happy ought we to 
 be if the class furnish half a dozen different endings. 
 If we decide not to give it a name, we may make 
 the guessing of our riddle difficult or easy : " It shows 
 where you live ; where your neighbor, the Frenchman, 
 used to live ; where you would like to spend your 
 long vacation." 
 
 The subjects I have suggested may seem trivial, but 
 they lend themselves to mirth and jollity; and will 
 not anything that turns the outlining of compositions 
 from drudgery to merrymaking help the teacher of 
 elementary composition ? 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 81 
 
 In both our outlines we have shown the importance 
 of having purpose and climax. In both, as it hap- 
 pens, the climax is at the end, the point being to 
 give the name, to lead up to its inference, or to mys- 
 tify. I think we need do little more in elementary 
 work in outlining than has been indicated, provided 
 that we have all along insisted upon clearness and 
 sequence in anangement; upon that fine orderliness 
 which so satisfies both reader and writer. For there 
 is, of course, a clearness that comes from arrange- 
 ment, as there is a clearness that comes from ex- 
 pression. 
 
 By means of such work as has been described, chil- 
 dren will learn how to assort facts, — as doubtless 
 they have already learned how to assort colors, — 
 and they will acquire a method in composition. It 
 seems to me desirable not so much to teach this 
 plan as to teach some plan. 
 
 But are outlines never to be filled in? Some day, 
 after pupils have aquired facility in making them, we 
 will assign one previously prepared by the class, and, 
 after a little fresh discussion of it, put the flesh 
 and blood on its bones. This work should be care- 
 fully done, paragraph by paragraph ; for as in a mosaic 
 each separate piece must be adapted to its place and 
 properly fitted into it, so in a composition each word, 
 sentence, and paragraph must be suited to its purpose 
 and put where it belongs. The work done may be 
 
82 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 read aloud and talked over. We shall gain something 
 from having had our piece of w^ork on hand for a 
 while. We shall form the habit of giving time and 
 thought to composition as to other genuine work. We 
 shall have respect for this work as for any other, if 
 we do it with faithfulness and finish it witli nicety. 
 And we shall be able to finish it with nicety, because 
 our material cannot get away from us ; it has been 
 crystallized into an outline ; we can afford to take 
 time to elaborate it. At the completion of the com- 
 position, we shall feel there has been actual achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 The value of an outline may be shown in yet an- 
 other way. Let some one make a synopsis, and the 
 topics be distributed among the members of the class. 
 If the outline is clear and simple, the entire produc- 
 tion — though so many brains have helped to make it 
 — will have unity ; just as a building will have unity 
 if carefully designed, though many workmen help in 
 its construction. Truth will require us to show, how- 
 ever, that such apportioned work can hardly fail to 
 lack the perfection that marks what is both con- 
 ceived and executed by one workman. Outlining and 
 elaboration as here described ma);- be carefully and 
 patiently finished, and yet compositions need lack noth- 
 ing in spiritedness and spontaneity. 
 
 All work, thus far, has been done in the school-room. 
 Is no composition to demand outside work? After 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 88 
 
 a good deal of practice in writing compositions to- 
 gether, we may select a class outline from our scrap- 
 book and ask for a composition. This is the firet 
 time that we have assigned a subject to be carried 
 round in the mind and brooded over. But the fact 
 that all of us together have made the plan will sim- 
 plify the work. Finally, there will come the proper 
 day for requiring an original composition built up from 
 the subject alone. We need much judgment and a 
 knowledge of our pupils in order to assign suitable 
 subjects. " The Magic Board " — the blackboard — 
 will be suggestive ; so will be " A Hanging Garden," 
 referring to a flower-box at the school-room window ; 
 or "My Tree;" or "Trees;" or "One Thing that 
 I saw on My Way to School; "or "The Place to 
 which I oftenest go in Thought;" or "The Black 
 Well" — the ink-well — for an imaginative child, who 
 will tell what drinks from it, whence its waters came, 
 and what they do. Dozens of subjects, probably 
 better than those mentioned, will come into the mind 
 of any teacher. 
 
 Having assigned subjects, we will give a few days 
 during which facts and thoughts may be jotted down. 
 An elementary class will undoubtedly be given fewer 
 days than would be allowed to an advanced class ; for, 
 since children weary quickly, prolonged effort on their 
 part may not be required. We will show the im- 
 portance of selecting the subject early, and of keep- 
 
84 ELEMENTAUT COMPOSITION. 
 
 ing it in mind; the pupil that knows what he is 
 going to write about will gain legitimate help almost- 
 without seeking it. He will, for instance, have oppor- 
 tunities to observe his tree, its beauty and the life 
 upon it, at different hours ; or to notice how the 
 magic board changes as work during various recita- 
 tions is represented upon it or erased from it; or 
 he may hear facts and myths about trees. If only 
 one here and there may wander with Orlando through 
 the Forest of Arden, or rush with Lanier out to 
 the "braided dusks of the oak," or wait, awed, while 
 The Mastei: withdraws to the woods where 
 
 "The little gray leaves were kind to Him ;" 
 
 surely all may meet Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, 
 or steal up to the Charter Oak with men of old, or 
 with Hiawatha strip its "white-skin wrapper" from the 
 birch-tree. 
 
 After materials have been gathered, each pupil may 
 make his own outline in class; and at a later time 
 may, still in the school-room, elaborate his outline into 
 a composition. Although this work is to be original, 
 during it the teacher will be ready for consultation 
 or friendly suggestion. 
 
 There is, of course, no study that compositions do 
 not touch; they may help every other, and every 
 other may help them. Perhaps their closest connec- 
 tion will still be with literature. We shall read compo- 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 85 
 
 sitions similar in purpose to those which our class have 
 undertaken ; we shall find the skeletons of descrip- 
 tions and stories; and shall perhaps note sequence 
 and climaxes. 
 
 Our new scrap-book work will probably consist for 
 the most part of subjects, with outlines and compo- 
 sitions. It will be well to have for one subject as 
 many different outlines and compositions as the indi- 
 viduality and originality of the pupils make possible. 
 There are both satisfaction and inspiration in the clear 
 and original expression of thought; and just so far 
 as composition work enables a pupil to translate him- 
 self will it be profitable and enjoyable. It will also 
 be interesting to have the parallel work of authors 
 and pupils collected and pasted side by side; for in- 
 stance, descriptions of holidays, scenes, and processions. 
 
 The course of our class need not be over a dreary 
 waste, but along a definite path, which, even if 
 marked out by others, yet will disclose for every new- 
 comer, and at every step, fresh knowledge and delight ; 
 sometimes a pupil will be so wise, so keen of vision, 
 or so pure in heart as to find truth or beauty that 
 has been hidden from other eyes ; for the world's 
 coming wisdom and light and life are in the keeping 
 of the children. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 During these exercises in the building of compositions, — 
 I. We shall have shown the need of a working-plan. 
 
86 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 II. We shall have made our work, as hitherto, common 
 to class and teacher, and oral at first. 
 
 III. We shall have associated it, at every stage, with 
 
 the construction of an object. 
 
 IV. We shall have chosen for our first work the descrip- 
 
 tion of something in the school-room, thus taxing 
 neither the memory nor the representative imagi- 
 nation, and concentrating effort upon the plan, 
 v. We shall, perhaps, have found it an advantage to 
 select a subject somewhat fanciful or suggesting 
 humorous treatment. 
 
 VI. The order that our work naturally follows we shall 
 have found to be : choice of subject, choice of 
 style, making of outline, elaboration. 
 VII. We shall have shown the necessity of having pur- 
 pose, sequence, unity, and climax. 
 VIII. We shall have recognized the fact that something is 
 to be gained from having our piece of work on 
 hand for a while, — the habit of giving time and 
 thought to composition work, and a respect for 
 what has required genuine effort. 
 
 IX. We shall have confined ourselves, at first, to work in 
 common, — the making of outlines, and the elab- 
 oration of them ; then we shall have required the 
 writing of original paragraphs, making original 
 compositions, but in accordance with an outline 
 taken from our scrap-book ; finally, we shall have 
 called for both original oiitlines and original com- 
 positions, assigning only subjects. 
 
 X. We shall have made an especially careful selection of 
 subjects for this last quite original work, and shall 
 
BUILDING: OUTLINING COMPOSITIONS. 87 
 
 have given a very few days for the acquisition 
 of material. 
 XI. We shall, moreover, have made clear the importance 
 of keeping a subject in mind, in order to gain 
 material legitimately but with little effort. 
 
 XII. We shall have done all writing, except the jotting 
 down of material, in the school-room. 
 
 Kill. We shall have unified composition with other stud- 
 ies, chiefly by means of subjects and illustrative 
 material. 
 
 XIV. We shall have continued to recognize the helpful- 
 ness of literature, and to profit by it through the 
 reading of work parallel with that attempted by 
 our class ; through the noting of unity, climax, 
 and sequence, as well as through the finding of 
 the hidden outlines of finished productions. 
 XV. We shall have added outlines and compositions to 
 scrap-book work, endeavoring to have several ori- 
 ginal outlines and completed compositions for 
 each subject; we shall have added, also, parallel 
 work of authors and students. 
 
 XVI. We shall, let us hope, have made definite purpose 
 and accomplishment as possible in composition 
 work as in any other. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A WORD ABOUT WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 
 
 One exercise that will suggest itself sooner or later 
 to the teacher of elementary composition is " weed- 
 ing." After our class have become somewhat accus- 
 tomed to writing, and have filed a good deal of work 
 in their scrap-books, we may begin to teach economy, 
 quite in accordance with Herbert Spencer's teaching 
 of it in his Ussai/ on the Philosophy of Style. We 
 shall show that economy should exist in the world 
 of composition as elsewhere — especially that economy 
 which saves effort on the part of reader or listener. 
 After pupils have acquired even a little knowledge 
 of construction, they will enjoy taking ene of their 
 old paragraphs to " weed." They will require of 
 each word that it do some service — a service which 
 they may tell about. Sometimes, of course, they will 
 err in judgment, as they will surely be deficient in 
 Icnowledge ; very likely they will often begin to pull 
 out a useful expression ; wise supervision will be 
 needed. But with wise supervision the exercise will 
 be play and analysis combined ; and I believe that it 
 will greatly aid routine grammar work. 
 
 88 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 89 
 
 Having taken out the overgrowth, or the under- 
 growth, — - those snares that keep the reader from pen- 
 etrating to the thought they hide rather than reveal, 
 — we may look at our work anew with reference to 
 its power to please. We shall be almost sure to find 
 monotony, that monotony which comes from a con- 
 stant repetition of words and phrases. It will be easily 
 appreciated by our class, that monotony of sound is 
 wearisome. Who willingly listens to five-finger exer- 
 cises, unless she be a doting mother responsible for 
 her child's practice and progress ? If we tell our class 
 that one of the most painful tortures is to have water 
 fall di'op by drop at regular intervals upon one spot 
 on the body, . they may reason from analogy, and be 
 glad to go over their work, trying to save their reader's 
 ears from the frequent repetition of a word. They 
 have at hand one means of doing this : synonyms. 
 The work of acquiring a vocabulary outlined in the 
 fourth chapter, and which has been going on day by 
 day ever since, has added to vocabularies, and has 
 given groups of synonyms for our etymological sheets. 
 We may now, therefore, gain variety, become nicer 
 in our distinctions, and be sure of finer effects. 
 
 Yet a third time we may go over our paragraphs, 
 using onomatopoetic words where they were not used 
 but might have been. The result will be quite in 
 the nature of an inspiration to the boys and girls. 
 Here are two original paragraphs written during an 
 
90 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 examination. The requirement for this especial ques- 
 tion was: Write a paragraph in which you make 
 your words convey their meaning in their sound. 
 
 1. 
 
 Did you ever visit the editorial rooms of a great 
 newspaper office ? I once had that pleasure, and found 
 it interesting to notice the style and rapidity with which 
 the different men wrote. I recall one on my left as I 
 entered. His artistic touch and the gentle stroke of his 
 pen indicated that he was a fine penman, and not pressed 
 by time, as were the others. In marked contrast was 
 a man in front of him, scribbling in a race with time ; 
 and another, whose scrawling was legible only to himself. 
 And there was still another, his pen jumping and shoot- 
 ing along like zigzag lightning ; with one beside him whose 
 creations were so fine you imagined he might be drawing 
 straight lines, and wondered how he could read them 
 without a microscope. Each man gradually had acquired 
 a style that suited him. 
 
 There is not a wealth of onomatopoetic words here ; 
 for the pujjil understood that he was not to use an 
 imitative word unless it helped him in the expression 
 of his thoughts. 
 
 2. 
 
 Mr. Quak waddled along the path to the pond and 
 met Mr. Baa, who was browsing along in a contented 
 manner. As they neared the pond, they met Mr. Neigh 
 sucking up the water in long gulps. They all said, " What 
 a blessing is water ! " 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 91 
 
 After this weeding, substitution of synonyms, and 
 introduction of onomatopoetic words, the class will 
 enjoy comparing their original paragraph with the 
 reconstructed paragraph. This will put them into 
 the proper mood for some work in phraseologj^. They 
 will perceive that their work has gained something: 
 for weeding will have given strength ; synonyms, 
 smoothness and variety; and imitative words, vigor. 
 They will be patient during more prosaic work. 
 
 If we next look within sentences, we shall find errors 
 that may be classified, errors that seem to require 
 technical terms for their explanation, and that may 
 seem to demand (of the young) too much analysis. 
 Some of these errors necessitate the consideration of : — 
 
 1. The misuse of the simple future and the future of 
 
 volition. 
 
 2. The misrelated participle. 
 
 3. The incorrect sequence of tenses. 
 
 4. The lack of direct discourse. 
 
 5. The chain construction of relative clauses. 
 
 6. The misuse of explanatory and of restrictive rela- 
 
 tive clauses. 
 
 7. The separation of the infinitive and its sign. 
 
 I think that many errors may be discovered by quite 
 elementary classes, and that the principles they violate 
 may be clearly and simply shown. Let us consider 
 our topics in the order given. 
 
92 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 1. It will be enough for us, at first, to take up — 
 under future tense — merely the simple future and the 
 future of volition. Professor A. S. Hill of Harvard 
 advises that pupils learn the inflection of these two 
 futures, and bear that inflection in mind. I have had 
 my own classes do this, but I have had them do 
 more. I have tried to have them realize just the 
 value of each of these two futures, in this way : Tlie 
 simple future — I shall, you will, he will, we shall, 
 you will, they will — is under the control of fate, as 
 it were, under the control of circumstances. No per- 
 son — not the first, second, nor third — has any 
 mastery of the situation. All are as if in a rudder- 
 less boat swept onward by time, the current deter- 
 mining their fate. The future of volition — I will, you 
 shall, he shall, we will, you shall, they shall — is the 
 willing future, and he who wills is the speaker. The 
 speaker is the master here. He declares what he will 
 do ! what you shall do ; what your friend or enemy 
 shall do. In order to make this work interesting as 
 well as clear, I asked my classes to draw or find pic- 
 tures that would illustrate these two futures. The 
 first picture was of two little negroes out in the rain 
 in an open field, with scanty clothing, and under a 
 ragged umbrella. The artist — a boy — wrote : " The 
 result is inevitable : outside circumstances control ; 
 they will get wet." Another boy illustrated the two 
 futures. The inevitable (the simple) future was repre- 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER T0PIG6. 93 
 
 sented by a railroad train dashing along toward a 
 piece of broken track. " The result is inevitable ; cir- 
 cumstances control," said the boy; "the train will be 
 wrecked." His contrasting picture showed a com- 
 mander before his men, giving the order, "You shall 
 not fire until you see the whites of their eyes ! " Here, 
 of course, was the future of volition. The third pic- 
 ture was of a lion couchant, his prey unseen, but 
 presumably defenceless, before him. " The result is 
 inevitable," explained the girl that selected these illus- 
 trations ; " the prey will be devoured." Outside 
 circumstances — the strength of the wild lion, the 
 weakness of his prey — control the situation. The 
 girl's second picture represented a little dog with a 
 napkin tied around his neck, and his mistress about 
 to feed him. "Now, Zip," says the child, "you shall 
 keep still before I feed you." " This," said the young 
 girl that chose the pictures to prove her knowledge, 
 "is the future of volition, of willing; the speaker's 
 will, the child's, controls." Let me give two papers 
 more in detail: — 
 
 FUTDEB OP VOLITION. 
 
 "This is the future of determination, the future show- 
 ing purpose. In this future, the speaker (the first per- 
 son) controls everybody and everything. He is like the 
 absolute and despotic ruler of China, whose word is law, 
 and before whom all his subjects bow with awe." 
 
94 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 Then follows the inflection : — 
 
 I will 
 
 We will 
 
 You shall 
 
 You shall 
 
 He shall 
 
 They shall 
 
 Under the inflection is a picture, representing a cat 
 with front paws extended, and each paw holding the 
 tail of a mouse. This is the legend written under 
 the picture : — 
 
 "In the above illustration the cat evidently has full 
 control over the mice. One can almost see the mouth 
 smile with satisfaction as she says, ' I have waited for 
 you day and night, and now I have got you ! I will 
 eat you ; you shall not get away ! ' " 
 
 The second paper of this same pupil deals with 
 the simple future, as follows : — 
 
 " This is the future of fate. Everybody and every- 
 thing, apparently, is helpless. Outside circumstances 
 control." 
 
 Then follows the inflection : — 
 
 I shall 
 
 We shall 
 
 You will 
 
 You will 
 
 He will 
 
 They will 
 
 The illustration under this inflection represents the 
 cat of the first picture, but clasping tails that have 
 parted from the bodies of the mice. Underneath is 
 this legend; — 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 95 
 
 "But — outside circumstances control. The cat, and 
 probably the mice also, did not count on the mice losing 
 their tails. Her smile of victory changes to a look of 
 disappointment, as she adds : ' I shall have to go without 
 my dinner, and you are safe in your hole. What did 
 your tails break for, anyhow ? Oh, dear ! How trying 
 life is!'" 
 
 I think that this class understood the distinction be- 
 tween the simple future and the future of volition. 
 
 2. The misrelated participle is often found in the 
 work of young people. " Having missed his examina- 
 tion, I asked his teacher to let him try another," will 
 do for our purpose of illustration. This mistake, as 
 well as many another, is owing to carelessness. Per- 
 haps we may induce our pupils to become heedful if 
 we say something of this sort : " What takes care of 
 having in that sentence? " Of course it is not cared for. 
 " What have you done, but treat a word us you would 
 not dare to treat anything else? Would you turn a 
 child into the street, with absolutely no protector nor 
 protection ? That is what you have done to that 
 little word. Please look after it, plan for it." We 
 may have to help and suggest ; but we may — I 
 speak from experience — very soon get rid of mis- 
 related participles. We may show that words have their 
 rights, and that there are such things as morality and 
 justice in composition. 
 
 3. The desirability of using direct discourse, some- 
 
96 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 times or often, may perhaps be most clearly shown 
 by means of a story. Suppose we write together a 
 brief narrative in which conversation is reported. 
 Left to themselves, the class will probably use the 
 indirect discourse to represent the different speeches. 
 After our woik is done, we may suggest letting each 
 person speak for himself. The gain in life will be 
 noticeable. If requested to tell how we have added 
 to the interest of our narrative, I believe that the 
 class, or one or more members of it, will explain. 
 Suppose the anecdote is one about Grant or Lincoln. 
 When Grant's exact words are given, we shall get 
 more or less of the man ; his manner, at least of 
 speaking, and his laconic style will tell us something 
 of himself. Lincoln, with his peculiar humor, will 
 be a relief to Grant; and, when we again take up 
 the thread of the narrative ourselves, we shall be 
 more welcome to our readers or hearers because of 
 our brief absence from the stage while Grant and Lin- 
 coln were the actors. Direct discourse, then, gives a 
 pleasing variety, a picturesqueness, and a vigor that 
 the monotonous telling at second hand cannot give. 
 It may easily be shown, as every grammar shows, how 
 direct discourse often serves clearness. Who is not 
 familiar with, "He told him that his cattle were in 
 his fields," and equally familiar with the correction 
 of it? 
 
 4. Will not our class be likely to see that the 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 97 
 
 chain consti"uction of relative clauses is weak, pro- 
 vided this construction with words be compared to a 
 similar construction elsewhere? After explaining to 
 a class, by means of some simple diagram, how each 
 new relative draws the mind away from the actual 
 subject of the sentence, and so diverts attention 
 rather than concentrates it upon the theme that should 
 be kept in mind, we may ask them to tell us of a 
 similar violation of the principle of strength in some 
 other kind of construction. I required one of my 
 classes to do this. One boy made a picture of a ship 
 with a line of small boats in tow — a weak construc- 
 tion easily broken ; while his contrasting sketch was 
 the same big boat with each little boat tied to her. 
 A young girl illustrated the same principle by means 
 of an umbrella and its ribs. 
 
 5. It may seem somewhat difficult to teach a class 
 to perceive what determines the sequence, or follow- 
 ing, of tenses. First of all, let us get them to under- 
 stand that there is a regulator somewhere ; a word, 
 or group of words, that will manage everything for 
 them. We may, in our scrap-book, find something 
 like this : " How I should have liked to have gone 
 to that birthday party!" We may ask, " When was 
 the party ? " Suppose the answer to be " Last June." 
 — " When were you wishing about it ? " — " That was 
 in last June, too." — " Very well ; please go back in 
 your mind, just for a minute, to last June. Are j'ou 
 
98 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 there, yet ? Very well ; now it is June, and the party 
 is coming to-morrow. What do you say to your 
 mother, as you think of the coming party? How I 
 should like to — what ? " We shall succeed, sooner 
 or later, in getting the present infinitive to go. Such 
 exercises may be multiplied until our pupils appre- 
 ciate the fact, that, where there is a principal tense 
 with subordinate tenses, the principal tense is the 
 regulator of the others; that all we have to do is to 
 live in imagination in the time referred to by the prin- 
 cipal tense, and, living then, not now, to think and 
 speak naturally. 
 
 6. Classes nearly always find stumbling-blocks in 
 restrictive and explanatory relative clauses with their 
 distinctions and punctuation. These stumbling-blocks 
 may be removed, it seems to me, by the pupil's intel- 
 ligent questioning of himself. Let me illustrate : — 
 Our scrap-book may give us a sentence somewhat like 
 the following: "The man that ran down the street 
 just now is giving the alarm." Suppose we ask, 
 " Who is giving the alarm ? " There can be but one 
 answer : " The man that ran down the street just 
 now." — ^"Can you not give a shorter answer?" we 
 ask. Of course, the class cannot. " Well ; try this 
 sentence: 'John Parsons, who ran down the street a 
 minute ago, is giving the alarm.' Who is giving the 
 alarm ? " Of course it is John Parsons. We may 
 now, by continuing our questioning, help the class to 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 99 
 
 see, that the restrictive relative — the form of which 
 is usually that — is needed by its noun to prove the 
 identity of that noun. In the sentence, " The man 
 that ran down the street just now is giving the alarm," 
 the only thing to show what man is giving the alarm 
 is the relative clause, "that ran down the street just 
 now ; " therefore, this clause is tied tight, as it were, to 
 its noun, and will not let even a comma squeeze in be- 
 tween them. But in the other sentence, — "John Par- 
 sons, who ran down the street just now, is giving the 
 alarm," — we know perfectly well who is giving the 
 alarm without help from the relative clause, " who 
 ran down the street just now." Therefore, this rela- 
 tive clause tells something new ; it is equivalent to 
 " and he ran down the street just now." Moreover, it 
 is not tied so closely to its noun, and it lets a comma 
 in before it and after it. If a class once appreciates 
 the distinction here made, — that the restrictive relative 
 is needed to determine the identity of its noun, while 
 the explanatory relative is not so needed, — then its 
 only remaining diiEeulty. will be the management of 
 exceptional cases, which may be left for a later 
 time. 
 
 7. Many a boy or girl will enjoy answering an 
 inquiry similar to this : • ' Will you make us see that 
 the sign of the infinitive ought to be put before it ? " 
 I. once required the following in an examination, 
 without a hint of its coming : " Show, by means of 
 
100 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION^. 
 
 a reference to trade, to algebra, or to chemistry, the 
 absurdity of separating the infinitive and its sign." 
 One boy wrote, that, if he had a carpenter's shop, he 
 should put his sign over the door of his shop, not in 
 a place where there was no shop. Another said, that 
 he should not put his label for a barrel of grapes on 
 a box of tea. Another said, that he should put his 
 radical sign where it belonged, over the quantity it 
 affected, -not somewhere else, where it would only 
 mislead and work mischief. All connected these state- 
 ments with the proper use of the infinitive and its 
 sign. If work in language is seen to be based on 
 general principles that hold true everywhere, — in the 
 factory, in the blacksmith's shop, or in the artist's 
 studio, as well as in the class-room, — -boys and girls 
 begin to respect language work, and to enjoy do- 
 ing it. 
 
 The teacher of elementary composition, or of any 
 kind of composition, is likely to find it necessary to 
 cultivate the power to think and the power to feel. 
 May not examination questions help to do this? Let 
 me give a few questions, not because they are by any 
 means model ones, but because they are intended 
 only secondarily for review, and primarily to provoke 
 thought. The first question was upon the examina- 
 tion paper of a class just from the grammar school. 
 It was made optional, and little was expected from 
 the class, but much was obtained. 
 
WEEDING AND OTHER TOPICS. 101 
 
 1. Try to find tlie two words in the following quota- 
 tion that show why Eustace Bright thought that the sum- 
 mer-house (little edifice) would be "just the spot" for 
 his fanciful tales. 
 
 "Simple as it looks," said he, "this little edifice seems 
 to be the work of magic. It is full of suggestiveness, 
 and, in its way, is as good- as a cathedral. Ah, it would 
 be just the spot to sit in, of a summer's afternoon, and 
 tell the children some more of those wild stories from 
 the classic myths." 
 
 Magic, suggestiveness, and cathedral were quoted. 
 
 2. a. What is the difference between the myths as 
 told by Hawthorne in the Tanglewood Tales aud as given 
 in the Classical Dictionary ? 
 
 b. Which reading do you prefer ? 
 e. Why? 
 
 A boy preferred the reading in the Classical Diction- 
 ary, because it is an exact rendering of the myths ; a 
 girl better liked Hawthorne's versions, because she 
 enjoyed the play of his humor and fancy about as 
 much as she enjoyed the myths. 
 
 3. "Brutus. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides 
 
 of March. 
 Caesar. Set him before me ; let me see his face. 
 Cassius. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon 
 
 Caesar. 
 CcBsar. What sayest thou to me now ? Speak once 
 
 again. 
 
102 blementAbt composition. 
 
 Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March. 
 
 Ccesar. He is a dreamer ; let us leave him : pass." 
 
 a. Why is it that Caesar wishes to see the face of 
 the soothsayer ? 
 
 b. Prove, by means of Caesar's own words in the 
 quoted lines, that your answer is correct. 
 
 4. a. Name any characteristics common to Shake- 
 speare's Shylock and Scott's " Isaac of York." 
 
 b. Has the study of these two characters given to 
 you new thoughts about the Jews ? If so, briefly tell 
 those thoughts. 
 
 5. Contrast Scott's " Rebecca " and Shakespeare's Jes- 
 sica with reference to their filial devotion. 
 
 6. "Speak, strike, redress ! Am I entreated, 
 
 To speak and strike ? O Rome ! I make thee promise, 
 If the redress will follow, thou receivest 
 Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus !" 
 
 In the last two lines of the quoted extract, what 
 does Brutus pledge himself to do? Material for your 
 answer is contained in the extract. 
 
 7. Defend the repetition of words in the following : 
 
 " Two attempts were made to disturb this tranquillity, 
 the banished heir of the House of Stuart headed a 
 rebellion ; the discontented heir of the House of Bruns- 
 wick headed an opposition. Both the rebellion and the 
 opposition came to nothing." 
 
 8. From the action of the " dark-gray charger " of 
 Mamilius, and from that of "Black Auster," as described 
 
WEEDING AND OTMER TOPICS. 103 
 
 by Macaulay in "The Battle of the Lake Regillus," what 
 do you infer regarding the character of each master ? 
 
 9. From stanza i. of Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient 
 Home" quote the words that would lead jou to infer 
 that Lars Porsena would keep his oath. 
 
 10. If these events were being represented on the 
 stage, what would be done between stanzas xii. and 
 xiii. ? 
 
 11. "This is she, the shepherd girl, counsellor that 
 had none for herself, whom I choose, bishop, for yours. 
 She it is, I engage, that shall take my lord's brief. She 
 it is, bishop, that would plead for you : yes, bishop, she 
 — when heaven and earth are silent." 
 
 Do you think that De Quincey was warranted in assum- 
 ing this of Joan of Arc ? Prove that your opinion is 
 well-founded. 
 
 12. Of the enemies of Caesar with whom you have 
 thus far become acquainted, — Flavins, Marullus, Cassius, 
 and Brutus, — whom would you be most unwilling to 
 have for your enemy ? 
 
 Give a reason for your answer. 
 
 13. Write the name of any American citizen of any 
 period who, had his countrymen been Athenians of the 
 time of Themistoeles, would have been in danger of os- 
 tracism. 
 
 Note. — Both Washington and "Dick" Croker were thought to 
 have had sufficient power to be included in the list. 
 
 14. When the Greeks returned to the interior of their 
 country after the battle of Thermopylae, the Athenians 
 
104 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 had command of the rear. Why does Plutarch say that 
 they had " the place of honor and danger ? " 
 
 15. If you had to write a composition composed mostly 
 of Anglo-Saxon words, how might you help yourself by 
 a choice of subjects? 
 
 These questions have been selected to illustrate the 
 meaning of the term I used, "questions to provoke 
 thought ; " there will, however, be others, intended to 
 cultivate the sensibilities. We may readily prove by 
 psychologists, naturalists, and poets, that much will 
 remain hidden from him who has great intellectual 
 capacity but is without deep feeling. You will remem- 
 ber, for instance, how careful Richard Realf is in Sym- 
 bolisms to make every wind that blows a wind of 
 music, and the humblest flower of the hedgerow and 
 the bird of dullest color, bearers of " a living word 
 to every living thing." The reading of such living 
 words requires more than thought ; it requires feeling. 
 Surely, moreover, the power to think and the power 
 to feel demand something more — the power to utter. 
 Is not composition successfully taught only as it 
 fulfils its threefold mission, — giving mental grasp, a 
 sympathy for what is fine, and the power to use 
 both brain and heart ? 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 If " the art of judging of beauties and faults " 
 is criticism, as no one is likely to deny, then the 
 critic must be a judge. But what kind of a judge? 
 Symonds, in his essay " On Some Principles of Crit- 
 icism," says, "Aristotle laid it down as an axiom, 
 that the ultimate verdict in mattei-s of taste is 'what 
 the wise man would decide.'" Who, then, is the 
 wise man? Not necessarily he with the most learn- 
 ing; but surely he that knows goodness and truth 
 and beauty, he whose own mind and soul ring true. 
 With knowledge, but without wisdom, what man ever 
 looked into the heart of things? ever read the soul 
 of a brother? ever understood its utterance? With 
 wisdom alone, may not a man learn — has he not 
 already begun to learn — of eternal things ? and so 
 may he not recognize work that interprets eternal 
 things? Doubtless, he may do this, and so truly 
 value — in so far as his personality and environment 
 permit — the spirit of a work. " A sensible, unlet- 
 tered girl," says an authority, " is a better critic than 
 the learned simpleton who uses the stores of a vast 
 
 105 
 
106 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 library to bolster up some baseless paradox. Sense, 
 in the region of criticism, is equivalent to imagina- 
 tion. It enables its possessor to distinguish what is 
 or may be from what cannot be." 
 
 But the spirit has its body, and the most helpful 
 critic will add knowledge to his wisdom, even a knowl- 
 edge of technicalities, and will then be able to appre- 
 ciate and to estimate both spirit and body. Matthew 
 Arnold declares that "the judgment which almost 
 insensibly forms itself in a fair and clear mind, along 
 with fresh knowledge, is the valuable one ; and thus 
 knowledge, and ever fresh knowledge, must be the 
 critic's great concern for himself." From all this we 
 infer that the true critic is both wise and a learner; 
 taught, perhaps, by the very work that he reviews, 
 sometimes led by a child to the perception of a 
 higher truth. 
 
 The rule for criticism has been summed up by Ar- 
 nold in one word, — " disinterestedness." Preconceived 
 notions, whims, fancies, predilections, — from all these 
 and all similar things the mind of the critic must be 
 free ; he approaches a work to test it. Impersonal 
 Truth is his magic wand. 
 
 What should be the critic's attitude? If I were to 
 paint him, it should be as a listener, as one receiving 
 understandingly into a mind free from prejudice; but 
 he should unmistakably show — by his clear eye and 
 noble head, by his repose and dignity and spiritual- 
 
CRITICISM. 107 
 
 ity — that he would refuse to hear, and pass on, an 
 unworthy message. 
 
 Let us leave the critic, and, for a moment, consider 
 what he judges. Art is his province; and "All art 
 is a presentation of the inner human being, his thought 
 and feeling, through the medium of beautiful sym- 
 bols in word, form, color, and sound," says Symonds. 
 Realf had the same thought when he wrote : — 
 
 " Back of the canvas that throbs, 
 The painter is hinted and hidden; 
 Into the statue that breathes, 
 The soul of the sculptor is bidden." 
 
 And Arnold declares, that the best spiritual work of 
 criticism is " to keep man from a self-satisfaction which 
 is retarding and vulgarizing, to lead him toward per- 
 fection, by making his mind dwell upon what is excel- 
 lent in itself, and the absolute beauty and fitness of 
 things." His work will then reflect him at his best. 
 
 Agreeing that criticism is an art which concerns itself 
 with eternal things, with " abiding relations," to 
 quote Goethe through Symonds ; that the critic needs 
 to be without prejudice, and to have not only wisdom 
 but also knowledge, both general and special; that 
 the rule for criticism is disinterestedness ; and that 
 the critic's mission is helpfulness, the keeping of man 
 to the best, — what may we evolve from all this for 
 the teacher of elementary composition ? 
 
 With reference to herself, first of all, we are sure : 
 
108 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 1. That she should have, at least the beginning of 
 wisdom. 2. That she should continually supplement 
 this with knowledge, culture. 3. That she should 
 have a spirit of fairness, bringing to her work a mind 
 free from prejudices. But it seems to me that even 
 more is required of the teacher — and so the critic — 
 in elementary composition ; her task is harder than 
 that of one who judges a great and finished produc- 
 tion. Often, she must make the creative atmosphere, 
 must give the impetus, must help the halting speech, 
 before material for criticism can be obtained. So it 
 seems to me that sympathy, a certain kind of clair- 
 voyance, — the second-sight that can read another's 
 mind and interpret it to himself, — are needed by a 
 critic of the most elementary work. Let me illustrate 
 my meaning: — 
 
 A composition teacher whom I used often to see 
 had been told of two boys about to enter her class. 
 "You can do nothing with them," said her informant. 
 "Why not?" — "They care for nothing but draw- 
 ing." — "Oh, they do care for drawing, then." She 
 added mentally, " If they care for any earthly thing, 
 they shall care for composition." 
 
 The boys entered the class and wrote an exercise, 
 a description of an afternoon on a skating-pond. The 
 teacher interviewed the elder, Ernest, first. He had 
 written practically nothing but a number of short, 
 disconnected statements. The teacher glanced at his 
 
CRITICISM. 109 
 
 work, saw that there was not, apparently, the least bit 
 of "the inner human being, his thought and feeling" 
 in it, and said, " Ernest, did you enjoy doing this ? " 
 
 — " No'm." — " Why not ? " -- " I hate composition." 
 
 — "Why?" — "Oh, I hate it!"— "What do you 
 like?" — "Drawing and painting." — "I cannot be- 
 lieve you. You draw nothing here." — "You didn't 
 ask me to." — "Oh, yes, I did; a description is a pic- 
 ture — in words. Where are the life and sparkle, and 
 the glitter and color, that were on the pond ? I shall 
 not believe that you like to draw and paint until 
 you sketch and color in words this scene on the ice." 
 Before their talk was over, the boy had ceased to 
 hate compositioji. He had suggested his outline, and 
 was lighting up his picture. 
 
 Then came Max, a wide-awake little fellow, but 
 dreading his talk with the composition teacher; for 
 he, too, cherished a hatred for work with language. 
 "What do you like. Max?" — "Music." —■' Then you 
 like composition, only you do not know it." And 
 he was shown that he might do with words what 
 he had been doing with music. 
 
 Later came a young girl, sweet and intelligent 
 looking, and older than the boys. She " simply loathed 
 composition work." — "Why? " — " Oh, I hate it ! " — 
 " What do you like ? " — " Mathematics." — " Then you 
 will like composition. But, let me see, do you like 
 mathematics? You haven't been exact in this sen- 
 
110 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 tence. You mean, practically, that two and two 
 make four; but you have contradicted yourself, and 
 your sentence is valueless. It is as bad as if one of 
 your signs in an algebraic equation should represent 
 two different unknown quantities. Take back this 
 composition, and criticise it yourself as you would 
 criticise your work in mathematics ; then, let me see 
 it again." 
 
 The next time this teacher met the pupils to whom 
 we have referred, she actually had something from 
 each that she could criticise with enjoyment and profit 
 for all. Ernest had made a sketch — a clumsy but 
 promising one — and he helped the teacher find in it 
 the true and reject the false. And he wished to 
 work over it a second time. Max had done some- 
 thing rhythmic with words, and said that he would like 
 to write the words for a familiar air. And the young 
 girl had a page that said something in accurate fashion. 
 All were eager for criticism — the criticism that creates, 
 as Arnold says, "a current of true and fresh ideas." 
 The dead were alive. 
 
 It may have been noted that the criticisms of this 
 teacher were broad ones, at first. As j'ouiig children 
 cannot do the finest work that calls into play the 
 finest muscles without harming themselves, so, in 
 their writing, if they develop naturally, they will not, 
 at first, show great nicety and perfection in details, 
 but will rather gain broad effects. 
 
CRITICISM. Ill 
 
 The teacher of elementary composition, moreover, 
 needs to be both generous and patient. She has, let 
 us suppose, a paragraph to criticise. It appears to 
 have no meaning. She looks at its title. She might 
 so easily say a dozen things that would be to the 
 point. Pitt's or Burke's or Webster's treatment of 
 the same thing — perhaps the subject is " Indepen- 
 dence " — comes into her mind. This is her moment 
 of temptation. No; she ^vill not yield, but will find 
 out what this pupil meant, or get him to tell it 
 orally. And then she will help him to write out 
 clearly what he meant. With the thought uttered, 
 she can, at last, criticise in such a way as to create 
 "a current of true and fresh ideas." No matter what 
 Pitt or Bui'ke or Webster might think or say ; that, 
 at first, is of no consequence ; the thouglit in the 
 boyish mind must be discovered and clothed with 
 speech. That will be his victorj' : he will begin to 
 like composition. Later, after his own little rough 
 diamond has been brought to light, he may, with 
 profit, studj' some gems of literature that express a 
 thought similar to his own. 
 
 In order to obtain material, the teacher of elemen- 
 tary composition needs to cultivate in her pupils the 
 power both to think and to feel ; for only out of 
 the fulness of the mind and heart can the mouth 
 speak ; only thus can composition reveal " the inner 
 human being, his thought and feeling." 
 
112 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 So, to the qualities required in a critic of adult 
 work, we would add for the teacher of elementary 
 composition: a kind of sympathetic second-sight, ena- 
 bling her to read even what is obscure in the childish 
 mind, generosity and patience enough to make her 
 successful in bringing to light and helping to shape 
 half-formed thoughts, and the power to rouse thought 
 and to feed the sensibilities. 
 
 But there is left, it seems to me, another point for 
 us to consider. How shall criticisms be made? Shall 
 we see each pupil by himself? That is often most 
 desirable and profitable. But class-room criticism is 
 inevitable. If we undertake it, shall we approach our 
 class as if they were our victims, and seek to conceal 
 our sharp knife by an apologetic bearing? Shall they 
 feel that we are about to make a savage and personal 
 attack, and, as a consequence of such feeling on their 
 part, shall we conceal the identity of the boy or girl 
 to be criticised?. " By no means," I should answer to 
 all these questions. I would have a class learn to 
 consider its own work impartially ; I would have indi- 
 viduals do the same. I would show them that only 
 vanity can create restlessness or pain under criticism. 
 Something after this fashion, it might be : — 
 
 " To-day, we have our fii'st talk about what we did 
 last week. These talks are meant to help everybody 
 — you and me. If you feel friendly toward anyone, 
 you will criticise him, provided you have grounds for 
 
CRITICISM. 113 
 
 criticism; just as you would tell him if there were a 
 buncli of burrs ou his coat-sleeve." Then I would 
 select a boy, and say, " We wiU take your paragraph 
 first. But before your friends — the class and I — 
 help you, help youi-self. You are a week older than 
 when you wrote the exercise ; you have, undoubtedly, 
 grown mentall3^ While your friends are thinking, 
 become your own judge." Often, a boy will do a 
 good deal for himself. After his own criticism, if no 
 one volunteers and there are evident faults, I would 
 say, perhaps, "I am soriy that you are not more 
 popular ! " 
 
 In all my own experience of many years I have 
 never found it difficult to have both class and teacher 
 criticise freely, and 3'et have the feeling of good-fel- 
 lowship increase. If this direct method be used, it 
 is not long before a pupil asks for criticism, as nat- 
 urally as he might ask whether or not his hat needed 
 brushing. If his class give the criticism, he is as little 
 offended as he would have been had liis teacher done so. 
 
 William E. Dodge, in a practical talk to a class of 
 boys and girls about to graduate, assured them that 
 an important factor in their success and influence 
 would be exact knowledge of themselves, — of their 
 own strength and weakness, and of their ability or 
 lack of ability in any special direction. Such criti- 
 cism as the class criticism just described helps a pupil 
 to estimate himself. 
 
114 ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that the teacher of elementary 
 composition is something more than a critic ; she is a 
 maker of critics. If her classes become heedful, if 
 she rouses "currents of true and fresh ideas," she 
 will have done more for them than the mere eluci- 
 dation of pages in grammars and rhetorics, or the 
 correction of dozens of formal exercises, could have 
 ,done. Education is, of course, progressive, and it is 
 the teacher of elementary composition that begins to 
 educate the critical faculty, — that power to perceive 
 what is in .accordance with what actually is or may 
 be. 
 
English. 
 
 F«>r descriptions of forthcoming books in English, see announcements at end of 
 this catalogue. 
 
 Suggestive Lessons in Language. 
 
 By Anna B. Badlam, of the Bailey St. Primary School, Boston ; formerly of 
 the Rice Training School, Boston. Leatherette. 104 pages. Retail price, 50 cents. 
 
 THIS book includes outline lessons for oral work, specimens of 
 stories told by children who had had the work, a collection of 
 simple fables for reproduction by the pupil, and a series of miscel- 
 laneous exercises in oral language. 
 
 It forms an excellent introduction to Hyde's First Book (see below). 
 
 Practical Lessons in the Use of Rnglish. 
 
 For Primary and Grammar Schools. By Mary F. Hyde, Teacher of CompO' 
 sition in the State Normal School, Albany, N. Y. First Book. For Primary 
 and Intermediate Schools. Cloth. \^'i pa^es. Price by mail, 40 cents. In- 
 troduction price, 35 cents. Second Book. Cloth. 238 pages. Introduction 
 price, 50 cents. By mail, 60 cents. Second Book, with supplement, for 
 Grammar grades. Cloth. 362 pages. Price by mail, 70 cents. Introduction 
 price, 60 cents. 
 
 The Second Book may be had with '• Practical Grammar " (see page 65) bound 
 with it. Cloth. 438 pages. Introduction price, 70 cts. Price by mail, 80 cts. 
 
 THESE books are designed to give the pupil practical aid in 
 speaking and in writing English. The First Book contains 
 such exercises as are needed by pupils when they begin to write 
 English. It includes graded lessons in the forms and uses of words 
 and sentences, dictation exercises, reproduction exercises, picture 
 lessons, choice selections for memorizing, practice in letter-writing, 
 etc. 
 
 The Second Book is intended for pupils in grammar schools. It 
 covers such technical grammar as is essential to a correct use of the 
 language, gives many selections for study from the best writers, the 
 most common uses of capital letters and of marks of punctuation, 
 practical exercises in composition, and special instruction in writing 
 letters, invitations, advertisements, public notices, etc. 
 
 The Supplement provides for a thorough review of all the gram- 
 matical principles taught in the preceding parts and also for a more 
 extended application of those principles. [.SV* next page. 
 
 63 
 
64 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 Our special circular on these books gives opinions from the many 
 states, counties, cities, towns, and schools in which they have been used 
 with the highest degree of success. The following are fair samples 
 of the testimony that comes to us : — 
 
 Chas. W. Deane, Ex-Supt. Schools, 
 Sioux City, Iowa. : We selected this after 
 comparison witli many others l>ecause we 
 found it best suited to our needs. We 
 have not been disappointed. 
 
 D. H. Darling, Ex-Supt. Schools, Jo- 
 liet, III. : They have more than satisfied 
 our expectations. We see already marked 
 improvement in our language work. 
 
 O. 8. Albee, State Normal School, 
 Oshkosh, Wis. : So far as we have used 
 Hyde's it has been the best book of the 
 kind that we have ever used, or that has 
 come under our notice. 
 
 C. B. Gilbert, Supt. of Schools, 
 Newark, N. J. . I have no hesitation in 
 saying that in my judgment no formal 
 language books are better. 
 
 W. J. Barr, School Commissioner, 
 Bafavia, N. Y.: I do not hesitate to 
 pronounce them works of superior merit. 
 
 Jacob Bickler, Ex.-Supt. of Public 
 Schools, Galveston, Tex.. They will do 
 more towards awakening a keen interest 
 in and kindling a lasting love for the study 
 than any series of grammars or books on 
 language known to me. 
 
 Derivation of Words. 
 
 With exercises on Prefixes, Suffixes and Stems. By Mary F. Hyde, author 
 of Practical Lessons in the Use of English. Paper. 64 pages. Introduction 
 price, 10 cents. Also bound with Hydes Lessons, Book II, with supplement. 
 
 THIS work is designed to extend the pupil's vocabulary and to 
 awaken his interest in the critical study of words. It presents 
 a brief study of the most common prefixes, suffixes, and stems, famil- 
 iarizes the pupil with the principles of word-analysis and word-forma- 
 tion, and gives him an accurate knowledge of the meanings and 
 varied applications of a large number of words. 
 
 William W. Abbott, Supt. Cente-/ 
 School District, Naugaiuck, Conn.: The 
 first year I thought they were good, the 
 second year I liked them better, and this 
 year, having paid more special attention 
 to the subject of language teaching, I 
 believe them to be the best in the market. 
 
 Prof. Geo. L. Maris, Prin. Friends'' 
 High School, Philadelphia: It comes 
 nearer the ideal book on elementary gram- 
 mar than any 1 know of. 
 
 F. E. 'Welles, Professor in Normal 
 School, Geneseo, N. Y.: I unhesitatingly 
 pronounce it the best elementary grammar 
 I have seen. 
 
 Mary S. Snow, Supt. Schools, Ban- 
 gor, Maine: They are perfect in every 
 particular. Pupils easily do in two years 
 what under other methods was badly 
 done in four, 
 
 A. P. Marble, Asst. Supt. Public 
 Schools, New York City: No one can make 
 a mistake in adopting these books. 
 
 Geo. A. Stanton, Ex-Prin. Public 
 Schools, St. Cloud, Minn.. They have 
 given entire satisfaction. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 65 
 
 A Practical English Grammar : 
 
 Advanced Lessons in English. By Mary F. Hyde, formerly Teacher of 
 Composition in the State Normal Schools, Albany, X. Y. Cloth. 210 pages. 
 Intrmluction price, 50 cents. Price by mail, 55 cents. This book may te had 
 bound with Second Book (see page 63). 43S pages. Introduction price, 70 cents. 
 
 THIS book is designed for the higher grades in grammar schools, 
 and for those classes in high schools, academies, and ungraded 
 schools, that require a brief, practical, progressive course in English 
 grammar. 
 
 The aim of the work is not to teach the greatest possible number of 
 facts about the English language, but to give the pupil a master of the 
 fundamental grammatical principles as a means toward the right under- 
 standing and correct use of English. 
 
 Every principle presented is illustrated by the usage of standard 
 writers, and all study of grammatical forms and constructions is based 
 upon the thought expressed. 
 
 The method of presentation is adapted to give the pupil a clear 
 understanding of the structure of the English language, an appreciation 
 of good literature, and the best mental discipline at the same time. 
 
 The work is at once simple and comprehensive, being elementary 
 enough for pupils beginning the study of formal grammar, and com- 
 prehensive enough for the general student. 
 
 It can be used independently of the other books in the author's 
 series in English, but it is specially adapted to the needs of pupils who 
 have completed the first two books in that series. The three books 
 furnish a complete and systematic course in language and grammar. 
 
 The foUcmting opinions, selected from the large number given in our 
 special circular on this book, indicate its popularity and adaptability to 
 its purpose : — 
 
 Chas. C. Bamsey, Prin. B. M. C. 
 
 Dttrfee High School, Fait River, Mass. : 
 It is in accord with the progressive and 
 best pedagogical opinion upon the subject 
 of English grammar. It has no superior 
 in this field for clearness, simpUcity, 
 concrete examples, and abundant practice 
 in the application of rules or principles. 
 David L. Kiehle, Pro/, of Pedagogy, 
 
 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 
 Mtnn. ; It incorporates the practical ex- 
 perience of a successful teacher in this 
 difficult subject in teaching. I can en- 
 dorse it as a valuable contribution to the 
 subject, and believe that the teacher who 
 knows how to use books will find this of 
 positive assistance in its plan and its 
 material 
 
66 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 English Grammar. 
 
 Outlines of English Grammar with continuous Selections for Practice, By 
 Harriet Mathews, late Teacher of English Grammar in the State Normal 
 School, Trenton, N. J. Cloth. 266 pages. Introduction price, 70 cents. Price 
 by mail, 80 cents. 
 
 THIS book is designed to furnish a full course in English grammar 
 for all classes except those pursuing special advanced work. The 
 book is devoted to grammatical work and presents the subject in con- 
 nection with choice selections and extracts as well as selected sen. 
 tences. The aim of the work is to teach from the materials of the 
 English language the principles of its grammar as a science. 
 
 J. M. Green, Prin. State Normal 
 School, Trenton, N.J.: It is my opinion 
 that this grammar has gone a long way 
 toward advancing " the learning of Eng- 
 lish by using it " in the proper sense. I 
 have seen the book used in both normal 
 and public schools with very satisfactory 
 results. 
 
 Louis F. Galbraith, State Normal 
 School, Winona, Minn. : Its new fea- 
 tures are pedagogically attractive and 
 sound. I am of the opinion that it is on 
 the right line. 
 
 Bertha Bass, State Normal School, 
 Providence, R. I.: The book ought to 
 teach the beauties as well as the uses of 
 English. 
 
 Isabel 'W. Pierce, State Normal 
 School, Chico, Cal.: It has embodied the 
 right plan of teaching grammar. 
 
 Ellas Fraunfelter, Supt. Public 
 Schools, Akron, O. : It is certainly a very 
 excellent work. The method followed by 
 the author has been used in these schools 
 since last September, and the result 
 secured is very satisfactory indeed. 
 
 Oscar S. Burdlck, Henry School, 
 Stamford, Ct. : I am much pleased with 
 the plan of the book as well as with its 
 execution. The idea of continuous selec- 
 tions for use in class I consider a most 
 excellent one, and the author has certainly 
 displayed good judgment in her choice of 
 those to be used. 
 
 English in the Schools. 
 
 By F. C. Woodward, Professor of English, University of South Carolina. 
 Paper. 25 pages. Retail price, 25 cents. 
 
 THIS book sets forth the arguments for the study of English as a 
 means of mental discipline, in both schools and colleges. It 
 claims that the mother-tongue may be made the medium and means of 
 as sound linguistic training as can be gained by the study of the 
 ancient languages. It lays stress on the fact that the study of Eng- 
 lish forms, syntax, idiom, and historical grammar is the only possible 
 linguistic matter for the mass of American pupils, and seeks to show 
 that there is such a study of the native speech as is entirely adequate 
 to all demands thus made on it. 
 
EXGLISH. 
 
 69 
 
 Common Words Difficult to Spell. 
 
 By James H. Penniman, Instructor in English in the DeLancey School, Phila- 
 delphia, Boards. 96 pages. Introduction price, 20 cts. By mail, 25 cts. 
 
 THIS book consists of a graded list of 3,500 words which experience 
 has shown are most frequently misspelled. It is believed that 
 concentration on such words is the only means of remedying the 
 bad speUing that has been justly termed the reproach of American 
 schools. The lists here given have been compiled after much expe- 
 rience in correcting exercises and compositions. Words relating to 
 particular subjects have to some extent been grouped, but in the main 
 the graded arrangement has been followed. 
 
 In addition to the lists of words for spelling, the book contains a 
 series of practical suggestions about teaching, spelling, and a number 
 of well-chosen dictation exercises from Hawthorne, Irving, Emerson, 
 and Lowell. 
 
 Special circular sent on application. 
 
 A. P. Karble, Assist. Suft. Schools, 
 New York: I think this book one of 
 the most useful I have ever seen. 
 
 J. H. Faisett, Suft. Schools, Nashua, 
 N. H. : It is the finest book of its kind. 
 
 Henry W. Boynton, Teacher of Eng- 
 lish, Phillips Acad., Andaver, Mass. : 
 Based on common sense. It contains 
 a body of thoroughly useful materiaL 
 
 Prose Dictation Exercises 
 
 from the English Classics, -with Hints on Punctuation and Parsing. By 
 James H. Penniman, Instructor in English in the De Lancey School, Philadel- 
 phia. Boards. 84 pages. Introduction price, 25 cts. By mail, 30 cts. 
 
 THIS book consists of a series of fifty extracts from English prose 
 classics, arranged for carefiil study. It is believed the use of 
 these Exercises will show results in the way of more elevated thought, 
 clearer expression, and better spelling and pronunciation. The ex- 
 ercises will tend to give a somewhat extended and accurate vocabulary . 
 In the extracts words which should be studied with especial care are 
 printed in italics. The more important rules for punctuation and a few 
 points with regard to English grammar are given. 
 
 Mary F. Hyde, Author of Hyde's 1 good and will furnish good models both 
 Language Lessons. The selections are | in thought and expression. 
 
70 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 The English Language. 
 
 Its Grammar, History, and Literature, with chapters on Composition, Versifica- 
 tion, Paraphrasing, and Punctuation. By J. M. D. Meiklejohn, Professor of 
 Pedagogy in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Cloth. 396 pages. 
 Price by mail, Si .30. Introduction price reduced from S!i.30 to $1.20. 
 
 THIS book, which treats of the Grammar, History and Literature 
 of the English Language, is distinguished throughout by clear, 
 brief and comprehensive statement and illustration. Insignificant de- 
 tails are omitted, but all salient features are treated with the utmost 
 clearness. A complete index is added for convenience of reference. 
 It is especially suitable for classes needing a scholarly, yet clear and 
 interesting summary, and for teachers who want a brief text for their 
 own instruction. It is a compact and reliable statement of all the 
 essentials of the subject. \See the following. 
 
 English Grammar. 
 
 Parts I and II of " The English Language " (described above). By T. M. D. 
 Meiklejohn, Professor in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Cloth. 
 236 pages. Price by mail, go cents. Introduction price, 80 cents. 
 
 PART I contains a concise and accurate rhumi of the principles 
 and rules of English Grammar, with some interesting chapters 
 on word-building and derivation, including a historical dictionary of 
 roots and branches of words derived from names of persons or of 
 places, and of words disguised in form, and words greatly changed in 
 meaning. 
 
 Part II contains 30 pages of practical instruction in Composition, 
 Paraphrasing, Versification and Punctuation. The book concludes 
 with 36 pages of exercises on Part I. It is suited to Academies, High 
 Schools and Colleges. 
 
 English Literature. 
 
 Parts III and IV of " The English Language " (described above). By J. M. D. 
 Meiklejohn, Professor in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Cloth. 
 194 pages. Price by mail, 85 cents. Introduction price, 80 cents. 
 
 PARTS III and IV of "The English Language" which comprise 
 this book are described in full on the next page. 
 
 W. M. Milham. Pnn. High School, F. K. Walter, Prin. High School, 
 
 Ga/«H, A/icA. .' A great improvement over Unionville, Pa.: It is one of the best 
 
 any other text of the kind that I have brief sketches of English Literature that 
 
 seen. I know. 
 
ENGLISH. 73 
 
 Composition and Rhetoric by Practice. 
 
 Revised and enlarged edition. With exeicises adapted for use in High Schools 
 and Colleges. By WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Principal of Collegiate Institute, Col- 
 lingwood, Ont. Cloth. 345 pp. By mail, jSi.oo. Introduction price, go cents. 
 
 THIS is an eminently practical book; not that it excludes theory, 
 but that it gives prominence to practice. Every discerning teacher 
 must have found that little theory and much practice is by far the most 
 efFeotive way of teaching composition, and it is on this maxim that 
 this book is based. Its purpose is to give the teacher the means of 
 carrying into effect such a plan of teaching, and it therefore proceeds 
 on the simple method of laying down a few principles at a time and 
 then illustrating them with such a number and variety of exercises that 
 the pupil may fully master the practical application of these principles 
 and thereby learn not only to write, but to write correctly. 
 
 The first edition of this book was used in a large number of our 
 schools and colleges, and was cordially approved and recommended by 
 teachers of Rhetoric, from whom we quote the following: — 
 
 W. H. Houghton, late Prof, oj Rhe- 
 toric, Univ. of the City of New York: I 
 can i-ecommend the book very highly. I 
 
 have decided to introduce it for my class. 
 A. J. May, recently of High School, 
 Lawrence, Kansas : The most practical 
 text on the subject I have examined. 
 
 C. F. Richardson, Prof, of English, 
 Dartmouth Coll. : A clear and modest 
 book, especially useful in its exercises. 
 
 C. N. Sims, Ex-Cliancellor of Syra- 
 cuse Univ., N. v.: Jt seems very practical 
 and admirably adapted to instruct in the 
 clear use of the English language. 
 
 The Study of Rhetoric in the College Course. 
 
 By J. F. Genung, Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College. Paper. 32 pages. 
 "Retail price, 35 cents. 
 
 I'^HE first part defines the place of Rhetoric among the college 
 studies, and the more liberal estimate of its scope required by the 
 present state of learning and literature. This is followed by a discus- 
 sion of what may and should be done, as the most practical discipline 
 of students, toward the making of literature. Finally, a systematized 
 and progressive course in Rhetoric is sketched, being mainly the course 
 already tried and approved by the author's own classes. 
 
 W. C. Wilkinson, Author of vari- 
 ous Chautauqua text-books : It almost de- 
 serves to be described prophetically as 
 an " epoch-making " production — in its 
 
 own sphere. I have never anywhere 
 else seen so much good sense expressed 
 on the subject of which it treats, and the 
 style is example and demonstration. 
 
74 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 Exercises in English. 
 
 Selected and classified for criticism or correction. By H. I. Strang, Head 
 Master Goderich High School, Ontario. (Revised, with additions, by G.R. Cak- 
 PENTER, Professor of English in Columbia University, New York.) Cloth 
 146 pages. Introduction price, 45 cents. Price by mail, 50 cents. 
 
 MANY pupils who have a ready command of grammatical rules and 
 definitions, and who are fairly proficient in analysis and parsing, 
 are yet seemingly unable to detect common and undoubted errors in 
 sentences of their own writing. Accustomed as the majority of our 
 pupils are from childhood to hearing incorrect forms of speech used by 
 those around them, special and systematic drill is necessary to teach 
 them to notice and guard against these wrong forms ; and this drill 
 should be oral as well as written, in order that both the ear and the eye 
 may be enlisted in the cause of good English, and trained to assist the 
 student. 
 
 This book is an attempt not only to supply exactly this necessary 
 drill for students who pursue their studies no further than the High 
 School, but to provide ample and adequate drill for the very large class 
 of pupils who are preparing for college. At almost all the New Eng- 
 land colleges and scientific schools, and in certain others of the Middle 
 and Western States as well, the candidate is required " /o correct 
 specimens of bad English.'''' It is to meet the requirements of this im- 
 portant examination that this book has been recently carefully adapted 
 by the addition of considerable matter in the body of the book and oi 
 an appendix containing eighteen typical college examinations. 
 
 Our special circular on this book gives abundant evidence of its 
 usefulness for school and college and for all interested in careful writ- 
 ing. We quote a few opinions : — 
 
 James R. Truax, Pra/. of Rhet., 
 Eng. Lang.-and Lit.^ Union Coll.j N. Y. : 
 An eminently sensible mode of teaching 
 a vital subject. It should be honored by 
 extensive use in the schools. 
 
 Melville B. Anderson, Prof, of 
 Sng., Leland Stanford Univ.: It is 
 admirable, and I hope to find use for it 
 with my Freshmen. 
 
 G-eo. S. MacLean, Chancellor, 
 Univ. of Nebr.: Admirably selected and 
 arranged. Should be used in every High 
 School, to supplement the grammar and 
 composition. 
 
 J. A. Tufts, Teacher of English, 
 Philips Exeter Academy : I have found 
 it valuable in preparing boys for college. 
 As revised it is vastly improved. 
 
The Heart of Oak Books 
 
 A Series of Reading Books for Home and School ; Edited 
 by Professor Charles Eliot Morton, of Harvard UnJYersity 
 
 Book I Rhymes and Jingles. 100 pages , . . 2S cts. 
 
 Book II Fabler and Nursery Tales. 142 pages . 35 cts. 
 
 Book III Fairy Stories and Classic Tales. 265 pages 45 cts. 
 
 Book IV Masterpieces of Literature. 303 pages . 55 cts. 
 
 Book V Masterpieces of Literature. 359 pages . 65 cts. 
 
 Book VI Masterpieces of Literature. 367 pages . 75 cts. 
 
 "its. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 By referring to the tables of contents tlie reader will discorer that the Heart of Oak Books 
 contain an unusual number of prose extracts of considerable length, to which justice can- 
 not well be done in a small number of selections like this. Attention is called to some of the 
 more noteworthy of these : 
 Book 11. " Sindbad the Sailor" (56 pages). "The Death of Oesar,** from North's 
 
 Plutarch (12 pages). "The Stories of Wallace and Bruce/' from Scott's Tales of a 
 
 Grandfather (77 pages). 
 Book III. '* The Adventures of Ulysses," Charles Lamb (118 pages). 
 Book V. *' Story of Argalus and Partheneia," Sir Philip Sidney (17 pages.) " Of Poets 
 
 and Poetry," ibid, (iipages). " Recollections of Christ's Hospital," Lamb (ispages). 
 BookVX. Carlyle's " Boswell's Life of Johnson" (23 pages). Carlyle's " Bums " ^22 
 
 pages), and '* Scott " (27 pages). Hawthorne's ** Custom House " from the Scarlec 
 
 letter (25 pages). 
 
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 Eyde'9 Lessons in English, Book I. For the lower grades. Contains exercises 
 for reproduction, picture lessons, letter writing, uses of parts of speech, etc. 40 cts. 
 
 Hyde's Lessons in English, Book IL For Grammar schools. Has enough tech- 
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 Hyde's Lessons in English, Book II with Supplement. Has, in addition 
 
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 Supplement bound alone, 35 cts. 
 
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 Hyde's Lessons in English, Book II with Practical Grammar. The 
 
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 Hyde's Derivation of Words, is cts. 
 
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 Boards. 30 cts. 
 
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 Cloth. 45 cts. 
 
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 the primary difficulties of spelling and sound, 30 cts. 
 
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 For high schools and colleges. 90 cts. 
 
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 See also our list of books for tlie study of English Literature, 
 
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