Yon speaker that cavorts so assumptiously remembers me of a fice n high oats. My fingers itch to take the chap a peg or two lower. What a rippet you fellows are making! The first thing you know, you'll make my critter break her bridle and run away; and then won't I be difficulted to get home? I love these peaceable shades, but I can not long feel contented without sociable intercourse. Then quoth Reuben, the companible Reuben, "Wilt thou plight thy word to me, sweet flower on the bush of humanity, that no other wight shall be admitted to the privilege which thou dost so cruelly refuse to me?" But for all his affectuous appeal, she would make no promise, and the melancholious swain retired in wonderment that such charms as hissen should be uneffectual. It was by many denied that the poems of Ossian are authentic; Macpherson, it was said, composed them, and passed them off for the products of the ancient Celtic muse. The causes for such an opinion never satiated my mind. There is no connexity in the gent's remarks; he is gassy, and mystifies every point that he takes in hand. But now this ci-devant literateur is devoted to the culture of cotton. His customs are all those of the planter. He has turned off the man who overseed for him last year, in order that he might have the direct management of the plantation himself. Ah, mon cher élève, I beseech you, when you exchange school-life for the beau monde, do not become a mere follower of pleasure, going from fête to fête, and wasting your energies on bagatelles. Do you find such marks of deity in the character or deliverances of any other teacher? I have entered your mercantile colleague mainly for the purpose of becoming a finished. scribbler. Bacon is an example of great talents unfortified by lofty principles. Was it my wife's health that you asked for? Oh, she is as well as any gentlewoman could be, that had been stripped from all home comforts. Has all this argufying produced in you a settled faith of the proposal? "Tomatoes," said she, "are very healthy; they give force to the liver." QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND EXAMINATION. What two arts are combined in the Art of Composition? What does each one of these arts teach? How should they be studied, and why so? What is derivation? What is the difference between a derivative and a primitive word? What is meant by the radical of a derivative? What is a prefix, and what Which are the inflec What are barbarisms? a suffix? What are the two kinds of derivation by suffixes? What Where is the English language used? What is What are provincialisms? What are slang words? What are the three directions required by simplicity? of every complete sentence indicated? How many and which are the full stops? What is the use of each of them? Repeat the rules for the use of capitals. When is the suffix s changed into es? When is the final consonant of a radical to be doubled? What are the exceptions to this rule? When When does the final consonant of a radical remain single in the derivative? is the final e of a radical dropped from the derivative? What exceptions to this rule? What does propriety of diction require? Under what two heads may propriety be considered? How is lexical propriety violated? heads is it considered? What are paronyms? preposition following a Latin or Greek derivative? tions to this rule? Under what three subordinate What is the general rule for a Why are there so many excepWhat are redundancies ? In what does precision consist? What is a pleonasm? What is tautology? What is meant by a group of synonyms? To what extent are the members of each group of synonyms alike in meaning? What is the finest test of skill in the use of language? What is a quotation? and an indirect quotation. Describe the difference between a formal, an informal, How are formal and informal quotations indicated? How is an indirect quotation indicated? What is style? What are the essential qualities of good style? To what two things do the essential qualities of good style have reference? What is the distinction between diction and structure? What are the four essential qualities of good diction? What are synonyms? Why is the English language so rich in synonyms? When is the final y of a radical changed into i in the derivative? When is the final y of a radical retained in the derivative? When is the termination ie changed into y in the derivative? How are the suffixes ed and est both added to the same radical? What are obsolete words? Where may they be still used? Why do obsolete words abound in the Sacred Scriptures? Give six examples of obsolete words, with their meanings. What is meant by coining a word? When is it allowable to coin a word? When are foreign words considered barbarisms? cisms? What are Galli What does decorous propriety require? What are the three kinds of vulgarisms? What are colloquialisms and vulgarisms? How are numbers to be written? BOOK SECOND. PART FIRST. INVENTION-RESUMED. CHAPTER X. DESCRIPTION. TO THE TEACHER.—In resuming the subject of invention, a word or two of explanation may be necessary. It is not desirable that these exercises should be crowded together into any definite and brief portion of the pupil's course, but rather that they should be interspersed throughout a very considerable period, as occasional digressions from the regular routine. Once in two weeks is perhaps as often as the exercises in Invention should be required. In the intervals between them, daily tasks may be assigned in the various chapters that treat of the art of Expression. Coming thus as occasional exercises, if five be required in Description, five in Narration, five or more in Letters, and about the same in Historical or Biographical Sketching, these four chapters will cover about forty weeks, which is generally as much as is comprised in the scholastic year. During this time, the pupil will have been carried by daily tasks and exercises over the chapters on Structure, Punctuation, Variety of Expression, and the Translation of Poetry into Prose. But it is not intended to assign with any definiteness the proportion of time allotted to these two correlated branches, the art of Expression and the art of Invention. On the contrary, the teacher is purposely left free in this matter. Various circumstances may introduce a want of uniformity in the rate at which different classes progress through the exercises prescribed. The teacher may, for instance, find one class apt to learn the principles of punctuation, but slower in translating poetry into prose. Another class may possess the contrary aptitude. A third may be dull and slow in both chapters. He may judge it best to make the class go over some chapter a second or third time before quitting it. It is intended that he shall be free to do so; and yet the progress of the class in Invention need not be delayed in this. Advancement in one branch does not depend upon any particular degree of forwardness in the other. It is sufficient that there be a general keeping-pace in the two branches, as the pupil passes through the Manual; and this remark will apply to the whole arrangement of the work. In the preceding exercises in Invention (Chapters II. and III.) the pupil was helped to the pro luction of ideas by questions, lectures, etc. Now he is to be thrown more fully upon his own resources. I. PRESENT OBJECTS. First, the pupil must be trained to express the ideas afforded to him by direct observation. He should be required to write a description of some particular object actually in his view. For instance: 1. His desk; 2. The blackboard; 3. The stove; 4. The closet; 5. A house in sight; 6. An adjacent garden or field; 7. A tree or grove, in view; 8. The spring or the well; 9. A bank of clouds; 10. A horse, or any animal at hand. No part of a teacher's labor is more abundantly rewarded than that employed in teaching his pupils how to see. The proper cultivation of the perceptive faculties necessarily includes the cultivation of the thinking powers. The young pupil does not know how or what to observe. He should therefore be taught carefully to examine what is presented to him by his senses, and to combine the impressions thus received so as to make a full, clear, and comprehensive conception of each object. In order to this, particular attention should be given to the order or method in which he observes things. It would be well for the teacher, while the object is before the pupil, to guide him by a few questions, no matter how simple or meaningless they might, for other purposes, seem to be. Such questions are suggestive; their order is suggestive. They call up to the mind much more than their mere answers. After a very few examinations of objects thus conducted, the pupil's mind, by virtue of its own inductive tendency, will form a rule or method for itself, and will follow that method not merely in observing, but in writing out the results of such observation. Thus guided, he will soon learn to notice, first, the general appearance of an object, and then its particular parts, with their size, color, causes, uses, and resemblances. Every object will present some leading feature, around which the other parts will group themselves. To different persons, different objects may present themselves as the principal features; and this peculiarity of each mind should be respected, and allowed its legitimate play. But the taste that makes a bad selection should be kindly corrected. Not many such corrections will have been made before the pupil will have passed beyond all danger of making those sudden and grotesque transitions which offed sensible people. He will not, for instance, in describing a house, begin with the attic, or jump from the foundation to the upper apartments, and thence back to the walls. He will not describe the inside before the outside, nor the inferior apartments before the principal ones. After some little practice has initiated the pupil into the art of observing and recording what the senses give, he should be encouraged to turn the mind's eye inward, and observe the effect of this upon his own feelings and sentiments. Almost every object that would be selected for an exercise in description will be found to possess a character, a language, and to impress some sentiment on the thoughtful mind. To detect this character, to understand this language or trace this impression, requires no great genius, not even perfect maturity of mind; but it requires attention, concentration, a calm, steady holding of the mind to the object, an effort to appreciate it, and a yielding to the influence of the scene. The greatest obstacles to this in the case of young persons are their giddiness, and a certain false shame of acknowledging their own feelings. Let these be overcome, and the results, even in the case of those that seem to be dull in other respects, will be surprising and gratifying. In a very short time the young composer will begin to produce descriptions that will be, not only accurate and vivid, but possessed somewhat of poetic grace. |