it is that you will say. When the time for composition comes, make first a little plan, paragraph by paragraph, jotting down in each section notes of the details you expect to use there, and, if there be time, defer the actual writing until another sitting. When you again take up your plan, read it over carefully, altering it if necessary, and then, as rapidly as possible, write the whole essay. At a third sitting, again look over your work, correcting and polishing it, and make a clean copy of it. If you can, look again over this copy, after an interval, before handing it in, to make sure that you have made no minor error. If the composition is very short, it may be done at a sitting, but in that case much the same course of procedure should be followed. Above all, do not worry over your writing. Keep your head clear, avoid postponing your task until the last moment, and do your best. best. If If your teacher or your classmates criticise your work severely, take their comments calmly and thankfully. What you wish to learn is how to tell others what you know, and if others do not understand you or feel the force of what you say, you should be interested in knowing why and how you have failed. It may be added that you will be the gainer if you can read your work privately to a friend before submitting it to your teacher and classmates. Ask him whether he understands fully the point you mean to make. If he does not, find out why, and mend your work accordingly. You will also be helped by reading your work aloud to yourself after you have

finished it, making sure that it sounds well, and by cultivating, in general, the habit of realizing, as you write, how the words would sound if spoken.

4. Reading and Composition. The reading of good books will help every young writer. He should be accustomed to reading of various sorts—reading for sheer pleasure and amusement, as in Ivanhoe, The Last of the Mohicans, or Treasure Island; reading for information combined with pleasure, as in Stanley's Through the Dark Continent or Prescott's Conquest of Mexico; reading for the training of the mind and the taste, as in the school work in English literature. Except when carried away by excitement, as is natural and proper in the story of adventure, he should read with care, with sufficient slowness to catch the full force and value of the writer's words, and to become familiar with the swing of his style. He should not necessarily try to imitate with closeness what he reads. The good author writes with a subtlety, charm, and delicacy beyond the reach of a boy, on different subjects, with greater experience and knowledge, on a larger scale. The student should feel the stimulus of what he reads, and be thereby unconsciously the better writer; but when he comes to put his own thoughts on paper, he will in general do well to express them in the way most natural to him-simply, plainly, frankly, as is appropriate to his youth and character.

CHAPTER II

MINOR FORMS OF COMPOSITION

5. NOTE-BOOKS. · EXERCISE I. -6. EXAMINATION PAPERS. - ExERCISE 2.-7. TRANSLATION. — EXERCISE 3.-8. PARAPHRASE. EXERCISE 4.-9. LETTERS.—10. THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE. 11. PAPER AND INK.-12. THE ENVELOPE. EXERCISE 5. 13. THE BEGINNING OF A LETTER.-14. THE END. - EXERCISE 6. 15. LETTERS IN THE THIRD PERSON. EXERCISE 7.-16. THE BODY OF THE LETTER.EXERCISE 8.-17. LETTERS IN LITERATURE.

5. Note-books. No one will learn to write well who does not regard all pieces of composition as alike worthy of careful attention. We may, of course, jot down addresses or memoranda on the back of an old envelope without much concern as to the form of our expression; and in taking rough notes of a lecture it is sufficient to put down only such words as will best recall to our own minds a few hours later what were the speaker's main ideas. But it is another matter when what we write is intended for the eye of another, or even when it is to be preserved for our own permanent use. In such cases care and skill are necessary. Notice, for example, the following extracts from a student's laboratory note-book in physics, written expressly for the information of his instructors or examiners:

(1) The ivory balls rebounded the greatest distance. Showing that ivory was the most elastic substance of the three. Then the wooden balls rebounded the next longest distance, showing that wood was the second most elastic substance of the three. Then the rubber was the least elastic of the three.

(2) I took a long glass tube and put one end in water and the other in my mouth. By expanding my lungs, the air was rarefied and the water rushed into the tube. If you close one end with your finger, the water will not flow out at the other, because the outside pressure is too great. As soon as the finger is removed, the water will flow out, as on one end there is gravitation and air pressure, while on the other is only air pressure.

[Here the omission of the verb in the second sentence of (1), and the general awkwardness of construction throughout both (1) and (2), produce an impression of ignorance and carelessness, even when the facts are in themselves correct.]

An even worse fault in note-books than that of careless composition is that of careless thinking and the muddled expression dependent thereon. Notice the complete absence of this fault in the following set of notes, made from an interesting article by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, on the battle of Bunker Hill, in the American Historical Review for April, 1896:

The success of the American cause was due to luck. Luck-a "balancing of blunders"-turned the occupation of Breed's Hill to American advantage.

(a) American blunders - forces put into a trap. Cut off from mainland by Charlestown Neck. On lower ground

than Bunker Hill. Original plan, to fortify Bunker Hill and high land on mainland side of Charlestown Neck. This would have secured command of Boston and kept communication open with main forces.

(b) British blunders - failure to take advantage. Proper course, occupation of the Neck by the British. Americans must then either fight against heavy odds or surrender. Result of the surrender or defeat, demoralization of the patriot army. Further attack by British on Americans near Cambridge. Both these courses urged by Clinton but disregarded. Actual course Breed's Hill stormed from the front; Americans driven out of their own trap back to the mainland. General result—just what should have been desired (forestalling of British on Bunker Hill, drawing of fire), but what could not be result of plan and insight.

(c) Luck shown in the American commander. Prescott a fighter; moved to Breed's Hill, thus bringing on the engagement there; kept the militia under control through two charges by British.

(d) Luck shown in the fact that ammunition failed before a third repulse. If the British had been repulsed again, undoubtedly the next day they would have attacked the Americans in the rear and forced a surrender. Prescott wished the next day to return to the trap; no realization of his luck.

EXERCISE I

I. Rewrite extracts (1) and (2) in § 5.

II. Criticise, under the direction of the instructor, your own note-books, or those of your classmates, from the point of view of clear and adequate expression.

III. Write a paragraph, based on your own experience, on the main things to be borne in mind in keeping a good note-book in history, or chemistry, or English literature.

IV. Take rough notes of a sermon, lecture, or address.