ENGLISH PROSE COMPOSITION A PRACTICAL MANUAL FOR USE IN SCHOOLS BY JAMES CURRIE, M.A. PRINCIPAL OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND TRAINING COLLEGE, PREFACE. THE present Manual is designed to teach the Art of Composition so far as it can, in ordinary circumstances, be taught in school. The ability to write correct English has risen greatly in public estimation of late years as a result of elementary education, as appears by the value attached to it by almost all bodies who have the charge of examining for public employment. It now receives, in consequence, greater attention as a branch of school-work; though certainly not more than its practical importance deserves. It would be unreasonable to expect in a pupil attending school the ability either to produce a polished continuous discourse, or to elaborate a sustained and well-proportioned train of thought on any of the multifarious subjects that are treated of in the popular Essay. If he is thoroughly at home in sentence-making, and is able to construct and fill up a scheme upon the simple subjects which fall under his observation, or on which he can obtain information from such conversation and reading as are within his reach, he may be trusted to attain a higher degree of skill as his reading is extended and his mind becomes more mature. The present treatise consists, accordingly, of two parts. The First Part is devoted to the Construction of Sentences. It seeks to acquaint the pupil with the various forms of sentence-Simple, Compound, and Complex ; to extend his resources of expression by accustoming him to vary both the structure and the phraseology of sentences; to enable him to invest them with some degree of grace and interest by the introduction of appropriate figurative language; and, finally, to give him a clear apprehension of the principles of Unity and Variety on which every sequence of sentences depends so much for its effect. The Second Part deals with Composition in the ordinary sense of the term: in other |