EducT 768,57.720 ✓ HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GEORGE ANTHUR PLIMPTON Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1854 By G. P. QUACKENBOS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southers ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR, FIRST LESSONS IN COMPOSITION, IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ART ARE DEVELOPED GRAMMAR; EMBRACING IN FULL DIRECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF PUNCTUATION; WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES. то THE REV. DR. FERRIS, CHANCELLAR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AS A TRIBUTE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPECT FOR SOUND SCHOLARSHIP AND UNWEARIED LABORS IN THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION, NO LESS THAN AS A MEMORIAL PREFACE. THE favor with which the public have kindly received the Author's "First Lessons in Composition", and the frequent calls made by Colleges and higher Academies for a more advanced work on the same plan, with which to follow it, have led to the preparation of the present volume. The elementary book to which reference has just been made, was intended to initiate the beginner by easy steps into the art of composition; the work now offered to the public has a wider scope, embracing a variety of subjects worthy of the attention of advanced pupils, and presenting much important matter heretofore scattered through a number of different textbooks. Claiming to give a comprehensive and practical view of our language in all its relations, this "Advanced Course" views it as a whole, no less than with reference to the individual words composing it; shows how it compares with other tongues, modern and ancient; points out its beauties; indicates how they may best be made available; and, in a word, teaches the pupil the most philosophical method of digesting and arranging his thoughts, as well as the most correct and effective mode of expressing them. The volume commences with a condensed history of our tongue prefaced by a consideration of the origin of language in general, both spoken and written. Attention is first paid to the successive steps, by which, with Divine aid, man was enabled to develop a system of spoken language, to frame that elaborate and wonderful fabric without which civilization would be blotted from the globe. The invention of letters and the various systems of writing form the next subjects in order. The primitive language of Britain is then traced through successive modifications, produced by as many political changes, until at last the German invaders banished it to wilds and fastnesses, and introduced the sturdy mother-tongue of our own English. The history of the latter is then traced, from the days of Hengist and Horsa, through lines of Saxon kings, Scandinavian usurpers, and Norman conquerors; until, modified, enriched, and improved, by the foreign elements with which it was brought in contact, it became a new tongue, that was soon embodied by poets in undying verse, and was destined to give birth to the noblest and most valuable literature of modern times. The formation of the English language having been thus considered, its words are treated of, both with reference to their origin and the parts they respectively perform in a sentence. The memory of the pupil being then refreshed by a condensed review of the leading topics of grammar, a chapter on false syntax, and an exhaustive view of the principles relating to the use of Capitals, the too generally neglected subject of Punctuation is next taken up. As this art, when considered at all in educational text-books, is treated only in the most cursory manner, it was regarded as a desideratum to present in this volume a complete and thorough system, which should cover exceptions as well as rules, and provide for every possible case, however rare or intricate. Such a system, it is claimed, is here set forth. Rhetoric proper constitutes the next division of the work. Here, by means of strict conciseness, space has been found to treat with due attention and minuteness of every important subject connected with the art. The student is led to consider successively Taste, its elements, characteristics, and standard; the pleasures of the imagination, its sources,-the novel, the wonderful, the picturesque, the sublime, and the beautiful; sublimity and beauty of writing; wit, humor, and ridicule; figures their use and abuse; style, its varieties and essential properties; and criticism. A thorough preliminary course on these important subjects was thought necessary before requiring the student to write original exercises. Thus prepared, the pupil enters on the subject of prose composition. The process of Invention, which furnishes the thoughts to be clothed in a dress of words, and which constitutes the most difficult if not the chief. branch of the art, is first considered. The young composer is shown how to analyze his subject, and to amplify the thoughts successively suggested into a well-connected whole. The different parts of an exercise are taken up in turn; various forms and models of introductions are presented; descrip |