given formula, were to be again analyzed, the relations of its clauses and parts would be the same as those in the formula. It is in this sense that the Synthesis here proposed forms the exact counterpart of grammatical Analysis. The process, it may be added, is simply that of nature reduced to a system; for there is no one who, in making a sentence, does not, however unconsciously, go through the same process of considering and combining the items of thought of which it is to be composed. It is hoped that, by this method, the teaching of English Composition,-hitherto the least systematic, and when professing to be systematic the least profitable, of school subjects, -may be rendered as valuable an instrument of mental training as English Grammar has of late become.

A glance at the Table of Contents will show that this synthetic character has been maintained throughout the entire work. It requires Words to be built into Sentences; sentences into Paragraphs; and (in the "Advanced" volume) paragraphs into Themes. While this general outline has been adhered to, the usual details and applications of composition have not been omitted, but have been systematically wrought into the plan of the work. Thus the often meaningless and loose exercise of filling up "elliptical sentences" has, under the head of Enlargement (§ 33), been employed as a test both of thought and of grammatical knowledge. Transposition has been applied to the change from the Direct to the Indirect form of speech, which in classical schools may, in some measure, prepare the pupils for understanding the difficulties of the "oratio obliqua." Punctuation is treated of in connexion with each kind of sentence, separately.

5

In the present Edition (the sixth), Part I., on the Sentence, has been remodelled, and simplified in those particulars in which it was found, from practical experience, to present unusual difficulties. Part II., on the Paragraph, has been entirely rewritten. Here also the method of procedure has been much very simplified, especially in the direction of aiding the pupil by supplying outlines of the Exercises which he has to write under each kind of composition.

In former editions of the work, Reflection was given after Narration and Description, as the third kind of composition. The author has seen cause to abandon this division of the subject as inadequate, especially as it is difficult in practice to separate Reflection from the other two kinds of writing referred to. He has therefore adopted from Professor Bain the term Exposition as more accurately descriptive of that kind of composition which deals with abstract subjects.

The author has further transferred to the chapter on Exposition the exercise known as Paraphrasing, believing that, in the case of young pupils, the Expanded Paraphrase is the best and simplest form in which the thought of a writer can be explained and amplified.

The present volume closes with Summary, or Précis Writing, an exercise which, as implying both analysis and synthesis, stands appropriately between the Paragraph and the Theme.

The chapter on the Selection of Words has been postponed to the "Advanced" volume, where it is incorporated with a new Whatever it is part treating of Style in its higher aspects. important for pupils to know on this subject at the initiatory

stage has been retained in the chapters on the "Principles of Construction," applied both to the Sentence and to the Paragraph.

Though the Theme or Essay is not systematically treated of in the present volume, the exercises in the later chapters, on the Paragraph, are really short Essays, such as are usually prescribed in Schools, and are fully adequate to test the powers of original composition of pupils in all but the most advanced classes.

EDINBURGH, June 1867.