PREFACE This volume would never have been published if it were not for the belief that just such a book is needed. Colleges and high schools are trying to place the blame, each upon the other, for the faulty English found in college compositions and in the writings of graduates. The weakness lies rather in the earliest teaching of English. Pupils who do not master elementary principles at the very beginning of their study of expression will never be able to recover the lost time. Later teachers will take for granted knowledge of which the pupils are not possessed. To meet the need of a text book by aid of which pupils may be started right is the reason for this volume. Names of authors have rarely been given, except where the example illustrates an exception to the general rule. The quotations are all from standard authors, and by preference from the poets. The pupil should be made to feel that the poetic language is not a thing apart from daily life. The essential unity of the language is illustrated by these examples which may be supplemented by homelier ones of the pupil's own choosing or composition. The author's aim briefly stated is to meet practical needs by the application of sound pedagogical principles. The result desired is the improvement of the teaching of English so that an increasing number of our young people may be prepared to enjoy the beauties of English literature and to express their own ideas in words not unworthy of those who speak the language of Milton and of Longfellow, of Edmund Burke and of Daniel Webster. |