1

which it was compiled. He believes it is not too much to say, that it not only embraces, but presents in a more convenient method and form, the best portions, at least the most useful, of the works of Blair, Whateley, Beattie, Campbell, and Watts, while it comprehends, besides, the Practical Exercises, the History of the English Language and Literature, and the selections from British and American Poets, with critical notices, which did not enter into the plan of any of the above works.

As now enlarged, the work will, it is hoped, be deemed worthy of a general introduction into academies, while it has not thereby lost, in any degree, its adaptedness to the wants of common schools, especially in the improved condition to which they are advancing from year to year. Watertown, January 2, 1846.

SECT. I. Variety of Construction

II. Simple Sentences

III. Abridgment of Complex Sentences

IV. Abridgment of Complex Sentences (continued)

V. Variety of Structure

VI. Variety of Structure and Expression

VII. Complex Sentences

VIII. Ideas suggested to form Sentences

V. ARRANGEMENT OF SENTENCES.

SECT. I. Variety of Arrangement

II. Variety of Arrangement (continued)

III. Variety of Arrangement (continued)

IV. Expression of Ideas

V. Expression of Ideas (continued)

VI. Expression of Ideas (continued)

VII. Expression of Ideas (continued)

PART II.

I. STYLE.-II. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.

CHAP. I. Of Language, and its Origin

II. Alphabetic Writing

III. Materials Anciently used in Writing

IV. Scarcity of Books in former Times

CHAP. V. Composition
VI. Genius
VII. Taste

.

VIII. SECT. I. Beauty and Sublimity in Nature

II. Beautiful and Sublime in Writing

I. STYLE.

IX. Of Style and Idiom

X. Of different Kinds of Style.

XI. Perspicuity.

XII. Purity.

XIII. Propriety

XIV. Precision

XV. Perspicuity in the Structure of Sentences

XVI. Of Clearness

XVII. Of Unity
XVIII. Of Strength.

XIX. Of Harmony

XX. Of Sound united to the Sense

XXI. Choice of Words with a View to Energy and Vivacity

XXII. Critical Examination of Sentences

II. OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

XXIII. Of Figurative Language

XXIV. Of Simile

XXV. Of Metaphor

XXVI. Of Allegory.

XXVII. Of Personification

XXVIII. Of Apostrophe

XXIX. Of Metonymy and Synecdoche

XXX. Of Climax and Enumeration

XXXI. Of Antithesis

XXXII. Of Hyperbole and Irony

XXXIII. Of Interrogation and Exclamation

XXXIV. Of Vision and Alliteration.

guage.

XL. Of the more General Rules for Composition

PART III.

OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COMPOSITION.

General Statements
CHAP. I. Of Letters

XXXV. Of additional Secondary Tropes.
XXXVI. Of Miscellaneous Figures of Speech
XXXVII. Of Allusions

XXXVIII. Of Wit

XXXIX. Critical Examination of Passages containing Figurative

SECT. I. On Letter-writing

II. Letter-writing (continued)
III. Specimens of Letter-writing
II. Of Dialogue and Enigmas

III. Of History

IV. Essays and Philosophy

V. SECT. I. Orations

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II. Criticisms on Everett, Webster, Calhoun, and Clav 136

X. Of Poetic Pauses

XI. Of Pastoral and Descriptive Poetry

XII. Of Didactic and Lyric Poetry

SECT. II. Examples of English Lyrics

XIII. Epic Poetry

XIV. Of Dramatic Poetry

XV. Of Hymns, Elegy, &c.

XVI. Of the Sonnet

XVII. The Literary Merit and Style of the English Bible

XVIII. The Form of Bible Poetry

PART IV.

OF ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.

CHAP. I. Selection of proper Subjects

II. Narrative Essays

III. Descriptive Essays

IV. Descriptive Essays (continued)

V. Miscellaneous Essays

VI. Miscellaneous Essays (continued)

PART V.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

CHAP. I. Of different Languages.

II. Of the Primitive Languages of Europe.

III. Of the English Language

IV. Of the early History of the English Language

V. The Effect on it of the Saxon Conquest

VI. The Effect on it of the Danish Conquest

VII. The Effect on it of the Norman Conquest

VIII. Of the Modern History of our Language

IX. The same Subject continued.

X. Of Periodical Literature

XI The component Parts of the English Language

IV. English Novels and Romances

V. The English Periodical Press

VI. English Philosophers and Critics of the present Century

BRITISH POETS.

Criticisms and Specimens.

VII SECT. 1. Shakspeare

II. Milton

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144

PART VI.

MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE.

197

CHAP. I. English Literature under the Tudors and the first Stuarts

II. English Literature from the Restoration to the Reign of

George III.

•

III. English Literature of the present Age

198

199

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207

216

CH VII, SEC. III Samuel Butler, Author of Hudibras

IV Young

V. Dr. Samuel Johnson, his Criticism on Milton

VL Alexander Pope

VII Thomas Gray.

VIII. James Beattie

IX. Thomson

X. Cowper

XI. Oliver Goldsmith

XII. George Crabbe

XIII. Samuel Rogers

XIV. Thomas Campbell

XV. Mark Akenside

XVI. Samuel T. Coleridge

XVII. Robert Southey

XVIII. James Montgomery

XIX. Lord Byron

XX. Robert Pollok

XXI. Mrs. F. D. Hemans.

XXII. Henry Kirke White

XXIII. William Wordsworth

XXIV. Thomas Moore

•

XXV. Robert Burns

XXVI. Sir Walter Scott

PART VII.

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

AMERICAN POETS.

CHAP. I. SECT. I. Poets of our Revolutionary Period.

II. James K. Paulding.

I

John Pierpont.

III. Richard H. Dana

James A. Hillhouse

IV. Charles Sprague

Charles Wilcox

V. William C. Bryant

Fitz-Greene Halleck

VI. N. P. Willis

Mrs. L H. Sigourney

VII. Hannah F. Gould

Lucretia and Margaret Davidson

James G. Percival

VIII. J. G. C. Brainard

H. W. Longfellow

IX. John G. Whittier

X. A. B. Street

XI. E. W. B. Canning

XII. Concluding Remarks on American Poets

II. SECT. I. Sketch of American Literature since 1815

II. The present State of American Literature, and its

Relation to that of England.

302

III. Concluding Remarks upon our National Literature 205