CHAPTER I.

COMPOSITIONS ON OBJECTS.

TO THE TEACHER.-1. The examples given in the first few pages are for beginners. If your class is already somewhat proficient in composition and in general knowledge, it will be well to skip the first chapter or two, and begin farther on in the book, where the exercises are less simple.

2. Beginners in composition, particularly if quite young, should not be allowed to write on abstract subjects, such as Happiness, Hypocrisy, Intemperance, Procrastination, and the like, but on some concrete, visible object, with which they are famíliar.

3. In assigning subjects to a class, it is well at first to help them in making an outline of the things to be said about it. After this has been done for them a few times, they will have no difficulty in doing it for themselves, and finally in writing out their ideas at once, without making the preliminary outline.

4. Try to possess your pupils from the first with the idea that what they have to do is simply to express in words what they know, or what they think, about the subject proposed.

5. At first, aim only at copiousness, correcting no faults except those in grammar and punctuation, and encouraging the pupils to write freely whatever thoughts come up about the subject, and in whatever order they happen to come up.

6. When the class begin to write freely, and find no difficulty in filling a page or two with their loose remarks, then begin to criticize and correct.

7. In making these corrections, proceed with only one class of faults at a time, and correct no fault except this, until the pupils have become pretty familiar with it. Then take some other fault or excellence, and proceed in like manner.

8. After a class can write with facility and general correctness, then begin to experiment upon the use of figures and other graces of style.

TO THE TEACHER. - In assigning a subject like this to a class of young scholars, the teacher should direct their attention to the various points in regard to it, about which they will be likely to have some idea. In this way a preliminary Outline of the subject may be formed. Thus:

Outline.

1. General appearance of paper.

2. Its color.

3. Some of the forms in which it comes.

4. Materials of which it is usually made. 5. Some of its uses.

6. Ways in which it may be destroyed, or unfitted for

use.

COMPOSITION.

1. The general appearance of paper is that of a thin, light sheet, with a smooth and uniform surface.

2. Its color is various. Sometimes it is white, sometimes pink, sometimes it has a bluish tinge, sometimes it is mottled. Indeed, it may be of any color, but most commonly it is white.

3. Paper usually comes in sheets, and these sheets are of various sizes, such as note paper, letter paper, and foolscap. These sheets are put up in small packages called quires, and the quires are put into larger packages called reams. Twenty-four sheets make a quire, and twenty quires make a ream.

4. Paper is usually made of old rags, but I believe it may be made of many other things, such as straw and bark; but I never saw a paper-mill, and, therefore, I cannot say certainly. Linen rags are said to be better than cotton rags for making paper. Men often go round from house to house to buy old rags, which they sell to the paper-makers. These rag-men never buy woollen rags for this purpose; and if the linen rags are sorted out and kept by themselves, they will bring a higher price than other rags. My mother lets me have all the rags in our house, and I keep them put away in a bag, and the money for which they are sold is mine to spend or to put into the missionary box.

5. Paper is used chiefly for writing and for printing. Compositions are written on paper. Newspapers and books are printed on paper. Bank-bills are made of paper. Paper is used for making boxes and for covering walls. Boys' kites are made of paper; so are men's collars sometimes.

6. Paper is very easily destroyed by fire. It burns sooner than almost anything else. Water also injures it badly. It is not tough like leather, but is easily torn. Paper is damaged by being rumpled. If you want your composition or your letter to look nice, you must take good care of your paper, and keep it smooth and clean. I keep my paper in a portfolio which my father gave me for a Christmas present.

TO THE TEACHER. — In the imaginary composition given above, the paragraphs are for convenience numbered to correspond to the numbers in the outline.

Perhaps, in the first few compositions which a class may write, it may be well for them in like manner to number the topics and paragraphs. After a while, however, the practice should be discontinued.

The plan here adopted, of first making an outline of topics, and then writing something upon each topic, has the important incidental advantage of teaching beginners the difficult art of paragraphing correctly. What is written under each head or topic naturally forms a paragraph by itself, and thus the pupils easily fall into the way of dividing their matter intc paragraphs according to the natural divisions of the subject.

Beginners should be encouraged, not merely to state facts on the subjects of which they write, but to mix up their own notions and feelings about these facts, as the writer of the foregoing composition has done at the close of his fourth and sixth paragraphs.

Example.--Subject, WATER.

Outline.

1. Differences between water and wood.
2. Differences between water and air.
3. Effect of extreme cold upon water.
4. Effect of extreme heat upon water.
5. Different kinds of water.

6. Benefits of water.

NOTE.The teacher must prepare similar suggestive outlines on each subject assigned, until the class become familiar with the method, and begin to show signs of being able to make their own outlines. When they do begin thus to make outlines for themselves, the teacher will for a while find it necessary to supplement their attempts by suggestions of his own, to be added to theirs. He must exercise his discretion as to how long this help should be continued, and when the pupils should be required to make the entire outline without help.

The preparation of this outline is of the very essence of invention. It sets the pupil at once to thinking-to gathering thoughts, instead of putting together mere words. The outline, therefore, should be a leading portion of the exercise for a long time, and should in each case be submitted to the teacher for inspection and comment, before the composition is written.

NOTE.Children should continue for some time to write on subjects like thesenatural objects with which they are daily familiar. In writing upon those topics, however, they should be continually stimulated to do something more than merely

give a dry, semi-scientific enumeration of the qualities and properties of the object described. Let them, on the contrary, freely mix up their own personality in the matter, telling what particular kind of dolls, or skates, or dogs they like, who was burned by the fire, who fell into the water, and so on. Children will find no difficulty in having something to write, when once they have made the discovery that writing compositions is merely putting upon paper their knowledge of such things as they are acquainted with, and telling what they think about them.

NOTE 2. No rule can be given for the length of time in which children should be kept upon compositions of the kind already illustrated. It depends a good deal upon the age at which the pupil begins the exercise. If scholars begin to write compositions at the age of nine or ten, they may be kept upon such themes for a year or two, writing as often as once or twice a week. Any teacher of ordinary inventive powers can supply subjects. If, however, as is often the case, the scholar is already considerably advanced in years and knowledge before beginning to write compositions, two or three examples of this kind may be sufficient, before proceeding to those more difficult. The decision of this point must, in each case, be left to the discretion and judgment of the teacher.

NOTE.

CHAPTER II.

COMPOSITIONS ON TRANSACTIONS.

The examples which are given in this chapter, while still occupied mainly with the concrete and the visible, rather than with abstract qualities and relations, yet differ clearly from those in Chapter I. The topics in the first chapter are simply objects. Those now to be given involve what may be called transactions.

Example. Subject, ON GOING TO SCHOOL.

Outline.

1. The object of going to school. 2. The age for going to school.

3. Behavior at school.

4. Behavior on the road to and from school.

5. Difference between a school and a religious meeting. 6. The usual exercises of a school.

7. School-time.

COMPOSITION.

1. The object of going to school is to learn those things which will be useful to us when we are grown up. One who goes to school, and learns to read well, and to write a beautiful hand, and knows a great many things, is much more thought of than one who cannot read or spell, and who has to make his mark instead of writing his name. An ignorant man, who never went to school, is not much thought of.

2. The proper age for people to go to school is when they are young, before they have to work to get a living. Young boys and girls are not strong enough to do much work, but they can go to school and study just as well as not, for they have nothing else to do. If they play truant, and manage to get out of going to school,