not by quality. To secure this, ideas are repeated, and irrelevant matter is often introduced. The examiner, losing patience, is apt to give the essay even less credit than it deserves. The following remarks are judicious:

"Mark the man, no matter what his class, who gains respectful attention to what he is saying; it is the man who pushes aside all that is superfluous, who goes at once to the matter in hand, who knows what he wants to say, and says it. Wordiness is generally as much a sign of weakness as staggering with a hundred steps to the point which you wish to reach instead of going straight forward to it with fifty. Brevity will almost drive you into sense; for, if your brief sentence is not a forcible one, you will see that it resembles a child's lesson in a spelling-book and you can scarcely fail of being ashamed of it; but if you once allow mere words for their own sake to please you, you may, like the fabled mares of antiquity, conceive of the wind, or amuse mankind by a perpetual parturition of mice. Let a man once get enamoured of words, and there is no end of the trash he may admire, and alas, produce; and of the deceit which he may practise upon himself."

The advice has been given, Go over carefully what you have written, and strike out every word which does not distinctly add to clearness or force. You have no idea what vigour this will give to your style.

(3.) Long, involved Sentences.-Each sentence should have only one principal subject of thought. Beginners are apt to go on, adding word to word, and sentence to sentence, connecting them with "but," "notwithstanding," "therefore," "still," and so forth. Confusion and obscurity thus frequently arise. Complicated sentences are one of the chief sources of grammatical errors. Break them up into

simple sentences, each containing one leading proposition.

(4.) Mixed Metaphors.-Care is necessary in the use of figurative language. Metaphors from different objects ought not to be combined. We may speak of "kindling a flame," but it would be absurd to talk of "kindling a seed." The following words are attributed to a member of Parliament: "Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat, I see him brewing in the air; but, mark me, I shall yet nip him in the bud." There are here three figures, a rat, brewing, and a bud. Even one of Lord Castlereagh's speeches has this passage: "And now, Sir, I must embark on the feature on which this subject hinges."

4. Careful Revision.-The first draft should be written with a view to the thought. It interferes with the flow of ideas to delay long to find out the most appropriate words. Afterwards, however, careful revision is necessary. A distinguished Roman author, Horace, uses the phrase, lima labor ac mora, the labour and delay of the file of correction. The reference is to a workman, first hammering out a machine, and then polishing it carefully with a file. Most great writers have been very laborious in this respect. "Manuscripts of Pope's, preserved in the British Museum, are covered with erasures and interlineations. Ariosto is known to have altered a stanza a hundred times. Petrarch made fifty-four alterations in one verse." However, when once the habit of correct composition has been acquired, the labour of revision becomes comparatively light.

5 Essay Writing.-This is a common exercise when the student has made some progress in composition. The first step is to endeavour to form a clear idea of the subject. It should be surveyed from all sides. Every essay should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Without mention

ing formal divisions, remarks should be arranged under certain heads. It is well to make a brief outline of the whole, before going into detail.

Sir Author Helps, one of the most accomplished writers of the day, gives the following hints to young students on composition:

1. Let the subject that you write about be one that you really care about.

2. Never throw away an adjective. If you use an adjective that does not add any meaning to the substantive, it is a wicked waste of adjectival power.

3. Take care that your relatives clearly and distinctly relate to your antecedents. In seven sentences out of ten that are obscure, you will find that the obscurity is caused by a doubt about the relatives.

4. Do not fear repetition. This fear is also a frequent cause of obscurity.

5. Avoid parentheses. A parenthesis can generally be made into a separate sentence.

Do not attempt to abbreviate your general statements, or suppose that those statements will be understood by your reader. For instance, if you have been writing a paragraph which tends to show that when men get into any trouble there is generaily some woman concerned in the case, do not begin a sentence in this way. If this be so,' &c., &c., &c. Your reader does not know what this is, or what so is, or at least he does not make out your meaning without a little thought; and you should keep all his thought for the real difficulties which you have to lay before him. Therefore boidly say, 'When men get into trouble there is mostly a woman concerned in it,' &c.

7. Try to master what is the idea of a sentence— how it should be a thing of a certain completeness in itself. If it is to consist of many clauses, let them be clauses having a reasonable dependence

one upon another, and not sentences within sentences.

8. Attend to method. That alone, if you commit all other faults, will make your writing readable. For example, if you have to treat a subject which is naturally divided into several branches, take them up one by one, and exhaust them. Do not deal with them by bits. Let us call these branches A, B and C. Do not begin by saying only half of what you mean about A, and then bringing in the rest of A after you have treated C, thus making B and C a long parenthesis.

Often the mist created by this want of method enshrouds the meaning of the writer as completely as that which fond Venus threw around her darling Trojan hero when the Greeks were pressing him too hardly.

9. Follow the nature of your subject, and let your choice of words, your length of sentences, and all the other delicacies of writing, be adapted to that nature of the subject. To use an admirable simile, which has been used before, let the writing fall on the subject like drapery over a beautiful statue of the human figure, adapting itself inevitably to all the cutlines of the body that it clothes.

10. While you are writing, do not think of any of these rules, or of any other rules. Whatever you have learnt from rules, to be of service, must have entered into your habits of mind, and into your tastes, and must be a part of your power which you use, as you do the power of nerve or muscle, unconsciously.

Speaking.

The student, besides being able to express his thoughts correctly in writing, should be able to speak in English with ease and accuracy. This is

It

not to be acquired by the mere study of books. is a great defect in many schools in India, that more attention is not devoted to exercises in English speaking. The pupils learn to read certain books, but they are incapable of conversing on the simplest subject, or only in very broken language. English must be learned as a living and not as a dead language. The ear must be employed as well as the eye. Little children, unable to read, soon learn to speak a language fluently. They acquire a few words at a time and make use of them.

Conversation. It is an excellent practice for students to use English in private conversation with each other. Without this, it is impossible to acquire fluency. Accuracy should be aimed at both in pronunciation and grammar. The use of incorrect language tends to perpetuate a faulty mode of speaking. Each student should point out, in a friendly way, any mistakes made by the other. But in some cases both may be at fault. Teachers should carefully correct blunders made by their pupils in conversation and insist upon accuracy. The student may derive great benefit from the study of books giving examples of English phrases and corrections of common mistakes.

The student should not use what is called "book language" in conversation. Abbreviated forms are

employed in some cases. Alford says, "This is a

difference which the foreigner is generally slow in apprehending. He says, I will not, I cannot,' 'I must not,' I shall not:' 'I am' for 'I'm,' 'they are' for they're and he may often be detected by his precision in these matters, even after he has mastered the pronunciation and construction of our language. But low slang and vulgarisms must be avoided.

Public Speaking.-There are occasions when it is