HIGHER ENGLISH.

(See also Classics for Children, pages 3 to 8.)

Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature.

Designed mainly to show characteristics of style. By WILLIAM MINTO, M.A., Professor of Logic and English Literature in the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. 12mo. Cloth. 566 pages. Mailing Price, $1.65; Introduction, $1.50; Allowance, 40 cents.

THE

HIE main design is to assist in directing students in English composition to the merits and defects of our principal writers of prose, enabling them, in some degree at least, to acquire the one and avoid the other. The Introduction analyzes style: elements of style, qualities of style, kinds of composition. Part First gives exhaustive analyses of De Quincey, Macaulay, and Carlyle. These serve as a key to all the other authors treated. Part Second takes up the prose authors in historical order, from the fourteenth century up to the early part of the nineteenth.

H. C. De Motte, Pres. of Chaddock | Literature, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, College, Quincy, Ill.: We are de- N.Y.: Without going outside of this lighted with it. It is one of the most book, an earnest student could get serviceable books I have seen on the a knowledge of English prose styles, subject. I shall recommend it for based on the soundest principles of our work here. (Sept. 23, 1886.) criticism, such as he could not get in any twenty volumes which I know

Hiram Corson, Prof. of English of. (May 14, 1886.)

Minto's Characteristics of the English Poets,

from Chaucer to Shirley.

By WILLIAM MINTO, M.A., Professor of Logic and English Literature in the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. 12mo. Cloth. xi+382 pages. Mailing Price, $1.65; for Introduction, $1.50; Allowance, 40 cents.

THE

HE chief objects of the author are: (1) To bring into clear light the characteristics of the several poets; and (2) to trace how far each was influenced by his literary predecessors and his contemporaries.

Lessons in English.

Adapted to the Study of American Classics.

A text-book for High

12mo. Cloth. xix +403

Schools and Academies. By SARA E. H. LOCKWOOD, Teacher of English in the High School, New Haven, Conn. pages. Mailing Price, $1.25; for introduction, $1.12. Allowance for an old book in exchange, 35 cents.

Thanatopsis and Other Favorite Poems of Bryant.

Prepared especially to accompany Lockwood's Lessons in English. 12mo. Paper. 61 pages. Mailing Price, 12 cents; for introd., 10 cts.

THIS is, in a word, a practical High School text-book of English,

embracing language, composition, rhetoric, and literature. It aims to present, in simple and attractive style, the essentials of good English; and, at the same time, to develop a critical literary taste, by applying these technical rules and principles to the study of American Classics.

The plan provides for a course in English extending over the pupil's first year and a half in the High School, the work being preparatory to the study of English Literature as usually pursued in schools of this grade. These "Lessons" include the most important facts concerning the History and Elements of the Language, Common Errors in the Use of English, the Study of Words, Rules for the Construction of Sentences, Figures of Speech, Punctuation, Letter-Writing, Composition, and Biographical Sketches of the seven authors particularly studied, Irving, Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Hawthorne, Holmes, and Lowell.

No other text-book on English includes so much. It is at once a text-book of rhetoric, a hand-book of composition, and an introduction to American literature. A valuable addition to the book will be found in the lists of references given at the close of most of the chapters and after each biographical sketch. These are intended to aid teachers in their preparation of the lessons, and to furnish pupils with additional sources of information. The work is the outgrowth of years of experience in the schoolThe plan has been thoroughly tested, and proved to be a good one. Both teachers and pupils testify that by this plan the study of English is made exceedingly interesting and far more profitable than it was when more theoretical text-books were in

room.

use.

Teachers will find in the book many valuable exercises and lists of questions, and many helpful suggestions as to methods.

John F. Genung, Prof. of Rhetoric | kind with so little of the dry-as-dust in Amherst College, and author of about it. "The Practical Elements of Rhetoric": It is clearly written, concise, with abundant exercises, and taking up the most useful points.

H. Lee Sellers, Prin. High School, Galveston: To my mind it is the very book we have wanted for many years.

George A. Walton, Agent MassaT. Whiting Bancroft, Prof. of Rhet-chusetts Board of Education: It oric, Brown University, Providence, must prove a useful book. The matR.I.: It successfully solves the prob-ter and the method are excellent. lem to give in condensed form an introduction to the study of our American classics. . . . The author's selection of material is wisely made.

...

Margaret E. Stratton, Prof. of English and Rhetoric, Wellesley College: It gives a clear and systematic presentation of the subject, and must greatly facilitate the work of the teacher who lays stress not on formal rules but on the frequent practice of rules, and seeks to give with rules abundant illustration; and what is still more important, tries to awake in young minds a just appreciation of the importance of English through the delightful medium of our best

writers.

Alfred S. Roe, Prin. High School, Worcester, Mass.: I have looked the book through carefully, and I can nothing better. unqualifiedly approve it. I know of

J. A. Graves, Prin. South School, Hartford, Conn.: I know of no book that seems to me so well adapted to the wants of high schools and academies.

E. J. MacEwan, Prof. of English, Michigan Agricultural College: I know of nothing that can compare with it for a two years' course in the public schools,—say last year of grammar grade and first year of high school. I shall be glad to put in a word as occasion offers to help you in getting it into such grades, and in helping grades to get the best thing for themselves at the same time.

H. F. Estill, Instructor in Language, Sam Houston Normal Institute, Huntsville, Tex.: In my opinion the book is an admirably clear, comthe essentials of English, and canpact, and attractive presentation of not fail to awake in the pupil an appreciation of the strength and beauty of his native tongue, as well as to train him in the art of correct and elegant expression. The chapters on letter-writing and composition are especially good. We have decided to introduce it at once the Normal School.

The Practical Elements of Rhetoric.

By JOHN F. GENUNG, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College, 12mo. Cloth. xiv + 483 pages. Mailing Price, $1.40; for introduction, $1.25; allowance for an old book in exchange 40 cents.

THE treatment is characterized by:—

1. Good Sense. The author, while suitably magnifying his art, recognizes that expression is not a substitute for ideas, that the how of speech is secondary to the what, that Rhetoric is only means to an end, and that its rules and principles and devices must be employed with caution and good sense.

2. Simplicity. Great care has been taken to free the treatment from artificialities. The subjects are most logically ordered, but not too minutely subdivided. So far as possible, terms are used in their popular and usual sense.

3. Originality. In a subject so old and so thoroughly studied each new treatinent must take large account of what has been done before. This the author has not failed to do. But principally he has made his book from the study of literature at first hand. Tra ditional principles and rules have been discarded unless found to rest on a basis of truth and practical value.

4. Availability. The treatment is throughout constructive. The student is regarded at every step as endeavoring to make literature, and is given just what is indispensable to this end. On every point the main problems of construction are stated and solved. Again, the work has been prepared not more in the study than in the classroom, and the adaptation kept constantly in mind of every usage and principle to the actual needs of the actual student.

5. Completeness. All of the literary forms have been given something of the fulness hitherto accorded only to argument and oratory. This method is clearly in line with modern requirements. Part I. deals with style; Part II. with invention. All questions arising under both these divisions are fully considered.

6. Ample Illustration. Mere precept cannot help seeming arbitrary. In the concrete it bears a different, a more intelligible, and a more convincing look. Accordingly the author has presented no important principle without illustrations drawn from *ual usage. It is usage, too, of the best, the most standard

ers.

Genung's Rhetoric, though a work on a trite subject, has aroused genuine enthusiasm by its freshness and practical value. Among the many leading institutions that have introduced it are Yale, Wellesley, and Smith Colleges; Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and Northwestern Universities; and the Universities of Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, and Oregon.