THE

ART OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

BY

HENRY N. DAY,

AUTHOR OF "LOGIC," "RHETORIC," 66 RHETORICAL PRAXIS," ETC.

"He who thinks loosely will write loosely." - Coleridge.

THIRD EDITION.

NEW YORK:

CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY.

1870.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

HENRY N. DAY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Connecticut.

27247

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

PREFACE

EXPERIENCE has decisively proved that the study of Grammar, Composition, and Rhetoric must regard the thought that is to be expressed in language as the ruling element in discourse,- its organic, originating, and determining principle. The reversal of this, the putting forward of the word, of style, and making this the prominent and commanding object in the study, has caused the general failure in these branches of instruction. This has occasioned the general repugnance to the study of Grammar and of Rhetoric, and to exercises in Composition. Such is the legitimate effect of this unnatural method of procedure. Thought is the organic vital element of language and of discourse, that has determined the forms of words, their kinds, their uses; that has determined the structure of the sentence, its form, and the relations of its parts. The study of language and the study of Rhetoric, as well as all exercises in Composition, or in the construction of discourse generally, should, therefore, be grounded in the thought. The forms of thought must be known before the forms of language in which they are to be embodied can be known. Beginning with the thought, and proceeding from that to the forms which are furnished in language for the suitable embodiment of the thought, we proceed naturally, easily,