EDWIN HERBERT LEWIS PH.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE LEWIS INSTITUTE, CHICAGO. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1902 All rights reserved PREFACE THE study of English in the upper grades should and does include something of many subjects: handwriting, spelling, pronunciation, oral reading, elementary composition, literature, grammar. The amount of time required in any year to produce definite results in all these subjects would be very great. The time now given in even the best schools is wholly inadequate, programmes being crowded and classes large. Most phases of the subject now have to be slighted, and some, like the training of the speaking voice, are practically ignored. But large classes are at present an unavoidable circumstance of democracy. We must be grateful that nearly everybody's child gets to school, and must obtain the best results we can by correlation and a wise economy of minutes. Under such conditions, what phases of grammar should be assured attention? Certainly there must be some systematic view of elementary grammar; the subject is too difficult to be taught incidentally amid miscellaneous 67 337 |