Direct, systematic, consecutive instruction in English composition should begin at the beginning and continue to the end of every school On no subject, however, is teaching more vague and irregu Even when composition has been awarded a place in the daily programme, the hour for recitation is usually given to the subjectmatter rather than to the principles of construction; general-information lessons and miscellaneous criticism conveniently fill up the time in the absence of a well-defined plan for language work. Every exercise in composition should be directed to some definite end, should illustrate some important principle or form of construction. Of course, gross errors in other directions should not pass unnoticed, but their correction should, as far as possible, be made incidental to the leading purpose of the lesson. As the different principles become familiar, they should be immediately applied to the pupil's own composition, and kept constantly in review. The zeal and interest of the learner will be stimulated by the assurance that he is putting himself in possession of the standards by which the merits and the defects of language are judged, and that he will no longer need to take all authority at second-hand. The chief hugings of the teacher of composition is to onltirate in the pupil power to discriminate the good and the bad in what he reads and in what he writes. As literary criticism is based on the laws that control the construction of the sentence, it follows that a scientific and progressive series of composition lessons must conform to the natural and orderly development of the sentence. Composition in the primary grades should be introductory to the scientific study of the sentence, The principles of construction should here be taught by exercises, without being formally stated. In the grammar grades, the composition work should illustrate and supplement the work of the grammar class. In connection with these lessons in criticism many of the principles of construction usually relegated to the province of formal rhetoric may be divested of their formalities and worked into the practice of the young pupil before his habits of thought and expression are formed beyond the reach of rhetorical training. We must emphasize our conviction, already suggested, that the work of the composition class is, primarily, to find proper expression for thought, not to furnish thought for expression. To employ the brief daily or weekly composition period roaming over the fields of universal knowledge in search of material to be worked into thought and expression is extremely bad economy. The knowledge gathered from the pupil's daily observation and experience, from his general reading, from his lessons in geography, history, etc., will furnish abundant matter for language work. It is important, however, that the material for composition should have educational value, that it should be worth consideration in itself. The thought will, of course, be subjected to the closest scrutiny in determining its proper order and form of expression. To accomplish any definite results with a class of twenty or thirty, in a short period of recitation, it is essential that the attention of all be concentrated on some one very limited object. The principle or form of construction to be considered should be presented from its most Quectical side, and the illustrations-selected and original-should be |