EXERCISES

IN

ENGLISH COMPOSITION

WITH

AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON ANALYSIS

BY

ROBERT SKAKEL KNIGHT

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.

PREFACE.

This little book is a manual of exercises, not fragmentary in form, or encumbered with rules, and is intended for students of either sex. It aims at supplying something solid, which an unformed empty mind may work on, so as to obviate a painful vacuum-pumping process to which young people, even during a heavy press of class-work, are frequently subjected. Milton, himself an experienced teacher, says that forcing an empty mind to compose themes, is a preposterous exaction; and Jones of Nayland, an English teacher of some celebrity, who flourished in the last century, has left his opinion on record as follows, "Composition is not only a difficult task, but is indeed a miserable drudgery, when you have neither rules to direct you, nor matter to work upon".

There are now so many excellent grammatical works in the hands of learners, that "rules to direct" cannot be said to be scarce, and it is hoped that this manual will help to supply "matter to work upon", in a form suitable for the application