IN

COMPOSITION,

IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ART ARE DEVELOPED IN CONNECTION
WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF

GRAMMAR;

EMBRACING

FULL DIRECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF PUNCTUATION;

WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES.

BY G. P. QUACKENBOS, A.M.,

PRINCIPAL OF "THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL," N. Y.; AUTHOR OF "FIRST LESSONS
IN COMPOSITION," ADVANCED COURSE OF COMPOSITION
AND RHETORIC," "ILLUSTRATED SCHOOL HISTORY

Advanced Course of Composition & Rhetoric :

A SERIES OF PRACTICAL LESSONS ON THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND PECULIARI-
TIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, PUNCTUATION, TASTE, THE PLEASURES
OF THE IMAGINATION, FIGURES, STYLE AND ITS ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES,
CRITICISM, AND THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF PROSE AND POETICAL
COMPOSITION. ILLUSTRATED WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES.

Illustrated School History

OF THE

UNITED STATES,

FROM THE EARLIEST DISCOVERIES TO THE PRESENT TIME; EMBRACING A FULL
ACCOUNT OF THE ABORIGINES, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF DISTINGUISHED
MEN, AND NUMEROUS MAPS, PLANS OF BATTLE FIELDS, AND PICTORIAL
ILLUSTRATIONS.

A Natural Philosophy:

EMBRACING THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF
PHYSICS, AND EXHIBITING THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES IN
EVERY-DAY LIFE. ADAPTED TO USE WITH OR WITHOUT APPARATUS, AND
ACCOMPANIED WITH FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF EXPERIMENTS, AND PRACTICAL
EXERCISES. ILLUSTRATED IN THE MOST LIBERAL MANNER.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851

By G. P. QUACKENBOS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

A COUNTY superintendent of common schools, speaking of the important branch of composition, in a communication bearing date July 27, 1844, uses the following language: “For a long time I have noticed with regret the almost entire neglect of the art of original composition in our common schools, and the want of a proper text-book upon this essential branch of education. Hundreds graduate from our common schools with no well-defined ideas of the construction of our language." The writer might have gone further, and said that multitudes graduate, not only from common schools, but from some of our best private institutions, utterly destitute of all practical acquaintance with the subject; that to many such the composition of a simple letter is an irksome, to some an almost impossible, task. Yet the reflecting mind must admit that it is only this practical application of grammar that renders that art useful that parsing is secondary to composing, and the analysis of our language almost unimportant when compared with its synthesis.

One great reason of the neglect noticed above, has, no doubt, been the want of a suitable text-book on the subject. During the years of the author's experience as a teacher, he has examined, and practically tested the various works on