is the case with those ordinarily laid down for the use of students in Composition) on narrow, unphilosophical, and erroneous principles.

Difficulty in the composi

cises.

But the circumstance which has mainly tended to produce the complaint alluded to, is, that in this tion of exer- case, the reverse takes place of the plan pursued in the learning of other arts; in which it is usual to begin, for the sake of practice, with what is easiest; here, on the contrary, the tyro has usually a harder task assigned him, and one in which he is less likely to succeed, than he will meet with in the actual business of life. For it is undeniable that it is much the most difficult to find either propositions to maintain, or arguments to prove them-to know, in short, what to say, or how to say it- on any subject on which one has hardly any information, and no interest; about which he knows little, and cares still less.

Now the subjects usually proposed for School or College exercises are (to the learners themselves) precisely of this description. And hence it commonly happens, that an exercise composed with diligent care by a young student, though it will have cost him far more pains than a real letter written by him to his friends, on subjects that interest him, will be very greatly inferior to it. On the real occasions of after life, (I mean, when the object proposed is, not to fill up a sheet, a book, or an hour, but to communicate his thoughts, to convince, or persuade,) on these real occasions, for which such exercises were designed to prepare him, he will find that he writes both better and with more facility, than on the artificial occasion, as it may be called, of composing a declamation; — that he has been attempting to learn the

Ill effects re

exercises.

easier, by practising the harder. But what is worse, it will often happen that such exercises will have formed a habit of stringing together empty sulting from common-places, and vapid declamations, — of multiplying words and spreading out the matter thin,—of composing in a stiff, artificial, and frigid manner: and that this habit will more or less cling through life to one who has been thus trained, and will infect all his future compositions.

So strongly, it should seem, was Milton impressed with a sense of this danger, that he was led to condemn the use altogether of exercises in Composition. In this opinion he stands perhaps alone among all writers on education. I should perhaps agree with him, if there were absolutely no other remedy for the evil in question; for I am inclined to think that this part of education, if conducted as it often is, does in general more harm than good.

But I am convinced, that practice in Composition, both for boys and young men, may be so conducted as to be productive of many and most essential advantages.

The obvious and the only preventive of the evils which I have been speaking of is, a most scrupulous Selection of care in the selection of such subjects for ex- subjects. ercises as are likely to be interesting to the student, and on which he has, or may (with pleasure, and without much toil) acquire, sufficient information. Such subjects will of course vary, according to the learner's age and intellectual advancement; but they had better be rather below, than much above him; that is, they should never be such as to induce him to string together vague general expressions, conveying no distinct ideas to his own

mind, and second-hand sentiments which he does not feel. He may freely transplant indeed from other writers such thoughts as will take root in the soil of his own mind; but he must never be tempted to collect dried specimens. He must also be encouraged to express himself (in correct language indeed, but) in a free, natural, and simple style; which of course implies (considering who and what the writer is supposed to be) such a style as, in itself, would be open to severe criticism, and certainly very unfit to appear in a book.

Compositions on such subjects, and in such a style, would probably be regarded with a disdainful eye, as puerile, by those accustomed to the opposite mode of teaching. But it should be remembered that the compositions of boys must be puerile, in one way or the other: and to a person of unsophisticated and sound taste, the truly contemptible kind of puerility would be found in the other kind of exercises. Look at the letter of an intelligent youth to one of his companions, communicating intelligence of such petty matters as are interesting to bothdescribing the scenes he has visited, and the recreations he has enjoyed, during a vacation; and you will see a picture of the youth himself-boyish indeed in looks and in stature-in dress and demeanour; but lively, unfettered, natural, giving a fair promise for manhood, and, in short, what a boy should be. Look at a theme composed by the same youth, on "Virtus est medium vitiorum," or "Natura beatis omnibus esse dedit," and you will see a picture, of the same boy, dressed up in the garb, and absurdly aping the demeanour, of an elderly man. Our ancestors (and still more recently, I believe, the continental nations) were guilty of the absur

dity of dressing up children in wigs, swords, huge buckles, hoops, ruffles, and all the elaborate full-dressed finery of grown up people of that day.* It is surely reasonable that the analogous absurdity in greater matters also, among the rest in that part of education I am speaking of, should be laid aside; and that we should in all points consider what is appropriate to each different period of life.

Classes of

exercises.

The subjects for Composition to be selected on the principle I am recommending, will generally fall under one of three classes: first, subjects drawn subjects for from the studies the learner is engaged in; relating, for instance, to the characters or incidents of any history he may be reading; and sometimes, perhaps, leading him to forestall by conjecture, something which he will hereafter come to, in the book itself: secondly, subjects drawn from any conversation he may have listened to (with interest) from his seniors, whether addressed to himself, or between each other: or, thirdly, relating to the amusements, familiar occurrences, and every-day transactions, which are likely to have formed the topics of easy conversation among his familiar friends. The student should not be confined too exclusively to any one of these three classes of subjects. They should be intermingled in as much variety as possible. And the teacher should frequently recall to his own mind these two considerations; first, that since the benefit proposed does not consist in the intrinsic value of the composition, but in the exercise to the pupil's mind, it matters not how insignificant the subject may be, if it will

* See "Sandford and Merton," passim.

but interest him, and thereby afford him such exercise; secondly, that the younger and backwarder each student is, the more unfit he will be for abstract speculations; and the less remote must be the subjects proposed from those individual objects and occurrences which always form the first beginnings of the furniture of the youthful mind.*

If the system which I have been recommending be pursued, with the addition of sedulous care in correctionencouragement from the teacher and inculcation of such general rules as each occasion calls for; then, and not otherwise, Exercises in Composition will be of the most important and lasting advantage, not only in respect of the object immediately proposed, but in producing clearness of thought, and in giving play to all the faculties. And if this branch of education be thus conducted, then, and not otherwise, the greater part of the present treatise will, it is hoped, be found, not much less adapted to the use of those who are writing for practicesake, than of those engaged in meeting the occasions of real life.

* For some further observations bearing on the same point, see Part iv. ch. vi. § 2. See also some valuable remarks on the subject in Mr. Hill's ingenious work on Public Education.