HIGHER LESSONS IN ENGLISH. A WORK ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND IN WHICH THE SCIENCE OF THE LANGUAGE IS MADE TRIBUTARY TC A COURSE OF PRACTICAL LESSONS CAREFULLY GRADED, THE SCHOOL-ROOM. BY ALONZO REED, A.M., FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN THE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, AND BRAINERD KELLOGG, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE NEW YORK: CHARLES E. MERRILL CO., EducT 759.08.738, BY EXCHANGE NOV 29 1939 A COMPLETE COURSE IN SPELLING, LAN- L. TURPIN. SPELLING Primary Speller. By ALONZO REED, A.M., and EDNA H. Word Lessons. Price 25 cents. These two books offer a complete course in spelling for primary, intermediate, and grammar grades. They are designed to teach the correct spelling, pronunciation, and use of such words only as are most common in current literature and as are most likely to be misspelled, mispronounced, or misused, and to awaken a new interest in the study of synonyms and of word analysis. LANGUAGE LESSONS Introductory Language Work. By ALONZO REED, A.M. 253 pages, 12mo, cloth. Price 40 cents. A simple, varied, methodical series of exercises in English to precede the study of technical grammar. GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION 281 Graded Lessons in English. New Edition. By ALONZO An elementary English grammar, consisting of one hundred practical Higher Lessons in English. New Edition. By ALONZO REED, A.M., and Price 63 cents. 386 A work on English grammar and composition, in which the science of the language is made tributary to the art of expression. A course of practical lessons, carefully graded and adapted to everyday use in the schoolroom. Copyright, 1877, 1885, 1896, By ALONZO REED and BRAINERD KELLOGG. 41044 40-14 8 Lena Malone PREFACE. THE plan of "Higher Lessons" will perhaps be better understood if we first speak of two classes of text-books with which this work is brought into competition. Method of One Class of Text-books.-In one class are those that aim chiefly to present a course of technical grammar in the order of Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody. These books give large space to grammatical Etymology, and demand much memorizing of definitions, rules, declensions, and conjugations, and much formal word parsing,-work of which a considerable portion is merely the invention of grammarians, and has little value in determining the pupil's use of language or in developing his reasoning faculties. This is a revival of the long-endured, unfruitful, old-time method. Method of Another Class of Text-books.-In another class are those that present a miscellaneous collection of lessons in Composition, Spelling, Pronunciation, Sentence-analysis, Technical Grammar, and General Information, without unity or continuity. The pupil who completes these books will have gained something by practice and will have picked up some scraps of knowledge; but his information will be vague and disconnected, and he will have missed that mental training which it is the aim of a good text-book to afford. A text-book is of value just so far as it presents a clear, logical development of its subject It must present its science or its art as a natural growth, otherwise there is no apology for its being. The Study of the Sentence for the Proper Use of Words.-It is the plan of this book to trace with easy steps the natural development of the sentence, to consider the leading facts first and then to descend to the details. To begin with the parts of speech is to begin with details and to disregard the higher unities, without which the details are scarcely intelligible. The part of speech to which a word belongs is determined only by its function in the sentence, and inflections simply mark the offices and relations of words. Unless the pupil has been systematically trained to discover the functions and relations of words as elements of an organic whole, his knowledge of the parts of speech is of little value. It is not because he cannot conjugate the verb or decline the pronoun that he falls into such errors as "How many sounds have each of the vowels?" "Five years' interest are due." "She is older than me.' He probably would not say have," "interest are," me am." One thoroughly familiar with the structure of the sentence will find little trouble in using correctly the ew inflectional forms in English. ་་ "each The Study of the Sentence for the Laws of Discourse.Through the study of the sentence we not only arrive at an intelligent knowledge of the parts of speech and a correct use of grammatical forms, but we discover the laws of discourse in general. In the sentence the student should find the law of unity, of continuity, of proportion, of order. All good writing consists of good sentences properly joined. Since the sentence is the foundation or unit of discourse, it is all-important that the pupil should know the sentence. He should be able to put the principal and the subordinate parts in their proper relation; he should know the exact function of every elemen., its relation to other elements and its relation to the whole. He should know the sentence as the skillful engineer knows his engine, that, when there is a disorganization of parts, he may at once find the difficulty and the remedy for it. The Study of the Sentence for the Sake of Translation.The laws of thought being the same for all nations, the logical analysis of the sentence is the same for all languages. When a student who has acquired a knowledge of the English sentence comes to the translation of a foreign language, he finds his work greatly simplified. If in a sentence of his own language he sees only a mass of unorganized words, how much greater must be his confusion when this mass of words is in a foreign tongue! A study of the parts of speech is a far less important preparation for translation, since the declensions and conjugations in English do not conform to those of other languages. Teachers of the classics and of modern languages are beginning to appreciate these facts. The Study of the Sentence for Discipline.-As a means of discipline nothing can compare with a training in the logical analysis of the sentence. To study thought through its outward form, the sentence, and to discover the fitness of the different parts of the expression to the parts of the thought, is to learn to think. It has been noticed that pupils thoroughly trained in the analysis and the construction of sentences come to their other studies with a decided advantage in mental power. These results can be obtained only by systematic and persistent work. Experienced teachers understand that a few weak lessons on the sentence at the beginning of a course and a few at the end can afford little discipline and little knowledge that will endure, nor can a knowledge of the sentence be gained by memorizing complicated rules and labored forms of analysis. To compel a pupil to wade through a page or two of such bewildering terms as 'complex adverbial element of the second class" and " compound prepositional adjective phrase," in order to comprehend a few simple functions, is grossly unjust; it is a substitution of form for content, of words for ideas. 66 Subdivisions and Modifications after the Sentence.-Teachers familiar with text-books that group all grammatical instruction around the eight parts of speech, making eight independent units, will not, in the following lessons, find everything in its accustomed place. But, when it is remembered that the thread of connection unifying this work is the sentence, it will be seen that the lessons fall into their |