processes, and its properties; as the design has been not merely to present a collection of doctrines and observations for acquisition as bare knowledge, but to make practical thinkers and writers to put students of discourse on a course of training which if faithfully pursued shall secure to them a perpetual growth in power as thinkers and also as speakers and writers. An indispensable condition of such continuous growth is an intelligent apprehension of the essential nature and laws of each of the diverse processes in which thought may be presented to other minds. A moment's reflection will satisfy any candid mind that the expectation of reaching any high degree of skill in the construction of discourse, whether written or extempore, without separate study and practice in each of these general processes, is just as preposterous as the expectation of attaining mathematical skill by general practice in computing, without specific study of the elemental principles of quantity, and practice in the fundamental rules of computation. As the only common-sense method of acquiring arithmetical skill is by the study of the ground-rules of arithmetic, one by one and successively, — addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, of reduction of fractions, evolution and involution, proportion, - not by general exercises in computation involving any or all these processes in combination, so the only rational method of acquiring skill in writing and speaking is by the separate study of each process of presenting thought. Having well grounded himself thus in these processes, the student of discourse may go on ever perfecting his skill in the handling of thought, in the shaping of it for the various objects of his discourse, and in the ultimate embodi ment of it in fit and effective verbal expression. Proceeding in this way, the training in discourse in writing compositions instead of a repulsive drudgery, to be shirked in every way possible, becomes an attractive as it will be felt to be a rational procedure, and of eminent utility. Exercises have been subjoined to the several departments of Invention and Style, as fully as seemed desirable. They will be found sufficient for private study. In classes under permanent instructors the selections of exercises must necessarily be left to a great extent with the instructor. In the author's "Rhetorical Praxis" may be found two thousand or more themes, with rudimental exercises in all rhetorical processes. His "Art of Composition" contains the principles of proper sentence-construction, presented in progressive method, including an introduction to the use of imagery or rhetorical symbols and to the elementary processes in the unfolding of thought, and accompanied throughout with copious exercises. NEW HAVEN, January, 1867. 1 OF THE PROVINCE AND RELATIONS OF RHETORIC. § 2. Founded on the Faculty of Discourse §§ 3-9. Relations to Logic, Esthetics, Ethics, Grammar, and Elocution §§ 32-34. Forms of Oratory. - Judicial, Deliberative, Sacred §§ 54-59. Essential Parts - Proposition and Discussion. PART I.-EXPLANATION. |