what he is pretending to make, a private record for his own future information, but is really writing for effect upon the minds of other people.

Dates. It is essential to the honesty and truthfulness of a diary that the date of an entry should be that on which the entry is actually made. Inexperienced persons, in keeping a diary, sometimes omit making any record for several days, and then, on some day when they have leisure or inclination, make one job of it, and fill up the missing days from memory. This is to make the whole record valueless, either for themselves or for any one else.

Blank Days. —If, on any particular day, no record is made, let the day stand blank. Such blanks are no blemish to a diary; the best diaries often have them. In making the record of a particular day, the writer may, if he chooses, register his recollections of what took place on previous days, but let them be entered as recollections. The inexorable rule for a diary, from which there should be no exception, is that each entry have a date, and that the date mark truthfully the time of the writing.

The Place. Persons who keep a diary will likewise find it of great value to themselves to register the place where, as well as the time when, each entry is made. Accuracy and particularity in regard to facts are indeed the essential points in the composition of a diary.

III. NEWS.

Next to writing letters, there is, in modern times, no species of composition of which so much is done as News writing.

Amount. - The innumerable items which fill the news columns of the daily and weekly papers are enormous in amount, and constitute the chief reading of the public- the daily bread of our literary life.

Literary Character. - The literature of the news columns is not, perhaps, of a very high character; yet that it is a part of the literature of the day cannot well be denied, and the rules which should govern it ought not to be entirely ignored in any work professing to treat of the various kinds of composition in actual use.

The True Medium. - News items are for the most part written in haste. The writers have not time to correct and prune their composition as other writers have. Personally, therefore, they are not held to as strict an account as other writers are, for general accuracy of diction and style. Yet every reader is sensible of the difference between a paragraph of news correctly written and one incorrectly written, and by the exercise of only a moderate degree of attention, the writers of these paragraphs could certainly avoid most of the glaring errors which now mar their work.

Things to be Aimed at. - The chief excellencies of style to be cultivated by the writer of news are accuracy, condensation, and perspicuity. The higher graces of style, such as those growing out of the use of rhetorical figures, lie in a different plane. The news writer has not the leisure for such ornaments, nor, if he had, would their use be in accordance with good taste. What the reader requires of him is simply a statement of facts, and this statement should aim at the three qualities just named.

1. Accuracy. By this I do not here refer to the truth of the facts stated. That is a question of morals, not of style. What I mean is that the language should be accurate; that it should convey the meaning which the writer intends.

Sources of Mistake.- News writers err in this respect partly from an inaccurate use of words, and partly from an inaccurate construction of sentences. Thus :

In reporting a man's death, if the newsman happens to be one of those ambitious of fine writing, he will tell us of the man's "demise," which is something quite different from what he intended.

Another reporter, who is careless in construction, speaks of "inventing a ballot-box arrangement which cannot be stuffed," though how an arrangement is to be stuffed is something of a mystery.

Another tells of "a mad dog which was killed after several other dogs had been bitten by Eli Beck." He meant to say that the dog was killed by Eli Beck. What he does say is that the other dogs were bitten by that gentleman.

"The Military Committee did not report against Mr. B., of Tennessee, for selling his cadetship to-day." The reporter meant to say, "The Committee did not report to-day."

The portions of rhetoric which are particularly important for correcting inaccuracies of this kind are the chapters on Diction and Sentences.

2. Condensation.- By this it is not meant that the news writer should suppress the particulars which give body and substance to a statement of facts. These particulars are usually exactly what the reader wants; and the best reporter, in any case of special interest, is generally the one who can gather and give these particulars with the greatest minuteness.

What is Meant.-The condensation required of the reporter refers to the number of words used in expressing any particular item of information. An expert will express the item fully in about half the number of words used by a bungler, and the report will increase in vividness and sparkle in consequence of this condensation. The unnecessary expletives with which a news paragraph is so often swelled out into forbidding proportions originate in bad taste and conceit. The writers pelt the public with inflated bladders, when they should use solid shot.

A Safe Rule.— A beginner in this species of composition will find it a safe rule, after having written a paragraph, to go over it and strike out on an average about one-half the words. Any one who has not given the subject some attention will be surprised at the skill in condensation acquired by some of the newspaper reporters, as well as at the want of skill manifested by others.

3. Perspicuity.—People read news in haste; the most imperative demand of the writer, therefore, is clearness. The meaning should be so plain that "he may run that readeth it."

Different from other Reading.—There are times, indeed, when men find pleasure in solving the mystery of some hard sentence in Latin or Greek, or in finding out the meaning, if there is any, in some orphic saying of Emerson. But no one is ever in this mood over his morning newspaper. What it has to tell us in the way of news

must be told in the clearest and most straightforward manner.

How Obtained.— This clearness is to be obtained chiefly by skill in the construction of sentences. As this topic has been fully treated elsewhere, the reader is referred for further information to the chapter on that subject.

A Serious Fault.-The most serious fault of style among news writers, at the present day, is their propensity to indulge in the use of slang words and phrases. This mistake of slang for wit is a sore evil. It may not perhaps lead to a deterioration of the language, as many fear; for the fault is too glaring and offensive to lead to general imitation. But it is a serious drawback to the pleasure with which one opens his paper for information in regard to the news of the day. Slang is next door to ribaldry, and neither of them is pleasant company at the breakfast table.

IV. EDITORIALS.

and the same

a portion of the space

In the arrangement of a modern newspaper is true to some extent in magazines is reserved for the expression of the opinions of the editor or editors, on the current topics of the day. The paragraphs thus written are one of the peculiar products of modern times, and form a noticeable species of prose composition.

Order of Composition. The style suited for the editorial columns is not only of a high order of composition, but is one peculiar to itself. A first-class editorial admits, indeed, of almost every grace and excellence of style known to rhetoric. But one may have all these excellencies, may be a first-class writer in many other departments of literature, and yet not succeed as a writer of editorials.

Not Impersonal Truth. An editorial is not an essay, or a dissertation; not a mere tissue of abstract, impersonal truths. On the contrary, it comes to us permeated, through and through, with the personality of the writer. Whatever ability, knowledge, wit, or wisdom has been shown by the paper, is supposed to exist in some unseen oracle who sits veiled behind the mysterious "we," and who puts himself forth as a public teacher and guide. The opinions expressed have an added weight from being given as his,-the opinions

of this unknown, all-knowing Editor.

An important requisite,

Editor's Estimate of his Own Position. therefore, in a writer of editorials, is the ability rightly to conceive of himself as being placed in this responsible position of a public teacher. He must know how to use with vigor, and yet with discretion, a certain form of self-assertion. It is not, however, the

mere use of "we" that makes a piece of composition an editorial. The best editorials employ this formula very sparingly, and sometimes omit it altogether. But the writer, in penning such articles, conceives himself as one set to teach. His business is to give his opinions, and that for the express purpose of influencing the opinions of others.

Editorials and News. - From this general description, it will be seen at once how different is the business of writing editorials from that of writing news. The one simply records the facts of the day; the other discusses those facts, and expresses opinions about them, commending or condemning, explaining or defending, persuading and exhorting, assigning causes and suggesting remedies. The one writes with special reference to clearness, accuracy, and brevity; the other calls to his aid all the graces and arts of the most finished rhetoric, and needs for his task a knowledge as varied as the entire range of subjects embraced in the scope of his paper.

Fame, in its highest sense, is rarely, if ever, attained by writing editorials. Yet to write editorials of the best class requires a degree and variety of talent, which, if employed in other kinds of writing, would ensure high and lasting fame.

V. REVIEWS.

Reviews are of the nature of editorials, only much more extended. A review is a very long editorial. It is an article of many pages, giving the opinions of a monthly or a quarterly magazine, instead of an article of a column or part of a column, giving the opinions of a weekly or a daily paper.

An Organ. The magazine, like the paper, is the organ of a certain set of opinions. Its office is to propagate and enforce those opinions, but in doing so it enters more largely into the details of argument and explanation.

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Description. Reviews, like editorials, embrace almost every variety of subject. They are commonly, though not always, based upon some book. They sometimes examine the book merely, sometimes the subject treated of in the book, and often they discuss first