would be a good deal better if we were quieter than we are. Boys and girls never think of playing such pranks in church as they do in school. It would be awful.

6. The exercises in our school are reading, spelling, writing, studying, and reciting our different lessons. Sometimes we sing. Sometimes we choose sides in spelling, and see which can beat. Composition is another exercise. Also we have speaking once a week.

7. School-time in most schools is from 9 o'clock to 12 in the morning, and from 2 o'clock to 4 in the afternoon. There is a recess in the middle of the forenoon, and no school at all on Saturday, or in Christmas week, or on Washington's birthday, or the 4th of July. Then we have a week's vacation in spring, and a long vacation in summer. Scholars are always impatient for vacation to come, but generally get tired of it before it is over.

Example.-Subject, ON TRAVELLING.

OUTLINE.

1. Different modes of travelling.

2. Things to be gained by travelling.

3. Mishaps and dangers to be encountered in travelling. 4. Some of the places and people that I would like to visit. 5. Books of travel which I have read, and the countries, etc., described in them.

OTHER SUBJECTS.

1. The Study of Geography.
2. The Study of History.
3. Cultivating Flowers.
4. Obedience to Parents.
5. Giving Way to Anger.
6. Early Rising.

7. Treatment of Animals.
8. Learning to Draw.
9. Attention to Dress.
10. Going to the Circus.

In giving additional subjects under this head, the teacher should limit himself to such as are familiar to the scholars, and involve a transaction of some kind.

AFTER a sufficient number of examples have been given of themes involving simply objects, as in Chapter I., and familiar transactions, as in Chapter II., the scholar should begin to undertake themes involving abstract qualities, though still confining himself to such as are of a very familiar character. Such are the following:

Example.-Subject, FEAR.

OUTLINE.

1. A Definition of fear.

2. Uses of fear.

3. Signs of fear.

4. Unreasonable fears.

5. Reasonable fears.

COMPOSITION.

1. Fear is defined to be "a painful emotion excited by an apprehension of impending danger." In this definition, which is taken from the dictionary, there are four things to be noticed. First, fear is an emotion of the mind. This distinguishes it from bodily acts and affections. Secondly, it is painful. This distinguishes it from many other mental emotions, such as joy and the like. Thirdly, it is excited in view of something impending, or yet to come. This distinguishes it from remorse, and other such feelings, which refer to what is past. Fourthly, it is excited in view of coming danger. This distinguishes it from hope, and feelings of that kind which look forward to coming happiness. The definition, therefore, includes a great deal, although it is short.

2. Fear has many uses. It makes people careful. There would be a great many more crimes than there now are, if wicked men were not afraid of the consequences of wrong-doing. Fear of being drowned makes boys more careful about going into the water. Fear of bad marks or of other kinds of punishment sometimes keeps scholars from misbehaving, or from neglecting their lessons. Horses and dogs and other animals are made to mind through fear of their master; but that is not the only motive, for they often seem to do things from affection, and even from ambition and from pride.

3. Though fear is a mental, not a bodily affection, it shows itself by bodily signs. When a horse is frightened, he often trembles all over, but generally he runs away, looking wildly out of his eyes. When a dog is afraid, he hangs his head and sneaks away, with his tail drooping between his legs. Almost all animals crouch and lower their heads when they are afraid. In men, fear shows itself chiefly in their loss of color. A man who is very much terrified generally becomes ghastly white. I have seen it stated that the reason of this is that the blood leaves the face and rushes back toward the heart. People who are frightened look wild out of the eyes also, just as horses and other animals do. Another common sign of fear, both with animals and with men, is that it leads them to cry out, scream, roar, or make some other frantic noise.

4. Fear is unreasonable when it is without any good cause, or when the danger apprehended is imaginary. It is this kind of fear which leads ignorant people to be afraid of the dark, or of witches and ghosts. Horses often get frightened at imaginary danger. They see a leaf stir at the side of the street, and they seem to think it is some monster about to spring upon them, and off they jump to the other side of the street. Horses seem more easily frightened than any other animals by unreal danger. When a person looks down from the top of a house or of a high tower, he is apt to be afraid, even though there is a strong railing, so that he could not fall over if he tried. This seems to be an unreasonable fear, and yet almost everybody feels it. We have the same feeling when standing on the platform of a railroad station, as the engine comes thundering up. We know we are beyond its reach, and yet we involuntarily shrink back from the monster.

5. Fear is reasonable when the evil apprehended is real, and is of such magnitude that it is likely to cause us great distress. If a man had fallen upon the railroad track, and his feet had caught fast in

the timbers, so that he could not get off, and he should see the train coming at full speed, he would be horribly afraid, and his fear would be perfectly reasonable. If a man had murdered another, or had committed any great crime, he would have reason to be afraid, because the hand of justice may at any time overtake him. The Bible says, "Be sure your sin shall find you out." A man who commits a crime is like a man who is entangled on a railroad track, and he knows not when the engine will come rushing along, and overwhelm him. It is said that thieves and burglars, though sometimes desperate, are great cowards, and, indeed, they have reason to be. There is one fear which we should all have, and that is the fear of God our Maker.

Note. In beginning a composition on a subject like the foregoing, it will often be found convenient to begin by taking a definition from the dictionary. It is not necessary, however, always to begin in this way. The teacher should see to it that the method is varied.

Example.-Subject, MEMORY.

OUTLINE.

1. The importance of being able to remember what we have seen or heard of.

2. How far back the writer can go in his recollection of things which happened to himself.

3. Instances of very great memory which we have known or read of.

4. Methods of improving the memory. 5. Danger of overtaxing the memory. 6. Indications of memory in animals.

Friendship,

Hatred,

Perseverance,

Industry,

Ambition,

OTHER SUBJECTS.

Improvement of Time,
Advantages of a Good Education,
A Habit of Procrastination,
The Danger of Bad Company,
The Use of Profane Language.

Note. -Subjects like these are very common, and may be multiplied indefinitely at the discretion of the teacher.

To Teachers.- Exercises like those already given, if persistently followed up, can hardly fail to beget in the pupil some readiness of invention, as well as some facility of expression. But there is danger, if the plan is followed exclusively, of its leading to a sort of mechanical and monotonous formalism. Something is needed, therefore, to stir the imagination, which in the young is almost always capable of great activity, if properly appealed to. The best method of awakening this faculty is to assign unreal subjects, in which the scholar has no resource but simply to make up something out of his own head. Teachers who have never tried this plan will be surprised to find how inventive the young mind naturally is. Such a plan is only employing, in the exercise of composition, the dramatic and creative talent which almost all children show in their sports.

Examples of this sort of compositions are given here, for practical convenience in exhibiting those of the same kind together. But in actual teaching, it is better to use exercises of this kind interchangeably with those described in Chapters I., II., and III. The teacher may begin to assign subjects of the kind now under consideration as soon as the scholar has written two or three compositions like those in Chapter I., and so the practice may be continued as an occasional variation all through the exercises in the first three chapters. Indeed, the practice is a good one at every stage of the process of learning to compose, though most valuable in the early stages.

In assigning these imaginary subjects, no preliminary outline is needed. None, indeed, is possible. An outline is based upon logical considerations, whereas here there is no basis of logic to build upon, but the whole thing is left designedly to the caprice of the imagination, working according to "its own sweet will."

Instead of making up examples under this head, I give some which were actually written as school exercises, and without any expectation on the part of the writers that the exercises would ever appear in print. They are given with all their imperfections, as thereby showing better the real character of the exercise. Some of them, it is hardly necessary to say, are from extremely juvenile authors.