Higher Lessons in English

<p>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.</p><p> </p><p><em>Method of One Class of Text-books </em></p><p> </p><p>In one class are those that aim chiefly to present a course of technical grammar in the order of Orthography Etymology Syntax and Prosody.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>This is a revival of the longendured unfruitful old-time method. +</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>Method of Another Class of Text-books</em>.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p>