I REFACE TO FIRST EDITION This book is intended as a sequel to my "Grammar of the English Language for Japanese Students", and also as a preparation for the study of English Literature, with a HandBook on which subject I purpose to complete the series,―at least in an upward direction. As with the Grammar, so with the present work, I lay no claim to originality. The book is simply a compilation of notes and selections from the best authorities accessible to me. I have added remarks of my own on the special difficulties met with by Japanese students; a. the illustrative examples are taken from the best authors only, excepting a few sentences given for correction. In most cases I have appended the names of the authors quoted by way of illustra tion, so that the earnest student may refer more at length to such of them as please him most. I have been careful to avoid, as far as possible, quotations from the Bible and from confessedly religious works. To use such books in illustration of purely secular knowledge is, I am sure, at all times a mistake. Still, in the paragraph on Allusions I have felt bound to point out a fact which thoughtful students in this country are beginning to discover for themselves, namely, that without some Biblical knowledge, the intelligent study of English Literature is impossible. So frequent are scriptural aliusions in all save a few purely scientific books that they may be said to constitute the soul of any European literature; without a knowledge of their meaning literature becomes a lifeless body. A distinctive feature of my Grammar was that it was so arranged as to draw out (educate) the reasoning faculties of the student the same thing is attempted here. Thus, the exposition of the Principles of Rhetoric is intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive: the examples are generally printed without comment or explanation of any kind, very few passages being even italicized; so that the student may, under the guidance of the teacher, carefully study the examples and show how, where, and why they illustrate the principle or rule to which they are appended. The careful teacher will also make himself acquainted with whatever other English books his students may happen to be reading, and will occasionally refer his classes to passages in some of those books as additional examples of the principles here laid down. The students' own composition exercises will be found to afford abundant illustrations of violations of rhetorical rules. By using these, and other similar, means, the study of Rhetoric will be seen to be no mere effort of memory, but a valuable intellectual training full of interest to teacher and student alike. Above all, let it be remembered that Japanese students always seek to know the reasons for the facts they learn; and, therefore, he who teaches them to reason for themselves confers upon them the greatest possible boon. It is no answer to an enquiring student to tell him "this is an idiom", "that is an anomaly", 66 no one can understand the reason of this construction": he will wish to know the origin of the idiom, the reason of the anomaly, while in the third answer he will rightly interpret the 66 по опе to mean his individual teacher. Teachers who use this book are recommended to provide themselves with the works named at the end of this preface, as books of reference. The present Part contains An Introduction to the Subject. Section I: The Figures of Speech. Section II: The Number and the Order of Words. Section III: The Qualities of Style. Part II contains Section IV: The Sentence and the Paragraph ; together with the Principles of Punctuation, and the Use of Capital Letters Section V: The Different Kinds of Prose Composi tion. Section VI: Poetry and the Drama. Section VII: The Principles of Elocution. It will thus be seen that in each part I have endeavoured to combine theory with practice. Part II also contains an Index to the complete work. I can only hope that this book may obtain as much favour as did my Grammar, which in less than twelve months is running through its third edition, and which has been adopted as a text book by Tokiyo Daigaku Yobimon and by many Schools public and private, throughout the empire. The principal works to which I have referred in the compilation of this book are Bain's "English Composition and Rhetoric", Quackenbos' "Composition and Rhetoric," Haven's "Rhetoric", Whateley's "Elements of Rhetoric," Campbell's Rhetoric, Blair's Rhetoric, Angus' "Hand-Book of the English Tongue", Swinton's "New School Composition", Spencer's "Philosophy of Style," Bain's Companion to the Higher English Grammar," Whitney's "Life and Growth of Language." W. D. C. |