PREFACE. No apology is offered for the appearance of this book. It is an outgrowth of a dozen years' experience with classes in one of the leading Agricultural Colleges of the country. In a school having but a single course of study for the first two years, and differing the last two years in only a few technical subjects, a school essentially scientific, the time for literary work was necessarily limited. That kind of literary training, therefore, had to be provided, which was most helpful to those who, in spite of limited preparation, must go out to become leaders of their class. They had not time to study all the niceties of literary expression. They could, at best, master only the elementary principles of rhetoric and make themselves familiar, in a general way, with the ordinary forms of prose composition. Their work as scientists required proficiency in description. Their work among men would require clear and sound reasoning, and the cogent presentation of what they would want others to accept as true. This was the writer's conviction very soon after beginning his work in this department. Acting on this conviction he made the last two years' work in English composition, — speeches, essays, discussions, - largely argu mentative 4017 The effect was a more rapid development OCT 311910 268182 iii |