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sibility. The method employed entails a certain amount of repetition, but repetition is not altogether without its compensations.

That the subject of this book is as important as its inclusiveness calls for no extended demonstration. Our English speech is not only our most constant companion, but likewise the mental activity upon which, from childhood to maturity, we speculate most abundantly. Ever since the beginnings of general education in this country, speech has been a matter of public concern, and it has been made the foundation for training in the kind of civilization we have been trying to realize. What has been the drift of this training? Why do we devote so much time to English, and what light do our endeavors in this direction throw upon the whole course and intent of our aspirations? Have we an intelligible program back of our activities in speech, or are we following blind impulses? These are but a few of the many far-reaching questions that may be asked. And of course our interest in English is not limited merely to the spoken word. From the beginning of the modern era, the culture of the world has been becoming more and more a literary culture. Ours might well be called a pen and paper civilization. In all this' there is much that is admirable. It has provided the world with a new form of expression. Everybody reads nowadays, and almost everybody writes, or tries to write. The number of prospective shortstory writers in America today is probably larger than the number of prospective politicians. The students who would have aspired to be orators a generation or two ago, now study composition. Writing is no longer the distinction of one a limited professional class, it is one of the universal forms of expression. In business, in social intercourse, in all callings, the ability to use the written forms of the language adequately has become an elementary necessity. Modern life cannot be limited to those close contacts which called for no communication beyond the spoken word. We must now have long-distance communication, less intimate and personal than the spoken word,

but gaining by way of compensation in permanency and in extent of appeal, and above all in an increase of critical self-consciousness on the part of the users of the language. Nobody can write what he has to say without knowing himself better as a consequence of this endeavor. It is infinitely easier to deceive oneself in speech than it is in writing, infinitely easier to get along with half-spoken utterances than with half-formulated written expression.

The purpose of this book being to call attention specially to underlying principles, this purpose necessarily implies certain exclusions. The book is not a pronunciation guide, a rhetoric or a handbook of composition. It does not attempt to enforce a particular style of writing or of speaking. It is not concerned with the technical rules of punctuation, paragraphing, sentence structure, and the other minutiae of rhetorical instruction. That these technical details are important goes without saying. At the very moment of speaking and writing, the particular technical device to be employed is of the utmost importance. One chooses one's tools for their appropriateness to the work in hand. Yet the choice always implies something antecedent to the handling of the tool, and it is mainly with these antecedent choices that this book is concerned. A fair case might even be made for the position that clearness of mind in choosing the direction of one's endeavors is more important than the specific methods to be employed in expressing what one has to say. The person who knows clearly what he wants to say and why he wants to say it will not often be greatly troubled by the difficulties of the forms of language. He will certainly be in a more promising way to express himself adequately than the speaker or writer who conceives that effective use of the language lies in the application of rules of composition mechanically acquired. For after all, language is never merely a tool, never merely a mechanical implement which does its work exactly in the same way for one person as for another, but always it is besides a part of the living) personality of the one who uses it.

If this book is not a rhetoric, neither is it a dictionary. It would have been easy to load the pages of the book with an infinity of illustrative examples. In this respect it has seemed that moderation was desirable in order not to distract attention too much from the real purpose of the book, which has been, if the repetition be permitted, to call attention to general principles rather than to make exhaustive collections of specific instances. Sufficient examples have been cited to make the points clear, but any reader who has got the points will have no difficulty in adding abundantly to the number of the illustrations. And perhaps the author may be permitted in this connection to call attention to another work of his, A Comprehensive Guide to Good English (Rand McNally and Company), in which some thousands of examples of debatable English speech have been assembled. Any student may profitably make similar collections of his own, for it is by just such accumulations of detail that the knowledge of English best prospers and grows.

Still another aspect of the English language is treated only in outline in this volume, but again not because of its unimportance. This is the kind of study which has to do with the historical development of the language. The English language, as one regards this term in all its implications, is seen not to be merely a useful invention, devised for the satisfaction of immediate needs and desires, or even for the realization of disinterested and lofty literary aspirations. It is that, and as we shall continually insist, the English language of today is most importantly that. But the English language is something more than a handmaiden to make profitable, or instructive, or pleasing, the immediate concerns of present life. It is besides, one may say, a monument of civilization. The English language has a past as well as a present. Here again it must be said that the past of the English language does not fundamentally concern the unreflecting person -or for that matter any person in acquiring a practical knowledge of English. Certainly it does not directly concern any person at the very moment of the urgent use of language.

Like the knowledge of the foundation principles of mental habit that underlie the effective use of the language, the knowledge of. the past of the language is supplemental to that direct kind of knowledge which attends immediate experience.

Though it is supplemental to direct experience, the knowledge of the past of the language is by no means unimportant for the critical student. The bearing of tendencies in present English is often made more evident by an examination of the developments that have taken place during the earlier stages of the language. Things seen in perspective often take on different and more intelligible appearances than when they are viewed only close at hand. A knowledge of the historical forms of the language will therefore often be found to have a value in comprehending the significance of the practical applications of English in the present. Even if it had no such value, however, the critical student would not be deterred from examining the past of the English language. Matters of knowledge may have an interest in themselves and apart from their practical applications. It is certainly no unreasonable expectation to suppose that a lover of English speech should want to know as much about the language as he can, not only the language into which he is born and in which he has his being, but he will also want to know what the nature of this language was in the days of his near and even of his more remote ancestors. When one goes into them in detail, however, these historical matters call for a special treatment, for a different method and emphasis from the employed in the present volume. They must be left, therefore, merely with an indication of their extent and character, and with a recommendation that they be not neglected. Attention is called to the reading lists at the end of the volume, where those inexperienced in the historical details of the language will find the titles of books that should prove helpful in carrying forward the study of this important branch of the knowledge of English. Certain chapters in the latter part of the book are concerned with some of the more significant problems of contemporary style.

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The discussion of style is commonly considered to be one of the branches of rhetoric.. Yet rhetoric itself is merely a branch of the general study of the language. No rhetorical effect can be produced without the use of language, and the study of style on its formal side is nothing more than the examination of those devices and manipulations of language which are employed to attain the desired end in the art of expression. It is important therefore that the relations of style to the whole body of habits and associations of which the language is composed should be clearly realized, and the chapters on style in this book have been included for the purpose of calling attention to the fact that style is not a thing apart, but as essential and as implicit as any other aspect of speech in the knowledge of English.

The reading lists at the end of the volume will provide materials for further stud in a variety of directions. They have also served the purpose of freeing the text from a multiplicity of bibliographical references. These lists will indicate in some degree the dependencies of this book upon other writings and the differences between the opinions expressed in it and those that have been held by others.

In slightly different forms, the chapters entitled A Touchstone for English, The Plea of Poetic License and Writing as a Fine Art have already appeared in print, the first in The American Mercury, the two others in The Forum. Acknowledgment is made to the editors of these magazines for their courteous permission to use this material.

G. P. K.

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