nitions of grammatical terms, and it is well-nigh impossible for children to appreciate or apply strictly logical definitions for some of the grammatical terms which they need to use. Because of this difficulty some teachers demand no definitions at all that even approach exactness. There is certainly a serious error to be avoided on this side. Loose teaching will always produce loose thinking, and the chief value of grammar is to secure careful discriminations in thought and speech.

How then shall the teacher find and keep the wise mean between no attempt at logical definition and the labored assumption of logical correctness which makes the subject tedious, and is useless for application in elementary language teaching? Some definitions must be given. Some logical distinctions must be drawn. But the number and form of these must depend on various circumstances and will vary greatly with different classes.

It is by no means easy to keep the right balance between looseness and inaccuracy on the one hand and the insistence on logical exactness which lays fetters hard to be borne upon immature minds. But on the teacher's skill in doing this the success of the work in grammar will very largely depend.

Grammar may be taught so as to be narrowing and pedantic on the one hand or obscure and uninteresting on the other. It may carry its analytical method beyond the point of really educative influence over the minds which the teacher has to deal with. Grammar also sometimes assumes a false arrogance as to its own authority in matters of usage. The emphasis should

always be laid upon real facts found in the language, and not upon negations or prohibitions of this or that form of expression. It is hardly worth while to be continually setting up men of straw to be knocked down by argument.

The method used should be inductive rather than authoritative. The students of grammar are themselves the explorers in the field of language, working, however, under the wise guidance of one who has traversed the same paths before them.

The teacher must not forget that in the closer distinctions of grammar, absolute decision of a disputed point cannot always be reached. The grammarian must not be over positive in his opinion on some of these points. It has been said that “Dogmatism saves time," but does it in the end? Two interpretations may sometimes both be correct. In dealing with disputed questions it is not needful always for the teacher to bring every one of his pupils to the same understanding of the intricate points that he himself holds. He should have a definite opinion, of course, and make it known to the class, with his reasons therefor. But let him beware how he dwarfs the power of judgment in his pupils by insisting on entire unanimity in their verdict, or invariable conformity to his own view. In the discussion of the subtler questions of syntax it is not the decision reached that is of chief importance. It is the power of thinking gained by the effort to compare and discriminate the relations of a thought that is of truest educational value.

Finally, let the teacher who loves language work and has labored faithfully for his pupils in this field, be of good cheer, even if the results seem small. In every class there are illogical minds that grasp imperfectly, or sometimes apparently not at all, the abstract relations of the ideas and words with which grammar deals. But results do not show themselves all at first. Many are the men and women, who showed no brilliant powers as boys and girls in the grammar class but who yet look back gratefully upon the school training that gave them their first glimpses into the character of logical thinking. By and by these grammatical ideas, partly perceived by children, grow into more perfect clearness in their minds as they come to perceive that the fundamental relations of thought and of speech are identical and that a knowledge of these relations is of practical importance to every thinking mind.

The

The real results of school work are seen in their true perspective relations only through the vista of later years. But even if the work of the grammar class for some of the pupils may seem to be but a qualified success, it should not cause discouragement. Grammar is only one means toward language power. teacher is only one of many agencies that are at work. Let him takeup this necessary subject of English grammar with courageous heart, feeling sure that faithfulwork along this line is sure in its own time and way to contribute large and important elements to the comprehensive end which is perhaps the highest result of education, namely, the perfection of thought and its fitting expression.

VIII

SOME WORDS TO WRITERS

Rules for style as for manners must be mostly suggestive. -T. W. HIGGINSON.

Remember the other person. I must write with pains, that he may read with ease.-G. H. PALMER.

Men learn to think accurately and hence to express themselves accurately and logically by the experiences of life. Grammar merely aids this process.-CARPENTER, BAKER, AND SCOTT.

No writer, however brilliant, should be excused for grammatical errors that might be avoided. MARSHALL T. BIGE

LOW.

The connective parts of sentences are the most important of all, and require the greatest care and attention.-WRITER'S HANDBOOK.

Learn grammar, learn all you can about the tools with which you intend to work all your life.-SHUMAN'S STEPS INTO JOURNALISM.

Much literature that has become standard was first printed in newspapers; but, as the newspaper in its news records the life of every day, so in its style it too frequently records the slang of daily life and the faults of ordinary conversation. A newspaper contains bits of English prose from hundreds of different pens, some skilled, some unskilled, and this jumble of styles does not determine good use.—BUEHLER.

Accuracy and dash then-the combination of the twomust be our difficult aim.-G. H. PALMER,

Be neither too lax or too precise in your use of language.— T. W. HIGGINSON.

Good style is impossible without grammatical correctness, but grammatical correctness does not necessarily carry with it good style.-KITTREDGE AND ARNOLD.

Journalists and authors as well as teachers have a professional interest in the grammatical characteristics of English usage. The power of the daily press is one of the strongest influences at work to modify language idioms. Brevity and force are the qualities chiefly sought, and in the effort to gain these many a newspaper writer seems to indorse the sentiment of Thomas Jefferson who wrote," Whenever by small grammatical negligence the energy of the idea can be condensed or a word be made to stand for a sentence, I hold grammatical rigor in contempt."

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Possessive cases not used by the older writers, such as "Boston's mayor,' Chicago's city government,' are often seen in the daily papers. Even phrases of several words sometimes receive the sign, as, "The Pacific Coast storm's havoc." (N. Y. Tribune), Such expressions have conciseness in their favor, though they mark a wide departure from the principle given in some of the older books that personality is necessary to the true possessive idea. The growing frequency of the split infinitive whenever logical precision or compactness of phrase can be secured thereby is largely due to journalistic practice. The radical tendencies of the daily press are undoubtedly carried too far. But in spite of some carelessness and some objectionable