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131. Sweet are the uses of adversity.'

132. Write an essay on the principal advantages which an Englishman or Englishwoman possesses over a native of a tropical country such as Hindostan.

133. British exports and imports.

134. Time: its use and abuse.

135. The passing of an Act of Parliament.

136. A contrast between the life and associations of a mechanic in a large manufacturing town and those of a farm labourer in the country.

137. Masters and men: their rights and relations.

138. The position and prospects of the United States.

139. The good and evil effects that may be produced by theatres. 140. The four seasons: which do you prefer and why?

141. More haste, less speed.

142. Necessity is the mother of invention.

143. What can't be cured must be endured. 144. Well begun is half done.

145. All that glitters is not gold.

146. Evil communications corrupt good manners
147. Honesty is the best policy.
148. A stitch in time saves nine.

149. Prevention is better than cure.

150. A rolling stone gathers no moss. 151. Make hay while the sun shines. 152. Birds of a feather flock together. 153. Knowledge is power.

154. Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.

155. The advantage to be derived from an acquaintance with modern languages.

156. The disadvantages of being unable to read.

157. The differences between fashion and beauty.

158. Discuss the influence on mankind politically, morally, socially, and religiously of the invention of printing.

159. Life in town and country compared.

160. The influence of scenery on character.

161. Early signs of spring.

162. The arrangement of some public park or gardens.

163. The railway that passes through your neighbourhood.

164. Wages, and the reason why some people are better paid than others.

165. The difference between trades and professions.

166. Climate: its influence on people's occupations and characters. 167. Contrast the dog and the cat.

168. Write a letter detailing the chief events of last year.

169. Sketch the plot of any one of Shakespeare's plays.

170. Relate any anecdotes you may remember illustrating the sagacity of animals.

Cow.

171. Write a description of any shipwreck of which you have read. 172. Write a sketch of Christmas time.

173. The advantages and disadvantages of a free press.

174. A description of the habits of the dog, the cat, the horse, or the

175. A letter from a traveller by land or sea to a friend at home giving an account of a day's adventures.

176. How you may best help the poor.

177. Journal of a naturalist, one day.

178. Description of the place where you were born.

179. Write a letter to a friend stating what occupation you would prefer to follow and your reasons for preferring it.

180. State what sovereign of England between the Norman conquest and the beginning of the nineteenth century you consider to have been the most distinguished for ability and talents, and give your reasons for your answer.

181. Compare the relations of the colonies of Greece towards the mothercountry and those of the English colonies towards England.

182. Describe some of the principal uses of water in nature and in art. 133. What are the advantages of studying Latin and Greek?

184. Give an account of the battle of Waterloo, with the circumstances that led to it and resulted from it.

185. Describe your own county in respect to its general aspect, its resources, and its most interesting buildings.

186. The good and evil effects that may be produced by works of fiction. 187. Sketch the plot of any one of Sir Walter Scott's poems or novels. 188. Supposing that a friend has written to ask you for some account of the school or schools at which you were brought up, write a letter in reply. 189. Write a short essay on music, painting, or architecture.

190. Write a short essay on the advantages that a nation derives from foreign commerce.

191. Write a letter to a friend who has asked you, 'Do you advise me to join a Volunteer rifle corps?'

192. Is there any use in my studying the classics if I am not intended for a learned profession?'

193. Write a short description of any picture, work of art, or scene in nature that may have interested you.

194. Describe the game of chess or cricket as you would to one that has never seen the game played.

State some of the obvious arguments on both

195. Is war justifiable? sides and draw your own conclusion.

196. Write a short theme on the study of history, ancient and modern. 197. Write a letter to a friend describing the nature and purpose of the examination in which you are now engaged.

198. Write an account of any process of manufacture with which you are acquainted.

199. Write an examination of the right of an advocate in a Court of Justice to defend a cause that he knows to be unjust, or a criminal whom he knows to be guilty, and of the limits within which that right may be exercised.

200. Write a description of some newspaper, its contents, its machinery for publication and circulation, its moral and political influence, &c., such as you · would give to a foreigner that had never seen it.

201. Describe, as in a letter to a friend, the town you know best.

202. Describe the effects of a storm.

203. Explain railway travelling, as to a person that had never seen nor heard of a railway.

204. Describe the town to which you have come to be examined.

205. Write a letter of domestic news, as to a friend or relative.

206. Write a letter giving an account of the country in the neighbourhood of which you live to a friend who has never seen it and is coming to live there.

207. Write the life of any eminent Englishman not now living.

208. Write a letter describing a journey you have taken.

209. Draw a comparison between this country now and fifty years ago. 210. Write an essay on the advantages of an Atlantic telegraph between England and America.

211. Sketch the life and character of (a) President Lincoln, (b) Oliver Cromwell, (c) George Washington, (d), Napoleon Buonaparte, (e) Nelson, (ƒ) Wellington, (g) Julius Cæsar, (h) Queen Elizabeth, (i) Sir Thomas More, (j) Sir Philip Sidney, (k) Bacon, (7) Hannibal, (m) Pericles, (n) Cicero, (0) Clive, (p) Sir Isaac Newton, (q) Frederick the Great, (r) Marlborough, (s) William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, (t) Columbus, (u) Alfred the Great, (v) Joan of Arc.

212. Write an account of the life and works of (a) Shakespeare, (b) Milton, (c) Chaucer, (d) Pope, (e) Longfellow (ƒ) Byron, (g) Wordsworth, (h) Spenser, (i) Macaulay, (j) Addison, (k) Goldsmith, (1) Johnson.

213. Our everyday food, the countries it comes from and the processes it has gone through.

214. The evils of drunkenness and the means by which these evils may be lessened.

215. The losses of the blind.

216. Write a letter describing how you spent your last holidays and how you would like to spend the next.

217. Articles of luxury.

218. Write an essay on the different sorts of entertainments for children and adults.

219. Write an essay describing the lives of the poor.

220. Which would you rather live in, the town or the country, and why?

221. Name any great traveller or explorer, and say what he did,

222. Lighthouses: structure, situation, and uses.

223. If you were going on a six months' journey on the Continent of Europe, what articles would you take with you, and why?

224. Shorthand, uses of.

225. The good and evil that have resulted from the introduction of gunpowder.

226. In what way has photography contributed to happiness and prosperity?

227. Compare the present with 'the good old times.'

228. Compare the pleasures of a journey (1) by rail, (2) walking, (3) cycling.

229. The Suez Canal: its construction and the changes that have resulted from it.

230. Description of any monument you have seen.

NOTES FOR TEACHERS,

(These refer to the whole work.)

1. (a) When teaching a boy to swim we do not begin with a long series of directions: we get him at once into the water and set him doing something. He gradually loses any nervousness which he may have felt; he learns to use his arms and legs by trying to use them, and what instruction we give is immediately profitable because it is given just when needed. I think we should follow a similar course in teaching composition—that we should at once let children begin to do something. When they have had some practice, first in forming, and then in combining easy sentences, they will feel confidence in their own powers and be ready to receive instruction in the choice and arrangement of words.

(3) A complete course of lessons in composition naturally divides itself into three parts-elementary practice, instruction in all that is necessary to correct writing, and instruction in all that is necessary to beautiful writing. The present book only attempts to deal with the first and second parts of such course. The third is omitted because the higher qualities of style,

'Like the march of soundless music

Through the vision of the seer,
More of feeling than of hearing,

Of the heart than of the ear,'

can hardly be reduced to rules at all, and can certainly not be reduced to rules within the comprehension of young students.

(y) Each teacher must decide for himself where his class should begin. When the pupils have had no practice in composition they should begin with the first exercise and go steadily on. Oral lessons in English may be made to prepare the way for formal lessons in composition if the children are required to form little sentences containing given parts of speech, or about given objects, or in answer to given questions.

(8) It is a good plan, before setting the pupils to work an exercise

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