Excerpt from A Practical Course in English Composition Reading up beforehand is by no means advised in every case. And yet there seems to be little warrant for the objections to this practice sometimes advanced of late. The early work of nearly every great writer shows clearly that he began by' conscious, if not deliber ate, imitation. Still, it will be apparent from even a hasty glance into this book that style is not considered the all-important thing it is the subject-matter of models and references that has in most cases led to their selection, even translations being admitted. After all else is done, one thing remains for the teacher the criticism of the pupil's work.' There fore, mechanical faults and minor individual vices of style are not discussed herein. They are as numerous and as diverse as are the individual writers. Often, too, they are not matters of absolute right or wrong. Many adventitious considerations, which cannot be foreseen here, must go to settle the question. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.