GOOD READING THE FOUNDATION OF GOOD SPEAKING AND WRITING.—­To the question how to become familiar with good use the first answer is, read the best literature.  Language, like manners, is learned for the most part by imitation; and a person who is familiar with the language of reputable writers and speakers will use good English without conscious effort, just as a child brought up among refined people generally has good manners without knowing it.  Good reading is indispensable to good speaking or writing.  Without this, rules and dictionaries are of no avail.  In reading the biographies of eminent writers, it is interesting to note how many of them were great readers when they were young; and teachers can testify that the best writers among their pupils are those who have read good literature or who have been accustomed to hear good English at home.  The student of expression should begin at once to make the acquaintance of good literature.

THE USE OF DICTIONARIES.—­To become acquainted with good literature, however, takes a long time; and to decide, by direct reference to the usage of the best writers, every question that arises in composition, is not possible for beginners.  In certain cases beginners must go to dictionaries to learn what good use approves.  Dictionaries do not make good use, but by recording the facts learned by professional investigators they answer many questions regarding it.  To one who wishes to speak and write well a good dictionary is indispensable.

“THE FOUNDATIONS OF RHETORIC.”—­Dictionaries, however, are not always a sufficient guide; for, being records, they aim to give all the senses in which a word is used, and do not always tell which sense is approved by the best usage.  Large dictionaries contain many words which have gone out of good use and other words which have not yet come into good use.  Moreover, they treat of words only, not of constructions and long expressions.  Additional help in determining good use is required by beginners, and this help is to be found in such books as Professor A.S.  Hill’s “Foundations of Rhetoric.”  The investigations of a specialist are there recorded in a convenient form, with particular reference to the needs of beginners and of those who have been under the influence of bad models.  Common errors are explained and corrected, and the fundamental merits of good expression are set forth and illustrated.

PURPOSE OF THESE EXERCISES.—­In the following exercises, which are intended for drill on some of these elements of good expression, care has been taken to put the questions into the forms in which they arise in actual composition.  The notes which precede the exercises are only hints; for full discussions of the principles involved the student must consult larger works.

SOME CONVENIENT NAMES