Excerpt from The Public School Grammar: And Elements of Composition; With Numerous Exercises; Authorized for Use in the Public Schools of Ontario by the Minister of Education

The other Exercises with which the book abounds have intentionally been made numerous: lst, because it is not only right but also profitable to gratify the desire young people always have to apply knowledge as soon as they have gained it; 2ud, because a truth or a principle is not the useful, permanent property of the learner till he can reproduce it, and correctly put it in practice. These Exercises are intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. Looking to the intelligence of the class, the teacher will decide whether, before passing on to what follows, the class should do part of an Exercise, the whole of it, or additional Exercises of his own making.

No apology is offered for the attention given throughout the book to the subject of Punctuation. This important part of Composition is sadly neglected, and no improvement can be looked for till teachers and pupils are convinced that a written sentence is not finished till it is punctuated, and that faulty punctuation is as great a disgrace as faulty spelling.

By the appeal that is continually made to the experience and to the linguistic needs of the pupils themselves, it is hoped that an interest and an impressiveness have been given to the Lessons which could not be secured so well in any other way. It is hoped, too, that by this means, and by following, as much as possible, the inductive method, the subject of Grammar has been rescued from the category of studies to be learned by rote and recited memoriter, and made the means of valuable mental training.

Free use has been made by the author of the labors of his predecessors, particularly of the Essentials of English Grammar, by Prof. Whitney, of Yale. In some places he has but adapted this most excellent work to the circumstances and needs of Canadian Public Schools.

In order that a Public School pupil proceeding to a High School may be saved some confusion, this book, both in matter and in language, has been assimilated, as much as its nature permitted, to the High School Grammar; the privilege of doing this having been generously afforded by the author of that work.

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