ON ESSAY-WRITING. 1. Elements of an Essay. The following pages contain precepts for the guidance of pupils who are studying how to write well, not a scientific exposition of the principles on which good writing depends. Composition is an Art. Every essay is a product of Art, and like other products of Art it possesses Matter and Form. Its matter consists of thoughts, expressed in words. In a good essay good matter is presented in a good form. The matter is undoubtedly of greater importance than the form, yet a learned essayist may remain unread, because he lacks the ability to display his valuable materials in an attractive dress, while an unlearned essayist may meet the public taste, because of the appetising way in which his worthless materials are served up. The matter for your essays will increase in quantity and improve in quality with each addition to your knowledge. As your knowledge extends, you will get more ideas and a larger vocabulary with which to express them. Now to knowledge there are no short cuts. In order to 'get understanding' three things are necessary. You must (1) read widely, (2) observe closely, (3) think over what you read and observe; and the last is the hardest of the three. So long as your reading is confined to reports of cricket and football matches, or to twaddling stories in magazines, you will make but a poor hand at any essay which requires much intelligence in its writer. If for a change you read now and then an essay by Goldsmith, or Macaulay, or |