he Second Part deals with Diction. It attempts to illustrate with
some detail the distinction--often ignored by those who are beginning
to write English, and sometimes by others also--between the Diction of
Prose, and that of Poetry. It endeavors to dissipate that excessive
and vulgar dread of tautology which, together with a fondness for
misplaced pleasantry, gives rise to the vicious style described above.
It gives some practical rules for writing a long sentence clearly and
impressively; and it also examines the difference between slang,
conversation, and written prose. Both for translating from foreign
languages into English, and for writing original English composition,
these rules have been used in teaching, and, we venture to think, with
encouraging results.

A Chapter on Simile and Metaphor concludes the subject of Diction. We
have found, in the course of teaching, that a great deal of confusion
in speaking and writing, and still more in reading and attempting to
understand the works of our classical English authors, arises from the
inability to express the literal meaning conveyed in a Metaphor. The
application of the principle of Proportion to the explanation of
Metaphor has been found to dissipate much of this confusion. The
youngest pupils readily learn how to "expand a Metaphor into its
Simile;" and it is really astonishing to see how many difficulties
that perplex young heads, and sometimes old ones too, vanish at once
when the key of "expansion" is applied. More important still, perhaps,
is the exactness of thought introduced by this method. The pupil knows
that, if he cannot expand a metaphor, he does not understand it. All
teachers will admit that to force a pupil to see that he does not
understand any thing is a great stride of progress. It is difficult
to exaggerate the value of a process which makes it impossible for a
pupil to delude himself into the belief that he understands when he
does not understand.

Metre is the subject of the Third Part. The object of this Part (as
also, in a great measure, of the Chapter just mentioned belonging to
the Second Part) is to enable the pupil to read English Poetry with
intelligence, interest, and appreciation. To teach any one how to read
a verse so as to mark the metre on the one hand, without on the other
hand converting the metrical line into a monotonous doggerel, is not
so easy a task as might be supposed. Many of the rules stated in this
Part have been