Materials & Models for Composition
from the Great Essayists

SELECTED AND EDITED BY

J. H. Fowler, M.A.

Assistant Master at Clifton College; Author of 'A Manual of Essay-Writing'
General Editor of 'English Literature for Secondary Schools'

BRARY

OF THE

UNIVERS.T

CALI

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

GLASGOW PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

COLLECTIONS of representative English Essays have been made before; but, so far as I know, no collection has been made with the double purpose that in this little book has been kept in view. That purpose is, in choosing essays which may fairly be taken to represent the great essayists, to select at the same time such as may in some degree serve as models to those who wish to learn the art of essay-writing. It is true that between the essay as it is practised by the master in literature and the essay as it is practised by the learner there is generally nothing, and there can seldom be much, in common except the name. None the less the best possible way to write the latter is to know something of the former. The way of writing essays is made unnecessarily hard for the writer if-as is very often the case, even under favourable circumstances-he has read no essays except Bacon's, which, as a Norwegian student of English once truly remarked, are "a little old-fashioned," or Macaulay's, which are on too large a scale to be helpful as models. We all begin by imitating when we first attempt to compose; and the reason why youthful essays have often a strong tendency to be obtrusively didactic is simply that the essayist, having no other model, imitates sermons, the nearest approach to an essay with which he is familiar.

V

Some sort of model is as necessary or as desirable as in the case of Latin and Greek composition. It is said to be the practice of some professors of the art to write and dictate a "fair copy"; but this is a solution of the difficulty from which the modesty of many teachers will naturally shrink. There remains the alternative of using the great essayists themselves as models. It has been held no discredit to Virgil and Horace, but on the contrary a signal mark of honour, that even in their life-time they were used in the Roman schools: and I trust it is no dishonour to some of the dearest names in English literature to apply them to this purpose.

Though I have done my best to choose essays that in scope and treatment will be serviceable from this point of view, it is obvious that the literary essay cannot furnish a direct model for the school exercise. Some such cautions as I have given on this topic in the Introduction will, I think, generally be sufficient to call the attention of the student to those essential differences which it is important for him to notice.

May I venture to suggest, however, that there is still a direct use which may be made of these essays as material for composition? The student may try to write out one of the essays from memory, either as far as possible in the words of the original, or with no such restriction. Both plans are worth trying, the lesson being different, but perhaps equally valuable, in the two cases. This exercise should be done briskly. Then the original and the reproduction should be compared, and the points of superiority in the formerin vocabulary, in arrangement, in connection-carefully

noted. Such an exercise may do much to increase the learner's power of expression and to carry him or her over some of the mechanical difficulties of composition.

I have thought it best to send out this book with the minimum of annotation, because I wish to emphasise the literary uses of it and these alone. The practice of providing school editions with philological and historical notes has had the effect of drawing away attention from definitely literary study. In the Introduction I have tried to suggest another way of dealing with the text the study of the writer's methods of composition, his choice of words, his use of ornament, the structure of his sentences and paragraphs.

This study of the mechanism of the essay will, I fear, seem revolting to some lovers of literature. I confess to an instinctive sympathy with their dislike of the dissection of masterpieces. But-to say nothing of the undoubted fact that many great masters of literature have learnt their art by careful study of the qualities of style-there is no better way of making ourselves thoroughly familiar with the text. Only, to redeem such study from the curse of barrenness, we cannot too often remind ourselves that the really vital elements of literature lie behind, and that if we lose sight of those more important elements all our investigation is vain indeed. "It is by matter and not by form," as J. A. Symonds once said, "that the poet takes his final rank." If this is true of the poet, it is a fortiori true of the prose writer. The intrinsic value of the thought offered to us by each writer must be our main concern. Or if in the last resort (as is perhaps the truer view) matter and form, the