“This work gives the student the very gist and germ of the art of composition.”—Public Opinion.

“G. R. Carpenter, Professor of Rhetoric and English Composition in Columbia College, has prepared a work under the title of ‘Exercises in Rhetoric and English Composition,’ in which not so much the science of Rhetoric is mapped out and defined as the practical workings of the art are furnished to the student with just enough of the principles to guide him aright. The author gives an abundance of exercises for the student to study and analyze, and this is the very best kind of help. The scheme of the subject-matter is somewhat unique and novel, but it is comprehensive and lucid.... A very serviceable and suggestive book to read and consult.”—Education.

“The text represents the substance of teaching which a freshman may fairly be expected to compass, and it is set forth with a clearness and directness and brevity so admirable as to make the volume seem almost the realization of that impossible short method of learning to write which has often been sought for, but never with a nearer approach to being found.... We do not hesitate to give unreserved commendation to this little book.”—The Nation.

“Seldom has so much good common sense been put within so brief a space.”—The Boston Herald.

“All lovers of poetry, all students of literature, all readers, will welcome the volumes of ‘The English Poets.’ ... Mr. Matthew Arnold has written a most delightful introduction, full of wise thought and poetic sensibility. Very few books can be named in which so much that is precious can be had in so little space and for so little money.”—Philadelphia Times.

“Altogether it would be difficult to select four volumes of any kind better worth owning and studying than these.”—Nation.

“These four volumes ought to be placed in every library, and, if possible, in the hands of every student of English.”—Churchman.

“Ward’s ‘English Poets’ has been acknowledged to be one of the most serviceable and discriminating contributions to the history of English poetry.”—Quips.

COMMENTS.

“If prose literature can ever be successfully studied by means of short extracts, it will be possible to conduct such a study with the aid of this book. As a companion book of Ward’s ‘English Poets’ it is very interesting and satisfactory. In the Department of Rhetoric, this book will certainly be of greater value than any other work of the kind yet published.”—Prof. H. H. Neill, Amherst College.

“Mr. Craik and his coadjutors do their work admirably. Their remarks are appropriate, their selection of extracts is felicitous. We thank them for not a few happy hours.”—Literary World.

“The extracts are carefully chosen and edited, and a brief sketch of each writer is given. These sketches are written by men who edit the different sections, and as these men are selected from the foremost of English critics, the result is that the books contain a valuable set of brief essays from able and distinguished pens. George Saintsbury, Alfred Ainger, Edmund Gosse, Norman Moore, and others besides the editor himself have contributed, and the book would have been valuable did it contain nothing but these introductory notices. The conclusions of the editors of the different authors who have summed up the characteristics of the separate men represented in the previous volume, have done their work so well, that the student is likely in the end to have a rather better idea of the writers than he would gather from his unaided study of the original and complete works of these old writers.”—Boston Courier.

“A work that, as a treatise for the instruction of the individual student as well as for class-room use, is to be warmly commended.... On every page of this admirably arranged volume is shown the fruit of original thought, profound erudition, and philosophical grasp of a subject which has been too often obscured by injudicious counsel.”—The Beacon.

“An admirable work; the best results of recent research are embodied in it.”—Providence Journal.

“The work is a valuable contribution to linguistic science, and it will be a welcome text-book in colleges and schools and to all students of philology.”—Home Journal.

“In respect both of scholarship and of exposition, this volume is entitled to high praise.... There is no part of this book that cannot be read with pleasure as well as profit, and one is therefore embarrassed by the wealth of material worthy of illustration.”—New York Sun.