The author has, with peculiar aptitude, grasped the fundamental character of the foregoing facts and has adapted the study of language to the real principles involved. All the dry rules that are the witnesses of principles in the ordinary text are done away, while the principles evidenced by those rules come forth to the light in practical application, with a beauty of expression and a real utility that render the mastery of the subject an entertaining excursion into the realms of learning, rather than a dry imprisonment of the faculties in an effort to memorize misunderstood rules without apparent reason or real use.
It is the principle behind the rule that has power in it. When this is understood, the method pursued by the author in this course will be universally applied to all branches of learning, and will end forever the imprisonment of children for the useless worship of rules.
The author's grasp of this fact and the exemplification of it, contained in this work are even more far-reaching than the foregoing would indicate. It really means the application of a new viewpoint to life itself. It means the questioning of the utility of authority; the questioning of the utility of institutions; the application, we might say, of such a test as this: Does any rule, does any authority, does any principle, conserve the interests of humanity? If not, away with it. This means rationalism, the use of common sense. It means that at last the race is beginning to consciously direct its own destiny.
It is with a profound sense of the necessity of education as a part of the evolutionary process now in the conscious grasp of the race, and with a conviction of the fundamental importance of the new viewpoint so ably presented by the author that we dedicate this work "To the Education of the Workers by the Workers."
THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLAIN ENGLISH
| I. | Language Study | [9] |
| II. | Nouns and Verbs | [18] |
| III. | Parts of Speech | [27] |
| IV. | Nouns | [38] |
| V. | Verbs | [50] |
| VI. | Inflection of Verbs | [58] |
| VII. | Time Forms of Verbs | [69] |
| VIII. | Time Forms, Cont'd. | [78] |
| IX. | Participles and Infinitives | [88] |
| X. | Helping Verbs | [97] |
| XI. | Verbs—Common Errors | [106] |
| XII. | Pronouns | [115] |
| XIII. | Pronouns, Cont'd. | [127] |
| XIV. | Adjectives | [138] |
| XV. | Adjectives, Cont'd. | [148] |
| XVI. | Adverbs | [160] |
| XVII. | Adverbs, Cont'd. | [169] |
| XVIII. | Prepositions | [179] |
| XIX. | Prepositions, Cont'd. | [189] |
| XX. | Conjunctions | [200] |
| XXI. | Conjunctions, Cont'd. | [212] |
| XXII. | Adjective Clauses | [222] |
| XXIII. | Independent Constructions | [232] |
| XXIV. | Sentence Building | [243] |
| XXV. | Sentence Analysis | [255] |
| XXVI. | Sentence Building | [267] |
| XXVII. | Sentence Building | [278] |
| XXVIII. | The Use of Capitals | [288] |
| XXIX. | Punctuation | [299] |
| XXX. | Punctuation, Cont'd. | [310] |