As we go to press, the two Literary Societies make a proposition to the Board of Trustees to raise $5000 for a combined library and society building, if the Board will raise a like amount. This proposition will be laid before the Executive Committee at their meeting in Greensboro, Nov. 4.
Reviews.
| G. T. ADAMS, Hesperian, | } |
| } Editors. | |
| D. C. ROPER, Columbian. | } |
The Practical Elements of Rhetoric, with Illustrative Example, By John F. Genung, Ph. D. (Leipsic), Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College. Boston: Ginn & Company. 1887. pp. xii, 488. Cloth.
This book has two parts, Style and Invention. Part First analyzes style, elements of style, qualities of style, kinds of composition. Of the eight chapters that make up the second half, the first two are devoted to a discussion of the principles that belong to any literary work, and the remaining six to the practical application of them, as seen in the leading forms of discourse. The author attempts to give only the practical elements of rhetoric, and in so doing his supreme effort is directed to the demands of his subject in order to bring out in its fullness what is really beneficial to the student. As old things, in proportion to their living value, need from time to time to be newly defined and distributed, so the author has made a new and admirable division of topics, each of which he introduces with a simple and yet strictly accurate definition. The arrangement of topics and the treatment of the same are, to say the least, fine, and plainly show that the purpose of the author has been very successfully accomplished, both in the expository and in the illustrative matter. Genung’s style is clear and impressive. He has not merely compiled from other authors, but, for the principles laid down, has gone to the true sources, the usage of the best contemporaneous writers, to verify old rules and to lay down new ones. He has by no means tied himself to rhetoric descended from the classics, his practical standard excluding on the one hand, points whose interest is merely speculative, and on the other, discriminations that are only named and defined, without directions looking to use or avoidance. Furthermore, the publishers have done well their part, using every artifice to place the treatise clearly before the student. It is to be regretted, however, that a word and phrase index was not added to the other indexes.
A German Grammar for schools and colleges based on the Public School German Grammar of A. S. Meissner, M. A., Ph. D., D. Lit. By Edward S. Joynes, M. A., Professor of Modern Languages in South Carolina College. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1887. pp. ix, 322.
While the author has based his work upon that of Meissner, he has by no means slavishly followed that Grammar, but has greatly extended the syntax so as to suit the higher schools. In doing this, Prof. Joynes has consulted the standard grammars of Whitney and Brandt, and has received the aid of distinguished scholars. The subjects are excellently arranged, the rules briefly worded, but clearly and accurately expressed. There is nothing superfluous. It is to be regretted, however, that Prof. Joynes did not see fit to treat more fully the prepositions; for many dictionaries, especially such as the student can own, are incomplete in this very regard. A discussion, therefore, of the prepositions with a list of their constructions arranged for reference would be of incalculable value to the student. This Grammar is already having a run and will prove itself a formidable rival to those in the field. Last but not least, the part intrusted to the publishers has been admirably executed, leaving in typography nothing to be desired.