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+Almost every English boy can be taught to write clearly, so far at
+least as clearness depends upon the arrangement of words. Force,
+elegance, and variety of style are more difficult to teach, and far
+more difficult to learn; but clear writing can be reduced to rules. To
+teach the art of writing clearly is the main object of these Rules and
+Exercises.
+
+Ambiguity may arise, not only from bad arrangement, but also from
+other causes--from the misuse of single words, and from confused
+thought. These causes are not removable by definite rules, and
+therefore, though not neglected, are not prominently considered in
+this book. My object rather is to point out some few continually
+recurring causes of ambiguity, and to suggest definite remedies in
+each case. Speeches in Parliament, newspaper narratives and articles,
+and, above all, resolutions at public meetings, furnish abundant
+instances of obscurity arising from the monotonous neglect of some
+dozen simple rules.
+
+The art of writing forcibly is, of course, a valuable
+acquisition--almost as valuable as the art of writing clearly. But
+forcible expression is not, like clear expression, a mere question of
+mechanism and of the manipulation of words; it is a much higher power,
+and implies much more.
+
+Writing clearly does not imply thinking clearly. A man may think and
+reason as obscurely as Dogberry himself, but he may (though it is not
+probable that he will) be able to write clearly for all that. Writing
+clearly--so far as arrangement of words is concerned--is a mere matter
+of adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs, placed
+and repeated according to definite rules.[1] Even obscure or illogical
+thought can be clearly expressed; indeed, the transparent medium of
+clear writing is not least beneficial when it reveals the illogical
+nature of the meaning beneath it.
+
+On the other hand, if a man is to write forcibly, he must (to use a
+well-known illustration) describe Jerusalem as "sown with salt," not
+as "captured," and the Jews not as being "subdued" but as "almost
+exterminated" by Titus. But what does this imply? It implies
+knowledge, and very often a great deal of knowledge, and it implies
+also a vivid imagination. The writer must have eyes to see the vivid
+side of everything, as well as words to describe what he sees. Hence
+forcible writing, and of course tasteful writing also, is far less a
+matter of rules than is clear writing; and hence, though forcible
+writing is exemplified in the exercises, clear writing occupies most
+of the space devoted to the rules.
+
+Boys who are studying Latin and Greek stand in especial need of help
+to enable them to write a long English sentence clearly. The periods
+of Thucydides and Cicero are not easily rendered into our idiom
+without some knowledge of the links that connect an English sentence.
+
+There is scarcely any better training, rhetorical as well as logical,
+than the task of construing Thucydides into genuine English; but the
+flat, vague, long-winded Greek-English and Latin-English imposture
+that is often tolerated in our examinations and is allowed to pass
+current for genuine English, diminishes instead of increasing the
+power that our pupils should possess over their native language. By
+getting marks at school and college for construing good Greek and
+Latin into bad English, our pupils systematically unlearn what they
+may have been allowed to pick up from Milton and from Shakespeare.
+
+I must acknowledge very large obligations to Professor Bain's treatise
+on "English Composition and Rhetoric," and also to his English
+Grammar. I have not always been able to agree with Professor Bain as
+to matters of taste; but I find it difficult to express my admiration
+for the systematic thoroughness and suggestiveness of his book on
+Composition. In particular, Professor Bain's rule on the use of "that"
+and "which" (see Rule 8) deserves to be better known.[2] The ambiguity
+produced by the confusion between these two forms of the Relative is
+not a mere fiction of pedants; it is practically serious. Take, for
+instance, the following sentence, which appeared lately in one of our
+ablest weekly periodicals: "There are a good many Radical members in
+the House _who_ cannot forgive the Prime Minister for being a
+Christian." Twenty years hence, who is to say whether the meaning is
+"_and they_, i.e. _all the Radical_ members in the House," or "there
+are a good many Radical members of the House _that_ cannot &c."?
+Professor Bain, apparently admitting no exceptions to his useful rule,
+amends many sentences in a manner that seems to me intolerably harsh.
+Therefore, while laying due stress on the utility of the rule, I have
+endeavoured to point out and explain the exceptions.
+
+The rules are stated as briefly as possible, and are intended not so
+much for use by themselves as for reference while the pupil is working
+at the exercises. Consequently, there is no attempt to prove the rules
+by accumulations of examples. The few examples that are given, are
+given not to prove, but to illustrate the rules. The exercises are
+intended to be written out and revised, as exercises usually are; but
+they may also be used for _vivâ voce_ instruction. The books being
+shut, the pupils, with their written exercises before them, may be
+questioned as to the reasons for the several alterations they have
+made. Experienced teachers will not require any explanation of the
+arrangement or rather non-arrangement of the exercises. They have been
+purposely mixed together unclassified to prevent the pupil from
+relying upon anything but his own common sense and industry, to show
+him what is the fault in each case, and how it is to be amended.
+Besides references to the rules, notes are attached to each sentence,
+so that the exercises ought not to present any difficulty to a
+painstaking boy of twelve or thirteen, provided he has first been
+fairly trained in English grammar.
+
+The "Continuous Extracts" present rather more difficulty, and are
+intended for boys somewhat older than those for whom the Exercises are
+intended. The attempt to modernize, and clarify, so to speak, the
+style of Burnet, Clarendon, and Bishop Butler,[3] may appear
+ambitious, and perhaps requires some explanation. My object has, of
+course, not been to _improve upon_ the style of these authors, but to
+show how their meaning might be expressed more clearly in modern
+English. The charm of the style is necessarily lost, but if the loss
+is recognized both by teacher and pupil, there is nothing, in my
+opinion, to counterbalance the obvious utility of such exercises.
+Professor Bain speaks to the same effect:[4] "For an English exercise,
+the matter should in some way or other be supplied, and the pupil
+disciplined in giving it expression. I know of no better method than
+to prescribe passages containing good matter, but in some respects
+imperfectly worded, to be amended according to the laws and the
+proprieties of style. Our older writers might be extensively, though
+not exclusively, drawn upon for this purpose."
+
+To some of the friends whose help has been already acknowledged in
+"English Lessons for English People," I am indebted for further help
+in revising these pages. I desire to express especial obligations to
+the Rev. J. H. Lupton, late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge,
+and Second Master of St. Paul's School, for copious and valuable
+suggestions; also to several of my colleagues at the City of London
+School, among whom I must mention in particular the Rev. A. R. Vardy,
+Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
+