1876 printing of the 1876 copyrighted text. Original edition copyrighted 1860. The text is based on the idea that thought is the foundation of discourse and comes before considerations of form or style. This text is for less advanced pupils than the author's Elements of the Art of Rhetoric, and as such, includes summary statements of its principles. The revised edition has added a praxis of choice of words and their use in sentence-construction (to address students' troubles with grammar). It has also been changed to coincide with changes to the author's rhetoric elaborated in his The Art of Discourse. Part One, Invention, includes chapters on narration, description, division, partition, and confirmation. Part Two, Style, includes chapters on oral, suggestive, grammatical, subjective, and objective properties. Exercises appear throughout. The appendix includes over five hundred themes. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
1870 printing of the 1870 copyrighted text. The author is credited as the author of books on logic, discourse, composition, and literature. The book is based on Day's rhetoric that argues thought is the starting point for teaching rhetoric, composition, and grammar rather than style and form. The text is aimed at students of different levels, using various font sizes for each: the larger fonts for the young, smallest for older or more advanced. The introductory lessons cover parts of speech. These are followed by sections on concrete nouns (object lessons), attributes, distinctions of nouns, modifying elements, abnormal forms, construction, and explanation. Oral and written exercises are included throughout. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.