1855 printing of the 1854 copyrighted text. The author is credited with a Master of Arts degree and as Associate Principal of the Collegiate School in New York, and as the author of First Lessons in Composition. Based on the same plan as the author's book for younger students, First Lessons in Composition, this text is meant for students in colleges and higher academies. The preface boasts its merits are its clearness and simplicity, its variety of subjects and their connections, and the practicality of its exercises. The sections cover the history of the English language; punctuation; rhetoric--with sections on taste, the imagination, the sublime, the beautiful, wit, humor, figurative language, varieties of style, and criticism; prose composition--with sections on invention, amplification, metaphorical language, climax and anithesis, paraphrasing, description, narration, letters, fiction, orations, etc; and poetical composition. Collection of rules and exercises, beginning with history of English language and punctuation until building up to poetry. It credits the influence of Blair, Burke, and Alison. Illustrative textual examples are used throughout. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.