A PRACTICAL REFERENCE BOOK.
A Guide to Correct Language,
BY THE WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR, PROF. G. H. BELL. The name of the author of this book is sufficient to guarantee its practicability. Educators all over the country pronounce Professor Bell’s treatise on the English language superior to any other published. The following introduction to the book will give a good idea of its contents:— “This Guide is intended for reference rather than for study. It should be carefully read, and might be studied with profit; but it need not be learned. It sets forth facts that everybody wants to know, and makes them so easy of access that the book becomes as convenient as a dictionary, and as indispensable. It is a treatise for business men, farmers, and mechanics, as well as for printers, teachers, and students; and will be specially useful to those who write for the press. “PART ONE.—The term Practical Grammar suggests the character of this part of the work. No attempt is made at parsing or complete analysis. About the parts of speech, and about phrases and clauses, there is just enough said to enable one to understand the rules of syntax and of punctuation. Those who lay no claim to scholarship can learn, by the use of these pages, to write with tolerable accuracy. There are thousands who could once parse well, but who have since that time nearly lost what grammar they learned at school. Such may not have time for thorough study, but they can easily pick up the chief essentials of grammar from the plain statements of this work. “PART TWO.—The study of Punctuation has been beset with difficulties. Some works on the subject are so brief as to be quite insufficient; while others are so complicated that the student is bewildered in mazes of rules, exceptions, and remarks. “By a new and entirely different plan, this work is made at once complete and simple. It would be hard to find in our language a good sentence that cannot be thoroughly punctuated by the rules herein given, and yet this completeness does not in the least interfere with the convenience of finding at once the information desired. For instance, the rules relating to the punctuation of a Series are grouped together, and by a glance at the diagram you may see just where to turn in order to find these rules and the examples that illustrate them. Just so it is with the Participial Construction, the Adjective Clauses, Co-ordinate Clauses, etc. You go as directly to the rule you want, as you could to a word in the dictionary, and even more so. “PART THREE.—The Rules for the Use of Capitals are numerous, but are all needed, as may be seen from the examples given to illustrate them. There is such a want of uniformity in the use of capitals as to render the subject an extremely difficult one, but the rules here given are sustained by good usage, and will be sanctioned by the best of scholars.” Substantially bound in cloth. Size, 6 x 9¼ inches. Price, $1, postpaid. Order of your State Tract Society.