Welsh Alfred H. First Lessons in English

Chicago: J.C. Buckbee and Company, 1888. — 205 p.This book, as its title implies, is written for children. Accordingly, the whole discussion proceeds along the line of evolution. Facts are adduced and amply illustrated before principles are stated; ideas are developed before terms are given. The child is made to perceive before he is asked to remember, and to reason before he is required to generalize. Starting with a thought as the unit, the pupil is familiarized with the form and structure of the sentence, its subject and its predicate; with oral and pictorial analysis; with the offices of the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, the interjection; then with the subdivisions of the parts of speech, with the processes of inflection, and, finally, with the laws of construction. Only one topic is presented at a time. No new difficulty is introduced until the one in hand is fully mastered. Invention is taxed constantly. Memorization is reduced to a minimum. Needed definitions are brought forward onlyafter the ground they cover has been occupied by examples and questions, which are immediately followed by copious and varied exercises to clinch what has been learned.