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to imitate the style of other writers, for to do so would be insincere you must 'be yourself.' The soundness of this advice seems open to question. The handwriting of nine people out of ten possesses more character than their style, but we do not therefore tell boys and girls to 'be themselves' and to scribble as they please. On the contrary, when they are at school we give them copy-books. In spite of their early instruction, when they are grown up, there is something distinctive about the handwriting of each. All may write good hands and yet all the hands are different.

Now you compose essays in the hope of improving your mode of expression, and if you can improve your mode of expression by copying the style of somebody else, the only point of importance is to make sure that you choose a good model. If you copy the mannerisms of a style which has marked mannerisms, you will make yourself ridiculous.

Fifty years ago there were literary giants in the land. Carlyle, Dickens, Macaulay, Thackeray, were prose writers of genius, but the mannerisms of Carlyle and Dickens made their style quite unfit for imitation. Yet literary pygmies, long since forgotten, tried hard to imitate these two giants, writing epileptic sentences which were conceived to be in the manner of Carlyle, and reproducing in an exaggerated form the faults of Dickens. Those who followed Macaulay as their model fared better. Much good writing at the present day is due to the influence of Macaulay. Yet in the hands of many of his imitators his style degenerated into what Matthew Arnold called 'middle-class Macaulayese,' the defects of which are painfully obvious.

Imitate therefore no writer whose style, though it may strike you as clever or brilliant, is eccentric or deficient in good taste. Carlyle, Dickens, American Humourists, their English disciples, authors of the Precious or of the Parenthetic school, Impressionists, noisy writers, writers of Bombast, admire them, enjoy them, if you like, but never

try to copy them. If on the other hand your fancy is taken by a writer whose style is clear and pleasant and free from tricks, you will do well if you not only admire and enjoy but also imitate. For you are more likely to acquire the art of writing clearly and pleasantly by copying from a good model than by continuing to 'be yourself.'

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151. Recent advances in the applications of electricity.

152. The coal supply of the world.

153. The qualities that make a great man.

154. Which do you consider the greatest of the Queens of England?

155. The inspiring influences of noble associations, corporate or local.

156. The causes of England's preeminence as a colonising nation. 157. Life in an English colony.

158. Warfare in ancient and modern times.

159. Is war an unmixed evil?

160. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

161. Are people better off now than they were a century ago? 162. Travelling-now and in the olden days.

163. The best way of spending a million pounds to benefit the poor of a large town.

164. The value of a classical education.

165. The gains and losses of spending holidays abroad.

166. The disadvantages of mid-term holidays.

167. The use and abuse of athletics.

168. Your ideal of a happy life.
169. Can persecution be defended?
170. John Bunyan and his books.
171. Sir Walter Scott as a novelist.

172. A poem by Browning.

173.

'Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and

some few to be chewed and digested.'

174. Travel is a part of education.'

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175. Every man is the architect of his own fortune.'

176.

177.

178.

179.

Necessity is the mother of invention.'

'Prevention is better than cure.'

As the twig's bent the tree's inclined.'

'A little learning is a dangerous thing.’

180. 'Sweet are the uses of adversity.'

181. God made the country, and man made the town.'

182.

183.

6

All that glisters is not gold.'

'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' 184. An ounce of sweete is worth a pound of sowre.' 'Conscience does make cowards of us all.'

185.

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