plicated kind is seldom required in ordinary précis-writing, official or business documents being rarely verbose or tautological. 2. It will be more in due intellectual order for the student to learn how to make an abstract of facts and the sense of documents before he turns his attention to the concentration of style. 3. Because, though terse writing is the object of précis-writing, it can only be gained by experience, and it will come of itself to those who have the smallest aptitude before they have finished the exercises in this book.

The art of précis-writing of this higher kind comes, indeed, so easily to those who have a natural aptitude for seizing the sense of what they read and expressing it in a short simple way, and is so difficult of acquirement by others, that at first sight it would seem that to those who have such a natural aptitude instruction is unnecessary, and that to those who have not it is useless.

And so no doubt it would be if men and women could be divided into two such companies, like sheep and goats, or, in other words, if that aptitude which we have called natural was not as much the result of early training as of innate faculty. There is no doubt that some persons learn how to think and express what they mean much more easily than others, but there is also no doubt that a mind must be exceptionally dull if it cannot be taught to do both, and anyone who has these faculties can also apprehend the meaning of what other people write, and reproduce it in another form, if the subject and style be not above their comprehension, and they have a tolerable acquaintance with their language.

The art of précis-writing is not the art of original thought, or even the art of comprehension of others thoughts, but it is a test of the latter and a valuable aid to the former, for it requires the habit of reflection

D

'reading, marking, and inwardly digesting,' as the collect has it and also of reproduction.

To illustrate what we mean, let the reader try to write a précis of the three paragraphs we have already written, and if he thoroughly understands them he will have little difficulty in reproducing their sense in some such form as this:

Précis-writing comes so easily to some, and so hardly to others, that it would seem as if instruction were unnecessary or useless.

So it would be if it were an entirely natural gift, but it is not. Some persons can be taught to think and talk more easily than others, but all persons can be taught to think and talk, and those who can do these things can also read and write précis, if they have been educated.

Précis-writing is a different exercise from that of thinking, or even comprehension, but it shows whether you comprehend and teaches you to think.

35

PART II.

PRACTICAL PRÉCIS.

CHAPTER I.

LETTERS TAKEN SINGLY.

IN the Introduction we have given an instance of one letter of which three abstracts were required, each slightly differing from the other in accordance with the purpose for which it was intended, and though the length, form, and character of a précis may vary almost infinitely according to this purpose, it is safe to say that précis may be divided into three kinds

1. The register, docket, or index, for purposes of reference only, so as to enable a person to discover the letter to which he wishes to refer.

2. The précis for general purposes, which is intended to be as useful for most purposes as the correspondence itself, and should therefore be as full but as brief as possible.

3. The précis for a special purpose, from which all matter should be excluded irrelevant to that special purpose. This, it is evident, may vary in length from the briefest to the fullest précis, according to what that purpose is.

It

may be objected that the first of these three is not a précis at all, but rather of the nature of an index; but insomuch as it is more than what is usually termed an

index, containing as it does an abstract, though a very brief one, of the contents of a document, it has a claim to be considered as the most elementary form of a précis, and it will, we think, help the student to a clearer view of the object of précis-writing generally if he so consider it.

The Docket, Register Entry, or Index.

These three names express three different forms of the same description of elementary précis required for three different purposes.

1. The Docket, or endorsement of a paper.—When papers are kept folded, an abstract of the contents is written on the back of each letter in some such form as this:

Feb. 3, 1875.

Mr. Layard

Has represented to Señor

Canovas the sentiments of H.M.

Government on the accession

of King Alfonso.

1 enclosure.

Received Feb. 14, 1874.

2. The Register Entry.-This is a copy of the Docket as entered in the Register Book of the Office, in some such form as this:

3. The Index. This is only required when a correspondence is published. The letters are then numbered and indexed in this way :—

4 Mr. Layard to Feb. 3, 1874 Has represented to Foreign Office

Señor Canovas, &c.

The Special and General Précis.

The forms of these are similar, and the best for both

Mr. Layard to
Foreign Office.
Feb. 3, 1874.

Has represented to Señor Canovas the sentiments of H.M. Government on the accession of King Alfonso, and given him a memorandum (copy enclosed) of what he said. Señor Canovas replied that the King and Government would appreciate the interest shown by H.M. Government in the King and his nation, stated that the friendship of England was dear to Spain, and repeated assurances of his intention to maintain religious freedom.

This is a general précis of the following extract :

Mr. Layard to the Earl of Derby.

(Received February 14.)

MADRID: February 3, 1875.

I called upon Señor Canovas del Castillo yesterday, and communicated to his Excellency the substance of your Lordship's despatch of the 26th ultimo. As your Lordship had left it to me to convey this expression of the sentiments of Her Majesty's Government to that of the King in the manner which might appear to me most suitable, I thought it best to do so to the President of the