completed the whole; he will be able to appreciate in some
measure the importance of this exercise in training the young to such a
command of language, as will enable them, on all known subjects, to
deliver fluently, and in any variety of form, the precise shade of
meaning which they wish to express.

This of itself will be a great attainment by the pupil; but it is not
all. The reader will also perceive what must be the necessary result of
persevering in this exercise, during the time of a child's attendance at
school, in training him to that calm self-possession,--that perfect
command of the mind and the thoughts,--while engaged in speaking, which
the frequent and gradually extended use of this exercise is so well
calculated to afford. All the children of a school, without exception,
may be exercised by its means, and upon the same paragraph; for while,
by the paraphrasing of but one word in a clause, it is within the reach
of the humblest intellect; yet, by the changes and transpositions
necessary in more difficult passages, either to smooth asperities, or to
avoid grammatical errors, it provides an extemporaneous exercise suited
to the talents of the highest grade in any seminary.

The collateral advantages also of this exercise, are both valuable and
extensive. The operation of the principle which supposes double duty by
the mind, enters into the nature of numerous acts in ordinary life,
besides that of thinking and speaking, and which a perfect command of
the thoughts in paraphrasing will tend greatly to facilitate.--For
example, it will greatly assist the pupil in making observations during
conversation, in attending to the weak and strong points of an argument,
and in preparing his materials for a reply, while he is all the time
hearing and storing up the ideas of a speaker.--It will enable him more
extensively, and more deliberately to employ his mind on useful subjects
while engaged with his work, even in those cases where a considerable
degree of thought is required;--and it will greatly aid him in acquiring
the art of "a ready writer," and will be available, both when he himself
writes his own thoughts, or when he requires to dictate them to others.
Many persons who can express their ideas well enough by speech, find
themselves greatly at a loss when they sit down to write them;--and this
arises entirely from the want of that command of the mind which is
necessary whenever it is called on to do double duty.