(signed) WILLIAM HARDING CARTER, _Major General, United States Army_. PREFACE This course of lessons has for its sole object a demonstration to the military man that rhetoric is a big part of his profession. If he sees this advantage early it is hoped that he will not slight his rich language as so many of us have done to our later regret. Vocational training in English! That is practically what this book is. It is recognizing rhetoric for the first time as a separate study in the field service regulations. Just as we take up topography, engineering, sanitation, and supply as sciences by themselves in order to fit our efficiency into the team work of battle later, so here we apply ourselves to that part of field work which helps us state our ideas in a proper military manner. The course is in no way tactics, but it forms an excellent primer to tactics. It leads up to and aids in the solution of tactical problems by passing over military ground. Because it is a combination of analysis and synthesis, rhetoric, as we know, is, unlike the exact sciences, purely a secondary subject. Its material, whether of poetry, essay, or fiction, is indiscriminate in its selection of matter so long as the matter is good. The idea in this book is to make both the material and the treatment count—to place the emphasis upon the manner of expressing oneself and to let the student see incidentally the interesting military features as he is passing along. He will be learning what he has never before had the opportunity of taking up separately, and what will lead him more easily into intricate tactical paths afterwards.