8 
THE ART OF WRITING PRECIS. 
tion was conveyed in a few sentences. May I without presumption urge the 
recognition of a study which has been a source of personal pleasure, and the 
companion of many happy hours. 
Moreover, as sundry pharmacists are anxious to discover what we in the me¬ 
tropolis say and do, it cannot be deemed unwarrantable should they be asked to 
return the compliment. 
Let the student take a copy of the ‘ Times’; read a speech, and with the text 
before him, try and render it as precis. Next he may wing a bolder flight—let 
him after having read a speech, precis (please excuse the verb) as much as he 
can remember: lastly, let a friend read aloud while he on his part tries to 
precis as the speech proceeds. Comparing the three results with the ‘ Times’ 
paper as a standard, at first extreme disappointment will be felt that that should 
prove so difficult which seemed so easy. But the reward is great, nor slow to 
come. 
For an instant may I allude to the advantage of an intellectual pursuit which 
nvolving neither cost nor apparatus may be a spring of perpetual enjoyment, 
while it is obvious that no one can practise it as an art without manifest self- 
improvement. When an author will consent, rigidly and conscientiously to 
precis his own productions he will infallibly detect his repetitions of words, 
phrases and construction. Slowly (for it is a laborious process) these will be 
eliminated. 
Many sentences break down altogether under the test of precis , because they 
convey no definite meaning; these will be withdrawn : weak paragraphs cannot 
be represented—strong ones will replace them: add to this, attention to the 
music of the wording, and style is lifted out of commonplace. 
I have been told that such considerations are beyond the druggist’s sphere— 
other things are said about as foolish. It is the duty of the pharmacist to ac¬ 
cept this toil and not to overtask the patience of the reader, remembering always 
that every man in his own person should endeavour to exalt the order to which 
he may belong. 
Style is not a heaven born gift, nor will it drop down on anybody from the 
clouds. It is hammered out by labour. The exquisite, almost too perfect sen¬ 
tences of Dumas to which so many listened recently with delight, are the result 
of plodding, never-wearying work. Such is the history of all success, of which 
I had selected many illustrations but they are unsuitable to these columns. 
I humbly refer these thoughts to our excellent local secretaries and others 
whom they may concern. 
At present what are termed Provincial Transactions are the least attractive 
portion of our Journal. 
Is there a reason why we should not be made acquainted with the actual share 
members in the country take in the advance of Pharmacy ? Why not let us 
have a faithful, well-executed precis of a Presidential Introductory Address, re¬ 
flecting the matter, the mannerism and the personality of the author, instead of 
the full details of a set discourse, admirable in its place, but impossible to print. 
Would it not be an improvement in a literary point of view if gentlemen 
when reported were not made to express themselves in precisely the same phra¬ 
seology ? 
Goldsmith said to Johnson, u were you to describe fishes they would all talk 
like whales.” 
The art of writing precis would thus render essential service. Under its in¬ 
fluence we shall gain a whole department of intrinsic interest, and no pages 
will be more eagerly perused than those containing the records of our great 
English towns; a change as striking as that which befell the barren island when 
Prospero waved his wand. 
26 , St. George's Place, Hyde Park Corner. 
