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IN MEMORIAM
Frederick Slate
Professor of Physics
Composition-Rhetoric
DESIGNED
FOB USE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
FEED :NrEWTON SCOTT
Junior Professor of Ehetoric in the University of Michigan
AND
JOSEPH VILLIEES DENNEY
Professor of Ehetoric and English Language in Ohio
State University
ALLYN AND BACON
Boston anlr Cl)tcag0
Copyright, 1897, by
FRED N. SCOTT and JOSEPH V. DENNEY,
Noriuoat ^xtM
J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mam. U.S.A.
PREFACE.
In the preparation of this work the authors have been
guided by three considerations, which have seemed to them
to be of fundamental importance.
First, it is desirable that a closer union than has pre-
vailed hitherto be brought about between secondary com-
position and secondary rhetoric. That rhetoric in the high
school should be regarded as a thing apart from composi-
tion, that it should be regarded simply as a " course/' to be
pursued and passed and put out of remembrance as quickly
as possible, is not good either for rhetoric or for composi-
tion. In this book, as the name signifies, no such apartness
has been recognized. The rhetoric which is found in this
book is meant to be the theory of the pupil's practice,
nothing more, — the explicit statement of principles which
are implicit in all successful elementary composition. If
here and there the temptation to put in rhetorical .furniture
which no gentleman's mind should be without, has not been
wholly thrust aside, such temptation has, at least, been
manfully resisted. To this let the treatment of figurative
expressions bear witness.
Second, it is desirable in secondary composition that
greater use be made of the paragraph than has hitherto
been done in the majority of schools. The idea that the
iii
9^595
iv Preface.
paragraph may be made the basis of a systematic method
of instruction was advanced in Paragraph - Writing six years
ago. Since that time the method has been tested in many
schools under a variety of conditions, and has found its
way into other text-books. The authors believe that in the
main it has approved itself to every teacher who has tried
it fairly, and acting upon this belief they have made it the
central idea of the present work. They would call atten-
tion, however, to the fact that a considerable proportion of
longer compositions — descriptive, narrative, and argument-
ative— are provided for in the exercises, the necessary
additional theory being furnished in the text accompanying.
A third idea which underlies the work is the idea of
growth. A composition is regarded not as a dead form, to
be analyzed into its component parts, but as a living prod-
uct of an active, creative mind. The paragraph is com-
pared to a plant, springing up in the soil of the mind from
a germinal idea, and in the course of its development
assuming naturally a variety of forms. ^ This kinetic con-
ception of discourse, besides being psychologically more
correct, has proved to be practically more helpful and
inspiring in composition-classes than the static conception
which it. is intended to displace. Where it has been
employed, pupils attempt various forms of self-expression
with greater willingness and confidence, and their efforts
are attended with greater success.
In working out these ideas, care has been taken to pro-
1 For a similar conception of judgment-forms, see the Preface to Bosan-
quet's Logic, Vol. I, p. vii. Mr. Bosauquet acknowledges indebtedness for
the idea to Mr. Alfred Robinson, of New College, Oxford.
Preface,
vide illustrative material of a kind that should be thoug
provoking, interesting and valuable in itself, but not 1
far above the standard of literary practice, material whi
the pupil can appreciate readily and can turn to accou
at once in his own written work. Many of the exercises a
suggested directly by the selections used in the same If
sons, and may be attacked by the pupil without furth
help than that given in the text. With some of the topic
prescribed for class-room compositions, however, it will t
found advantageous to hold a fifteen-minute conversation
lesson, in order to start the ideas of the class and bring
their total resources to light, before the writing begins.
Care has also been taken in the way the text is stated, as
well as in the way the exercises are presented, to suggest
at every step that the study is pursued for the purpose of
acquiring constructive rather than critical power, and the
authors venture to advise that until chapter four is reached
minute criticism of the pupil's written work be avoided;
let the criticisms be made solely with reference to the mat-
ters treated in the current lesson, and to bad English that
may be used by the pupil.
The attention of teachers is called to the caret and
bracket devices used in the later chapters of this book.
These devices avoid the evil of putting bad English before
pupils, and compel the exercise of the pupils' judgment.
Attention is also called to the fact that by using the
method of marking shown in Appendix B, pupils will be
trained to correct their own errors. Persistence in this
method, it is believed, will beget in the pupil a habit of
attention to his writing, a habit of watchfulness, an ability
Preface,
^ correct himself, a desire for self -improvement, which will
't beyond his school days.
s
The following books and articles are recommended iis
ing helpful to the teachers of English in secondary
hools. Titles that are marked with an asterisk are
lapted to the pupil as well as to the teacher, and may be
isigned as collateral reading.
Aristotle. Rhetoric. Welldon's Translation. Macmillan.
Bain. English Composition and Rhetoric. 2 vols. Appleton.
^Bainton. Art of Authorship. Appleton.
Baker. Principles of Argumentation. Ginn.
*Baker. Specimens of Argument. Holt.
*Baldwin. Specimens of Prose Description. Holt.
*Bates. Talks on Writing English. Houghton.
*Brewster. Specimens of Narrative. Holt.
Brewster. Studies in Structure and Style. Macmillan.
Buck. Figures of Rhetoric : a Psychological Study. (Contributions
to Rhetorical Theory, edited by F. N. Scott. No. 1.)
Campbell. Philosophy of Rhetoric. Harper.
Carpenter. Exercises in Rhetoric. Advanced Course, Macmillan.
*Carpenter. Exercises in Rhetoric. High School Course. Macmillan.
Coleridge. Style.
De Qdincey. Essays on Style, Rhetoric, and Language. AUyn &
Bacon.
Emerson. History of the English Language. Macmillan.
Fletcher and Carpenter. Introduction to Theme- Writing. Allyn
&. Bacon.
*Genung. Outlines of Rhetoric. Ginn.
*Genung. Practical Rhetoric. Ginn.
*Hale. Constructive Rhetoric. Holt.
*Hart. a Handbook of English Composition. Eldredge.
*Higgins'on. Hints on Writing and Speecli-making. Lee «& Shepard.
*HiLL, A. S. Foundations of Rhetoric. Harper.
*HiLL, A. S. ' Principles of Rhetoric. Harper.
Hill, D. J. Science of Rhetoric. Sheldon.
Jebb. ' Rhetoric' Encycl. Brit. 9th Ed.
Preface, vii
Jespersen. Progress in Language. Sonnenschein.
*Keeler and Davis. Studies in English Composition. AUyn &
Bacon.
*Lamoxt. Specimens of Exposition. Holt.
Lewes. Principles of Success in Literature. Allyn & Bacon.
Lewis. The History of the English Paragraph. Univ. of Chicago
Press.
McElroy. Structure of English Prose. Armstrong.
*MiNTO. Manual of English Prose Literature. Ginn.
*MiNTO. Plain Principles of Prose Composition. Blackwood.
^Newcomer. A Practical Course in English Composition. Ginn.
Pater. Literary Style. Macmillan.
Paul. Principles of the History of Language. Macmillan.
QuiNTiLiAN. Institutes of Oratory. Bohn Library.
Renton. Logic of Style. Longmans.
*Saintsbury. Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 1-4L Scribner's.
*ScoTT and Denney. Paragraph- Writing. Allyn & Bacon.
Sherman. Analytics of Literature. Ginn.
Spencer. Philosophy of Style. Allyn & Bacon.
Stevenson. Style in Literature. Contemporary Magazine, Vol.
XLVII, p. 548.
Symonds. Essays, Speculative and Suggestive. Vol. I, p. 256 ;
Vol. II, p. 1.
*Wendell. English Composition. Scribner's.
Whately. Elements of Rhetoric. Sheldon.
Cairns. The Forms of Discourse. Ginn.
Hinsdale. Teaching the Language- Arts. Appleton.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In response to an earnest desire, persuasively expressed, on the part
of certain teachers of English, there is added to this edition an Appendix
containing a brief treatment of the Types of Discourse (condensed from
Paragraph- Writing), of Figures of Speech, and of Poetry. It is the
opinion of the authors, however, that between the matter of this Appen-
dix and the original plan of the work the connection is very slight.
They trust that no secondary teacher will teach these things to his
pupils as a substitute for exercises in composition.
May, 1898.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/compositionrhetoOOscotrich
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. External Form of the Paragraph.
PAGE
Lesson 1. The Sentence-Group 1
Lesson 2. Indention 5
Lesson 3. Faults of Indention : Indenting Every Sentence . 7
Lesson 4. Faults of Indention : Indentions too Few . . 11
Lesson 6. Faults of Indention : Indentions Irregular and
Meaningless 17
Lesson 6. Other Uses of Indention 26
CHAPTER II. Paragraph-Structure.
Lesson 7. Thought-Divisions 30
CHAPTER III. What to Say.
Lesson 8. Selecting a Subject 41
Lesson 9. The Paragraph- Theme 42
Lesson 10. The Title 46
Lesson 11. The Topic-Sentence 52
Lesson 12. How Paragraphs Grow — Repetition ... 72
Lesson 13. How Paragraphs Grow — Particulars and Details . 79
Lesson 14. How Paragraphs Grow — Specific Instances or Ex-
amples 87
Lesson 15. How Paragraphs Grow — Comparisons and Analogies 92
Lesson 16. How Paragraphs Grow — Telling what a Thing is
not 99
Lesson 17. How Paragraphs Grow — Contrasts .... 103
Lesson 18. How Paragraphs Grow — Cause and Effect . .110
Lesson 19. How Paragraphs Grow — Proofs . . . .117
Lesson 20. How Paragraphs Grow — Combination of Two or
More Methods 123
ix
Contents.
CHAPTER IV. How to Say It.
Lesson 21. Short Sentences and their Uses
Lesson 22. Long Sentences and their Uses .
Lesson 23. Uses of the Loose Sentence
Lesson 24. Uses of the Periodic Sentence .
Lesson 25. Uses of the Balanced Sentence .
Lesson 26. Combinations of Sentence- Types
Lesson 27. Choice of Expression .
Lesson 28. Imaginative Expressions .
PAGE
134
151
161
175
188
194
205
219
CHAPTER V. In What Order to Say It.
Lesson 29. Antithesis and Climax ....
Lesson 30. The Logical Order
Lesson 31. The Time Order and the Space Order
Lesson 32. Sentence-Order for Clearness and Emphasis
231
241
246
257
CHAPTER VL How Much to Say.
Lesson 33. Scale of Treatment 269
Lesson 34. Proportion of Parts 281
Lesson 35. Subordination of Parts 291
Lesson 36. Expansion 297
Lesson 37. Condensation , , . 306
CHAPTER VII. What Not to Say
Lesson 38. Digressions 314
Lesson 39. Incoherence 323
Appendix A. Directions for Preparing Manuscript . . . 339
Appendix B. Marks Used in Correcting 342
Appendix C. Material for Analysis and Reproduction . . 349
Appendix D. Subjects for Essays 361
Appendix E. Capitals, Punctuation, etc 368
Appendix F. I. Types of Discourse 371
II. Figures of Speech .382
III. Poetry 390
Index 403
COMPOSITION-KHETORIC.
CHAPTER I.
EXTERNAL FORM OF THE PARAGRAPH.
LESSON L
The Sentence-Group.
There are two ways in which we may write an essay or
any other kind of composition. One way is to write it
sentence by sentence. A person who composes in this way
usually begins writing before he has given his subject very
much consideration. A sentence comes by chance into his
mind. He traces it on the paper before him. The first sen-
tence suggests a second, which also he writes down. The
second suggests a third, the third a fourth, and so on to the
end of the composition. This is one way, and a common
way, of composing, but it is not a good way.
A better way is to compose, not sentence by sentence,
but sentence-group by sentence-group. When a writer com-
poses in this way, he does not begin with a single sentence,
but with a series or train of sentences. Before putting pen
to paper he thinks out carefully the topics on which he
means to write, and arranges them in the order in which
he means to treat them. Then as soon as he takes up his
1
2 Composition-Rhetoric,
pen to write, this is what happens : a succession of sen-
tences or of ideas for sentences, bearing upon the topic to
be treated first, pass rapidly through his mind. They seem
to flow or to grow naturally out of the topic, as naturally
as water flows from a spring or a vine grows from a seed.
When he has written these sentences down, there arises in
his mind another series of sentences upon a second topic ;
and this process goes on until the essay is completed.
One or two familiar illustrations will help to make clear
what has been said about this second method of composing.
A school-boy, let us suppose, is writing to a friend about
his plans for the summer vacation. The first thing he means
to do is to;n>ake'a trip on foot through some parts of the
• White "^Mountains. Then he will go to Portland, and join
-:^ party on i)Oi^.rd of a yacht, with whom he will go to
'Ba;r Harbor. After a short stay at Bar Harbor, he will
return to Portland by steamer and to his home by the rail-
road. If now he has given the subject some thought so that
he knows just what he wants to say, there will come into
his mind when he begins to write, not one sentence alone,
nor odds and ends of sentences from various parts of the
letter that is to be, but instead a chain or train of sentence-
ideas bearing upon the topic he intends to treat first.
Perhaps they will be something like this : " Start from De-
troit July 1 . . . Excursion at low rates . . . Leave train
at Fabyan's ... A week in the White Mountains . . . Up
Mt. Washington on foot . . . Catch trout in the Saco . . .
Train to Portland." When the sentences for which these
skeleton sentences stand have been put on paper, another set
will come into his mind touching the yachting trip to Bar
Harbor ; and so on until the letter is completed.
To take another illustration, suppose that some one has
just examined with great interest a remarkable bust of Emer-
son. He has seen it in a studio and has talked with the
sculptor about it. The sculptor has told him that one side
External Form of the Paragraph, 3
of Emerson's face looks like the profile of a Yankee and
that the other side looks like the profile of a Greek. If
now he sits down to write to a friend a brief account of his
visit to the studio, he will not think merely, " I saw to-day
a fine bust of Emerson/' or, " I went to-day to a sculptor's
studio," but something like the following : " Visited a studio
. . . Saw fine bust of Emerson . . . Talked with sculptor
. . . Sculptor said sides of face different , . . One side
Yankee, the other side Greek . . . Said Emerson combined
two natures, the modern and the classical." Just as in the
first illustration, these skeletons of sentences, or pictures
that answer to them, will race through his mind, before he
writes a single word. If his mind works as it should, they
will pass in just the order in which he wants to write them.
Written in the manner suggested by these illustrations,
a composition will consist of a group, or of groups, of closely
connected sentences.
A good writer thinks a group of sentences upon one topic before
lie writes the separate sentences which go to make up the group-^
Such sentence-groups we shall call paragraphs. A paragraph may
be a whole composition, or it may be a part of a whole composition,
It is these groups of sentences that we purpose studying
in this book.
EXERCISE 1.
Select one of the following questions. Think about it
until you know just how you will answer it. Write the
1 This view is corroborated by the recent researches of Dr. E. H. Lewis,
set forth in the pamphlet entitled History of the English Paragraph
(Chicago : 1894) ; see especially p. 172 : " There has been, from the earliest
days of our prose, a unit of invention much larger than the modern sen-
tence, and always separated, in the mind of the writer, from the sentenco-
unit, of whatever length. In other words, English writers have thought
roughly in long stages before they have analyzed such stages into smaller
steps."
4 Composition' Rhetoric,
answer in full. At each point in your writing where you
are compelled to pause in order to think what comes next,
insert a sign like this : IT. When you have finished, note
how many sentences and parts of sentences have been
written without pausing.
1. How does the inside of your hand differ from the
other side ?
2. What does a photographer do in taking a person's
picture ?
3. What do you see in mind when you read the words
^Bunker Hill'?
4. What would happen in the school-room if some one
outside should suddenly cry, ' The school-house is on fire ! ' ?
5. What did you do in the algebra recitation yesterday ?
6. What do you think of and see when the words ^ Sunday
school ' are pronounced ?
7. How did the tramp look who came to your home, and
what did he say ?
8. What is suggested to you by the following sentence,
* Never give up the ship ! ' ?
9. What is suggested to you by the following sentence,
' He sought the Fountain of Youth ' ?
10. How is the tire of a bicycle repaired when it has been
punctured ?
11. How does a baseball pitcher throw a ball so as to
make it curve ?
12. What do you see in mind when you read the words,
' Boston Tea Party ' ?
If you were asked to write again on the same question,
could you add anything to any part of what you have writ-
ten ? Where would the new material best be brought in ?
Can you improve what you have written ? Try again, and
bring both your first and your second effort to the class.
Be ready to tell why you made additions to or changes in your
first writing.
External Form of the Paragraph,
LESSON 2.
Indention.
To indicate to the reader's eye the sentence-groups of a
composition, a device is employed known as indention.
The nature of this device may be illustrated by printing
side by side two arrangements of the same matter, as in the
parallel columns below. The column on the left is indented
at three points, that on the right has no indentions.
1. It was delightful in the
country, for Summer was in the
height of its splendor. 2. The
corn was yellow, the oats green,
the hay, heaped into cocks in
the meadow below, looked like
little grass hillocks ; and the
stork strutted about on its long,
red legs, chattering Egyptian,
for that was the language it
had learned from its mother.
3. The fields and meadows
were surrounded by more or
less thickly wooded forests,
which also enclosed deep lakes,
the smooth waters of which
were sometimes ruffled by a
gentle breeze. 4. It was, in-
deed, delightful in the country.
5. In the bright sunshine
stood an old mansion surrounded
by a moat and wall, strong and
proud almost as in the feudal
times. 6. From the wall all the
way down to the water grew
a complete forest of burdock
leaves, which were so high that a
1. It was delightful in the coun-
try, for Summer was in the
height of its splendor. 2. The
corn was yellow, the oats green,
the hay, heaped into cocks in
the meadow below, looked like
little grass hillocks ; and the
stork strutted about on its long,
red legs, chattering Egyptian,
for that was the language it
had learned from its mother.
3. The fields and meadows were
surrounded by more or .less
thickly wooded forests, which
also enclosed deep lakes, the
smooth waters of which were
sometimes ruffled by a gentle
breeze. 4. It was, indeed, de-
lightful in the country. 5. In
the bright sunshine stood an
old mansion surrounded by a
moat and wall, strong and
proud almost as in the feudal
times. 6. From the wall all the
way down to the water grew
a complete forest of burdock
leaves, which were so high that
6
Composition-Rhetoric,
little child could stand upright
among them. 7. It was a real
wilderness, so quiet and sombre,
and here sat a Duck upon her
nest hatching a quantity of
eggs ; but she was almost tired
of her tedious though important
occupation, for it lasted so very
long and she seldom had any
visitors. 8. The other ducks
preferred swimming about on
the moat, and the canals that
ran through the garden, to
visiting her in her solitude. —
Andersen.
a little child could stand up-
right among them. 7. It was a
real wilderness, so quiet and
sombre, and here sat a Duck
upon her nest hatching a quan-
tity of eggs ; but she was almost
tired of her tedious though im-
portant occupation, for it lasted
so very long, and she seldom
had any visitors. 8. The other
ducks preferred swimming about
on the moat, and the canals that
ran through the garden, to vis-
iting her in her solitude.
The term " indention " refers to the position of the first
word in a sentence. If such a word begins at the left margin
like the word " It '' in sentence 1, on the right, or if it fol-
lows directly after the close of a preceding sentence, like the
word "The" at the beginning of sentences 2 and 8 in
the same column, the word and the sentence it begins are
said not to be indented. But if the first word of a sentence
begins a little way to the right of the margin, as the word
" It " (sentence 1), the word "' The '' (sentence 3), and the
word " In " (sentence 5), in the left-hand column, the word
and the sentence it begins are said to be indented.
A group of related sentences making up a paragraph is
marked as such, and is separated from other similar groups
by an indention of the first word. In the foregoing selec-
tion the sentences in the left-hand column are by indention
made into three groups. The first paragraph consists of
sentences 1 and 2 ; the second of sentences 3 and 4 ; the
third of sentences 5-8. Note the appearance of each para-
graph : it seems to be a solid block of type ; the various
sentences of which it is composed look as if they belonged
together.
External Form of the Paragraph. 7
A word is indented when it is begun to the right of the margin.
The first word of a paragraph should always be indented.
In printed matter, the indention is usually slight. It is
of the width of the letter m of the type in which the mat-
ter is set, or of the letters m and n put together. In manu-
script the indention should be wider. The beginner should
make a practice of indenting at least one inch.
In printed books the first word of a chapter is frequently
unindented.
LESSON 3.
Faults of Indention : Indenting Every Sentence.
A common fault in the use of indention ma}^ be illustrated
by again putting side by side two arrangements of the same
selection : —
Once upon a time, a notion
was started, that if all the peo-
ple in the world would shout at
once, it might be heard in the
moon. So the projectors agreed
it should be done in just ten
years. Some thousand ship-
loads of chronometers were dis-
tributed to the selectmen and
other great folks of all the
different nations. For a year
beforehand, nothing else was
talked about but the awful
noise that was to be made on
the great occasion. When the
time came, everybody had his
ears so wide open, to hear the
universal ejaculation of Boo, —
the word agreed upon, — that
Once upon a time, a notion
was started, that if all the peo-
ple in the world would shout at
once, it might be heard in the
moon.
So the projectors agreed it
should be done in just ten
years.
Some thousand shiploads of
chronometers were distributed
to the selectmen and other
great folks of all the different
nations.
For a year beforehand, noth-
ing else was talked about but
the awful noise that was to be
made on the great occasion.
When the time came, every-
body had his ears so wide open
8
Composition- Mhetoric,
nobody spoke except a deaf
man in one of the Fiji Islands,
and a woman in Pekin, so that
' the world was never so still
since the creation. — Holmes.
to hear the universal ejacula-
tion of Boo, — the word agreed
upon, — that nobody spoke ex-
cept a deaf man in one of the
Fiji Islands, and a woman in
Pekin, so that the w^orld was
never so still since the creation.
The arrangement in the left-hand column is preferable.
It gives us an impression that the sentences belong together,
that is, it gives us a true impression ; whereas the arrange-
ment in the right-hand column gives us an impression that
the sentences are independent, that is, it gives us a false
impression.
Almost primeval simplicity reigns over this Northern land, —
almost primeval solitude and stillness.
You pass out from the gate of the city, and, as if by magic, the
scene changes to a wild, woodland landscape.
Around you are forests of fir.
Overhead hang the long fan-like branches trailing with moss,
and heavy with red and blue cones.
Underfoot is a carpet of yellow leaves, and the air is warm and
balmy.
On a wooden bridge you cross a little silver stream.
Anon you come forth into a pleasant and sunny land of farms.
Wooden fences divide the adjoining fields.
Across the road are gates, which are opened for you by troops
of flaxen-haired children.
The peasants take off their hats as you pass.
You sneeze, and they cry, " God bless you ! "
The houses in the villages and smaller cities are all built of
hewn timber, and for the most part painted red.
The floors of the taverns are strewn with the fragrant tips of fir
boughs.
In many villages there are no taverns, and the peasants take
turns in receiving travellers.
The thrifty housewife shows you into the best chamber, the
walls of which are hung round with rude pictures from the Bible ;
External Form of the Paragraph, 9
and brings you her heavy silver spoons — an heirloom — to dip tho
curdled milk from the pan.
You have oaten cakes baked some months before ; or bread with
anise-seed and coriander in it, and perhaps a little pine-bark. —
Longfellow: Driftwood, 318.
Printed as it appears above, with each sentence separated
by indention from its neighbor, the selection seems jagged
and disjointed. Re-write it, indenting only the first word,
and now^ observe how smoothly each sentence flows into
the sentence that follows, and how compact and orderly
the selection appears and is.
Beware of separating by indentions sentences that belong together.
EXERCISE 2.
Re- write the following selections. Combine the sentences
of each, group without changing the wording, or adding any
words, and note the difference in effect, and the greater ease
of understanding.
Twenty years had passed since Joey ran down the brae to play.
Jess, his mother, shook her staff fondly at him.
A cart rumbled by, the driver nodding on the shaft.
It rounded the corner and stopped suddenly, and then a woman
screamed.
A handful of men carried Joey's dead body to his mother, and
that was the tragedy of Jess's life. — Barrie : A Windorv in
Thrums.
[As written above, the third and fourth sentences do not seem to
have any connection, in thought, with what precedes and follows.
Close up the indentions, and the whole paragraph becomes an intelli-
gible picture. ]
I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and I was to
put it in order ; so I swept out useless thoughts and dusted foolish
fancies away, and furnished it with good resolutions and began
again.
10 Composition-Rhetoric,
But cobwebs get in.
I'm not a good housekeeper, and never get my room in nice order.
I once wrote a poem about it when I was fourteen, and called it
" My Little Kingdom."
It is still hard to rule it, and always will be, I think. — Louisa
May Alcott : Life^ Letters, and Journals.
[As written above, the connection of the thought is hard to keep.
Close up the indentions, and it becomes clear that the words " cob-
webs," " housekeeper," " room," "kingdom," and "rule," in the dif-
ferent sentences, all refer to the mind or the care one should give it.]
EXERCISE 3.
On one of the following topics write a single paragraph of
one or two pages. Indent the first word one inch. Except
at the close of the paragraph, beware of leaving a noticeable
blank space at the end of a sentence.^
1. An incident in the recitation room.
2. The principal cause of the American Eevolntion.
3. How to tell an oak leaf from a maple leaf.
4. Direct a stranger at the railway station to the high-
school building, describing the building so that he would
know it when he reached it.
5. One result of the Civil War.
6. The source of the water supply of this city.
7. How does a bank make any money ?
8. How I usually spend Saturday.
9. The way I used to make a kite.
10. The appearance of the school-house from the street.
11. Learning to ride a bicycle.
12. The story of King Midas.
13. The story of King Eobert of Sicily.
14. General Howe and. the Boston boys.
1 For directions in regard to the preparation of the manuscript, see
Appendix A. For the meaning of the signs used by your teacher in cor-
recting what you write, see Appendix B.
External Form of the Paragraph. 11
LESSON 4.
Faults of Indention: Indentions too Few.
1. In a preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday
in the country, and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape ;
but where is its sacred influence more strikingly apparent than
in the very heart of that great Babel, London ? 2. On this sacred
day, the gigantic monster is charmed into repose. 3. The intol-
erable din and struggle of the week are at an end. 4. The shops
are shut. 5. The fires of forges and manufactories are extin-
guished; and the sun, no longer obscured by murky clouds of
smoke, pours down a sober, yellow radiance into the quiet streets.
6. The few pedestrians we meet, instead of hurrying forward
with anxious countenances, move leisurely along ; their brows are
smoothed from the wrinkles of business and care ; they have put
on their Sunday looks, and Sunday manners, with their Sunday
clothes, and are cleansed in mind as well as in person. 7. And
now the melodious clangor of bells from church towers summons
their various flocks to the fold. 8. Forth issues from his mansion
the family of the decent tradesman, the small children in advance ;
then the citizen and his comely spouse, followed by the grown-up
daughters, with small morocco-bound prayer-books laid in the
folds of their pocket-handkerchiefs. 9. The housemaid looks after
them from the window, admiring the finery of the family, and
receiving, perhaps, a nod and smile from her young mistresses, at
whose toilet she has assisted. 10. Now rumbles along the carriage
of some magnate of the city, peradventure an alderman or a sheriff;
and now the patter of many feet announces a procession of charity
scholars, in uniforms of antique cut, and each with a prayer-book
under his arm. 11. The ringing of bells is at an end ; the rumbling
of the carriage has ceased ; the pattering of feet is heard no more ;
the flocks are folded in ancient churches, cramped up in by-lanes
and corners of the crowded city, where the vigilant beadle keeps
watch, like the shepherd's dog, round the threshold of the sanct-
uary. 12. For a time everything is hushed ; but soon is heard
the deep, pervading sound of the organ, rolling and vibrating
through the empty lanes and courts ; and the sweet chanting of
12 Composition-Rhetoric.
the choir making them resound with melody and praise. 13. ISTevei
have I been more sensible of the sanctifying effect of church music
than when I have heard it thus poured forth, like a river of joy,
through the inmost recesses of this great metropolis, elevating it,
as it were, from all the sordid pollutions of the week ; and bearing
the poor world-w^orn soul on a tide of triumphant harmony to
heaven. 14. The morning service is at an end. 15. The streets are
again alive with the congregations returning to their homes, but
soon again relapse into silence. 16. N'ow comes on the Sunday
dinner, which, to the city tradesman, is a meal of some importance.
17. There is more leisure for social enjoyment at the board.
18. Members of the family can now gather together, who are
separated by the laborious occupations of the week. 19. A school-
boy may be permitted on that day to come to the paternal home ;
an old friend of the family takes his accustomed Sunday seat at
the board, tells over his well-known stories, and rejoices young
and old with his well-known jokes. 20. On Sunday afternoon
the city pours forth its legions to breathe the fresh air and enjoy
the sunshine of the parks and rural environs. 21. Satirists may
say what they please about the rural enjoyments of a London
citizen on Sunday, but to me there is something delightful in
beholding the poor prisoner of the crowded and dusty city enabled
thus to come forth once a week and throw himself upon the green
bosom of nature. 22. He is like a child restored to the mother's
breast ; and they who first spread out these noble parks and mag-
nificent pleasure-grounds w^hich surround this huge metropolis,
have done at least as much for its health and morality, as if they
had expended the amount of cost in hospitals, prisons, and peni-
tentiaries. — Irving : Sketch Book.
The pupil should make himself familiar with this selec-
tion by reading it a number of times. Let him then note
the connection of the sentences. Certain sentences, he will
observe, treat of one part of the subject ; certain others treat
of another part. Thus, sentences 1-6 speak in general terms
of the Sunday aspect of the city. These sentences, belong-
ing together in thought, should form a single paragraph.
Sentences 7-10 speak of the appearance of the streets when
External Form of the Paragraph, 13
the bells begin ringing for church; these sentences should
form another paragraph. The same may be said of sentences
11-13, which tell what happens during the service ; of sen-
tences 14-19, which tell of what happens 'after the service;
and of sentences 20-22, which tell of the enjoyments of Sun-
day afternoon. By indenting at the beginning of sentences
7, 11, 14, and 20, these paragraph-groups may be indicated
to the eye.
Beware of running together in one group sentences that should
form separate groups.
EXERCISE 4.
I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many
days to the academy. Every room has in it one or more pro-
jectors, and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred
rooms. The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty
hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged and singed in
several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin were all of the same
color. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting
sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials her-
metically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement
summers. He told me he did not doubt that in eight years more
he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine
at a reasonable rate ; but he complained that the stock was low,
and entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to
ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for
cucumbers. I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished
me with money, on purpose, because he knew their practice of
begging from all who go to see them. I saw another at work to
calcine ice into gunpowder, who likewise showed me a treatise he
had written concerning the malleability of fire, which he intended
to publish. There was a most ingenious architect, who had con-
trived a new method for building houses, by beginning at the roof,
and working downwards to the foundation ; which he justified to
me by the like practice of those two prudent insects, the bee and
the spider. In another apartment I was highly pleased with a
14 Composition-Rhetoric,
projector who had found a device of ploughing the ground with
hogs, to save the charges of ploughs, cattle, and labor. The method
is this : in an acre of ground, you bury, at six inches distance, and
eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other masts
or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest ; then you drive
six hundred or more of them into the field, where in a few days
they will root up the whole ground in search of their food, and
make it fit for sowing. It is true, upon experiment they found
the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop.
However, it is not doubted that this invention may be capable of
great improvement. I went into another room, where the walls
and ceilings were all hung round wdth cobwebs, except a narrow
passage for the artist to go in and out. At my entrance he called
aloud to me not to disturb his webs. He lamented the fatal
mistake the world had been so long in, of using silk-worms, while
we had such plenty of domestic insects, who infinitely excelled the
former because they understood how to weave as well as spin.
And he proposed, farther, that by employing spiders, the charge of
dyeing silks should be wholly saved ; whereof I was fully convinced
when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully colored,
wherewith he fed his spiders ; assuring us that the webs would
take a tincture from them ; and as he had them of all hues, he
hoped to fit everybody's fancy, as soon as he could find proper
food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter,
to give a strength and consistence to the threads.
In this selection there is first a general statement regard-
ing the author's visit to the Academy ; then the author de-
scribes various rooms and their occupants. What words
should be indented ?
The characteristic peculiarity of the Pilgrim's Progress is that
it is the only work of its kind which possesses a strong human
interest. Other allegories only amuse the fancy. The allegory
of Bunyan has been read by many thousands with tears. There
are some good allegories in Johnson's works, and some of still
higher merit by Addison. In these performances there is, per-
haps, as much wit and ingenuity as in the Pilgrim's Progress. But
the pleasure which is produced by the Vision of Mirza, the Vision
External Form of the Paragraph, 15
of Theodore, the Genealogy of Wit, or the contest between Rest
and Labor, is exactly similar to the pleasure which we derive from
one of Cowley's odes or from a canto of Iludibras. It is a pleasure
which belongs wholly to the understanding, and in which the feel-
ings have no part whatever. It is not so with the Pilgrim's Prog-
ress. That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the
most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to
admire it. Doctor Johnson, all whose studies were desultory, and
who hated, as he said, to read books through, made an exception
in favor of the Pilgrim's Progress.. That work, he said, was one
of the two or three works which he wished longer. In the wildest
parts of Scotland the Pilgrim's Progress is the delight of the peas-
antry. In every nursery the Pilgrim's Progress is a greater favor-
ite than Jack the Giant-Killer. Every reader knows the straight
and narrow path as well as he knows a road in which he has gone
backward and forward a hundred times. This is the highest mira-
cle of genius, — that things which are not should be as though they
were ; that the imaginations of one mind should become the per-
sonal recollections of another. And this miracle the tinker has
w^rought. There is no ascent, no declivity, no resting-place, no
turnstile, with which we are not perfectly acquainted. The wdcket-
gate, and the desolate swamp which separates it from the City of
Destruction ; the long line of road, as straight as a rule can make
it ; the Interpreter's house and all its fair shov/s ; all the stages of
the journey, all the forms w^hich cross or overtake the pilgrims,
giants and hobgoblins, ill-favored ones and shining ones; the tall,
comely, swarthy Madam Bubble with her great purse by her side,
and her fingers playing with the money; the black man in the
bright vesture; Mr. Worldly Wiseman and my Lord Hategood,
Mr. Talkative and Mrs. Timorous ; — all are actually existing be-
ings to us. We follow the travellers through their allegorical
progress with interest not inferior to that with which we follow
Elizabeth from Siberia to Moscow, or Jeanie Deans from Edin-
burgh to London.
Observe that in this selection there are three distinct
ideas : first, Pilgrim\s Progress is different from other alle-
gories ; second, Pilgrim'' s Progress touches the heart and
imagination of every one ; third, every event and figure in
16 Composition-Rhetoric.
this allegory is interesting to us. With this clue, decide
what sentences belong together and where indentions should
be made.
The young prince Hamlet was not happy at Elsinore. It was
not because he missed the gay student-life of Wittenberg, and that
the little Danish court was intolerably dull. It was not because
the didactic lord chamberlain bored him with long speeches, or
that the lord chamberlain's daughter was become a shade weari-
some. Hamlet had more serious cues for unhappiness. He had
been summoned suddenly from Wittenberg to attend his father's
funeral ; close upon this and while his grief was green, his mother
had married with his uncle Claudius, whom Hamlet had never
liked. The indecorous haste of these nuptials — they took place
within two months after the king's death, the funeral baked meats,
as Hamlet cursorily remarked, furnishing forth the marriage-tables
— struck the young prince aghast. He had loved the queen his
mother, and had nearly idolized the late king ; but now he forgot
to lament the death of the one in contemplating the life of the
other. The billing and cooing of the newly-married couple filled
him with horror. Anger, shame, pity, and despair seized upon
him by turns. He fell into a forlorn condition, forsaking his
books, eating little save of the chameleon's dish, the air, drinking
deep of Rhenish, letting his long, black locks go unkempt, and
neglecting his dress — he who had hitherto been "the glass of
fashion and the mould of form," as Ophelia had prettily said of
him. Often for half the night he would wander along the ram-
parts of the castle, at the imminent risk of tumbling off, gaz-
ing seaward and muttering strangely to himself, and evolving
frightful spectres out of the shadows cast by the turrets. Some-
times he lapsed into a gentle melancholy ; but not seldom his mood
was ferocious, and at such times the conversational Polonius, with
a discretion that did him credit, steered clear of my lord Hamlet.
He turned no more graceful compliments for Ophelia. The thought
of marrying her, if he had ever seriously thought of it, was gone
now. He rather ruthlessly advised her to go into a nunnery. His
mother had sickened him of women. It was of her he spoke the
notable words, ^' Frailty, thy name is woman ! " which, some time
afterwards, an amiable French gentleman had neatly engraved on
External Form of the Paragraph. IT
the head-stone of his wife, who had long been an invalid. Even
the king and queen did not escape Hamlet in his distempered
moments. Passing his mother in a corridor or on a staircase of
the palace, he would suddenly plant a verbal dagger in her heart ;
and frequently, in full court, he would deal the king such a cutting
reply as caused him to blanch, and gnaw his lip.
Four ideas will be found in this selection: (1) reasons
for Hamlet's sadness ; (2) the effect upon him of the hasty
marriage of the Queen; (3) his varying moods; (4) his
harshness towards Ophelia, the Queen, and the King.
Where should the second paragraph begin ? the third ? the
fourth?
LESSON 5.
Faults of Indention : Indentions Irregular and
Meaningless,
1. On one of those sober and rather melancholy days, in the
latter part of Autumn, when the shadows of morning and evening
almost mingle together, and throw a gloom over the decline of
the year, I passed several hours in rambling about Westminster
Abbey. 2. There was something congenial to the season in the
mournful magnificence of the old pile ; and, as I passed its thresh-
old, seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiquity,
and losing myself among the shades of former ages. 3. I entered
from the inner court of Westminster School, through a long, low,
vaulted passage, that had an almost subterranean look, being
dimly lighted in one part by circular perforations in the massive
walls.
4. Through this dark avenue I had a distant view of the clois-
ters, with the figure of an old verger, in his black gown, moving
along their shadowy vaults, and seeming like a spectre from one
of the neighboring tombs. 5. The approach to the abbey through
these gloomy monastic remains prepares the mind for its solemn
contemplation. 6. The cloisters still retain something of the
quiet and seclusion of former days.
18 Composition-Rhetor ie.
7. The gray walls are discolored by damps, and crumbling with
age ; a coat of hoary moss has gathered over the inscriptions of
the mural monuments, and obscured the death's head and other
funereal emblems.
8. The sharp touches of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery
of the arches ; the roses which adorned the keystones have lost
their leafy beauty ; every thing bears marks of the gradual dilapi-
dations of time, which yet has something touching and pleasing in
its very decay. 9. The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal
ray into the square of the cloisters ; beaming upon a scanty plot
of grass in the centre, and lighting up the angle of the vaulted
passage with a kind of dusky splendor.
10. From between the arcades, the eye glanced up to a bit of
blue sky or a passing cloud ; and beheld the sun-gilt pinnacles of
the abbey towering into the azure heaven.
In this selection as it appears above, there are several
irregularities of paragraphing. Following the indention,
one would infer that sentences 1-3 form a sentence-group ;
that sentences 4-6 form another ; and that sentences 8 and
9 form a third; while sentences 7 and 10 would seem to
be independent of the rest. But this is not the case. Sen-
tences 1 and 2 are much more closely connected than sen-
tences 2 and 3. Sentences 1 and 2 treat of the Abbey
in a general way; sentence 3 begins a description of the
interior. Sentence 3, then, because it introduces a new
subject, should be separated from sentences 1 and 2 by an
indention. Sentence 4, since it dwells upon the idea of the
dark avenue described in sentence 3, should bear no mark
of separation from that sentence. Nor should sentence 7
be separated from sentences 6 and 8. It is the office of
sentences 7 and 8 to continue the idea of sentence 6 by
giving particulars regarding the gloom and dilapidation of
the cloister. Obviously sentences 6, 7, and 8 belong to-
gether as much as do sentences 3-6. Note, however, that
while sentence 8 carries on the idea of sentence 7, sentences
9 and 10 are upon a different theme. Sentences 3-8 dwell
External Form of the Paragraph, 19
upon the gloom and dilapidation of the cloister ; sentences
9 and 10 describe the brightness of the exterior. Sen-
tences 3-8, therefore, should oe put in One paragraph ; sen-
tences 9 and 10 in another paragraph. Arranged in accord-
ance with the foregoing suggestions, the selection appears
as follows : —
On one of those sober and melancholy days, in the latter part
of Autumn, when the shadows of morning and evening almost
mingle together, and throw a gloom over the decline of the year,
I passed several hours in rambling about Westminster Abbey.
There was something congenial to the season in the mournful
magnificence of the old pile ; and, as I passed its threshold, seemed
like stepping back into the regions of antiquity, and losing myself
among the shades of former ages.
I entered from the inner court of Westminster School, through
a long, low, vaulted passage, that had an almost subterranean look,
being dimly lighted in one part by circular perforations in the
massive walls. Through this dark avenue I had a distant view of
the cloisters, with the figure of an old verger, in his black gown,
moving along their shadowy vaults, and seeming like a spectre
from one of the neighboring tombs. The approach to the abbey
through these gloomy monastic remains prepares the mind for its
solemn contemplation. The cloisters still retain something of the
quiet and seclusion of former days. The gray walls are discolored
by damps, and crumbling with age ; a coat of hoary moss has gath-
ered over the inscriptions of the mural monuments, and obscured
the death's head and other funereal emblems. The sharp touches
of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery of the arches ; the
roses which adorned the keystones have lost their leafy beauty;
every thing bears marks of the gradual dilapidations of time, which
yet has something touching and pleasing in its very decay.
The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the
square of the cloisters; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in
the centre, and lighting up an angle of the vaulted passage with
a kind of dusky splendor. From between the arcades, the eye
glanced up to a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud ; and beheld
the sun-gilt pinnacles of the abbey towering ijito the azure heaven.
— Irving : Sketch Book.
20 Composition-Rhetoric,
EXERCISE 5.
Criticise the following selection with reference to the
place of indention. Eead the selection carefully, noting
the various ways in which the subject is treated, or the
various parts of the subject that are taken up in succession.
Sentences that treat the subject in the same w^ay or tell of
the same part of the subject, should be brought together in
a single group.
The store was kept by a hard-faced looking man who went by
the name of Shubael, sometimes with and sometimes without the
prefix " Colonel." He was an elderly man, quiet and cool in his
air and manner, and with a countenance placid but heartless in its
expression. There was a certain quick motion of his eye which
showed that he was shrewd and observant. His store had a bad
name, and yet no one seemed to know exactly why. Colonel Shu-
bael himself, too, was the object of a certain mysterious fear, and
even hate ; and yet no one had anything very decided to say against
him. He was believed to be a perfectly honest man, so far as legal
honesty is concerned. !N"o man understood the law better than he,
or the sound policy of keeping on good terms with it. Mr. Shu-
bael's store was small, but it had a snug, social air within. It was
nearly square, with a door in the middle of the front.
A counter extended along one side and across the back of the
store ; and on the remaining side, near the corner next the road,
was a fireplace, with a barrel of oil and another of cider near it,
to keep them from freezing. There were other barrels and hogs-
heads, less likely to freeze, behind the counter against the back
side of the room. A door between two great black hogsheads
mounted on sticks, opened to a dark-looking back room behind.
Tubs, bundles of whip-handles, hoes and shovels, barrels, kegs of
nails, and iron-ware, encumbered the floor, leaving only narrow
passages along in front of the counters and toward the fire. There
was a little area near the fire also unoccupied, and two or three
basket-bottomed chairs, with high wooden backs, stood there.
A half-keg of closely packed tobacco was near, with one loose
fig and an old hatchet lying on it ; and there was an ink bottle,
with a blackened and dried-up quill thrust through the cork, in the
External Form of the Paragraph, 21
chimney corner. This was the aspect of the store in the winter ;
but it was now summer, between haying and harvesting.
The fire was dead, and a great tin fender concealed the ashes
and brands. The chairs were put out before the door, and two or
three men were sitting and standing there, waiting for the " stage."
It was a calm and pleasant afternoon ; the forests around were in
their best dress, and the view up the pond was picturesque in the
highest degree.
But the company paid little attention to the beauty of the
scenery.
They were looking out for the " stage." Mr. Shubael was the
postmaster.
A little high paling, at the end of the counter opposite the fire,
was the post-office. The mail came once a week, bringing a few
newspapers and sometimes some letters. The company which was
collected on this occasion were not interested so much in the con-
tents of the mail, as in a new team of horses, and a large coach,
which was that day for the first time to be put on the road.
They were looking off beyond the bridge, where the road could
be seen for a considerable distance winding around a hill, and talk-
ing with noisy laughter about various subjects that came up. By
the side of the door, outside, his chair tipped back against the side
of the building and his feet resting upon a bar which passed along
between two posts placed there for fastening horses, sat a tall, dark-
complexioned man, with black bushy hair and eyebrows, and an
intelligent but sinister expression of countenance. They called
him McDonner.
EXERCISE 6.
On one of the following outlines write an essay of about
300 words. The paragraph-sign shows the places where
indention should be made.
A Skating Scene.
^ Time and place -«^ weather favorable — condition of the ice
— number of skaters — di:fferent colors of clothes, scarfs, etc. —
T Noticeable characters — fancy skaters — beginners — ^ A race —
result — a collision — other mishaps — the return home.
22 Composition-Rhetoric,
The Human Hand.
^ General shape outside and inside — advantage of this shape
— divisions — parts enumerated and described — ^ Kinds of joints
and special uses — ^ Nails, description and uses — the ends of the
fingers, why so sensitive ? -^ If The thumb, special situation and
form, and adaptedness to use — ^ Strength of hand may be cul-
tivated— relation of hand to occupation — If Why two hands? —
superiority of man.
Learning to debate.
^ Purpose in joining the society — ^ First experience, the ques-
tion, what I intended to say, diffidence, lack of words, forgetting
pre-arranged plan, long and involved sentences, confused thought,
led astray by objections, desperation and dissatisfaction with my
effort — ^ Resolutions for future debates — If Second experience, the
question, more careful preparation, first sentences memorized, plan
stated, greater ease while speaking, less haste to get to new points,
shorter sentences, refusal to be led off by objections, sticking to
original plan — result, less dissatisfaction — •[f Later experiences,
what I have learned from former efforts, as to need of previous
preparation, having a plan, stating the plan, danger of haste in
beginning, treatment of objections, efforts at copiousness of expres-
sion, attempts at eloquence, seriousness of method, ridicule of
oppoiients, hurry and nervousness, talking over-time.
Reasons for the Success of the American Revolution.
If Righteousness of the American cause — practical unanimity
of the colonists — common grievances — resulting zeal — If English
support of the war against the colonies not unanimous — parlia-
mentary opposition to the war — classes of the English people
favorable to the colonies — ^ Circumstances fortunate for the
colonies — distance of England — England's troubles with other
foreign nations at the time — ^f French aid of the colonies —
If Superiority of American leaders and generals — American meth-
ods of war — knowledge of the country — If Faith and endurance
of the colonists — the spirit of the times.
External Form of the Paragraph, 23
Advantages of the Columbian Exposition.
^ General educational value — every one could learn from it —
what the farmer, tradesman, mechanic, teacher, etc., could learn
of his own work — of the work of others — *|[ Knowledge of foreign
nations — result of this — ^ What oUher countries could learn of
us — 1[ Meetings of men working in the same departments of life
in different countries — scientific meetings — Parliament of Re-
ligions— result — 1[ Effect on patriotism and upon regard for
humanity.
Intelligence of Dogs.
^ Decidedly greater than in other domestic animals — contrast
briefly with the others — If Know their masters, and ready to
protect them against assault — to bring assistance if needed —
^ Protect property — run errands — watch-dogs — shepherd dogs
— % Save life — Newfoundlands — St. Bernards — •f Exceptional
instances of intelligence in dogs.
The Last Story I read.
^ Author, and something about him — If Short summary of the
story — Tf Hero — admirable? natural? like any one you know? —
^ Other characters — do they act and talk like real people? instances
of this quoted — ^ Purpose of the story, if any, besides entertain-
ment — any direct influence felt after reading it ?
The Electric Telegraph.
^ Inventor, date — first trials — ^ Principle of the telegraph and
parts explained — the battery, sounder, key, line, relay, accessories
— ^ Effect of its extensive use upon commerce and civilization.
A Country Village.
If General view from the railway station — apparent size —
evidences of activity or of dulness — the general store and post-
office, near by — impression of the inhabitants waiting for the
24 Composition-Rhetoinc,
mail — ^ A closer view of the village, gained by strolling through
it — quiet, shady streets — neat cottages — old-fashioned flower-
gardens — adjoining vegetable gardens — If The village commons
— grazing cows — stray chickens — group of boys — T[ The weather-
beaten meeting-house — the village school-house — the village inn
' — blacksmith shop — mill — \ Appearance from the bridge, near
by, of surrounding country, fields, woods, hills — the neglected
burying-ground upon the hillside — \ The cleanliness, freshness,
quiet, of the village as contrasted with the city.
A Fire.
If The alarm — hurrying people — engines rushing by — I run
after them — ^f First view of it from a distance — what and where
it proved to be — its appearance on my arrival — "[f Rapid spread of
the flames — imminent danger of surrounding buildings — work
of the firemen begins to tell — Tf Bravery of firemen — an accident
— gradual extinguishment of the fire — If The loss — insurance —
inquiry as to the cause — the probable explanation.
Washington and Lincoln compared as Statesmen.
If The two greatest Americans — each appeared at a great
crisis; Washington at the birth of the nation, Lincoln at its time
of greatest need — each was the one indispensable man of his
time — Washington's great work in establishing independence and
administering the new government, briefly summarized — Lincoln's
great work in suppressing rebellion, abolishing slavery, and restoring
union, briefly summarized — ^ Their preparation for their work
as statesmen compared and contrasted — scanty yet practical edu-
cation of both — knowledge of men, how gained by Washington,
and how by Lincoln, before election to the Presidency? — knowl-
edge of statecraft and contact with political life before election to
the Presidency, compared — ^ The country's estimate of each at
the time of inauguration, contrasted — problems of state confront-
ing each at the time of inauguration, likenesses and diiferences
in kind — ^ How Washington solved his problems and showed his
statesmanship, in choice of cabinet officers — in choice of Supreme
Court judges favorable to the Constitution — in supporting Hamil-
External Form of the Paragraph. 25
ton's financial measures — in suppressing rebellion — in managing
foreign relations — in repressing party strife — ^ How Lincoln
solved his problems and showed his statesmanship, in his attitude
towards the South at the beginning of the war — in his choice of
cabinet officers and generals — in delaying emancipation until it
was clearly a war necessity — in avoiding foreign complications —
in repressing party fury — in plans for easy reconstruction of states
— ^Political methods compared — attitude towards the common
people — personality of Washington and Lincoln compared as
bearing on their political influence — ^ Results of their work com-
pared— the judgment of history on both as statesmen.
LESSOIST 6.
Other Uses of Indention,
The indention that marks the beginning of a paragraph
should be distinguished from indentions made for other
purposes.
1. In conversational passages, the speeches of different
^persons are separated by indention.
"Did you ever hear a tom-tom, sir?" sternly inquired the
captain, who lost no opportunity of showing oif his travels, real or
pretended.
" A what?" asked Hardy, rather taken aback.
" A tom-tom."
" Never ! "
" I^or a gum-gum ? "
" Never ! "
'^ What is a gum-gum? " eagerly inquired several young ladies.
Explanatory matter coming between the speeches is some-
times combined with the speech to which it is most nearly
related, as in the following example : —
'^ How is this privileged person ? " Mrs. Blunt asked,
"You shall see," said Edith. "I am glad you came, for I
26 Composition-Rhetoric,
wanted very much to consult you. I was going to send for
you."
" Well, here I am. But I didn't come about the baby. I
wanted to consult you. We miss you, dear, every day." A nd then
Mrs. Blunt began to speak about some social and charitable arrange-
ments, but stopped suddenly. " I'll see the baby first. Good-morn-
ing, Mrs. Henderson." And she left the room.
But often such explanatory matter is allowed to stand by
itself, as in the following : —
"Mebbe ye would be better in yer bed," suggested Hendry.
No one spoke.
" When I had the headache," said Hendry, " I was better in my
bed."
2. Quotations, especially if they are of some length and
begin a new sentence, are often treated as separate para-
graphs and distinguished by indention. If the quotation is
short, it is usually distinguished only by quotation marks, and
is not set off by itself; but if it is long, it may be set off by
itself (without indention) even though it does not begin a
new sentence. The following example illustrates (1) A short
quotation distinguished only by quotation marks and not set
off by itself, (2) A longer quotation beginning a new sentence,
set off by indention and quotation, (3) A part of a sentence
following quoted matter and not indented, (4) A quotation
not beginning a new sentence but set off by itself (without
indention) on account of its length, (5) A sentence following,
not indented.
We must not forget the celebrated work that had so great an
influence upon the literature of that [the Elizabethan] and the
following age, the Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney. That quaint yet
poetic, pastoral romance was, in prose, like Spenser's Faerie
Queene in verse, a treasury of intellectual beauties. It should be
remembered in judging the work of Sir Philip Sidney, that he
thought very meanly of it himself, and that he never intended it
External Form of the Paragraph. 2T
for publication. Dedicating the book to his " Dear lady and fair
sister the Countess of Pembroke," he says : —
"You desired me to do it, and your desire, to my heart, is an
absolute commandment. Now it is done only for you, only to
you." Aubrey tells us that Sidney " was wont to take his table-
book out of his pocket and write down his notions as they came
into his head, as he was hunting on Sarum's pleasant plains." It
was in 1580 that Sidney began the composition of his romance. —
Saunders : The Story of Some Famous Books.
If the qyaotation occurs in the middle of a paragraph, the
sentence which follows should not b^mdentedT"^" '
Nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating
spars and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all
men, and a solemn silence, broken only by the cry
** Of some strong swimmer in his agony."
And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from
a dream, half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and
eddies, leaped overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it
alongside in triumph.
The good old times I Where and when were those good old
times V
" All times when old are good,"
says Byron.
" And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death,"
says the great master of morals and humanity. But neither fools
nor sages, neither individuals nor nations, have any other light to
guide them along the track which all must tread, save that long,
glimmering vista of yesterdays which grows so swiftly fainter and
fainter as the present fades into the past. And I believe it pos-
sible to discover a law out of all this apparently chaotic whirl
and bustle, this tangled skein of human affairs, as it spins itself
through the centuries. That law is Progress, — slow, confused,
contradictory, but ceaseless development, intellectual and moral,
28 Composition-Rhetoric,
of the human race. — Motley: Historic Progress and American
Democracy.
3. In letters, indentions are nsed to distingiiish the vari-
ous parts. If the letter begins with the name and address
of the correspondent, the address is usually indented. The
salutation is more deeply indented than the address, and
the body of the letter more deeply still. Various grades of
indention also distinguish the parts of the conclusion. The
following will illustrate : —
Headquarters Department of the Ohio,
Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1862.
RuFus King, Esq.,
President School Board, Cincinnati, Ohio:
Sir : In reply to your note of this date I am instructed to
say that the public schools of this city will not be required to close
at 4 o'clock P.M. daily. The company of teachers can assemble for
drill after the dismissal of school.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
N. H. McLean.
Mr. Strahan, —
You are a member of Parliament, and one of that major-
ity which has doomed my country to destruction. You have
begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon
your hands, they are stained with the blood of your relations !
You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I
am
Yours,
I B. Franklin.
Gloucester Place, London,
July 15, 1833.
My darling May, —
How do you do, and how do you like the sea? I re-
member that when I saw the sea, it used sometimes to be very
fussy and fidgety. And what a rattle the waves made with the
stones, when they were rough 1
External Form of the Paragraph, 29
Have you been bathing yet in the sea, and were you afraid?
I was, the first time. Oh, how I kicked and screamed ! or at least
meant to scream ; but the sea, ships and all, began to run into my
mouth, so I shut up/
Well, how happy you must be ! Childhood is such a joyous,
merry time. I often wish I was a child again.
PJease give my love to your mamma, and remember me as your
affectionate friend, rp_^ , . „ tt^^
' iHOMAs Hood.
4. Sometimes indentions are made merely for the purpose
of attracting the reader^s attention to something important.
This device should be used with great caution. ' Beginners
will do well to avoid it altogether.
One idiotic habit of the people is to attribute to the king what
they do themselves.
They fight : whose is the glory ?
The king's.
They pay : whose is the generosity ?
The king's.
The king receives a crown from the poor, and returns them a
farthing.
How generous he is 1 — Victor Hugo.
CHAPTER II.
PARAGRAPH-STRUCTURE.
LESSOR 7.
Thought- Divisions.
1. In the season of hot weather in the central part of the Mis-
sissippi Valley, there often come successions of days when the
atmosphere is not stirred by the winds, but remains as still as the
air of a cave. 2. Despite the steady gain in the heat, the sky stays
cloudless, or at most is flecked by those light clouds that lie five
miles or more above the surface of the earth. 3. All nature seems
cowed beneath the fervent heat, yet there is nothing of distinct
portent in earth or air. 4. At last, towards evening, there may be
seen a sudden curdling of the western sky ; in a few minutes the
clouds gather, coming from nowhere, growing at once in the lurid
air. 5. In less than half an hour the forces of the storm are organ-
ized, and its dreadful advance begins. 6. If we were just beneath
the gathering clouds we would find that the air over a space a
mile or so in diameter was spinning around in a great whirlpool,
and while the revolving mass slowly advanced, the central part
moved rapidly upwards. 7. Beginning slowly, all the movements
of the storm, the whirling action, the vertical streaming of the air,
its onward movement, all gain speed of motion with astonishing
rapidity. 8. In a minute or two some cubic miles of air are in a
state of intense gyratory movement, mounting upwards as vio-
lently as the gases over a volcano. 9. To replace this strong
whirling uprush, there is an indraught from every side towards
the centre of the whirlwind; and as this centre moves quickly
forward, the rush of air is strongest from behind towards the
30
Paragraph' Structure, 31
advancing hurricane. 10. The rate at which the storm goes for-
ward is very variable, though it is generally as much as forty to
one hundred miles an hour; but this is not the measure of its
destructive power. 11. The rending effect of the storm is much
greater than would be given by a simple blast of air moving at
this speed. 12. Much of this peculiar capacity for destruction
may perhaps be due to the gyratory motion of the wind in the
storm centre, which on one side of the whirlwind adds the speed
arising from its circular movement to the translatory velocity of
the whirlwind itself. 13. Some of the records tell us that houses
with closed w^indows have been known to burst apart, as if from
an explosion of gunpowder, while others, that had their doors and
windows wide open, remained essentially unharmed. 14. It has
been conjectured that this action may be due to a sadden rarefac-
tion of the air on the outside of the building ; but this cause cannot
be sufficient to produce such effects, and if such explosions occur
the cause must be looked for elsewhere. 15. After the storm is
once developed, it seems very quickly to acquire its maximum of
destructive power and its speed of translation. 16. At the outset
and during the period of most efficient action, the strip of country
affected is generally very narrow, not often exceeding a mile in
width ; as the storm advances the path seems gradually to grow
wider, and the gyratory movement as well as the translatory mo-
tion of the meteor less considerable, until at last it fades into an
ordinary thunder-storm, or dies into a calm. 17. Through the
whole course of the hurricane, and especially during its closing
stages, there is generally more or less rain and hail. — Atlantic^
49 : 331.
The sentences in this paragraph, belong together, for all
treat of one topic — the tornado. But they not only belong
together, they belong together in a peculiar way, in a
particular order. Sentence 1 belongs at the beginning.
It cannot be placed anywhere else in the paragraph. Sen-
tence 11 must come after sentence 10 ; sentence 15 must
come before sentence 16 ; to put these sentences in any other
order would throw the paragraph into confusion. Again,
the sentences of this paragraph fall into groups, each group
32 Composition-Rhetoric,
treating of some specific part of the topic. Thus sentences
1-3 tell of what happens before the storm ; sentences 4-6
tell of its beginning ; sentences 7-9 tell of its onward move-
ment; sentences 10-14 tell of its destructive power; sen-
tences 15-17 of its culmination and subsidence. We may
even make an outline of the paragraph, showing just what
. is said of the subject in each part.
A. Before the storm (1-3).
a. The air is still.
h. The sky is cloudless.
B. Beginning of the storm (4-6).
a. The clouds gather.
h. The storm is organized.
C. The advance of the storm (7-9).
- a. The speed of motion increases.
h. The whirling movement and the vertical stream-
ing grow violent.
c. The rush of air is strongest from behind.
D. The destructive power of the storm (10-14).
a. Its capacity for destruction is due both to the for-
ward movement and to the whirling motion.
h. The storm bursts open houses with closed
windows.
E. The culmination and subsidence of the storm (15-17).
a. The maximum is quickly reached.
h. The storm increases in width and decreases in
speed,
c. The closing stages are accompanied by rain and
hail.
1. In my school-house, ... I seem to see the square most
readily in the Scotch mist which so often filled it, loosening the
stones and choking the drains. 2. There was then no rattle of
rain against my window sill, nor dancing of diamond drops on the
roofs, but blobs of ^ater grew on the panes of glass to reel heavily
Paragraph-StruGture, 33
down them. 3. Then the sodden square would have shed abun-
dant tears if you could have taken it in your hands and wrung it
like a dripping cloth. 4. At such a time the square would be
empty but for one vegetable-cart left in the care of a lean colly,
which, tied to the wheel, whined and shivered underneath.
5. Pools of water gather in the coarse sacks that have been spread
over the potatoes and bundles of greens, which turn to manure in
their lidless barrels. 6. The eyes of the whimpering dog never
leave a black close over which hangs the sign of the Bull, probably
the refuge of the hawker. 7. At long intervals a farmer's gig
rumbles over the bumpy, ill-paved square, or a native, with his
head buried in his coat, peeps out-of-doors, skurries across the way,
and vanishes. 8. Most of the leading shops are here, and the
decorous draper ventures a few yards from the pavement to scan
the sky, or note the effect of his new arrangement in scarfs.
9. Planted against his door is the butcher, Renders Todd, white-
aproned, and with a knife in his hand, gazing interestedly at the
draper, for a mere man may look at an elder. 10. The tinsmith
brings out his steps, and^ mounting them, stealthily removes the
sauce-pans and pepper-pots that dangle on a wire above his sign-
board. 11. Pulling to his door he shuts out the foggy light that
showed in his solder-strewn w^orkshop. 12. The square is deserted
again. 13. A bundle of sloppy parsley slips from the hawker's
cart and topples over the wheel in driblets. 14. The puddles in
the sacks overflow and run together. 15. The dog has twisted his
chain round a barrel, and yelps sharply. 16. As if in response
comes a rush of other dogs. 17. A terrified fox terrier tears across
the square with half a score of mongrels, the butcher's mastiff and
some collies at his heels ; he is doubtless a stranger who has in-
sulted them by his glossy coat. 18. For two seconds the square
shakes to an invasion of dogs, and then, again, there is only one
dog in sight. — Barrie : Auld Liclit Idylls^ chap. I.
The selection given above may be outlined as follows : —
A, The sodden square (1-3).
a. Seen most readily in the Scotcli mist.
h. The mist on the window,
c. The mist in the square.
34 Composition- Rhetoric,
B. What is to be seen in the square (4-11).
a. The vegetable cart and the colly.
h. Passers-by.
c. Shopkeepers.
C. What happens in the square (12-18).
a. To the cart.
b. To the colly.
c. The invasion of dogs.
EXERCISE 7.
Bead carefully the following paragraphs and v^^rite out-
lines showing the divisions of the thought: —
The cavaliers found Alvarado unhorsed, and defending himself
with a poor handful of followers against an overwhelming tide of
the enemy. His good steed, which had borne him through many
a hard fight, had fallen under him. He was himself wounded in
several places, and was striving in vain to rally his scattered
column, which was driven to the verge of the canal by the fury of
the enemy, then in possession of the whole rear of the causeway,
where they w^ere reinforced every hour by fresh combatants from
the city. The artillery in the earlier part of the engagement had
not been idle, and its iron shower, sw'eeping along the dike, had
mowed down the assailants by hundreds. But nothing could
resist their impetuosity. The front ranks, pushed on by those
behind, were at length forced up to the pieces, and, pouring over
them like a torrent, overthrew men and guns in one general ruin.
The resolute charge of the Spanish cavaliers, who had now ar-
rived, created a temporary check, and gave time for their country-
men to make a feeble rally. But they were speedily borne down
by the returning flood. Cortes and his companions were compelled
to plunge again into the lake, — though all did not escape. Al-
varado stood on the brink for a moment, hesitating what to do.
Unhorsed, as he was, to throw himself into the water, in the face
of the hostile canoes that now swarmed around the opening, af-
forded but a desperate chance of safety. He had but a second for
thought. He was a man of powerful frame, and despair gave him
Paragraph- Structure, 85
unnatural energy. Setting his long lance firmly on the wreck which
strewed the bottom of the lake, he sprang forward with all his
might, and cleared the wide gap at a leap ! Aztecs and Tlascalans
gazed in stupid amazement, exclaiming, as they beheld the incredi-
ble feat, " This is truly the Tonatiuh, — the child of the Sun ! "
The breadth of the opening is not given. But it was so great that
the valorous Captain Diaz, who well remembered tfce place, says
the leap was impossible to any man. Other contemporaries, how-
ever, do not discredit the story. It was, beyond doubt, matter of
popular belief at the time; it is to this day familiarly known to
every inhabitant of the capital; and the name of the Salto de
AlvaradOy "Alvarado's Leap," given to the spot, still commemo-
rates an exploit which rivalled those of the demi-gods of Grecian
fable. — Prescott : Conquest of Mexico.
'There is a general impression in England, that the people of
the United States are inimical to the parent country. It is one
of the errors which have been diligently propagated by designing
writers. There is, doubtless, considerable political hostility, and
a general soreness at the illiberality of the English press ; but,
generally speaking, the prepossessions of the people are strongly
in favor of England. Indeed, at one time, they amounted, in
many parts of the Union, to an absurd degree of bigotry^ The
bare name of Englishman was a passport to the confidence and hos-
pitality of every family, and too often gave a transient currency to
the worthless and the ungrateful. Throughout the country there
was something of enthusiasm connected with the idea of England.
We looked to it with a hallowed feeling of tenderness and venera-
tion, as the land of our forefathers — the august repository of the
monuments and antiquities of our race — the birthplace and mau-
soleum of the sages and heroes of our paternal history. After our
own country, there was none in whose glory we more delighted —
none whose good opinion we were more anxious to possess — none
towards which our hearts yearned with such throbbings of warm
consanguinity. Even du/ring the late war, whenever there was
the least opportunity for kind feelings to spring forth, it was the
delight of the generous spirits of our country to show that, in the
midst of hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks of future friend-
ship. — Irving : Sketch Book. ,
36 Composition- Rhetoric,
The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture,
unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy
growth. The new South presents a perfect democracy, the oli-
garchs leading in the popular movement — a social system compact
and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at
the core — a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for
every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex
needs of this complex age. The new South is enamoured of her
new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The
light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling
with the consciousness of growing power and prosperity. As she
stands upright, full-statured and equal among the people of the
earth, breathing the keen air, and looking out upon the expanding
horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because in
the inscrutable wisdom of God her honest purpose was crossed and
her brave armies were beaten. — Henry W. Grady : Speeches.
It is the general testimony of Americans who have lived much in
England that appearances are deceptive, and that the greater
share of flesh and color possessed by our transatlantic cousins is
not always the indication of better health or greater strength.
Even these outward attributes are not always the result of English
residence. The late Rev. William Henry Channing, a very slender
man, used to lament, on his occasional visits to this, his native
land, that long years of English life had not given him an added
pound of flesh, while all his early comrades had grown stouter
in America. But even where these externals are possessed, they
do not necessarily indicate any other physical advantage. Cer-
tainly there are many parallels that might be drawn, in Plutarch's
fashion, between conspicuous English and American examples.
Mr. Gladstone hardly affords a more striking instance of prolonged
intellectual activity than did, up to the same period of life, the
late Mr. Bancroft ; and certainly the dyspeptic old age of Carlyle
and the perturbed intellect of Ruskin have been painfully unlike
the serene and wholesome declining years of Whittier and Holmes.
Among younger English intellectual workers, it is understood that
Hamerton must live in France for his health's sake, and Symonds
in Italy, and Stevenson in Samoa, while Henley is mainly known
from his poems written in a hospital, and Kipling is mentioned as
Paragraph- Structure. 37
already broken down in health. Among all our younger Ameri-
can men of letters there is no such group of invalids. Among
women, we hear of Florence Nightingale as wholly invalided for
many years, while our own Clara Barton, after all her ordeal in
our Civil War, — an ordeal which, if less intense and concentrated
than that of Florence Nightingale, was far more prolonged, — is
still in active vigor, and always ready, on a click of the telegraphic
wire, to repair to any scene of war or pestilence or inundation
where she and her Red Cross are needed. Dorothea Dix also
continued her active and unceasing labors until well into the
eighties. Such comparisons, if they do not give conclusive evi-
dence, yet certainly appeal to the imagination, and set one think-
ing. — HiGGiNSON : Concerning All of Us.
\Never since literature became a calling in England had it been
a less gainful calling than at the time when Johnson took up his
residence in London. In the preceding generation a writer of
eminent merit was sure to be munificently rewarded by the
government. The least that he could expect was a pension or a
sinecure place ; and, if he showed any aptitude for politics, he
might hope to be a member of parliament, a lord of the treasury,
an ambassador, a secretary of state. It would be easy, on the
other hand, to name several writers of the nineteenth century of
whom the least successful has received forty thousand pounds
from the booksellers. But Johnson entered on his vocation in
the most dreary part of the dreary interval which separated two
ages of prosperity. Literature had ceased to flourish under the
patronage of the great, and had not begun to flourish under the
patronage of the public. One man of letters, indeed. Pope, had
acquired by his pen what was then considered as a handsome
fortune, and lived on a footing of equality with nobles and
ministers of state. But this was a solitary exception. Even an
author whose reputation was established, and whose works were
popular — such an author as Thomson, whose "Seasons" w^ere in
every library ; such an author as Fielding, whose "• Pasquin " had
had a greater run than any drama since the "Beggar's Opera" —
was sometimes glad to obtain, by pawning his best coat, the means
of dining on tripe at a cook-shop underground, where he could
wipe his hands, after his greasy meal, on the back of a Newfound-
38 Composition- Rhetoric,
land dog. It is easy, therefore, to imagine what humiliations and
privations must have awaited the novice who had still to earn
a name. One of the publishers to whom Johnson applied for
employment measured with a scornful eye that athletic though
uncouth frame, and exclaimed, "You had better get a porter's
knot, and carry trunks." Nor was the advice bad, for a porter
was as likely to be as plentifully fed and as comfortably lodged
as a poet. — Macaulay : Johnson?)
Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what democ-
racy really is. Yet this would be a great help, for it is our lawless
and uncertain thoughts, it is the indefiniteness of our impressions,
that fill darkness, whether mental or physical, with spectres and
hobgoblins. Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in
government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be
tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as
others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual
motion in politics any more than in mechanics. President Lincoln
defined democracy to be " the government of the people by the
people for the people." This is a sufficiently compact statement
of it as a political arrangement. Theodore Parker said that
" Democracy meant not ' I'm as good as you are,' but ' You're as
good as I am.' " And this is the ethical conception of it, necessary
as a complement of the other; a conception which, could it be
made actual and practical, would easily solve all the riddles that
the old sphinx of political and social economy who sits by the
roadside has been proposing to mankind from the beginning, and
which mankind have shown such a singular talent for answering
wrongly. In this sense Christ was the first true democrat that
ever breathed, as the old dramatist Dekker said he was the first
true gentleman. The characters may be easily doubled, so strong
is the likeness between them. A beautiful and profound parable
of the Persian poet Jellaladeen tells us that " One knocked at the
Beloved's door, and a voice asked from within, ^Who is there?'
and he answered, * It is I.' Then the voice said, * This house will
not hold me and thee'; and the door was not opehed. Then went
the lover into the desert, and fasted and prayed in solitude, and
after a year he returned and knocked again at the door; and
again the voice asked, * Who is there ? ' and he said, * It is thyself ' ;
Paragraph- Structure, 39
and the door was opened to him." But that is idealism, you will
say, and this is an only too practical world. I grant it ; but I am
one of those who believe that the real will never find an irremov-
able basis till it rests on the ideal. — Lowell : Democracy.
\_You would think it strange if I called Burns the most gifted
British soul we had in all that century of his : and yet I believe
the day is coming when there will be little danger in saying so.
His writings, all that he did under such obstructions, are only a poor
fragment of him. Professor Stewart remarked very justly, what,
indeed, is true of all Poets good for much, that his poetry was not
any particular faculty, but the general result of a naturally vigorous
original mind expressing itself in that way. Burns's gifts, expressed
in conversation, are the theme of all that ever heard him. All kinds
of gifts : from the gracefulest utterances of courtesy, to the highest
fire of passionate speech; loud floods of mirth, soft wailings of
affection, laconic emphasis, clear, piercing insight ; all was in him.
Witty duchesses celebrate him as a man whose speech " led them
off their feet." This is beautiful; but still more beautiful that
which Mr. Lockhart has recorded, which I have more than once
alluded to. How the waiters and ostlers at inns would get out of
bed, and come crowding to hear this man speak! Waiters and
ostlers ; — they too were men, and here was a man ! I have heard
much about his speech ; but one of the best things I ever heard of
it was, last year, from a venerable gentleman long familiar with
him. That it was speech distinguished by always having something
in it. "He spoke rather little than much," this old man told me;
^' sat rather silent in those early days, as in the company of persons
above him; and always when he did speak, it was to throw new
light on the matter." I know not why anyone should ever speak
otherwise! — But if we look at his general force of soul, his healthy
robustness every way, the rugged downrightness, penetration, gener-
ous valour and manfulness that w^as in him, — when shall we readily
find a better-gifted man ? — Carlyle : Heroes and Hero-Worship'/^
The paragraphs in Exercises 4 and 18 may be employed for further
practice if needed.
It is recommended that some time be spent upon this useful exercise,
enough at any rate to convince the pupil that paragraphs, whatever they
may be, are not mere wayward concatenations of sentences.
40 Composition- Rhetoric.
SUMMARY.
In outward form the paragraph is a group of sentences set off
from other similar groups by an indention of the first word. In
internal structure the paragraph is a group of sentence-ideas bear-
ing upon one subject and arranged in an orderly way.
In writing a single paragraph, or a composition made up
of several paragraphs, the pupil needs first to know what
ideas to select and what means to employ in developing
them. Then he needs to know how to choose from the
great variety of sentence-forms, and from the infinite vari-
ety of words and expressions, the sentence-forms and the
words best adapted to express his ideas. He needs also to
learn what order and method to choose in presenting his
ideas. Fourthly, he needs to learn how to proportion the
parts of w^hat he writes, according to their relative import-
ance. And fifthly, he needs to learn how to keep out of his
composition everything that does not belong there ; how to
make his composition represent his thought in its unity.
In otlier words, the pupil must learn
I. What to say.
II. How to say it.
III. In what order to say it.
ly. How much to say.
V. What not to say.
CHAPTER III.
^WHAT TO SAY. /
LESSON^ 8.
Selecting a Subject.
To discover a subject on which to write, the pupil may put
to himself these two questions : " In what am I especially
interested ? " and, " In what are the persons who will read
or hear what I write, especially interested?'^ If he can
find anything in the world that will stand as answer to both
these questions, he has a good subject, whether it be Base-
ball, Roman History, Bicycles, Stars, or Stamp-collecting.
Anything that answers but one of these questions may still
be a good subject, for he may be able to interest somebody
else in what interests him, or he may himself become inter-
ested in what interests other people. But a subject which
is interesting neither to him nor, as far as he can ascertain,
to those about him, would better be let alone. Fortunately
the world is full of interesting things.
In selecting a subject for composition, choose what is interesting
both to you and to those for whom you write.
EXERCISE 8.
Write in a column ten subjects that are of interest to
you. Underline those which in your opinion are of interest
41
42 Composition- Rhetoric.
to others as well, and opposite each of these subjects set
down the person or class of persons to whom you think it
is of interest.
EXERCISE 9.
Write a list of ten subjects that interest others but do
not interest you.
EXERCISE 10.
Write ten subjects that are uninteresting both to you and
to others.
LESSON 9.
The Paragraph-Theme,
Everything that is of interest both to the pupil and to his
reader is a good subject to write on, but not every such sub-
ject can be treated in a single paragraph. Indeed, most of
the subjects which the pupil selects at first, cannot be so
treated. They are subjects like "Originality," "Genius,"
"The Future of Our Country." To treat adequately one
of these would be to write a long essay or even a large
volume. The subject of a paragraph must be smaller.
Thus it happens that after the student has selected an inter-
esting subject his next step is usually to narrow it until
it is just the right size for a paragraph. Instead of consid-
ering the subject in its whole extent, he considers a single
side or phase of it. Instead of considering it as it is at all
times and in all places and under all conditions, he con-
siders it as it is at a certain time, in a certain place, under
certain conditions.
To illustrate, we may suppose that a pupil selects as his
subject "Amusements." This is of general interest but
much too large for a single paragraph. To bring it within
What to Say, 43
proper bounds the pupil may begin by limiting it in time
to the present. It thus becomes " Amusements of the Pres-
ent Day." If a limitation of place be made, the subject
may become, "Amusements in the United States," or
"Amusements in the Place where I Live," or "Amuse-
ments at Our School." If the subject is still too large, a
particular kind of amusement may be chosen, as " Games
of Physical Strength at Our School," or " Baseball at Our
School." While these are subjects not too broad to be
treated in a single paragraph, the narrowing process may
easily be carried farther. Por example, by treating baseball
in a particular way the pupil may derive such subjects as
" How the Last Game of Baseball was won," " The Last
Game of Baseball from a Girl's Point of View," " Catching
a Swift Ball," " Making First Base," " Batting an In-curve,"
and so on.
This process not only brings the subject within the com-
pass of a paragraph, but has the advantage of substituting a
definite for an indefinite subject of thought. Thus the sub-
ject, "Amusements," is extremely vague and unsuggestive.
There are so many amusements and so many ways in which
they may be treated that the writer does not know where
to begin nor what to say about them. On the other hand;,
subjects like "How I learned to Skate," "Why I like to
Play Tennis," are definite and pointed, and to those who
are proficient in these sports suggest almost immediately
something interesting to say.
A properly worded theme will generally reveal not only
the scope of the writer's treatment, but also his method, not
only what he is going to say, but how he is going to say it.
Thus, the theme "How the Game was won" suggests a
story ; " A View of the Ball-ground from Above " suggests
a description ; " Tennis vs. Football " prepares us for argu-
ment ; and " Advantages of Bicycling for Girls " points to
an expository treatment.
44 Composition-Rhetoric,
A general subject narrowed to the point where it expresses just
what the paragraph is to contain is called the theme or topic of the
paragraph. The theme is to the paragraph what the seed is to the
plant : it is the paragraph in embryo.
EXERCISE 11.
[In making approaches to a theme by narrowing a general
subject, beware of limitations that are meaningless or mechanical.
See to it that each successive modification brings the subject
nearer — nearer to you personally, and nearer to your readers.
Select a time in which you are interested, a place with which
you are acquainted, a method of treatment that exactly suits your
purpose.]
Narrow three of the following subjects to a theme by limiting
first in time, second in place. Make successive limitations until
the subject is so reduced that it may be treated in a single para-
graph.
1. Houses. 2. Birds. 3. Trees. 4. Firearms. 5. Trav-
elling. 6. Books. 7. Queens. 8. Lamps. 9. Skating.
10. Money. 11. Dogs. 12. War. 13. Churches. 14. Elvers.
EXERCISE 12.
Narrow three of the following subjects to a paragraph theme
by limiting first in time, second in place, third in kind or class : —
1. Boats. 2. Schools. 3. Poetry. 4. Panics. 5. Pish-
ing. 6. Inventions. 7. Music. 8. Animals. 9. Arts.
10. Studies. 11. Trades. 12. Winds. 13. Plowers.
14. Governments.
EXERCISE 13.
Narrow three of the following subjects to a theme by limiting
first in time, second in place, third in kind, fourth in method of
treatment : —
What to Say. 45
I. Athletic Sports. 2. Advertising. 3. Wealth. 4. In-
dolence. 5. Character. 6. Manners at Table. 7. Slavery.
8. Ambition. 9. Humor. 10. Work. 11. Newspapers.
12. Wars. 13. Eeligions. 14. Novels.
EXERCISE 14.
Narrow three of the following subjects in such a way as to make
them interesting to a particular reader or set of readers : —
1. Hunting — to a girl.
2. Sewing — to a boy.
3. The Moon — to a child five years old.
4. This Town — to a country boy.
5. This Town — to a manufacturer seeking a location.
6. This Town — to a retired merchant.
7. Sunday School — to a newsboy.
8. High School — to grammar school pupils.
9. Reading — to a busy man.
10. History — to a reader of novels.
II. Early Eising — to a lazy person.
12. Latin — to one opposed to studying it.
13. School Work — to a physician.
14. The Beaver — to a carpenter.
15. Foreign Missions — to business men.
16. Algebra — to a friend who has never studied it.
17. Farm Life — to a city boy.
18. Housekeeping — to a boy.
19. Politics — to a girl.
EXERCISE 15.
From any one of the following subjects, by making such limita
tions as occur to you, draw out six good themes : —
\JL; Storms. 2. Electricity. 3. Pictures. 4. Vacation.
5. The War with Mexico. 6. The English Language.
46 Composition- Rhetoric.
7. Longfellow. 8. Lowell. 9. Whittier. 10. Irving.
11. Tennyson. 12. Manufacturing. 13. Coal-mining.
14. Sports. 15. Music. 16. Dancing. 17. Foreigners.
18. Voting. 19. Bees. 20. Pets.
EXERCISE 16.
The teacher assigns to the class a general subject to be narrowed
in as many ways as possible. At the close of the allotted time —
perhaps five minutes — the themes are read and criticised. In
such exercises, it is profitable to note, first, which member of the
class has the longest list ; second, which member of the class has
hit upon the topic of greatest interest.
LESSON 10.
The Title.
Nearly related to the theme is the title or heading. Placed
at the beginning of the paragraph, though separate from it,
the title is a brief announcement of the paragraph-theme.
It may be looked upon as an advertisement of the contents
of the paragraph. Like other advertisements, it serves its
purpose best when it is short and suggestive. A good title
will excite the curiosity of the reader and allure him to read,
but it will not promise more information or enjoyment than
the paragraph can supply.
Effective titles are often drawn from a chance word or
phrase in the paragraph, but this practice is not to be com-
mended ; the best titles are those which are drawn from the
paragraph-theme. Thus if the theme of a paragraph is
" Baseball at Our School," the title might be, " Our Nine " ;
if the theme is " Incident of a Fishing Excursion in North-
ern Michigan Last July," the title might be "My Eirst
Trout." A concisely worded theme, if not too long, may
generally be made to do duty as a title. " Baseball at Our
What to Say. 47
School 'Ms a good title, but " Incident of a Fishing Excur-
sion in Northern Michigan Last July" is longer than a
title should be.
The title of the paragraph should he a brief and suggestive
advertisement of the theme. It should not promise more than
the paragraph can fulfil.
EXERCISE vj.
Re-state the following themes briefly as titles : —
1. The use of balloons in time of war for spying the
enemy's movements.
2. Industry is the lesson to be learned of the ant.
3. The life of the colored iield-hands in the South before
the war.
4. A diploma from a city high school should admit the
holder to college.
5. A free public library sustained by general taxation
should be maintained in every community.
6. The treatment of the Indian by the government has
been unjust.
7. A description of a two-weeks visit to the World's
Fair at Chicago.
8. A description of the process by which a city news-
paper is made.
9. A narrative of the early years of General Grant.
10. A narrative of the journey made by Lieutenant
Peary's expedition to the North.
EXERCISERS.
Find suitable titles for the following selections : —
TsiSydney Smith once alluded, if I remember rightly, to a pe^'son
wlio allowed himself to speak disrespectfully of the equator. I
48 Composition-Rhetoric.
have a strong objection to be suspected of flattering the equator.
Yet were it not for that little angle of 23° 27' 26", which it is
good enough to make with the plane of the ecliptic, the history of
this earth and of " all which it inherit " would have been essen-
tially modified, even if it had not been altogether a blank. Out
of the obliquity of the equator has come forth our civilization.
It was long ago observed by one of the most thoughtful writers
that ever dealt with human history, John von Herder, that it was
to the gradual shading away of zones and alternation of seasons
that the vigor and variety of man were attributable. — Motley:
Historic Progress and American Democracy.
There is, perhaps, no part of the world, certainly none familiar
to science, where the early geological periods can be studied with
so much ease and precision as in the United States. Along their
northern borders, between Canada and the United States, there
runs the low line of hills known as the Laurentian Hills. Insig-
nificant in height, nowhere rising more than fifteen hundred or
two thousand feet above the level of the sea, these are nevertheless
the first mountains that broke the uniform level of the earth's
Surface, and lifted themselves above the waters. Their low stat-
ure, as compared with that of other more lofty mountain-ranges,
is in accordance with an invariable rule, by which the relative age
of mountains may be estimated. The oldest mountains are the
lowest, while the younger and more recent ones tower above their
elders, and are usually more torn and dislocated also. This is
easily understood when we remember that all mountains and
mountain-chains are the result of upheavals, and that the violence
bf the outbreak must have been in proportion to the strength of
the resistance. When the crust of the earth was so thin that the
heated masses within easily bi^oke through it, they were not
thrown to so great a height, and formed comparatively low ele-
vations, such as the Canadian hills, or the mountains of Bretagne
and Wales. But in later times, when young, vigorous giants, such
as the Alps, the Himalayas, or, later still, the Bocky Mountains,
forced their way out from their fiery prison-house, the crust of
the earth was much thicker, and fearful indeed must have been
the convulsions which attended their exit. — Agassiz : Geological
Sketches.
What to Say, 49
Aristides at first was loved and respected for his surname of the
Just, and afterwards envied as much; the latter chiefly by the
management of Themistocles, who gave it out among the people
that Aristides had abolished the courts of judicature, by drawing
the arbitration of all causes to himself, and so was insensibly
gaining sovereign power, though without guards and the other
ensigns of it. The people, elevated with the late victory at Mara-
thon, thought themselves capable of everything, and the highest
respect little enough for them. Uneasy, therefore, at finding any
one citizen rose to such extraordinary honor and distinction, they
assembled at Athens from all the towns in Attica, and banished
Aristides by the ostracism; disguising their envy of his character
under the specious pretence of guarding against tyranny. . . .
The Ostracism (to give a summary account of it) was conducted
in the following manner. Every citizen took a piece of a broken
pot, or a shell, on which he wrote the name of the person he
wanted to have banished, and carried it to a part of the market-
place that was enclosed with wooden rails. The magistrates then
counted the number of the shells; and if it amounted not to six
thousand, the ostracism stood for nothing : if it did, they sorted
the shells, and the person whose name was found on the greatest
number, was declared an exile for ten years, but with permission
to enjoy his estate.
At the time that Aristides was banished, when the people were
inscribing the names on the shells, it is reported that an illiterate
burgher came to Aristides, whom he took for some ordinary person,
and, giving him his shell, desired him to write Aristides upon it.
The good man, surprised at the adventure, asked him "whether
Aristides had ever injured him ? " " No," said he, " nor do I even
know him; but it vexes me to hear him everywhere called the Just."
Aristides made no answer, but took the shell, and having written
his own name upon it, returned it to the man. When he quitted
Athens, he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and, agreeably to
his character, made a prayer, very different from that of Achilles ;
namely, " That the people of Athens might never see the day which
should force them to remember Aristides." — Plutarch : Lives. A
Said Tom, " If I can't be at Rugby, I want to be at workju tnje
world, and not dawdling away three years at Oxford."
50 Oompositioyi-Rhetoric.
"What do you mean by 'at work in the world'?'* said the
master, pausing, with his lips close to his saucerful of tea, and
peering at Tom over it.
"Well, I mean real work; one's profession, whatever one will
have really to do, and make one's living by. I want to be doing
some real good, feeling that 1 am not only at play in the world,"
answered Tom, rather puzzled to find out himself what he really
did mean.
"You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I
think, Brow^n," said the master, putting down the empty saucer,
" and you ought to get clear about them. You talk of ' woiking to
get your living ' and * doing some real good in the world,' in the
same breath. ^N'ow, you may be getting a very good living in a
profession, and yet doing no good at all in the world, but quite
the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter before you as
your one object, and you will be right, whether you make a living
or not; but if you dwell on the other, you'll very likely drop into
mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself, for good
or evil. Don't be in a hurry about finding your w^ork in the world
for yourself ; you are not old enough to judge for yourself yet, but
just look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try to
make things a little better and honester there. You'll find plenty
to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And
don't be led away to think this part of the world important and
that unimportant. Every corner of the world is important. No
man knows whether this part or that is most so, but every man
may do some honest work hi his own corner." And then the
good man went on to talk wisely to Tom of the sort of work which
he might take up as an undergTaduate ; and warned him of the
prevalent university sins, and explained to him the many and
great differences between university and school life ; till the twilight
changed into darkness, and they heard the truant servants stealing
in by the back entrance. — Hughes : Tom Brown's School Days.
About six o'clock, on a fine morning in the summer, I set out
from Philadelphia, on a visit to a friend, at the distance of fifteen
miles; and, passing a brook where a gentleman was angling, T
inquired if he had caught anything. " No, sir," said he, " I have
not been here long; only two hours." I wished him a good morn-
What to Say. 51
ing, and pursued my journey. On my return in the evening, I
found him fixed to the identical spot where I had left him, and
again inquired if he had had any sport. "Very good, sir," said
he. "Caught a great many fish?" "None at all." " Had a great
many bites, though, I suppose?" "Not one, but I had a most
glorious nibble." — Frankun. i
The question has been much discussed, whether there was any
statesmanship, any good sense, in making the war of 1812 at all.
It is true that it was resolved upon without preparation, and that
it was wretchedly managed. But if war is ever justified, there
was ample provocation for it. The legitimate interests of the
United States had been trampled upon by the belligerent powers,
as if entitled to no respect. The American flag had been treated
with a contempt scarcely conceivable now. The question was
whether the American people should permit themselves not only
to be robbed, and maltreated, and insulted, but also to be de-
spised, — all this for the privilege of picking up the poor crumbs
of trade which the great powers of Europe w^ould still let them
have. When a nation knowingly and willingly accepts the con-
tempt of others, it is in danger of losing also its respect for itself.
Against this the national pride of Young America rose in revolt.
When insulted too grievously, it felt an irresistible impulse to
strike. It struck wildly, to be sure, and received ugly blows in
return. But it proved; after all, that this young democracy could
not be trampled upon with impunity, that it felt an insult as
keenly as older nations, and that it was capable of risking a fight
with the most formidable power on earth in resenting it. It
proved, too, that this most formidable power might find in the
young democracy a very uncomfortable antagonist. — Schurz :
Henry Clay, I, 119.
The paragraphs in Exercises 4, 7, and 19 may be employed for further
practice if needed.
52 CompositiorirRhetoric,
LESSOR 11.
The Topic- Sentence,
Writing a letter to a friend upon some topic of which he
as yet knows nothing, we naturally begin by telling him
what it is we are going to write about. For this purpose we
generally use the opening sentence of the letter. Thus, an
account of a fishing excursion might begin, " I am going to
tell you about how I went fishing Saturday/' or, "Last
Saturday I went fishing." The writer of a paragraph often
makes use of a similar device. Somewhere in the para-
graph, usually at the beginning, he writes a sentence
announcing his theme. Such a sentence is called a topic-
sentence. In the following selections the topic-sentences
are in italics : —
On the southern hank of the Danube, about sixteen miles above
Vienna, stands the ancient castle of Greifenstein, where — if the tale
be true, though many doubt, and some deny it — Richard the Lion-heart
of England was imprisoned, when returning from the third crusade.
It is built upon the summit of a steep and rocky hill, that rises
just far enough from the river's brink to leave a foothold for the
highway. At the base of the hill stands the village of Greifen-
stein, from which a winding pathway leads you to the old castle.
You pass through an arched gate into a narrow courtyard, and
thence onward to a large, square tower. Near the doorway, and
deeply cut into the solid rock, upon which the castle stands, is
the form of a human hand, so perfect that your own lies in it as
in a mould. And hence the name of Greifenstein. In the square
tower is Richard's prison, completely isolated from the rest of the
castle. A wooden staircase leads up on the outside to a light
balcony, running entirely round the tower, not far below its
turrets. From this balcony you enter the prison, — a small, square
chamber, lighted by two Gothic windows. The walls of the tower
are some five feet thick; and in the pavement is a trap-door,
opening into a dismal vault, — a vast dungeon, which occupies all
What to Say, 53
the lower part of the tower, quite down to its rocky foundations,
and which formerly had no entrance but the trap-door above. In
one corner of the chamber stands a large cage of oaken timber,
in vvhich the royal prisoner is said to have been shut up — the
grossest lie that ever cheated the gaping curiosity of a traveller. —
Longfellow : Outre-mer, 272.
/ made a laughable mistake this morning in giving alms. A man
stood on the shady side of the street with his hat in his hand, and
as I passed he gave me a piteous look, though he said nothing.
He had such a woe-begone face, and such a threadbare coat, that
I at once took him for one of those mendicants who bear the title
oi poveri vergognosi, — bashful beggars; persons whom pinching
want compels to receive the stranger's charity, though pride
restrains them from asking it. Moved with compassion, I threw
into the hat the little I had to give ; when, instead of thanking
me with a blessing, my man with the threadbare coat showered
upon me the most sonorous maledictions of his native tongue, and,
emptying his greasy hat upon the pavement, drew it down over
his ears with both hands, and stalked away with all the dignity of
a Roman senator in the best days of the republic, — to the infinite
amusement of a green-grocer, who stood at his shop-door bursting
with laughter. 'No time was given me for an apology ; but I re-
solved to be for the future more discriminating in my charities,
and not to take for a beggar every poor gentleman who chose to
stand in the shade with his hat in his hand on a hot summer's
day. — Longfellow : Outre-mer, 248.
Although the topic-sentence is most often found at the
very beginning of the paragraph, as in the foregoing illus-
trations, cases not infrequently occur in which a not indis-
pensable phrase, clause, or even sentence of introduction
precedes the statement of the topic. A phrase of intro-
duction (in italics) is seen in each of the following : —
After all, Germany must be a pretty good country. The latest
statistics, giving the percentage of illiteracy, show that out of
every thousand there are found only sixteen who are unable
54 Composition'Rhetoric.
to read satisfactorily or write their names intelligently. -^ The
Lutheran World.
On the whole, his youth was sad enough. An exemplary son,
he saw his beloved parents grow old in poverty on his account,
and from a sense of duty he abstained from all pleasures and dis-
tractions; sometimes even asked himself, shudderingly, whether
he had not missed his career, and what was to become of him. —
COPPEE : I'he Christmas Betrothal.
In the face of tendencies apparently becoming dominant in this
country and which, if not checked, ivill in the end subordinate the in-
telligence, honesty, and industry of the many to the self-interest of a
few, it is w^holesome to pause and recur to the fundamental prin-
ciples of Jefferson, adherence to which will keep government and
the social order in the control of the judgment of the many, which
in the last analysis is always disinterested, safe, and sound. —
Letter of Judge Gaynor, quoted in The Literary Digest, 10 : 753.
A clause of introduction (in italics) is seen in the follow-
ing: —
Though his materials are often exotic, in style Southey aimed at
the simplicity and strength of undefiled English. If to these
melody was added, he had attained all he desired. To conversa-
tions wuth William Taylor about German poetry — certainly not
to Taylor's example — he ascribes his faith in the power of plain
words to express in poetry the highest thoughts and strongest
feelings. He perceived, in his own day, the rise of the ornate
style, which has since been perfected by Tennyson, and he re-
garded it as a vice in art. — Dowden : Robert Southey.
Whatever may have been the origin of the new King, he was evi-
dently not of the ruling class, the Populus Romanus, and for this
reason his sympathies were naturally with the Plebeians, or, as
they would now be called, the commons. The long reign of Ser-
vius was marked by the victories of peace, etc. — Oilman : The
Story of Rome.
A somewhat longer introduction, of satirical character,
is seen in the following : —
What to Say, 55
It may seem almost incredible to modern ears^ hut the evidence of
antiquity seems to point to the fact that football was once played sim-
ply for amusement. Innocent individuals, as soon as their day's
work was ended, met together to find exercise and relaxation in
kicking about a ball. The pastime was a vigorous and healthy
one, and no doubt many energetic young townspeople looked for-
ward annually with delight to their Shrovetide football match. —
Fortnightly Review^ 55 : 25.
In the following a whole sentence of introduction pre-
cedes the topic-sentence : —
The Puritans espoused the cause of civil liberty mainly because
it was the cause of religion. There was another party, by no means
numerous, but distinguished by learning and ability, which co-oper-
ated with them on very different principles. We speak of those
whom Cromwell was accustomed to call the Heathens, men who
were, in the phraseology of that time, doubting Thomases or careless
Gallios with regard to religious subjects, but passionate worship-
pers of freedom. Heated by the study of ancient literature, they
set up their country as their idol, and proposed to themselves the
heroes of Plutarch as their examples. They seem to have borne
some resemblance to the Brissotines of the French Revolution.
But it is not very easy to draw the line of distinction between
them and their devout associates, whose tone and manner they
sometimes found it convenient to affect, and sometimes, it is prob-
able, imperceptibly adopted. — Macaulay : Essay on Milton.
In the following, the topic-sentence is preceded by two
introductory sentences : —
You of the North have had drawn for you with a master's
hand the picture of your returning armies. You have heard how,
in the pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you,
marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in
a nation's eyes ! Will you bear with me while I tell you of an-
other army that sought its home at the close of the late war — an
army that marched home in defeat and not in victory, in pathos
and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts
56 Composition-Rhetoric,
as loving as ever welcomed heroes home ? Let me picture to you
the foot-sore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded
gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his chil-
dren of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from
Appomattox, in April, 1865. Think of him as, ragged, half -starved,
heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought to
exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his com-
rades in silence, and lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the
last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his
gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey.
What does he find — let me ask you, who went to your homes
eager to find in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment
for four years' sacrifice — what does he find when, having fol-
lowed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dread-
ing death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he
left so prosperous and beautiful ? He finds his house in ruins, his
farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty,
his trade destroyed, his money worthless ; his social system, feu-
dal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or
legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy
on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions are gone ;
without money, credit, employment, material, or training; and
beside all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met
human intelligence — the establishing of a status for the vast body
of his liberated slaves. — Grady : Speeches.
Sometimes, though rarely, the introduction is so long that
the topic-sentence is delayed until the middle of the para-
graph. The following will illustrate; the topic-sentence
being here italicized : —
It has been justly observed that Shakespeare shows much
judgment in the naming of his plays. From this observation,
however, several critics, as Gildon and Schlegel, have excepted
the play in hand, pronouncing the title a misnomer, on the ground
that Brutus and not Csesar, is the hero of it. It is indeed true
that Brutus is the hero ; nevertheless I must insist upon it that
the play is rightly named, inasmuch as Caesar is not only the subject
but also the governing power of it throughout. He is the centre
What to Say. 5T
and spring-head of the entire action, giving law and shape to
everything that is said and done. This is manifestly true in what
occurs before his death ; and it is true in a still deeper sense after-
wards, since his genius then becomes the Keniesis or retributive
Providence presiding over the whole course of the drama. — Hud-
son : Introduction to school edition of Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar.
Notice that the phrase, clause, or sentence of introduction is fre-
quently in contrast with the idea of the topic-sentence, or states a
preliminary concession. Point out instances of this in the nine pre-
ceding selections.
It now and then happens that the topic-sentence does
not appear until the very end of the paragraph is reached.
This case arises when the writer wishes to keep ns in sus-
pense ; or when, wishing to prove that something is true,
he first states his proofs and then draws a conclusion from
them — the conclusion being the topic.
When the supply of anything exceeds the demand for it, each
person who wishes to sell the particular thing will be afraid that
his stock of it will be the portion of the supply which the demand
will not reach. He will, therefore, put down his prices in order
to induce buyers to take his wares instead of those of his neighbor.
Each seller will do this, consequently general prices will fall. If
there is a demand for nine brooms, and a supply of ten, each
broom-seller will fear that one of his brooms will be left on his
hands. To prevent this, he will mark down his prices ; therefore,
brooms will be cheaper. Hence, greater production and greater
cheapness go hand in hand. — Laloh and Mason : A Primer of Polit-
ical Economy.
In the following paragraph the topic-sentence, if stated first, would
be resented by the reader, as it runs counter to our feelings and prej-
udices. It is therefore placed last, is delayed until our prejudices
are set at rest by hearing full justice done to Washington. We are
more easily persuaded by reason of the delay.
We are accustomed to call Washington the " Father of his
country." It would be useless, if one desired to do so, to dispute
68 Composition-Rhetoric.
his right to the title. He and no other will bear it through the
ages. He established our country's freedom with the sword, then
guided its course during the first critical years of its independent
existence. No one can know the figure without feeling how real
is its greatness. It is impossible to see how, without Washington,
the nation could have ever been. His name is and should be
greatest. But after all is " Father of America " the best title for
Washington? Where and what was Washington during those
long preliminary years while the nation was taking form . . . ?
A quiet planter, who in youth as a surveyor had come to know the
woods; who in his young manhood had led bodies of provincials
with some efficiency in certain unsuccessful military expeditions ;
who in maturity had sat, for the most part in silence, among his
talking colleagues in the House of Burgesses, with scarcely a sug-
gestion to make in all the sharp debate, while the new nation was
shaping. There is another character in our history to whom was
once given the title, " Father of America," — a man to a large
extent forgotten, his reputation overlaid by that of those who
followed him, — no other than this man of the town-meeting,
Samuel Adams. As far as the genesis of America is concerned,
Samuel Adams can more properly he called the '^Father of America"
than Washington. — Hosmer : Samuel Adams.
In many paragraphs the topic is not only stated at the
beginning of the paragraph, but is re-stated, in a different
form, at the close. This is as if one telling a story should
begin, " I am going to relate a story of a soldier who saved
an army,'' and should close, " Such was the act of this brave
soldier." To illustrate : —
The English have a motive for pride which is unknown to their
French neighbors. They are the leading nation in a family of nations.'^
They feel superior to the Americans of the United States by
antiquity and by priority of civilization, and they believe them-
selves to be their superiors in culture and in manners. Besides
these differences, which may be more or less imaginary, it is obvi-
1 Two sentences are used to announce the topic. They might be com-
bined in one by substituting a colon for the full-stop.
What to Say. 69
ous that aristocratic Englishmen must look down upon American
democracy, since they look down, impartially, upon all democracies.
The English living in England have a superiority of position over
their own colonies, and are surprised to learn from Mr. Fronde
that a high degree of civilization is to be found at the Antipodes.
There are two opposite ways of thinking about the colonies that
give equal aliment to the pride of an Englishman. He may have
something like Mrs. Jameson's first impression of Canadian society,
as " a small community of fourth-rate half-educated or uneducated
people, where local politics of the meanest kind engross the men,
and petty gossip and household cares the women,'' and in that case
the superiority of England must be incontestable ; or he may adopt
the views of Mr. Froude, and then reflect what a great thing it is
for England to be the first among the highly-civilized English-
speaking communities. He is, besides, under no necessity to cross
the ocean for subjects of comparison. He feels himself easily
superior to the Scotch and Irish, and until recent agitations he
had almost forgotten the very existence of the Welsh. All Scotch
people know that the English, though they visit Scotland to admire
the lochs and enjoy Highland sports, are as ignorant about what
is essentially national in that country as if it were a foreign land.
Ireland is at least equally foreign to them, or was so before the
burning question of Home Kule directed attention to Irish affairs.
This ignorance is not attributable to dulness. It has but one cause,
the pride of national pre-eminence^ the pride of being the first amongst
the English-speaking nations of the world. — Hamerton : French and
English, 80.
The topic-sentence is sometimes missing. When this is
the case, we are expected to supply it from the paragraph
for ourselves as we read. In the following selections topic-
sentences have been inserted enclosed in brackets. Note
that the substance of these sentences could easily be sup-
plied from the paragraph itself at a single reading.
[None of the excesses of the French Revolution was experienced
in the American Revolution.] The great wheel of political revo-
lution began to move in America. Here its rotation was guarded,
regular and safe. Transferi-ed to the other continent, from un-
60 Composition-Rhetoric.
fortunate but natural causes, it received an irregular and violent
impulse; it whirled along with a fearfal celerity; till at length,
like the chariot wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire from
the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, spreading
conflagration and terror around. — Webster: First Bunker Hill
Oration.
[Dirt improves oil paintings.] I once knew an artist whose
pictures at first were very raw, but they were neglected and allowed
to get dirty for several years, and then, in order to revive them,
some person gave them a coat of varnish. Later on they had to
be cleaned, but the dirt, in this process, got so ingrained in the
handling — that is to say, in the texture of the brush marks —
that a beautiful mellowness was developed ; and they were after-
ward, not unreasonably, admired, and compared to the works of
Velasquez. — John Brett: Fortnightly Review, April, 1895.
[The interest of young people in Christian work is great and
widespread.] N'early a thousand of the choicest and most intellect-
ual young men in the whole land go annually to ]N"orthfield and
spend two weeks in Bible study under Mr. Moody, and thousands
of others attend the various summer schools for Bible instruction.
The Y.M.C.A., the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and similar
organizations, the Christian Endeavor societies. Young People's
Unions, and Epworth Leagues number in their ranks other thou-
sands of young men who are loyal to Christ. Large numbers are
every year being added to this goodly company. — Cumberland
Presbyterian,
You are about, sir, to send your son to a public school : Eton
or Westminster ; Winchester or Harrow ; Rugby or the Charter
House, no matter which. He may come from either an accom-
plished scholar to the utmost extent that school education can
make him so ; he may be the better both for its discipline and its
want of discipline ; it may serve him excellently well as a prepara-
tory school for the world into which he is about to enter. But
also he may come away an empty coxcomb or a hardened brute —
a spendthrift — a profligate — a blackguard or a sot. [Whether
school-life away from home will prove to be morally good or bad
for a boy, cannot be foretold.] — Southey : The Doctor^ chap. IX.
^V.
jf^ What to Say. 61
A good way to begin a paragraph is to announce the theme on
which you are going to write. The sentence making the announce-
ment is called a topic-sentence.
EXERCISE 19.
Find the topic-sentence of each of the following paragraphs : —
Lin the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and
precious gif tTj That strong and patient beast of burden can per-
form, withduteating or drinking, a journey of several days ; and
a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stom-
ach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of
servitude ; the larger breed is capable of transporting a weight of
a thousand pounds; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more
active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race. Alive or
dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man ; her
milk is plentiful and nutritious : the young and tender flesh has
the taste of veal ; and the long hair, which falls each year and is
renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the furniture,
and the tents of the Bedoweens. — Gibbon.
r i
1^ While other illustrious men have been reputed great for their
excellence in some one department of human genius, it was de-
clared by the concurrent voice of antiquity, thai Csesar was excel-
lent in all .3 He had genius, understanding, memory, taste,
reflection, industry, and exactness. " He was great," repeats a
modern writer, " in everything he undertook ; as a captain, a
statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, an historian, a
grammarian, a mathematician, and an architect." The secret of
his manifold excellence was discovered by Pliny in the unpar-
alleled energy of his intellectual powers, which he could devote
without distraction to several objects at once, or rush at any
moment from one occupation to another with the abruptness and
rapidity of lightning. Caesar could be writing and reading, dic-
tating and listening, all at the same time ; he was wont to occupy
four amanuenses at once; and had been known, on occasion, to
employ as many as seven together. And, as if to complete the
picture of the most perfect specimen of human ability, we are
62 Composition-Rhetoric.
assured that in all the exercises of the camp his vigor and skill
were not less conspicuous. He fought at the most perilous mo-
ments in the ranks of the soldiers ; he could manage his charger
without the use of reins; and he saved his life at Alexandria by
his address in the art of swimming. — Merivale : History of the
Romans under the Empire. ^
L When men strike, the side which can afford to be idle the longest
will winjj The masters are usually rich enough to live on their
accumulated property for some time. The men often have no
savings, and rarely, if ever, have large ones. They may belong to
a trade-union which will supply them with means of subsistence
for some time, but the small funds of such a society, divided
among a number of men, cannot go far. The masters must have
the men work in order to have their capital yield them anything,
but the men must work in order to live. It is plain that the mas-
ters can, as a rule, stay idle the longest. — Lalor and Mason:
A Primer of Political Economy.
r . +
LThe last six years of Lamb's life, though the most remarkable
in his literary annals, had not been fruitful in incident^J The death
of his elder brother . . . was the one event that nearly touched his
heart and spirits. Its effect had been, with the loss of some other
friends about the same time, to produce, he said, " a certain dead-
ness to everything." It had brought home to him his loneliness,
and moreover served to increase a long-felt weariness of the mo-
notony of office life. Already, in the beginning of 1822, he was
telling Wordsworth, " I grow ominously tired of official confine-
ment. Thirty years have I served the Philistines, and my neck
is not subdued to the yoke. You don't know how wearisome it is
to breathe the air of four pent walls, without relief, day after day,
all the golden hours of the day between ten and four, without ease
or interposition." — Aingejht : Charles Lamb.
b
Are the men of to-day better than their fathers were? The
question is not a conundrum, nor does it refer to the virtues and
graces which adorn life in general, but is, in fact, merely an in-
quiry whether our young men can run faster, jump farther, and
row better than those of former generations. Possibly, after all,
it doesn't matter very much whether we can or not, yet it would
What to Say. 63
be some satisfaction to know. If the young men of the day do
not excel in these things, it will not be for want of opportunity,
nor will the failure arise from the absence of inducements to
practise them. The very latest of these promises to be the most
ambitious. (_Next year is to see the revival in a Nineteenth-
Century dress of the Olympic games of classic antiquity, and it is
intended thus to inaugurate the international athletic carnival to
be celebrated every fourth year, beginning with 1896/3 There is
already an international committee, an international program, and
doubtless there will shortly be an international subscription list
sent round to provide for the worthy celebration of the event.
Athens, indeed, and not the classic Elis, is to furnish the first
place of meeting, Paris the next, with London, Berlin, and pos-
sibly New York to supply the stadium, and swell the entrance
and grand-stand receipts. Could the shades of Pindar and other
Grecian worthies be consulted it is more than probable that they
might object to some of the arrangements : but, after all, a revival
is always a revival with a difference. The Greece of twenty-three
centuries ago is dead — more dead, if possible, than Julius Caesar
— and the attempt to resurrect it entire, even if successful, would
probably not be worth the trouble. — Harper's TTeeAr/y, March, 1895.
To the student of political history, and to the English student
above all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a
military empire commands a peculiar interest. L Notwithstanding
many differences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble
one another^ The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-
government beyond any people of whom we have historical knowl-
edge, with the one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their
temporal freedom, they became the most powerful nation in the
known world ; and their liberties perished only when Rome became
the mistress of the conquered races to whom she was unable or
unwilling to extend her privileges. If England was similarly
supreme, if all rival powers were eclipsed by her or laid under
her feet, the Imperial tendencies, which are as strongly marked
in us as our love of liberty, might lead us over the same course
to the same end. — Froude : Ccesar ; A Sketch.
7
" I wish the good old tino^es would come again," she said, *' when
we were not quite so rich. ; I do not mean that I want to be poor,
64 CompositiorirRTietoric.
but there was a middle state," so she was pleased to ramble on,
" in which I am sure we were a great deal happierT) A purchase
is but a purchase, now that you have money enough and to spare.
Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap
luxury (and O ! how much ado I had to get you to consent in those
days !) we were used to have a debate two or three days before,
and to weigh the /or and against, and think what we might spare
it out of, and what saving we could hit upon that should be an
equivalent. A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the
money that we paid for it." — Lamb : Essay on Old China.
For further practice the paragraphs in Lesson 4, and in Exercises 4, 7,
and 18, may be used.
EXERCISE 20.
These paragraphs as originally written had topic-sentences. Sup-
ply the omission at the place indicated by dots.
Division of Labor. •
1. It would be a waste of labor and time for the farmer, after
having harvested his wheat, to carry it to the mill, grind it him-
self into flour, take the flour to the city, then bake it into bread,
and then carry the loaf around in search of a buyer for it. The
farmer knows how to farm and has the needed tools. He does
not know how to run a mill, or a railroad, or a bakery, and he hag
none of the necessary machinery ^ ' -^'^ -i '^^J-S: V^ (_ L, Jf 'Y[q - •'-'
can earn ^5 by w^orking five days, one as a miller, one as a carrier,
one as a baker, and one as a peddler, his labor during the same five
days on the farm would probably be worth two or three times that
sum.
2. Moreover, if he confines himself to farming, he has to buy
only one set of tools and can keep them almost constantly in use,
so that his capital does not lie idle. If he pursued five trades,
he would have to have five different sets of toi)ls, and four setSi
would have to lie idle all the while. Therefore VdL-QJ^^/^^^^''^"^^
Thanjisgiving Day.
3. --------. It is not a day of ecclesiastical
saints. It is not a national anniversary. It is not a day celebrating
What to Say, 65
a religious event. It is a day of nature. It is a day of thanksgiving
for the year's history. And it must pivot on the household. It
is the one great festival of our American life that pivots on the
household. Like a true Jev^rish festival it spreads a bounteous
table ; for the Jews knew how near to the stomach lay all the
moral virtues. - -^ .
4. (k^ix>JT^}JSi\J^ JJ^J^X^^ not a riotous feast. It is a'
table piled high, among the group of rollicking young and the sober
joy of the old, with the treasures of the growing year, accepted
with rejoicings and interchange of many festivities as a token of
gratitude to Almighty God.
The True Gentleman. XhJJ^
5. Il:^ it:^AJUAr<'fS Is it to have lofty aims; to lead
a pure life ; to keep your honor virgin ; to have the esteem of
your fellow-citizens and the love of your fireside; to bear good
fortune meekly; to suifer evil with constancy; and through evil
or good to maintain truth always? Show me the happy man
whose life exhibits these qualities, and him we will salute as
gentleman, whatever his rank may be.
Whang, the Miller.
6. Whang, the miller, was naturally avaricious ; nobody loved
money better than he, *"/X^' -C^* -^' -.v^L> L _ -^ When people
would talk of a rich man in company. Whang w^ould say, " I know
him very well ; he and I are intimate ; he stood for a child of
mine." But if ever a poor man was mentioned, he had not the
least knowledge of the man ; he might be very well for aught he
knew; but he was not fond of many acquaintances, and loved to
choose, his company.
7. - •- -- -^ - - - -; he had nothing but the profits
of his mill to support liim ; but though these were small, they
were certain ; while his mill stood and went, he was sure of eating ;
and his frugality was such that he every day laid some money by,
which he would at intervals count and contemplate with much
satisfaction. Yet still his acquisitions were not equal to his
desires ; he only found himself above want, whereas he desired to
be possessed of affluence.
66 Composition-Rhetoric, ^
As Others saw Him. \ (^ ^^L (A^
8. \k>Wa> 3aX^JIMI:?^ -For nearly nineteen centuries
all Christendom has lamented the bigotry, blindness, and cruelty
of those who caused or consented to his death. Would it not be
exceedingly interesting to know just how he seemed to a learned,
thoughtful, patriotic, devout Jew of his day? A writer, whose
name is withheld, has attempted to reproduce for us the attitude
and views of such a man, in a small book with the above title. It
purports to be written' by a Scribe at Alexandria, about twenty-
five years after the Crucifixion. He was in Jerusalem during the
public life of Jesus, and was a member of the Sanhedrim which
delivered him to death. He endeavors to represent how the Jews,
of different classes, were impressed when Jesus drove the money-
changers from the Temple, taught in the synagogue at Jerusalem,
tested the rich young man, forgave the woman taken in adultery,
baffled his questioners, made his triumphal entry into the city,
alienated the people by his refusal to lead a revolt against the
Roman power, was examined by the Sanhedrim, condemned by
Pilate, and crucified. The book is profoundly reverent, is written
with great clearness and literary charm, and cannot fail to interest
many thoughtful readers.
Restriction of Immigration.
9. If a servant girl applies for employment in a family we
demand, first of all, a recommendation from her former mistress.
If a clerk is searching for work he carries with him, as the sine
qua non of success, certain letters which vouch for his honesty and
ability. If a skilled workman becomes discontented and throws
up his job he has a right to ask of his employer an indorsement,
and armed with that he feels secure. --------.
Why should we allow the whole riffraff of creation to come here,
either to become a burden on our charitable institutions, or to
lower the wages of our own laborers by a cutthroat competition ?
We have already had too much of that sort of thing. If a foreigner
has notified the nearest United States consul of his intention to
emigrate, and the consul, after due examination, has pronounced
him a proper person, let him come, by all means. We have room
What to Say. 67
enough for such persons. But for immigrants who have neither
capital nor skill, who never earned a living in their own country
and will never earn one here, we have no room wliatever. Popular
opinion throughout the country is running in this direction and
Congress will do well to take heed. ,
Candle-light and Sociability.^ ^vji ^/^^^^
10. - L-VA^lty? Ipa a^^-^^^ it, what savage, unso-
cial nights must our ancestors have spent, wintering in caves and
unillumined fastnesses. They must have lain about and grumbled
at one another in the dark. What repartees could have passed,
when you must have felt about for a smile, and handled a neigh-
bor's cheek to be sure that he understood it? This accounts for
the seriousness of the elder poetry. Jokes came in with candles.
«'Y\\;«"V^>^^^ \ EXERCISE 21.
These paragraphs are as they were originally written. They have
no topic-sentence, and, strictly speaking, do not need one. After
reading them carefully, frame for each a topic-sentence that will
unite well with the paragraph and that might be printed as part of
the paragraph.
Pyrrhus had a counsellor named Cineas, who asked him how he
would use his victory if he should be so fortunate ^ to overcome
the Komans, who were reputed great w^arriors and conquerors of
many peoples. The Romans overcome, replied the king, no city,
Greek nor barbarian, would dare to oppose me, and I should be
master of all Italy. AVell, Italy conquered, what next? Sicily
next would hold out its arms to receive me, Pyrrhus replied. And,
what next? These would be but forerunners of greater victories.
There are Libya and Carthage, said the king. Then ? Then, con-
tinued Pyrrhus, I should be able to master all Greece. And then ?
continued Cineas. Then I would live at ease, eat and drink all
day, and enjoy pleasant conversation. And what hinders you
from taking now the ease that you are planning to take after such
hazards and so much blood-shedding? Here the conversation
closed, for Pyrrhus could not answer this question. — Gilman:
The Story of Rome.
68 Composition-Rhetoric,
The Caesars have perished, and their palaces are in ruins. The
empire of Charlemagne has risen, like one of those gorgeous clouds
we often admire, brilliant with the radiance of the setting sun ;
and, like that cloud, it has vanished forever. Charles V. has
marshalled the armies of Europe around his throne, and has almost
rivalled the Csesars in the majesty of his sway; and, like a dream,
the vision of his universal empire has fled. — J. S. C. Abbott:
History of Christianity, 14.
Is there a penny-post, do you think, in the world to come ? Do
people there write for autographs to those who have gained a little
notoriety ? Do women there send letters asking for money ? Do
boys persecute literary men with requests for a course of reading ?
, Are there offices in that sphere which are coveted, and to obtain
which men are pestered to write letters of recommendation ? —
Letter of William Cullen Bryant.
Do you remember the brown suit which you made to hang upon
you, till all your friends cried shame upon you, it grew so thread-
bare, and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which
you dragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent Garden?
Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make
up our minds to the purchase, and had not come to a determina-
tion till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday night, when you
set off from Islington fearing you should be too late — and when
the old bookseller, with some grumbling, opened his shop, and by
the twinkling taper (for he was setting bedwards), lighted out the
relic from his dusty treasures, and when you lugged it home, wish-
ing it were twice- as cumbersome, and when you presented it to
me, and when we were exploring the perfectness of it (collafinfj,
you called it), and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves
with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till
daybreak — was there no pleasure in being a poor man ? or can
those neat black clothes which you wear now, and are so careful
to keep brushed, since we have become rich and finical, give you
half the honest vanity with which you flaunted it about in that
over-worn suit — your old corbeau — for four or five weeks longer
than you should have done, to pacify your conscience for the
mighty sum of fifteen or sixteen shillings, was it? — a great aifair
you thought it then — which you had lavished on the old folio?
What to Say, 69
Now you can afford to buy any book that pleases you, but I do
not see that you ever bring me home any nice old purchases
now. — Lamb : Essay on Old China,
The first paragraph in Lesson 3 and the paragraphs in Exercise 2 will
furnish further practice if needed. ,
EXERCISE 22.
On one of the following themes write a single, complete paragraph
of about 120 words. The topic-sentence and some of the points about
which you might speak are suggested by questions in connection with
each theme.
Useful Books.
Topic^ntence : Are all books useful ? Is there need of dis-
crimination ? Books to avoid, and books to choose. What is the
chief use of biography? books of travel? history? speeches? sto-
ries ? poems ? Before reading a book, one should ask the advice of
those who know what is best to read.
Bryant's To a Water-fowl.
Topic-sentence : Bryant a poet of Nature ; in this poem he re-
flects on a water-fowl flying high in the heavens. What time of
day is it? What question does the poet ask of the bird? Is it
lost and uncared for? Where is the water-fowl probably going ?
What joys await it? What lesson does the poet learn?
Setting the Table.
Topic-sentence: Is this an easy or unimportant task? What
most is required? What is done first? In what order are the
things put on? In what condition should they be? How ar-
ranged? Finishing touches. Does the appearance of the table
affect the enjoyment of the meal?
Longfellow's Pegasus in Pound,
Topic-sentence : On what legend has Longfellow based this
poem? Give the story as Longfellow gives it. Does the treat-
70 Composition-Rhetoric,
ment given Pegasus suggest the treatment wliich the world has
accorded to its highest poets ? Name an example or two. Has
ill-treatment repressed genius? How was it with Pegasus? What
returns did he make?
Washing the Children.
Topic-sentence : Care of a mother-cat for her kittens. What
does she do first when setting about washing them? Does she
have any particular time or place for it ? How does she do it ?
Does she finish one before beginning another ? What if one runs
away while the others are being washed? What if a mischievous
kitten tries to interfere with the work? Does the mother-cat
seem to work intelligently ?
Watching Street Musicians.
Topic-sentence : Pleasure and interest in watching street mu-
sicians. When do they begin to appear? Usually of what nation-
ality? Describe a small group of them. How do the members
of the group differ from one another, in age, responsibility, inter-
est ? Apparent returns for their eiforts. What has probably been
their past history ? What stories have you heard about them ?
The Dandelion.
Topic-sentence : A common yet beautiful flower. When does
it appear? Speed of maturing. Appearance when matured.
Pleasure to children. Use as food. Is it rightfully regarded as a
nuisance in lawns ?
An Old Bridge.
Topic-sentence : Always picturesque ; a favorite subject with
painters. The particular bridge in mind is where located ?
About how old ? Covered ? Color ? How does it appear to one
looking through ? A refuge in storms ? Cracks in the floor ?
Any windows ? Is it used now ? Compare with a modern bridge.
Arbor Day.
Topic-sentence : A new holiday. Its purposes, practical, senti-
mental, educational. When and where first established in this
What to Say,
country? Usual exercises. What trees were planted by the
school last Arbor Day? How have they thrived? Interest in
them. Their future usefulness.
The Use of Slang.
Topic-sentence : Very common, very convenient sometimes, but
harmful to the user's language resources. The habitual user of a
slang phrase employs it in many meanings. Illustrate by taking
one slang phrase and enumerating all its different meanings and
applications. Instead of using these numerous expressions and
thus adding to his vocabulary, the user of this slang phrase has
but one expression for all of them. His language growth stops.
Slang is fatal to acquiring a large stock of words.
EXERCISE 23.
On one of the following themes write a single, complete para-
graph of about 120 words. Begin with a topic-sentence in which
you announce your theme. After writing, shorten the theme into
a title, more attractive, if possible, than the one here given.
1. The value of learning to swim.
2. Lawn-tennis as a sport of skill. '""'
3. One cause of tbe Mexican War.
4. The trials of a newsboy.
5. The wedding in Longfellow's Miles Standish.
6. The relation of forests to rainfall.
7. A field of corn compared to an army with banners.
8. The Happy Valley in Johnson's Easselas.
9. Courtesy in the school-room.
10. The best tree to plant for shade.
11. Impressions from a visit to a lawyer's office.
12. The most admirable trait of General Grant's char-
acter.
13. The principal reason why strikes are inexpedient.
14. The story of Byron's Prisoner of Chillon.
15. The most interesting of the monthly magazines.
72 Composition- Rhetoric.
16. One use of studying science explained.
17. Where do all the pins go ?
18. The literary society as a school of parliamentary law.
19. The obstinacy of a fountain pen.
20. The extent of Bayard Taylor's travels.
LESSOR 12.
How Paragraphs Grow — Repetition,
The theme has been likened to a seed from which, by a
natural process of growth, the paragraph develops. We
shall now consider the various ways in which this develop-
ment may take place. For convenience we shall confine
our study for the present to the type of paragraph in which
the theme is announced in a topic-sentence.
1. A tree is an underground creature, with its tail in the air.
2. All its intelligence is in its roots. 3. All the senses it has are
in its roots. 4. Think what sagacity it shows in its search after
food and drink! 5. Somehow or other, the rootlets, which are
its tentacles, find out that there is a brook at a moderate distance
from the trunk of the tree, and they make for it with all their
might. 6. They find every crack in the rocks where there are a
few grains of the nourishing substance they care for, and insinuate
themselves into its deepest recesses. 7. When spring and summer
come, they let their tails grow, and delight in whisking them
about in the wind, or letting them be whisked about by it ; for
these tails are poor passive things, with very little will of their
own, and bend in whatever direction the wind chooses to make
them. 8. The leaves make a deal of noise whispering. 9. I have
sometimes thought I could understand them, as they talk with
each other, and that they seemed to think they made the wind
as they wagged forward and back. 10. llemember what I say.
11. The next time you see a tree waving in the wind, recollect
that it is the tail of a great underground, many-armed, polypus-like
What to Say. 73
creature, which is as proud of its caudal appendage, especially in
summer-time, as a peacock of his gorgeous expanse of plumage. —
Holmes : Over the Teacups, 212.
In the foregoing paragraph the theme is announced in
the first two sentences : " A tree is an underground creat-
ure with its tail in the air and all its intelligence in its
roots." Notice how this idea is developed. In sentence 3,
the writer says over again, in slightly different words, what
he has said in sentence 2 : " All the senses it has (that is,
all its intelligence) are in its roots.'' In like manner in
sentence 4 he says over again what he has said in sentences
2 and 3 : " Think what sagacity (that is, what intelligence,
what sense) it shows in its search after food and drink"
(that is, in its roots). Just so sentences 7-9 are a kind of
repetition of the idea, " An underground creature with its
tail in the air," and sentence 11 repeats in expanded form
the ideas of sentences 1 and 2.
1. "Disorders of intellect," answered Imlac, "happen much more
often than superficial observers will easily believe. 2. Perhaps, if
we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right
state. 3. There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes
predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly
by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command.
4. Xo man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not
sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the
limits of sober probability. 5. All power of fancy over reason is
a degree of insanity ; but while this power is such as we can con-
trol and repress, it is not visible to others, nor considered as any
depravation of the mental faculties : it is not pronounced madness,
but when it becomes ungovernable and apparently influences
speech or action." — Johnson : Rasselas, chap. XLIV.
In the preceding paragraph the theme-idea of sentence
1 is repeated in sentence 2 in the bolder and more emphatic
words, " no human mind," etc. Sentence 3 retains this em-
74 Composition-Rhetoric,
pliatic repetition in the words, " no man," and repeats the
idea of "disorders of intellect" in the three phases of
mental disorder mentioned in the three clauses of the sen-
tence. Sentence 4 again repeats " no man/' and repeats the
idea of " disorders of intellect " in the words " airy notions,"
etc., "beyond the limits," etc. In sentence 5 the first
assertion is again a repetition of sentence 1 ; and the re-
mainder of the paragraph is occupied with a necessary
explanation.
1. The bicycle is, in fact, the agent of health and of a wider
civilization. 2. It will give stronger bodies to the rising genera-
tion than their fathers have had, and it will bring the city and the
country into closer relations than have existed since the days of
the stage-coach. 3. What the summer boarder has been doing
for the abandoned farms and deserted villages of New England,
the wheelman is doing for the regions surrounding our great cities.
4. He is distributing through them modern ideas and modern ways
of living, and is fructifying them with gentle distillations of city
wealth. 5. Above all, he is teaching their people that a sure way
to prosperity lies before them in the beautifying of the country in
which they live, and in the preservation of all its attractive natural
features. — Century Magazine, 50 : 475.
In the foregoing paragraph, the idea that the bicycle is
the agent of health is repeated in the first half of the sec-
ond sentence. The idea that the bicycle is the agent of a
wider civilization is repeated in the second half of the sec-
ond sentence and in each succeeding sentence. Show by
what groups of words.
These illustrations will serve to show that one method of
building up a paragraph is to repeat some of the ideas of the topic-
sentence, at each repetition giving some new turn to the thought.
EXERCISE 24.
In the following paragraphs find the sentences or parts
of sentences which repeat in whole or in part the thought
What to Say, 75
of the topic-sentence. In each case determine whether the
repetition is or is not of a kind to make the thought grow.
If it is, point out the new element of thought which the
repetition adds to the thought of the topic-sentence. Does
the thought thus repeated grow broader, or more definite, or
more emphatic ?
Not all of the sentences of these paragraphs are sentences
of repetition ; it is seldom that a topic-sentence is developed
by repetitions alone. The uses of the other sentences will
appear in subsequent lessons.
[Topic] 1 . Nihilism, so far as one can find out, expresses rather
a method, or a means, than an end. 2. It is difficult to say just
what Nihilism does imply. 3. So much appears reasonably cer-
tain^^hat the primary object of the Nihilists is destruction ; that
the abolition of the existing order, not the construction of a new
order, is in their view; that, whatever their ulterior designs, or
whether or no they have any ultimate purpose in which they are
all or generally agreed, the one object which now draws and holds
them together, in spite of all the terrors of arbitrary power, is the
abolition, not only of all existing governments, but of all political
estates, all institutions, all privileges, all forms of authority^ land
that to this is postponed whatever plans, purposes, or wishes the
confederation, or its members individually, may cherish concerning
the reorganization of society. — Francis A. Walker : Socialism.
[Topic] 1. From a child I was fond of reading, and all the
little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.
2. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my first collection was of
John Bunyan's works, in separate little volumes. 3. I afterwards
sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's Historical Collections;
they were small chapmen's books, and cheap, forty or fifty in all.
4. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic
divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that,
at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper
books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I should
not be a clergyman. 5. Plutarch's Lives there was, in which I read
abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage.
6. There was also a book of De Foe's, called An Essay on Projects,
76 Compositioii'Rhetoric.
and another of Dr. Mather's, called Essays to do Good, which peN
haps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some
of the principal future events of my life. — Franklin: Autobiog-
raphy.
1. All the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and
power, in every country and in every age, have been the triumphs
of Athens. 2. Wherever a few great minds have made a stand
against violence and fraud in the cause of liberty and reason, there
has been her spirit in the midst of them : inspiring, encouraging,
consoling; — by the lonely lamp of Erasmus; by the restless bed
of Pascal ; in the tribune of Mirabeau ; in the cell of Galileo ; on
the scaffold of Sidney. [Topic] 3. But who shall estimate her
influence on private happiness? 4. Who shall say how many thou-
sands have been made wiser, happier, and better, by those pursuits
in which she has taught mankind to engage; to how many the
studies that took their rise from her have been wealth in poverty,
— liberty in bondage, — health in sickness, — society in solitude?
5. Her power is indeed manifested at the bar, in the senate, in
the field of battle, in the schools of philosophy. 6. But these are
not her glory. 7. Wherever literature consoles sorrow, or assuages
pain — wherever it brings gladness to eyes w^hich fail with wake-
fulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep,
— there is exhibited in its noblest f ®rm the immortal influence of
Athens. — Macaulay: Athenian Orators.
[Topic] 1. The honorable member complained that I had slept
n his speech. 2. I must have slept on it, or not slept at all.
3> I'he moment the honorable member sat down, his friend from
Missouri rose, and, with much honeyed commendation of the
speech, suggested that the impressions which it had produced were
too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments,
or other sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn.
4. Would it have been quite amiable in me. Sir, to interrupt this
excellent good feeling? 5. Must I not have been absolutely
malicious, if I could have thrust myself forward to destroy sensa-
tions thus pleasing? 6. Was it not much better and kinder, both
to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others also the pleasure
of sleeping upoiTthem ? 7. But if it be meant, by sleeping upon
his speech, that I took time tx) prepare a reply to it^i^ is quite a
What to Say, 77
mistake. 8. Owing to other engagements, I could not employ-
even the interval between the adjournment of the Senate and its
meeting the next morning in attention to the subject of this
debate. 9. Nevertheless, Sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubt-
edly true. 10. I did sleep on the gentleman's speech, and slept
soundly. 11. And I slept equally well on his speech of yesterday,
to which I am now replying. 12. It is quite possible that in this
respect, also, I possess some advantage over the honorable member,
attributable, doubtless, to a cooler temperament on my part ; for,
in truth, I slept upon his speeches remarkably well. — Webster:
Reply to Hayne.
[Topic] 1. But the gentleman inquires why he was made the
Ibject of such a reply? 2. Why was he singled out? 3. If an
attack has been made on the East, he, he assures us, did not begin
It; it was made by the gentleman from Missouri. 4. Sir, I an-
swered the gentleman's speech because I happened to hear it;
and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech, which,
if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce injurious impres-
sions. 5. I did not stop to inquire who w^as the original drawer
of the bill. 6. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it
was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just
responsibility without delay. — Webster : Reply to Hayne.
[Topic] 1. Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth
what violent muscular action is to the body of man. 2. The
muscles and tendons of its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought
out with fierce and convulsive energy, full of expression, passion,
and strength; the plains and the lowxr hills are the repose and
the effortless motion of the frame, when its muscles lie dormant
and concealed beneath the lines of its beauty, yet ruling those
lines in their every undulation. 3. This, then, is the first grand
principle of the truth of the earth. 4. The spirit of the hills is
action ; that of the lowlands, repose ; and between these there
is to be found every variety of motion and of rest; from the inac-
tive plain, sleeping like the firmament, with cities for stars, to the
fiery peaks, which, with heaving bosoms and exulting limbs, with
the clouds drifting like hair from their bright foreheads, lift up
their Titan hands to Heaven, saying, ^'I live forever ! " — Ruskin :
Modern Painters^ Vol. I, pt. ii, sec. iv, chap. i.
7^_Jv^^ Composition-Rhetoric.
[Topic] 1. Nor must I forget the suddenly changing seasons of
the Northern clime. 2. There is no long and lingering spring,
unfolding leaf and blossom one by one; no long and lingering. _y
autumn, pompous with many-colored leaves and the glow ocf^ Indian
summers. 3. But winter and summer are wonderful, and pass
into each other. 4. The quail has hardly ceased piping in the
corn, when winter from the folds of trailing clouds sows broadcast
over the land snow, icicles, and rattling hail. 5. The days waneOAXU
apace. 6. Erelong the sun hardly rises above the horizon, or does
not rise at all. 7. The moon and the stars shine through the day;
only, at noon, they are pale and wan, and in the southern sky a
red, fiery glow as of sunset burns along the horizon and then goes i
out. 8. And pleasantly under the silver moon, and under the /VvjU
silent, solemn stars, ring the steel shoes of the skaters on the frozen
sea, and voices, and the sound of bells. — Longfellow^: Note to
The Children of the LonTs Supper.
1. The troops were now to be disbanded. 2. Fifty thousand
men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown
on the world ; and experience seemed to warrant the belief that
this change would produce much misery and crime, that the disr
charged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or would
be driven by hunger to pillage. [Topic] 3. But no such result
followed. 4. In a few months there remained not a trace indicat-
ing that the most formidable army in the world had just been
absorbed into the mass of^^the communityl 5. The Royalists
themselves"confessed"that in every department of honest industry,
the discarded warriors prospered beyond other men; that none
was charged with any theft or robbery ; that none was heard to
ask an alms; and that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner at-
tracted notice by his diligence and sobriety, ke was_in^ proba-
bility one of Oliver's old soldiers. — Macaulay: History of Eng-
land, I, chap. ii.
Further practice, if needed, may be given on the paragraphs quoted in
Exercises 7, 18, a£id 19.
EXERCISE 25.
Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a brief para-
graph by repetition of the idea. Remember that in the repetition
What to Say. 79
it is not enough to put one word in place of another. There must
be not only a change of words but a growth of ideas. With each
sentence the thought should become larger, or more definite, or
more emphatic. If the repetition does not immediately suggest
itself, the use of such phrases as " in other words," " to speak more
plainly," " to put the matter more briefly (precisely, definitely,
concretely, specifically, forcibly)," will sometimes start the train
of thought.
1. It requires sustained effort to make a good writer.
2. In stating his reasons, he never jumped at concla-
sions.
3. Fashions in dress are forever changing.
4. The play As You Like It has no hero.
5. City governments in America need reforming.
6. There are books and books.
7. Emerson says, "The boy is a Greek; the youth,
romantic; the adult, reflective."
8. Physical training should be compulsory in schools.
9. There will always be need of charity in the world.
10. A good partisan is not always a good citizen.
11. The " good old times " were not all that some people
think.
12. The world does not " owe every one a living."
-M^y^'
LESSON 13.
How Paragraphs Grow — Particulars and Details.
When at the beginning of a paragraph we find a topic-
sentence like this, "Every traveller going south from St.
Louis can recall the average Arkansas village in winter,"
we can readily guess what the writer will say next. We
know, at any rate, what we want him to say. We want
more information about the Arkansas village. We want to
know something about its houses, its streets, its surround-
80 Composition-Rhetoric,
ings, its inhabitants. We want and we expect the particu-
lars and details of the scene which will enable us to see it
as the writer saw it, or as the traveller is supposed to
recall it. One way, then, in which a paragraph-theme
may grow into a paragraph is by the addition of particulars.
The following will illustrate this method of growth : —
[Topic] Every traveller going south from St. Louis can recall
the fbverage Arkansas village in winter. [Particulars] Little
strings of houses spread raggedly on both sides of the rails.
A few wee shops, that are likely to have a mock rectangle of
fagade stuck against a triangle of roof, in the manner of chil-
dren's card houses, parade a draggled stock of haberdashery and
groceries. To right or left a mill buzzes, its newness attested by
the raw tints of the weather boarding. There is no horizon ; there
seldom is a horizon in Arkansas, — it is cut off by the forest.
Pools of water reflect the straight black lines of tree trunks and
the crooked lines of bare boughs, while a muddy road winds
through the vista. Generally there are a few lean cattle to stare
in a dejected fashion at the train, and some fat black swine to
root among the sodden grasses. Bales of cotton are piled on the
railway platform, and serve as seats for half a dozen listless men
in high boots and soft hats. Occasionally a woman, who has
not had the time to brush her hair, calls shrilly to some child
who is trying to have pneumonia by sitting on the ground. No
one seems to have anything to do, yet everyone looks tired, and
the passenger in the Pullman wonders how people live in " such
a hole." — Octave Thanet.
To develop the idea "average Arkansas village in winter,'' the
writer has selected the particulars that strike the eye of the traveller, —
the houses, the shops, the mill, the surrounding country, the men and
women.
In the following selection the writer gives full details concerning
his imaginary possessions in Spain. The paragraphs after the first
are made up solely of particulars.
[Topic] It is not easy for me to say how I know so much, as
I certainly do, about my castles in Spain. [Details] The sun
What to Say. 81
always shines upon them. They stand lofty and fair in a lumi-
nous, golden atmosphere, a little hazy and dreamy, perhaps, like
the Indian summer, but in which no gales blow and there are no
tempests. All the sublime mountains, and beautiful valleys, and
soft landscape, that I have not yet seen, are to be found in the
grounds. They command a noble view of the Alps; so fine,
indeed, that I should be quite content with the prospect of them
from the highest tower of my castle, and not care to go to
Switzerland.
The neighboring ruins, too, are as picturesque as those of
Italy, and my desire of standing in the Coliseum, and of seeing
the shattered arches of the Aqueducts stretching along the Cam-
pagna and melting into the Alban Mount, is entirely quenched.
The rich gloom of my orange groves is gilded by fruit as brilliant
of complexion and exquisite of flavor as any that ever dark-eyed
Sorrento girls, looking over the high plastered walls of southern
Italy, hand to the youthful travellers, climbing on donkeys up the
narrow lane beneath.
The Nile flows through my grounds. The desert lies upon their
edge, and Damascus stands in my garden. I am given to under-
stand, also, that the Parthenon has been removed to my Spanish
possessions. The Golden-Horn is my fish-preserve ; my flocks of
golden sheep are pastured on the plains of Marathon, and the
honey of Hymettus is distilled from the flowers that grow in the
vale of Enna — all in my Spanish domains.
From the windows of those castles look beautiful women whom
I have never seen, whose portraits the poets have painted. They
wait for me there, and chiefly the fair-haired child, lost to my eyes
so long ago, now bloomed into an impossible beauty. The lights
that never shone, glance at evening in the vaulted halls, upon ban-
quets that were never spread. The bands I have never collected,
play all night long, and enchant the brilliant company, that was
never assembled, into silence. — Curtis : Frue and /, 36, 37.
In the following paragraph from Irving, the idea to be developed
is found in the third sentence : "It was one of those rich morsels of
quaint antiquity which give such a peculiar charm to English land-
scape." Then follow the details of the church, — the ancient monu-
ments, the stained windows, the tombs.
82 Composition-Rhetoric,
There are few places more favorable to the study of character
than an English country church. I was once passing a few weeks
at the seat of a friend, who resided in the vicinity of one, the
appearance of which particularly struck my fancy. [Topic] It
was one of those rich morsels of quaint antiquity which give such
a peculiar charm to English landscape. [Details] It stood in
the midst of a country filled with ancient families, and contained,
within its cold and silent aisles, the congregated dust of many
noble generations. The interior walls were incrusted with monu-
ments of every age and style. The light streamed through
windows dimmed with armorial bearings, richly emblazoned in
stained glass. In various parts of the church were tombs of
knights, and high-born dames, of gorgeous workmanship, with
their effigies in colored marble. On every side the eye was struck
with some instance of aspiring mortality ; some haughty memorial,
which human pride had erected over its kindred dust, in this
temple of the most humble of all religions. — Irving : Sketch
Book.
The particulars called for by the topic-sentence may be side by side
in space or may follow one another in time. In the examples given
above the particulars are side by side in space : the houses of the
Arkansas village are side by side with the shops, the Parthenon is
beside the Nile, the tombs are beside monuments. In the following
selection the particulars are arranged in the order of time : —
[Topic] I shall never forget a proof I myself got twenty years
ago, how serious a thing it is to be a doctor, and how terribly in
earnest people are when they want him. [Details] It was when
cholera first came here in 1832. I was in England at Chatham,
which you all know is a great place for ships and sailors. This
fell disease comes on generally in the night; as the Bible says,
" it walks in darkness," and many a morning was I roused at two
o'clock to go and see its sudden victims, for then is its hour and
power. One morning a sailor came to say I must go three miles
down the river to a village where it had broken out with great
fury. Off I set. We rowed in silence down the dark river, pass-
ing the huge hulks, and hearing the restless convicts turning in
their beds in their chains. The men rowed with all their might :
they had too many dying or dead at home to have the heart to
What to Say, 83
speak to me. We got near the place ; it was very dark, but I saw
a crowd of men and women on the shore, at the landing-place.
They were all shouting for the Doctor; the shrill cries of the
women, and the deep voices of the men coming across the water
to me. We were near the shore, when I saw a big old man, his
hat off, his hair grey, his head bald; he said nothing, but turning
them all off with his arm, he plunged into the sea, and before I
knew where I was, he had me in his arms. I was helpless as an
infant. He waded out with me, carrying me high up in his left
arm, and with his right levelling every man or woman who stood
in his way.
It was Big Joe carrying me to see his grandson, little Joe; and
he bore me off to the poor convulsed boy, and dared me to leave
him till he was better. He did get better, but Big Joe was dead
that night. He had the disease on him when he carried me away
from the boat, but his heart was set upon his boy. I never can
forget that night, and how important a thing it was to be able to
relieve suffering, and how much Old Joe was in earnest about
having the doctor. — John Brown: Horce Subsecivce, I, 393.
In the following, some of the particulars are side by side, some are
in the order of time : —
[Topic] The great globe we had left was rolling beneath us.
No eye of one in the flesh could see it as I saw or seemed to see it.
No ear of any mortal being could hear the sounds that came from
it as T heard or seemed to hear them. [Particulars] The broad
oceans unrolled themselves before me. I could recognize the calm
Pacific and the stormy Atlantic, — the ships that dotted them, the
white lines where the waves broke on the shore, — frills on the
robes of the continent, — so they looked to my woman's percep-
tion; the vast South American forests; the glittering icebergs
about the poles; the snowy mountain ranges, here and there a
summit sending up fire and smoke; mighty rivers, dividing prov-
inces within sight of each other, and making neighbors of realms
thousands of miles apart ; cities ; light-houses to insure the safety
of sea-going vessels, and war-ships to knock them to pieces and
sink them. All this, and infinitely more, showed itself to me
during a single revolution of the sphere : twenty-four hours it
would have been, if reckoned by earthly measurements of time.
84 Composition-Rhetoric ,
I have not spoken of the sounds I heard while the earth was
revolving under us. The howl of storms, the roar and clash of
waves, the crack and crash of the falling thunder-bolt, — these of
course made themselves heard as they do to mortal ears. But
there were other sounds which enchained my attention more than
these voices of nature. As the skilled leader of an orchestra hears
every single sound from each member of the mob of stringed and
wind instruments, and above all the screech of the straining
soprano, so my sharpened perceptions made what would have
been for common mortals a confused murmur audible to me as
compounded of innumerable easily distinguished sounds. Above
them all arose one continued, unbroken, agonizing cry. It was
the voice of suffering womanhood, — a sound that goes up day
and night, one long chorus of tortured victims. — O. W. Holm^.s :
Over the Teacups.
[Topic] It is amusing to know how small were the pecuniary
rewards of Bryant's literary labors, whatever may have been the
fame they brought him. [Particulars] Two dollars a poem was
the price that he named, and he seemed to be abundantly satisfied
with the terms. A gentleman met him in New York many years
after, and said to him, " I have just bought the earliest edition of
your poems, and gave twenty dollars for it." " More, by a long
shot," replied the poet, "than I received for writing the whole
work." — Century, 50 : 374.
[Topic] That was a pretty drive through Annandale. [Par-
ticulars] As you leave Moffat the road gradually ascends into
the region of the hills ; and down below you lies the great valley,
with the river Annan running through it, and the town of Moffat
itself getting smaller in the distance. ' You catch a glimmer of
the blue peaks of Westmoreland lying far away in the blue south,
half hid amidst silver haze. The hills around you increase in
size, and yet you would not recognize the bulk of the great round
slopes but for those minute dots that you can make out to be
sheep, and for an occasional wasp-like creature that you can sup-
pose to be a horse.
The evening draws on. The yellow light on the slopes becomes
warmer. You arrive at a great circular chasm which is called by
the country folks the Devil's Beef-tub — a mighty hollow, the
What to Say, 85
western sides of which are steeped in a soft purple shadow, while
the eastern slopes burn yellow in the sunlight. Far away, down
in that misty purple, you can see tents of gray, and these are
masses of slate uncovered by grass. The descent seems too abrupt
for cattle, and yet there are faint specks which may be sheep.
There is no house, not even a farm house, near ; and all traces of
Moffat and its neighborhood have long been left out of sight.
But what is the solitude of this place to that of the wild and
lofty region yon enter when you reach the summit of the hill?
Far away on every side of you stretch miles of lonely moorland,
with the shoulders of the more distant hills reaching down in end-
less succession into the western sky. There is no sign of life in
this wild place. The stony road over which you drive was once a
mail-coach road; now it is overgrown with grass. A few old
stakes, rotten and tumbling, show where it was necessary at one
time to place a protection against the sudden descents on the side
of the road ; but now the road itself seems lapsing back into
moorland. It is up in this wilderness of heather and wet moss
that the Tweed takes its rise; but we could hear no trickling of
any stream to break the profound and melancholy silence. There
was not even a shepherd's hut visible ; and we drove on in silence,
scarcely daring to break the charm of the utter loneliness of the
place.
The road twists round to the right. Before us a long valley is
seen, and we guess that it receives the waters of the Tweed. Al-
most immediately afterward we come upon a tiny rivulet some
two feet in width — either the young Tweed itself or one of its
various sources ; and as w^e drive on in the gathering twilight,
towards the valley, it seems as though we were accompanied by in-
numerable streamlets trickling down to the river. The fire of sun-
set goes out in the west, but over there in the clear green-white of
the east a range of hills still glows with a strange roseate purple.
We hear the low murmuring of the Tweed in the silence of the
valley. We get down among the lower-lying hills, and the neigh-
borhood of the river seems to have drawn to it thousands of wild
creatures. There are plover calling and whirling over the marshy
levels. There are black-cock and gray-hen dusting themselves in
the road before us, and waiting until we are quite near them be-
fore they wing their straight flight up to the heaths above. Fai
86 Composition-Rhetoric.
over us in the clear green of the sky, a brace of wild-ducks go
swiftly past. A weasel glides out and over the gray stones by the
roadside; and farther along the bank there are young rabbits
watching, and trotting, and watching again, as the phaeton gets
nearer to them. And then as the deep rose-purple of the eastern
hills fades away, and all the dark-green valley of the Tweed lies
under the cold silver-gray of the twilight, we reach a small and
solitary inn, and are almost surprised to liear once more the sound
of a human voice. — Black : Adventures of a Phaeton.
A second method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph
is to add sentences containing particulars and details. The par-
ticulars should be such as are naturally called for by the topic-
sentence. They may be particulars which stand side by side in
space, or particulars which follow one after another in order of
time.
EXERCISE 26.
The following topic-sentences are to be developed by giving
particulars. Determine in each case whether the particulars called
for are side by side in space, or succeed one another in time. The
employment of such phrases as " to go into particulars," " to men-
tion details," will sometimes be found useful in starting the train
of thought, (j^^^^^^^^^
1. The village presented a lively appearance the morn-
ing of the election.
2. I shall never forget my first day at school.
3. The court-room was a dingy place.
4. The last game of ball was the best of the season.
5. I once saw or thought I saw a ghost.
6. Have you ever watched the effects of moonlight upon
clouds ?
7. A new boy has' come into our school.
8.*^ ' WhatT beautiful character Longfellow has created for
us in Evangeline !
What to Say. 8T
9. The morning paper brings the news of a terrible
accident.
10. Washington's journey to his first inauguration was a
triumph.
11. There is an old deserted mill a few miles up the river.
12. The portrait of Daniel Webster shows that he was a
man of great firmness and determination.
LESSON 14.
How Paragraphs Grow — Specific Instances or Examples,
Suppose a Avriter to have begun a paragraph with a gen-
eral statement like the following : " The sounds which the
ocean makes must be very significant and interesting to
those who live near it." He may now proceed to develop
this idea by the method of the preceding lesson : he may
give particulars about the various sounds, he may state
what the sounds are and give their significance in detail.
But there is another way by which he may amplify his
theme. Instead of telling us about all the sounds, he may,
if be chooses, tell about a single one ; that is, he may give
an example or specific instance of a sound. Upon this
instance he may dwell throughout the course of the para-
graph. The following will illustrate this mode of de-
velopment : —
[Topic] The sounds which the ocean makes must be very sig-
nificant and interesting to those who live near it. [Specific in-
stance] When I was leaving the shore at this place the next
summer, and had got a quarter of a mile distant, ascending a hill,
I was startled by a sudden, loud sound from the sea, as if a large
steamer were letting off steam by the shore, so that I caught my
breath and felt my blood run cold for an instant, and I turned
about, expecting to see one of the Atlantic steamers thus far out
of her course ; but there was nothing unusual to be seen. There
88 Composition- Rhetoric,
was a low bank at the entrance of the Hollow, between me and
the ocean, and suspecting that I might have risen into another
stratum of air in ascending the hill, — w^hich had wafted to me
only the ordinary roar of the sea, — I immediately descended
again, to see if I lost hearing of it; but, without regard to my
ascending or descending, it died away in a minute or two, and yet
there was scarcely any wind all the while. The old man said that
this was what they called the "rut," a peculiar roar of the sea
before the wind changes, which, however, he could not account
for. He thought that he could tell all about the weather from the
sounds which the sea made. — Thoreau: Cape Cod,
[Topic] Dr. Watts's statement that "birds in their little nests
agree," like too many others intended to form the infant mind, is
very far from being true. On the contrary, the most peaceful
relation of the different species to each other is that of armed
neutrality. They are very jealous of neighbors. [Specific in-
stance] A few years ago, I was much interested in the house-
building of a pair of summer yellows-birds. They had chosen a
very pretty site near the top of a white lilac, within easy eye-
shot of a chamber windows A very pleasant thing it was to see
their little home growing with mutual help, to watch their indus-
trious skill interrupted only by little flirts and snatches of en-
dearment, frugally cut short by the common-sense of the tiny
housewife. They had brought their work nearly to an end, and
had already begun to line it with fern-down, the gathering of
which demanded more distant journeys and longer absences. But,
alas! the syringa, immemorial manor of the catbirds, was not
more than twenty feet away, and these " giddy neighbors " had,
as it appeared, been all along jealously watchful, though silent,
witnesses of what they deemed an intrusion of squatters. No
sooner were the pretty mates fairly gone for a new load of lining,
than
** To their unguarded nest these weasel Scots
Came stealing."
Silently they flew back and forth, each giving a vengeful dab at
the nest in passing. They did not fall-to and deliberately destroy
it, for they might have been caught at their mischief. As it was,
whenever the yellow-birds came back, their enemies were hidden
What to Say. 8»
in their own sight-proof bush. Several times their unconscious
victims repaired damages, but at length, after counsel taken to-
gether, they gave it up. Perhaps, like other unlettered folk, they
came to the conclusion that the Devil was in it, and yielded to
the invisible persecutions of witchcraft. — Lowell : My Garden
Acquaintance.
[Topic] There has been a capital illustration lately how help-
less many English gentlemen are when called together on a sudden.
The Government, rightly or wrongly, thought fit to entrust the
quarter-sessions of each county with the duty of combating its
cattle plague ; but the scene in most " shire halls " was unsatis-
factory. There was the greatest difficulty in getting, not only a
right decision, but any decision. [Specific instance] I saw one
myself which went thus. The chairman proposed a very complex
resolution, in which there was much which every one liked, and
much which every one disliked, though, of course, the favorite
parts of some were the objectionable parts to others. This resolu-
tion got, so to say, wedged in the meeting; everybody suggested
amendments ; one amendment was carried which none were satis-
fied with, and so the matter stood over. It is a saying in England,
*' a big meeting never does anything *' ; and yet we are governed
by the House of Commons, — by *'a big meeting." — Bagehot :
The English Constitution, 207.
Sometimes the writer will choose to give a number of instances, as
in the three selections following : —
[Topic] All history is full of revolutions, produced by causes
similar to those which are now [March 2, 1831] operating in Eng-
land. A portion of the community which had been of no account,
expands and becomes strong. It demands a place in the system,
suited, not to its former weakness, but to its present power. If
this is granted, all is well. If this is refiised, then comes the
struggle between the young energy of one class and the ancient
privileges of another. [Instances] Such was the struggle be-
tween the Plebeians and the Patricians of Rome. Such was the
struggle of the Italian allies for admission to the full rights of
Roman citizens. Such was the struggle of our IN^orth American
colonies against the mother country. Such was the struggle
90 Composition-Rhetoric,
which the Third Estate of France maintained against the aris-
tocracy of birth. Such was the struggle which the Roman Cath-
olics of Ireland maintained against the aristocracy of creed. Such
is the struggle which the free people of color in Jamaica are now
maintaining against the aristocracy of skin. Such, finally, is the
struggle which the middle classes in England are maintaining
against an aristocracy of mere locality, against an aristocracy, the
principle of which is to invest a hundred drunken potwallopers in
one place, or the owner of a ruined hovel in another, with powers
which are withheld from cities renowned to the furthest ends of
the earth for the marvels of their wealth and of their industry. —
Macaulay : Speech on the Reform Bill of 1832.
[Topic] The circle of human nature is not complete without
the arc of feeling and emotion. [Instances] The lilies of the
field have a value for us beyond their botanical ones, — a certain
lightening of the heart accompanies the declaration that *' Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The sound of
the village bell which comes mellowed from the valley to the trav-
eller upon the hill has a value beyond its acoustical one. The
setting sun when it mantles with the bloom of roses the alpine
snows has a value beyond its optical one. The starry heavens,
as you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond their as-
tronomical one. Round about the intellect sweeps the horizon of
emotions from which all our noblest impulses are derived. I
think it very desirable to keep this horizon open ; not to permit
either priest or philosopher to draw down his shutters between
you and it. And here the dead languages, which are sure to be
beaten by science in the purely intellectual fight, have an irre-
sistible claim. They supplement the work of science by exalting
and refining the aesthetic faculty, and must on this account be
cherished by all who desire to see human culture complete. There
must be a reason for the fascination which these languages have
so long exercised upon the most powerful and elevated minds, — a
fascination which will probably continue for men of Greek and
Roman mold to the end of time. — Tyndall: Addresses.
[Topic] Many distinguished Englishmen have had some favor-
ite physical amusement that we associate with their names. It is
almost a part of an Englishman's nature to select a physical pur-
What to Say, 91
suit and make it especially his own. His countrymen like him
the better for having a taste of this kind. [Instances] Mr. Glad-
stone's practised skill in tree-felling is a help to his popularity.
The readers of Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron all remember that
the first was a pedestrian, the second a keen sportsman, and the
third the best swimmer of his time. The readers of Keats are
sorry for the ill health that spoiled the latter years of his short
life, but they remember with satisfaction that the ethereal poet
was once muscular enough to administer " a severe drubbing to a
butcher whom he caught beating a little boy, to the enthusiastic
admiration of a crowd of bystanders." Shelley's name is associ-
ated forever with his love of boating, and its disastrous ending.
In our own day, when we learn something about the private life
of our celebrated contemporaries, we have a satisfaction in know-
ing that they enjoyed some physical recreation, as, for example,
that Tyndall is a mountaineer, Millais a grouse-shooter, John Bright
a salmon-fisher ; and it is characteristic of the inveteracy of Eng-
lish physical habits that Mr. Fawcett should have gone on riding
and skating after he was blind, and that Anthony Trollope was
still passionately fond of fox-hunting when he was old and heavy
and could hardly see. The English have such a respect for physi-
cal energy that they still remember with pleasure how Palmerston
hunted in his old age, and how, almost to the last, he would go
down to Epsom on horseback. There was a little difficulty about
getting him into the saddle, but, once there, he was safe till the
end of his journey. — Hamerton : French and English^ 2.
A third method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph
is to add specific instances or examples.
LyV.*-V^-X EXERCISE 27. \ , *.„ , \t
The following topic-sentences are to be developed by -speeifitf^
instances or examples. The expressions ^' to mention a case in
point," " for instance," " a remarkable example of this," will often
make clear just what is wanted.
1. One is frequently surprised by the intelligence which
the lower animals show.
92 Composition- Rhetoric.
2. Even very great and very good men usually have
some failing.
3. It is often the minor characters in Dickens's novels
that are remembered longest.
4. A bad beginning does not necessarily imply a bad
ending.
5. A man of great determination will succeed in spite
of the most discouraging opposition.
6. Men of great wealth are not all selfish.
7. The demands of labor organizations are frequently
received in the wrong spirit.
8. People are too apt to decide that a person accused of
crime is guilty before his case is tried.
9. Sometimes the best statesmen do not know what law
is needed.
10. Some queer expressions are used by foreigners learn-
ing our language.
11. The abolitionist agitators were frequently placed in
perilous positions.
LESSON 15.
JIow Paragraphs Grow — Comparisons and Analogies.
Suppose a writer wishes to develop the idea, " Effect of
historical reading upon the student's mind." If he uses
the method of particulars, he will very likely single out
the most striking ways in Which the reading of history
operates on the mind; he will say that history makes us
acquainted with men and institutions, gives us new ideas,
teaches us morals, laws, and manners. If, on the other
hand, he uses the method of specific instances, he will
select individuals upon whom history exerted a peculiar
influence; he will perhaps refer to Carlyle, or Tennyson,
or Gibbon, or Webster, as examples of persons whose mindy
What to Say, 93
were broadened or narrowed by historical reading. But if,
for any reason, these methods do not suit his purpose, he
may develop this theme by still another method. Instead
of saying that the effect of historical reading is so-and-so,
he may say that it is like so-and-so. He may compare the
effect of reading history to the effect of viewing a collection
of paintings, or listening to a play, or looking at the stars
with a telescope, or watching a Fourth-of-July procession,
to each one of which it bears some resemblance. Upon
this resemblance of his theme to something else that is
familiar to his reader, he may dwell throughout the course
of the paragraph. Thus Macaulay, in his essay on history,
in order to develop the above-mentioned theme, compares
the effect of historical reading to the effect of travel in
foreign countries : —
The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects,
to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist,
is transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions.
He hears new modes of expression. His mind is enlarged by
contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, and of man-
ners. But men may travel far, and return with minds as con-
tracted as if they had never stirred from their own market-town.
In the same manner, men may know the dates of many battles
and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no wiser.
Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign countries.
More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst
the shouts of a mob, has dined with the King, has hunted with
the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the Guards reviewed, and
a Knight of the Garter installed, has cantered along Regent Street,
has visited St. Paul's, and noted down its dimensions ; and has
then departed, thinking that he has seen England. He has, in
fact, seen a few public buildings, public men, and public cere-
monies. But of the vast and complex system of society, of the
fine shades of national character, of the practical operation of gov-
ernment and laws, he knows nothing. He who would understand
these things rightly nmst not confine his observations to palaces
94 ^^Si£2^iii2P'^Ii^Zi£'
and solemn days. He must see ordinary men as they appear in
their ordinary business and in their ordinary pleasures. He must
mingle in the crowds of the exchange and the coffee-house. He
must obtain admittance to the convivial table and the domestic
hearth. He must bear with vulgar expressions. He must not
shrink from exploring even the retreats of misery. He who
wishes to understand the condition of mankind in former ages
must proceed on the same principle. If he attends only to public
transactions, to wars, congresses, and debates, his studies will be
as unprofitable as the travels of those imperial, royal, and serene
sovereigns who form their judgment of our island from having
gone in state to a few fine sights and from having held formal
conferences with a few great officers.
Professor Langley wishing to develop the idea, " The signs of age
are on the moon," compares the surface of the moon to a cinder and
to a shrivelled face or hand : —
The signs of age are on the moon. It seems pitted, torn, and
rent by. the past action of long-dead fires, till its surface is like
a piece of porous cinder under the magnifying glass, — a burnt-
out cinder of a planet, which rolls through the void like a ruin of
what has been ; and, more significant still, this surface is wrinkled
everywhere, till the analogy with an old and shrivelled face or
hand or fruit, where the puckered skin is folded about a shrunken
centre, forces itself on our attention, and suggests a common
cause, — a something underlying the analogy, and making it more
than a mere resemblance. — Langley: The New Astronomy,
Mr. Lowell wishing to picture Cardinal Newman in old age com-
pares the cardinal to a ruined abbey and his features to a mini-
ature : —
The most interesting part of my visit to Birmingham was a call
I made by appointment on Cardinal Newman. He was benignly
courteous, and we excellencied and eminenced each other by turns.
A more gracious senescence I never saw. There was no " monu-
mental pomp," but a serene decay, like that of some ruined abbey
in a woodland dell, consolingly forlorn. I was surprised to find his
head and features smaller than I expected — modelled on lines of
What to Sat/, 95
great vigor, but reduced and softened by a certain weakness, as
if a powerfully masculine face had been painted in miniature by
Malbone.
Other examples of development by comparison and analogy may
be detected by the pupil in the following ; —
Of ghosts I have seldom dreamed, so far as I can remember ;
in fact I have never dreamed of the kind of ghosts that we ^re
all more or less afraid of, though I have dreamed rather often of
the spirits of departed friends. But I once dreamed of dying, and
the reader, who has never died yet, may be interested to know
what it is like. According to this experience of mine, which I do
not claim is typical, it is like a fire kindling in an air-tight stove
with paper and shavings ; the gathering smoke and gases sud-
denly burst into flame, and puff the door out, and all is over. —
W. D. HowELLS : Harper's Magazine, 90 : 810.
The vast results obtained by science are won by no mystical
faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are
practised by every one of us in the humblest and meanest affairs
of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks
made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which
CuvierrevStored the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments
of their bones. Nor does that process of induction and deduction
by which a lady, finding a stain of a particular kind upon her
dress, concludes that somebody has upset the inkstand thereon,
differ in any way from that by which Adams and Leverrier dis-
covered a new planet. The man of science, in fact, simply uses
with scrupulous exactness the methods which we all habitually and
at every moment use carelessly. — Huxley : Lay Sermons, 78.
Men who have to do with men, rather than with things, fre-
quently take a profound and seemingly cruel delight in playing
upon the feelings and petty vanities of their fellow-creatures. The
habit is as strong with them as the constant practice of conjuring
becomes with a juggler ; even when he is not performing, he will
for hours pass coins, perform little tricks of sleight-of-hand with
cards, or toss balls in the air in marvellously rapid succession,
unable to lay aside his profession even for a day, because it has
96 Composition- Rhetoric,
grown to be the only natural expression of his faculties. With
men whose business it is to understand other men, it is the same.
They cannot be in a man's company for a quarter of an hour
without attempting to discover the peculiar weaknesses of his
character — his vanities, his tastes, his vices, his curiosity, his love
of money or of reputation ; so that the operation of such men's
minds may be compared to the process of auscultation — for their
ears are always upon their neighbors' hearts — and their conversa-
tion, to the percutations of a physician to ascertain the seat of
disease in a pair of consumptive lungs. — F. M. Crawford:
Saracinesca, 125.
The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work.
Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare
is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not
more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of
biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his com-
petitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them.
Eclipse is first, the rest nowhere. — Macaulay: BosweWs Life of
Johnson,
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common
opinions and uncommon abilities. The reason is obvious. When
we speak of a free government, we mean a government in which
the sovereign power is divided, in which a single decision is not
absolute, where argument has an office. The essence of the
^* gouvernement des avocats," as the Emperor Nicholas called it, is
that you must persuade so many persons. The appeal is not to
the solitary decision of a single statesman; not to Richelieu or
Nesselrode alone in his closet; but to the jangled mass of men
with a thousand pursuits, a thousand interests, a thousand various
habits. Public opinion, as it is said, rules; and public opinion
is the opinion of the average man. Fox used to say of Burke :
"Burke is a wise man; but he is wise too soon." The average
man will not bear this. He is a cool, common person, with a con-
siderate air, with figures in his mind, with his own business to
attend to, with a set of ordinary opinions arising from and suited
to ordinary life. He can't bear novelty or originalities. He says :
" Sir, I never heard such a thing before in my life " ; and he thinks
this a reductio ad absurdum. You may see his taste by the reading
What to Say. 97
of which he approves. Is there a more splendid monument of talent
and industry than the T'imes f No wonder that the average man —
that any one — believes in it. As Carlyle observes : " Let the high-
est intellect able to write epics try to write such a leader for the
morning newspapers, it cannot do it; the highest intellect will
fail." But did you ever see anything there you had never seen
before ? Out of the million articles that everybody has read, can
any one person trace a single marked idea to a single article?
Where are the deep theories, and the wise axioms, and the ever-
lasting sentiments which the writers of the most influential publi-
cation in the world have been the first to communicate to an igno-
rant species? Such writers are far too shrewd. The two million,
or whatever number of copies it may be, they publish, are not
purchased because the buyers wish to know new truth. The pur-
chaser desires an article which he can appreciate at sight ; which
he can lay down and say : " An excellent article, very excellent ;
exactly my own sentiments." Original theories give trouble; be-
sides, a grave man on the Coal Exchange does not desire to be an
apostle of novelties among the contemporaneous dealers in fuel ; —
he wants to be provided with remarks he can make on the topics
of the day which will not be known not to be his ; which are not
too profound ; which he can fancy the paper only reminded him
of. And just in the same way, precisely as the most popular
political paper is not that which is abstractedly the best or most
instructive, but that which most exactly takes up the minds of
men where it finds them, catches the floating sentiment of society,
puts it in such a form as society can fancy would convince another
society which did not believe, — so the most influential of consti-
tutional statesmen is the one who most felicitously expresses the
creed of the moment, who administers it, who embodies it in laws
and institutions, who gives it the highest life it is capable of, who
induces the average man to think : " I could not have done it any
better, if I had had time myself." — Bagehot : The English Con-
stitutiony 421.
When the example in our Latin Grammar tells us that Mors
communis est omnibus, it states a truism of considerable interest,
indeed, to the person in whose particular case it is to be illus-
trated, but neither new nor startling. No one would think of
98 Composition- Rhetoric.
citing it, whether to produce conviction or to heighten discourse.
Yet mankind are agreed in finding something more poignant in
the same reflection when Horace tells us that the palace as well
as the hovel shudders at the indiscriminating foot of Death. Here
is something more than the dry statement of a truism. The dif-
ference between the two is that between a lower and a higher ; it
is, in short, the difference between prose and poetry. The oyster
has begun, at least, to secrete its pearl, something identical with
its shell in substance, but in sentiment and association how un-
like ! Malherbe takes the same image and makes it a little more
picturesque, though, at the same time, I fear, a little more Parisian,
too, when he says that the sentinel pacing before the gate of the
Louvre cannot forbid Death an entrance to the King. And how
long had not that comparison between the rose's life and that of
the maiden dying untimely been a commonplace when the same
Malherbe made it irreclaimably his own by mere felicity of phrase.
We do not ask where people got their hints, but what they made
out of them. The commonplace is unhappily within reach of us
all, and unhappily, too, they are rare who can give it novelty and
even invest it with a kind of grandeur as Gray knew how to do. —
Lowell : Essay on Gray,
A fourth method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph
is to point out a resemblance or analogy between the subject of
thought and some well-known object or objects.
EXERCISE 28.
The following topic-sentences are to be developed by comparison
or analogy. The expressions, " it seems as if," " it is like," will
sometimes help one find a suitable comparison or analogy.
1. Along the sides of the road are two long rows of tall
poplars.
2. The orator held his vast audience spellbound.
3. There are some books towards which we feel a per-
sonal friendship.
What to Say, 99
4. Flocks of blackbirds were holding their noisy ses-
sions in the bare trees.
5. Calnmnious reports are sometimes circulated about
those whose lives are pure.
6. Our powers gradually weaken with age.
7. Sheridan's troopers dashed through the Shenandoah
valley leaving the country bare of subsistence.
8. The officers of government are simply some of us
acting in certain capacities for all of us.
9. Hamilton had the ability to foresee the remote results
of his financial policy.
10. Every good deed will bring its reward.
11. A bad habit is a constant tyrant.
12. Eeading affords many pleasures.
LESSON^ 16.
How Paragraphs Grow — Telling What a Thing is_
Note in the following selections how the idea of the topic-
sentence is developed. The words to which special atten-
tion is to be directed are printed in italics.
We will try to make some small piece of English ground beauti-
ful, peaceful, and fruitful. We will have no steam-engines upon it,
and no railroads ; we will have no untended or unthought-of creatures
on it; none wretched, but the sick; none idle, but the dead. We
will have no liberty upon it ; but instant obedience to known law,
and appointed persons ; no equality upon it ; but recognition of
every betterness that we can find, and reprobation of every worse-
ness. When we want to go anywhere, we will go there quietly
and safely, not at forty miles an hour in the risk of our lives ; when
we want to carry anything anywhere, we will carry it either on
the backs of beasts, or on our own, or in carts, or in boats ; we will
have plenty of flowers and vegetables in our gardens, plenty of
corn and grass in our fields, — and few bricks. We will have
100 Composition-Rhetoric,
some music and poetry; the children shall learn to dance to it,
. and sing it; perhaps some of the old people, in time, may also.
We will have some art, moreover ; we will at least try if, like the
Greeks, we can't make some pots. — Ruskin: Fors Clavigera,
Letter Y.
Ruskin, desiring to tell us what a piece of English ground should
have in order to be beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful, begins by telling
us what it should not have. It should not have, he says, steam-
engines, railroads, neglected creatures, wretched and idle men, liberty,
or equality. To complete the picture, he then tells us what it should
have.
The scene around was desolate ; as far as the eye could reach it
was desolate : the bare rocks faced each other, and left a long and
wide interval of thin white sand. You might wander on and look
round and round, and peep into the crevices of the rocks and dis-
cover nothing that acknowledged the influence of the seasons. There
was no spring^ no summer, no autumn: and the winter's snow, that
would have been lovely, fell not on these hot rocks and scorching sands.
Never morning lark had poised himself over this desert ; but the huge
serpent often hissed there beneath the talons of the vulture, and
the vulture screamed, his wings imprisoned within the coils of the
serpent. — Coleridge : The Wanderings of Cain,
To make us see the desolation of the place, Coleridge tells us what
could not be seen there.
In the year 1865 Rome was still in a great measure its old self.
It had not then acquired that modern air which is now beginning
to pervade it. The Corso had not been widened and whitewashed ;
the Villa Aldobrandini had not been cut through to make the Via
Nazionale; the south wing of the Palazzo Colonna still looked
upon a narrow lane through which men hesitated to pass after
dark ; the Tiber's course had not then been corrected below the
Farnesina; the Farnesina itself was but just under repair; the
iron bridge at the Ripetta was not dreamed of; and the Prati
di Castello were still, as their name implies, a series of waste
meadows. — F. M. Crawford: Saracinesca, 1,
What to Say. 101
The author tells us what Rome was in 1865 — ** its old self"" — by
telling us what changes had not yet taken place. .
Practically, then, at present, " advancement in life " means
becoming conspicuous in life, — obtaining a position which shall
be acknowledged by others to be respectable or honorable. We do
not understand by this advancement, in general, the mere making
of money, but the being known to have made it; not the accom-
plishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accom-
plished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of our thirst for
applause. That thirst, if the last infirmity of noble minds, is also
the first infirmity of weak ones, and on the whole, the strongest
impulsive influence of average humanity. The greatest efforts of
the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as its
greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure. — Ruskin : Sesame
and Lilies^ 42.
In the foregoing we get a better idea of what is meant by advance-
ment in life by being also told what is not meant by it.
When I first came to Venice I accepted the fate appointed to
young men on the Continent. I took lodgings, and I began dining
drearily at the restaurants. Worse prandial fortunes may befall
one, but it is hard to conceive of the calamity as enduring else-
where ; while the restaurant life is an established and permanent
thing in Italy, for every celihe and for many wretched families.
It is not because the restaurants are very dirty — if you wipe your
plate and glass carefully before using them, they need not stomach
you ; it is not because the rooms are cold — if you sit near the
great vase of smouldering coals in the centre of each room you
may suffocate in comparative comfort ; it is not because the prices
are great, for they are really very reasonable ; it is not for any very
tangible fault that I object to life at the restaurants, — and yet I
cannot think of its hopeless homelessness without rebellion against
the whole system of existence it implies, as something unnatural
and insufferable. — Howells : Venetian Life, 76.
The "hopeless homelessness" of restaurant life is made more sig-
nificant by the enumeration of other reasons in negative form.
102 Composition-Rhetoric,
A fitljh wa^ .af expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph is to
add parA?oiilars telling what the subject is not, or is not like. Such
•' ■&tateT.ients.are usually followed by statements telling what
the subject is, or is like.
< -, *' ^^
^^Jf"^' EXERCISE 29.
fhe following topic-sentences are to be developed by telling
what the subject is not, or is not like : —
1. Niagara made upon me an impression quite different
from what I had expected.
" 2. I visited to-day an ideal school-house.
3. The Socialist sees in the future a most desirable state
of human society.
4. I will describe to you the kind of picnic that I should
like to attend.
J 5. When city governments shall be perfected we shall
h(ad*dly recognize them.
\/^. The woods that day were remarkable for an unusual
stillness.
7. I shall never forget my sensations when I was told
that my friend had proved false.
8. When to use will and when to use sliall is a mystery
to many students.
9. The meaning of the word "success" is frequently
misunderstood.
10. What is the best method for the government to adopt
in its treatment of the Indian ? / /
11.. The newsboy gathers a large fund bf^useful informa-
tion, y
12. This city presented an entirej^different appearance
only a few years ago. ^ <^
13. It is a good thing to keep a careful account of your
expenditures.
14. Keep your temper under control.
^yvur"^^^
What to Say. 103
How Paragraphs Grow — Contrasts,
Sometimes a paragraph-theme can be most easily devel-
oped by presenting in the paragraph two ideas in contrast.
Let us suppose, for example, that the writer has been upon
a day's fishing excursion. As he recalls the incidents of
the day, he reflects that he was the only member of the
party who failed to enter into the spirit of the occasion.
The others throughout the whole time made patient efforts
to catch some fish, but he soon wearied of the sport and
gave himself up to reading. He now attempts to write an
account of the day's adventures. Noting that what he did
was different from what the others did, he begins by tell-
ing of his own lack of skill and lack of interest, and then,
by way of contrast, tells of the patience and enthusiasm of
his companions. Thus he brings out the idea of his theme
by presenting the two contrasted ideas contained within it.
This is the method pursued by Washington Irving in the
following paragraph from the Sketch Book : —
For my part, I was always a bungler at all kinds of sport that
required either patience or adroitness, and had not angled above
half an hour before I had completely " satisfied the sentiment,"
and convinced myself of the truth of Izaak Walton's opinion, that
angling is something like poetry — a man must be born to it.
I hooked myself instead of the fish; tangled my line in every tree;
lost my bait; broke my rod; until I gave up the attempt in
despair, and passed the day under the trees, reading old Izaak,
satisfied that it was his fascinating vein of honest simplicity and
rural feeling that had bewitched me, and not the passion for
angling. My companions, however, were more persevering in their
delusion. I have them at this moment before my eyes, stealing
along the border of the brook, where it lay open to the day, or
was merely fringed by shrubs and bushes. I see the bittern rising
104 Composition-Rhetoric.
with hollow scream as they break in upon his rarely invaded haunt ;
the kingfisher watching them suspiciously from his dry tree that
overhangs the deep black mill-pond, in the gorge of the hills ; the
tortoise letting himself slip sideways from off the stone or log on
which he is sunning himself; and the panic-struck frog plumping
in headlong as they approach, and spreading an alarm throughout
the watery world around.
The following paragraph draws a contrast between the spoils system
and the merit system ; —
Professor Lounsbury, in his delightful Life of Cooper, speaks
feelingly of the " infinite capacity of the human mind to withstand
the introduction of knowledge." I doubt whether even a college
professor becomes more sadly and profoundly impressed with the
truth of this statement than does a civil service commissioner.
The spoils system of making appointments to and removairf from
office is so wholly and unmixedly evil, is so emphatically un-
American and un-democratic, and is so potent a force for deg-
radation in our 'public life, that it is difficult to believe that any
intelligent man of ordinary decency who has looked into the
subject can be its advocate. On the other hand the merit system,
which we are striving to put in its place, has been proved by actual
trial to work so well that it is difficult to understand how there
can be any serious opposition thereto, or, indeed, how it can fail to
receive the zealous support of every citizen who has sense enough
to see what is best for the country, and patriotism enough to
wish to see that best adopted. — T. Roosevelt : The Merit System,
Cosmopolitan, May, 1892.
The first member of the contrast may be very brief, as in the fol-
lowing paragraph : —
He could describe with great vividness, brevity, and force what
had happened in the past, what actually existed, or what the future
promised. But his fancy never ran away with him or carried him
captive into the regions of poetry. Imagination of this sort is
readily curbed and controlled, and, if less brilliant, is safer than
that defined by Shakespeare. For this reason, Mr. Webster rarely
indulged in long, descriptive passages, and while he showed the
highest power in treating anything with a touch of humanity about
What to Say, 105
it, he was sparing of images drawn wholly from nature, and was
not peculiarly successful in depicting in words natural scenery
or phenomena. The result is, that in his highest flights, while
he is often grand and affecting, full of life and power, he never
shows the creative imagination. But if he falls short on the poetic
side, there is the counterbalancing advantage that there is never
a false note nor an overwrought description which offends our
taste and jars upon our sensibilities. — H. C. Lodge: Daniel
Webster, 188.
Contrasts are often introduced by words of connection.
Of these the most common are hut and Jwwever. However
means almost the same as hut; if there is any difference
between them it is that hut indicates a contrast stronger
and more abrupt than the contrast indicated by however.
Yet gives the impression that the writer has checked his
thought suddenly, as a horseman might throw his steed on
its haunches by a jerk of the bridle. Still also checks the
course* of the thought, but does so more quietly and deliber-
ately than yet. Other words and expressions used to intro-
duce a contrast are, nevertheless, notwithstanding^ on the
other hand, on the contrary.
With the exception of hut, these connectives do not need
to stand always at the beginning of the sentence or clause ;
a smoother connection is sometimes secured by placing them
after an opening word or phrase, as in the selection from
Irving : " My companions, however, etc."
A sixth method of expanding a paragraph-theme into a para-
graph is to present a contrast between two things or ideas.
' EXERCISE 30.
Point out the contrasted ideas in the following para-
graphs : —
The modern type-writing machine has the advantage of making
all words equally legible, but the receiver of the printed letter i^
106 Composition-Rhetoric,
likely to feel on opening it a slight perceptible shock of the kind
always caused by a want of consideration. The letter so printed
is undoubtedly easier to read than all but the very clearest manu-
script, and so far it may be considered a politeness to use the instru-
ment ; ibut unluckily it is impersonal, so that the performer on
the instrument seems far removed from the receiver of the letter
and not in that direct communication with him which would be
apparent in an autograph. The effect on the mind is almost like
that of a printed circular, or at least of a letter w^hich has been
dictated to a shorthand writer. — Hamerton : Human Intercourse.
Mr. Beecher went on to show how the North could not help
fighting when it was attacked, and to give the reasons that made
it necessary to fight, reasons which none but a consistent Friend,
or avowed non-resistant, can pretend to dispute. His ordinary
style in speaking is pointed, staccatoed, as is that of most success-
ful extemporaneous speakers ; he is " short-gaited " ; the movement
of his thoughts is that of the chopping sea, rather than the long,
rolling, rhythmical v^ave-procession of phrase-balancing rhetori-
cians. But when the lance has pricked him deep enougk, when
the red flag has flashed in his face often enough, when the fire-
works have hissed and sputtered around him long enough, when
the cheers have warmed him so that all his life is roused, then his
intellectual sparkle becomes a steady glow, and his nimble sen-
tences change their form and become long-drawn, stately peri-
ods.— O. W. Holmes: Atlantic Monthly, January, 1864.
Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of
a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest corre-
spondence, and the most unreserved communication wdth his con-
stituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him ;
their opinion high respect; their business unremitted attention.
It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions,
to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their
interest to his own. But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judg-
ment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you,
to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not de-
rive from your pleasure ; no, nor from the law and the constitution.
They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is
deeply answerable. Your representative owes you not his industry
What to Say. 107
only, but his judgment; which he betrays, instead of serving you,
if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to
yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were
a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to
to be superior r\ But government and legislatign are matters of
reason and juclgment, and not of inclination ; and what sort of
reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion ;
in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide ; and where
those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles
distant from those who hear the arguments?
To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of constit-
uents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative
ought always to rejoice to hear ; and which he ought always most
seriously to consider. But authoritative instructions, mandates is-
sued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey,
to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction
of his judgment and conscience, — these are things utterly un-
known to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundar
mental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. —
Burke : Speech to the Electors of Bristol,
Madison spoke in the same strain. He saw no danger in a title.
He did not believe that a President, clothed with all the powers of
the Constitution and loaded down with all the titles of Europe
and Asia, would be a dangerous person to American liberty. He
objected to the principle. If, said he, we give titles, we must
either borrow or invent them. If we invent and deck out an airy
being of our creation, it is a great chance but its fantastic proper-
ties render the empty phantom ridiculous and absurd. If we
borrow, our servile imitation will be odious. We must copy from
the pompous mjonarchs of the East, or we must follow the inferior
monarchs of Europe. In either case the splendid tinsel and the
gorgeous robe will disgrace the manly shoulders of our chief. —
McMaster : History of the People of the United States, I, 542.
Unlike as Whittier and Franklin were in many respects, they
were alike in others. Both had the sympathy with the lowly
which comes of early similar experience. Both learned a handi-
craft, for Franklin set type and worked a printing-press, and
108 CompoBition-Rhetoric,
Whittier made slippers. To both of them literature was a means,
rather than an end in itself. Yerse to Whittier, and prose to
Franklin, was a weapon to be used in the good fight. In Whit-
tier's verse, as in Franklin's prose, there was the same pithy direct-
ness which made their words go home to the hearts of the plain
people whom they both understood and represented. To Franklin
was given the larger life and the greater range of usefulness ; but
Whittier always did with all his might the duty that lay before
him. While Franklin gained polish by travel and by association
with citizens of the world, Whittier was the only one of the
greater American authors who never went to Europe, and he kept
to the end not a little of his rustic simplicity.
While Whittier was practical, as becomes a New Englander, he
had not the excessive common sense which characterizes Franklin,
and he lacked also Franklin's abundant humor. But the poet w^as
not content, as Franklin w^as, with showing that honesty is the
best policy, and that in the long run vice leads to ruin ; he scourged
evil with the wrath of a Hebrew prophet. Except one or another
of his ballads, none of his poems was written for its own sake ;
they were nearly all intended to further a cause he held dear, or
to teach a lesson he thought needful. — Brander Matthews:
Sl Nicholas, 22 : 773.
These paragraphs as originally written contained two
ideas in contrast. Supply the omitted portion.
Some persons are very reluctant to admit that any race of men
is marked by a fixed and permanent characteristic of inferiority
to the others, for fear that this will be made an excuse by un-
just and wicked men for treating them oppressively and cruelly.
But ------- -.
There is one thing very curious about this class of animals that
get their living in a great measure underwater, and are consequently
obliged to be often submerged, even in the coldest winter weather,
and that is, that their fur becomes very little wet by such immer-
sion. A dog, after plunging into a river, comes out wet to the
skin, but the fur of a beaver or a mink --------.
What to Say. 109
I We all know how beautiful and noble modesty is; how we
all admire it ; how it raises a man in our eyes to see him
afraid of boasting; never showing off; never pushing himself
forward --------. Whenever, on the other
hand --------.
A Venetian who enters or leaves any place of public resort
touches his hat to the company, and one day at the restaurant
some ladies, who had been dining there, said '^Complhnenti !" on
going out with a grace that went near to make the beef-steak
tender. It is this uncostly gentleness of bearing which gives a
winning impression of the whole Venetian people, v/hatever selfish-
ness or real discourtesy lie beneath it. At home [in the United
States] it sometimes seems --------.
Whittier was a born poet. He was not an artist in verse as
Longfellow was; and he was often as careless in rhyme and
as rugged in rhythm as was Emerson. Yet to some of his
stanzas --------.
There are four different kinds of running: sprinting, which
includes all distances up to the quarter mile; middle-distance
running — from the quarter to the mile; and long-distance run-
ning, which includes the mile and all distances beyond. Besides
these there is cross-country running. This last is best of all for
growing boys. The first three are track races, and it is monotonous
work trotting round and round a cinder path. But - - - -.
I have sometimes been puzzled in Venice to know why churches
should keep cats, church-mice being proverbially so poor, and so
little capable of sustaining a cat in good condition ; yet - - -.
There is a common notion that animals are better meteorologists
than men, and I have little doubt that in immediate weather-wisdom
they have the advantage of our sophisticated senses (though I sus-
pect a sailor or shepherd would be their match), but _ - _ _.
Any slave of the mine may find the rough gem ; but - - -.
If Gray cull his words and phrases here, there, and everywhere, it
is he who charges them with the imagination or picturesque touch
which only he could give and which makes them magnetic.
110 Composition-Rhetoric,
The universal dead-level of jDlainness and homeliness, the lack
of all beauty and distinction in form and feature, the slowness and
clumsiness of the language, the eternal beer, sausages, and bad
tobacco, the blank commonness everywhere, pressing at last like
a weight on the spirits of the traveller in Northern Germany,
and making him impatient to be gone, — this is the weak side;
-------, — this is the strong side ; and through this
side of her genius, Germany has already obtained excellent results.
EXERCISE 32. :_ vO
Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a paragraph
by presenting contrasting ideas : —
1. It is seldom that a pupil succeeds equally well in all
his studies.
2. Lincoln's early advantages were extremely limited.
3. Kovel reading seems to be on the increase.
4. The world is growing more humane.
5. The good will triumph over wrong.
6. Slavery was an unmixed evil.
7. The war against Mexico was not begun with unselfish
motives.
8. There have been temporary evils connected with the
introduction of labor-saving machinery.
9. Lynching should be suppressed.
10. Jackson and Lincoln present points of similarity.
11. There are books that may be dismissed with a single
reading. A
12. Examinations are a fair test of ability;.
LESSON 18,
. i-AxMi
How Paragraphs Grow — Cause and Effect.
When the topic-sentence is a statement of something that
may be regarded as a cause, the remaining sentences are apt
>Vj . ,^ ,.,. ^^What to^^^ ^^ 111
to be statements of an effect of this cause. Thus a writer
who begins a paragraph with the sentence, " When the Eo-
mans conquered Greece and the East, they saw a great
many things which they had never seen before/^ is very
likely in the following sentence to tell us how the Eomans
took to these new things, that is, how Eoman habits and
character were affected by them. So he passes naturally
from contact with new things as a cause, to changes in Eo-
man character as an effect. Again, he may have occasion
to say on the same topic that ^^the Greeks were much
cleverer than the Eomans," after which we may expect the
consequences to the Eomans of contact with this cleverness,
— it surprised them or excited their envy, or gave them
new ideas. This method of growth is illustrated in the fol-
lowing : —
When the Romans conquered Greece and the East, they saw a
great many things which they had never seen before: and they
began to care more about eating and drinking and building fine
houses. The Greeks were much cleverer than the Romans, or
indeed than any people of the time, for all the best books and
statues and pictures of the old world had been made by the Greek
writers and artists. So the Romans not only learned many new
things from the Greeks, but gave up a^ great many of their own
early beliefs. They thought less of their own Roman gods, and
altogether they were not so simple or so good as they had been
before. — M. Creighton: History of Rome {History Primers) ^ 52.
The way in which the idea of the paragraph grows may
be indicated as follows : —
1. Cause: The Eomans saw many new things; effect:
The Eomans began to care more about eating and drinking
and building fine houses.
2. Cause : The Greeks with whom they came in contact
were cleverer than the Eomans in literature and art ; effect :
The Eomans adopted Greek ideas and gave up their old be-
liefs.
112 Composition-Rhetoric.
In the following paragraph describiDg the charge of the
Light Brigade, Mr. Kinglake tells lis first of the fire of
the enemy, then of the effect of this fire upon the ranks
of the Brigade: —
Pressing always deeper and deeper into this pen of fire, the de-
voted brigade, with Lord Cardigan still at its head, continued to
move down the valley. The fire the brigade was incurring had
not come to be of that crushing sort which mows down half a
troop in one instant, and for some time a steady pace was main-
tained. As often as a horse was killed, or disabled, or deprived
of the rider, his fall, or his plunge, or his ungoverned pressure
had commonly the effect of enforcing upon the neighboring
chargers more or less of lateral movement, and in this way there
was occasioned a slight distention of the rank in which the casu-
alty had occurred ; but, in the next instant, when the troopers had
ridden clear of the disturbing cause, they closed up, and rode on
in a line as even as before, though reduced by the loss just sus-
tained. The movement occasioned by each casualty was so con-
stantly recurring, and so constantly followed by the same process,
— the process of reclosing the ranks, that, to distant observers,
the alternate distention and contraction of the line seemed to
have the precision and sameness which belong to mechanic
contrivance. Of these distant observers there was one — and that
too a soldier — who so felt to the heart the true import of what he
saw that, in a paroxysm of admiration and grief, he burst into
tears. In well-maintained order, but growing less every instant,
our squadron still moved down the valley. — Invasion of the Crimea,
ir, 517.
In the foregoing may be seen a second example of an effect follow-
ing a cause — the tears of the soldier are caused by the movement of
the line which he is observing.
It will be observed that this relation of cause to effect is
usually indicated by means of conjunctions and connecting
phrases. Such expressions as hence, so, so that, therefore, for,
thus, accordingly, consequently, in consequence, as a result,
are employed for this purpose.
What to Say. 113
A seventh metliod of expanding a paragraph-theme into a para-
graph consists in stating something that is regarded as a cause,
and following it by a statement of the effects or consequences of
the cause.
In the following paragraphs, point out ideas which are
vrelated to one another as cause to effect : —
//^ ^he friction in the minute arteries and capillaries presents a
considerable resistance to the flow of blood through them into the
small veins. ] In consequence of this resistance, the force of the
heart's beat is spent in maintaining the whole of the arterial
system in a state of great distention ; the arterial walls are put
greatly on the stretch by the pressure of the blood thrust into
them by the repeated strokes of the heart; ;4ihis is the pressure
which we spoke of above as blood-pressure. — Foster : Physiology,
chap. lY.
There was a salt marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on
the edge of which, at high-water, we used to stand to fish for
minnows.')-. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire.
3, My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon,
and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones which were
intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very
well suit our purpose. - Accordingly, in the evening, when the
workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows,
and working with them diligently, like so many emmets, some-
times two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built
our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised
at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. ^^ Inquiry
was made after the removers ; we were discovered, and complained
of ; several of us were corrected by our fathers ; and though I
pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing
was useful which was not honest. — Franklin : Autobiography.
At court, and in the castles of the great nobles, where the pomp
and state of a court were emulated, Norman-French was the only
language employed ; in courts of law the pleadings and judgments
114 Composition- Rhetoric.
were delivered in the same tongue. Q[n short, French was the
language of honor, of chivalry, and eveii~6TyusfTce^ while the
far more manly and expressive Anglo-Saxon was abandoned to
the use of rustics and hinds, who knew no other. _Still, however,
the necessary intercourse between the lords of the soil and those
oppressed inferior beings by whom that soil was cultivated occa-
sioned the gradual formation of a dialect compounded betwixt the
French and the Anglo-Saxon, in which they could render them-
selves mutually intelligible to each other ; and from this necessity
arose by degrees the structure of our present English language, in
which the speech of the victors and the vanquished have been
so happily blended together, and which has since been so richly
improved by importations from the classical languages, and from
those spoken by the southern nations of Europe. — Scott : Ivanhoe,
chap. I.
The insular form of Great Britain gave it a certain advantage
over the continent during the age when the northern tribes were
plundering Rome and devastating the countries of southern Europe.
As their invasions of England could only be by sea, they were
necessarily on a comparatively small scale. They could not at
once overrun the whole land, as they did in France, and hence the
strife was long maintained by hope of successful resistance ; and
thus courage and the virtues that depend on courage were kept
alive and transmitted. — Montgomery : The Leading Facts of
English History^ 7.
A warm and moist wind, the south-west of the Atlantic, for
example, setting from the tropics, comes in contact with the
colder air of the temperate regions^ its temperature is lowered ;
it can no longer contain as great a quantity of vapor. A por-
tion of its humidity is immediately condensed into clouds, then
falls in rain.
Or the opposite; a wind charged with clouds arrives in a
warmer and dryer air; comes, for example, from the Mediter-
ranean to the Sahara, as is the case during three-fourths of the
year ; the burning air of the desert, having a much greater capacity
for vapor, dissipates instantly all these clouds, that break up,
vanish, and disappoint the excited expectation of the traveller,
who hoped for refreshing rains. — Guyot : Earth and Man, 152.
What to Say. 115
EXERCISE 34.
These paragraphs as originally written contained a state-
ment of a cause followed by a statement of a result of that
cause. Supply the omitted portion.
Some tribes, especially those that lived in the neighborhood of
the great lakes, made certain tools and implements of copper,
which metal, it is said, they had some means of hardening, so that
it would cut wood tolerably well. But they had no iron. Accord-
ingly -_----_-.;
The coming of the Europeans to this country brought new
races not only of men, but also of plants and animals, into con-
tact and connection with those previously .existing here. The
result was JtJM^ A iH,UJ=: (XaiOU,. ,. M-Mrn OH^Jua AJ^p
Every American boy should learn to run. The English boy is
encouraged to run. In fact, at some of the great English public
schools, boys of thirteen and fourteen years of age, like Tom
Brown and East at Rugby, can cover six and eight miles cross-
country in the great hare-and-hounds runs. Every boy is turned
out twice a week, out of doors, and made to run, and fill himself
full of pure fresh air and sunshine, and gain more strength and
life than any amount of weight-pulling or dumb-bell work in stuffy
gymnasiums would give him. See the result .
By the ArticlesyOf Confederation the General Government had
no power to levy taxes, and yet it had power to incur debts. The
result was - - - - - - - -.
The relation of trades unions to civilization is much misunder-
stood, and this misunderstanding has resulted in - - - - -.
Organized labor has for some time been limiting the number of
apprentices that may be admitted at any one time to a shop or a
factory in order to learn a trade. In some lines of work one boy
to four journeymen is the rule ; in others, where the union influ-
ence is strong, not more than one boy for every eight, or ten, or a
dozen, mechanics is permitted. The consequence is - - - -.
That the laws and regulations of the Spartan constitution were
admirably adapted to the end in view, — the rearing of a nation
116 Composition-Rhetoric .
of skilful and resolute warriors, — the long military supremacy ol
Sparta among the states of Greece abundantly attests. But when
we consider the aim and object of the Spartan institutions, we
must pronounce them low and unworthy. The true order of
things was just reversed among the Lacedaemonians. Govern-
ment exists for the individual : at Sparta the individual lived for
the state. The body is intended to be the instrument of the mind :
the Spartans reversed this, and attended to the education of the
mind only so far as its development enhanced the effectiveness of
the body as a weapon in warfare. [Results] --_-__.
Sparta, in significant contrast to Athens, bequeathed nothing to
posterity.
During the last fifty years the continents have been covered
with a perfect network of railroads, constructed at an enormous
cost of labor and capital. The aggregate length of the world's
steam railways in 1883 was about 275,000 miles, sufficient, to use
Mulhall's illustration, to girdle the earth eleven times at the
equator, or more than sufficient to reach from the earth to the
moon. The continental lines of railways are made virtually con-
tinuous round the world by connecting lines of ocean steamers.
Telegraph wires traverse the continents in all directions, and
cables run beneath all the oceans of the globe. By these inven-
tions --------.
Jefferson's interest in public affairs had become a part of his
nature, and could not suddenly cease. Accordingly in his retire-
ment _-------.
The people saw, in Washington, the hero of the war for inde-
pendence, the austere champion of their liberties, the devoted
leader of ill-fed, ill-clad armies fighting against fearful odds.
They knew that his life had been pure, that under an exterior
seemingly cold there beat a warm and hospitable heart. What
wonder then that --------.
EXERCISE 35.
~t«4£?
Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a paragraph
by presenting the result which seems naturally to flow from each : —
^'
What to Say. 117
1. The use of narcotics is injurious to the nerves, and
tunts the growing body.
2. The school-room was forbidding in appearance : the
windows were dirty, the walls were bare and cheerless, and
the switch occupied the most prominent place in the room.
3. The framers of the Constitution thought that slavery
would die out after a time.
4. Poe believed that every literary production should be
short enough to be read at one sitting.
5. Washington knew, better than Braddock, the methods
of Indian warfare.
6. Peoj)le in our crowded cities have at last learned that
good sanitary arrangements are absolutely necessary to pub-
lic health.
7. The colonists, as English subjects, felt themselves
entitled to all the rights guaranteed by the British Consti-
tution.
8. No two men differed more widely than Hamilton and
Jefferson in their ideas of government and finance.
^ 9. Whittier felt keenly the national disgrace of slavery.
10. Our forefathers thought that only the wisest men in
the nation should choose the President.
11. School -authorities have come to see the importance
of physical culture.
12. The people of the North refused to believe that the
South was serious in its preparations for war and in its
threats of secession.
U^"
LESSON 19.
How Paragraphs Grow — Proofs.
If a writer should begin a paragraph with the topic-sen-
tence, " The Greeks did not understand athletics at all so
well as the English do,'' many readers would question the
118 Composition-Rhetoric,
truth of the statement. They would say that the Greeks
both understood athletics and practised athletics better than
any other people in the history of the world, and they would
want to know on what ground so preposterous a notion was
advanced. It would then be the business of the writer, if
he wanted his readers to agree with him, to bring forward
the grounds or proofs of his assertion. By pointing out
defects in the Greek system of training or manner of con-
ducting athletic contests, or, perhaps, by quoting from the
opinions of the Greeks themselves, he would endeavor to
make his opening sentence seem probable or true. Such is
the method employed in the following paragraph : —
Though extraordinary feats were sometimes recorded, I believe
that the Greeks did not understand athletics at all so well as the
English do. Two facts may be mentioned in proof of this. The
runners are said to have started shouting. The boxers, who had
their fists weighted with loaded leather gloves, swung round at one
another's ears, instead of striking straight home. What we hear
about their training seems equally stupid ; their trained men are
described as generally sleepy, they fed on enormous quantities
of meat, and were obliged to swear that they had spent ten months
in training before the games. Good generals, such as Alexander
and Philopoemen, discountenanced athletics as producing bad
soldiers. But, nevertheless, the combination of art contests with
athletics made the Greek meetings finer and more imposing than
ours. — J. P. Mahaffy: Old Greek Life^ 77.
By this method Professor Jebb develops the thought that the
Greeks were the first people to make reason the guide of social
life: —
The Greeks were not the first people who found out how to till
the earth well, or to fashion metals, or to grow rich by war or
commerce, or to build splendid houses and temples. But they
were the first people who tried to make reason the guide of their
social life. One proof of this is found in the very existence of the
Greek cities. While other men were living in tribes or under
What to Say. 119
despotic kings, the Greeks had already gathered themselves
together in cities, — societies ruled, not by force, but by the per-
suasions of equal law. Another proof of it is found in the Greek
books. There we find writers of all sorts, poets and historians
and philosophers, habitually striving to get at the reasons of things.
On this side, Greek literature has an interest such as belongs to no
other literature. It shows us how some questions which have been
solved since, and others which are being discussed still, appeared
to the people who first seriously tried to answer them. — R. C. Jebb :
Primer of Greek Literature^ 6.
An eighth way of developing a paragraph-theme consists in add-
ing to the topic-sentence sentences containing proofs.
EXERCISE 36. ^^^bj
In each of the following paragraphs, what is tlie exact
idea to be proved? Point out the sentences which prove
this idea.
/ The death of Caesar was an irreparable loss, not only to the
Roman people, but to the whole civilized world ;|for the Republic
was utterly ruined, and no earthly power could restore it. ■ Caesar's
death involved the State in fresh struggles and civil wars for many
a year, until in the end it fell again (and this was the best that,
under the circumstances, could have happened to it) under the
supremacy of Augustus, who had neither the talent, nor the will,
nor the power, to carry out all the beneficent plans which his
great-uncle had formed.r3lt has been truly said, that the murder
of Caesar was the most senseless act the Romans ever committed.
Had it been possible at all to restore the Republic, it would una-
voidably have fallen into the hands of a most profligate aristocracy;
who would have sought nothing but their own aggrandizement;
would have demoralized the people still more; and would have
established their own greatness upon the ruins of their country.
It is only necessary to recollect the latter years of the Republic,
the depravity and corruption of the ruling classes, the scenes of
violence and blood-shed which constantly occurred in the streets
of Rome, to render it evident to every one that peace and security
120 Oomposition-Rhetoric,
could not be restored, except by the strong hand of a sovereign ;
and the Roman world would have been fortunate indeed, if it had
submitted to the mild and beneficent sway of Csesar. — Schmitz:
History of Rome.
' An abuse like our spoils system does not remain stationary.
Either it will be reformed, or it will increase by its own momen-
tum, till we shall see, at first cautiously^and under specious pre-
tenses, and finally as a matter of courseiall the best offices in the
army and navy appropriated at every cEange of administration
on the theory " To the victors belong the spoils."3^ And why not?
It would be as reasonable and just to make changes in military
and naval offices on party grounds as it is in the civil service 3 H / ; ^
such changes are good for the civil service, they ought to be good, '1^'
for other branches of the service. L,This is the way the advocates^
of rotation would argue ; and although such a development of the.
spoils system would be deprecated by all friends of good adminis-
tration, we must not be too confident it will not occur. — Andrews :
Administrative Reform, 28.
Competition is the best security for cheapness, but by no meant
a security for quality. In former times, when producers and
consumers were less numerous, it was a security for both. : The
niarket was not large enough nor the means of publicity sufficient
to enable a dealer to make a fortune by continually attracting new
, ^customers: his success depended on his retaining those that he
[.Aj had; and when a dealer furnished good articles, or when he did
' , not, the fact was soon known to those whom it concerned, and he
acquired a character for honest or dishonest dealing of more im-
portance to him than the gain that would be made by cheating a
casual purchasers. l^But on the great scale of modern transactions, ^ JL
with the great multiplication of competition and the immense v.
increase in the quantity of business competed for, dealers are so
little dependent on permanent customers that character is much
less essential to them, while there is also^ar less certainty of their
obtaining the character they deserve. h> The low prices which a
tradesman advertises are known to a thousand, for one who has
discovered for himself or learned from others that the bad quality
of the goods is more than an equivalent for their cheapness. —
Mill : Chapters on Socialism.
What to Say. 121
It does not appear that Shakespeare thought his works worthy
of posterity, that he levied any ideal tribute upon future times,
or had any further prospect than of present popularity and present
profit. When his plays had been acted, his hope was at an end ;
he solicited no addition of honor from the reader. He therefore
made no scruple to repeat the same jests in many dialogues, or to
entangle different plots by the same knot of perplexity; which
may be at least forgiven him by those who recollect that of Con-
greve's four comedies, two are concluded by a marriage in a mask,
by a deception which perhaps never happened, and which, whether
likely or not, he did not invent.
So careless was this great poet of future fame that, though he
retired to ease and plenty while he was yet little " declined into
the vale of years," before he could be disgusted with fatigue, or
disabled by infirmity, he made no collection of his works, nor
desired to rescue those that had been already published from the
depravations that obscured them, or secure to the rest a better
destiny, by giving them to the world in their genuine state.
Of the plays which bear the name of Shakespeare in the late
editions, the greater part were not published till about seven years
after his death ; and the few which appeared in his life are appar-
ently thrust into the world without the care of the author, and
therefore probably without his knowledge. — Johnson : Preface to
Shakespeare.
In rural occupation there is nothing mean and debasing. It
leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and beauty ;
it leaves him to the workings of his own mind, operated upon by
the purest and most elevating of external influences. Such a man
may be simple and rough, but he cannot be vulgar. The man of
refinement, therefore, finds nothing revolting in an intercourse
with the lower orders of rural life, as he does when he casually
mingles with the lower orders of cities. He lays aside his distance
and reserve, and is glad to waive the distinctions of rank, and to
enter into the honest, heartfelt enjoyments of common life. Indeed,
the very amuiiements of the country bring men more and more
together, and the sound of hound and horn blend all feelings into
harmony. I believe this is one great reason why the nobility and
gentry are more popular among the inferior orders in England
122 Composition-Rhetoric,
than they are in any other country; and why the latter have
endured so many excessive pressures and extremities, without
repining more generally at the unequal distribution of fortune
and privilege. — Irving : Sketch Book : Rural Life in England.
It is too soon as yet to attempt to estimate the effect of the
Reform Act of 1867. The people enfranchised under it do not
yet know their own power : a single election, so far from teaching
us how they will use that power, has not been even enough to
explain to them that they have such power. The Reform Act of
1832 did not for niany years disclose its real consequences ; a
writer in 1836, whether he approved or disapproved of them,
whether he thought too little of, or whether he exaggerated them,
would have been sure to be mistaken in them. — Bagehot : Eng-
lish Constitution, 3.
I \ ^y^ EXERCISE 37. ^ ZZ^
Supply proofs for each of the following topic-sentences, or of
their opposites : —
1. Shorter political campaigns are desirable.
2. Shy lock's treatment was unjust.
3. The United States should have a larger standing
army.
4. Local elections should be free from partisanship.
5. The primary object of the Civil War was not to free
the slaves.
6. One may read too much even in good books.
7. Statesmanship in Congress is not declining.
8. A general European war would be a good thing for
American farmers.
9. The acquisition of Cuba by the United States is not
desirable.
10. Labor-saving machinery benefits labor.
11. It is a bad policy to strike.
12. The advantages of travel are over-estimated.
What to Say, 123
LESSON 20.
How Paragraphs Grow — Combination of Two or More
Methods.
Two or more of the foregoing methods of development
are frequently illustrated in a single paragraph.
1. In few things is the great advance made in this country
during the past one hundred years more strikingly apparent than
in the change which has taken place in the social and intellectual
condition of the school-master. 2. The education of the young
has now become a lucrative profession by itself and numbers
among its followers many of the choicest minds of the age.
3. The school-master is specially prepared for his work, and is in
receipt of a &um sufficient to maintain him in comfort, to enable
him to procure books, and, if he be so inclined, to travel. 4. Book-
sellers and publishers make a liberal discount in his behalf. 5. The
government allows him to import the text-books and apparatus
used in his work duty free. 6. He is everywhere regarded as an
eminently useful member of society. 7. But the lot of the school-
master who taught in the district school-house three generations
since fell in a very different time and among a very different
people. 8. School was then held in the little red school-house for
two months in the winter by a man, and for two months in the
summer by a woman. 9. The boys went in the winter, the girls
in the summer. 10. The master was generally a divinity student
who had graduated at one of the academies, who had scarcely
passed out of his teens, and who sought by the scanty profits de-
rived from a winter's teaching to defray the expenses of his study
at Harvard or at Yale. 11. His pay was small, yet he was never
called upon to lay out any portion of it for his keep. 12. If the
district were populous and wealthy a little sum was annually set
apart for his board, and he was placed with a farmer who would,
for that amount, board and lodge him the longest time. 13. But
this was far too expensive a method for many of the districts, and
the master was, therefore, expected to live with the parents of his
pupils, regulating the length of his stay by the number of the boys
124 Composition-Rhetoi'ic,
in the family attending his school. 14. Thus it happened that in
the course of his teaching he became an inmate of all the houses
of the district, and was not seldom forced to walk five miles, in the
worst of weather over the w^orst of roads, to his school. 15. Yet,
mendicant though he was, it would be a great mistake to suppose
that he was not always a welcome guest. 16. He slept in the best
room, sat in the warmest nook by the fire, and had the best food
set before him at the table. 17. In the long winter evenings he
helped the boys with their lessons, held yarn for the daughters, or
escorted them to spinning matches or quiltings. 18. In return for
his miserable pittance and his board the young student taught
what would now be considered as the rudiments of an education.
19. His daily labors were confined to teaching his scholars to read
with a moderate degree of fluency, to write legibly, to speU with
some regard for the rules of orthography, and to know as much
of the rules of arithmetic as would enable them to calculate the
interest on a debt, to keep the family accounts, and to make
change in a shop. — McMaster : History of the People of the
United States,
Taken as a whole the foregoing paragraph illustrates the
method of contrast, the condition of the ancient school-
master (sentences 7-19) being contrasted with the condition
of the modern (sentences 2-6). But in the development of
the contrasted ideas several other methods are exemplified.
Thus it is hardly necessary to point out that the contrasted
ideas are themselves developed by the method of particu-
lars. Again, the ideas in sentences 13 and 14 are related
to each other respectively as cause and effect, and the idea
of sentence 15, that the school-master was a welcome guest,
is developed in sentences 16 and 17 by means of illustrative
particulars. A minor contrast appears in sentence-groups
10-14 and 15-17.
Note in this paragraph the words used to show the con-
nection of ideas : in sentence 7, but; in sentence 11, yet; in
sentence 13, but^ therefore; in sentence 14, thus; in sentence
15, yet.
What to Say, 125
EXERCISE ^ 38.
Distinguish the methods of development used in the
following paragraphs: —
Women as Household Decorators.
[From Women and Men^ by permission. Copyright, 1887, by Harper and
' It once hajipened to me to spend a day or two in a country-house
where the different rooms gave unconscious object-lessons to show
the gradual change of taste in household decoration..; One room —
the sitting-room of an elderly invalid — represented what might be
called the iron age of furnishing ; everything was dark mahogany
and hair-cloth ; there was not a chair or a sofa on which you could
retain youo* seat without a struggle, so polished and so slippery were
they all. " The walls were hung with dark portraits in dark frames,
or smaller daguerreotypes in circles of black walnut ; the only spots
of color were found in one faded sampler, and in the gilded circu-
lar frame of^^^very small mirror hung too high for use.
-t^. It was cuHbttsHa^^Ss from this sombre abode into the bedroom
I occupied, which had been fitted up by an elder sister, long since
married, and whose girlhood fell in what might be called the glacial
period of thirty years ago.,;. Here everything was white instead of
dark — white Parian statuettes, white fluffy embroideries, a white
cross cut in complicated fashion out of paper, surrounded with
white flowers and hung in a white frame against a white wall. On
the mantel-piece stood a pair of cut-glass vases, bearing great clus-
ters of dried grasses, bleached almost colorless by time. The furni-
ture was of straw, and the counterpane was of white damask. If the
room of the iron age was depressing, this was even more so ; it was
^ like passing from an underground cave into a chilly world of ice.
yTy^^ But a third experience was offered on proceeding to the parlor,
^ which had been given over to the charge of the youngest daughter,
fresh from an art school. From this room every article of pure
white or jet black had been banished ; the eye wandered from one
half tint to another, or if any bit of positive color arrested the gaze,
it was some unexpected stroke of bold yellow or regal red. " ^o two
chairs were alike ; nothing was paired ; the carved marble mantel-
126 Composition- Rhetoric,
^
piece was concealed by a lambrequin ; there were screens, fans, a
knot of some Oriental stuff at the back of every chair, three vari-
ous vases of bulrushes, and seven seltzer-water jars painted by the
young lady herself. This room did not belong to the iron age, nor
yet to the glacial, but to the recent or Japanese formation.' Con-
sidered as a step forward from the earlier stages represented in
that house, it indicated a great advance ; regarded as a finality, it
,was something to appall the human heart.
X Now all these successive transformations were the work of
women, and they suggest the question. If woman is thus the born
and appointed decorator of the home, why should she not be trained
to do it artistically and professionally? -It is not truly artistic to
plunge at once into the most exclusive extreme of the present
fashion, whether it lead to black, or white, or a multiplicity of
hue, but to take what is truly the best of each period and adapt it
gracefully to modern use and to the needs of each separate family.
In many houses this is now exquisitely done ; no one can deny the
great improvement in our "interiors" within twenty years. But
if it is to be done systematically for the community, it is impossi-
ble to leave it wholly to amateurs. • The modern decoration implies
architects, designers, and artificers of its own. In the foreman of
an art-blacksmith's shop I found the other day one whom I had
previously known as a working jeweller ; he had simply transferred
his energy and skill from gold and silver to brass and iron, and was
laboring with hands harder than before, yet no less cunning, upon
graceful gas-fixtures and indoor ornamentations of his own design-
ing. ' It must be the same with women ; they must undergo profes-
sional training to do their best. Here is this whole continent waiting
to be made graceful and beautiful in its indoor homes. It is said
by dealers that, outside of a few large cities, there is absolutely no
arrangement to suppl}'^ this demand, — no one who can give to a
young couple setting up their house-keeping more than that amount
of information possessed by the average furniture dealer, which is
very little. For want of this many a young pair, as their wedding-
day approaches, sit down and ponder helplessly over some book on
"The House Beautiful," or "Indoor Decoration," until their souls
are filled with despair. ) Where are they to find these charming
portieres^ these aesthetic wall-papers, these delightful Russian wash-
bowls that are lighter and prettier and cheaper and more durable
What to Say, 127
than any china? And the dealers receive unavailing letters from
a thousand miles away, asking for the wrong things or under the
wrong names, and ending in failure. What is the remedy?
The remedy is for a few women first, and then a good many
women, after training themselves properly, to take up decoration
as a profession. Let any two bright and capable girls w^ho have
j^'l,^' wearied themselves in painting water-colors that people do not
want, or Christmas cards for which the market is waning, try
another experiment. Let them, after studying in the art schools
of I^ew York or Boston or Cincinnati, make also a careful study of
the markets and workshops of those cities, so far as they relate to
decoration; and then go, armed with circulars, price-lists, plans,
and patterns, to establish themselves as household decorators in
some interior city, where the wave of modern improvement has
thus far come only as a matter of intelligent interest, not of syste-
matic supply. They will have to wait awhile, no doubt, to com-
mand public confidence, or even to make their mission understood ;
but they will not have to wait so long as their brothers will wait
for clients or for patients. They will need to be very practical,
very accurate, very efiicient, and very patient. The great dealers
in the larger cities will gladly make them their agents, give them
letters of introduction, and pay them a commission on sales. With
a little tact they can learn to co-operate with the local dealers, to
whom they will naturally leave the coarser supplies, devoting them-
selves to the finer touches. If they succeed at all, their circle of
clients or correspondents may extend through whole states, and
they will help to refine the life and thought of the nation. By all
means let us see women take up household decoration as an edu-
cated profession. — T. W. HiGGINSON.
Before closing this chapter let me say something about the
reading of business letters as well as the writing of them. It is,
perhaps, a harder duty to read such letters with the necessary-
degree of attention than to compose them, for the author has his
head charged with the subject, and writing the letter is a relief to
him, but to the receiver the matter is new, and however lucid may
be the exposition it always requires some degree of real attention
on his part. How are you, being at a distance, to get an indolent
man to bestow that necessary attention ? He feels secure from a
has
3te- Q ^
128 Composition-Rhetoric.
personal visit, and indulges his indolence by neglecting your con-
cerns, even when they are also his own. Long ago I heard an
English Archdeacon tell the following story about his Bishop.
The prelate was one of that numerous class of men who loathe the
sight of a business letter, and he had indulged his indolence in
that respect to such a degree that, little by little, he had arrived
at the fatal stage where one leaves letters unopened for days or
weeks. At one particular time the Archdeacon was aware of a
great arrear of unopened letters, and impressed his lordship with
the necessity of taking some note of their contents. Yielding to a
stronger will, the Bishop began to read, and one of the first com-
munications was from a wealthy man who offered a large sum for
church purposes (I think for building), but if the offer was not
accepted within a certain lapse of time he declared his intention
of making it to that which a Bishop loveth not — a dissenting
community. The prelate had opened the letter too late, and he
lost the money. I believe that the Archdeacon's vexation at the
loss was more than counterbalanced by gratification that his hie-
rarchical superior had received such a lesson for his neglect. Yet
he did but imitate Napoleon, of whom Emerson says, "■ He directed
Bourrienne to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then
observed wdth satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence
had disposed of itself and no longer required an answer." This is
a very unsafe system to adopt, as the case of the Bishop proves.
Things may "dispose of themselves" in the wrong way, like wine
in a leaky cask, which, instead of putting itself carefully into a
sound cask, goes trickling into the earth. — Hamerton: Human
Intercourse.
False ideals of dignity are very inimical to effective bodily exer-
cise. A foolish notion that it is more dignified to be seen in a
carriage than on horseback has deprived all French ecclesiastics
of the use of the saddle. Their modes of locomotion are settled
by a fixed rule; they may walk (generally with the breviary in
their hands, which they read whilst walking), and the poor cure
may now keep a small pony carriage. A bishop must alw^ays ride
in a close carriage drawn by a pair of horses. A cure may drive
himself ; a bishop may not drive. In England these rules are not
so strict, as the clergy are not so widely different from the laity.
What to Say, 129
The English clergyman may ride on horseback and be active in
other ways; still there is a prejudice even in England against
too much healthy activity in clergymen. Being on a visit to a
vicar in the north of England, I found that he possessed a com-
plete apparatus for archery. " That is a good thing for you/' I
said; but he looked melancholy, and answered, "It would be if
my parishioners permitted the use of it, but they talked so much
that I was forced to give up archery. They considered it unbe-
coming in a clergyman, who ought to be attending to his parish.
Had I spent the same time over a decanter of port wine in my
dining-room they would have raised no objection." The same
clergyman was fond of leaping, but indulged that passion in
secret as if it had been a sin. Still, these prejudices are stronger
in France. I never saw a French priest shoot, or hunt, or row in
a boat. It cannot be the cruelty of shooting and hunting which
prevents him, as he is allowed to fish with hooks; it is simply
the activity of the manlier sports that excites disapprobation. All
Frenchmen who care for their dignity avoid velocipedes of all
kinds, which are used only by young men, who are generally in
the middle class, such as clerks and shopkeepers' assistants. In
England, where the prejudice against activity is not so strong,
velocipedes are often used by rather elderly gentlemen, who are
not ashamed of being active. — Hamertojs^ : French and English, 7.
It was quite three weeks before I began to keep any record of
impressions, and I cannot therefore fix the date at which I pushed
my search for them beyond the limits of the Piazza Santa Maria
Novella, where we were lodged. It is better to own up at once to
any sin which one is likely to be found out in, for then one gains
at least the credit of candor and courage ; and I will confess here
that I had come to Florence with the intention of writing about
it. But I rather wonder now w^hy I should have thought of writ-
ing of the whole city, when one piazza in it was interesting enough
to make a book about. It was in itself not one of the most inter-
esting piazzas of Florence in the ordinary way. I do not know
that anything very historical ever happened there ; but that is by
no means saying that there did not. There used, under the early
Medici and the late grand dukes, to be chariot-races in it, the goals
of which are the two obelisks by John of Bologna, set upon the
130 Oomposition-Rhetoric,
backs of the bronze turtles, which the sympathetic observer will
fancy gasping under their weight at either end of the irregular
space ; and its wide floor is still unpaved, so that it is a sop of mud
in rainy weather, and a whirl of dust in dry. At the end opposite
the church is the terminus of the steam tramway running to
Prato, and the small engine that drew the trains of two or three
horse-cars linked together was perpetually fretting and snufiling
about the base of the obelisk there, as if that were a stump, and
the engine were a boy's dog with intolerable conviction of a wood-
chuck under it. From time to time the conductor blew a small
horn of a feeble, reedy note, like that of the horns which children
find in their stockings on Christmas morning ; and then the poor
little engine hitched itself to the train, and with an air of hopeless
affliction snuffled awaj^ toward Prato, and left the w^oodchuck
under the obelisk to escape. The impression of a woodchuck was
confirmed by the digging around the obelisk, which a gang of
workmen kept up all winter ; they laid down water-pipes, and then
dug them up again. But when the engine was gone we could give
our minds to other sights in the piazza.
One of these was the passage of troops, infantry or cavalry, who
were always going to or from the great railway station behind the
church, and who entered it with a gay blare of bugles, extinguished
midway of the square, letting the measured tramp of feet or the
irregular clack of hoofs make itself heard. This w^as always thrill-
ing, and we could not get enough of the brave spectacle. We
rejoiced in the parade of Italian military force with even more
than native ardor, for w^e were not taxed to pay for it, and person-
ally the men were beautiful ; not large or strong, but regular and
refined of face, rank and file alike, in that democracy of good looks
which one sees in no other land. They marched with a lounging,
swinging step, under a heavy burden of equipment, and with the
sort of quiet patience to which the whole nation has been schooled
in its advance out of slavish subjection to the van of civilization.
— HowELLS : Tuscan Cities, 4, 5.
ff EXERCISE 39.
Develop the following outlines into paragraphs by supplying the
missing sentences : —
iffi^
What to Say, 131
Kh
The discovery of the American continent was made by a
native of Italy, but Ttopic-senteiice 'snowing Spain's interest
^'^^^^^^^Bp^cffi^ Thus it came about [result, devel- ..
The Monroe Doctrine is a warning to European powers to -v^j^
keep their hands off territory in North and South America.^
In other words . . . [repetition] , . .- This is as if . . . f<oX|iOL.
. V^'c6inparison with some familiar occurrence of ordinary life] p;J(^
. . . The assertion of the Monroe Doctrine has sometimes ' fYJ.
been interpreted to mean that the United States will inter-
fere whenever misunderstandings arise between European
powers and the South American Kepublics, but A : '^ [con-
'^^^i^st] ! : . Eor example . . . [an instance in which the
United States refused to interfere] . . .
There are times in the life of everyone when new and
strange things occur with such rapidity that one is hardly
able to catch one's, breath between the happenings. It is
\ r' r.^^ \\J^^ (
though,: .... [analogy to show suddenness of change]
>^
To-day one may be . . . \f'{He?bntrast] . . . Twenty -four hours
may ::•. . [repetitWii^ Emphasizing rapidity of events] . . 3^»
It was so with . . . [example from history] . . . when he
. . . [particulars] . . . From such sudden changes one .
may come forth much stronger in character, and XUViJLJW.
[result]. »ffoujdj^ ^ra>u oWbiiu \j^o>c fcW Uuuuly \^<-^ ?-^^
During the annual meeting of the Westinghouse Electric ^^^^^
Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh recently, a test was
made of a new railway electric motor. This motor easily
drew several loaded freight cars at a rapid rate and with a
low supply of electricity, and the opinion was general that
in this invention there has been found an economical sub-
stitute for steam-power on long-distance railways. If this
should prove to be the case . . . [results] . . . These ^
changes are sure to come in time, because .'-. . [proofs *^^I
^^>*^^^hx)^ing their desirability] , . . The only thing that can "^
AiMdelay the subsft?iifeon of electric for steam power is the
iV^
question of expense .. . rparticiilarsl . « . But PrV [con-;. \,
trasF sjiowmg tnat tms^ ODjectioii wlQ oe o^rcomej . . .
^^^^'ne pfesent situation is somewhat similar to that whicgh ,
existed when-V^V^/ [comparison showing that expense did' ^>
^" not prevent the adoption o:^ "an earliCT invention] ... It
will be so with this latest invention. The extraordinary
demand for the new motor will enable the manufacturers to
furnish it at rates very much lower than now appear pos- Vji
sible; and we may, therefore, expect AJt . J^^iCyl^e^mtJ ."^ ^'k\-M
%
How differently tenants treat rented property entrusted , U
;o their care! One class seem utterly careless of appear- ^
i . ancesOA^."^ [particulars] . . . On the other hand, some ^
tenants take pride in keeping the property in repair o. . * i^
[other particulal'sj' . . . Landlords are fortunate in secur-
ing tenants of this class, but they do not expect such to stay
long, for such industrious and careful persons usually man-
A . age, after a time to ^. .- [particular result of industry]. \
^^^^^ Every boy has soineAvliere stored away in his mind the^*
memory of some thrilling personal adventure or delightful
personal experience. As often as he thinks of it jX -i^^^
V^ ^^pSSte] . . . It is as if .' . . [comparison to bring oiirtSr*^^^
Ok/ir<>^Vidness of the recollection] . . . Such was. the experience
which came to me ^.|jO . [x-)articulars, time, place, circum- /^
ooA ^Ti^!^^i^1^^^^ of the wiiole matter was ^^V*^^
w^^ It is probable that the southern states would not have
begun the Civil War had the southern people realized the
''^ great wealth and resources of the populous North. Had
^ they known of the . . . [particulars specifying resources]
►■'^^Kis^^. *they would not so hastily . . . ^f result] .' . . Tlic
leaders of the secession movement doubtless did not under-
estimate the strength of the North, though they did misun-
derstand its temper. But the plain people of the South
who filled the southern armies and bore the heaviest bur-
dens of the conflict IANT^^B'^^ were misled
What to Say, 133
by appeals to their state pride, while the real facts as to the
power and spirit of the Korth were concealed from them.
That thej maintained a brave and stubborn contest so long
was due'-}'. . [cause and cfrc/ct] • . . ; their uniform suc-
cess at the beginning of. the war was nuiiiily owiu^^ , _^ .
|>J*^a&^e and effect] ■. ^?^*C)iice the Xorth was'^fully arousVa
^^1^,^^ .•^result] . . . They were clearly over-matclied.
EXERCISE 40.
a I '
Develop the following topic-sentences, using at least two of the
methods of development described in the foregoing lessons : —
/I. The dangers of athletic contests are over-estimated.
2. Longfellow and Whittier were different types of men.
3. Elvers seem to have lost much of their importance
with the geographers.
' 4. There is much to be learned from a visit to a machine
shop.
5. Burr's whole career was marked by insincerity.
6. At the dead of night, every sound seems to be full of
a fearful significance.
7. The winter at Valley Porge was full of suft'ering for
Washington's army.
8. Fishing excursions, I have noticed, are seldom re-
peated by the same people during the same season.
9. American states have not yet learned how to deal
effectively with the tramp.
10. Rapid street-railway transit is making healthier
homes possible for laboring men.
11. There are very few of the old proverbs that prove
true in all cases.
12. There is a vital distinction between "liberty" and
" doing what you please."
13. Loss of hearing deprives one of more pleasures than
loss of sight.
CHAPTER IV.
HOVv^ TO SAY IT.
* * LESSON 21.
Short Sentences and Their Uses.
In the preceding chapter we have seen that a writer may
build up a paragraph from a topic-sentence by adding other
sentences containing one or more of the following : repeti-
tions of some of the ideas of the topic-sentence, particulars
and details, specific instances or examples, comparisons and
analogies, statements telling what a thing is not or is not
like, contrasts, causes or effects, and proofs. Having built
up the paragraph from the topic-sentence by one or more of
these methods, the question still remains for the writer
whether he has properly divided his thought into sentences.
One important part of this question is concerned with the
length of the different sentences. Shall the sentences be all
of about the same length, or of different lengths ? and why ?
Are there special uses for long sentences in a paragraph
and special uses for short sentences ? We will answer the
last question first.
Observe in the following paragraphs how sharply the
attention is arrested by the short sentences (here printed in
italics). It is because short sentences attract attention that
the topic-sentence of a paragraph is often found expressed
in a short sentence. (See Lesson 11.)
134
Eow to Say IL 135
Age brings other obvious changes besides the loss of active
power. The sensibilities are less keen, the intelligence is less
lively, as we might expect under the influence of that narcotic
w^hich Nature administers. But there is another effect of her
"black drop" which is not so commonly recognized. Old age is
like an opiu7n-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal. 1
am sure that the pictures painted by the imagination, — the faded
frescoes on the walls of memory, — come out in clearer and brighter
colors than belonged to them many years earlier. Nature has her
special favors for her children of every age, and this is one which
she reserves for our second childhood. — O. W. Holmes : Over the
Teacups, 39.
The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. To pre-
serve that liberty inviolate, seems the particular duty and proper
trust of a member of the house of commons. But the liberty, the
only liberty I mean, is a liberty connected with order; that not
only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at
all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as
in its substance and vital principle. — Burke: Speech on Ameri-
can Taxation.
Observe in the following paragraphs that the short sen-
tences (here in italics) mark a transition from one part of
the subject to another : —
To write history respectably — that is, to abbreviate despatches,
and make extracts from speeches, to intersperse in due proportion
epithets of praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical char-
acters of great men, setting forth how many contradictory virtues
and vices they united, and abounding in withs and withouts — all
this is very easy. But to be a really great historian is perhaps
the rarest of intellectual distinctions. Many scientific works are,
in their kind, absolutely perfect. There are poems which we
should be inclined to designate as faultless, or as disfigured only
by blemishes which pass unnoticed in the general blaze of excel-
lence. There are speeches, some speeches of Demosthenes particu-
larly, in which it would be impossible to alter a word without
altering it for the worse. But we are acquainted with no history
136 Composition-Rhetoric,
which approaches to our notion of what a history ought to be —
with no history which does not widely depart, either on the right
hand or on the left, from the exact line.
Tlie cause may easily he assigned. This province of literature
is a debatable land. It lies on the confines of two distinct terri-
tories. It is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; and
like other districts similarly situated, it is ill-defined, ill-cultivated,
and ill-regulated. Instead of being equally shared between its
two rulers, the Reason and the Imagination, it falls alternately
under the sole and absolute dominion of each. It is sometimes
fiction. It is sometimes theory.
History, it has heen said, is philosophy teaching by examples. Un-
happily, what the philosophy gains in soundness and depth the
examples generally lose in vividness. A perfect historian must
possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative
affecting and picturesque. Yet he must control it so absolutely
as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to
refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He
must be a profound and ingenious reasoner. Yet he must possess
sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the
mould of his hypothesis. Those who can justly estimate these
almost insuperable difficulties will not think it strange that every
writer should have failed, either in the narrative or in the specu-
lative department of history. — M AC aulay : Essay on History.
I am not going to write the history of La Pucelle : to do this,
or even circumstantially to report the history of her persecution
and bitter death, of her struggle with false witnesses and with
ensnaring judges, it would be necessary to have before us all the
documents, and therefore the collection only now forthcoming in
Paris. But my purpose is narrower. There have been great thinkers,
disdaining the careless judgments of contemporaries, who have
thrown themselves boldly on the judgment of a far posterity, that
should have had time to review, to ponder, to compare. There
have been great actors on the stage of tragic humanity that might,
with the same depth of confidence, have appealed from the levity
of compatriot friends — too heartless for the sublime interest of
their story, and too impatient for the labor of sifting its perplexi-
ties— to the magnanimity and justice of enemies. To this class
How to Say It. 137
belongs the Maid of Arc. The ancient Romans were too faithful
to the ideal of grandeur in themselves not to relent, after a gen-
eration or two, before the grandeur of Hannibal. Mithridates, a
more doubtful person, yet merely for the magic perseverance of
his indomitable malice, w^on from the same Romans the only real
honor that ever he received on earth. And we English have ever
shown the same homage to stubborn enmity. To work vmflinchingly
for the ruin of England ; to say through life, by word and by deed,
Delenda est Anglia Victrix ! — that one purpose of malice, faithfully
pursued, has quartered some people upon our national funds of
homage as by a perpetual annuity . . . On the same principle,
La Pucelle d'Orleans, the victorious enemy of England, has been
destined to receive her deepest commemoration from the mag-
nanimous justice of Englishmen. — De Quincey: Joan of Arc.
In the following paragraph, note that the short sentences
(here in italics) announce ideas that are developed or ex-
plained in the longer sentences which follow : —
We will leave to a separate chapter our sketch of the literary
society of Edinburgh as then flourishing. The attitude of Burns in
respect to it is very curious and interesting. Here was a young peasant,
without education, without knowledge of the world, full of Scotch
reserve and that farouche pride of the rustic which reaches the
height of a passion. The pride which is supposed to accompany
blue blood and great descent has justifications outside of the indi-
vidual possessed by it ; and in most cases it imposes a certain re-
straint upon that individual, and demands of him some qualities,
or at least some graces, in accordance with it. But the pride of a
peasant is wildly personal, and independent of every consideration.
The more he is conscious of his deficiencies even, the more w^ildly
bent he will be upon attentions and observances due in society only
to high social qualifications. From the moment when Burns steps
into the light in Edinburgh, this mixture of shyness, inordinate self-
opinion, and an almost polemical determination to prove himself
the equal, if not the superior of everybody round hinij appears both
in his behavior and in the private records of his opinions. It was
no doubt a very difficult position. Uncultured, unaccustomed to the
ways of society, knowing nobody, feeling himself a kind of vague
138 Composition-Rhetoric,
representative, not only of genius but of man, among a curious
crowd of superiors, all more or less disposed to infringe these
rights, to patronize him, and lessen his own sense of dignity, he
appears on the defensive, always watchful lest some affront should
be intended ; beguiled indeed, into better moods in the warmth of
social intercourse, but ever ready to take fire again, and to resent
not only imaginary slights to himself, but even the civilities offered
to others whom he thinks less worthy. — Oliphant : Literary His-
tory of the Nineteenth Century, I, 112, 113.
]!^ote, in the following paragraphs, that the short sentences
(printed in italics) are summaries of the thought expressed
at greater length in preceding sentences. The short sen-
tences here put the whole truth in a brief and striking
form, abrupt, emphatic, and easily remembered. It is be-
cause a short sentence, when used in connection with longer
sentences, is emphatic by contrast, that writers often put the
most important thought of a paragraph into a short sen-
tence, and when they repeat for emphasis, repeat in a short
sentence. A brief quotation, an epigram, or a proverb often
serves admirably the purpose of a summary.
Sir, whilst we held this happy course, we drew more from the
Colonies than all the impotent violence of despotism ever could
extort from them. We did this abundantly in the last war. It has
never been once denied ; and what reason have we to imagine that
the Colonies would not have proceeded in supplying government
as liberally, if you had not stepped in and hindered them from
contributing, by interrupting the channel in which their liberality
flowed with so strong a course ; by attempting to take, instead of
being satisfied to receive? Sir William Temple says that Holland
has loaded itself with ten times the impositions, which it revolted
from Spain, rather than submit to. He says true. Tyranny is
a poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor how to
extract. — Burke: American Taxation.
Samuel Adams was the true king in Boston at that time. He
was a man in middle life, of cultivated mind and stainless repu-
tation— a powerful speaker and writer — a man in whose sagacity
How to Say It. 139
and moderation all men trusted. He resembled the old Puritans
in his stern love of liberty — his reverence for the Sabbath, his
sincere, if somewhat formal, observance of all religious ordinances.
He was among the first to see that there was no resting-place in
this struggle short of independence. " We are free,'* he said,
'^ and want no king.'' The men of Boston felt the power of his
resolute spu'it, and manfully followed where Samuel Adams led. —
Mackenzie: America.
On the day of his death, this simple Western attorney, who
according to one party was a vulgar joker, and whom the doctri-
naires among his own supporters accused of wanting every element
of statesmanship, was the most absolute ruler in Christendom, and
this solely by the hold his good-humored sagacity had laid on the
hearts and understandings of his countrymen. Nor was this all,
for it appeared that he had drawn the great majority, not only
of his fellow-citizens, but of mankind also, to his side. So strong
and so persuasive is honest manliness without a single quality of
romance or unreal sentiment to help it ! A civilian during times
of the most captivating military achievement, awkward, with no
skill in the lower technicalities of manners, he left behind him a
fame beyond tjiat of any conqueror, the memory of a grace higher
than that of outward person, and of a gentlemanliness deeper than
mere breeding. Never before that startled April morning did such
multitudes of men shed tears for the death of one they had never
seen, as if with him a friendly presence had been taken away from
their lives, leaving them colder and darker. Never was funeral
panegyric so eloquent as the silent look of sympathy which stran-
gers exchanged when they met on that day. Their common manhood
had lost a kinsman. — Lowell : Abraham Lincoln.
In the following paragraphs the short sentences secure
directness and vigor of statement. The reader feels that
his attention is wanted at every step, and that every step is
important. Each detail gains distinction by being stated
in a separate sentence.
Meantime the guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false
to itself ; or rather it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to
140 Composition-Rhetoric,
be true to itself. It labors under its guilty possession, and knows
not what to do with it. The human heart was not made for the
residence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a
torment which it dares not acknowledge to God or man. A
vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance,
either from heaven or earth. The secret which the murderer pos-
sesses soon comes to possess him; and, like the evil spirits of
which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him whithersoever it
will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and
demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his
face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very
silence of his thoughts. It has become his master. It betrays his
discretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his prudence.
When suspicions from without begin to embarrass him, and the
net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles
with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed, it
will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide,
and suicide is confession. — Webster : Murder of White.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon
this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this ; but in a larger sense we can-
not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conse-
crated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us — the living — rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure . of devotion ; that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this
Eow to Say It. 141
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from the earth. — Lincoln : Gettysburg Address,
In the following paragraphs, observe that the succession
of short sentences produces the effect of hurry, gives a
quickness of movement needed by the thought itself: —
Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the
smoke. Dead men he could descry through the blinding veil,
rolled in heaps, laid flat ; dead men and dying : but no man upon
his feet. The last volley had swept the deck clear ; one by one
had dropped below to escape that fiery shower : and alone at the
helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his raustachios curling up to
his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain.
N'ow was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for
the boarders, and in two minutes more he was over the side, and
clutching at the Spaniard's mizzen rigging.
What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's
\3ide was widening. Was she sheering off? Yes — and rising too,
growing bodily higher every moment, as if by magic. Amyas
looked up in astonishment and saw what it was. The Spaniard
was heeling fast over to leeward away from him. Her masts were
all sloping forward, swifter and swifter — the end was come, then !
^'Back! in God's name, back, men! She is sinking by the
liead ! " And with much ado some were dragged back, some
leaped back — all but old Michael Heard.
With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked
figure, like some weird old Indian fakir, still clim^ cd on stead-
fastly up the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
" Come back, Michael ! Leap while you may ! " shouted a dozen
voices. Michael turned —
" And what should I come back for, then, to go heme where no
one knoweth me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll
know the reason why ! " and turning, he sprang in over the bul-
warks, as the huge ship rolled up more and more, like a dying
whale, exposing all her long black hulk almost down to her keel ;
and one of her lower-deck guns, as if in defiance, exploded upright
into the air, hurling the ball to the very heavens.
142 Composition-Rhetoric,
In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of
smoke, and the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom
of the defenceless Spaniard.
" Who fired ? Shame to fire on a sinking ship ! "
"Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice up from the main-deck.
" He's like a madman down here."
" Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my
own brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see
how she drags us over ? Cut away, or we shall sink with her."
They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook
her feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men
held their breaths.
Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again,
as if in noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her
bows were deep in the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted :
but only for a moment, long enough to let her crew come pouring
wildly up on deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the
poop, where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his
left hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his right.
" Back, men ! " they heard him cry, " and die like valiant mariners."
Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted " Mercy ! We
surrender ! " and the English broke into a cheer, and called to them
to run her alongside. — Kingsley : Westward Ho !
In the paragraphs just preceding, the short sentences
with their quick and hurried effect correspond very well to
the character of the thought or the action portrayed. When
the thought does not itself require this effect of hurry, it is
a mistake to use a succession of short sentences. In the
following there is a broken, scrappy, and jerky effect which
the thought does not call for : —
At an unknown hour he was aroused by a creaking of boards.
Lifting himself upon his elbow, he saw a sergeant prowling among
the sleeping forms. The sergeant carried a candle in an old brass
candlestick. He w^ould have resembled some old farmer on an
unusual midnight tour if it were not for the significance of his
gleaming buttons and striped sleeves. — Stephen Crane : The Lit-
tle Regiment
How to Say It, 143
The repeal of the Stamp Act delayed only for a little the fast-
coming crisis. A new ministry was formed, with the Earl of
Chatham at its head. But soon the great Earl lay sick and help-
less, and the burden of government rested on incapable shoulders.
Charles Townshend, a clever, captivating, but most indiscreet
man, became the virtual Prime Minister. The feeling in the pub-
lic mind had now become more unfavorable to America. Town-
shend proposed to levy a variety of taxes from the Americans.
The most famous of his taxes was one of threepence per pound on
tea. All his proposals became law.
This time the more thoughtful Americans began to despair of
justice. The boldest scarcely ventured yet to suggest revolt against
England, so powerful and so loved. But the grand final refuge
of independence w^as silently brooded over by many. The mob
fell back on their customary solution. Great riots occurred. To
quell these disorders English troops encamped on Boston Common.
The town swarmed with red-coated men, every one of whom was a
humiliation. Their drums beat on Sunday, and troubled the or-
derly men of Boston, even in church. At intervals fresh transports
dropped in, bearing additional soldiers, till a great force occupied
the town. The galled citizens could ill brook to be thus bridled.
The ministers prayed to Heaven for deliverance from the presence
of the soldiers. The General Court of Massachusetts called vehe-
mently on the Governor to remove them. The Governor had no
powers in that matter. He called upon the court to make suitable
provision for the King's troops, — a request which it gave the court
infinite pleasure to refuse. — Mackenzie: America.
Sometimes a series of short sentences will result in a lack
of clearness in the paragraph, as a whole. Sentences are
not necessarily clear in meaning because they are short.
Longer sentences of explanation are needed for a difficult
thought. In the following paragraphs the thought remains
obscure in spite of the succession of short sentences. In
the second paragraph the short statements separated by
semicolons are really to be classed as short sentences.
Many facts concur to show that we must look deeper for our sal-
vation than to steam, photographs, balloons, or astronomy. These
144 Composition-Rhetoric .
tools have some questionable properties. They are reagents. Ma-
chinery is aggressive. The weaver becomes a web, the machinist
a machine. If you do not use the tools, they use you. All tools
are in one sense edge-tools, and dangerous. A man builds a fine
house ; and now he has a master and a task for life : he is to fur-
nish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
A man has a reputation, and is no longer free, but must respect
that. A man makes a picture or a book, and, if it succeeds, 'tis
often the worse for him. I saw a brave man the other day, hith-
erto as free as the hawk or the fox of the wilderness, constructing
his cabinet of drawers for shells, eggs, minerals, and mounted
birds. It was easy to see that he was amusing himself with mak-
ing pretty links for his own limbs. — Emerson : Works and Days.
We are just so frivolous and sceptical. Men hold themselves
cheap and vile ; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All
the elements pour through his system ; he is the flood of the flood,
and fire of the fire ; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops
of his blood : they are the extension of his personality. His du-
ties are measured by that instrument he is ; and a right and per-
fect man would be felt to the centre of the Coper nican system.
'Tis curious that we only believe as deep as we live. We do not
think heroes can exert any more awful power than that surface-
play which amuses us. A deep man believes in miracles, waits for
them, believes in magic, believes that the orator will decompose
his adversary; believes that the evil eye can wither; that the
heart's blessing can heal ; that love can exalt talent ; can overcome
all odds. From a great heart secret magnetisms flow incessantly
to draw great events. But we prize very humble utilities, a pru-
dent husband, a good son, a voter, a citizen, and deprecate any
romance of character; and perhaps reckon only his money value,
— his intellect, his affection, as a sort of bill of exchange, easily
convertible into fine chambers, pictures, music, and wine. —
Emerson: Essay on Beauty.
The short sentence, used in connection with longer sentences,
arrests the attention sharply, and hence is useful for marking a
transition, for announcing an idea to he explained further, and for
summarizing the thought in abrupt, emphatic form. A succession
^
rjjv^
How to Say It, 145
of short sentences may be used to indicate rapidity of movement, if
fclie thought requires this. Short sentences impart directness and
vigor to thought.
EXERCISE 41.
Account for the use of the short sentences of the para-
graphs quoted in Lessons 12 to 20.
EXERCISE 42.
Convert the long topic-sentence of the following para-
graphs into a short sentence : — » . -^ ^.
V A Kepresentative Barrett has introSucea hito jhe House a joint
^e^fljfnno^ ameiidrfient' to the Constitution to the
effect that Congress may have power to limit uniformly the hours
of labor in manufactories of textile fabrics and other industries.
This is aimed at the supposed advantage which the South, with
its long hour system, has over I^ew England manufacturers ; but
it would not, however, prevent the eventual transference of the
cotton industry to the former section. It is a fair question whether
under the '' implied powers" doctrine developed by Hamilton,
Congress has not already the power to legislate on this question
without any amendment. The main point is to get the legislation.
The short hour movement is steadily progressing, and as the South
develops it will make itself manifest there. But there is not much
hope that Congress can be brought to act upon the subject until it
takes the form of a national agitation. ^ , ^ v*-*^. "
yV. Ill order to, remove a not uiiconimon but erroneous impression
trraffe^tte Alaska boundary line is now, and kas been for some time,
in a state of adjudication, it may be well to say that thus far noth-
ing has been done except to execute such surveys as have been
thought desirable and necessary for the construction of maps, by
which the whole subject could be properly presented to a joint
boundary-line commission, whenever such should be appointed,
and on which the location of the line could be definitely laid down
if a mutual agreement should be reached. Such a survey was first
{\ t^Yr>.Vi tsJi «>% A t . ■ \ X /T Wit n^M
146 OompositioU'Rhetoric,
brought to the attention of Congress in a message of President
Grant in 1872. It was not until 1889, however, that the work was
begun by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which sent
two parties to the valley of the Yukon, in the vast interior of the
territory, with instructions to establish camps, one on that river,
and the other on its branch, the Porcupine, both to be as near to
the one hundred and forty-first meridian as possible. These
parties were to carry on a series of astronomical observations for
the purpose of determining the location of the meridian, to execute
such triangulation and topographical surveys as were necessary for
its identification, and to establish permanent monuments as nearly
as might be upon the meridian line. '
The mass df societyQook with eiVvy upon the epicure, who, day
by day, for four hours of luxurious eating, suffers twenty hours of
sharp aching ; who pays a full price for a hot supper, and is so
pleased with the bargain, that he throws in a sleepless and tem-
pestuous night as a gratuity. English factory children have re-
ceived the commiseration of the world, because they were scourged
to work eighteen hours out of the twenty-four ; but there is many
a theoretic republican who is a harsher Pharaoh to his stomach
than this; — who allows it no more resting-time than he does his
■watch ; who gives it no Sunday, no holiday, no vacation in any
sense. Our pious ancestors enacted a law" that suicides should be
buried where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should
be thrown upon the body. Yet when gentlemen or ladies commit
suicide, not by cord or steel, but by turtle-soup or lobster-salad,
they may be buried in consecrated ground, and under the auspices
of the church, and the public are not ashamed to read an epitaph
upon their tombstones false enough to make the marble blush.
Were the barbarous old law now in force that punished the body
of the suicide for the offence which his soul had committed, we
should find many a cemetery at the cross-roads.
^r^>^.
EXERCISE 43.
Convert the •material of each of the following long-
sentence paragraphs into a paragraph of shorter sentences
of different lengths : —
^ Rojv to Say It. 147
The United States Senate m^^ be looked upon^a^ the best j^ •
^^-^^ 'trainihg'-sdiool in skit'^sinaiisliip wo ]i;iAh liad, ---not,' of coarse, so '^' ' ^"^
"cdnspicuouslj in administrative funclion, Ixib in the consideration ^ y
^^^'^^^^b^^reat "T^.tional problems; and if nvc look tl^B? li man o^*^^^^
'^^'^^^^b^ -^req^t Thi.^Onal problems
I^CTM^^ntiiltio'ti^ Experience, 'of' prominence in the conduct of business, a
representative of the Mississippi valley, and in the prime of mature
life, we shall find bim iivthe Senator from Iowa, William Boyd
•^j^^-^llison . It is %fei'tn^?dnl6%6 "consider tlie stand he has taken j^ii' ,
V*^'^ great pul)lic questioiis, and >thecoMribtition -which his temper¥^ ^
'. mcnt, aljility, and character make toward his fitness for the highest^'vX^
J^' ollice ill the gift of the nation. ■ Z\\v. Allison has just been honoreci^*^'^
^tmt&S" State of Iowa with a fifth election to the Senate oi 'th^^ .
^V!^^^->'X)fiS^'^ and this circu'tn stance, rare in the history of ouf^ -M^A
^-^9~^Mnnt^, has --an added significance in the fact that every election
by his party associates has been unanimous. On the last occasion
no other name was even mentioned for the office, and the election
was followed by a scene memorable for its enthusiasm, in which
the representatives of both parties in the legislature joined. Thirty
years' continuous congressional service on the part of a citizen of
a State, confessedly high in intelligence, is in itself an evidence of
f^t liiay n6i seem that the few minutes which are given each day
to physicahpulture in our schools will affect materially, for better
or worse^^Jtfe chfCvacter and bearing of the children who are sub-
jected to it ; Jij^ \)Orien it is remembered that this sort of thing goes
on day after day for eight or nine years, its influence will be more
^^ readily appreciated, and its hygienic importance more fully real-
ized. If the present mental strain is to continue in our schools,
'^ then we must strive to overcome the nervousness which it induces
through the efficient culture of the body. We must not have as
f our ideal of the work of physical training the development of
great muscular strength and dexteritviso much as the promotion
of health, and rendering the body an unconscious and ready ^
instrument of the mind in the expression of its most gracious
qualities. Nor can we hope, under the conditions which exist in
our schools, to make the bodies of all our children symmetrical
and harmonious by physical training ;*1^ we have to deal there
with children in the great average, and it is only by dealing with
0 &
•4
Composition- Rhetoric,
(!ividual tendencies that we can secure perfect symmetry and
harmony. But after all, this is not such a serious question ; 3(Tr if
we can foster and promote the health of children, and induce in
them the right attitude of spirit, the tendency of nature toward
symmetry and harmony will produce gratifying results.
In the morning, very early, we heard the enemy's trumpets
sound to horse; IJiis roused us to look abroad; and sending out a
scout, he brought us word a party of the enemy was at hand. We
were vexed to be so disappointed, but finding their party small
enough to be dealt with. Sir Marmaduke ordered me to cKaj-ge
them with three hundred horse and two hundred dragoons, ^i^Wjf
he at the same time entered the town. Accordingly I lay stm till
they came to the very skirt of the wood where I was postedj^^en
I saluted them with a volley from my dragoons out of the wood,
and immediately showedi myself with my horse on their front,
ready to charge them ,>Jiey appeared not toA^p surprised, and
received our charge with great resolution; a^d^bQing above four /
hundred men, they pushed me vigorously in their turn, putting my '^J^
men into some disorder. In this extremity, I sent to order my ^
dragoons to charge them in the flank, which they did with great
bravery, and the other still maintained the fight with desperate
resolution. There was no want of courage in/our men on both
sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and at last routed
them, and drove them back to the village. Here Sir Marmaduke
Langdale had his hands full too ; for my firing had alarmed the
towns adjacent, that when he came into the town, he found them
all in arms ; and contrary to liis expectations, two regiments of
foot with about three hundred horse more. As Sir Marmaduke
had no foot, only horse and dragoons, this was a surprise to him ;
but he caused his dragoons to enter the town, and charge the foot,
while his horse secured the avenues of the town.
The dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and Sir Marmaduke
falling in with his horse, the fight was obstinate and very bloody,
when the horse that I had routed came flying into the street of the
village, and my men at their heels. Immediately I left the pur-
suit, and fell in with all my force to the assistance of my friends,|l I
-SMfd^i^er an obstinate resistance, we routed the whole party ^ ^^Jl^^
killed about seven hundred men, took three hundred and fifty,
How to Say It, 149
twenty-seven officers, onje hundred arms, all their baggage, and
two hundred horses,^ aWp^iDntinueTl our march to Harborough,
where we halted to refresh ourselves.
^ EXERCm:^ 44.
\\\jn^}j}M
' Introduce at the point indicated in each of the following
paragraphs a brief sentence as striking and emphatic as you
can make it : —
1. Mr. Adams carried with him into Congress all hjs jorevious ^ ^%
liabotsof industry and close application to business. 2. '^ I^otI"^^**^
sentence^lmouncing the idea developed in sentences 3 and 4.]
3. Few men spent more hours in the twenty-four in assiduous
labor. 4. He would take no active part in any matter, would
engage in the discussion of no topic, and would not commit him-
self on any question, until he had sounded it to its nether depths,
and explored all its ramifications, all its bearings and irj^uenpes,
and had thoroughly become master of the subject. 5. ^^^ snort
^'^"'sem^nife W^v transition. J V 6. It was in this manner that he w^as
enabled to overwhelm with surprise his cotemporaries in Congress,
by the profundity of his knowledge. 7. No subject could be
started, no question discussed, on which he was not perfectly at
home. 8. Without hesitation or mistake, he could pour forth
a stream of facts, dates, names, places, accompanied with narra-
tions, anecdotes, reflections, and arguments, until the matter was
thoroughly sifted and laid bare in all its parts and properties, to
the understanding . of the most casual pbserver. 9. [A 'Sworr
^iSl^^^yiWiiM^ ti?^-^'!fed-of>k^teftbfes 10, 11, and 12.]
10. Alas for the man who questioned the correctness of his
statements, his facts, or dates. 11. Sure discomfiture awaited
him. 12. His mind was a perfect calendar, a storehouse, a mine
of knowledge, in relation to all past events connected wdth the
history of his country and his age.
1. In connection with his other exemplary virtues, Mr. Adams
was prompt, faithful, unwearied, in the discharge of all his public
duties. 2. The oldest member of the House, he was at the same
time the most punctual — the first at his post ; the last to retire
from the labors of the day. 3. [A short sentence of transition.]
150 Oomposition- Rhetoric,
4. While many others might be negligent in their attendance,
sauntering in idleness, engaged in frivolous amusements, or even
in dissipation, he v^as always at his post. 5. No call of the House
was necessary, no sergeant-at-arms need be despatched, to bring
him within the Hall of Representatives. 6. He was the last to
move an adjournment, or to adopt any device to consume time or
neglect the public business for personal convenience or c'lrttifica- a
tion. 7. [A sftort sentence summarizing all' the preceding sen-^-^^
tences.] 8. His example can be most profitably imitated by those ^^^
who would arise to eminence in the councils of the nation. (] 0
1. A great orator must have fervor. 2. In the physical world,
force can be resolved into heat. 3. It is the same in the spiritual
world. 4. The whole truths which the orator contemplates stir
all the faculties of his soul into intense action, and this intense
action takes the form of heat — of fervor. 5. His tone may be
high or low, his enunciation may be rapid or slow, his language
may be plain or figurative, but in any case the fervor is apparent.
6. His face glows, his eyes sparkle, his words burn, and his very
sentences are poured f ortK. in anjBasy^d continuous^ flow as i^ — .
they were molten. 7. [AwS^t SftM-OT^g'^SftMACp^^'^^lr^^
figurative.] (£. j^UL^Ui^
1. An earnest student i^prone to ruin his health. 2. Hope
cheats him with the belief that if he can study now without
cessation, he can do so always. 3. Because he does not see the
end of his strength, he foolishly concludes there is no end. 4. A
spendthrift of health is one of the most reprehensible of spend-
thrifts. 5. I am certain I could have performed twice the labor,
both better and with greater ease to myself, had I known so much
of the laws of health and life at twenty-one, as I do now. 6. In
college I was taught all about the motions of the planets, as care-
fully as though they would have been in danger of getting off the
track if I had not known how to trace their orbits ; but about my
own organization, and the conditions indispensable to the health-
^nd ignorance,
tfave begun at
home, and taken the stars when it should come their turn. 9. The
consequence was, I broke down at the beginning of my second
college year, and have never had a well day since. 10. Whatever
ful fu?^ctk)ns of my own body, I^was l(i?ft in Drafound
7. lk^hh.\S^uSe*Ui-m^im^ ^? I tSfeiet^Wi'a
\n}A\J'^ ^ ^UA^'
How to Say It, 151
labor I have been since able to do, I have done it all on credit
instead of capital, — a most ruinous way, either in regard to health
or money. 11. For the last twenty-five years, so far as it regards
health, I have been put from day to day on my good behavior;
and during the whole of this period, as an Hibernian would say,
if I had lived as other folks do for a month, I should have died in
a fortnight.
LESSON 22.
Long Sentences and Their Uses.
We have seen (Lesson 13) that a paragraph may be made
up of a topic-sentence followed by the particulars and details
which the topic-sentence calls for. When each detail is
brief and the details taken together resemble an inventory
or a catalogue, they are best grouped in long sentences, as
in the following paragraph : —
There is scarcely a scene or object familiar to the Galilee of
that day, which Jesus did not use as a moral illustration of some
glorious promise or moral law. [Details] He spoke of green
fields and springing flowers, and the budding of the vernal trees ;
of the red or lowering sky; of sunrise and sunset; of wind and
rain; of night and storm; of clouds and lightning; of stream
and river; of stars and lamps; of honey and salt; of quivering
bulrushes and burning weeds; of rent garments and bursting
wine-skins; of eggs and serpents; of pearls and pieces of money;
of nets and fish. Wine and wheat, corn and oil, stewards and
gardeners, laborers and employers, kings and shepherds, travellers
and fathers of families, courtiers in soft clothing and brides in
nuptial robes — all these are found in His discourses. — Farrar :
Life of Christ, 1:211.
The material after the first sentence in the preceding
paragraph is organized into tw^o long sentences rather than
one, in order to vary the method a little and to prevent
^
152 Composition- Rhetoric,
the discourse from becoming wearisome. This is a good
reason for not making a sentence too long. A better reason
for the grouping of details into several long sentences
appears in the following paragraph.! Here the grouping
of particulars into long sentences shows plainly the differ-
ent stages of the calamity in the order of time. In the
second sentence are grouped all the details that belong to
the first stage ; in the third, all the details that make up
the second stage; in the fourth and fifth we are told the
effect upon the minds of the people. The fourth and fifth
would probably have been united into one sentence but for
the fact that this would have made the sentence needlessly
long^
1. In the second year of the reign of Yalentinian and Valens,
on the morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part
of the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earth-
quake. 2. The impression was communicated to the waters ; the
shores of the Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat
of the sea ; great quantities of fish were caught by the hand ; large
vessels were stranded on the mud ; and a curious spectator amused
his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appear-
ance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the forma-
tion of the globe, been exposed to the sun. 3. But the tide soon
returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge,
which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of
Greece, and of Egypt : large boats were transported, and lodged on
the roofs of houses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore ;
the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the waters ;
and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal
day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the
inundation. 4. This calamity, the report of which was magnified
from one province to another, astonished and terrified the subjects
of Rome ; and their affrighted imagination. enlarged the real extent
of a momentary evil. 5. They recollected the preceding earth-
quakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia :
they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still
more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed
How to Say It, 153
to confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking
world. — Gibbon : History of the Decline and Fall of th^ Roman
Empire, III, 1, 2.
In the following paragraphs, notice that the longer sen-
tences are used to explain or illustrate what is said in the
shorter sentences ; the long sentences show the relation of
the principal idea (expressed in a short sentence) to several
subordinate ideas (grouped in a long sentence).
Our arts are happy hits. We are like the musician on the lake,
whose melody is sweeter than he knows, or like a traveller, sur-
prised by a mountain echo, whose trivial word returns to him in
romantic thunders. — Emerson : Essay on Art.
A man in pursuit of greatness feels no little wants. How can
you mind diet, bed, dress, or salutes or compliments, or the figure
you make in company, or wealth, or even the bringing things
to pass, when you think how paltry are the machinery and the
workers ? Wordsworth was praised to me, in Westmoreland, for
having afforded to his country neighbors an example of a modest
household where comfort and culture were secured without dis-
play. And a tender boy who wears his rusty cap and outgrown
coat, that he may secure the coveted place in college, and the
right in the library, is educated to some purpose. There is a great
deal of self-denial and manliness in poor and middle-class houses,
in town and country, that has not got into literature, and never
will, but that keeps the earth sweet ; that saves on superfluities,
and spends on essentials; that goes rusty, and educates the boy;
that sells the horse, but builds the school ; works early and late,
takes two looms in the factory, three looms, six looms, but pays
off the mortgage on the paternal farm, and then goes back cheer-
fully to work again. — Emerson : Essay on Culture.
The very mode in which a crowd is formed is highly favorable
to its hypnotization, and hence to its becoming a mob. At first
a crowd is formed by some strange object or occurrence suddenly
arresting the attention of men. Other men coming up are attracted
by curiosity : they wish to learn the reason of the gathering ;
they fix their attention on the object that fascinates the crowd,
154 Compositio7i'Rhetoric,
are fascinated in their turn, and thus the crowd keeps on growing.
With the increase of numbers grows the strength of fascination;
the hypnotization increases in intensity, until, when a certain
critical point is reached, the crowd becomes completely hypno-
tized, and is ready to obey blindly the commands of its hero ; it
is now a mob. Thus a mob is a hypnotized crowd. — Atlantic,
75 : 190.
In comparing or contrasting two things or ideas, long sen-
tences are frequently needed. In the following paragraph
the first part of the contrast is seen in the second sen-
tence, the second part in the third and fourth sentences : -
'• Whenever the arts and labors of life\are fulfilled in this spirit
of striving against misrule, and doing Whatever we have to do,
honorably and perfectly, they invariably \br in g happiness, as much
as seems possible to the nature of man. 2^, In all other paths, by
which that happiness is pursued, there is disappointment, or de-
struction : for ambition and for passion there is no rest — no
fruition ; the fairest pleasures of youth perish in a darkness greater
than their past light ; and the loftiest and purest love too often
does but inflame the cloud of life with endless fire of pain.i .But,
ascending from lowest to highest, through every scale of human
industry, that industry worthily followed gives peace j^ Ask the
laborer in the field, at the forge, or in the mine ; ask the patient,
delicate-fingered artisan, or the strong-armed, fiery-hearted worker ^ -'U
in bronze, and in marble, and with the colors of light; and none.U-^
of these, who are true workmen, will ever tell you that they have
found the law of heaven an unkind one — that in the sweat of
their face they should eat bread, till they return to the ground ;
nor that they ever found it an unrewarded obedience, if, indeed,
it was rendered faithfully to the command — "Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." — Ruskin : The Mys-
tery of Life, sec. 128.
Men sometimes go dowm into tombs, with painful longings to
behold once more the faces of their departed friends ; and as they
gaze upon them, lying there so peacefully with the semblance
that they wore on earth, the sweet breath of heaven touches them,
How to Say It, 155
and the features crumble and fall together, and are but dust. So
did his soul then descend for the last time into the great tomb of
the Past, with painful longings to behold once more the dear faces
of those he had loved ; and the sweet breath of heaven touched
them, and they would not stay, but crumbled away and perished
as he gazed. They, too, were dust. And thus, far-sounding, he
heard the great gate of the past shut behind him, as the divine
poet did the gate of Paradise, when the angel pointed him the
way up the Holy Mountain ; and to him likewise was it forbidden
to look back. — Longfellow: Hyperion, chap. YIII.
In some paragraphs the sentences grow longer as the
thought becomes more important and forcible. This re-
sults in climax. Notice this in the following paragraphs : —
The people always conquer. They always must conquer. Ar-
mies may be defeated, kings may be overthrown, and new dynas-
ties imposed, by foreign arms, on an ignorant and slavish race,
that care not in what language the covenant of their subjection
runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made
out. But the people never invade ; and, when they rise against
the invader, are never subdued. If they are driven from the
plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting
hills are their castles ; the tangled, pathless thicket their palisado,
and nature, God, is their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of
their enemies beneath his drifting mountains of sand; now he
buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows ; he lets
loose his tempests on their fleets ; he puts a folly into their coun-
sels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders ; and never gave,
and never will give, a final triumph over a virtuous and gallant
people, resolved to be free. — Everett: First Battles of the Revo-
lution.
We are, on the whole, inclined to regret that Dryden did not
accomplish his purpose of writing an epic poem. It certainly
would not have been a work of the highest rank. It would not
have rivalled the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Paradise Lost ; but it
would have been superior to the productions of Apollonius, Lucan,
or Statins, and not inferior to the Jerusalem Delivered. It would
156 Composition-Rhetoric.
probably have been a vigorous narrative, animated with some-
thing of the spirit of the old romances, enriched with much
splendid description, and interspersed with fine declamations
and disquisitions. The danger of Dryden would have been from
aiming too high; from dwelling too much, for example, on his
angels of kingdoms, and attempting a competition with that
great writer w^ho in his own time had so incomparably succeeded
in representing to us the sights and sounds of another world.
To Milton, and to Milton alone, belonged the secrets of the great
deep, the beach of sulphur, the ocean of fire, the palaces of the
fallen dominations, glimmering through the everlasting shade, the
silent wilderness of verdure and fragrance where armed angels
kept watch over the sleep of the first lovers, the portico of dia-
mond, the sea of jasper, the sapphire pavement empurpled with
celestial roses, the infinite ranks of the Cherubim, blazing with
adamant and gold. The council, the tournament, the procession,
the crowded cathedral, the camp, the guard-room, the chase, were
the proper scenes for Dryden. — Macaul ay : Essay on Dryden.
When long sentences appear frequently in a paragraph,
they produce an impression of dignity, grace, and rhyth-
mical movement. This is seen in the following : —
The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the
Republic ; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with
preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy
of the senate, the active emulation of the consuls, and the martial
enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with
a rapid succession of triumphs ; but it was reserved for Augustus
to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth,
and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils.
Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him
to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much
less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms ; and that, in the
prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day
more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more
precarious and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added
weight to these salutary reflections, and eifectually convinced him
that, by the prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure
How to Say It. 157
every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might
require from the most formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing
his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he
obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the standards
and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus. —
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. I.
A succession of sentences, all of about the same length,
may easily result in tediousness. Such sentences, when
read aloud, require the voice to fall at about the same inter-
vals and strike the ear with monotonous regularity. Variety
in length of sentences is desirable. Excepting in the first
and last sentences, the following paragraph shows a monoto-
nous regularity when read aloud : —
I » One has known men, great and small, more commonly small,
who went through life steadily depreciating and vilipending all
human beings who could be regarded as in the running with them-
selves. But among such. Bethel was facile princeps. He despised
his predecessor as chancellor, and spoke with contempt of his
judgments. One day, under the im.pression that a judgment
quoted was Lord Campbell's, he hastened to contemn it. But the
laugh was turned when it was at once stated that the contemned
judgment was his own. He was indeed beyond comparison, in his
own sphere, greater and brighter than most of those around him.
But he showed far too plainly that he knew it. Modesty would
have been a glory, being combined with that magnificent ability.
And his tongue was incredibly sharp : and absolutely unbridled.
It looks as though he never kept back any keen saying which oc-
curred to him. And the serene, deliberate, and seemingly affected
manner in which he spoke, gave tenfold bitterness. It did not
look like the outburst of a hasty temper at all. They did not
seem obiter dicta, those vitriolic sayings. No mortal can afford
thus to indulge his idiosyncrasy. He made enemies on every side :
enemies who hated him with an incredible malignity. Each of
them had a poisoned dart rankling in his soul .j^, And the day came
when this great lawyer, though holding his place in magnificent
competence, was surrounded and assailed by a crowd of foes who
were able to force him to descend from the highest place in the law.
158 Composition-Rhetoric,
Long sentences are nseful for grouping sabordinate details, for
explanations and contrasts, for climax, and for dignity and rhyth-
mical movement.
EXERCISE 45.
Account for the use of the long sentences of the para-
graphs quoted in Lessons 12 to 20.
EXERcis^e. VXML^^^';;^
Convert the following short=sHHtShce paragraphs into
paragraphs of longer sentences of different lengths.
The winter put a stop to military o^erations^ All
gone well. But the real tug of war was still to comeJr'^R^was easy
to foresee that the year 1757 would be a memorable era in the his-
tory of Europe.
The scheme for the campaign was simple, bold, and judicious*^:^
tCiV^^'^^he Duke of Cumberland with an English and Hanoverian army
was in Western Germany, and might be able to prevent the French
troops from attacking Prussia. The Russians, confined by their
snows, would probably not tstir till the spring was far advanced.
Saxony was prostratedP-^l^wdden could do nothing very important..
During a Aw iiionths. Frederick would have to deal with Austria
alone^^^en rmiSf thS bddl <^ere against him. But ability and
courage have often triumphed against odds still more formidable.
Early in 1757 the Prussian army in Saxony began to move.QdS^
Through four defiles in the mountains thoy oamft pouring into
Bohemia. Prague was his first TCidi,x\yws^ the ulterior object
was probably Vienna. At Prague lay Marshal Brown with one
great armyr^)aun, the most cautious and fortunate of the Aus-
trian capt^ns, was advancing with another. Frederick deter-
mined to overwhelm Brown before Daun should arrive. On the
sixth of May was fought, under those walls which a hundred and
thirty years before had witnessed the victory of the Catholic
league and the flight of the unhappy Palatine, a battle more
bloody than any which Europe saw during the long interval
between Malplaquet and Eylau. The king and Prince Ferdi-
How to Say It, 159
nand of Brunswick were distinguished on that day by their \A^j]S
valor and exertions. But the chief glory was with Schwerin^ \3fi^)
When the Prussian infantry wavered, tjip stout old marahal ^^"^
snatched the colors from an ensign, and, waving them in the air, OnAA/*^
led back his regiment to the charge. Thus at seventy-two years V^i
of age he fell in the thickest of the battle, still grasping the
standard which bears the black ea^le pn the field argent. The
victory remained with the king^ -^®iwf it had been dearly pun
chased. Whole columns of his bravest warriors had fallenS^ ne
admitted that he had lost eighteen thousand men. Of the enemyrr
twenty-four thousand had been killed, wounded, or taken., \ OLA/J"^^^^
Part of the defeated army was shut up in Pragaer^Tart fled
to join the troops which, under the command of Daun, were now
close at hand. Frederick determined to play over the same game
which had succeeded at Lowositz. He left a large force to besiege
Prague, and at the head of thirty thousand men he marched against
Daun. The cautious marshal, though he had great superiority in
numbers, would risk nothing:- He occupied at Kolin a position
almost impregnable, and awaited the attack of the king.
<yi/jJ^^^^^\
EXERCISE 47.
On one or'fKefollowing outlines write a paragraph, using short
sentences almost exclusively. On the same outline write another
paragraph, using long sentences almost exclusively. Compare the
two. Which reads the better ? Which is the more easily followed
by a listener? What is lacking in the first, what in the second?
Write a third paragraph on the same outline, combining the best
parts of the other two, and using sentences of different lengths.
Bring all three of the paragraphs to class.
I. Theme : Learning to ride a bicycle.
Topic-sentence : Difficulty of the task.
a. Mounting.
b. First fall.
c. Collision with a pedestrian.
d. Into the ditch.
e. A friend to the rescue.
/. The secret won.
160 Composition-Rhetoric,
II. Theme : Books that I have enjoyed reading.
Topic-sentence : The kinds of books that I enjoy.
a. Poetry (several sentences stating names of au-
thors and poems, and reasons why the poems
are pleasant reading).
h. Prose (as under a).
III. Theme : The character of a friend.
Topic-sentence : His most prominent trait.
a. His likes, with illustrations.
b. His dislikes, with illustrations.
IV. Theme : Advantage of knowing how to sing.
Topic-sentence: General nature of these advantages.
a. Singing is a pleasure to one's self.
b. Ability to sing gives certain social advantages.
c. Disadvantages of inability to sing illustrated
from observation or experience.
->5f
EXERCISE 48.
On one of the following topic-sentences write a paragraph of
about two hundred and fifty words. After writing, examine the
paragraph with these two questions in mind : (1) Does the divi-
sion of the paragraph into sentences correspond to the natural
division of the thought? (2) Is there variety of sentence-lengths?
Revise the paragraph so that these two questions may be answered
affirmatively.
1. It was an old tumble-down house.
2. Lincoln's journey to Washington was fraught with
secret perils.
3. " Study what you like " has an attractive sound, but
is it good advice ?
4. It is not true charity to give money to every beggar
one meets.
5. Not what a man earns, but what he saves, makes him
rich.
---^-"Mow to Say It.\ 161
I should like a newspaper without advertisements.
Fashions in dress are less extreme than formerly.
We are willing to admit that the English sparrows
have some very admirable traits.
9. A Chinese school-room is a noisy place.
10. It is hard to explain the actions of some people.
■-<LjAJL>^>" JLESSON 23.
Uses of the Loose Sentence.
^
Whether long or short, every sentence is also, in the
arrangement of its parts, loose or periodic or balanced. A
sefTEenceTs sai3. to be loose if, without destroyingTJs mean-
ing, it can be ended at a point earlier than the close.
Notice the structure of the sentences in the following par-
agraph. In every one of them there is at least one point,
before the close, at which the sentence might end, without
violence to the sense.
1. One afternoon we visited a cave, some two miles down the
streamjwhich had recently been discovered. 2. We squeezed and
wriggled through a big crack or cleft in the side of the mountain
for about one hundred feeg\when we emerged into a large, dome-
shaped passage/Jihe abode, during certain seasons of the year, of in-
numerable bats, and at all times of primeval darkness. 3. There
were various other crannies and pit-holes opening into it] some of
which we explored. 4. The voice of running water wAs every-
where heard, betraying the proximity of ^ii^ little streamlby
whose ceaseless corroding the cave and its entrance had been
worn. 5. This streamlet flowed out of the mouth of the cave,
and came from a lakej)n the top of the mountain ; this accounted
for its warmth to the handjwhich surprised us all. — Burroughs :
Wake Robin; Adirondack.
The paragraph of loose sentences resembles good conver-
sation. It is easy and natural and entirely without pom-
162 OompositioU'Rhetoric,
pousness ; there is no waiting for the full meaning. In
each loose sentence the main statement (subject and verb)
is given at once and is followed by an added clause or
phrase. Loose sentences are such as one finds in great
numbers in letters, stories, news-articles, and familiar dis-
course of all kinds.
Broadway is miles upon miles long, a rush of life such as I
never have seeiiJ)not so full as the Strand, but so rapid. The
houses are always being torn down and built up again, the rail-
road cars drive slap into the midst of the city. There are barri-
cades and scaffoldings banging everywhere. I have not been into
a house, except the fat country one, but something new is being
done to it, and the hammerings are clattering in the passageior a
wall or steps are down, or the family is going to move. Nobody
is quiet herejno more am I. The rush and restlessness plea,ses
me, and I like, for a little, the dash of the stream. I am not re-
ceived as a god, which I like too. Th^e is one paper which goes
on every morning saying I am a snob^nd I don't say no. Six
people were reading it at breakfast this morning, and the man
opposite me popped it under the table cloth. But the other
papers roar with approbation. — Letters of Thackeray, 159.
It is not often that a paragraph is made up exclusively of loose sen-
tences. In the great majority of paragraphs it is desirable to employ
sentences of various types and of various lengths. The following selec-
tion contains four loose sentences (2, 3, 5, 7) out of a total of seven
sentences : —
1. If the art of writing had been unknown till now, and if the
invention of it were suddenly to burst upon the world as did that
of the telephone, one of the things most generally said in praise of
it would be this/^2. It would be said:-r" What a gain to frie^id-
ship now that friends can communicat^in spite of separation by
the very widest distances ! " '"^ — '^ • *
/^ 3. Yet we have possessed this means of communicatiouj^-the
fullest and best of all, ifrom remote antiquiC^and we scarcely
make any use of it^- certainly not any use responding to its capa-
bilities ;f and as time goes on, instead of developing those capabili-
W IL 163
ties by practice in the art of friendly correspondence, we allow
them to diminish by disuse.
4. The lowering of cost for the transport of letters, instead of
making friendly correspondents numerous, has made them few.
5. The cheap postage-stamp has increased business correspondence
prodigiouslvjbut it has had a very different effect on that of friend-
ship. 6. Great numbers of men whose business correspondence
is heavy scarcely write letters of friendship at all,/^. Their minds
produce the business letter by a second nature^and are otherwise
sterile. — P. G. Hameuton: Human Intercourse.
The following paragraph contains three loose sentences (2, 3, 5)
out of a total of six sentences : —
1. Our forefathers had an idea with regard to the opinions of
their children that in these days we must be content to give up.
2. They thought that all opinions were by nature hereditary;^
and it was considered an act of disloyalty to ancestors if a descend-
ant ventured to differ from them.""^^ The profession of any but
the family opinions was so rare as to be almost inconceivablej and
if in some great crisis the head of a family took a new departure
in religion or politics, the new faith substituted itself for the old
one as the hereditary faith of the family. 4. I remember hearing
an old gentleman (who represented old English feeling in great
perfection) say that it was totally unintelligible to him that a
certain member of parliament could sit on the liberal side of the
House of Commons. yr^^^I cannot understand it," he said; "I
knew his father intimately^Jand he was always a good Tory."
6. The idea that the son might have opinions of his ow^n was
unthinkable. — P. G. Hamerton : Human Intercourse.
Well-constructed loose sentences show considerable variety
in the way in which their parts are put together. Thus in
the paragraph of loose sentences, quoted first in this lesson,
the phrases and clauses following the main statement of
each sentence come in a variety of orders and employ a
variety of introductory words in the different sentences.
Notice in sentence 2 how skilfully a large number of details
are managed by means of the different phrases, and how
/ ^
164 Composition-Rhetoric,
the employment of the words " the abode," in apposition with
the word " passage/' enables the writer to hold the sentence
open for two other details. Notice that sentence 4 is pro-
longed by means of the participle " betraying." Notice how
much new material the use of the words " by whose " enables
the writer to bring into sentence 4.
In the following paragraph notice especially (sentence 2)
how the expression " to make money " stands related to the
main statement preceding. Notice also the great variety
of prepositions employed in this paragraph and the parti-
cipial construction, " resulting," in sentence 5.
1. The New York Herald, founded in 1835 by James Gordon
Bennett, father of the present proprietor, may be called the pioneer
of the pressjconducted upon a strictly business basis^ without sub-
serviency to party or devotion to principle.^^. Mr. Bennett had
only one ideaj^ — to make money by publishm^ the news. 3. He
adhered to that idea with the utmost tenacityJ and he built an
immense fortune for himself upon that idea as a foundation.
4. No man was ever less solicitous for reformation than he, yet he
proved to be a radical reformer, for his conspicuous success pro-
duced a profound change in the notions of newspaper men, all over
the country.-^. The luxury of being free from bondage to the
politicians and the prospect of increased profits hurried on the
movement for an independent press which culminated in 1872 in a
sharp rebellion by the newspapers against party dictation, result-
ing in the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency.
Unless it is kept well in hand a loose sentence may be-
come slovenly, a mere string of clauses and phrases, with
no firmness or direction. There are three special dangers
to be guarded against in using loose sentences in succes-
sion: first, there is the danger that all will begin in the
same way (with the word " he," for instance) ; second, that
the words " and," " and," " and," will be used too much ;
third, that the sentences will all close in the same way (all
with a phrase, or all with a relative clause).
^
How to Say It 165
Use the loose sentence frequently, for its easy conversational
effect. Guard against over-looseness, and make a succession of
loose sentences show variety of structure.
EXERCISE 49.
Find, by counting, the proportion of loose to the total
number of sentences in three pages of your school-history,
or in a half-column news-article.
EXERCISER /KxMAyI fl>(j.
Turn sentence number 3 of the following paragraph into
one or more loose sentences, and note the effect. Do the
same with sentence 5. Do the"refiS6d seiit'ences fit as
closely what precedes and follows tKem ? Is anything lost
by the revision ?
Ee-write the second quotation in several loose sentences.
1. It is admirable to know that those things which, in skill, in
art, and in learning, the world has been unwilling to let die, have
not only been the conceptions of genius, but the products of toil.
2. The masterpieces of antiquity, as well in literature as in art,
are known to have received their extreme finish from an almost
incredible continuance of labor upon them. 3. I do not remember
a book in all the departments of learning, nor a scrap in literature,
nor a work in all the schools of art, from which its author has
derived a permanent renown, that is not known to have been long
and patiently elaborated. 4. Genius needs industry, as much as
industry needs genius. 5. If only Milton's imagination could have
conceived his visions,[pis consummate industry only could have
carved the immortal nnes which enshrine them. 6. If only New-
ton's mind could reach out to the secrets of nature, even his could
only do it by the homeliest toil. 7. The works of Bacon are not
midsummer-night dreams, but, like coral islands, they have risen
from the depths of truth, and formed their broad surfaces above
the ocean by the minutest accretions of persevering labor. 8.
The conceptions of Michael Angelo would have perished like a
night's phantasy, had not his industry given them permanence.
166 Composition-Rhetoric.
One evening f^ihe people were coming out from the ffreat
church of the Trinity of the Pilgrims hard by my fountaiiiJ"a33r
Jihere was a smell of incense on the air, and a sound of chanting
everywh^xejbecause it was in^the days of Lent, and mirthful King
Carnival had gone to his graye^ and Pasquino back to his solitude, ~^i
— one evening ^ I sat stitching, communj^ng with my own
thoughts, and not liking themJ because j^pf latis' they had got con-
fused and cloudy, and I had a sense of impending woe.wi%l
4:^ corresponding sense of how to meet aud to prevent itflGicj^
came to me asfNher habit had used to b^ tiioue'h of late she had
changed jt^ arfttTj tiouching me gently, ^ai'd to me, — ^
" Let us go for one of our old walks. Will you not take me ?
The sun is setting.*"
• EXERCISE 51,
.^Vxi^<...^^^
Do any of the sentences of the following paragraphs
strike you as pompous and over-important, considering
the subject? Make them loose and note the effect.
1. I consider this mighty structure [the Great Pyramid] as a
monument of the insufficiency of human enjoyments. 2. A king
whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real
and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a
pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures,
and to amuse the tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands
laboring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon
another. 3. Whoever thou art that, not content with a moderate
condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest
that command of riches can feed the appetite of novelty with
perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, and confess thy
folly !
1 1. And the love of our own language, w^hat is it in fact but the
//^ love of our country expressing itself in one particular direction ?
2. If the great acts of that nation to which we belong are precious
to us, if we feel ourselves made greater by their greatness, sum-
moned to a nobler life by the nobleness of Englishmen who have
already lived and died, and bequeathed to us a name which must
kM^L
Row to Say It 167
not by us be made less, w^j^ exploits of theirs can well be nobler,
what can more clearly point out their native land and ours as
having fulfilled a glorious past, as being destined for a glorious
future, than that they should have acquired for themselves and
for those who come after them a clear, a strong, an harmonious,
a noble language? 3. For all this bears witness to corresponding
merits in those that speak it, to clearness of mental vision, to
strength, to harmony, to nobleness in them that have gradually
formed and shaped it to be the utterance of their inmost life and
being.
4. To know of this language the stages which it has gone
through, Uhe quarters from which its riches have been derived, the
gains which it is npw making, the perils which have threatened or
are threatening it,; the losses which it has sustained^the latent
capacities which may yet be in it waiting to be evoked,' the points
in which it is superior to, in which it colnes short of, other tongues,
all this may well be the object of worthy ambition to every one of
us. 5. So may we hope to be ourselves guardians of its purity
and not corrupters of it ; to introduce, it may be, others into an
intelligent knowledge of that with which we shall have our-
selves more than a merely superficial acquaintance ; to bequeath
it to those who come after us not worse than we received it
ourselves.
EXERCISE 52. -:^
Discover the sentence in the first selection following^
and the two sentences in the second selection, that are
nnduly loose. Ee-write the three sentences.
The lettuce is to me a most interesting study. Lettuce is like
conversation: it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you
can scarcely notice the bitter in it. Lettuce, like most talkers, is,
however, apt to run rapidly to seed. Blessed is that sort which
comes to a head, and so remains, like aTew people I know; growing
more solid, and satisfactory, and tender at the same time, and
whiter at the centre, and crisp in their maturity. \ Lettuce, like
conversation, requires a good deal of oil, to avoid friction and
keep the company smooth : a pinch of Attic salt, a dash of pepper,
168 Composition-JRhetoric,
a quantity of mustard and vinegar, by all means, but so mixed
that you will notice no sharp contrasts, and a trifle of sugar. You
can put anything, and the more things the better, into salad, as
into a conversation, but everything depends upon the skill of
mixing. I feel that I am in the best society when I am with
lettuce. It is the select circle of vegetables.
About this time I met with an odd volume of The Spectator.
I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over
and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing
excellent, and wished if possible to imitate it. With that view I
took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments
in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without look-
ing at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing
each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been
expressed before, in any suitable words that should occur to me.
Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some
of my faults, and corrected them. ' But T found I wanted a stock
of words, or a readiness in recolle'cting and using them, which I
thought I should have acquired before that time, if I had gone on
making verses ; since the continual search for words of the same
import, but of different length to suit the measure, or of different
sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity
of searching for variety, and also have tgiided to fix that variety
in my mind, and make me master of it. 'Therefore I took some
of the tales in The Spectator, and turned them into verse ; and,
after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned
them back again.
I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into confusion,
and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best
order before I began to form the full sentences and complete the
subject. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of
the thoughts. By comparing my work with the original, I dis-
covered many faults, and corrected them; but I sometimes had
the pleasure to fancy that, in certain particulars of small conse-
quence, I had been fortunate enough to improve the method or
the language, and this encouraged me to think that I might in
time come to be a ^olerable English writer, of which I was
extremely ambitious.
U
How to Say It. 169
EXERCISE 53. V^^fli^
In the first selection following, fifteen sentences out of a
total of twenty-six show the same plan, consisting of two
principal statements joined by the word "and." By what
changes in punctuation or construction could some of these
" ands " be dispensed with ?
Eevise and re-write the second selection so as to avoid
the frequent use of the word " but/' and break up the same-
ness of structure.
The apartment assigned to Cardinal Chigi was subdivided into •
three smaller ones, the largest of which was appropriated to the
bedchamber of the Cardinal, the two others to his attendants.
These apartments communicated with each other, and only one
opened upon the centre corridor running down the Hall. The
Cardinal retired early to his own chamber, and most of the other
Cardinals did the same. A profound silence reigned in the Con-
clave ; if any of the attendants still stirred they were velvet-shod,
and the floors and walls, lined with velvet, prevented the least
sound from being heard.
Ingiesant remained alone in the outermost of the three apart-
ments, and determined to keep his faculties on the alert. For
some reason, however, either the fatigue of the long confinement
or the deathlike stillness of the night, a profound drowsiness
overpowered him, and he continually sank into a doze. He tried
to read, but the page floated before his eyes, and it was only by
continually rising and pacing the small chamber that he kept
himself from sinking into a deep sleep.
Ingiesant had sat down again, and had fallen once more into a
slight doze, when suddenly, from no apparent cause, his drowsiness
left him, and he became intensely and almost painfully awake.
The silence around him was the same as before, but a violent
agitation and excitement disturbed his mind, and an overpowering
apprehension of some approaching existence, inimical to himself,
170 Composition- Rhetoric,
aroused his faculties to an acute perception, and braced his nerves
to a supreme effort. In another moment, this apprehension, at
first merely mental, became perceptible to the sense, and he could
hear a sound. It was, as it were, the echo of a low faint creeping
movement, the very ghost of a sound. Whence it came, Inglesant
could not determine, but it was from without the apartment in
which he sat. Ko longer able to remain passive, he rose, drew
back the velvet curtain that screened the entrance from the corri-
dor, opened the door silently, and went out.
The corridor was lighted here and there along its great length
by oil lamps suspended before every third door of the Cardinals'
rooms; but the dark and massive hangings, the loftiness of the
hall overhead, and the dimness of the lamps themselves, caused
the light to be misty and uncertain, as in a confused and troubled
dream. One of these lamps was suspended immediately above
the door at which Inglesant had appeared, and he stood in its full
light, being himself much more distinctly seen than he w^as himself
able to see anything. He was richly dressed in dark velvet, after
the French fashion, and in the uncertain light his resemblance to
his murdered brother was, in this dress, very great. He held a
slight and jewelled dagger in his hand.
As he paused under the suspended lamp the sound he had heard
before developed itself into low stealthy footsteps approaching
down the corridor, apparently on the opposite side, and the next
moment a figure, more like a phantom thrown on the opposite
wall than a substantial being, glided into sight. It was shrouded
in flowing drapery, and kept so close to the heavy hangings that
it seemed almost the waving of their folds stirred by some un-
known breeze. Though it passed down the opposite side, it kept
its attention turned in Inglesant's direction, and almost at the
same moment at which he appeared through the opening door it
saw him and instantly stopped. It lost its stealthy motion and
assumed an attitude of intense and speechless terror, such as In-
glesant had never seen depicted in a human being, and by this
attitude revealed itself more completely to his gaze. The hood
which shaded its face fell partly back and displayed features pale
as death, and lustrous eyes dilated with horror; and Inglesant
could see that it held some nameless weapon in its hand. As it
stood, arrested in its purpose, breathless and uncertain, it seemed
How to Say It. 171
to Iiiglesaiit a phantom murderer, or rather the phantom of murder
itself, as though nothing short of the murderous principle sufficed
any longer to dog his steps.
This strange figure confronted Inglesant for some seconds, during
which neither stirred, each with his eyes riveted upon the other,
each with his weapon in his hand. Then the phantom murmured
in an inarticulate and broken voice, that faltered upon the air as
though tremulous with horror, " It is himself ! He has taken the
dagger from his bleeding wound ! "
Then, as it had come, it glided backwards along the heavy
drapery, becoming more and more lost in its folds, till, at first
apparently but the shadow of a shade, it faded more and more
into the hanging darkness, and vanished out of sight.
The agreeable man is always courteous and considerate. He
keeps out of disputes and contentions, and seeks to give utterance
only to pleasant things, Jiit if driven to contradict, does so in an
amiable manner. He may or may not be as good and faithful at
heart as the gruff disputant, who is apt to be boastful of his frank-
ness, ^ut the quality that makes him agreeable is his cultivated
manner. Some people go so far as to deprecate politeness as a
concession to hypocrisy, J}nt it is really a manifestation of con-
sideration for others. It is, of course, cultivated by hypocrites,
and those who are excessively polite may be suspected of insin-
cerity; ^lii that is not a good reason why sincere people should
not use it to make themselves agreeable.
EXERCISE 64.
Ee-construct the following paragraph so as to avoid begin-
ning so many of the sentences with " he " : —
1. He was an old bachelor, of a small independent income,
which, by careful management, was sufficient for all his wants.
2.-Jft revolvWNmrough the family system like a vagrant comet
in its orbit ; sanaepimes visiti^gj&ne branch, and sometimes another
quite remote ; ^^^k^ls^often the case with gentlemen of extensive
connections and small fortunes in England^ 3. He^md a chirping,
buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present moment; and
172 Composition-Rhetoric.
his frequent change of scene and company prevented his acquiring
those rusty, unaccommodating habits with which old bachelors
are so uncharitably charged. 4. j^^^as a complete family chroni-
cle, being versed in the genealogy, history, and intermarriages of
the whole house of Bracebridge, which made him a great favorite
with the old folks; he was the beau of all the elder ladies and
superannuated spinsters, among whom he was habitually considered
rather a young fellow; and he was master of the revels among
the children ; so that there was not a more popular being in the
sphere in which he moved than Mr. Simon Bracebridge. 5. Of
late years he had resided almost entirely with the squire, to whom
he had become a factotum, and whom he particularly delighted by
jumping with his humor in respect of old times, and by having
a scrap of song to suit every occasion. 6. We had presently- a
specimen of his last-mentioned talent, for no sooner was supper
removed, and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the
season introduced, than Master Simon was called on for a good
old Christmas song. 7. He bethought himself for a hiomerit,"atri^^'
then, with a sparkle of the eye, and a voice that was by no means
bad, except that it ran occasionally into a falsetto, like the notes
of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old ditty.
EXERCISE 55.
"What sameness of structure do you notice at the close of
the sentences of each of the following paragraphs ? Eevise
in the interest of variety.
It might reasonably be supposed that good people would be
agreeable and bad people disagreeable, but this is^ by no mean^ ^a,
fixed rule. There are many notable exceptionsAfc«d people b"4l{^
often delightful companions. They study to pease, thereby cfcy-
^^$gMff^ up their faults of character. There is no reason, however,
\ why good people should not follow their example in this respect,
^/V^ adding attractive manners to their other virtues. When they act
naturally, they are agreeable* but some good men with warm sym-
pathies and great kindness of heart put on a gruif, repellent man-
"^^) s^iJ^i^e ^ ^^^'^ that it is necessary for their own protection^,
There are others who at heart are good friends, yet make them-
How to Say It. ,- 173
selves disagreeable to those they love, hsam% a bad Kabit bf positive
contradiction. All of us have a great deal of self-love, and we
cannot regard as agreeable one who continually differs with and
contradicts us, especially if he does so in an offensive way.
A Chicago newspaper publishes an account of a novel experi-
ment which is about to be tried in that city. InNnj;ief, it is the m
application to street-railway traffic of the Hungarian zon§**systerrf'*^^^^
py wmcn passengers may travel for one cent a mile. A street-
railway company has obtained a charter which gives it the right
to build lines over certain streets of Chicago. The passenger may
pay cas"h or provide himself with the coupon tickets which are
issued by the company. The first mile from the downtown ter-
minus costs one cent, and one cent extra is charged for each addi-
tional mile or fraction thereof which the passenger may travel.
In case a passenger boards a car at a distance from the terminus,
and alights before it reaches its destination, he is charged one
cent a mile for the space over which he rides. The advocates of
this plan argue that a rate is thus established which is equitable
and fair to all concerned. It is maintained that such payment
will bring in proper revenue to the companies and that the down-
town passenger is not continually paying for the long rides which
the suburban resident takes. The plan is one which has been
thoroughly worked out in European cities, and it is ready for
adoption in America.
The boy who chafes under rules and discipline, longing to be
free, should be reminded of the obligations of the social state, and
admonished to prolong as much as possible the freedom and enjoy-
ments of youth ; for that which is regarded as a measure of inde-
pendence must be paid for in a way which he does not now suspect.
The youth who is wilful and determines to break from authority
soon learns that he has broken with a supporter as well as a ruler;
for if he would have his own way he must support himself, and in
doing so he puts himself under the rule of new task-masters. The
wisest thing w^e can do is cheerfully to make the best of our
situation, for, struggle as we may, we cannot achieve complete
independence. By curbing our appetites and desires so that we
shall want only those things that may be attainable through reason-
able effort, and by respecting authority as a necessary exercise of
Composition-Rhetoric ,
power, we should cheerfully make our share of the mutual sacri-
fices which social conditions require to be made.
It would be thought a hard government that should tax its
people one-tenth part of their time to be employed in its service ;
but idleness taxes many of us much more: sloth, by bringing
on diseases, absolutely shortens life. " Sloth, like rust, consumes
faster than labor wears; while the used key is always bright,"
as Poor Kichard says. "But dost thou love life? then do not
squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of," as Poor Richard
says. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep!
forgetting that "the sleeping fox catches no poultry," and that
" there will be sleeping enough in the grave," as Poor Richard says.
EXERCISE 56.1aA^*
Write about 300 wor^ on one of the following topics. Criti-
cise your work carefully by asking the following questions: (1)
Is there variety of sentence-beginnings? (2) Is there variety of
structure? (3) Is there variety of sentence-endings? Bring both
your original and amended work to class, prepared to give reasons
for the changes you have made.
1. The story of Paul Eevere's ride.
2. A description ^^ ^ ^^MTltry RtOTP —
■ 3. 'Ae ninth inning.
4. A ride on a raft.
5. The best route to the Arctic regions.
6. How our reading circle is conducted.
7. The story of Evangeline.
8. Arrangements for a camping party.
9. How shall railway cars be heated ? ^
10. Advantages of learning a trade.
11. How the fashions originate.
12. The most important discovery of the last quarter-
century. ' ^ x??
13. Scientific kite-flying. V;
14. Artificial flies. - '^^ ■
'S,
i
3
How to Say It. 175
LESSON 24.
Uses of Periodic Sentences,
A sentence is periodic in which the thought is suspended
or kept incomplete until the end is reached. The following
paragraph is made up of periodic sentences : in none of them
can a period be inserted without destroying the meaning of
the part that precedes and the part that follows the inter-
ruption : —
( l| Never, perhaps, was the change which the progress of civili-
zation has produced in the art of war more strikingly illustrated
than on that day. 2. Ajax beating down the Trojan leader with
a rock which two ordinary men could scarcely lift, Horatius de-
fending the bridge against an army, Richard the Lion-hearted
spurring along the whole Saracen line without finding an enemy
to withstand his assault, Robert Bruce crushing with one blow the
helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun in sight of the whole array
of England and Scotland, — such are thtf heroes of a dark age.
3. Li such an age, bodily vigor JsJihe most indispensable qualifi-
cation of a warrior. 4^ At Landen, two poor sickly beings who,
m a rude state of society, would have been regarded as too puny
to bear any part in combats, were the souls of two great armies.
5. In some heathen countries they would have been exposed while
infants. ^^ In Christendom they would, six hundred years earlier,
have been sent to some quiet cloister. 7. But their lot had fallen
oi:ua-time when men had discovered thfl^- ^-^^^ strength of the mus-
cles is far inferior in value to the strength of the mind. 8. Jt is
probable that, among the hundred and twenty thousand soldiers
who were marshalled round Neerwinden under all the standards
of Western Europe, the two feeblest in body were the hunch-
backed dwarf who urged forward the fiery onset of France, and
the asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat of England.
— Macaulay: History of England, chap. XX.
The paragraph of periodic sentences is, in effect, more
like oratory, or declamation, than like ordinary con versa-
176 Composition- Rhetoric ,
tion. The manner of statement, especially if the sentences
are somewhat long, is dignified and impressive. The reader
feels, as he reads, that the subject is weighty and important ;
that the parts of each sentence have been purposely arranged
as he finds them. He is compelled to pay close attention,
for he finds that the principal verb of each sentence is with-
held until the modifying phrases and clauses are brought
in. He must wait for the full meaning until the end of .the
sentence ; thus his interest is stimulated. When the impor-
tant word, or element, that has been reserved to the latter
part, is reached, the force and the satisfying completeness
of the whole sentence are appreciated.
If the poetical prediction, uttered a few years before his birth,
be true ; if indeed it be designed by Providence that the grandest
exhibition of human character and human affairs shall be made
on this theatre of the western world ; if it be true that
** The first four acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day ;
Time's noblest offspring is the last ; "
how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be appropriately
opened, how could its intense interest be adequately sustained,
but by the introduction of just such a character as our Wash-
ington ? — Webster : Character of Washington.
And now, gentlemen, standing as I do in this relation for the
last time in your presence and that of my fellow-citizens, about to
surrender forever a station full of difficulty, of labor, and tempta-
tion, in which I have been called to very arduous duties, affecting
the rights, property, and at times the liberty of others; concerning
which the perfect line of rectitude, though desired, was not always
to be clearly discerned ; in which great interests have been placed
within my control, under circumstances in which it would have
been easy to advance private ends and sinister projects; — under
these circumstances, I inquire, as I have a right to inquire, — for
in the recent contest insinuations have been cast against my integ-
rity,— in this long management of your affairs, whatever errors
have been committed, — and doubtless there have been many, —
How to Say It, 177
have you found in nie anything selfish, anything personal, any-
thing mercenary? In the simple language of an ancient seer, I
say, " Behold, here I am ; witness against me. Whom have I
defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? At whose hands have
I received any bribe?" — Josiah Quincy: Address on laying down
the Mayoralty of Boston.
Periodic sentences are sometimes found one after another
through a whole paragraph of a highly wrought discourse.
More often, however, they alternate at more or less regular
intervals with sentences of other kinds. The following
selection contains nine sentences of which three (^3, 5, 8)
are periodic : —
1. Great actions and striking occurrences, having excited a tem-
porary admiration, often pass away and are forgotten, because they
leave no lasting results aifecting the prosperity and happiness of
communities. 2. Such is freg[uently the fortune of the most brill-
iant military achievements. 3.; Of the ten thousand battles which
have been fought ; of all the fields fertilized with carnage ; of the
banners which have been bathed in blood; of the warriors who
have hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a
glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few that continue
long to interest mankind ! 4. The victory of yesterday is reversed
by the defeat of to-day ; the star of military glory, rising like a
meteor, like a meteor has fallen ; disgrace and disaster hang on
the heels of conquest and renown ; victor and vanquished presently
pass away to oblivion, and the world goes on in its course, with
thaloss only of so many lives and so much treasure.
(5/) But if this be frequently or generally the fortune of military
achievements, it is not always so. 6. There are enterprises, mili-
tary as well as civil, which sometimes check the current of events,
give a new turn to human affairs, and transmit their consequences
through ages. 7. We see their importance intheir results, and
call them great, because great things follow. ^JThere have been
battles which have fixed the fate of nations. 9. These come down
to us in history with a solid and permanent interest, not created
by a display of glittering armor, the rush of adverse battalions,
the sinking and rising of pennons, the flight, the pursuit, and the
178 Composition- Rhetoric.
victory ; but by their effect in advancing or retarding human
knowledge, in overthrowing or establishing despotism, in extend-
ing or destroying human happiness. — Webster.
Periodic sentences show a more regular and formal struct-
ure than loose sentences. The periodic sentence is arranged
to secure suspense ; accordingly the structure of a periodic
sentence will show devices for withholding the full meaning
and for arousing expectation. Thus in the paragraph of
periodic sentences quoted at the beginning of this lesson,
suspense is secured in sentence 1 by the use of compara-
tive words (never — more — than) ; in 2, by the use of a
summarizing word (such) after particulars have been accu-
mulated by means of the participles (heating — defending,
etc.) ; in 3, by putting a phrase first and bringing in the logi-
cal subject {qualification) after the copula {is) ; in 4, 5, and 6
by putting a phrase first. In 7, the demonstrative article
(a) anticipates the clause {when), the transitive verb {dis-
covered) needs an object (here the ^/ia^clause), and the
object clause is prolonged by the use of a comparative
{inferior) ; in 8, the word it anticipates all that follows the
word probable; and the part of sentence 8 after the word
probable is suspended by the device used in sentence 3.
Other devices for securing suspense will be seen in the
following sentences : in sentence 2, suspense is secured by
putting the concessive clause {though) first; in 4, by the
as-clause, and, later, by the words no longer — but; in 6,
by the position of the loAeTvclauses ; in 7, by the use of
words that require something to follow {avow, in preference
to) ; in 8, by the four /or-phrases coming first ; in 11, by
the introductory tZ-clause ; in the two parts of 13, by plac-
ing the participles first ; in 16, by the use and position of
the correlatives {whether — or).
1. The American Declaration of Independente was the begin-
ning of new ages. 2. Though it had been invited, expected, and
How to Say It, 179
prepared for, its adoption suddenly changed the contest from a
war for the redress of grievances to an effort at the creation of a
self-governing commonwealth. 3. It disembarrassed the people of
the United States from the legal fiction of owning a king against
whom they were in arms, brushed away forever the dreamy illusion
of their reconcilement to the dominion of Britain, and for the first
time set before them a well-defined, single, and inspiring purpose.
4^-^s ^^^ youthful nation took its seat among the powers of the
earth, its desire was nolouger for the restoration of the past, but
turned with prophetic promise towards the boundless future.
5. Hope whispered the assurance of unheard-of success in the pur-
suit of public happiness through faith in natural equality and the
rights of man. — Bancroft.
6. When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us
from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and
wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it
your own. 7. I must declare and avow that, in the master states
of the world, I know not the people, nor the senate who, under
such a complication of difficult circumstances, can stand in prefer-
enc^JjUthe delegates of America in General Congress at Philadel-
phia. 8. _For genuine sagacity,.jQX^singular moderation, igr^solid
wisdom, manly spirit, sublime sentiments, and simplicity of lan-
guage, for everything respectable and honorable, they stand un-
rivalled. — Chatham.
9. A great deal must be allowed to Pope for the age in which he
lived, and not a little, I think, for the influence of Swift. 10. In
his own province he still stands unapproachably alone. 11. !;£.. to
be the greatest satirist of individual men, rather than of human
nature, if to be the highest expression which the life of the court
and the ball-room has ever found in verse, if to have added more
phrases to our language than any other but Shakespeare, if to
have charmed four generations make a man a great poet — then
he is one. 12. He was the chief founder of an artificial style of
writing, which in his hands was living and powerful, because he
used it to express artificial modes of thinking and an artificial
state of society. 13. Measured by any high standard of imagina-
tion, he will be /ound wanting; tried by any test of wit he is
unrivalled. — Lowell: My Study Windows, ^ZZ,
180 Composition-Rhetoric,
14. At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect
concurrence with a large majority in this House. 15. Bowing
under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharpness and
strength of that early impression, I have continued ever since,
without the least deviation, in my original sentiments. 16.
Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or
to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason,
it is in your equity to judge. — Burke: Conciliation with the
Colonies.
The pupil should notice carefully the methods of suspense
employed in the periodic sentences quoted above with a view
to using these methods in his own writing. One of the chief
advantages in composing periodic sentences arises from the
fact that one learns how to place phrases and clauses prop-
erly, and how to manage a considerable number of them in
the same sentence when this is necessary.
Use the periodic sentence for its dignity, complateness, and
structural compactness. Guard against the over-importance (bom- \
bast) which a series of periodic sentences may produce when the j
subject on which you are writing is simple and familiar,
V EXERCISE 57.
^M y* Find, by counting, the proportion of periodic to the total
'^ X number of sentences in three pages of your school history.
8.>5hJJ^
EXERCISE 58.
Turn sentence number 1 in the following to periodic form,
and note the effect. In the second selection turn sentences
5, 6, and 7 to periodic form. Is the paragraph improved
thereby ?
1. Our principal intellectual ancestors are, no doubt, the Jews,
the Greeks, the Romans, and the Saxons, and we, here in Europe,
should not call a man educated or enlightened who was ignorant
How to Say It, 181
of the debt which he owes to his intellectual ancestors in Palestine,
Greece, Rome, and Germany. 2. The whole past history of the
world would be darkness to him, and not knowing what those who
came before him had done for him, he would probably care little
to do anything for those who are to come after him. 3. Life
would be to him a chain of sand, while it ought to be a kind of
electric chain that makes our hearts tremble and vibrate with the
most ancient thoughts of the past as well as with the most distant
hopes of the future.
1. Look now at the accomplished man of letters. He sits in his
quiet study with clear head, sympathetic heart, and lively fancy.
2. The walls around him are lined with books on every subject,
and in almost every tongue. 3. He is indeed a man of magical
powers, and these books are his magical volumes full of wonder-
working spells. 4. When he opens one of these, and reads with
eye and soul intent, in a few minutes the objects around him fade
from his senses, and his soul is rapt away into distant regions, or
into by-gone times. 5. It may be a book descriptive of other
lands ; and then he feels himself, perhaps, amid the biting frost
a^nd snowy ice-hills of the polar winter, or in the fierce heat and
luxuriant vegetation of the equator, panting up the steeps of the
Alps with the holiday tourist, or exploring the mazes of the Nile
with Livingstone or Baker. 6. Or, perchance, it may be a history
of England; and then the tide of time runs back, and he finds
himself among our stout-hearted ancestors ; he enters heartily into
all their toils and struggles ; he passes amid the fires of Smithfield
at the Reformation ; he shares in all the wrangling, and dangers,
and suspense of the Revolution ; he watches with eager gaze the
steady progress of the nation, until he sees British freedom become
the envy of Europe, and British enterprise secure a foothold in
every quarter of the globe. 7. Or perhaps the book may be one
of our great English classics — Shakespeare, Bacon, or Carlyle —
and immediately he is in the closest contact with a spirit far larger
than his own : his mind grasps its grand ideas, his heart imbibes
its glowing sentiments, until he finds himself dilated, refined,
inspired, — a greater and a nobler being. 8. Thus does this
scholar's soul grow and extend itself until it lives in every region
of the earth and in every by-gone age, and holds the most intimate
182 Composition-Rhetoric,
intercourse with the spirits of the mighty dead ; and thus, though
originally a frail mortal creature, he rises toward the godlike
attributes of omnipresence and omniscience.
EXERCISE 59.
sLui^'
Point out the means of suspense employed in the fol-
lowing : —
I know many have been taught to think, that moderation,
in a case likg.JJiis, is a sort of treason ; and that all arguments
for it are sufficiently answered by railing at rebels and rebellion,
and by charging all the present, or future miseries, which we may
suffer, on the resistance of our brethren. But I would wish them,
in this grave matter, and if peace is not wholly removed from
their hearts, to consider seriously, first, that to criminate and
recriminate never yet was the road to reconciliation, in any dif-
ference amongst men. In the next place, it would be right to
reflect, that the American English (whom they may abuse, if they
think it honorable to revile the absent) can, as things now stand,
neither be provoked at our railing, nor bettered by our instruction.
All communication is cut off between us, but this we know with
certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform
ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must begin
somewhere ; and a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare
every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive that we suffer
anything by thus regulating our own minds. We are not disarmed
by being disencumbered of our passions. Declaiming on rebellion
never added a bayonet, or a charge of powder, to your military force ;
but I am afraid that it has been the means of taking up many
muskets against you. — Burke: Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.
AU this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical
to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians,
who have no place among us; a sort of people who think that
nothing exists but what is gross and material ; and who therefore,
far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of
empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men
truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master princi-
How to Say It, 183
pies, which, in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have
no substantial existence, ^re in truth everything, and all in all.
Magnanimity in politics i^ not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a
great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious
of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes
our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public
proceedings on America, with the old warning of the church,
Sursum corda ! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness
of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By
ajdverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have
turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire : and have made
the most extensive, and the only honorable conquests, not by
desti:eyiftg, but byj)TOmoting the wealth, the number, the happi^
ness of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we
have got an American empire. English privileges have made it
all that it is ; English privileges alone will make it all it can be. —
Burke : Conciliation with the Colonies.
The proposition is peace. JJiiL^eace through the medium of
war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate
and endless negotiations ; not peace to arise out of universal dis-
cord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not
peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing
questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a
complex government. It is simple peace; sought in its natural
course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit
of peace ; and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose by;^
removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former
unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in tlTe mother country, to
give permanent satisfaction to your people ; and (far from a
scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in
the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest which
reconciles them to British government. — Burke : Conciliation with
the Colonies.
EXERCISE 60.
Make a list of all the methods you have learned by which
suspense is secured, and illustrate each method by an origi-
nal sentence.
184 Composition-Rhetoric,
\ \
EXERCISE Jl. \J^J-^*
Introduce as great variety of suspense as you can into the
following paragraphs : —
1. Douglass was essentially a great man. 2. Escaping from
slavery when he was twenty-one years old, in three years he had
begun, in a Massachusetts seaport town, to be a lead^ of hi^ race, v
and an orator for the abolition of slavery. 3. G(»rag^'^figranaJ^5^?^
he stirred the moral sense of the English people which so often ^^''^
compels the alleg^^iice of its politiciaDS and statesmen in behalf ^
of moral causes. '4.' Becoijiiug" an editor as well as an orator, he
was a considerable force in awakening the (hill consoience of the?
Northern States. 5. He has left his mark upon the lii'story of the
abolition of slavery in America. 3iH hXXt
1. That astonishing incident in human affairs, the Revolution
of America, as seen on the day of its portentous, or rather, let me
say, of its auspicious commencement, is the theme of our present
consideration. 2. On the one hand, we behold a connection of
events, — the time and circumstances of the original discovery;
the settlements of the Pilgrims, and their peculiar principles and
character ; their singular political relations with the mother-coun-
try; their long and doubtful struggles with the savage tribes;
their collisions with the royal governors ; their cooperation in >
the British wars, — with all the influences of their geographical
and physical condition, uniting to constitute what I may call the
national edijj^atiQn of America.
3. Wh^ElTWfe^lte ^'ttis survey we feel, as far as Massachusetts
is concerned, that we 9ught to divide the honors of the Revolution
with the great men of the colony in every generation; with the
Winslows and the Pepperells, the Cookes, the Duinmers and the
INIathers, the Winthrops and the Bradfords, and all w^ho labored
and acted in the cabinet, the desk, or the field, for the one great
cause.
4. On the other hand, when we dwell upon the day itself,
everything else seems lost in the comparison. 5.-^^d our fathers
failed on that day of trial which we now celebrate; J»«$ th^ir , Vjr
votes and their resolves (as was taunlSfigly predicted (m'bom sidee
of the Atlantic) ended in the breath in which they began ; iiife
How to Say It, 185
t
the rebels laid down their arms, as they were commanded; and 'J
the militaiy stores, whiclihad ld©en frugally treasured up for this
crisis, been, without resistance,^destroyea, — then the Revolution
would have been at an end, or rather never had been begun ; the
heads of Hancock and Adams and their brave colleagues would
have been exposed in ghastly triumph on Temple Bar ; a military
despotism would have been firmly fixed in the colonies; the
patriots o| JV^ssachusetts would have been^ doubly despised — the
scorn^f Tneir enemies, tl^ scorn" q^ their ' deluded countrymen;
and the heart of this great people, then beating and almost burst-
ing for freedom, would have been struck cold and dead, perhaps
forever. . .
EXERCISE 62. /^^
Ee-write the following for the most part in periodic sen-
tences and compare your version with the original.
There are ten thousand ways of telling a lie. A man's entire
life may be a falsehood, while with his lips he may not once
directly falsify. There are those who state what is positively
untrue, but afterward say "may be" softly. These departures
fi-om the truth are called white lies, but there is really no such
thing as a white lie. The whitest lie that was ever told was as
black as perdition. There are men high in church and state,
actually useful, self-denying, and honest in many things, who,
upon certain subjects and in certain spheres, are not at all to be
depended upon for veracity. Indeed, ^her^e ^f^ multitudes of men
who have their notion of truthfulness so thoroughly perverted that
they do not know w^hen they are lying. With many it is a culti-
vated sin ; with some it seems a natural infirmity. I have known
people who seemed to have been born liars. The falsehoods of
their lives extended from cradle to grave. Prevarication, misrep-
resentation, and dishonesty of speech, appeared in their first utter-
ances, and were as natural to them as any of their infantile
diseases, and were a sort of moral croup or spiritual scarlatina.
But many have been placed in circumstances where this tendency
has day by day and hour by hour been called to larger develop-
ment. They have gone from attainment to attainment, and from
class to class, until they have become regularly graduated liars.
186 Composition-Rhetoric.
The air of the city is filled with falsehoods. They hang pen-
dent from the chandeliers of our finest residences. They crowd
the shelves of some of our merchant princes. They fill the side-
walk from curb-stone to brown-stone facing. They cluster round
the mechanic's hammer, and blossom from the end of the mer-
chant's yardstick, and sit in the doors of churches. Some call
them " fiction." Some style them " fabrications." You might say
that they were subterfuge, disguise, illusion, romance, evasion,
pretence, fable, deception, misrepresentation ; but, as I am igno-
rant of anything to be gained by the hiding of a God-defying
outrage under a lexicographer's blanket, I shall chiefly call them
in plainest vernacular — lies.
Let us all strive to be what we appear to be, and banish from
our lives everything that looks like deception, remembering that
God will yet reveal to the universe what we really are.
EXERCISE 63. ^^^W\M<^ — - '
What sameness of structure do you notice in the sen-
tences of the following paragraphs ? Re-write, and re-com-
bine, introducing variety of beginnings and variety of sus-
pense.
There is no doubt that the Christian powers of Europe, or Rus-
sia and England alone, could, by main force, put a stop to the
persecution of the Armenian Christians by the Turks. One of the
reasons for their exceeding caution in the case is their knowledge
and experience of the fighting ability of the Turks. Drive the
Turk to the wall, and he will fight against any odds. Inflame his
religious zeal, and he will rush upon the combined armies of
Christendom. Threaten his sanctuaries, and the most arrant cow-
ard will become a hero. Lead him to believe that he is called
upon to engage in a holy war for Islam, and death in battle
becomes the highest joy for him. He has supreme faith in Allah
and the Prophet. He believes in kismet, "to him the vision of
paradise is a perpetual inspiration. The Turk has fought all the
races in the world. He has been held in check only by over-
whelming forces. His history from the times of old has been
chiefly that of warfare.
How to Say It. 187
I remember an old scholastic aphorism, which says, that " the
man who lives wholly detached from others must be either an
angel or a devil." When I see in any of these detached gentlemen
of our times the augelic purity, power, and beneficence, I shall
admit them to be angels. In the meantime we are born only to
be men. We shall do enough if we form ourselves to be good
ones. It is therefore our business carefull}^ to cultivate in our
minds, to rear to the most perfect vigor and maturity, every sort
of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature. To
bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the ser-
vice of the commonwealth ; so to be patriots as not to forget we
are gentlemen. To cultivate friendships, and to incur enmities.
To have both strong, but both selected : in the one, to be placable ;
in the other immovable. To model our principles to our duties
and our situation. To be fully persuaded that all virtue which is
impracticable is spurious ; and rather to run the risk of falling
to faults in a course which leads us to act with effect and energy,
an to loiter out our days without blame, and without use. Public
life is a situation of power and energy ; he trespasses against his
duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to
the enemy.
EXERCISE 64.
Write about 300 words on' one of the following topics, making
many of the sentences periodic in form, and trying the various
devices for suspense : —
1. Americans should not hate the English. ^'^^J^ t
2. Thoughts on Independence Day.
3. Accuracy in writing and speaking is a moral attain-
ment.
4. It makes a difference for what purposes we spend
money.
5. Advantages of a public library.
6. Admirable traits in Abraham Lincoln's character.
7. A heroic deed.
8. The character of Miles Standish.
9. The dignity of Dr. Samuel Johnson.
188 Composition-Rhetoric,
10. Needed street improvements.
11. Early life of George Eliot.
12. Was Bassanio a proper husband for Portia ?
"^/W/r^.
LESso:^r 25.
Uses of the Balanced Sentence.
A balanced sentence is one in which corresponding parts
are made similar in form in order to bring out parallelism
in meaning. The following paragraph, after the first sen-
tence, shows similarity of form in five sentences, the scheme
of structure being if — it shows in each sentence : —
The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be
gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen
of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other
lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be compassionate
towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like
the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm. If
he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is
planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot. If he be thank-
ful for small benefits, it shg^s that he weighs men's minds, and
not their trash. But, above all, if he have St. PauPs perfection,
that he would wish to be anathema from Christ for the salvation
of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of
conformity with Christ liimself. — Bacon : Of Goodness.
In the following paragraph the second sentence divides at
but; the scheme of structure in the first part being not to
— or, not to — nor to, not to — or, and of the last part but
to, to, etc., corresponding expressions being similar in form
of statement and of about the same number of words. In
sentence 4, the repetitions (voyage of discovery, circumnavi-
gation of charity) correspond precisely in form. In sentence
6, the contrasting words (not by detail but in gross) are simi-
larly placed.
How to Say It, 189
1. I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his
labors and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts
of mankind. 2. He has visited all Europe, not to. survey the
sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples ; not to
make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur,
nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art ; not to collect
medals, or collate manuscripts : h^t ^(^ dive into the depths of
dungeons ; to plunge into the infection of hospitals ; to survey
the mansions of sorrow and pain ; Jo^take the gauge and dimen-
sions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the for-
gotten, ia attend to the neglected, ta visit the forsaken, and to
compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries.
3. His plan is original ; and it is as full of genius as it is of hu-
manity. 4. It was a voyage of discovery ; a circumnavigation of
charity. 5. Already the benefit of his labor is felt moreor iess*"
in every country ; I hope he will anticipate his final reward, by
seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. 6. He will receive,
not by detail but in gross, the reward of those who visit the pris-
oner ; and he has so torestalled and monopolized this branch of
charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such
acts of benevolence hereafter. — Burke : Speech at Bristol.
The habit of clothing similar thoughts in clauses^ or
phrases, or sentences, of about equal length and of similar
structure, may easily become a mannerism. A series of
balances grows speedily wearisome and becomes offensively
regular. The reader suspects, sometimes, that the facts are
not so accurately balanced as the words would indicate.
Use the balanced sentence only when parallelism of the thought
requires.
EXERCISE 65.
Point out all the contrasting words, phrases, and clauses
that are balanced in the following paragraphs : —
I believe we can nowhere find a better type of a perfectly free
creature than in the common house fly. ^or fl^e^^ily. but brave ;
and irreverent to a degree which I think no human republican
190 Composition- Rhetoric,
could by any philosophy exalt himself to. There is no courtesy in
him ; he does not care whether it is king or clown whom he teases ;
and in every step of his swift mechanical march, and in every
pause of Ins^esolute observation, there is gig" and the saipe expres-
sionjodT perfect egotism, perfect independence and self-confidence,
and conviction oFThe world's having been made for flies. Strike
at him with your hand; and to him, the mechanical fact and
external aspect of the matter is, wliat to you it would be, if an
acre of red clay, ten feet thick, tore itself up from the ground in
one massive field, hovered over you in the air for a second, and
came crashing down with an aim. That is the external aspect of
it ; the inner aspect, to his fly's mind, is of quite natural and unim-
portanfoccurrence — one of the momentary conditions of his active
life. He steps c^^\ of i^^ -^^y nf yf^i^y hnnd^ and alights on th^
back of it. You cannot terrify him, nor govern him, nor persuade
liim, nor convince him. He has his own positive opinion on all
matters ; not an unwise one, usually, for his own ends ; and will
ask no advice of yours. He has no work to do — no^^tyrannical
instinct to obey. The earth wornT has Iirs"°3l$ging ; the bee, her
gathering and building ; the spider, her cunning net-work ; the
ant, her treasury and accounts. All these are comparative slaves,
or people of vulgar business. But your fly, free in the air, free in
Jlie chamber — a black incarnatiou of caprice — wandering, investi-
gating, flitting, flirting, feasting at his will, with rich variety of
choice in feast, from the heaped sweets in the grocer's window to
those of the butcher's back-jard, and from the galled place on
your caB^hofse'snback to the brown spot in the road, from which
as ihe hoof disturbs him, he rises with angry republican buzz
— what freedom is like his? — Ruskin : Queen of the Air,
Pictorial composition may be defined as the proportionate
arranging and unifying of the different features and objects of
a picture. It is not the huddling together of miscellaneous studio
properties — a dummy, a vase, a rug here, and a sofa, a fireplace,
a table there ; it isnot the lugging in by the ears of unimportant
people to fill up the background of the canvas, as in the spectacu-
lar play; it is not taking a real group from nature and transplant-
ing it upon canvas. There must be an exercise of judgment on
the part of the artist as to fitness and position, as to harmony of
How to Say It. 191
relation, proportion, color, light; and there must be a skilful
uniting of all the parts into one perfect whole. — J. C. Van Dyke :
How to Judge of a Picture, 95.
The clergyman of fashion was pale and fragile ; he of the people
was florid and muscular. He had no attendant to remove his hat
and cloak. He had no comfortable study in the church building
where he smoothed his hair and arranged his cuffs. He declaimed
beforejio-jull-length mirror, and never wore a pair of patent
leathers in his life. When he ascended tFe platform, threading v
his way through the men and women on its steps, and patting the j'^U' Ui
curly hair of boys perched on the ledge, he slung his soft felt hat Amiij
under a little table, put one leg over the other while he removed .
his rubbers, threw back his cloak, settled himself in his chair, and'
gave a sigh of relief as he drew a restful breath after his quick
walk from home. In other words, he was a man bent on man's
duty. If the air seemed close he said so, called an usher and had
the windows lowered. If he desired a special tune sung to the
hymn he gave out, he turned to the director and told him so. If
he forgot a date or a name, he asked one of the people near him
wiiat it was. If strangers sitting close to the platform were
miprovided with hymn-book s,Jie leaned forward and handed them
several from his desk. As he said, " I am at home ; they are our
guests. What is proper in my house is eminently proper in the
house of the Lord ! " — Jos. Howard : Life of Beecher, 158.
EXERCISE 66.
In what parts of the following paragraph does the bal-
ance seem forced and unnecessary ? E-e-state the thought
in looser form and in simpler sentences.
In perusing the works of this race of authors, the mind is exer-
cised either by recollection or inquiry ; either something already
learned is to be retrieved, or something new is to be examined. If ^^
their greatness seldom elevates, their acuteness often surprises ; if_
the imagination is not often gratified, at least the powers of reflec-
tion and comparison are employed ; and m the mass of materials
which ingenious absurdity has thrown together, genuine wit and
AJtrmdJkuvv^ (VKSjji, (M-Ur )di\XM OiAMt Oi^A^^N^Jij-iA
192 Oomposition-Rhetoric, ^^"^ ^
useful knowledge may be sometimes found buried perhaps in
grossness of expression, ^but useful to those who know their value;
and such as w^hen they are expanded to perspicuity, and polished
to elegance, may give lustre to works which have more propriety
though less copiousness of sentiment.
\(y\/r^
,^^pRCISE 67.
Ee-write the material of ihe following selection intro-
ducing balanced words, phrases, clauses, and sentences as
often as you can. Compare your version with the original.
Another form of genteel ignorance consists in being so com-
pletely blinded by conventionalism as not to be able to perceive
the essential identity of two modes of life or habits of action when
one of them happens to be in what is called " good form," whilst
the other is not accepted by polite society. My own tastes and
pursuits have often led me to do things, for the sake of study or
pleasure, which in reality differ but very slightly from what gen-
teel people often do ; yet, at the same time, this slight difference
is sufficient to prevent them from seeing any resemblance whatever
between my practice and theirs. When a young man I found a
wooden hut extremely convenient for painting from nature, and
when at a distance from other lodging I slept in it. This was
unfashionable, and genteel people expressed much wonder at it,
being especially surprised that I could be so imprudent as to risk
health by sleeping in a little wooden house. Conventionalism
made them perfectly ignorant of the fact that they occasionally
slept in little wooden houses themselves. A railway carriage is
simply a wooden hut on wheels, generally very ill-ventilated, and
presenting the alternative of foul air or a strong draught, with
vibration that makes sleep difficult to some and to others abso-
lutely impossible. I have passed many nights in those public
huts on wheels, but have never slept in them so pleasantly as in
my own private one. Genteel people also use wooden dwellings
that float on water. A yacht's cabin is nothing but a hut of a
peculiar shape, with its own peculiar inconveniences. On land a
hut will remain steady ; at sea it inclines in every direction, and
is tossed about like Gulliver's large box. An Italian nobleman
0 Hoy, to Sayht. (Vr^j^^ ^
who liked travel, but had no taste for dirty southern inns, had
four vans that formed a square at night, with a little courtyard
in the middle, that was covered with canvas, and served as a
spacious dining-room. The arrangement was excellent, but he
was considered hopelessly eccentric j yet how slight was the dif-
ference between his vans and a train of saloon carriages foj the
railway ? He simply had saloon carriages that were adapted for
common roads.
EXERCISE 68. '^'^^' ' ^ \
Write a paragraph mainly of balanced sentences on one of tl\e
following topics : —
1. Immigrants that we want and immigrants that we do
not want.
2. Poverty distinguished from pauperism.
3. Novels that help and novels that hinder.
4. Caesar compared with Brutus.
5. Which is the greater villain, Shylock or lago ?
6. Compare two public speakers whom you have heard.
7. Contrast Evangeline and Priscilla, or John Alden
and Miles Standish.
8. Contrast Grand Pre (in Evangeline) and Plymouth
(in Miles Standish).
9. Washington and Lincoln; or, Hamilton and Jeffer-
son ; or, Longfellow and Whittier ; or, George Eliot and
Mrs. Mary Ward.
10. The distinction between socialism and nihilism ; or,
law and public opinion ; or, charity and alms-giving.
11. Compare and contrast two synonyms, two trees, two
books, two characters, two dramatic situations, two historical
scenes, or two courses of conduct.
194 Composition-Rhetoric.
LESSOl^ 26.
Combinations of Sentence-Types,
In the preceding lessons we have noticed that the best
paragraphs show more than one kind of sentence. Long
and short, periodic and loose sentences, with an occasional
balanced structure, appear in different forms in the same
paragraph, and thus a pleasing variety is secured. Fur-
ther variety is added and force is gained by the appropri-
ate use of the exclamation and interrogation, and of mixed
or composite sentences. These we shall now consider.
The following paragraph shows four exclamatory sen-
tences and five questions. In the declarative form the first
sentence would read, " A university presents a strange pict-
ure to the imagination '' ; the ninth would close, " and you
would blot out with them very much of her glory ^'; the
tenth would close in the same way. The fifteenth would
close: "The time or people should not be called wholly
barbarous; for the human mind could achieve this much,
even then and there." As to the questions, sentence 4, if
reduced to the declarative form, would read, "Otherwise,
the undying lamp of thought would not be fed '^ ; sentence
11, " The history of Spain would look sadly mutilated if,"
etc. Sentences 12, 13, and 14, like sentence 11, could be
reduced to the declarative form by supplying a word in
answer to the question asked in each. Making the changes
indicated above, compare the result with the original, and
note the loss in enthusiasm, force, and variety when all
the sentences are declarative in form.
1. What a strange picture a university presents to the imagina-
tion ! 2. The lives of scholars in their cloistered stillness, — liter-
ary men of retired habits, and professors who study sixteen hours a
day, and never see the world but on a Sunday. 3. Nature has, no
doubt for some wise purpose, placed in their hearts this love of
Eow to Say It, 195
literary labor and seclusion. 4. Otherwise, who would feed the
undying lamp of thought? 5. But for such men as these, a blast
of wind through the chinks and crannies of this old world, or the
flapping of a conqueror's banner, would blow it out forever. 6. The
light of the soul is easily extinguished. 7. And whenever I reflect
upon these things, I become aware of the great importance, in a
nation's history, of the individual fame of scholars and literary
men. 8. I fear that it is far greater than the world is willing to ac-
knowledge ; or, perhaps I should say, than the world has thought of
acknowledging. 9. Blot out from England's history the names of
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton only and how much
of her glory would you blot out with them ! 10. Take from Italy
such names as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Michael Angelo, and
Raphael, and how much would be wanting to the completeness of
her glory! 11. How would the history of Spain look if the leaves
were torn out on which are written the names of Cervantes, Lope
de Vega, and Calderon ? 12. What would be the fame of Portu-
gal, without her Camoens; of France, without her Racine, and
Rabelais, and Voltaire, or Germany, without her Martin Luther,
her Goethe, and her Schiller ? 13. Nay, what were the nations of
old without their philosophers, poets, and historians? 14. Tell
me, do not these men, in all ages and in all places, emblazon with
bright colors the armorial bearings of their country? 15. Yes, and
far more than this ; for in all ages and all places they give human-
ity assurance of its greatness, and say, " Call not the time or people
wholly barbarous ; for this much, even then and there, could the
human mind achieve ! " — Longfellow.
Many good sentences, perhaps the majority of good writ-
ten sentences, are mixed or composite in structure, neither
entirely periodic nor entirely loose, but partly one and partly
the other. A sentence will sometimes begin as a periodic
sentence, continue periodic for half or three-fourths of its
entire extent, sometimes even up to the very last clause,
and will then become loose. Or a sentence will begin as
a loose sentence, and will close as a periodic. A sentence
w^holly loose may contain a clause which is periodic. In
both loose and periodic sentences, a series of clauses of
196 Composit ton-Rhetoric,
about the same length and of similar structure are fre-
quently found, or minor details, contrasting in thought,
are balanced against one another.
In the following paragraph the third sentence begins as
a periodic sentence, the ?!/-clause coming first, and continues
periodic down to the appended phrase, ^^ drowning all other
sounds " ; then, after the semicolon, another periodic sen-
tence begins, continuing down to the appended clause " and
you are scanned," etc. In general structure this sentence
is also balanced part for part.
I hardly know whether I am more pleased or annoyed with the
cat-bird. Perhaps she is a little too common, and her part in the
general chorus a little too conspicuous. If you are listening for
the note of another bird, she is sure to be prompted to the most
loud and protracted singing, drowning all other sounds; if you sit
quietly down to observe a favorite or study a new-comer, her curi-
osity knows''no bounds, and you are scanned and ridiculed from
every point of observation. Yet I would not miss her ; I would
only subordinate her a little, make her less conspicuous. — Bur-
roughs : Wake Robin.
In the following selection, sentence 4 begins as a periodic
sentence, and continues periodic to the first semicolon ; then
two lines are in balanced form; then the periodic structure
is resumed by means of the construction so — so — so — that,
the sentence closing with a balanced clause which grows out
of the words so soon. Sentences 5 and 6 are made up of parts
constructed on one plan in each sentence. Sentence 7 is,
in general structure, loose, but contains a part that is sus-
pended by the word while. Sentence 9 is loose to the semi-
colon, and then becomes periodic to the close. Sentence 10
is periodic throughout.
1. We live in a most extraordinary age. 2. Events so various
and so important, that they might crowd and distinguish centuries,
are, in our times, compressed within the compass of a single life.
How to Say It, 197
3. When has it happened that history has had so much to record,
in the same term of years, as since the 17th of June, 1775? 4. Our
own Revolution, which, under other circumstances, might itself
have been expected to occasion a war of half a century, has been
achieved; twenty-four sovereign and independent states erected;
and a general government established over them, so safe, so wise,
so free, so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment
should have been accomplished so soon, were it not far the greater
wonder that it should have been established at all. 5. Two or
three millions of people have been augmented to twelve, the great
forests of the West prostrated beneath the arm of successful
industry, and the dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the
Mississippi become the fellow-citizens and neighbors of those who
cultivate the hills of New England. 6. We have a commerce
that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies w^hich take no law from
superior force ; revenues adequate to all the exigencies of govern-
ment, almost without taxation; and peace with all nations,
founded on equal rights and mutual respect.
7. Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a
mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the individual
condition and happiness of almost every man, has shaken to the
centre her political fabric, and dashed against one another thrones
which had stood tranquil for ages. 8. On this, our continent,
our own example has been followed, and colonies have sprung up
to be nations. 9. Unaccustomed sounds of liberty and free gov-
ernment have reached us from beyond the track of the sun ; and
at this moment the dominion of European power in this conti-
nent, from the place where we stand to the south pole, is anni-
hilated forever.
10. In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has
been the general progress of knowledge, such the improvements
in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and above all
in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, that the whole
world seems changed. — Webster : First Bunker Hill Oration,
•
It is because periodic sentences show a more closely
knit construction and require, while they are being written,
careful attention to the structure and to the best placement
198 Composition-Rhetoric .
of phrases and clauses, that the pupil should make most
of his sentences approach the periodic type. When the
phrases, clauses, and modifiers generally are numerous, it
is a good plan to place some of them first and some of
them last, thus making the sentences partly periodic and
partly loose. The first sentence in the following selection
indicates such a distribution of phrases : —
Poems and noble extracts, whether of verse or prose, once
reduced into possession, and rendered truly our own, may be to us
a daily pleasure ; — better far than a whole library unused. They
come to us in our dull moments, to refresh us as with spring
flowers ; in our selfish musings, to win us by pure delight from
the tyranny of foolish castle-building, self-congratulations, and
mean anxieties. They may be with us in the workshop, in the
crowded streets, by the fireside ; sometimes, perhaps, on pleasant
hill-sides, or by sounding shores; — noble friends and companions
— our own ! never intrusive, ever at hand, coming at our call !
Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, — the words of such
men do not stale upon us, they do not grow old or cold.
Use the exclamation or the question occasionally when the emo-
tion will justify its use. In general, make most of your sentences
rather periodic than loose in their main structure, varying their
beginnings and endings.
EXERCISE 69.
In the following paragraphs notice the variety of sentence-
structure. In the sentences which are partly or wholly peri-
odic, point out the words by means, of which suspense is
secured.
It is now past midnight. The moon is full and bright, andv
the shadows lie so dark and massive in the street that they seem
a part of the walls that cast them. I have just returned from the
Coliseum, whose ruins are so marvellously beautiful by moofilight.
No stranger at Rome omits this midnight visit ; for though there
How to Say It. 199
is something unpleasant in having one's admiration forestalled,
and being as it were romantic aforethought, yet the charm is so
powerful, the scene so surpassingly beautiful and sublime, — the
hour, the silence, and the colossal ruin have such a mastery over
the soul, — that you are disarmed when most upon your guard,
and betrayed into an enthusiasm which perhaps you had silently
resolved you would not feel.
On my way to the Coliseum I crossed the Capitoline Hill, and
descended into the Roman Forum by the broad staircase that
leads to the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus. Close upon
my right hand stood the three remaining columns of the Temple
of the Thunderer, and the beautiful Ionic portico of the Temple of
Concord, — their base in shadow, and the bright moonbeam strik-
ing aslant upon the broken entablature above. Before me rose
the Phocian Column, an isolated shaft, like a thin vapor hanging
in the air, scarce visible; and far to the left, the ruins of the
Temple of Antonio and Faustina, and the three colossal arches
of the Temple of Peace, — dim, shadowy, indistinct — seemed to
melt away and mingle with the sky. I crossed the Forum at the
foot of the Palatine, and ascending the Via Sacra, passed beneath
the Arch of Titus. From this point I saw below me the gigantic
outline of the Coliseum, like a cloud resting upon the earth. As
1 descended the hillside, 'it grew more broad and high, — more
definite in its form, and yet more grand in its dimensions, — till,
from the vale in which it stands encompassed by three of the
seven hills of Rome, — the Palatine, the Coelian, and the Esqui-
line, — the majestic ruin in all its solitary grandeur '' swelled vast
to heaven."
A single sentinel was pacing to and fro beneath the arched
gateway which leads to the interior, and his measured footsteps
were the only sound that broke the breathless silence of the night.
What a contrast with the scene which that same midnight hour
presented, when, in Domitian's time, the eager populace began to
gather at the gates, impatient for the morning sports ! Xor was
the contrast within less striking. Silence, and the quiet moon-
beams, and the broad, deep shadows of the ruined wall ! Where
were the senators of Rome, her matrons, and her virgins ? where
the ferocious populace that rent the air with shouts, when, in the
hundred holidays that marked the dedication of this imperial
200 Composition-Rhetoric,
slaughter-house, five thousand wild beasts from the Libyan deserts
and the forests of Anatolia made the arena thick with blood?
Where were the Christian martyrs, that died wdth prayers upon
their lips, amid the jeers and imprecations of their fellow-men ?
where the barbarian gladiators, brought lorth to the festival of
blood, and "butchered to make a Roman holiday"? The awful
silence answered, " They are mine ! " The dust beneath me
answered, " They are mine ! "
I crossed to the opposite extremity of the amphitheatre. A
lamp was burning in the little chapel, which has been formed
from what was once a den for the wild beasts of the Roman
festivals. Upon the steps sat the old beadsman, the only tenant
of the Coliseum, who guides the stranger by night through the
long galleries of this vast pile of ruins. I followed him up a
narrow wooden staircase, and entered one of the long and majestic
corridors, which in ancient times ran entirely round the amphi-
theatre. Huge columns of solid mason-work, that seem the labor
of Titans, support the flattened arches above ; and though the
iron clamps are gone, which once fastened the hewn stones to-
gether, yet the columns stand majestic and unbroken, amid the
ruin around them, and seem to defy "the iron tooth of time."
Through the arches at the right, I could faintly discern the ruins
of the baths of Titus on the Esquiline ; and from the left, through
every chink and cranny of the wall, poured in the brilliant light
of the full moon, casting gigantic shadows around me, and dif-
fusing a soft, silvery twilight through the long arcades. At
length I came to an open space, where the arches above had
crumbled away, leaving the pavement an unroofed terrace high in
air. From this point I could see the whole interior of the amphi-
theatre spread out beneath me, with such a soft and indefinite
outline that it seemed less an earthly reality than a reflection i^
the bosom of a lake. The figures of several persons below were
just perceptible, mingling grotesquely with their foreshortened
shadows. The sound of their voices reached me in a whisper, and
the cross that stands in the centre of the arena looked like a
dagger thrust into the sand. I did not conjure up the past, for
the past had already become identified with the present. It was
before me in one of its most majestic and visible forms. The
arbitrary distinctions of time, years, ages, centuries, were annihi-
How to Say It. 201
lated. I was a citizen of Kome ! This was the amphitheatre of
Flavius Vespasian ! Mighty is the spirit of the past, amid the
ruins of the Eternal City I — Longfellow : Outre-mer.
EXERCISE 70.
The following paragraph is composed entirely of affirm-
ative statements. Change one or more of them to a question
or an exclamation, and note the effect.
An astronomical observatory may seem to have no relation to
the welfare of a community. Eclipses and planetary transits may
seem to have nothing to do with human life. When the invisible
paths of all stars are traced by mathematical faith, parallaxes and
multitudinous calculations may seem to have little to do with
men's ordinary business. But experience will, in a generation,
show that those who first feel the fruits and the elevation of such
pursuits will be few; but they will become broader, deeper, and
better. Through them, but diluted and not recognized, the next
class below will be influenced — not by astronomy, but by the
moral power of men who have been elevated by astronomy.
Every part of society is affected when men are built up. They
impart their own growth to whatever they touch. Enlarge men
and you enlarge everything.
EXERCISE 71.
In the following paragraph change two of the exclama-
tions to the declarative form. Select the two that can be
so changed, without injury to what precedes and follows
them.
AVhen we are well, we perhaps think little about the Doctor, or
we have our small joke at him and his drugs ; but let anything go
wrong with our body, that wonderful tabernacle in which our soul
dwells, let any of its wheels go wrong, then off we fly to him. If
the mother thinks her husband or her child dying, how she runs to
him, and urges him with her tears ! how she watches his face, and
follows his searching eye, as he examines the dear sufferer ; how
202 Composition-Rhetoric,
she wonders what he thinks — what would she give to know what
he knows ! how she wearies for his visit ! how a cheerful word
from him makes her heart leap with joy, and gives her spirit and
strength to watch over the bed of distress ! Her whole soul goes
out to him in unspeakable gratitude when he brings back to her
from the power of the grave her husband or darling child. The
Doctor knows many of our secrets, of our sorrows, which no one
else knows — some of our sins, perhaps, which the great God alone
else knows ; how many cases and secrets, how many lives, he
carries in his heart and in his hands! So you see he is a very
important person, the Doctor, and we should do our best to make
the most of him, and to do our duty to him and to ourselves. —
John Brown : Horce Suhsecivce^ I, 391.
EXERCISE 72.
Change one or more of the following questions to other
forms of statement in such a way as not to injure the
paragraph as a whole : —
A Noble Lord, who spoke some time ago, is full of the fire of
ingenuous youth ; and when he has modelled the ideas of a lively
imagination by further experience, he will be an ornament to his
country in either House. He has said, that the Americans are our
children, and how can they revolt against their parents ? He says,
that if they are not free in their present state, England is not free ;
because Manchester and other considerable places are not repre-
sented. So then, because some towns in England are not repre-
sented, America is to have no representative at all. They are our
children: but when children ask for bread, we are not to give a
stone. Is it because the natural resistance of things, and the
various mutations of time, hinders our government, or any scheme
of government, from being any more than a sort of approximation
to the right, is it therefore that the Colonies are to recede from it
infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its
parent, and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the beauteous
countenance of British liberty, are we to turn to them the shame-
ful parts of our Constitution ? are we to give them our weakness
IroXi^'^^^- Mow to Say It. 203
for their strength? our opprobrtum for their glory? and the slough
of slavery, which we are not able to work off, to serve them for
their freedom ?
I EXERCISE 73.
/^ 111 the following selection combine in a single declarative
''sentence the three exclamations at the close of the first
paragraph, and re-write the first three sentences of the
second paragraph, breaking up the balance and doing away
with the exclamations : —
The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other male-
factors against w^hom overwhelming evidence is produced, gener-
ally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves
with calling testimony to character. He had so many private
virtues ! And had James the Second no private virtues ? Was
Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being judges,
destitute of private virtues ? And what, after all, are the virtues
ascribed to Charles ? A religious zeal, not more sincere than that
of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the
ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones in Eng-
land claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father ! A
good husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of
persecution, tyranny, and falsehood !
We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and
we are told that he kept his marriage vow ! We accuse him of
having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most
hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the defence is, that
he took his little son on his knee and kissed him ! We censure
him for having violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after
having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe
them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear
prayers at six o'clock in the morning ! It is to such considerations
as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and
his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his
popularity with the present generation.
For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the common
phrase, a good man, but a bad king. We can as easily conceive
Composition'RJietoric,
a good man and an unnatural father, or a good man and a
treacherous friend. We cannot, in estimating the character of an
individual, leave out of consideration his conduct in the most im-
portant of all human relations ; and if in that relation w^e find him
to have been selfish, cruel, and deceitful, we shall take the liberty
to call him a bad man, in spite of all his temperance at table, and
all his regularity at chapel. — M ac aulay.
EXERCISE 74.
What sameness of structure do you notice in the be-
ginnings of the sentences of the following paragraphs ?
Revise, re-combine, and re- write to introduce variety of
sentence-beginnings.
England showed no relenting in her treatment of the Americans.
The King gave no reply to the address of Congress. The Houses
of Lords and of Commons refused even to allow that address to be
read in their hearing. The King announced his firm purpose to
reduce the refractory colonists to obedience. Parliament gave
loyal assurances of support to the blinded monarch. AH trade
with the colonies was forbidden. All American ships and cargoes
might be seized by those who were strong enough to do so. The
alternative presented to the American choice was without disguise
— the Americans had to fight for their liberty, or forego it. The
people of England had, in those days, no control over the govern-
ment of their country. All this was managed for them by a few
great families. Their allotted part was to toil hard, pay their
taxes, and be silent. If they had been permitted to speak, their
voice would have vindicated the men who asserted their right of
self-government — a right which Englishmen themselves were not
to enjoy for many a long year.
John Stuart Blackie has been for the greater part of the century
an engaging figure in scholarship and literature. Born in the year
1809, and educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, he spent many
years in Germany and Italy, a devotee of what was then a new
science, comparative philology. A profuse writer throughout his
entire life, his place is in the overlapping field in which pedagogics
How to Say It. 205
and poetry commingle. One of a group in which Wolf and Max
MUller are foremost of the Germans, Blackie, like them an etymol-
ogist, pursuing investigations to which the chief emphasis was
given by the Grimm brothers, has been, far more than any of his
co-workers in the sciencg, oiLlaagiitag^, an appreciator of the isp*
of literal
ris quite natural that the proposition to pay members of Par-
liament should be regarded by Americans as a sensible one. It is
our custom to pay our Senators and Congressmen, and we instinc-
tively assume that any system in vogue here ought to be in vogue
everywhere. But it is interesting to observe that the British
Government have dropped their bill embodying this proposi-
tion. The fact is that the old method has worked so well in
England that until it can be shown to have resulted in serious
injustice, there will be no general disposition to change it. The
theory is that legislators should give their services to the nation,
and that if they are paid, undesirable candidates, who care only
for the money, will be elected. It is possible that such a theory
may be false, but it is likely that its supporters would have little
difficulty in collecting statistics enough in this country to indicate
that paying legislators does not always conduce to getting the
ablest men into office.
EXERCISE 75^ V^/T^ ,
Write about 300 words on one of the topics in Exercises
b^, 64, and Q>^, not already used. After writing, notice how
many types of sentences you have employed. Revise your
work for variety of sentence-structure.
LESSOR 22. tWAXO^
I Choice of Expression.
The English language has a much larger stock of words
than any other language ever used by man. Often a given
idea will be represented quite accurately in English by either
of two words, sometimes by any one of three. Thus we
206 Coynposition-Rhetoric,
speak of a certain class of our population as the poor, the
needy, the indigent, meaning the same thing no matter which
one of the three words we use ; we speak of a laboring man's
pay, wages, earnings; of the meaning, sense, signification of
a passage of scripture; of 2b fitting, proper, appropriate exer-
cise ; something hinders, delays, retards us ; we become tired,
weary, fatigued. One needs a stock of* equivalent words of
this kind for the sake of variety.
Other sets of words in English represent the same idea,
but with different degrees of intensity. Thus empty, vain,
futile hopes; sameness, uniformity, monotony; an univise,
inconsiderate, silly, foolish, absurd, ridiculous statement ; to
like, admire, love; wealth, riches, opulence; to discountenance,
deprecate, deplore, lament, bewail an act; vexed, provoked,
indignant, angry; it is not impossible, it is j^ossible, it is not
unlikely, it is likely, it is not improbable, it is probable, it
is certain. One needs to learn to distinguish degrees of
meaning in words so as not to over-state or under-state one's
self. When a familiar word does not quite satisfy us, does
not adequately or exactly express our meaning, we may be
sure that there is another more fitting ; and here a book of
synonyms, or the dictionary will help us.
Other sets of words represent the same idea in different
applications. Thus while the words forgive, j^ardon, con-
done, excuse, acquit, absolve, remit, overlook, pass over, repre-
sent the same idea, each has its particular application, as
will be seen by consulting the dictionary. So with house,
residence, habitation, mayision; wages,' salary, fee, stipend;
fright, scare, panic; dread, dismay, consternation; guess,
think, suppose; meeting, assembly, audience, congregation;
choose, prefer, select; hanged, hung ; allude, refer; healthy,
healthful, wholesome; less, feiDcr ; two, a couple, a pair ; com-
pany, gathering, crew, gang, band, party ; avoiv, acknowledge,
confess; only, alone.
One may enlarge one's stock of words by looking up
V
How to Say It. 207
the new words one reads, by trying to think of equivalent
expressions for them, and by recalling and using them as
they may be needed in one's own writing and speaking.
We should try to make use of all of our language resources ;
but it should be with a knowledge of the meanings, applica-
tions, and implications of the words we use.
Some words have formed close associations with other
words. Thus, take steps, contract habits, pursue a course,
turn to account, bear malice, pass over in silence, win prizes.
This is especially true of words used in connection with
prepositions : agree with a person, agree to a proposition,
differ from, comply with, confide in a friend, confide a secret
to a friend, call on, dissent from, free from, adapted to a
thing, adapted for a purpose, die of a disease, die by one's
own hand, regard for a person, in regard to this, reconcile
to. Some words call imperatively for others : as — so, either
— or, neither — nor, hardly — when, the same that I saw, the
same as before, such — as, I do not know that I will, different
from, other than.
Sometimes the choice lies between an idiomatic and a
bookish, or between a simple and a pretentious expression ;
here the idiomatic or simple expression is preferable. Get
used to, by all odds, get rid of, hard up, get out of the way of,
get up, go to bed, make money, — these expressions are not
to be avoided.
Again the choice may lie between a slang expression
which rises to the lips only too readily, and a standard
expression which requires some effort to recall. Here the
choice should fall upon the standard expression ; the effort
is well spent in calling it to mind. Besides being, in many
cases, vulgar in meaning or in implication, slang begets
general carelessness in the use of language. It encourages
laziness in the user by saving him the trouble of finding
exact words for his meaning. It prevents him from increas-
ing his stock of good words. __—- ■ — X""^
208 Composition-Rhetoric,
Especial care is needed in the choice of the words will and
shall, would and should, who, which, and that.
iv^
WTTT. AND SHAT.y:.
In the simple future, shall is used in the first person,
and will in the second and third persons ; thus, " I, or we,
shall enjoy reading the book," and " You, he, or they will
enjoy reading the book.'' In sentences expressing deter-
mination, will is used in the first person, and shall in
the second and third persons ; thus, " I, or we, will obey "
and " You, he, or they shall obey."
In questions, the same distinction between shall and ivill
as expressing simple futurity or determination is seen in
the following : " Shall I, or we ? " (simple future, or equiva-
lent to " do you wish me or us to ? ") ; " Will I ? " (ironical) ;
" Shall you subscribe ? " (mere information desired) ; " Will
you subscribe ? " (I want you to) ; " Shall he or they ? " (Do
you wish him or them to ?) ; " Will he or they ? " (mere
information desired).
In secondary clauses the reporter uses will, if the speaker
used or would have used tvill; shall if the speaker used
or would have used shall Thus: Speaker, — "I shall
enjoy reading the book"; Reporter, — "He says he shall
enjoy reading the book"; Speaker, — "I will not allow it" ;
Reporter, — " He says he will not allow it " ; Speaker, —
"You (or they) shall seek in vain for it"; Reporter, — "He
says you (or they) shall seek," etc.
Should corresponds to shall, and ivould to will, following
corresponding rules. Thus, in reporting the sentences just
given, the correct form would be, " He said he should enjoy
reading the book," "He said he would not allow it," "He
said you (or they) should seek in vain for it." In con-
ditional clauses exceptional care is needed, though the same
distinctions are maintained.
How to Say It. 209
WHO, WHICH, THAT.
The relative pronoun that is restrictive, and introduces a
clause that closely defines, limits, or qualifies the antecedent.
A ^/ia^clause affects the antecedent as an adjective would
affect the antecedent. Who and which are co-ordinating
relatives, and introduce, not a modifying thought, but an
additional thought of equal or greater importance. Who
is equivalent to a conjunction plus a personal pronoun, and
may be translated by the words and he, and they, though he,
though they, for he, since they, etc., which words may often
be used, with a gain to clearness, instead of loho. Which
is equivalent to a conjunction plus the word it, this, these,
those, and may be translated by the words and this, and it,
and these, a fact that, a circumstance that, etc., which words
may often be used, with a gain to clearness, instead of
which. Who and which are sometimes used restrictively,
without loss of clearness, instead of the strictly correct that
when the use of that would make a harsh combination, when
the word that has already been used in another function in
the same sentence, and when the use of that would throw a
^^.^ui^^sition tqjbhojefi^of the sentanc
"'f The aid of punctuation may be called in to distinguish
restrictive from co-ordinative who or which. Since a comma
is usually inserted before a co-ordinate relative, the omission
of punctuation before who or ivhicJi will give to the clause a
restrictive force. —,_
Choose words that fit your meaning with exactness. Distinguish j j
degrees of intensity in words. Use idiomatic expressions. Avoid ^
EXERCISE 76.
In the following choose the word in parenthesis that
best fits the context. Be ready to give reasons. Consult
the dictionary or book of synonyms.
210 Composition-Rhetoric.
Caleb would have {remarked upon, said something of, made a
statement about, spoken of, deprecated'\ the disrepair of the chamber,
but was silenced by the [irritation, irritable look, irritated look,
impatience, discontent'] which was [seen, expressed, shown, apparent]
in~Ris master's countenance; he lighted the way trembling and
in silence^ placed the lamp on the table of the [deserted, abandoned,
vacant, empty] room, and was about to [try, attempt] some arrange-
ment of the bed, when his master bid him [go, begone, withdraw]
in a tone that admitted of no [delaji^ hesitation]. The old man
[luent, retired, ivithdrew], not to rest but to prayer; and [fi'om
time to time, ever and anon, now and then] crept to the door of the
apartment [in order to find out, to find out] whether Ravenswood
had [gone to repose, become quiet, retired]. His measured heavy step
[upon, on, across] the floor was only interrupted by deep groans ;
and the [repeated, reiterated, frequent] stamps of the heel of his
heavy boot, [indicated, intimated, proved, showed] too clearly, that
the wretched [occujjant, inmate, tenant] was abandoning himself
at such moments to paroxysms of uncontrolled agony. The
old man [thought, guessed, believed, was sure] that the morning for
which he longed would never [cdhe, dawn, have daivned] ; but
time, whose course rolls on with equal current, however it may
seem more rapid or more slow to mortal [inind, apprehension],
brought the [daion, day] at last, and spread a ruddy light on the
broad [margin, vercje, shore, edge] of the glistening ocean. 5^
As I live in a place where even the ordinary tattle of the town
arrives not till it is stale, and which produces no events of its own,
you [will, shall] not desire any excuse from me for writing so sel-
dom, especially as of all people living I know you are the least a
friend to letters spun out of one's own brains, with all the toil and
constraint that accompanies sentimental productions. I have been
here at Stoke a few days (where I [will, shall] continue good part
of the summer) ; and having put an end to a thing whose begin-
ning you have seen long ago, I immediately send it to you. You
[will, shall] , T hope, look upon it in the light of a thing with an
end to it : a merit that most of my writings have wanted and are
like to want, but which this epistle, I am determined [loill, shall]
not want, when it tells you that I am ever yours,
T. Gray.
"A
How to Say It, 211
Sir Thomas Payton came to me and told me my lord [would,
should'] fight with me on horseback with single sword ; and, said
he, "I [willf shalV] be his second; where is yours?" I replied
that neither his lordship nor myself brought over any great horses
with us; that I knew he might much better borrow one than
myself; howbeit, as soon as he showed me the place, he \_wouldy
should'] find me there on horseback or on foot; whereupon both
of us riding together upon two geldings to the side of a wood, Pay-
ton said he chose that place, and the time, break of day the next
morning. I told him I \_would, should] fail neither place nor time,
though I knew not where to get a better nag than the horse I rode
on ; " and as for a second, I [will, shaJU] trust to your nobleness,
Who, I know [will, shall] see fair play betwixt us, though you
come on his side." f^ .
The lieutenant, though he did not know me, suspected I had
some private quarrel, and that I desired this horse to fight on, and
thereupon told me, " Sir, whosoever you are, you seem to be a
person of worth, and you [will, shall] have the best horse in the
stable ; and if you have a quarrel and want a second, I offer
myself to serve you upon another horse, and if you [will, shall]
let me go along with you upon these terms, I [ivill, shall] ask no
pawn of you for the horse." I told him I [luoidd, should] use no
second, and I desired him to accept one hundred pieces, which I
had then about me, in pawn for the horse, and he [would, should]
hear from me shortly again ; and that though I did not take his
noble offer of coming along with me, I [would, should] evermore
rest much obliged to him : whereupon giving him my purse with
the money in it, I got upon his horse, and left my nag besides with
him.
The Castello di San Giorgio, or, as it [should, might, could, would]
more properly have been [designated, called, named], the " Casa, " or
Villa di San Giorgio, was [built, erected, constructed] upon the sum-
mit of a small conical hill, amid the sloping bases of the Apen-
nines, at a [jmrt^ portion, poinf\ of their long range where the
[tops, summits] were low and green. In that delightful [place,
spot, country, neighborhood, region, district] the cultivation and rich-
ness of the plain is united to the wildness and [prettiness, sublim-
ity, beauty, attractiveness] of the hills. The heat is tempered in the
212 Composition-Rhetoric.
shady valleys and under the \ dense ^ thick, solid, impenetrable^ woods.
A delicious [humidity, wetness, dampness, moisture'] and soft haze
hangs about these dewy, grassy places, which the sun has power
to [warm, heat] and gladden, but not to parch. Flowers of every
hue cover the ground beneath the oaks and elms. Nightingales
sing in the thickets of wild rose and clematis, and the groves of
laurel and of the long-leaved olives are [full of, swarming wi^f
crowded loith] small creatures in the full enjoyment of life and
warmth. Little brooks and rippling streams, half [hidden, con-
cealed, obscured] by the tangled thickets, and turned from their
courses by the mossy rocks, flow down from the hill ravines, as
joyful and clear as in that old time when each was the care of
some [defending, protecting, shielding] nymph or rural god. In the
waters of the placid lake are reflected the shadows of the hills, and
the tremulous shimmer of waving woods. - - A J 'i,/-^
EXERCISE 77.
Kead the following paragraphs until you have complete
possession of the thought. Then re-write, substituting
other expressions of equivalent meaning for those italicized.
The change in phraseology may compel a change in gram-
matical structure.
r
\The national character, in some of its most important elements,
must be formed, elevated, and strengthened from the materials
which history presents. Are we to be eternally ringing the changes
upon Marathon and Thermopylae, and going back to find in obscure
texts of Greek and Latin the great exemplars of patriotic virtue ?
/ rejoice that we can find them nearer home, in our own country,
on our own soil; that strains of the noblest feeling that ever
swelled in the breast of man are breathing to us, out of every
page of our country's history, in the native eloquence of our
mother-tongue ; that the colonial and the provincial councils of
America exhibit to us models of the spirit and character which
gave Greece and Rome their name and their praise among the
nations. Here we ought to go for our instruction; the lesson is
plain and easily applied. \
How to Say It, 213
&
J do not mean that these examples are to destroy the interest with
which we read the history of ancient times ; they possibly increase
that interest, by the singular contrasts they exhibit. We ought
to seek our great practical lessons of patriotism at home ; out of
the exploits and sacrifices, of which our own country is the theatre ;
out of the characters of our own fathers. Them we know, the
natural^ unaffected, — the citizen heroes. We know what happy
firesides they left for the cheerless camp. We know with what
pacific habits they dared the perils of the field. There is no mystery,
no romance, no madness, under the name of chivalry, about them.
It is all resolute, manly resistance, — for the sake of conscience
and principle, — not merely of an overwhelming power, but of all
the force of long-rooted habits, and the native love of order and
peace. — Everett : First Battles of the Revolution. f^^T
r . . 4W»ii*'^"
\^ The Constitution of the United States is so^ncise and sb gen-
eral in its terms, that even ,had America been as Momyl^'ovinQ a
country as China, many quMtictfi's must have xtrisdn on ^Jbhe inter-
'^'yrda'fidK^^i the fundamental law which would have mdaij^ed its
aspect. But America has been the most swiftly expanding of all
countries. Hence the questions that have presented themselves
have often related to matters which the framers of the Constitution
could not have contemplated. Wiser than Justinian before them,
or Napoleon after them, they foresaw that their work would need
to be elucidated by judicial commentary. But they were far from
conjecturing the enormous strain to which some of their expres-
sions would be subjected in the effort to apply them to new facts. —
Bryce : American Commonwealth, I, chap. XXIII. [
Nothing was ever " born anew " in Celia Thaxter which she did
not strive to share Imih others. She could keep nothing but secrets \
to herself. Joys, experiences of every kind, sorrows and misfort-
unes, except when they could darken the lives of others, were all
brought, open-handed and open-hearted, to those she loved. Her
generosity knew no limits. — Atlantic, 75 : 263.
In the Netherlands a man of small capacity, with bits of wood
and leather, will, in a few moments^ construct a toy that, with the
pressure of the finger and thumb, will cry *' cuckoo ! cuckoo ! "
With less of ingenuity and inferior materials the people of Ohio
214 Compositiorir Rhetoric.
have made a toy that will, without much pressure, cry " Previous
question, Mr. Speaker! Previous question, Mr. Speaker!" — John
Randolph.
EXERCISE 78.
Fill the blanks with wlio, whom, which, or that, and select
the fitting words from the brackets : —
A babe was born to Danae, a smiling boy she named
Perseus. For four years she kept him hidden, and not even the
women brought food to the hiding-place knew about him.
But one day the king, Danae's father, chanced to pass and heard
the child's prattle. When he learned the truth, he was very much
alarmed ; for it had been foretold that " the son of his own
daughter " should kill him. The only way to save himself
he could think of, was to put the child to death.
So he bade the servants were with him to make a large
water-tight chest. Into this he put Danae and Perseus and cruelly
set them adrift on a stormy sea, hoping that they would be
drowned, or carried far away. But they were not drowned.
After three days they drifted toward some islands and finally
landed on one was inhabited by a kind people took care
of them.
Perseus grew to manhood, and became a leader of the people
had saved him and his mother. He was exceedingly strong,
and performed many astounding athletic feats gained him
great renown. Hearing at one time that the king of a far-away
country had announced a great athletic contest, Perseus took ship
and went thither to try his skill against the other contestants
were present from all parts of the world.
No one in that country knew this noble young stranger
might be, but all wondered at the skill -^ he displayed in the
games and contests. He easily won all of the prizes. In the last
contest, was between Perseus and another quoit thrower,
Perseus threw a heavy quoit a great deal Ifarlher, fitrih^'] than
any had been thrown before. It fell in the crowd of on-lookers
and struck a stranger was standing there with the others.
The stranger sank to the ground, dead. Perseus \jvas sJiocked,
felt bad, was horrified^ was pained, was grieved'} at having killed
How to Say It, 215
the stranger, Perseus thought an innocent spectator like
the others. What was his sorrow when he discovered that the
stranger was none other \tliany htt] his grandfather, Danae's
father, had come to the contests unattended and in disguise.
So the prophecy had been spoken many years before was
fulfilled. Danae's father, the king, had been killed by " the son
of his own daughter."
EXERCISE 79. piAjL^ *-
Substitute adjectives for the italicized phrases, in the
following : —
LOf all the amusements which can possibly be imagined for a
man of the laboring class, after his daily toil, or, in its intervals,
there is nothing like reading a book of an enteriaining character,
supposing him to have a taste for it, and supposing him to have
the book to read. It calls for no exertion ojtiieoody;oi. which he
has had enough or too much. It relieves his home of its dulness
and sameness, which, in nine cases out of ten, is what drives him
to the ale-house, to his jwi ruin and his family's. It transports
him into a scene of (DWmierf gayer, mort diversified and interesting
na^wr^, and while he enjoys himself there, he may forget the evils
of the present fully as much as if he were in an ever so [disgraceful
state of intoxication, with the great advantage of finding himself
the next day with his money in his pocket, or at least laid out in
real necessaries and comforts for himself and his family, —.and
without a headache. N^ay, it accompanies him to his work
next day, and if the bopk he has been reading be anything ahh^
the very idlest and iigJitest, gives him something to think of besides
the mere mechanical drudgery of his, every-day occupation, —
something he can enjoy while frofn Homey and look forward with
pleasure to return to 7]
EXERCISE 80.
Use each of the sets of words (given in the second para-
graph of Lesson 27) in a brief paragraph, having especial
regard to exact statement. In case of doubt consult the
dictionary or a book of synonyms.
216 Composition-Rhetoric,
EXERCISE 81.
Use the sets of words (given in tlie third paragraph of
Lesson 27) so as to show that you understand the particular
application of each word. In case of doubt consult the
dictionary or a book of synonyms.
EXERCISE 82.
Examine a recent number of a magazine for examples of
" disagree with/' " different from/' and other expressions in
the fifth paragraph of Lesson 27.
Afj^^
Write brief paragraphs on the following themes, showing
"the accurate use of (1) may, might ; (2) can, could ; (3)
raise, raised, has raised, ris6, rose, has risen ; (4) sit, sat, has
sat, set ; (5) lie, lay, has lain, lay, laid, has laid : —
1. A lost opportunity.
My choice of a profession.
The next presidential nominee.
2. My friend's accomplishments.
Feats of strength.
The opportunities of an educated man or woman.
3. What makes the prices of commodities go up and
down ?
Taking an early train. ,
Bicycling for girls.
4. An obstinate old hen.
A hot day's fishing.
Setting the table for dinner.
5. How bread is made.
After the tornado.
How a mason builds a brick wall.
Sow to Say It.
217
EXERCISE 84.
1. Write a brief account of a tiresome journey or walk,
using in different sentences the words sameness^ uniformity^
monotony, each in a sense that would preclude the use of the
other two.
2. A brief paragraph on manners in the school-room, in
which you mention some particular thing to be discoun-
tenanced, another to be deprecated, another to be deplored.
3. Write out the following : Arrived at school ; found I
had forgotten book ; was [angry, provoked, vexed'] with my-
self for there was not time to go back for it and I needed
it; went to class without it; asked a classmate to [loan,
lend'] me her book ; she [refused, declined] ; this made me
[angry, indignant] as she [could, might] have [accommo-
dated, favored] me in this ; was called on to translate as I
had [expected, anticipated] that I [would, should] he, and
failed for [lack, want, need] of a book. I [will, shall] be
obliged to make up the lesson.
EXERCISE 85.
w*4r^^
Two drafts of portions of Lincoln's first Inaugural Ad-
dress are printed below in parallel columns.^ After com-
paring them, give reasons for the changes so far as you are
able.
It follows from these views
that no State, upon its own mere
motion, can lawfully get out of
the Union ; that resolves and
ordinances to that effect are
legally nothing; and that acts
It follows from these views
that no State, upon its own mere
motion, can lawfully get out of
the Union ; that resolves and
ordinances to that effect are
legally void; and that acts of
1 From Abraham Lincoln : A History, by John G. Nicolay and John
Hay (The Century Co., N.Y. : 1890), Vol. Ill, pp. 237-344, by permission
of the authors.
218
Composition- Rhetoric.
of violence, within any State or
States, against the authority of
the United States, are insurrec-
tionary or trc^^^^nable. accord-
ing to circumstaAces.
I therefore consider that the
Union is unbroken ; and, tb the
extent of my ability, I shall take
care^that the laws of the Union
be faithfully executed in all the
States. Doing this I deem to
be only a simple duty on my
part ; and I shall perform it, so
far as practicable, unless my
rightful masters, the American
people, shall withhold the requi-
site means, or in sorue tangible
way direct the contrary. I trust
this will not be regarded as a
menace, but only as the declared
purpose of the Union that it
will have its own and defend
itself. . . .
I close. We are not, we must
not be, aliens or enemies, but fel-
low-countrymen and brethren.
Although passion has strained
our bonds of affection too hardly,
they must not, I am sure they
will not be broken. The mys-
tic chords which, proceeding
from so many battle-fields and
so many patriot graves, pass
through all the hearts and all
hearths in this broad continent
violence, within any State or
States, against the authority of
the United States, are insurrec-
tionary or revolutionary, accord-
ing to circumstances.
I therefore consider that, in
view of the Constitution and the
laws, the Union is unbroken;
and to the extent of my ability
I shall take care, as the Consti-
tution expressly enjoins upon
me, that the laws of the Union
be faithfully executed in all the
States. Doing this I deem to
be only a simple duty on my
part ; and I shall perform it, so
far as practicable, unless my
rightful masters, the American
people, shall withhold the requi-
site means, or in some authorita-
tive manner direct the contrary.
I trust this will not be regarded
as a menace, but only as the
declared purpose of the Union
that it will constitutionally
defend and maintain itself. . . .
I am loth to close. We are
not enemies, but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it
must not break our bonds of
affection. The mystic chords
of memory, stretching from
every battle-field and patriot
grave to every living heart and
hearthstone, all over this broad
land, will yet swell the chorus
of the Union, when again
How to Say It.
219
of ours, will yet again harmo-
nize in their ancient music when
breathed upon by the guardian
angel of the nation.^
touched, as surely they will be,
by the better angels of our
nature.
LESSON 28.
Imaginative Expressions,
There are two principal ways in which the mind may do
its thinking. One wayjsj)yjnean^qfj_^ linage^ We think
in images, when we call up in mind pictures of things that
we have seen, or revive impressions of sounds, touches,
tastes, or smells. When we read the words "full moon,"
if we see in mind a big yellow disk rising over the tree-
tops, or when we read the word "thunder-clap," if we hear
in mind a startling crash, followed by hollow reverbera-
tions, — in either case we think by means of images.
Another way of thinking is by means of what are called
" general ideas." When we think in this way, we seem to
think about the meaning of things rather than about the
things themselves. It is true we always have some sort
of image in the mind, but we are less interested in the
image itself than in what the image signifies or stands for.
Thus when we read the sentence, " Several of the planets
have moons," if an image of a moon rises in the mind,
what we are interested in is not the size or shape or color of
the image ; these particulars do not now concern us ; we are
1 This suggestion for a closing paragraph was written by Mr. Seward.
The original draft by Lincoln ran as follows : " My dissatisfied fellow-
countrymen: You can forbear the assault upon it [the Government], I
cannot shrink from the defence of it. With you, and not with me, is the
solemn question of Shall it be peace or a sword." To this Mr. Seward
objected on the ground that " something besides or in addition to argument
is needful — to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South and
despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection — some of
calm and cheerful confidence."
220
Composition-Rhetoric,
interested rather in the meaning of the image, or, to use a
common expression, in " the idea of moon in general.'^
Certain words and expressions have the power to make
us think in images ; certain other words and expressions
have the power to make us think in general ideas. The
difference between these two kinds of expressions is illus-
trated in the following. The paragraph in the left-hand
column aims to make us think in images. The version
of this paragraph in the right-hand column aims to make
us think in general ideas.
1. The very gnarliest and
hardest of hearts has some
musical strings in it. 2. But
they are tuned differently in
every one of us, so that the
self-same strain, which wakens
a thrill of sympathetic melody
in one, may leave another quite
silent and untouched. 3. For
whatever I love, my delight
amounts to an extravagance.
4. There are vei'ses which I
cannot read without tears of
exultation which to others are
merely indiiferent. 5. Those
simple touches scattered here
and there, by all great writers,
which make me feel that T, and
every most despised and out-
cast child of God that breathes,
have a common humanity with
those glorious spirits, overpower
me. 6. Poetry has a key which
unlocks some more inward cabi-
net of my nature than is acces-
n.
1. Even the most irresponsive
person is in some degree sus-
ceptible to the influence of poet-
ry. 2. But our susceptibilities
are of different kinds, so that a
poem which affects one person a
good deal may affect another not
at all. 3. For whatever I love,
my delight amounts to an ex-
travagance. 4. There are verses
which I cannot read without
a strong feeling of exultation
which to others are merely in-
different. 5. Those simple pas-
sages occurring in various places
in the poems of great writers,
which make me feel that I and
every other person, however
humble, have a common human-
ity with those superior minds,
make me have very strong emo-
tions. 6. Poetry causes feelings
which are not caused by any-
thing else. 7. I cannot explain
it or account for it, or say
How to Say It,
221
sible to any other power. 7. I
cannot explain it or account for
it, or say what faculty it appeals
to. 8. The chord which vi-
brates strongly becomes blurred
and invisible in proportion to
the intensity of its impulse.
9. Often the mere rhyme, the
cadence and sound of the words,
awaken this strange feeling in
me. 10. Not only do all the
happy associations of my early
life, that before lay scattered,
take beautiful shapes, like iron
dust at the approach of the ma^-
jiet, but something dim and
vague beyond these, moves it-
self in me with the uncertain
sound of a far-off sea. — Low-
ell : Conversations on some of
the Old Poets.
what faculty it affects. 8. The
stronger the feeling, the harder
it is to say what it is or whence
it comes. 9. Often the mere
rhyme, the cadence and sound
of the words, cause this strange
feeling in me. 10. Not only do
all the happy associations of my
early life, that were before sep-
arated in my mind, now come
together in beautiful and sym-
metrical order, but I am con-
scious of something undefined
and difficult of apprehension in
addition to these.
Note how differently the two versions affect you as you
read them. In reading I., the word ^' gnarliest " calls up an
image of a knotty piece of oak ; " musical strings " an
image of an instrument of music, a harp or a violin ; at the
word " tears/' in sentence 4, we picture a man with stream-
ing eyes; "the chord which vibrates strongly becomes
blurred " revives the familiar sight of the vibrating string
and its accompanying sound ; " like iron dust at the ap-
proach of the magnet " makes us picture iron filings arrang-
ing themselves in concentric curves. None of these images
is called up in reading II.
Expressions which make us think in images may be
called, for convenience, imaginative expressions. They go
by a variety of names, the most important of which are the
following : —
222 Composition-Rhetoric,
1. The word partiGular or specific is sometimes applied to
these expressions to direct atTentit>tr to the definiteness of
the aroused images. Particular terms are contrasted with
ge^erckLterms. In the illustration given above the expres-
sion "tears of exultation" arouses a particular, definite
image. " A strong feeling of exultation '" is more general.
2. Sometimes the term concrete is applied to these ex-
pressions. It means that the images they arouse are images
of things that appeal to the senses, that is, of things that
can be seen, heard, touched, smelt, or tasted. Concrete ex-
pressions are contrasted with abstract expressions. "Tears
of exultation" is more concrete than "a strong feeling
of exultation," because tears appeal to the sense of sight
while feelings do not.
3. To a large number of imaginative expressions may be
applied the term figurative. A figurative expression is one
which makes us think of something under the image of
something else. In a figure an object is represented either
as being something else or as being (or acting) like some-
thing else. A heart is represented as being a musical in-
strument; scattered recollections of childhood are repre-
sented as acting like iron filings. Figurative expressions
are contrasted with literal expressions or plain statements.
Although many different kinds of figures are mentioned
by rhetoricians, we shall speak of but two, — similes and
metaphorical expressions. The difference between them is
that in the simile the image of " something else " is kept
apart from the thing or idea it illustrates, the separation
being marked usually by such words as like, as, just so;
whereas in metaphorical expressions the thing and the
image blend together, and we speak of the thing as if it
actually were the image. "Poetry has a key which un-
locks some more inward cabinet of my nature " is metaphor,
because we speak of the mind as if it were actually a set
of cabinets one within another, and of poetry as if it were
How to Say It. 223
actually a person who could unlock one of these cabinets.
But such a sentence as "the happy associations of my early
life, that before lay scattered, take beautiful shapes, like
iron dust at the approach of the magnet," is a simile, the
idea of the union of happy associations being separated
from the image which illustrates it.
Thinking in images is easier, more vivid, and, for most
persons, more interesting than thinking in general ideas.
Consequently, if in our writing we can use particular terms
instead of general, concrete expressions instead of abstract,
figurative language instead of plain or literal, our composi-
tions are likely to be more forcible, vivacious, and attrac-
tive. General ideas, on the other hand, are necessary to
exactness. So that if we think exactly, and desire to say
just what we think, we must be abl5 to use expressions that
are general, abstract, and literal.
With regard to figurative language, the following observa-
tions may be made : —
1. Figures — striking figures at any rate — are not essen-
tial to a good prose style. Many eminent writers dispense
with them almost entirely.
2. The only recipe for producing good figures is for the
pupil to become deeply interested in his subject. If his
mind is given to producing figurative images, the images
will come unsolicited. If such images do not come of them-
selves, it is better to get along without them.
3. In revising his written work, the pupil should take
care that figurative expressions meet the following require-
ments : —
a. Figures should be fresh and unhackneyed. If an image
occurs that has been used a great many times before, con-
sider whether the reader is likely to get any pleasure from
it when he comes upon it again.
h. Figures should grow naturally out of the subject and
be appropriate to the purpose for which one is writing.
224 Composition-Rhetoric,
The image of ^^ something else " should differ from and yet
curiously and significantly resemble the thing or idea that
it pictures. The following passage from Macaulay contains
an example of a metaphor that is good and a metaphor that
is bad in this respect : —
The works of Milton cannot be comprehended or enjoyed unless
the mind of the reader co-operate with that of the writer. He
does not paint a finished picture or play for a mere passive listener.
He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes
the key-note and expects his hearer to make out the melody.
The image of a painter sketching a picture and leaving us
to fill up the outline is natural and appropriate. We see at
once its resemblance to the mode of writing employed by
Milton. But the ima^ of a musician striking a key-note
and expecting his hearers to make out the melody is highly
absurd. No musician would do such a thing, and even
if he should, his act would have no resemblance to Milton's
poetry.
c. Images of things that are familiar are easier to appre-
hend than images of things that are unfamiliar. "His
voice had an odd note in it like the cry of a whaup " does
not mean very much to persons brought up in America,
because few of them have heard a whaup cry. The follow-
ing, however, appeals to every one : " Innumerable tawny
and yellow leaves skimmed along the pavement, and stole
through people's doorways into their passages, with a hesi-
tating scratch on the floor, like the skirts of timid visitors."
d. In the heat of composition two or more images are
sometimes jumbled together in a metaphor in such a way
as to be ridiculous. " The strong arm of the law is march-
ing through the land breathing fire and sword" is an
example of such a jumble. A similar effect is produced
when the reader passes too suddenly from metaphor to
literal statement, as in " Appearing above the horizon like
How to Say It, 225
a new and resplendent luminary, lie entered Parliament the
following year." If the pupil is given to these faults, he
should, in his revision, scan each metaphor closely, asking
himself such questions as these: "Is there any confusion
of images here ? '' " Will this metaphor make my readers
laugh when I do not want them to laugh ? "
e. Beware of drawing figures out to tedious length, as in
the following: "With the rope of his genius he let the
bucket of imagination down into the well of human nature
and drew it up brimming over with wit and humor."
Use particular and concrete expressions to give vigor and interest.
Never strive after figures or use them merely for purposes of orna-
ment. In revision, be on the watch for figures that are hackneyed,
unnatural, ridiculous, or long drawn out.*
EXERCISE 86.
Point out particular, concrete, and figurative expressions
in the following selection, and account for the use of
them : —
f.Q ^ Society is a strong solution of books. -^ It draws the virtue out
A of what is best worth reading, as hot water draws the strength of
tea-leaves. If I were a prince, I would hire or buy a prjxate
literaryteapot, in which I would steep all the leaves of new books ]^<J
' ^J-that promised well. The infusion would do for me without thei)
ijfejr^egetable fibre. You understand me; I would have a person
f whose sole business should be to read day and night, and talk to
^^me whenever I wanted him to. I know the man I would have : a
^quick-witted, outspoken, incisive fellow ; knows history, or at any
rate has a shelf full of books about it, which he can use handily,
and the same of all useful arts and sciences ; knows all the com-
mon plots of plays and novels, and the stock company of characters
that are continually coming on in new costumes ; can give you a
criticism of an octavo in an epithet and a wink, and you can
depend on it ; cares for nobody except for the virtue there is in
^
M
226 Composition- Rhetoric,
what he says ; delights in taking off big-wigs and professional (
gowns, and in the disembalming and unbandaging of all literary .lA/
mummies. Yet he is as tender and reverential to all that bears 1|
the mark of genius — that is, of a new influx of truth ^^ bfta.iity -OhAC
as a nun over her missal. In short, he is one of those men who
know everything except how to make a living. Him would I keep h
on the square next my own royal compartment or^ life's chp-ss-i^^^
board. ^foTiTm I would push up another pawn in the shape of a[j (
comely and wise young woman, whom he would, of course, take —
to wife. For all contingencies I would liberally provide. In a
word, I would, in the plebeian, but expressive phrase, " put him
through " all the material part of life ; see him sheltered, warmed,
fed, button-mended, and all that, just to be able to lay on his talk^i
when I liked — with the privilege ofshutting it off at will. — Y^t
Holmes: Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. /)
EXERCISE 87.
Re-write the following selections, changing all the partic-
ular and concrete terms to general and abstract terms, and
all the figurative expressions to plain statements. Notic^ /v^
the difference in effect. ^_ ^ ^^^ ^.j^j^^^ )^^rw>JUk(^ U^ <5
Mere acquired knowledge belongs to us only like a wooden leg
or a wax nose. Knowledge obtained by means of thinking ve^
»aj»bles oiii' natuial lliiibs, au^ is the only kind that really
belongs to us. Hepce the difference between the thinker and the a
pedant. The, intSleWial possession of ttie independent thinker is jLk
'!ike a beautiful picture which stands before us, a living thing with [),
fitting light and shadow, sustained tones, perfect harmony of co\6r. „
Tpat of tiie merely learned man ^y be compared to a palette
^dl9>Af^U^ith bright colors, perhaps" even arrahged with^ sbWe^
system, but wanting in harmony, coherence, and meaning.
It was the new-fashioned agricultural implement known as the
horse-drill, till then unknown, in its modern shape, in this part
of the country, where the venerable seed-lip was still used for sow-
ing as in the days of the Heptarchy. Its arrival created about
as much sensation in the corn-market as a flying machine would
How .to San It. ^ j ' 227
In'Oharing Cross. The farmers crow^led rouiid i^, women \
lar^, children crept under it and infc, \\. The 'machine^ J^ W
ftiRedHHMWignt'hiie^fcf'^gi'eBn; ^ and it re-
sembled as a whole a compound of hornet, grasshopper, and
shrimp, magnified enormously. Or it might have been likened
to an upright musical instrument with the front gone. That
was how it struck Lucetta. " Why, it is a sort of an agricult-
ural piano/ysll^gffilk — Hardy : The Mayor of Casterbridge.
EXERCISE 88.
l.;j
* Re-wnte the following, changing the hackneyed figures to
plain statements. If any good rftw images occur to you
while writing, substitute them for the old. j a ^ . i
In the fields of literary culture and classic resAirch he was
indeed superb, for his speeches, while containing golden nuggets
^k of ripest wisdom, sparkled with gems of richest humor and
fvj^-glistened with the auroral lights of the finest poetic fancy.
Qir Thousands have been charmed and enchanted with the richly
^X blooming flowers of his poetic gardens, and lulled and soothed .
\( by the rhythmic flow of his gracefully winding current of mellif-
r ^i**®^^^ rhetoric. All of his speeches were forceful in their pres-
5>E
entation of truth and facts, noble in their ethical teachings of
duty to country, luscious with the mellowest fruitage of lofty
patriotism, opulent with the gems of successfully garnered wisdom,
kingly in the imperial sweep of their royal eloquence, and regal in
the magnificent drapery of the most ornate diction. They will
prove monuments to his fame more lasting than marble, for on
the adamantine and invulnerable surface of their imperishable
worth, unequalled merit, superb splendor, and magnificent beauty,
the corroding and devastating moth of decay will never fix a fang.
— Congressional Record, Feb. 24, 1895, p. 2665.
Scarcely a year ago, among the, rugged hills of Northern Italy,
the last faint spark of a disappointed life went out. A voice
once heard across the Atlantic,.tlirilling with rapture two conti-
nents, was hushed in death. A soul wjiose vivid Mow had warmed
and cheered the hearts of those who travelled duty's uneven path-
228 Composition-Rhetoric.
way, had returned to the God who gave it. An old man, weighed
down by sorrow and years, whose only hope had been the freedom
of his beloved country, had seen that hope turned into the dark-
ness of despair. The last lingering champion of a lost cause, with
his faith in humanity shattered, alone, in the solitude of Nature's
ruins, had gone down to death a cheerless, hopeless exile. This
man was T,^nnis Kns.snth.
EXERCISE 89.
In a series of short paragraphs de^ibe the pictures
which rise in your mind^ as you read the following : —
And then at once and most gladly, and, let us hope, for many a
century, you laid the sword aside. " The sword, after all," as
Victor Hugo says, " is but a hideous flash in the darkness," while
^' Right is an eternal ray." . . . The war of the Secession estab-
lished your national position. Just as, during the fighting, many
a boy, learning to look death in the face, sprang into manhood at
the touch of noble responsibility, so the war strengthened and
sobered you, and gave to your thoughts, your politics, your bear-
ing as a people, a grander and manlier tone. The nation waved
her hand, and her army of more than a million sank back instantly
into peaceful civil life, as the soldiers of Roderic Dhu sank back
into the heather. — Farrar : Thoughts on America.
Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's
opinions. See how it lies then in you ; and if there is no counsel
offer none. What we want is, not your activity or interference
with your mind, but your content to be a vehicle of the simple
truth. The way to have large occasional views, as in a political or
social crisis, is to have large habitual views. When men consult
you, it is not that they wish you to stand tiptoe, and pump your
brains, but to apply your habitual view, your wisdom, to the pres-
ent question, forbearing all pedantries, and the very name of
argument; for in good conversation parties don't speak to the
words, but to the meaning of each other. — Emerson : Social
Aims.
How to Say It. 229
In a short paragraph, de^cribe^as accurately as you can
what you see in mind upon reading one of the following
sentences : —
Refreshed and replenished by the silver stream of inspiration,
the pulpit has steadily marched through the succeeding periods of
the world's history, tearing down the bulwarks of bigotry, error,
and superstition.
Know God and Nature only are the same ;
In man the judgment shoots at flying game,
A bird of passage, gone as soon as found,
Now in the moon, perhaps, now under ground.
— Pope : Moral Essays.
Carlo received severe injuries at the hands of a bull-dog.^
The competition of the railways is cutting the ground from
under the steamers' feet.^
Our American fathers, spurned from the bosom of their mother-
country and rocked by the convulsions of a revolution, tried the
great experiment of erecting an independent government.
n
EXERCISE^91. y/Ly">L^ ^
Write an essay of about 250 words upon one of the following
subjects. Justify your use of imaginative expressions.
1. The full moon as it appears through a telescope.
2. What our ancestors would think of a railroad if they
should come to life.
3. Dangers of Alpine climbing.
4. A cloud-burst.
1 Quoted by A. S. Hill, Foundations of Rhetoric, p. 194.
2 Longmans' School Composition, p. 270.
230 Composition-Rhetoric.
5. How bad money drives out good.
6. The distances of the fixed stars.
7. A brilliant sunset.
8. The battle of Waterloo.
EXERCISE 92.
Find three paragraphs among those quoted in this book, in
which no figures are employed.
CHAPTER V.
IN ^WHAT ORDER TO SAY IT.
LESSON 29.
Antithesis and Climax.
In our study of balanced sentences the fact was discov-
ered that contrasting ideas in the same sentence show
similarity in form and length of statement, corresponding
words, phrases, or clauses answering to one another in
such a way as to make the contrasting ideas conspicuous.
This order is called antithesis. It should be used only when
there is a real contrast between the ideas to be presented.
Antithesis also appears in a wider application when a
whole sentence is in contrast with another. Here, too,
similarity of form and structure is usually preserved.
There is often antithesis of thought, however, without
marked antithesis of form. Two paragraphs may show
contrasting thoughts without showing any conspicuous simi-
larity in construction. The plan of a whole discourse may
be antithetical in thought and form, or in thought alone.
Let us examine the following speech by Edmund Burke.
It was delivered to his constituents after the election of
1774, and discusses a very important question, — in cases
when a representative's judgment differs from the known
or supposed opinion of his constituents, should he vote as
his constituents would have him vote, or should he vote as
his own best judgment of what is right tells him to vote?
231
232 Composition-Rhetoric,
We see at once that here is an antithesis in thought, and
it comes out in the first two paragraphs, which state the
question and begin the argument. The first paragraph tells
how far a representative should go, — he should weigh the
opinions of his constituents, should respect their wishes,
and should prefer their interests to his own personal inter-
est. The second paragraph tells what the representative
should not yield, — he should not yield his convictions, he
should vote as his judgment and conscience dictate, even
when he knows that his vote is contrary to public opinion
among his constituents.
The antithesis of thought is continued in the third,
fourth, and fifth paragraphs. Antithesis is the basis of the
structure also in these paragraphs, but only the basis ; for
the details are not strictly held to similarity of form,
length, and position. Paragraph three divides at sentence
11 ; paragraph four, at sentence 13. In paragraph five,
sentences 14, 15, 18, and 20 show marked likeness of form
in the contrasting parts.
1. Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory
of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest corre-
spondence, and the most unreserved communication with his con-
stituents. 2. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him;
their opinions high respect ; their business unremitted attention ;
3. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfac-
tions to theirs, — and, above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer
their interest to his own.
4. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlight-
ened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to
any set of men living. 5. These he does not derive from your
pleasure, — no, nor from the law and the Constitution. 6. They
are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply
answerable. 7. Your representative owes you, not his industry
only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you, if
he sacrifices it to your opinion.
8. My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient
In What Order to Say It. 233
to yours. 9. If that be all, the thing is innocent. 10. If govern-
ment were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question,
ought to be superior. 11. But government and legislation are
matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination ; and
what sort of reason is that in which the determination precedes
the discussion, in which one set of men deliberate and another
decide, and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three
hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments ?
12. To deliver an opinion is the right of all men ; that of con-
stituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representa-
tive ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought always
most seriously to consider. 13. But autJioritadve instructions,
mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly
to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest
conviction of his judgment and conscience, — these are things
utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from
a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our
Constitution.
14. Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different
and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an
agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates ; but Par-
liament is a deliberative assembly of o?ie nation, with one interest,
that of the whole, — where not local purposes, not local prejudices,
ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general
reason of the whole. 15. You choose a member, indeed; but when
you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a
member of Parliament. 16. If the local constituent should have
an interest or should form an hasty opinion evidently opposite to
the real good of the rest of the community, the member from that
place ought to be as far as any other from any endeavor to give
it effect. 17. I beg pardon for saying so much on this subject ; I
have been unwillingly drawn into it ; but I shall ever use a re-
spectful frankness of communication with you. 18. Your faith-
ful friend, your devoted servant, I shall be to the end of my life :
a flatterer you do not wish for. 19. On this point of instructions,
however, I think it scarcely possible we ever can have any sort of
difference. 20. Perhaps I may give you too much, rather than
too little trouble.
21. From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favor,
234 Composition-RTietoric,
to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you any-
thing but humble and persevering endeavors to do my duty.
22. The weight of that duty, I confess, makes me tremble; and
whoever well considers what it is, of all things in the world, will
fly from what has the least likeness to a positive and precipitate
engagement. 23. To be a good member of Parliament is, let me
tell you, no easy task, — especially at this time, when there is so
strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of servile
compliance or wild popularity. 24. To unite circumspection with
vigor is absolutely necessary, but it is extremely difficult. 25. We
are now members for a rich commercial city ; this city, however,
is but a part of a rich commercial nation, the interests of which
are various, multiform, and intricate. 26. We are members for
that great nation, which, however, is itself but part of a great
empire, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
limits of the East and of the West. 27. All these wide-spread
interests must be considered, — must be compared, — must be rec-
onciled, if possible. 28. We are members for a/ree country; and
surely we all know that the machine of a free constitution is no
simple thing, but as intricate and as delicate as it is valuable.
29. AVe are members of a great and ancient monarchy ; and we
must preserve religiously the true, legal rights of the sovereign,
which form the keystone that binds together the noble and well-
constructed arch of our empire and our constitution. 30. A con-
stitution made up of balanced powers must ever be a critical
thing. 31. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
within my reach. 32. I know my inability, and I wish for sup-
port from every quarter. 33. In particular I shall aim at the
friendship, and shall cultivate the best correspondence, of the
worthy colleague you have given me.
Another order (sometimes combined with antithesis) is
the climax, by which a series of words, phrases, or clauses
is so arranged that each, in turn surpasses the preceding
one in intensity of expression or importance of meaning.
In the speech just quoted sentence 4 puts the words "un-
biassed opinions," "mature judgment," "enlightened con-
science," in a climax, the second expression surpassing the
In What Order to Say It, 235
first, and the tliird the second in intensity and importance.
The phrases " to you," " to any man/' " to any set of men/'
in sentence 4, and the three clauses after the semicolon in
sentence 11, illustrate the climax of phrases and the climax
of clauses respectively.
Climax of whole sentences is well illustrated by sentences
2h to 29, in which the growth in importance and intensity
is marked by the words " a rich commercial city,'' " a rich
commercial nation," " a great empire," " a free country," " a
great and ancient monarchy." The repetition of the words
" we are members," at the beginning of these sentences, fore-
tells in each case that something more important is coming.
The order of climax also appears in a wider application
when the paragraphs of an essay, or argument, or story
grow in importance and interest until they culminate in
the strongest and most essential thought of all. In the
speech quoted in this lesson, there is a distinct increase in
power and intensity from the first paragraph to the middle
of the fifth paragraph, the first culmination being reached
in the words at the beginning of sentence 6, "they are a
trust from Providence," the second culmination in sentence
11, the third in sentence 13, the fourth in sentence 16.
From sentence 16 to sentence 25 we are given personal
explanations which were very important at the time and
in the circumstances under which they were made. Their
function in the climax is not felt by the reader of to-day.
However, it can be seen that they prepare for the final
climax beginning with sentence 2h,
The following brief story illustrates the principle of
climax in a narrative. The deepest impression is made at
the last, and nothing is added at the close to take away
from the impression produced by the calm words of the
dying general. The interest of the reader grows from the
first impression produced by what we read at the close of
the first sentence (his fortitude in pain) to the second im-
236 Composition-Rhetoric,
pression (his self-forgetfulness and continued interest in
the conflict), and culminates in the incident of the sword,
showing his soldierly pride even at the moment of death.
General Sir John Moore, while earnestly watching the result of
the fight about the village of Elvira, was struck on the left breast
by a cannon-shot ; the shock threw him from his horse with vio-
lence; yet he rose again in a sitting posture, his countenance
unchanged, and his steadfast eye still fixed upon the regiments
engaged in his front, no sigh betraying a sensation of pain. In
a few moments, when he saw the troops were gaining ground, his
countenance brightened, and he suffered himself to be taken to
the rear. Then was seen the nature of his hurt. As the soldiers
placed him in a blanket, his sword got entangled, and the hilt
entered the wound; Captain Hardinge, a staff officer, attempted
to take it off, but the dying man stopped him, saying : " It is as
well as it is. I had rather it should go out of the field with me ; "
and in that manner, so becoming to a soldier, Moore was borne
from the fight. — INTapier.
When opposing thoughts are to he presented in a sentence, para-
graph, or essay, arrange them in the order of antithesis. In general,
arrange the thoughts of a paragraph or essay in the order of climax.
A l^ E^RCISE 93.
Make a list of the thoughts expressed in the following.
Do they come in the order of increasing importance ?
Democrac^_jias not only taught the Americans how to use
liberty without abusing it, and how to secure equality : it has also,
tan^ht them frateri^itv. That word has gone out of fashion in
the Old World, and no wonder, considering what was done in its
name in 1793, considering also that it still figures in the pro-
g;Tamme of assassins. N'evertheless, there is in the United States
a sort of kindliness, a sense of human fellowship, a recognition of
the duty of Tnntnal )ip1p nw^r^ V>y pan to man, stronger than any-
where in the Old World, and certainly stronger than in the upper
or middle classes of England, France, or Germany. The natural
In What Order to Say It. b i( J/ 237
impulse of every citizen in America is to respect every other citi-
zen, and to feel that citizenship constilutes _a certain ground, of
respect^ The idea of each man's equal rights is so fully realized
that the rich or powerful man feels it no indignity to take his turn
among the crowd, and does not expect any deference from the
poorest. An individual employer of labor (for one cannot say '
the same of corporations) has, I think, a. keener sense of his duty
to those whom he employs than employers have in continental
Europe. He has certainly a greater sense of responsibility for the
use of his wealth. The number of gifts for benevolent and other
public purposes, the number of educational, artistic, literary, and
scientific foundations, is larger than even in Britain, the wealthiest
and most liberal of European countries. Wealth is generally felt
to be a irust, and exclusiveness condemned not merely as indica-
tive of selfishness, but a sort of oifence against the public. !N'o
ne, for instance, thinks of shutting up his pleasure-grounds ; he
seldom even builds a wall round them, but puts up low railings or
palisade, so that the sight of his trees and shrubs is enjoyed by
^vj)assers-by. That any one should be permitted either by opinion
or by law to seal up many square miles of beautiful mountain
country against tourists or artists is to the ordinary American
almost incredible. Such things are to him the marks of a land
still groaning under feudal tyranny. ""^
It may seem strange to those who know how difficult European
states have generally found it to conduct negotiations with the
government of the United States, and who are accustomed to read
in European newspapers the defiant utterances which American
politicians address from Congress to the effete monarchies of the
Old World, to be told that this spirit of fraternity has its influ-
ence on international relations also. Nevertheless if we look not
at the irresponsible orators, who play to the lower feelings of a
section of the people, but at the general sentiment of the whole
people, we shall recognize that democracy makes both for peace
and for justice as between nations. Despite the admiration for
military exploits which the Americans have sometimes shown, no
country is at bottom more pervaded by a hatred of war, and a
sense that natJQliaLixQnQr stands rooted in national fair dealing.
The nation is often misrepresented by its statesmen, but although
it allows them to say irritating things and advance unreasonable
238 Composition-Rhetoric.
claims, it has not for more than forty years permitted them to
abuse its enormous strength, as most European nations possessed
of similar strength have in time past abused theirs. — Bryce.
EXERCISE 94.
34u>r!^
Do you discover anything corresponding to the order of
climax in the following selections ? Mark the stages.
It was after the Revolution. Manufactures, tradSa^U business
was flat on its back. A silver dollar was worth seventy-five; corn
was seventy-five dollars a bushel, board five hundred dollars a
week. Landed property was worthless, and the taxes were some-
thing awful. So the general dissatisfaction turned on the courts
and was going to prevent collections. Grandfather Cobb was a
judge of the probate court ; and when he heard that a mob was
howling in front of the court-house, he put on his old Continen-
tal reginifiiitals, the old. buff and blue, and marched out alone.
" Away with your whining ! " says he. " If I can't hold this court
in^peace, I will hold it in blood ; if I can't sit as a judge, I will die^
as a general ! " Though he was one man to hundreds, he drew a
lin6 in the green, and told the mob that he would shoot with his
own hand the first man that crossed. He was too many for the
crowd, standing there in his old uniform in which they knew he
had fought for them ; and they only muttered, and after a while
dispersed. They came again the next term of court ; but he had
his militia and his cannon all ready for them, then ; and this time
when they got their answer they took it, went off, and never came
back. — Octave Thanet: A Son of the Revolution.
Thackeray announced to me by letter in the early autumn of
1852 that he had determined to visit America, and would sail for
Boston by the Canada on the 30th of October. All the necessary
arrangements for his lecturing tour had been made without troub-
ling him with any of the details. He arrived on a frosty Novem-
ber evening, and went directly to the Tremont House, where
rooms had been engaged for him. I remember^is delight in
getting off the sea, and the enthusiaaiiL^ith_jvlnch_^^^^ hailed the
announcement that dinnerwould be ready shortly. A few friends
Jn/What Order to Say It, 239
were ready to sit down with him, and hQ seemed greatly to enjoy
the novelty of an American repast. In London he had been very
curious in his inquiries about American oysters, as marvellous
stories, which he did not believe, had been told him of their great
size. We apologized — although we had taken care that the
largest specimens to be procured should startle his unwonted
vision when he came to the table — for what we called the extreme
smallness of the oysters, promising we would do better next time.
Six bloated Falstaffian bivalves lay before him in their shells. I
noticed that he gazed at them anxiously with fork upraised ; then
he whispered to me, with a look of anguish', *' How shall I do it ? "
I described to him the simple process by which the free-born
citizens of America were accustomed to accomplish such a task.
He seemed satisfied that the thing was feasible, selected the
smallest one in the half-dozen (rejecting a large one, "because,"
he said, " it resembled the High Priest's servant's ear that Peter
cut off"), and then bowed his head as if he were saying grace.
All eyes were upon him to watch the eifect of a new sensation in
the person of a great British author. Opening his mouth very
wide, he struggled for a moment, and then all was over. I shall
never forget the comic look of despair he cast upon the other five
over-occupied shells. I broke the perfect stillness by asking him
how he felt. " Profoundly grateful," he gasped, *' and as if I had
swallowed a little baby." — Fields. ._«----«— --——^^...^
EXERCISE 95. v '" •. - •
Re-arrange the propositions of the following outlines so that
they shall come in the order of their importance, the most im-
portant last.
Why Good Manners should be Cultivated.
^ 1. They react upon the character of the person.
5 2. They are based upon the idea of consideration for
others.
c^ 3. They avoid needless friction in social gatherings.
1 . 4. They are beautiful to see, in themselves.
240 Composition-Rhetoric,
•^ 5. They make friends for us.
%, -6. They put salutary restraints upon us at times.
Getting Along with People.
^ 1. One should not be ready to take offence.
% * 2. Conversation may be managed so as to avoid disputa-
tion on long-standing differences.
'5% 3. There is not often need of a direct attack upon the
beliefs and opinions of others.
\\^ 4. To refer to the weakness of a friend is ungenerous.
(9, 5. The golden rule is the only safe guide.
C 6. To betray a secret at the expense or discomfort of a
friend is reprehensible.
EXERCISE 96.
Write an essay on one of the foregoing outlines after revision.
EXERCISE 97.
Make two antithetical statements under each of the headings of
the following outline, contrasting Bryant's Thanatopsis and Long-
fellow's Psalm of Life.
1. Subject-matter. 2. Kind of emotion appealed to. 3. Depth
of emotion shown. 4. Faith revealed.
EXERCISE 98.
Expand the points of the preceding outline into four paragraphs.
EXERCISE 99. /l^*t/f ^ .
Read Bacon's essay on " Beauty " and his essay on " Deformity,"
(or Milton's U Allegro and II Penseroso) and combine the contrast-
ing thoughts and sentiments of the two in a single antithetical
essay.
EXERCISE 100.
Read Lowell's poem. The Heritage , and combine the contrasting
thoughts and sentiments of the poem in a brief antithetical essay.
In What Order to Say It. 241
LESSOR 3Q. /M^
ii ^The Logical Order.
In Lessons 18 and 19 we found that the order of present-
ing thoughts in a paragraph is sometimes the statement of
a cause and the statement of the effect of that cause ; or is
the statement of a proposition and the statement of proofs
of that proposition. The same methods may be effectively
applied in planning a longer essay consisting of several
paragraphs.
Thus in the following outline the arrangement is by
cause and effect.
Foreign Immigration should be Restricted.
I. Fact as cause : (1) Many immigrants are paupers. (A para-
graph of proofs involving statistics or
statements of authorities on this point.)
XL Fact as effect: (2) They fill our almshouses and become a
public charge. (A paragraph of proofs
involving statistics or statements of au-
thorities.)
III. Fact as cause : (3) Some of them are criminals. (A para-
graph of proofs.)
IV. Fact as effect : (4) They reinforce the criminal classes. (A
paragraph of proofs.)
Y. Fact as cause : (5) Many of them know nothing of the duties
of free citizenship. (A paragraph of
proofs.)
VI. Fact as effect : (6) Such immigrants recruit the worst element
in our politics. (A paragraph of proofs.)
The order indicated above may be followed, or all of the
facts as causes (I., III., Y.) maybe stated and proved first in
successive paragraphs, and then all of the facts as effects
(IL, lY., YI.) may be stated and proved in successive para-
graphs.
242
Composition-Iihetoric.
A third order that might be followed with the same mate-
rial puts the effects first and the causes afterward j thus : —
I. Fact as e:ffect : (1) Our almshouses are crowded with people
who have become a public charge.
11. Fact as cause: (2) Pauper immigrants make up a large per-
centage of the almshouse population.
III. Fact as effect : (3) The criminal classes continue to grow in
spite of efforts at repression.
lY. Fact as cause : (4) Immigrants in large numbers recruit the
criminal classes.
V. Fact as effect : (5) The worst elements in politics are with diffi-
culty kept from securing control of affairs.
VI. Fact as cause: (6) Immigration feeds the ranks of ignorant
voters.
Conclusion : Foreign immigration should be restricted.
A fourth order would put the effects (I., III., Y.) first in
successive paragraphs, and would follow these by the causes
(II., lY., YI.) in successive paragraphs.
Compare the following outlines of the same proposition :
The study of English should be encouraged in the schools.
I.
The study of English
1. Promotes power of expres-
sion.
2. Gives a student some
knowledge of the best thoughts
of his race.
3. Cultivates the taste for the
better things of life.
4. Adds fresh interest in the
world about us.
5. Supplants an interest in
less worthy things.
Hence the study of English
should be encouraged in the
schools.
II.
The schools should
1. Have a practical end in
their teaching.
2. Give their pupils an inter-
est in the best thinking.
3. Improve the taste for the
better things of life.
4. Interest pupils in the world
about them.
5. Offset an inclination for
less worthy things.
These purposes of school work
(as effects) may be fulfilled by
the study of English as an effi-
cient cause. Hence, etc.
In What Order to Say It, 243
In the first of these outlines we begin with the subject,
" The study of English/' and show its effects one after an-
other. In the second we begin with the predicate, "The
schools," and present its effects as they should be; these
effects we find may be produced by the study of English.
In both outlines what we say is made to bear upon the
whole proposition, "The study of English should be encour-
aged in the schools," that is, we have the whole proposition
in mind, no matter which method we employ. What is said
in one outline is implied in the other. Taken together, they
make the plan complete ; thus ; —
The Study of English should be Encouraged in the
Schools.
1. Because the study has a practical end; namely, power of
expression.
2. Because the schools should give pupils some knowledge of
the best thinking.
3. Because this study cultivates the taste for better things,
which is the great object of education.
4. Because this study adds interest in the world, which is
another great object of education.
5. Because education should direct inclination from less worthy
to more worthy things, and this can be done by the study of
English.
wfore writing, armiQeyOTirifthpuglits on some definite plan.
EXERCISE 101.
Make an outline on one of the following subjects, by one of the
methods illustrated in this lesson.
1. The value of cheerfulness.
2. The advantages of public libraries.
3. Why conversation should be practised.
244 Composition-Rhetoric.
4. Why the work of the Salvation Army is deserving.
5. Reasons for making an early choice of one's life-work.
6. The real causes of the war for the Union.
7. The need of good roads.
8. Why bicycles should not be ridden on the sidewalk.
EXERCISE 102.
Analyze the following selection for the purpose of dis-
covering the order adopted by the writer in presenting his
thoughts.
Pennsylvania is the second state in the Union. But those who
are familiar with her vast resources of iron, petroleum, coal, and
lumber, her temperate climate, her fertile soil, and the skill of her
people in the mechanic arts and manufacturing, often wonder why
she is not easily the first.
The difficulty seems to be a lack of unity and homogeneousness
among her people. In colonial times her population was split up
into distinct divisions of nationalities and religions. The English
Quakers controlled Philadelphia and its neighborhood, and also
dominated the Legislature. The Welsh settled on a tract west of
the city, under an agreement with William Penn that they should
have it for a little colony of their own. For a time they succeeded
in governing it iu their own way and at the first very few of them
could speak English. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians went out on
the frontier, became a law unto themselves, and were bitterly op-
posed to the Quakers, who, they said, refused them all share in the
political government of the province and failed to protect them
from the Indians. The Church of England people were not very
numerous in colonial times ; but when the sons of William Penn
joined their faith they were given the executive offices of the gov-
ernment, which were all in the control of the proprietors. Thus
the political administration of the province was split into two parts,
the executive controlled by the Church of England people and the
Legislature controlled by the Quakers.
The northern half of the province was claimed by Connecticut,
and her people by force of arms succeeded in settling and holding
In What Order to Say It. 246
part of it. They lived by themselves, and their descendants still
retain much of their local sentiment and pride. But the most im-
portant and distinct division was that of the Germans, who num-
bered at least a third of the population. They retained their
language and customs, and lived by themselves. There are still
many of them who, though their ancestors have been in the state
for a hundred and fifty years, cannot yet speak English, and a still
larger number who, though they understand English, usually speak
the dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
Each of these divisions had a distinct religion of its own, which
in colonial times increased the desire for isolation, and the effect
of these old controversies and feelings has by no means worn away.
-^^^^ EXERCISE 103.
Ee-state and re-combine the following, so as to bring out
the relationship of causes and effects. Give heed also to the
principle of climax.
High Schools should be Generously Supported.
^ 1. The morals of a community are improved when there is a
body of well-educated people in it.
i^ 2. The high schools afford a training in industry.
--— ' 3. Intelligent voting demands higher qualifications in the voter
than ever before.
"^ 4. The high schools afford a training in morality.
f^ 5. Every community is cursed by numbers of people who have
never been taught to do anything useful.
I 6. The high schools open the way to a still higher education
for many of their pupils.
-"• 7. The high schools teach civics and politics.
\ 8. A town without a high school to connect with the grades
below and with college or university above, is not doing its duty
by the boys and girls.
EXERCISE 104.
Expand your thoughts on the re-arranged outline of the
preceding exercise, into an essay.
246 Composition-Rhetoric,
4y^
EXERCISE 105.
Supply the missing cause or effect which is needed with
each of the following statements in order to complete the
outline.
Physiology and Hygiene should be More Generally
Taught.
1. The proportion of unhealthy and weak people about us is
unnecessarily great.
2. Many people do not know how to take care of their health.
3. The efficiency of boards of health in controlling epidemic and
contagious diseases is seriously impaired by the ignorance of people.
4. Ill-health and lack of vigor in a person hinders the discharge
of duties.
EXERCISE 106.
With the material that you have added to the preceding
outline, re-arrange the whole and write an essay on the
subject.
^t^
LESSON" 31.
The Time Order and the Space Order.
In Lesson 13 the fact was noted that in a paragraph made
up of narrative details, the details come one after another in
the order of time, whereas in a descriptive paragraph they
stand side by side in the order in which they occur in space.
The details, whether in time or space, are arranged accord-
ing to their nearness to one another. Thus in a story we
have three natural divisions in the order of time, (1) pre-
paratory material (which should be made as brief as pos-
sible) leading up to the main incident, (2) the centre or
culmination of interest, and (3) the outcome, conclusion, or
explanation, stated as briefly as possible. In the following
In What Order to Say It. . 247
the preparatory material occupies the ^xat-teo paragraphs;
the cenjice or cuhnination of interest occupies the thirds
foujih, and the first half of the fif thjR.vaKra.ph ; and_the_
explanation, the lasThaTI oT"the fifth para.g^raph. In other
words, the preparatory material shows why Lincoln should
have taken up the case, — as a debt of gratitude ; the main
incident shows how Lincoln paid the debt of gratitude ; and
the conclusion puts in plain words the real motive for telling
the story, — to illustrate one phase of Lincoln's character.
The following outline shows the order of events : —
1. Preparatory material in the time order.
a. Lincoln's friendship for the Armstrongs.
h. Mrs. Armstrong's kindness to Lincoln.
c. Mrs. Armstrong's dependence on her sons.
d. Young Armstrong charged with murder.
2. The centre or culmination, time order.
a. Lincoln undertakes to defend Armstrong.
h. Procures postponement and change of place.
c. The trial :
(1) Analysis of the evidence. Discomfiture of
the principal witness.
(2) Lincoln's plea before the jury.
d. The verdict of the jury.
3. The conclusion.
a. Effect upon the widow and her son.
h. Eeflection of the writer of the story.
1. Mr. Lincoln's early athletic struggle with Jack Armstrong,
the representative man of the " Clary's Grove Boys," will be
remembered. From the moment of this struggle, which Jack
agreed to call '' a drawn battle," in consequence of his own foul
play, they became strong friends. Jack would fight for Mr.
Lincoln at any time, and would never hear him spoken against.
Indeed, there were times when young Lincoln made Jack's cabin
his home, and here Mrs. Armstrong, a most womanly person,
learned to respect the rising man.
248 Composition-Rhetoric,
2. There was no service to which she did not make her guest
abundantly welcome, and he never ceased to feel the tenderest
gratitude for her kindness. At length her husband died, and she
became dependent upon her sons. The oldest of these, while
in attendance upon a camp-meeting, found himself involved in
a melee which resulted in the death of a young man, and young
Armstrong was charged by one of his associates with striking the
fatal blow. He was arrested, examined, and imprisoned to await
his trial. The public mind was in a blaze of excitement, and
interested parties fed the flame.
3. Mr. Lincohi knew nothing of the merits of this case; that is
certain. He only knew that his old friend Mrs. Armstrong was in
sore trouble ; and he sat down at once and volunteered by letter to
defend her son. His first act was to procure the postponement and
a change of the place of the trial. There was too much fever in the
minds of the immediate public to permit of fair treatment. When
the trial came on, the case looked very hopeless to all but Mr. Lin-
coln, who had assured himself that the young man was not guilty.
4. The evidence on behalf of the State being all in, and looking
like a solid and consistent mass of testimony against the prisoner,
Mr. Lincoln undertook the task of analyzing and destroying it,
which he did in a manner that surprised every one. The principal
witness testified that by the aid of the brightly shining moon he
saw the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr.
Lincoln proved by the almanac that there was no moon shining at
the time. The mass of testimony against the prisoner melted
away, until " Not guilty " was the verdict of every man present in
the crowded court-room.
5. There is, of course, no record of the plea made on this
occasion, but it is remembered as one in which Mr. Lincoln made
an appeal to the sympathies of the jury which quite surpassed his
usual efforts of the kind, and melted all to tears. The jury were
out but half an hour, when they returned with the verdict of
" Not guilty." The widow fainted in the arms of her son, who
divided his attention between his services to her and his thanks to
his deliverer. And thus the kind woman who cared for the poor
young man, and showed herself a mother to him in his need,
received as her reward, from the hand of her grateful beneficiary,
the life of a son, saved from a cruel conspiracy. — J. G. Holland.
^AJL pjiiUjd^>^^^^^ ' ^ Y^^
^
In What Order to Say It. 249
In description^ the strict order of nearness is not so help-
ful to the reader. The writer cannot tell all : if he tries to
do so, he will confuse his readers with a mass of details.
In describing a building for one who has never seen it,
what is the most essential thing for him to know ? This
question is best answered by asking what one notices first
upon seeing the building. Evidently, the size, general
shape, color, material, and any striking architectural char-
acteristic. If the reader is given these facts at the outset,
the remainder of the descriptive details fall in place natu-
rally in the order of their- nearness to each other. In
describing a picture, the first thing to attract the attention . j, ^ \
is the central figure, then the foreground, and finally the'^'^X^
background. In describing the appearance of a person, the :- '^
peculiarities of dress, walk, behavior, are noticed first. In vV^^
all of these the prominent features come first, and the j^ ^
details follow in the order of their nearness to one another. j
The Taj^is built on the banks of the Jumna rather more than a kjjV^
mile to the eastward of the Fort of Agra. It is approached by a --. v
handsome road, cut through the mounds left by the ruins of vw
ancient palaces. Like the tomb of Akbar, it stands in a large "^
garden, enclosed by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with arched \\^^
galleries around the interior. The entrance is a superb gateway
of sandstone, inlaid with ornaments and inscriptions from the
Koran, in white marble. Outside of this grand portal, however,
is a spacious quadrangle of solid masonry with an elegant structure
intended as a caravanserai, on the opposite side. Whatever may
be the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to notice the
fine proportions ol these structures, and the rich and massive style
of their architecture?^ The gate to the garden of the Taj is not so
large as that of Ak^ar's tomb, but quite as beautiful in design.
Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs high above
you, an avenue of dark Italian cypresses appears before you.
Down its centre sparkles a long row of fountains, each casting up
a single slender jet. On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and the
feathery bamboo mingle their foliage ; the song of birds meets
250 Composition'Rhetoric,
your ear, and the odor of roses and lemon-flowers sweetens the air.
Dowiisuch a vista, and over such a foreground, rises the Taj.
■^jA^^^ It is an octagonal building, or rather a square with the corners
truncated, and each side precisely similar. It stands upon a lofty
^^ platform or pedestal, with a minaret at each corner, and this,
'XJb^tJL again, is lifted on a vast terrace of solid masonry. An Oriental
^fl / ^dome, swelling out boldly from the base into nearly two-thirds of
a sphere, and tapering at the top into a crescent-tipped spire,
c-rowns the edifice, rising from its centre, with four similar, though
much smaller, domes at the corners. On each side there is a
grand entrance formed by a single pointed arch, rising nearly to
the cornice, and two smaller arches (one placed above the other)
on either hand. The height of the building from its base to the
top of the dome is 262 feet, and of the minaret about 200 feet.
But no words can convey an idea of the exquisite harmony of the
different parts, and the grand and glorious effect of the whole
structure with its attendant minarets. — Bayard Taylor : India,
China, and Japan, chap. X.
The man was elderly, yet seemed bent more by sorrow and in-
firmity than by the weight of years. He wore a mourning cloak,
over a dress of the sanie melancholy color, cut in that picturesque
form which Vandyck hh;S rendered immortal. But although the
dress was handsome it wKs put on and worn with a carelessness
which show^ed the mind ol the wearer ill at ease. His aged, yet
still handsome, countenance., had the same air of consequence
which distinguished his dress ^d his gait. A striking part of his
appearance was a long white beard, which descended far over the
breast of his slashed doublet, and looked singular from its contrast
in color with his habit. — Scott : Woodstock, chap. II.
Ill narratives follow the time order. In descriptions give first
the general characteristics or the most prominent features of the
object described, then the lesser details in the order of nearness.
EXERCISE 107.
Make a list of the details of the following description.
Account for the order in which the details are given.
b<
y->^
• In What Order to Say It, 251
In the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is
intersected by sharp and naked mountains ; and the face of the
desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and
intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes, the
winds, particularly from tlie southwest, diffuse a noxious and
even deadly vapor; the hillocks of sand which they alternately
raise and scatter are compared to the billows of the ocean, and
whole caravans, w^hole armies, have been lost and buried in the
whirlwind. The common benefits of water are an object of
desire and contest; and such is the scarcity of wood, that some
art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element of fire.
Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the soil
and convey its produce to the adjacent regions ; the torrents that
fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth ; the rare and
hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that strike their roots
into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of the
night : a scanty supply of rain is collected in cisterns and aque-
ducts : the wells and springs are the secret treasure of the desert ;
and the pilgrim of Mecca, after many a dry and sultry march, is
disgusted by the taste of the waters, which have rolled over a bed
of sulphur or salt.
Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate of
Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local
or partial enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream
of fresh water, are sufficient to ^attract a" colony of sedentary
Arabs to the fortunate spots which can afford food and refresh-
ment to themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their
industry in the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The
high lands that border on the Indian Ocean are distinguished by
their superior plenty of wood and water: the air is more tem-
perate, the fruits are more delicious, the animals and the human
race more numerous : the fertility of the soil invites and rewards
the toil of the husbandman ; and peculiar gifts of frankincense
and coffee have attracted in different ages the merchants of the
world.
Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and
original country^ of the horse ; the climate most propitious, not
indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that generous
animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English
252 Composition-Rhetoric,
breed, is derived from a mixture of Arabian blood ; the Bedoweens
preserve, with superstitious care, the honors and the memory of
the purest race : the males are sold at a high price, but the
females are seldom alienated : and the birth of a noble foal is
esteemed, among the tribes, as a subject of joy and mutual con-
gratulation. These horses are educated in tents, among the chil-
dren of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity which trains them in
the habits of gentleness and attachment. They are accustomed
only to walk and to gallop : their sensations are not blunted by
the incessant abuse of the spur and the whip : their powers are
reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit ; but no sooner do
they feel the touch of the hand or the stkrup, than they dart
away with the swiftness of the wind : and if their friend be dis-
mounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till he has recov-
ered his seat.
In the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and
precious gift. That strong and patient beast of burden can per-
form, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days ; and
a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth
stomach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks
of servitude : the larger breed is capable of transporting a weight
of a thousand pounds ; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more
active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race. Alive or
dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man : her
milk is plentiful and nutritious ; the young and tender flesh has
the taste of veal ; and the long hair, which falls each year and is
renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the furni-
ture, and the tents of the Bedoweens.
The perpetual independence of the^Arabs has beeii-fclifi theme
of praise among strangers and natives ; and the arts of contro-
versy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle,
in favor of the posterity of Ishmael. Some exceptions, that can
neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning
as indiscreet as it is superfluous. Yet these exceptions are tempo-
rary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the
most powerful monarchies; the armies of Sesostris and Cyrus, of
Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia ;
the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of
jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of i\
In What Order to Say It, 253
people whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.
The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the charac-
ter and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, their
intrepid valor had been severely felt by their neighbors, in offen-
sive and defensive war. The patient and active virtues of a
soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline \oi a
pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to
the women of the tribe ; but the martial youth, under the banner
of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the
exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scymetar.
The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge
of its perpetuity, and succeeding generations are animated to
prove their descent, and to maintain their inheritance. In the
more simple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each
of her sons disdains a base submission to the wdll of a master.
His breast is fortified with the austere virtues of courage, patience,
and sobriety; the love of independence prompts him to exercise
the habits of self-command ; and the fear of dishonor guards him
from the meaner apprehension of pain, of danger, and of death.
The gravity and firmness of the mind is conspicuous in his out-
ward demeanor: his speech is slow, weighty, and concise; he is
seldom provoked to laughter ; his only gesture is that of stroking
his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood ; and the sense of his
own importance teaches him to accost his equals without levity,
and his superiors without awe.
EXERCISE 108.
Make a complete analysis of the following, arranging the
time elements in their order as main headings, with the
descriptive details in their order as sub-headings.
Yarious portions of our country have at different periods suf-
fered severely from the influence of violent storms of wind, some
of which have been known to traverse nearly the whole extent of
the United States, and to leave such deep impressions in their
wake as will not easily be forgotten. Having witnessed one of
these awful phenomena, in all its grandeur, I will attempt to
describe it. The recollection of that astonishing revolution of
^^^^vuru/iA^owtW ^sf^^^^
4
^**0^54 Composition-Rhetoric,
N ^he ethereal element even now brings with it so disagreeable a
•^ ^Sensation, that I feel as if about to be affected by a sudden stop-
page of the circulation of my blood.
I had left the village of Shawaney, situated on the banks of
s^,^tiie Ohio, on my return from Henderson, which is also situated on
'S^wle banks of the same beautiful stream. The weather was pleas-
^^ant, and I thought not warmer than usual at that season. My
^ horse was jogging quietly along, and my thoughts were, for once
'^ at least in the course of my life, entirely engaged in commercial
speculations. I had forded Highland Creek, and was on the eve
of entering a tract of bottom land or valley that lay between it
and Canoe Creek, when on a sudden I remarked a great difference
in the aspect of the heavens. A hazy thickness had overspread
the country, and I for some time expected an earthquake, but my
horse exhibited no propensity to stop and prepare for such an
occLirrer^ce. I had nearly arrived at the verge of the valley, when
r thought fit to stop near a brook, and dismounted to quench the
thirst which had come upon me.
I was leaning on my knees, with my lips about to touch the
water, when, from my proximity to the earth, I heard a distant
murmuring sound of an extraordinary nature. I drank, however,
and as I rose on my feet, looked toward the south-west, where I
observed a yellowish oval spot, the appearance of which was quite
new to me. Little time was left me for consideration, as the next
moment a smart breeze began to agitate the taller trees. It in-
creased to an unexpected height, and already the smaller branches
and twigs were seen falling in a slanting direction towards the
ground.. Two minutes had scarcely elapsed, when the whole forest
before me was in fearful motion. Here and there, where one
tree pressed against another, a creaking noise was produced, simi-
lar to that occasioned by the violent gusts which sometimes sweep
over the country. Turning instinctively toward the direction
•om which the wind blew, I saw, to my great astonishment, that
►noblest trees of the forest bent their lofty heads for a while,
unable to stand against the blast, were falling into pieces.
First, the branches were broken off with a crackling noise ; then
went the upper part of the massy trunks ; and in many places
lole trees of gigantic size were falling entire to the ground. So
rapid was the progress of the storm, that before I could think of
In What Order to Say It, 255
taking measures to insure my safety, the hurricane was passing
opposite the place where I stood. Never can I forget the scene
which at that moment presented itself. The tops of the trees
were seen moving in the strangest manner, in the central current
of the tempest, which carried along with it a mingled mass of
twigs and foliage, that completely obscured the view. Some
of the largest trees were seen bending and writhing under the
gale ; others suddenly snapped across ; and many, after a momen-
tary resistance, fell uprooted to the earth. The mass of branches,
twigs, foliage, and dust that moved through the air, was whirled
onwards like a cloud of feathers, and on passing, disclosed a wide
space filled with fallen trees, naked stumps, and heaps of shapeless
ruins, which marked the path of the tempest. This space was
about a fourth of a mile in breadth, and to my imagination re-
sembled the dried-up bed of the Mississippi, with its thousands
of planters and sawyers, strewed in the sand, and inclined in
various degrees. The horrible noise resembled that of the great
<^ataracts of Niagara, and as it howled along in the track of the
desolating tempest, produced a feeling in,- my mind which it is 4 —
impossible to describe, ^^p^ 6H\JjL ihuOVMJt4J^ , ^^^
The principal force of the hi^ricane was now over, although /'.i^
millions of twigs and small branches, that had been brought from ^(^
a great distance, were seen following the blast, as if drawn onwards QjbuU
by some mysterious power. They even floated in the air for some '
hours after, as if supported by the thick mass of dust that rose
high above the ground. The sky had now a greenish lurid hue,
and an extremely sulphureous odor was diffused in the atmos-
phere. I waited in amazement, having sustained no material
injury, until nature at length resumed her wonted aspect. For
some moments, I felt undetermined whether I should return to
]M organ town, or attempt to force my way through the wrecks of
the tempest. My business, however, being of an urgent nature, I
ventured into the path of the storm, and after encountering in-
numerable difficulties, succeeded in crossing it. I was obliged to
(ead my horse by the bridle, to enable him to leap over the fallen
trees, whilst I scrambled over or under them in the best way I
could, at times so hemmed in by the broken tops and tangled
branches, as almost to become desperate. On arriving at my
house, I gave an account of what I had seen, when, to my sur-
266 Composition'Rhetoric,
prise, I was told that there had been very little wind in the neigh-
borhood, although in the streets and gardens many branches and
twigs had fallen in a manner which excited great surprise.
Many wondrous accounts of the devastating effect of this hurri-
cane were circulated in the country, after its occurrence. Some
log houses, w^e were told, had been overturned and their inmates
destroyed. One person informed me that a wire sifter had been
conveyed by the gust to a distance of many miles. Another had
found a cow lodged in the fork of a half -broken tree. But, as I
am disposed to relate only what I have myself seen, I will not lead
you into the region of romance, but shall content myself with say-
ing that much damage was done by this awful visitation. The
valley is yet a desolate place, overgrown with briars and bushes,
thickly entangled amidst the tops and trunks of the fallen trees,
and is the resort of ravenous animals, to which they betake them-
selves when pursued by man, or after they have committed their
depredations on the farms of the surrounding district. I have
crossed the path of the storm, at a distance of a hundred miles
from the spot where I w^itnessed its fury, and, again, four hundred
miles farther off in the State of Ohio. Lastly, I observed traces
of its ravages on the summits of the mountains connected with the
Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, three hundred miles beyond
the place last mentioned. In all these different parts, it appeared
to me not tb^^aie^ e^eeded a quarter of a mile in breadth. —
Audubon. ^ t y^
^ 7 EXERCISE 109.
Make a list of the points you would mention if asked to write
on one of the following topics. In what order would you treat of
the points in your list ? i
1. A public building in your town.
2. An historical incident.
,3. A scene on the playground.
4. The most remarkable person you ever met.
5. An interesting picture.
6. A personal adventure.
7. The picture of a battle.
In What Order to Say It. 257
8. The coming of the storm.
9. A shower during a picnic.
10. A race — waiting for the signal.
EXERCISE 110.
Write an essay on one of the outlines made in the last
exercise.
LESSON 32,
:1*^-
Sentence- Order for Clearness and Empliasis.
In the English sentence, the proper placing of words is
all-important. Carelessness in this respect is almost sure
to result in ambiguity, for (excepting in the case of pro-
nouns and nouns in the possessive) there is nothing in the
form of English words to indicate their office. We rely
almost entirely upon the position of a word, phrase, or
clause in the sentence for determining to what element it is
to be joined. The rule for arranging words, phrases, and
clauses is to place them so that they cannot fail to refer
to the one element which they modify.
In the following selection (fourth sentence) the words
" at first " were introduced at one of the points indicated
by the caret (y^). If these words were introduced at the
first caret, the meaning would be clearly that after a time
she continued to feed them, but at irregular intervals.
Sentences 5 to 9 show, however, that this is probably
not the meaning intended by the writer. If the words
" at first " were introduced at the third caret, the meaning
would be clear, that she continued to feed them regularly
and did not seem at first to notice the fact that they were
captives. Sentences 5 to 9 show that this is probably
the meaning intended by the writer. But the writer placed
the words " at first '' at the second caret, and the meaning
258 Composition-Rhetoric.
was consequently not clear. One could not tell at a glance
whether the writer meant " regularly at first " or " at first
not seeming to notice." When a sentence-element is thus
faultily placed, it is said to squint. The squinting con-
struction should be avoided.
1. About a week ago, we captured a nest of young orioles.
2. We put them in a cage and hung them in a tree, intending
to release them after studying their development a few days.
3. Their mother was seen about, calling them, and after a little
while, she brought them some worms. 4. ^ She continued regu-
larly to feed them /\ not seeming ^ to notice the fact that they
were captives. 5. But Sunday there came a tragedy. 6. She
brought them a sprig of green and disappeared, not returning any
more. 7. In less than an hour after picking at the sprig, the
captives were dead. 8. We found it to be the deadly larkspur, a
weed that will kill full-grown cattle. 9. Evidently the mother
had sternly resolved that her offspring should die by her own act
rather than live in captivity. 10. The theory /^ that some of the
feathered tribe will murder their captive young ^ is now accepted /^
with confidence ^.
In the tenth sentence the writer inserted at the second
caret the words " long held by observers of birds." In that
position it was not clear whether the word " held " refers
to "young" or to "theory." If "held" refers to "theory"
(as is probable), the words "long held by observers of birds "
should be inserted at the first caret. In the same sentence
the writer added at the last caret the words " in the scien-
tific world." Doubtless the writer meant, not "with con-
fidence in the scientific world," but " accepted in the scien-
tific world with confidence," or better still "accepted by
scientists with confidence."
In the following the writer used the words " with regret "
at the second caret in the second sentence. From the con-
text it seems probable that " looked back with regret " is
the meaning intended, not " wandering with regret."
In What Order to Say It, \259
He felt that he had gained nothing in yielding himself to his
great sorrow without a struggle. He now looked back ^ upon
those years which he had si)ent in aimless wandering ^. Work,
— he now saw plainly, — steady, unremitting work, is the only
effective remedy for sorrow.
/' Related words, phrases, and clauses should be brought as
close as possible to the elements which they modify. The
expressions most likely to be misplaced are only^ (which
is least ambiguous when it stands immediately before the
expression it modifies) ; not only — hut also (the two parts
of which should stand before the same parts of speech);
indeed, never, even, always; the prepositions to, for, of, by
(which are often left stranded at the end of a sentence,
separated too far from the words to which they belong) ;
at least, at any rate, at all events, in truth, to be sure, in fact.
Constant watchfulness is needed in placing these expressions.
The following sentences show the correct use of some of
the expressions just named. The carets show the points in
the sentence at which the italicized expression is liable to
be inserted by a careless writer.
The condition of the poor is only ameliorated f^ by the philan-
thropy of the rich (i.e. no lasting reform is brought about).
The condition of the poor is /y^ ameliorated only by the philan-
thropy of the rich (i.e. there is no other ameliorating agency).
Sir Walter Scott's works were y\ exceedingly popular not only
with his countrymen, hut also with the educated classes in every
other civilized country.
They ^ intend /^ to pass not only ajiother high tariff bill, hut also
a reciprocity bill.
He j(' ought at least to ^ apologize /^^ for his conduct.
He was now compelled to defer to men for whose opinions he
had never entertained much respect ^. ,
1 For a discussion of this troublesome adverb the teacher may consult
Modern Language Notes for November, 1895: "The Misplacement of
Only.'^
260
Ooraposition- Rhetoric.
When the sentence is long and the clauses are numerous,
great skill is needed in placing the parts so that the mean-
ing shall be clear at once. The following sentence secures
clearness at the close by placing the predicate, " was to be
decided," before the subject, "the question." If the predi-
cate were placed in its usual position (indicated by the caret),
there would be too wide a separation from its subject.
In primeval times the plain of Latium must have been the scene
of the grandest conflicts of nature ; on the one side, the slowly for-
mative agency of water was depositing, and on the other side the
eruptive force of mighty volcanoes was upheaving the successive
strata of that soil whereon was to he decided the question to what
people should belong the sovereignty of the world ^.
The English sentence changes the natural order of its ele-
ments when one of these is to be made especially emphatic.
Compare the following : —
I.
1 . Kn o wledge is the indispen-
sable condition of expansion of
mind, and the instrument of
attaining to it. 2. A narrow
mind is thought to be that which
contains little knowledge; and
an enlarged mind, that which
holds a great deal ; and the fact
of the great number of studies
which are pursued in a Univer-
sity, by its very profession, seems
to put the matter beyond dis-
pute.
II.
1. The indispensable condi-
tion of expansion of mind, and
the instrument of attaining to
it, is knowledge. 2. A narrow
mind is thought to be that which
contains little knowledge ; and
an enlarged mind, that which
holds a great deal; and what
seems to put the matter beyond
dispute is the fact of the great
number of studies which are
pursued in a University, by its
very profession.
The change of the word " knowledge " from the beginning
to the end of the first sentence makes it more emphatic. In
the second sentence, first column, "seems to put the matter
beyond dispute " occupies the place of emphasis, at the end.
Notice that the word "what" is used, in the second column,
In What Order to Say It,
261
as a sort of temporary subject, with two purposes in view,
(1) to bring " seems to put the matter beyond dispute " in
an unemphatic position, and (2) to defer the emphasis until
the word " is " has been passed. These illustrations show
that the subject gains emphasis by being changed to a posi-
tion at or near the end of the sentence. The converse of
this statement is true of the predicate, but, in prose, the
])redicate cannot usually stand first as it does in the poetical
line, "jS'ow fades the glimmering landscape on the sight."
In the folloAving the predicate *Ms not and cannot be" is
brought emphatically before the subject by means of the
introductory word "there."
The gentleman speaks fluently of a community of interests be-
tween the two sections. There is not and cannot be a community
of interests so long as the union is part slave and part free.
Emphasis is gained for a modifying word by placing it
after the word it modifies. Such a change may also avoid
awkwardness of expression, as in the first sentence below.
1 . He speaks on too deep topics
to be readily understood by the
common people.
2. ]N'o government can carry
on a war without strongly feeling
tlie impulse to aggrandize its
own powers and to put its oppo-
nents and its critics down with
a strong hand.
3. The framers of the con-
stitution had to give to the
government a permanent and
conservative form.
4. I cannot express the regret
and sorrow with which I con-
template the heavy loss I have
n.
1. He speaks on topics too deep
to be readily understood by the
common people.
2. No government can carry
on a war without /eeZm^ strongly
the impulse to aggrandize its
own powers and to put its oppo-
nents and its critics down with
a strong hand.
3. The framers of the consti-
tution had to give to the gov-
ernment a form permanent and
conservative.
4. I cannot express the regret
and sorrow with which I con-
template the heavy loss I have
262
Composition-Rhetoric,
sustained. Believe me, nothing
except a lost battle is so terrible
as a won battle. The glory aris-
ing from such actions is no con-
solation to me, and I cannot
suggest that it has any consola-
tion to you.
sustained. Believe me, nothing
except a battle lost is so terrible
as a battle won. The glory aris-
ing from such actions is no con-
solation to me, and I cannot
suggest that it has any consola-
tion to you. — Wellington :
Letter written on the Eve of
Waterloo.
The following sentences illustrate how emphasis is gained,
by change of position, for phrases and clauses : —
I. II.
1. Though he was an invet-
erate smoker himself, he would
preach to his congregation on
the evils of smoking.
2. If his acts did not belie his
words, he would exert greater
influence.
3. When the time for action
has come, the people always rise
to the occasion.
4. Wherever you put him, he
proves himself competent.
5. Provided you have plenty
of good ideas, it is not very
hard to write.
6. The hand of death was
upon him ; he knew it ; and the
only wish which he uttered was
that sword in hand he might die.
7. It is always difficult to
separate the literary character
of a man who lives in our own
time from his personal char-
acter. It is peculiarly difficult
in the case of Lord Byron to
make this separation.
1. He would preach to his
congregation on the evils of
smoking, though he was an in-
veterate smoker himself.
2. He would exert greater
influence, if his acts did not
belie his words.
3. The people always rise to
the occasion, when the time for
action has come.
4. He proves himself compe-
tent, wherever you put him.
5. It is not very hard to write,
provided you have plenty of
good ideas.
6. The hand of death was
upon him ; he knew it ; and the
only wish which he uttered was
that he might die sivord in hand.
7. It is always difficult to
separate the literary character
of a man who lives in our own
time from his personal char-
acter. It is peculiarly difficult
to make this separation in the
case of Lord Byron.
In What Order to Say It. 263
Arrange tlie parts of sentences so ttat the bearing of one part on
another will be clearly understood. To emphasize any part, put it
out of its usual position. . ^
EXERCISE 111.
Insert the bracketed expression so as to bring out the
meaning intended. Try it in different places, and note the
different meanings that result.
1. In this grate, all the heat goes up the chimney instead of
coming into the room [as usual].
2. It requires a great deal of reading, or a wide range of infor-
mation, to warrant us in putting forth our opinions on any serious
subject ; and, without such learning, the most original mind may
be able to dazzle, to amuse, to refute, to perplex, but not to come
to any useful result or any trustworthy conclusion [indeed].
There are persons who profess a different view of the matter,
and even act on it [indeed].
3. One would be inclined to think that the picture is without
any meaning; but the full meaning gradually comes to the be-
holder [after repeated inspections].
4. The speech of Lord Strafford, upon his trial, is one of the
most simple, touching, and noble in our language [in my opinion].
EXERCISE 112.
At which of the points indicated by carets should the
bracketed clauses be inserted ? What is the relative gain
in each case ?
1. Our ancestors came from England with the appetite for news
already developed. After permanent settlements had been made,
and they were ready to enjoy some of the comforts of life, the
desire y\ increased /^ [that they might know w^hat their neighbors
were doing, and what was going on in the Old World].
2. All news items, except those of a strictly personal character,
were set down by the postmaster, and were repeated by him to the
people. Often j^ he would make written circulars containing the
264 Composition- Rhetoric,
news, and /^ would vend them to callers at the postoffice /^ [iu
order to save time, and, perhaps, to make a trifle of money].
3. The postmaster at Boston had so many of these news circu-
lars to write that he determined to print them. This was in 1704,
when Boston had a population of 8000. But /^ he ^ had /^ to get
permission from the colonial legislature ^, for that body had
ah*eady asserted its determination to regulate printed publica-
tions [before he dared to carry his plan into effect].
4. /^ In the midst of much curiosity and enthusiasm, y\ the first
issue of The Boston News-Letter made its appearance, April 24,
1704, y\ with Postmaster Campbell as editor ^ [after the legislat-
ure had duly granted the necessary permission].
5. The first sheet was taken damp from the press, by Chief
Justice Sewell ^ as a wonderful cariosity ^ [in order that he
might show it to President Willard of Harvard College].
6. The News-Letter /^ continued publication through seventy-
two years y\ [a complete file of which is in possession of the New
York Historical Association] .
7. /\ It was printed, sometimes on a single sheet of foolscap,
and /\ often on a half-sheet, two columns on each side ^ [because
paper was very expensive].
-AJ-^ exercise 113.
Eead the following selection carefully, and perform the
work prescribed at the close : —
l.l The habitual prejudice, the humor of the moment,\»^ the
turnihg-point which leads us to read a defence in a good sense or
a badya^ 2. We interpret the defence by our antecedent impres-
sions. \. The very same sentiments,[according as our jealousy is
or is not awake, or our aversion stimulated^are tokens of truth or
of dissimulation and pretence. 4. There is a story of a sane
person hrin^ by mistftlir^ shut up in the wards of a lunatic asy-
lunif^V^^'tlm^^fe^he pleaded his cause to some strangers visiting
the 'establishment, the only remark he elicited, in answer, was,
" How naturally he talks ! you would think he was in his senses."
5. Controversies should be decided by the reason ; is iLipgitimRit^
w.a*faf6^ appeal to the misgivings of the public mind, and to its
f) ^ ^. In What Order to Say It, 265
disliking^'? 6. Anyhow, if ni^ accuser is able tlufe to practise /JWAJ
upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less wt^^jiSSe my success. ^;(jj"^jlj^
7. If I am natural, he will tell them "Ars est celare artem "; if I
am convincing, he will suggest that I am an able logician ; if I
show warmth, I am acting the indignant innocent ; if I am calm,
I am thereby detected as a smooth hypocrite ; if I clear up difficul-
ties, I am too plausible and perfect to be true. 8. The more
triumphant are my statements, the more certain will be my defeat.
9. So will it be if my accuser succeeds in his manoeuvre; but I^
do not for an instant believe that he will. 10. AVhatever jaog-
ment my readers may eventually form of me from these pages, I
am confident that they will .believe me in what I shall say in the
course of them.A 11. I have no misgiving at all that they will be
ungenerous or harsh towards a man who has been so long before
the eyes of. the ^orld ; who has so many to speak of him from
MT^^'^persohal knowledge ; Vhose iiatural impulse it has ever been to
speak out'; who has ever spoken too much rather than too little ;
who would have saved himself uiany a scrape, if he had been wise
enough to hold his tongue ; w^ho has ever been fair to the doctrines
and arguments of his opponents ; who has never slurred over facts
and reasonings which told against himself; who has never given
his name or authority to proofs which he thought unsound, or to
testimony which he did not think at least plausible ; who has never
shrunk from confessing a fault when he felt that he had committed
one ; who has ever consulted for others more than for himself ;
who has given up much that he loved and prized and could have
retained, but that he loved honesty better than name, and truth
better than dear friends.
1. Put the first eight words in a more emphatic position.
2. Re-write this sentence on the following plan: "It is by . . .
that we . . . " and explain the change in emphasis.
3. Bring the first four words close to the predicate. What re-
adjustment of emphasis results ?
4. "There is a story of . . . and that . . . '^ — make these cor-
responding parts parallel in form. Put "by mistake 'Mn a more em-
phatic position. What is the emphasis of the when-clause ?
5. Can you re-write the question-part of this sentence so as to
make "legitimate warfare" come at the end of the question? How
is the emphasis thereby changed ?
266 Composition- Rhetoric.
6. Emphasize " thus " and "will be.''
7. What is the relative emphasis of the if-clauses as compared
with that of the principal clauses? Compare sentence 11, "who
would have saved himself," etc. Emphasize " thereby."
8. Change so as to make " are " and " will be " most prominent.
9. Explain the emphasis of the first four words ; of the if-clause.
Make "for an instant" more emphatic.
10. Give " they will believe me " a more emphatic position.
11. Give " so long " a still more emphatic position. Change " per-
sonal knowledge" to *' knowledge that is personal," and note the
change of emphasis. Explain the emphasis of "whose natural im-
pulse," etc. What does "at least" modify? What degree of em-
phasis has " when he felt that," etc. ?
d
AJ<i^
EXERCISE 114.
^^Q^e of the translators of foreign poetry, who belong to this
perio37aiTre^ry eminent. [Bring *' three " close to its verb.]
Sir John Harington's translation of the Orlando Furioso ^^^
appeared; in 1591, when the author was in his thirtieth year.
[Emphasize ^' first."] ^
JJ, xAC It is a work of great ingenuity and talenA though it does not
'' convey all the glow and poetry of Ariosto!) [Make the though-
clause less emphatic]
I jg^ The translation of Tasso's great epic, by Edward Fairfax;, was
■^^^ first published^jinder the title of Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the
Recoverie of Jerusalem^ in 1600. [Emphasize " under the title,"
etc.]
This is a work of true genius, full of beautiful, rare, and effec-
tive passages. /^^ [Emphasize "beautiful, rare, and effective."]
CIt is throughout executed with as much care as taste and spirit,
although by ng^ means a perfectly exact or servile version of the
Italian original, i^ [Emphasize the first half of the sentence.]
Sir Richard Fanshawe is the author of versions of Camoens's
Lusiadj of the Odes of Horace, and of the Spanish dramatist
Mendoza's To Love for Love's Sake. Some passages from the last-
mentioned work,rthe ease and flowing gaiety of which have never
been excelled even in original writing, jnay be found' in Lamb's
Specimens. [Make " the ease — writing " emphatic] However, his
genius was sprightly and elegant rather than lofty, and he does
0)jjjc
■^^-'-'„,,\';^„^-^
jU^yyvA^. /-' In What Order to Say It. 267
not succeed so well in translating poetry of a more serious style.
[Make "however" less emphatic. Make "he does not succeed so
well " more emphatic]
EXERCISE, 115.
In the following paragraphs, insert the bracketed expres-
sions so as to secure clearness and force : —
Sometimes the progress of man is so rapid that the desert re-
appears behind him. -" The woods stoop to give him a passage, and vi
spring up again [when he has passed]." It is not uncommon^^to
meet with deserted dwellings in the midst of the wilds [in cross-
ing the new states of the west].'. The traveller frequently dis-
covers the vestiges of a log-house, whick bears witness to the power,
and no less to the inconstancy of man [in the most solitary re-
treats] . In these abandoned fields, and over those ruins of a day,
the primeval forest soon scattei-s a fresh vegetation ; the beasts
resume the haunts which were once their own ; and nature covers^
the traces of man's path, [with branches and with flowers, which
obliterate his evanescent track] .
(r . I remember that in crossing one of the woodland districts which
still cover the state of New York, I reached the shore of a lake,
which was embosomed with forests coeval wdth the world. ' A
small island,, whose thick foliage concealed its banks, rose from
the centre of the waters [covered with woods]. N'o object attested
the presence of man [upon the shores of the lake], except a column
of smoke which might be seen on the horizon hanging from the
tops of the trees to the clouds, and seeming to hang from heaven
rather than to be mounting to the sky. An Indian shallop was
hauled up on the sand, which tempted me to visit the islet which
had at first attracted my attention, and I set foot upon its banks
[in a few minutes] . The whole island formed one of those deli-
cious solitudes of the New World, which almost lead civilized man
to regret the haunts of the savage. A luxuriant vegetation bore
witness to the incomparable fruitfulness of the soil. JThe deep
silence, which is common to the wilds of North America, was only
broken by the hoarse cooing of the wood-pigeon and the tapping
of the woodpecker upon the bark of trees. I was far from sup-
268 Composition-Rhetoric.
posing that this spot had ever been inhabited [so completely did
nature seem to be left to her own caprices] ; bnt I thought that
I discovered some traces of man [v^^hen I reached the centre of the
isle]. I then proceeded to examine the surrounding objects [with
care], and I soon perceived that a European had undoubtedly
been led to seek a refuge [in this retreat]. Yet what changes had
taken place [in the scene of his labors] ! The logs which he had
hastily hewn to build himself a shed had sprouted afresh; the
very props were intertwined with living verdure, and his cabin was
transformed into a bower. A few stones were to be seen [in the
midst of these shrubs], blackened with fire and sprinkled with thin
ashes ; here the hearth had no doubt been, and the chimney had
covered it with rubbish [in falling]. I stood for some time in
silent admiration of the exuberance of nature and the littleness
of man ; and when I was obliged to leave that enchanting solitude,
I exclaimed with melancholy, "Are ruins, then, already here?"
EXERCISE 116.
Ee-write your last essay, scrutinizing each sentence to
see that all words, phrases, and clauses are in the best order
for clearness. Eead it aloud to see whether the important
words in each sentence hold emphatic positions.
^ • *L/«^ V "^ .
CHAPTER VI.
HO"W MUCH TO SAY.
LESSON 33.
Scale of Treatment.
If we should hang upon the wall, side by side, three maps
of the United States, a very large map, another one-half
the size of the first, and a very small one, we should notice
a rapid decrease in the number of things appearing on the
maps. The largest map would find room for an accurate
outline of the coasts; all the bays would be shown; the
mountain ranges, both large and small, would appear ; the
navigable rivers as well as their lesser tributaries would be
distinguishable ; the railroads, state and even county lines
could be made out ; and all of the cities and towns of more
than 5000 inhabitants would probably be marked on the
map and their names printed.
In the half -size map many of these details would, of neces-
sity, be left out. The coast-line would show indentations
less deep, and all of the indentations below a certain depth
would have disappeared. Only the large mountain ranges
and rivers, and only a few of the through lines of railways,
would be shown. State lines would be distinguishable, but
county lines could not be seen, and only towns of perhaps
100,000 and more inhabitants would be marked on the map
and their names printed.
269
270 Composition-Ithetoric,
The smallest map would find room for only the few most
striking and important features, — the general direction of
the coast-outline, the two largest mountain ranges, the Mis-
sissippi and St. Lawrence rivers, and perhaps the live
largest cities. Probably there would not be shown, in such
a small map, the state lines, the railways, or any of the
lesser details that appear on the other maps.
It is evident that a good map-maker proceeds on a certain
system of selection and omission. The very largest map
cannot show all of the features of the country in detail.
So the map-maker adopts a certain scale of treatment. If
he decides upon a scale of fifty miles to the inch, the physi-
cal features of the country will appear in larger proportions
than if he decides on a scale of one hundred miles to the
inch. Moreover, a greater number of the physical features
will appear on the first scale than on the second. In the
latter many of the lesser features would be so reduced
in size, by the scale adopted, as to make it impossible to
show them at all. In all his work on the same map the
maker applies the same scale.
Considerations very like those of the maker of a map
apply to good writing. Compare a school history of the
United States with a larger history of the United States.
The main topics treated are likely to be the same in both,
but in the larger history the main topics are treated with
greater fulness ; sub-topics which are dismissed with very
brief mention in the school history are worked out in detail
in the larger history, and a place is found for many minor
topics which are not even mentioned in the school history.
For instance, both will have for one topic, the causes of the
Revolution, and both will state the causes ; but the school
history will stop there, whereas the larger history will
explain at great length the operation of each of the causes,
will show how one cause worked with greater force in somie
colonies than in others or influenced a certain class of the
How Much to Say. 271
people more than another class. The school history is not
likely to mention the fear of an established church as one
of the causes, since this was a subordinate cause, but the
larger history will treat of this cause, and while making the
reader see that it was a subordinate cause, will show to
what extent and where it operated. These differences in
fulness of treatment arise because the two histories are
written on different scales. The same relationship among
topics is preserved in both, the same discrimination of more
important and less important topics is made in both, but
one is written on a large scale and the other on a small scale.
To illustrate still further, notice the following paragraph
on the subject,
Washington's Contribution to Nationality.
The first of the forces which may be regarded as having largely
contributed to the building up of a nationality was the personality
of George Washington. He was to the plastic elements of the
country, in the outset to that great political experiment, more than
all other statesmen put together. In securing comparative peace
between the angry factions of that day ; in holding the nation, as
no other man could have done, out of the giant struggle between
France and England; in impressing respect for law, for public
credit, and for the forms of the new government, and in silently,
but powerfully and grandly, teaching the lesson of devotion to
union, he not only gave time for a fortunate trial of the Constitu-
tion, but he contributed a positive force which we cannot over-
estimate toward its orderly and energetic operation during the
first critical years.
This single paragraph of only one hundred and forty
words treats the subject successfully on a small scale. It
is clear, it mentions the important facts, and it gives a good
idea of their relative importance. But the scale of treat-
ment is so small that there is no room for going into expla-
nations and details. The paragraph might be analyzed
thus ; —
272 Composition-Rhetoric.
Washington's Contribution to Nationality
I. His personality was preeminent,
A . In moulding the plastic elements of the country.
B. Over the other statesmen of the time.
II. His statesmanship encouraged the spirit of nationality,
A. By securing peace between angry factions.
B. By adopting a foreign policy of neutrality.
C. By impressing respect for law, public credit, and the
forms of the new government.
D. By teaching the lesson of devotion to the Union.
Now if the subject of this paragraph were treated on a
larger scale, the very same facts would be given, necessarily,
for they are the essential facts in the case ; but more would
be given about each fact. We should be told, for instance,
under the first heading, what were the "plastic elements"
which Washington was especially capable of moulding ; the
doubt might arise of his preeminence over at least two of
the other statesmen of the time, and their influence over
other statesmen would have to be compared with his.
Under the second heading, the " angry factions " would
be designated; something would doubtless be said of the
troubles in the Cabinet, and of the growth of an English
faction and a French faction among the people, and we
should be shown how Washington dealt with these factions
so as to give the spirit of nationality a chance to grow. In
connection with the policy of neutrality, the question would
doubtless be asked, what would have happened if Washing-
ton had permitted this country to take part in the giant
struggle between England and France ?
And here another related topic, for which the single-
paragraph treatment of the subject finds no place, would
be introduced and discussed fully, — Washington's manage-
ment of the Jay Treaty troubles and his reasons for signing
it, defective as it was ; his chief reasons being, to keep the
How Much to Say. 273
country out of war, to discourage divisions among the
people, and to make them feel that this country had national
interests of its own.
We should be told, too, how Washington impressed the
people with respect for the forms of the new government,
what these forms were, what were their objects, and how
they tended to make the people feel the presence of a na-
tional government in which they could take a common pride.
Much .would be said on the topic, how he impressed re-
spect for law and public credit. His Indian policy would
be shown to have had a nationalizing influence, because it
was carried out in defence of settlements in which no one
state had any special interest. It made the people feel that
there was a national interest in defence of which all must
cooperate, and it turned their eyes to the great west as the
place for unbounded national development in the future.
Hamilton's measures, as sanctioned by Washington, would
be treated as nationalizing measures establishing the credit
of the new government, giving it respect at home and abroad.
The immense importance of the bill for assuming the debts
of the states, the superior position which this bill gave to
the new government over the state governments, would be
dwelt on, and the National Bank measure, which introduced
the nationalizing doctrine of implied powers, thereby greatly
increasing the functions of the government, would be given
the important treatment it deserves.
The Whiskey Eebellion would probably be selected as
the best illustration of the fact that Washington, when
necessary, did not hesitate to force obedience to the laws of
the new government and to compel law-breakers to respect
law, thereby demonstrating the government's power and
making all the people feel the presence of an effective
central government. In conclusion it would be shown that
in all his acts he taught, by the force of his conspicuous
example, devotion to the Union.
274 Composition- Rhetoric,
The first outline, filled in for more thorough treatment of
the subject on a larger scale, would then read about as
follows : —
Washington's Contribution to Nationality.
I. His personality was preeminent,
A . In moulding the plastic elements of the country, which were,
1. The survivors of his army, who were
a. Attached to him by personal ties, and
h. Influential in their respective localities.
2. The commercial and creditor classes, who
a. Believed in him as a safe man, and
h. Brought to his aid the power of money.
B. Over the other statesmen of the time.
1. Over Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury,
a. Whose influence was limited somewhat by the
fear that he was a "monarchist."
h. Whose disagreements with Jefferson lost him in-
fluence with large numbers.
2. Over Jefferson, the Secretary of State,
a. Whose quarrel with Hamilton showed both of
them to be party men, while Washington still
kept himself above party and faction.
II. His statesmanship encouraged the spirit of nationality.
A . By keeping comparative peace between the angry politi-
cal factions of the day.
1. Between warring elements in his Cabinet.
a. Hamilton and Jefferson.
2. Between the English party and the French party.
a. The story of Genet.
B. By his foreign policy of neutrality.
1. Keeping the nation out of the struggle between Eng-
land and France.
a. Probable effects upon nationality if the United
States had entered the struggle.
(1) War with England or France, or both.
(2) Permanent divisions at home.
(3) Failure of the Republic.
How Much to Say. 275
2. Favoring the adoption of Jay's Treaty.
a. In spite of its defects.
(1) On the subject of right of search.
{a) The facts in the case.
(2) On the subject of impressment.
(a) The facts in the case.
h. In spite of the subsequent English "provisional
order," rendering its ratification almost im-
possible.
(1) What the "provisional order" was.
(2) Kandolph's guilt.
(3) Fauchet's intrigue.
c. In spite of its immense unpopularity.
C. In impressing the people in his domestic policy with re-
spect for the government of the United States.
1. Eespect for the forms of the new government.
a. Forms to uphold its dignity.
(1) Official etiquette.
(2) Treatment of foreign ambassadors.
6. Forms to secure time for the consideration and
transaction of public business deliberately.
(1) Communication with the Senate and
House in writing.
(2) Sensible reserve of the President.
2. Respect for public credit and for law.
a. Vigorous Indian policy on behalf of outlying settle-
ments as a scarcely recognized part of the nation.
h. Support of Hamilton's financial measures as na-
tionalizing measures.
(1) To pay the foreign debt.
(2) To pay the domestic debt.
(3) To assume the state debts.
(4) To establish a National Bank.
{a) Carrying with it the President's
sanction of the nationalizing
doctrine of implied powers.
c. He put down the Whiskey Rebellion, thereby
demonstrating the power of the new govern-
ment to enforce the laws, and, if necessary, to
compel respect for law.
D. In devotion to the Union.
A
276 Composition- Rhetoric,
Treated on this larger scale, the subject would demand
a dozen or fifteen paragraphs and perhaps at least eighteen
hundred words, instead of the single paragraph of one
hundred and forty words. But the reader would see,
no matter how extensive the scale of treatment, that the
principal topics are the same in the larger as in the smaller
treatment.
What scale of treatment to adopt depends (1) on tliesub-
ject itself, (2) on the knowledge possessed by the persons
for whose benefit thejwriting is done, (3) ontJue^iurposejQf-
the writer. Some subjects will not admit of an extended
scale of treatment; they are so small in themselves that
but little can be said on them without needless repetitions.
The persons addressed may have a superficial knowledge or It
a thorough knoAvledge of the subject. If the former, there '
is opportunity for a larger scale of treatment ; if the latter,
much may be taken for granted, and explanation and details
omitted. The single-paragraph treatment given to the sub-
ject analyzed above, was addressed to those who were sup-
posed to know quite thoroughly the facts and details of
Washington's administration; the writer was addressing
people well-informed in history ; so he needed only to recall
the main facts and to bring out a certain meaning which he
thought those facts possessed, — to treat Washington's policy
in relation to the idea of nationality. With a different
audience in mind he would doubtless have written with
greater fulness. His purpose was accomplished by the
mere statement of his theory as to the meaning and intent
of Washington's policy. He relied upon the reasonableness
of his theory to ensure its acceptance. If his purpose had
been to convince those who held strenuously to another
theory, a greater show of reasons would have been demanded
of him.
The writer is compelled to consider scale of treatment, no
matter what he is writing about. An adventure may be
How Much to Say, 277
told in a hundred words or in a thousand words ; in both
cases the two or three principal points are the same. A
description of any object or scene may be written at greater
or less length, but (the purpose remaining the same) the
main features mentioned will be the same. So with essays
and arguments.
The length of a paragraph or an essay depends upon the scale of
treatment adopted ; the scale of treatment, upon the subject itself,
the knowledge possessed by persons addressed, and the purpose of
[the writer. In the same production, the same scale of treatment
should be preserved throughout.
.^M^i
EXERCISE 117.
What scale of treatment is suggested by each of the fol-
lowing subjects, considering only the character of each sub-
ject? How deep would it pay to go in writing on each?
What topics would you mention under each ? About what
length would the writing attain in each case ?
1. How a field of corn appears in July. 2. The Mexican
War. 3. A street fight. 4. Why women are entitled to
vote on school matters. 5. Causes of floods. 6. The dif-
ficulties of school life. 7. Superstitions about picking up
pins. 8. The Chicago Pire. 9. The advantages of Feudal?
ism. 10. A runaway horse. ' y /
■^ EXERCISE 118. ^
Taking as a criterion your own knowledge of each of the
following subjects, what scale of treatment would you adopt
if asked to write on each of them ? What topics would you
mention under each ?
1. The cause of eclipses. 2. Eef orms advocated in recent
years. 3. How a president is elected. 4. Tree-planting.
5. Christian Endeavor Societies and their purposes. 6. The
278 Composition-Rhetoric,
antislavery movement. 7. Evils of strikes. 8. Athletics
for girls. 9. Advantages of bicycle riding. 10. The early
history of this State. 11. The future of the horse.
12. Popular songs.
-'I
EXERCISE 119.
lOL^
Account for the scale of treatment adopted in the follow-
ing, by the writer's evident purpose. Is the treatment suf-
ficiently full in view of your present knowledge ? Mark
any points that you would wish to see treated with greater
fulness of explanation and detail.
There is absolutely nothing extreme or unique about the world
we live on. It has more heat from the sun than some planets and
less than others. It has an atmosphere, and several of them have
atmospheres. It is intermediate in size. Hence there does not
seem to be anything to show that the earth is exceptional and more
fitted for the abode of life than other planets.
This is an old argument, and in general a good one, but nowa-
days there are several others to support the opinion that forms of
life should exist on other planets. For instance, astronomers have
found out that the elementary bodies in the earth are substantially
the same as the elementary bodies in the sun, and also that the
materials from which such planets as Venus and Mars have been
built are actually the same kind of materials as those that make
up the earth. Hydrogen, carbon, sodium, iron, in fact practically
all the components necessary for physical life, exist as abundantly
upon some of the other planets as upon the earth. One weak link
in the chain is the apparent lack of oxygen in the other planets,
but this is merely a lack of our ability to prove the presence of
oxygen.
It must have snowed most wonderfuUy to have made thM dep^
of covering in about eight hours. For one of Master Stickles's
men, who had been out all the night, said that no snow began to
fall until nearly midnight. And here it was, blocking up the doors,
stopping the ways and the watercourses, and making it very much
worse to walk than in a saw-pit newly used. However, we trudged
How Much to Say, 279
along in a line ; I first, and the other men after me ; trying to keep
my track, but finding legs and strength not up to it. Most of all,
John Fry was groaning ; certain that his time was come, and send-
ing messages to his wife, and blessings to his children. For all
this time it was snowing harder than it ever had snowed before,
so far as a man might guess at it ; and the leaden depth of the
sky came down, like a mine turned upside down on us. Not that
the ilakes were so very large ; for I have seen much larger flakes
in a shower of March, while sowing peas; but that there was no
room between them, neither any relaxing, nor any change of di-
rection.
Watch, like a good and faithful dog, followed us very cheerfully,
leaping out of the depth, which took him over his back and ears
already, even in the level places ; while in the drifts he might have
sunk to any distance out of sight, and never found his way up
again. However, we helped him now and tlien, especially through
the gaps and gateways ; and so, after a deal of floundering, some
laughter, and a little swearing, we came all safe to the lower
meadow, where most of our flock was huddled.
But behold, there was no flock at all ! N'one, I mean, to be seen
anywhere; only at one corner of the field, by the eastern end,
where the snow drove in, a great white billow, as high as a barn
and as broad as a house. This great drift was rolling and curling
beneath the violent blast, tufting and combing with rustling swirls,
and carved (as in patterns of cornice) where the grooving chisel of
the wind swept round. Ever and again the tempest snatched lit-
tle whiffs from the channelled edges, twirled them round, and made
them dance over the chine of the monster pile, then let them lie
like herring-bones, or the seams of sand where the tide has been.
And all the while from the smothering sky, more and more fiercely
at every blast, came the pelting, pitiless arrows, winged with
murky white and pointed with the barbs of frost.
The actual practice of fraud, even when you discover it, must
give you interesting question, unless you are cock-sure of your soci-
ology. I was once met by a little girl on a cross-street in a respect-
able quarter of the town, who burst into tears at sight of me, and
asked for money to buy her sick mother bread. The very next
day I was passing through the same street, and I saw the same
280 Composition- Rhetoric,
little girl burst into tears at sight of a benevolent-looking lady,
whom undoubtedly she asked for money for the same good object.
The benevolent-looking lady gave her nothing, and she tried her
woes upon several other people, none of whom gave her anything.
I was forced to doubt whether, upon the whole, her game was
worth the candle, or whether she was really making a provision
for her declining years by this means. To be sure, her time was
not worth much, and she could hardly have got any other work,
she was so young ; but it seemed hardly a paying industry. By
any careful calculation, I do not believe she would have been found
to have amassed more than ten or fifteen cents a day ; and perhaps
she really had a sick mother at home. Many persons are obliged
to force their emotions for money, whom we should not account
wholly undeserving ; yet I suppose a really good citizen who found
this little girl trying to cultivate the sympathies of charitable peo-
ple by that system of irrigation, would have had her suppressed as
an impostor.
In a way she was an impostor, though her sick mother may have
been starving, as she said. It is a nice question. Shall we always
give to him that asketh? Or shall we give to him that asketh only
when we know that he has come by his destitution honestly ? In
other words, what is a deserving case of charity — or, rather, what
is not? Is a starving or freezing person to be denied because he
or she is drunken or vicious ? What is desert in the poor? What
is desert in the rich, I suppose the reader would answer. If this
is so, and if we ought not to succor an undeserving poor person,
then we ought not to succor an undeserving rich person. It will
be said that a rich person, however undeserving, will never be in
need of our succor, but this is not so clear. If we saw a rich per-
son fall in a fit before the horses of a Fifth Avenue omnibus, ought
not we to run and lift him up^ although w^e knew him to be a man
whose life was stained by every vice and excess, and cruel, wanton,
idle, luxurious ? I know that I am imagining a quite impossible
rich person ; but once imagined, ought not we to save him all the
same as if he were deserving? I do not believe.the most virtuous
person will say we ought not ; and ought not we, then, to rescue
the most worthless tramp fallen under the wheels of the Jugger-
naut of want ? Is charity the reward of merit ?
How Much to S(mj, 281
EXERCISE 120.
On one of the following subjects, prepare a single paragraph
of less than two hundred words: —
1. Probabilities that other planets are inhabited.
2. The nationalizing influence of the Louisiana Purchase.
3. Should we bestow charity only on the deserving ?
4. The motives that led to the declaration of war with
Mexico.
5. A description of the court-house.
6. A narrative of a personal experience.
7. The story of Tennyson's Enoch Arden.
8. The story of Abraham Lincoln's early life.
9. A description of the interior of a factory.
10. The process of glass-making.
EXERCISE 121.
Make an outline analysis of the paragraph written for
the preceding exercise ; fill in sub-topics suggested by ques-
tioning each of the headings of your outline analysis (why ?
Avhen ? where ? who ? what were the circumstances ? etc.),
and write again on a larger scale, preserving the same order
and relative importance of main topics as before.
J.ESSON 34. ^'/VU^-^'^ .
Proportion of Parts.
Whether the scale on which a subject is treated be large
or small, a good writer will show, by what he says on the
different topics and sub-topics, which of them he considers
more important, and which less. The main topics are not
all of the same importance even though they occupy the
same rank in the outline ; and sub-topics of the same rank
also vary in importance. If the long analysis given in the
preceding lesson should be developed into an essay, three
282 Composition-Rhetoric,
courses would be open to the writer for showing the rela-
tive importance of the topics marked respectively I. A,
I. B, II. A, II. B, II. C, II. D, with all the sub-topics in-
cluded under each.
First, the writer might give but one paragraph to each of
these topics. In this case, the essay would be composed
of six paragraphs, and their relative importance would be
shown by their relative length, the most important being
the longest. II. C would be the longest paragraph of the
six because it contains (under the sub-topic marked 2) the
points that are most essential to the subject. II. B would
be almost as long because it deals with Washington's for-
eign policy, which was so important in cultivating the spirit
of nationality, almost as important, in fact, as the financial
measures of Hamilton. II. A would be third in importance
and length, but would be considerably shorter than II. B
and II. C. I. A and I. B would be still shorter, gauged by
their importance. II. D, standing as a conclusion, would
not require much space, for it would inherit the accumu-
lated force of the preceding topics.
A second course, open to the writer, would be to make a
separate paragraph for every sub-topic, I. ^ 1, 1. A2, l.Bl,
I. B 2, etc. These would show their relative importance by
their relative length, but each would be very short as com-
pared with any one of the six paragraphs before mentioned.
The disadvantage of the first plan would be the excessive
length of paragraphs II. C and II. B ; the disadvantage of
the second plan would be the large number of very short
paragraphs. To obviate both of these disadvantages, a
good writer follows a third course. He throws together
into one paragraph two or three less important sub-topics
which fall under the same main topic, while to an impor-
tant sub-topic he gives a whole paragraph. Thus the group-
ing into paragraphs of the theme under consideration would
perhaps be : —
How Much to Say.
283
Number. Amount included
Number
Amount included.
1 I. ^ 1, 2.
9
11. (71 a (1), (2), 5(1), (2)
2 1.51,2.
10
11. 02 a.
3 II. J. 1 a.
11
II. 02 6(1), (2).
4 II. ^2 a.
12
II. 02 6(3).
5 11. B 1.
13
11. 02 6 (4) (a).
6 II. Bla(l),
(2),
(3).
14
II. 0 c.
7 II. 52 a.
15
II. D.
8 II. 52 6, c.
Such grouping avoids extremely long and extremely short
paragraphs. The reader at once sees that, when a whole
paragraph is devoted to one sub-topic, that sub-topic is of
as much importance as two or three others which are united
in one paragraph, so that the number of sub-topics brought
into one paragraph is in inverse ratio to the importance of
each. But grouping alone would not be relied on. The
writer would have more to say on a sub-topic the more
important it appeared to him, and so the length of his
paragraphs, as well as their grouping, would be an index of
their relative importance. Paragraphs 12, 13, and 14, in
the schedule above, would undoubtedly be longer than any
of the others ; and paragraphs 6 and 9, notwithstanding the
greater number of sub-topics in each of them, would not be
so long as paragraph 10. When the scale of treatment is
large, this third plan of indicating relative importance,
both by length of paragraphs and by grouping of sub-
topics, is the best to adopt.
In a single paragraph standing by itself, the relative
importance of the various parts is shown by the amount of
space devoted to each. Thus, in the following, the first
part, which states the whole thought in general terms, and
brings it down to a particular question at the close of sen-
tence 4, is the most important compared with any one of
the three following sub-topics, and occupies about one-third
of the whole space ; sentence 5 introduces the three sub-
topics of the second part beginning respectively "first/'
284 Oomposition'Rhetoric.
" secondly," and " but, thirdly,'' all of which are of abont
the same length and importance. The last sentence stands
as a conclusion.
1. It is well known that many men and most women who would
shrink from the practice of divinity or law, or from that of medi-
cine if they were paid for it, love to offer advice and even physic
unasked and free. 2. What one ought to wear in the New Eng-
land climate is a puzzle ; but it is safe to say that most men, by
the time they are thirty-five, have found out each what he ought
to wear. 3. It seems to me that many of my neighbors wrap up
too heavily, and make themselves tender by it; at le^st, that I am
better with no " great-coat," as people used to say when I was a
boy, a large part of the colder weather. 4. But when I appear
dressed k la Vice-President Hamlin, I am constantly assailed with
this remark: "Don/t__you_ think it is imprudent to go without an
overcoat?" 5. Now, I respectfully ask, what does this phrase
mean, and what is the object of asking it ? 6. J.ir,stj if a man has
thought about his outer garments at all, must he not think his course
is prudeiit ? Are imprudence and thought compatible ? Does not
the question mean, "Don't you think you're thoughtless?" 7. The
querist means, *' I think you are imprudent " ; but wishing to make
his interference in another man's business polite, — which he can-
not, — he puts it as above, and makes an absurdity of it. 8. Sec-
ondlx, is it likely that an adult male, often twice the age of his
adviser, will be suddenly roused into prudence by this volunteered
advice ? 9. Has he not probably been guilty of this imprudence,
if it be one, a score of times, and run the gauntlet of a score of
older and nearer acquaintances ? 10. How would the querist take
similar advice? 11. Most of my amateur doctors are consumers
of tobacco ; I am just as certain they are risking their health by
cigars as they are that I am risking mine by exposure. 12. Sup-
pose I reply, " Don't you think you smoke too much? " they would
scoff at the advice and not dream of altering their conduct. 13. JBut,
Jhirdly^^when they give me this counsel, I am generally about eight
miles from home. 14. What do they expect me to do? 15. Go
into the first ready-made clothier's and buy a garment in which I
should look like a hall thief ; or go to a custom tailor's and have
one made "while you wait"; or break off whatever has brought
Eow Much to Say, 285
me away from home, and hasten thither, to don the clothing, by
their advice, which my own sense told me was needless? 16. I
invite subscriptions to a Henry Wadsworth, Jr., Club, of whicTT ,
two mottoes are, "Look in and not out,"' and "Mind your own V'vV^
business."
In the following, the cat-bird as a riyal to the mocking-
bird is disposed of in a single sentence ; the brown thrush^
a more formidable rival, ,,re.quires about three times the
space; while the admirable qualities of the mocking-bird
"Till much the greater part of the paragraph. The desira-
bility of encouraging the mocking-bird to stay is also treated
with considerable fulness.
Mocking-birds are scarce in Chattanooga. To the best of my
recollection, I saw none in the city itself and less than half a dozen
in the surrounding country. A young gentleman whom I ques-
tioned upon the subject told me that they used to be common, and
attributed their present increasing rarity to the persecutions of boys,
who find a profit in selling the young into captivity. 1 Their place,
in the city especially, is taken by cat-birds ; interesting, imitative,
and in their own measure tuneful, but poor substitutes for mocking-
bird^\jln faet, it is impossible to think of any bird as really filling
that role. I The brown thrush, it is true, sings quite in the mock-
ing-bird's manner, and, to my ear, almost or quite as well ; but
he possesses no gift as a mimic, and furthermore, without being
exactly a bird of the forest or the wilderness, is instinctively and
irreclaimably a recluse. It would be hard, even^mong human
beings, to find a nature less touched with urbanity. jIn the mock-
ing-bird the elements are more happily mixed. Not gregarious,
intolerant of rivalry, and, as far as creatures of his own kind are
concerned, a stickler for elbow-room, — sharing with his brown
relative in this respect, — he is at the same time a born citizen and
neighbor ; as fond of gardens and door-yard trees as the thrasher is
of scrublands and barberry bushes. " Man delights me," he might
say, "and woman also." He likes to be listened to, it is pretty
certain; and possibly he is dimly aware of the artistic value of
appreciation, without which no artist ever did his best. Add to
286 Composition-Rhetoric.
this endearing social quality the splendor and freedom of the
mocker's vocal performances, multifarious, sensational, incompara-
ble, by turns entrancing and amusing, and it is easy to understand
how he has come to hcli a place by himself in Southern sentiment
and literature. A city without mocking-birds is only half Southern,
though black faces be never so thick upon the sidewalks and mules
never so common in the streets. If the boys have driven the great
mimic away from Chattanooga, it is time the fathers took the boys
in hand. Civic pride alone ought to bring this about, to say
nothing of the possible effect upon real estate values of the abun-
dant and familiar presence of this world-renowned, town-loving,
town-charming songster. — Atlantic, 77: 198.
Show by length of treatment the relative importance of the
> thoughts in an essay or in a single paragraph. Where, in an essay,
sub-divisions are numerous and minute, a number of less important
sub-topics may be grouped in one paragraph, while a relatively more
important sub-topic may occupy a paragraph by itself^
EXERCISE_J22.
Divide each of the following paragraphs into its two or
three parts. Show how the length at which each part is
treated indicates its relative importance.
It is well known that the Australian megapod is a bird that is
accustomed not to sit on its own eggs. In certain parts of Aus-
tralia are found numerous mounds of considerable size and height,
which the first explorers took to be burial mounds. These were
made by the Megapodius tumulus, which uses them for hatching its
eggs. They have sometimes considerable dimensions : a nest that
is 14 feet high and 55 feet in circumference may be regarded as
large. Each megapod builds its own nest with materials which
it gathers from all sides, and these are exactly what the gardener
uses in the month of March to make his forcing-beds; namely,
leaves and decomposing vegetable matter, which, by their fermen-
tation, give off an appreciable amount of heat. In the forcing-
beds, this heat hastens the sprouting of the seeds ; in the nest it
Eow Much to Say. 287
suffices for the development and hatching of the young Mrds, and
the mother can go where she likes and occupy herself as she wishes,
-without being troubled by the duties of settin^^^ In the small
island of Mnafou, in the Pacific, another bird has a somewhat
similar habit, in so far as it also abandons its eggs ; but in place
of obtaining the necessary heat from fermentation, it gets it from
warm sand. The Leipoa or native pheasant of Australia acts like
the megapod, and watches the temperature of its mound very
closely, covering and uncovering the eggs several times a day to
cool them or heat them, as becomes necessary. After hatching,
the young bird remains in the mound several hours ; it leaves on
the second day, but returns for the night, and not until the third
day is it able to quit the paternal abode.
The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die de-
cently, but to live manfully. This, when by God's grace it has
been given, lies deep in the soul ; like genial heat, fosters all other
virtues and gifts ; without it they could not liveT^ In spite of our
innumerable Waterloos and Peterloos, and such campaigning as
there has been, this courage we allude to, and call the only true
one, is perhaps rarer in these last ages than it has been in any
other since the Saxon Invasion under HengistT^ Altogether ex-
tinct it can never be among men ; otherwise the species man were
no longer for this world : here and there, in all times, under vari-
ous guises, men are sent hither not only to demonstrate but exhibit
it, and testify, as from heart to heart, that it is still possible, still
practicable. — Carlyle: BosiuelVs Life of Johnson.
In whatsoever light we examine the characteristics of the Laure-
ate's genius, the complete and even balance of his poetry is from
first to last conspicuous. It exhibits that just combination of lyri-
cal elements which makes a symphony, wherein it is difficult to
say what quality predominates. Reviewing minor poets, we think
this one attractive for the wald flavor of his unstudied verse ;
another, for the gush and music of his songs; a third, for idyllic
sweetness or tragic power | but in Tennyson we have the strong
repose of art, whereof — as*of the perfection of nature — the world
is slow to tire. It has become conventional, but remember that
nothing endures to the point of conventionalism which is not based
288 Composition-Rhetoric,
upon lasting rules; that it once was new and refreshing, and is
sure, in future days, to regain the early charm. — Stedman : Vic-
torian Poets, 182.
3E 123. ylMg^lfii^
EXERCISE
Make one paragrapK"of"eililier of the following. Give to
each point a length of treatment corresponding to what you
consider to be its relative importance.
Slang should be avoided because (a) some of it is vulgar and
brings up bad suggestions, (^5'|pst5me of it while not offensive in
that way is without meaning to other people to whom it may be
addressed, -<^ all of it is needless : there are words of good stand*-
ing for all of our ideas, and \c^ the continued use of a pet slang
phrase in many meanings prevents the user from making due dis-
tinctions in the use of language, from searching for the fitting
word to use in every case, and thus from acquiring and increasing
his vocabulary of reputable words, (e) besides, a slang expression
is likely to slip out before he thinks, on an occasion when it leads
to his discomfort and embarrassment.
A certain amount of daily exercise is of advantage to every man
who works with his brain, because (a) it enables him to do more
and better work, (6) it promotes a spirit of cheerfulness and soci-
ability, (c) it diminishes liability to disease and break-down,
(ri) it gives him extra strength for times of great mental labor or
anxiety, (e) it tends to prolong his life.
«i^'
EXERCISE 124,
Account for the relative proportions of the following con-
nected paragraphs : —
The laboratory method in natural science is vastly superior
to the now obsolete exclusive text-book method, which was used in
some places a generation ago. The study of natural science loses
its value as a means of cultivating the faculties, when the method
employed fails to lead to the observation of, and experimenting
with, the objects of nature. The tools which Providence has
How Much to Say. 289
given to man for his life in nature are his senses and his hands.
Instruction in science becomes unprofitable when it is not based
on the pupil's own observation and activity.
Yet, while progressive high-school teachers agree on laboratory
work in natural science, another element should receive equal
consideration. Just as necessary as an acquaintance with the
archetypal forms of nature by direct inspection, and of the obser-
vational facts by direct experiment, is the unifying, reasoning-
process, which sits enthroned above the myriads of facts and is as
important a condition of observation as the activity of the senses
and the hands. Reason, with its generalizing powers, is the com-
pass which alone prevents the student from becoming bewildered
in the maze of details. Not only the typical fabts, but the leading
lines of the whole field of the study should be surveyed by the
pupil. These leading lines, however, cannot always be taught by
experiments performed by the pupil himself, but he must receive
some truths at second-hand through experiments which he wit-
nesses but does not perform, and by literary communication
through text-book and lecture. The total elimination of text-
book study by laboratory work would be an extreme that does not
commend itself. The individual scientist who does not know a
hundred-fold more of nature than he has learned from his own
personal experimenting would be comparatively ignorant. Thor-
oughness in a limited field is not at all opposed to a certain com-
prehensiveness of information. It is in fact aided by a general
acquaintance with the leading lines of the subject. What reader
of Gibbon's Rome, when opening a new volume, would not fee]
aided by a preliminary comprehensive survey of the period in an
encyclopaedia or brief text-book ?
The old method of the literary study of natural science, which
sacrificed thoroughness to comprehensiveness, and depth to
breadth, was vicious ; but the opposite course would be as great
an error. Generally speaking, thoroughness may become, and at
times has become, a fetish to which hecatombs of vital educational
interest have been slaughtered. For instance, to keep a child in
the elementary school on one topic for the purpose of attaining
ideal perfection until living interest and ambition are killed, and
instruction becomes irksome, would be paying too high a price for
thoroughness.
290 Composition-Rhetoric,
EXERCISE 125.
1. Make an analysis of the essay by Higginson in Exer-
cise 38, with headings and sub-headings. Is any sub-topic
given a whole paragraph by itself ? What groupings of
sub-topics into a single paragraph do you notice ? Test
the relative importance of paragraphs by their relative
length.
2. Make a similar analysis of an essay in one of the
current magazines.^
EXERCISE 126.
Make three paragraphs of the following material, showing,
by grouping of sub-topics and length of treatment, what
you consider to be their relative importance.
Advantages of a Free Public Library.
1. Advantages to the community in general : —
a. It elevates the tone of life in the community,
(1) By creating an intellectual interest,
(2) By supplanting less worthy interests,
(3) By affording a centre of culture.
h. Out of it usually grow other worthy institutions :
(1) Literary clubs and societies of various sorts,
(2) Lecture courses.
c It helps the work of schools and churches.
2. Advantages to individuals in the community.
a. To the teacher it affords a wider range of reference books.
h. To the pupil a chance for further reading in the line of his
school studies.
c. To the general reader a wider selection.
d. To non-readers a stimulus to begin.
1 A list of essays for practice of this kind will be found in Appendix C.
How Much to Say. 291
^^ LESSON 35. n/J^^;^^
Subordination of Farts.
Besides length of treatment and grouping of sub-topics,
other devices are employed at times to show the relative
importance of topics. Sometimes bold expressions are used,
such as "The main point is this," "Less important but still
worthy of mention is the following,'^ "After all, the great
fact remains that," "A more important reason is." These
and similar expressions tell the reader plainly, though some-
what bluntly, what relative degree of importance to attach
to the paragraph or part of the paragraph concerned.
The following paragraph contains an expression of this
kind, here printed in italics : —
The present inspection of immigrants at American ports before
they are permitted to land seems to be about as effective a way as
can be devised to exclude the prohibited classes. The inspection
system now in force lays down rigidly who are excli^ded from land-
ing under the laws. Inspectors are appointed to enforce the regu-
lations. And more important than all else, the steamship companies
are required to carry back the excluded immigrants at their own
cost. This makes them very careful in taking immigrant passen-
gers. It imposes on them the preliminary inspection in Europe.
The rest is done by American inspectors, whose work, if necessary,
can be supplemented by agents stationed at European ports. The
weeding out of undesirable immigrants from the flood of Italians
now pouring into ISTew York is evidence of the good work pos-
sible under the existing system. The carrying back of a few
hundred immigrants amounts to a heavy fine on the steamship
companies for bringing them over.
In the following the subordination is less blunt and more
skilfully managed. ISTotice especially the latter part of the
fourth sentence beginning with the word " but."
292 Composition-Rhetoric.
1. 1 pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me
to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted
at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great a cost.
2. These things, if they are curious in them, they can get for a
dollar at any village. 3. But let this stranger, if he will, in your
looks, in your accent and behavior, read your heart and earnestness,
your thought and will, — which he cannot buy at any price in any
village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles, and dine
sparely and sleep hard, m order to behold. 4. Certainly let the
board be spread, and let the bed be dressed for the traveller, ^ut.
let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. 5. Honor
to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so
that there the intellect is awake and reads the law of the universe,
the soul worships truth and love, honor and courtesy flow into all
deeds. — Emerson: Domestic Life.
Statements introduced by ^^and," "likewise/' "but,"
"therefore," "accordingly," are recognized at once as of
at least equal importance with preceding statements.
There is no enlargement, unless there be a comparison of ideas
one with another, as they come before the mind, and a systema-
tizing of them. We feel our minds to be growing and expanding
then, when we not only learn, but refer what we learn to what we
know already. ... And therefore a truly great intellect is one
which takes a connected view of old and new, past and present,
far and near, and which has an insight into the influence of all
these, one on another ; without which there is no whole, and no
centre. It possesses the knowledge, not only of things, but also
of their mutual and true relations ; knowledge, not merely con-
sidered as an acquirement, but as philosophy.
Accordingly, when this analytical, distributive, harmonizing
process is away, the mind experiences no enlargement, and is not
reckoned as enlightened or comprehensive, whatever it may add
to its knowledge. For instance, a great memory, as I have already
said, does not make a philosopher, any more than a dictionary can
be called a grammar. There are men who embrace in their minds
a vast multitude of ideas, but with little sensibility about their
real relations towards each other. ... If they are nothing more
How Much to Say, 293
than Avell-read men, or men of information, tliey have not what
specially deserves the name of culture of mind, or fulfils the type
of Liberal Education.
In like manner, we sometimes fall in with persons who have
seen milch' of the world, and of the men who, in their day, have
played a conspicuous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and
have no observation, in the true sense of the word. They abound
in information in detail, curious and entertaining, about men and
things ; and, having lived under the influence of no very clear or
settled principles, they speak of every one and every thing, only
as so many phenomena, which are complete in themselves, and
lead to nothing, not discussing them, or teaching any truth, or in-
structing the hearer, but simply talking.
The reader recognizes that such expressions as " it is true/'
^' to be sure/' " indeed/' " I admit that/' introduce conces-
sions which the writer wishes him to regard as of less impor-
tance than the sentences introduced by " still/' " yet/' " but/'
"nevertheless/' or "however/' which are almost sure to
follow.
There are virtues, indeed, which the world is not fitted to judge
of or to uphold, such as faith, hope, and charity ; but it can judge
about truthfulness ; it can judge about the natural virtues, and
truthfulness is one of them. Natural virtues may also become
supernatural ; truthfulness is such, but that does not withdraw it
from the jurisdiction of mankind at large.
At the main divisions of a long discourse there are some-
times found whole sentences, more often parts of sentences,
whose business it is to indicate the relative importance of
the divisions in the scheme of the whole discourse.
Thus in Webster's eulogy of Adams and Jefferson the second
division of the discourse begins as follows : " The occasion, fellow-
citizens, requires some account of the lives and services of John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This duty must necessarily be
performed with great brevity, and in the discharge of it I shall be
294 Composition-Rhetoric ,
obliged to confine myself, principally, to those parts of their
history and character which belonged to them as public men."
By this announcement the reader is prepared for the short
biographies which form the second and third divisions (para-
graphs 12-24). The fourth division begins as follows: "And
now, fellow-citizens, without pursuing the biography of these
illustrious men further, for the present, let us turn our attention to
the most prominent act of their lives, their participation in the
Declaration of Independence." Since this suggests a fuller treat-
ment, the reader is not surprised to find that the fourth division
contains twenty-five paragraphs. The fifth division is but a single
paragraph, and is appropriately introduced by the following
sentence, "It would be unjust, fellow-citizens, on this occasion,
while we express our veneration for him who is the immediate
subject of these remarks, were we to ornit a most respectful, affec-
tionate, and grateful mention of those other great men, his col-
leagues, who stood with him, and with the same spirit, the same
devotion, took part in the interesting transaction."
Canon Farrar in his lecture on Dante, after dwelling at some
length upon the Inferno^ opens the briefer second division of the
lecture with the words, " Time does not permit me to give you
even an outline of Purgatory" and the still briefer third division
with " I shall say scarcely anything of the Paradise.'" The length
of the conclusion is indicated by the words, " I hasten to con-
clude " and " I will end with two remarks."
It is easy to fall into the habit of using more of these
subordinating expressions than are necessary. Few of them
are needed when the thoughts are clear and well arranged.
Use expressions of subordination, when necessary, to indicate the
relative importance of thoughts.
EXERCISE 127.
Point out subordinating expressions in the following.
Classify these expressions and show that each indicates
properly the relative importance of the sentences or parts
of sentences which it seems to subordinate.
How Much to Say, 295
Pitiful is the case of the blind, who cannot read the face;
pitiful that of the deaf, who cannot follow the changes of the
voice. And there are others j,lso to be pitied; for there are some
of an inert, uneloquent nature, who have been denied all the sym-
bols of communication, who have neither a lively play of facial
expression, nor speaking gestures, nor a responsive voice, nor yet
the girt of frank, explanatory speech : people truly made of clay,
people tied for life into a bag which no one can undo. They are
poorer than the gipsy, for their heart can speak no language under
heaven. Such people we must learn slowly by the tenor of their
acts, or through " yea " and " nay " communications ; or, we take
them on trust on the strength of a general air, and now and again,
when we see the spirit breaking through in a flash, correct or
change our estimate. But these will be uphill intimacies, without
charm or freedom, to the end ; and freedom is the chief ingredient
in confidence. Some minds, romantically dull, despise physical
endowments. That is a doctrine for a misanthrope ; to those who
like their fellow-creatures, it must always be meaningless ; .. and^
for my part, I can see few things more desirable, after the posses-
sion of such radical qualities as honor, and humor, and pathos,
than to have a lively, and not a stolid, countenance ; to have looks
to correspond with every feeling ; to be elegant and delightful in
person, so that we shall please even in the intervals of active
pleasing, and may never discredit speech with uncouth manners,
or become unconsciously our own burlesques. But of all unfortu-
nates, there is one creature (for I will not call him man) conspicu-
ous in misfortune. This is he who has forfeited his birthright of
expression ; who has cultivated artful intonations ; who has taught
his face tricks, like a pet monkey, and, on every side, perverted or
cut off his means of communication with his fellowmen. The
body is a house of many windows : there we all sit showing our-
selves, and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. But this
'ellow has filled his windows with opaque glass elegantly colored,
is house may be admired for its design, the crowd may pause
fore the stained windows, but meanwhile the poor proprietor
(list lie within, uncomf orted, unchangeably alone. — Stevenson :
296 )[ Composition-Rhetoric,
EXERCISE 128.
Insert proper words of subordination in the following at
places indicated by carets : —
In reading the Russian papers, the Czar noticed that they were^
not so outspoken as the papers of other countries. He noticed (^^^.t^
that, in their guarded utterances, he never found any reference to
official abuses which, he knew, must exist in Russia as in other
countries. He knew y{^mat there is a censorship of the press in
his realm, but he had not the slightest idea of the extent to w^hich
the censors puppre^s' independent expressions in the papers. He
determined'^^ that at least one paper should be perfectly free to
criticise the government. /^ ' he summoned the editor of The
St. Petersburg Viedomosti, a paper that has been published for
170 years, and announced his intention of relieving him of cen-
sure. ^^ When the high officials learned of, the Czar's purpose, they
^ advisied strongly against it. The Czar^^Ji^'^mtiinSS firm. Then
the officials had recourse to an old and well-tried method of cir-
cumventing their imperial master, and of saving themselves from
exposure. They provided the editor with a position in the Russo-
Chinese Bank at a princely salary, and subscribed for many thoi^-^^ ^ ■
sands of copies of the paper. The prosperity of the Viedomosti is /(^
assured. It is ''/\^" a 'prosperity that depends, on continued official
favor. The paper is free to criticise ; -y^ Strange to say, it shows
less disposition to find fault with the official classes than befpre it
was relieved of censorship. /^ its freedom is an illusion. /^ the
Czar is puzzled. • \
EXERCISE 129.
Examine, with your teacher, one of the following for
expressions which indicate the relative importance of the
parts : —
1. De Quincey's Joan of Arc. 2. One of Macaulay's Essays,
3. An article in The Forum magazine. 4. An article in The North
American Review. 5. An article in The New York Independent.
6. Any chapter of a book which your teacher may assign to you.
How Much to Say, 297
/ LESSON 36.
Expayision.
In order to make an important topic show for what it is
worth, it must be developed into its particular phases or
considered from several points of view. One or more of
the general methods described in Lessons 12 to 19 may be
employed for this purpose, but in some cases a particular
application of one of these general methods will be more
convenient. For instance, an apt anecdote or incident is
a very frequent method of expanding an important point.
Thus in the following : —
The Admirals are typical in the full force of the word. They
are splendid examples of virtue, indeed, but of a virtue in which
most Englishmen can claim a moderate share; and what we
admire in their lives is a sort of apotheosis of ourselves. . . .
Duncan, lying off the Texel with his own flagship, the Venera-
ble, and only one other vessel, heard that the whole Dutch fleet
was putting to sea. He told Captain Hotham to anchor along-
side of him in the narrowest part of the channel, and fight his
vessel till she sank. "I have taken the depth of the water,"
added he, "and when the Venerable goes down, my flag will still
fly." And you observe this is no naked Viking in a prehistoric
period; but a Scotch member of Parliament, with a smattering
of the classics, a telescope, a cocked hat of great size, and flannel
underclothing. — Stevenson : Virginihus Puerisque.
An apt quotation of considerable length is another method
of expansion. In the following, Stevenson having asked-
what motive inspired the hero Douglas to burn up with his
ship, the Eoyal Oak, when he might have left it and saved
his life, continues : " Many will tell you it was the desire
of fame." In opposition to this view, Stevenson quotes
from Montaigne's essay on " Glory " as follows : —
298
Oomposition-Rhetoric.
To what do Caesar and Alexander owe the infinite grandeur
of their renown but to fortune? How many men has she extin-
guished in the beginning of their progress, of whom we have no
knowledge; who brought as much courage to the work as they,
if their adverse hap had not cut them off in the first sally of their
arms ? Amongst so many and so great dangers, I do not remem-
ber to have anywhere read that Caesar was ever wounded ; a thou-
sand have fallen in less dangers than the least of those he went
through. A great many brave actions must be expected to be per-
formed without witness, for one that comes to some notice. A man
is not always at the top of a breach, or at the head of an army, in
the sight of his general, as upon a platform. He is often surprised
between the hedge and the ditch ; he must run the hazard of his
life against a hen-roost ; he must dislodge four rascally musketeers
out of a barn ; he must prick out single from his party, as neces-
sity arises, and meet adventures alone.
Sometimes an important thought is merely stated in one
paragraph in connection with other thoughts, and is ex-
panded in the next paragraph. This is illustrated by the
preceding quotation.
When it is desired to expand one part of a narrative or
description, more details and particulars are added to that
part. Thus in Tom Brown at Oxford, Chapters XIII and
XI Y, the author expands in one description the incidents
which he treats briefly in the other. The following extracts
will exemplify his method : —
CHAPTER XIII.
It is an awful moment. But
the coxswain, though almost
dragged backwards ofE his seat,
is equal to the occasion. He
holds his watch in his right
hand with the tiller rope.
*' Eight seconds more only.
Look out for the flash. Re-
member, all eyes in the boat."
CHAPTER XIV.
After a few moments of
breathless hush on the bank,
the last gun is fired and they
are off.
Hoiv Much to Say.
299
There it comes at last — the
flash of the starting-gim. Long-
before the sound of the report
can roll up the river, the whole
pent-up life and energy which
has been held in leash, as it
were, for the last six minutes,
is let loose and breaks away
with a bound and a dash which
he who has felt it will remem-
ber for his life, but the like of
which, will he ever feel again?
The starting-ropes drop from
the coxswains' hands, the oars
flash into the water, and gleam
on the feather, the spray flies
from them, and the boats leap
forward.
In a single sentence to which the greater distinction of
greater length is to be given, single adjectives are changed
to phrases, phrases to clauses, andrmew phTrases^ and clauses,
going more into detail, are added. These changes are illus-
trated By the parallel passages below. Those in the left-
hand column are from Green's Short History of the English
People; those in the right-hand column are from the same
author's longer History.
1. His enjoyment of the gay-
ety of life stands in bright con-
trast with the gloom and stern-
ness of the later Puritanism.
2. Hooker urged that a Di-
vine order exists, not in writ-
ten revelation only, but in the
moral relations, and the social
1. Milton's enjoyment of the
gayety of life stands in bright
contrast with the gloom and
sternness which strife and per-
secution fostered in Puritanism
at a later time.
2. Hooker urged that a Di-
vine order exists, not in written
revelation only, but in the moral
relations, the historical devel-
300
Composition-Rhetoric.
and political institutions of
men.
3. He now offered to sail to
the Orinoco, and discover a gold
mine which he believed to exist
on its banks.
opment, and the social and polit-
ical institutions of men.
3. As years went by, the new
world, where he had founded
Virginia and where he had
gleaned news of a Golden City,
threw more and more a spell
over his imagination ; and at
this moment he disclosed to
James his knowledge of a gold
mine on the Orinoco, and prayed
that he might sail thither and
work its treasures for the king.
The latter part of a sentence is sometimes expanded for
the sake of giving fulness of sound at the close. The words
after " region " at the close of the following are in point.
As surely as the wolf retires before cities, does the fairy seques-
ter herself from the haunts of the licensed victualler. A village
is too much for her nervous delicacy : at most, she can tolerate a
distant view of a hamlet. We may judge, therefore, by the un-
easiness and extra trouble which they gave to the parson, in what
strength the fairies mustered at Domremy ; and, by a satisfactory
consequence, how thinly sown with n^en and women must have
been that region even in its inhabited spots. — De Quincey : Joan
of Arc.
Additions made for this purpose should combine fulness
of sound with fulness of thought. Whatever is added
should grow naturally from the main idea and so become
a vital member of the sentence.
The need of expansion appears when one is trying to in-
terpret and explain a difficult or obscure passage which he
finds in the writings of some author whom he is studying.
In order to bring out the full meaning of such a passage,
it becomes necessary to re-state it at greater length, to ex-
amine it from more than one point of view, to use simpler
Hotv Much to Say. 801
words, perhaps, and more of them, to provide illustrations,
and to call attention to hidden meanings. There is danger
in this work of putting in something that the author did
not mean, and of cheapening the thought, but in spite of
that danger, the work is necessary. Notice in the following
how the rather enigmatic statement quoted in the first sen-
tence is cleared up and filled with meaning by the comments
which follow : —
"It takes," says Thoreau, in the noblest and most useful passage
I remember to have read in any modern author, " two to speak
truth — one to speak and another to hear." He must be very little
experienced, or have no great zeal for truth, who does not recog-
nize the fact. A grain of anger or a grain of suspicion produces
strange acoustical effects, and makes the ear greedy to remark
offence. Hence we find those who have once quarrelled carry them-
selves distantly, and are ever ready to break the truce. To speak
truth there must be moral equality or else no respect ; and hence
between parent and child intercourse is apt to degenerate into a
verbal fencing-bout, and misapprehension to become ingrained
. . . and wherever a person fancies himself unjustly judged, he at
once and finally gives up the effort to speak truth. With our
chosen friends, on the other hand, and still more between lovers
(for mutual understanding is love's essence), the truth is easily
indicated by the one and aptly comprehended by the other. A
hint taken, a look understood, conveys the gist of long and delicate
explanations ; and where the life is known even yea and nay be-
come luminous. In the closest of all relations — that of a love
well founded and equally shared — speech is half discarded, like a
roundabout, infantile process, or a ceremony of formal etiquette ;
and the two communicate directly by their presences, and with
few looks and fewer words contrive to share their good and evil
and uphold each other's hearts in joy. — Stevenson: Virginihus
Puerisque.
In expanding an idea, bear in mind the uses of anecdote, quota-
tion, and details. Beware of additions which do not grow naturally
from the thought.
302 Composition- Rhetoric.
EXERCISE 130.
Expand the following by changing the word or words in
italics to a phrase or clause of equivalent meaning. Take
care that the added words shall be genuine additions to the
thought.
1. Macaulay's essays are as good as a library: they make an
incomparable vade-mecum for the busy man.
2. If your little boy came to you for fire-cracker money, you
would give it to him hesitatingly ; and seeing it fly off, though
harmlessly, in fireworks, you would have some idea that it was
wasted.
3. Earnestness characterizes the manner of the speaker, and
truthfulness his language.
4. His delight in nature was deep, continuous^ sometimes
rapturous.
EXERCISE 131.
Add relevant words to the close of each of the following
sentences for the sake of fulness of sound : —
1. Clara, upon heaving the thunder-clap, which sounded like the
crack of doom, jumped.
2. For three days after regaining a latitude which admitted of
plain sailing we had boisterous weather and a wild sea, but an un-
clouded sky. At such times the ocean, in its ever-varying forms of
beauty and changing shades of prismatic light in the sunshine,
attracts.
3. The momentary waves raised by the passing breeze, appar-
ently born to die on the spot which saw their birth, leave behind
them an endless progeny, which, reviving with diminished energy
in other seas, visiting a thousand shores, reflected from each, and
perhaps again partially concentrated, go on.
4. How they were attacked, how they resisted, how they struck,
how they were encompassed, how they thrust back those who were
hurled on them in the black night, with the north sea-wind like ice
upon their faces, and the loose African soil drifting up in clouds
around them, they told.
How Much to Say. 308
EXERCISE 132.
Fill in details at the places indicated in the following : —
There has been no period of time in which wealth has been
more sensible of its duties than now. It builds hospitals. [Tell
other things that it does.] One of the advantages of accumulated
wealth and of the leisure it renders possible, is that people have
time to think of the wants and sorrows of their fellows. Thinking
on the needs of the poor will lead the rich to greater benevolence
th^ft-the v^orld has yet known. [Other results.]
"iJWhen we see what a wonderful instrument the hand is, I think
we are great fools for not learning to use it better. A parrot can
make a use of his beak and feet, which are also hands, in a way
that puts us to shame. [Tell what a dog can do with his mouth
and fore paws.] Some people can do little more than dress and
undress themselves and bring food and drink to the mouth, which
does the rest. Boys, without being taught except by other boys,
learn to use feet and hands in many ways, and they amuse them-
selves and learn at the same time. [Tell how the hands, eyes, and
feet are educated by games played according to rules.] I hope I
shall be excused if I say that boys' play is sometimes the best
thing that they do at school.
■^W
EXERCISE 133.
Interpret one of the "following quotations, and comment
on the thought, bringing out fully all that it means or sug-
gests to you.
1. If youth is not right in its conclusions about this life, there
is a strong probability that age is not much more so.
. It takes two to make a quarrel.
3. Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
4. The eye is the great instrument of acquiring knowledge.
5. Writing is a part of drawing.
6. In the savage state, robbery stands in the place of taxation.
7. Parting is a kind of death.
8. Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of
change. — Tennyson : Locksley Hall.
^.
^^^'^^^ CompositioU'RhetoriG.
J^
;one walls do not a prison make,
Nor imji^ars a cage.
^ jj Lovelace: To AUhea from Prison.
V " ^ ^ Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
W-*" > ^ Milton : Paradise Lost, I, 648.
W^'^
^H^:
EXERCISE 134.
" Expand the following according to the directions printed
within the brackets : — , j , . , oo^Trve. \HHM /Jua^iXslmJIu
1. I do not believe in violent changes. [Expand " violent "^to a .
■ ■ . clause.] Kor do T expect^i&fei^'^Ha^mt^^ MM ir^^^^
'^^ other vfords at greater length.] Things in pol^s^ori [rfe|)e^tln^H
^acft^ "^^iSn^tory clfi!usq 'dr ' two "things which," etc.] have a
very firm grip. [Inserf 4 sentence, beginning " ^riiey hold socVij^
r<^Wi-^^-^it;f^'*^6lft] One of the strongest cements of society [substitute y^
for "society" another expression of greater length] is the convic-
tion of mankind that the state of things into wl^ich they are born j^
is a part of the order of the universe., f'liad 'a comparison Y" as
Aa>^ natural as," etc.]' iiih a conviction that they will not surrender J
^except on compulsion; and a wise society^further charaet^/nze^
)j^ O^JWllSfeMy," "a society which,"^ etc.] should look to it that th^ W^
pulsion be noti put upon them." [Add " should guard against; etclj
"■■^^^"^^^^^"^r*iy5r& Bro many others think that dreaming occurs
\)iorily between sleeping and waking, —the stepping of the soul into
or out of the land of f orgetf ulness, — and that it is momentary in
its essence and action, though ranging over a lifetime or more. [A
poetical quotation illustrating the brevity of the dream-period.]
There is much in favor of this. One hopes the soul [a brief quo-
tation expressing the nimble, ethereal character of the soul] may
sometimes sleep the dreamless sleep of health, ^s, well as its tired
drudge. 'W C^. , ,Vl... ov. -^^- ^'* • , .. ; a_c)jMKUM
3. Jt is a beautiiul morning in June, — so beautiful that I almost , CX)I
fancy myself in Spain. The tessellated shadow of the honeys uckle*rv\l
lies motionless upon the floor, as if it were a figure in the carpet j^jj^tAX
and through the open window comes the fragrance of the wild- ^Aq.
brier and the mock-orange, reminding one of that soft, sunny clime
ft/yT^'^'
How Much to Say. 305
^'
where the very air is laden, like the bee, with sweetness, and the
south wind [a poetical quotation descriptive of the south wind].
The birds are carolling in the trees, and their shadows flit across
the window as they dart to and fro in the sunshine, while the mur-
mur of the bee, the cooing of doves from the eaves, and the whir-
ring of a little humming-bird that has its nest in the honeysuckle,
send up a sound of joy to meet the rising sun.
\^j^^\
n
^
EXERCISE 135.
Study the following closely and write fully what it sug-
gests to you. Give all that it implies as well as all that it
expresses.
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold.
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen :
Round many westernjslands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne :
\ Yet did I never breathe its puyre^serene
\ Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold :
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken ;
Or like stout Cortez when wdth eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien . — Keats.
[The following questions will be found suggestive : What were
the " realms of gold " in which Keats feigned to have travelled?
What is meant by " western islands," and in what sense are they
held by bards in fealty to Apollo ? Over what realm can Homer
be said to rule ? What reason for calling him " deep-browed " ?
What is suggested to you by '^ pure serene," and how^ is it appro-
priate as applied to Homer's poetry ? Tn what sense do the verses
in Chapman's Homer "speak out loud and bold"? Read the
following from Robertson's History of A merica, which was one of
306 Composition-Rhetoric,
Keats's school-books, and consider how the "wild surmise" of
Balboa's men could properly be compared to the poet's feelings
on first seeing Chapman's translation of Homer : " At length the
Indians assured them that from the top of the next mountain they
should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes.
When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part
of that steep ascent, Balboa [not Cortez : Keats's memory played
him false] commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the
summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle
which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the South
Sea stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees,
and, lifting up his hands to heaven, returned thanks to God, who
had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country, and
so honorable to himself. His followers, observing his transports
of joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and grati-
tude^!^ r^ /
LESSON 37. vJLUaJ*
Condensation.
A process the direct opposite of expansion is necessary
when writing on the less important points of a paragraph
or an essay. These need to be compressed into briefer com-
pass than the important points. One way of condensing is
seen in the following paragraph, in which the writer has
reduced a sentence to a participial construction attached
to the next sentence. In the same way a sentence is re-
duced to a clause or phrase and attached to another related
sentence.
Never did poet have a truer companion, a sincerer spiritual
helpmate, than Mr. Bryant in his wife. Refined in taste^ and ele-
vated in thought, she was characterized alike by goodness and gentle-
ness. Modest in her ways, she lived wholly for him ; his welfare,
his happiness, his fame, were the chief objects of her ambition.
To smooth his pathway, to cheer his spirit, to harmonize every
discordant element of life, were purposes for the accomplishment
of which no sacrifice on her part could be too great.
How Much to Say, 307
Sometimes an apt quotation, an allusion, or a proverb may
take the place of a large amount of explanatory matter.
An eloquent scholar has said, that ancient literature was the
ark ill which all the civilization of the world was preserved during
the deluge of barbarism. We confess it. But we do not read
that Noah thought himself bound to live in the ark after the del-
uge had subsided. When our ancestors first began to consider the
study of the classics as the principal part of education, little or
nothing worth reading was to be found in any modern language.
Circumstances have confessedly changed. Is it not possible that
a change of system may be desirable? — Macaulay: The London
University.
Condensation in a paragraph or essay may be furthered
by cutting out the parts that merely explain, or connect, or
qualify the main idea. Such parts can often be spared with-
out harm to the intelligibility of the whole.
The value of condensation appears when we wish to re-
port for the benefit of one who has not read it the principal
ideas of a book, a speech, or a magazine article. In this
work the problem is to find the important thoughts and to
report them with the same relative importance which they
have in the original. The danger is that the latter part will
be more condensed than the beginning. All parts should
be condensed on the same scale. The following shows a
condensation of a portion of a magazine article : —
ORIGINAL.
After two whole generations it seems
as if some increase of genuine reason-
ableness of thought and action in all
classes of the population ought to be
discernible. Many persons, however, fail
to see in the actual conduct of the various
classes of society the evidence of increas-
ing rationality. These sceptical observ-
ers complain that people in general, taken
CONDENSATION.
While it ought seem-
ingly to be one of the
effects of education to
make people think and
act more reasonably,
there is no evidence of
increasing rationality
among the great mass
of the people. They
308
Composition-Rhetoric,
in masses with proper exclusion of excep-
tional individuals, are hardly more reason-
able in the conduct of life than they were
before free schools, popular colleges, and
the cheap printing-press existed. . . .
They complain that in spite of every
effort to enlighten the whole body of the
people, all sorts of quacks and impostors
thrive, and that one popular delusion
or sophism succeeds another, the best
educated classes contributing their full
proportion of the deluded. Thus the
astrologer in the Middle Ages was a rare
personage and usually a dependent of
princes ; but now he advertises in the
popular newspapers and flourishes as
never before. Men and women of all
classes, no matter what their education,
seek advice on grave matters from clair-
voyants, seers. Christian scientists, mind-
cure practitioners, bone-setters, Indian doc-
tors, and fortune-tellers. — C. W. Eliot:
Wherein Popular Education has Failed,
Forum, 14: 412.
act from impulse, pas-
sion, prejudice, rather
than upon sober reflec-
tion, very much as
people did before free
schools were invented.
They fall a prey to de-
lusions, sophistry, clap-
trap, and humbug, as
easily as ever, and the
best educated classes
contribute a large por-
tion of the deluded.
Quacks and impostors
of every kind flourish
as luxuriantly as in
the Middle Ages, and
have the advantage of
being able to advertise
in cheap newspapers.
— Calvin Thomas :
Citizenship and the
Schools, The Alumnus,
2: 50.
Professor Jowett, in his translations of Plato and Thucydi-
des, re-states the principal ideas of the text in brief marginal
notes. The following selection from his translation of Thu-
cydides will show the skilfulness of his condensation : —
TEXT.
The whole army now fell into utter disorder,
and the perplexity was so great that from neither
side could the particulars of the conflict be exactly
ascertained. In the daytime the combatants see
more clearly ; though even then only what is going
on immediately around them, and that imperfectly
— nothing of the battle as a whole. But in a
MARGIN.
All now
becomes
confusion.
Those be-
hind press on
those before,
who are al-
Hotv Much to Say.
309
nightly engagement, like this in which two great ready turn-
armies fought — the only one of the kind which ing back,
occurred during the war — who could be certain of The moon-
anything? The moon was bright, and they saw light, the
before them, as men naturally would in the moon- dense
light, the figures of one another, but were unable masses, the
to distinguish with certainty who was friend or narrow
foe. Large bodies of heavy-armed troops, both space, the
Athenian and Syracusan, were moving about in watchword,
a narrow space ; of the Athenians, some were the Psean,
already worsted, while others, still unconquered, contribute to
were carrying on the original movement. A great the rout,
part of their army had not yet engaged, but either Friends at-
had just mounted the heights, or were making the tack friends,
ascent ; and no one knew which way to go. For Many throw
in front they were defeated already; there was themselves
nothing but confusion, and all distinction between from the
the two armies was lost by reason of the noise. cliffs, leaving
The victorious Syracusans and their allies, who their arms
had no other means of communication in the dark- behind ;
ness, cheered on their comrades with loud cries as others miss
they received the onset of their assailants. The their way in
Athenians were looking about for each other ; and the dark and
every one who met them, though he might be a are cut off.
friend who had turned and fled, they imagined to
be an enemy. They kept constantly asking the
watchword (for there was no other mode of know-
ing one another) and thus they not only caused
great confusion among themselves by all asking at
once, but revealed the word to the enemy. The
watchword of the Syracusans was not so liable to
be discovered, because, being victorious, they kept
together, and were more easily recognized. So
that when they were encountered by a superior
number of the enemy they, knowing the Athenian
watchword, escaped; but the Athenians in a like
casj^, failing to answer the challenge, were killed.
Most disastrous of all were the mistakes caused by
the sound of the Fsean, which, the same being
310
Composition- Rhetoric,
heard in both armies, was a great source of per-
plexity. For there were in the battle Argives,
Corcyrseans, and other Dorian allies of the Athe-
nians, and when they raised the Paean they in-
spired as much alarm as the enemy themselves;
so that in many parts of the army, when the con-
fusion had once begun, not only did friends terrify
friends and citizens their fellow-citizens, but they
attacked one another, and were with difficulty dis-
entangled. The greater number of those who
were pursued and killed perished by throwing
themselves from the cliffs ; for the descent from
Epipolse is by a narrow path. The fugitives who
reached the level ground, especially those who had
served in the former army and knew the neighbor-
hood, mostly escaped to the camp. But of the
newly arrived many missed their way, and, wan-
dering about until daybreak, were then cut off by
the Syracusan cavalry who were scouring the coun-
try.-IyII, 44.
To condense, omit such subordinate ideas as can be spared, and
express others in briefer constructions. Bear in mind the uses of
quotation, allusion, and proverb. In condensing a long article, be
careful to preserve the relative importance of the ideas.
EXERCISE 136.
Cut out of the following as many of the words as can be
spared : —
You and I ae'^tt are teaching injin^aded schools ofTTo^small
attendance. We therefore need some time-saving device, and also^^
some source of ready help. For we have burdened ourselves aft«— '
our successors atsr^^l with \^^ useless and avoidable duties. For
example, we have been in the habit of forming new classes to
suit the-coHditiror-o^ our irregular pupils, instead of adapting the
irregular pupils to classes already in operation. We are conse-
How Much to Say, 311
quently over-burdened with labor and gain nothing by it. We
J^Hfiiave our time consmngdjto noimofit, while at-ibe-ofttne time
we despair over the 0Gm\{k^iaiJ4(u\\{\\m ul afCtJlr^iTT'ornrrfeigses.
Now, thefl^* I see no remedy so long as we continue uUorty to
ignore the necessity of an established and well-ordered course of
study which shall IjlroviHs^ be permanent from year to year, and
uniform Jj^in all of the ungraded schools throughout the state.
What would such a course of study ensure ? First of all aud-ioro* -
most~of^ ait, it would introduce regularity of classes in schools
which do not have regularity now. In the second place, it would
furnish the teacher with a plan of work that would be easy to fol-
low. Again, it would tend to prevent the teacher from favoring
certain studies at the expense of other studies, and this too, let me -
<l^7 is a real evil in many country schools where arithmetic, being
the favorite study of the teacher, receives the bulk of the time of
the school, little...£lsfi— boift^-tattght. Last, but not least, a pupil
coming from one school to another could find his proper place
without trouble or delay. Also, the work being alike in all
schools, there could not be an irregular pupil in any of them.
EXERCISE 137.
Condense the following : —
Philatelists must in future content themselves with real speci-
mens of stamps, the law having declared that it is illegal for any
one to possess a die for counterfeiting them, even though the in-
tention be the most innocent in the world. Mr. Upcott Gill had
one of these articles for imitating a Cape of Good Hope stamp,
but when the government officials summoned him to the Bow
Street Court, Sir John Bridge held that they had no case, as the
die was not to be used for an unlawful purpose. The Court of
Queen's Bench has decided - otherwise, and sent Mr. Gill back to
the magistrate to be fined. It was held by the judges of the higher
tribunal that the eagerness of philatelists to know all about stamps
and to gaze on imitations of what they do not possess in reality,
is not an excuse for the possession of a die, and the reasonableness
of that finding will hardly be disputed. A man may order one to
be made in all innocence, but nobody knows into whose hands it
812 Composition-Rhetoric.
may ultimately fall for nefarious use. In Mr. Gill's case there
was, of course, no insinuation that his motive was anything except
the laudable one of instructing the public, but this is a kind of
education at which the law, in the interests of the national revenue,
looks askance. Under these circumstances Sir John Bridge merely
inflicted the nominal penalty of ten shillings. The case will be
interesting to the large army of philatelic enthusiasts as defining
limits beyond which they must not pass. — London Daily Telegraph.
' Wliat originally constituted a right to be in good society in
England has been discarded.'!' Birth and rank count for nothing,
/I unless they bring with them into the great market of society otheir
I claims to success ; and the best claim to be a leader of fashionable
1 society in England is to be able to provide the greatest amount of
I amusement.^ Every man and woman are expected to contribute
1 their mite to the common fund of amusement, and those who con'
k J I tribute the largest amount are the acknowledged heads of society.
£" U/ It is impossible that it should be otherwise; for agricultural dis-
j tress — depreciation in the value and rental of land — has broken.
I down the territorial aristocracy of England, and the moneyed aris-
I tocracy has taken its place. 5 The growing size of society, the lux-
1 ury, and the variety of amusements it offers, are some of the
\indications that it is based upon wealth ; for such a society could
inever have come into existence in a purely aristocratic, and there-
fore a poorer, community.
Whether it is an ideal state or not is hardly a matter over which
' we need agitate ourselves. That it is much more amusing, much
more interesting, than the society which it has superseded there
can be no doubt. There is less restraint, more sense of enjoyment,
and we get much better value for our pains and money than in the
days when a cold exclusiveness constituted the distinctive mark of a
good but very dull society. It may seem a somewhat sweeping as-
sertion to say that there is not such a thing as good society in this
Jin-de-siecle time ; but there is certainly none in the sense in which
our predecessors understood it ; and could they but look for a mo-
ment upon modern English life, they would be amazed. What was
simply an aristocratic caste has been swept away, and the hetero-
geneous mass which now calls itseK good society is, at any rate,
clever and sharp enough not to be beguiled by any will-o'-the-wisp,
Eow Much to Say. 313
or to receive any one who does not possess some special qualifica-
tions to be enrolled in its ranks. — London Saturday Review,
EXERCISE 138.
Eead one of the selections from the list in Appendix C.
As you read make careful note of the leading ideas ; con-
nect these in a single paragraph, omitting all illustrations
and explanations. .j__ * , ■ 1 i^ x i -C ^ »
CHAPTER VII.
■WHAT NOT TO SAY.
LESSON 38.
Agressions,
There is always a tendency, as we write, to forget the
excwt topic on which we are writing, and to admit to a place
in our composition sentences, and sometimes even whole
paragraphs, which, while they may have something to do
with the general subject on which we are writing, have little
or nothing to do with the particular part or phase of the
subject set before us for discussion. It is hard to stick to
our text. We are apt to be turned aside from our direct
purpose and to wander in a long digression far away from
the topic. We stop to tell a story only remotely connected
with our theme, or, having made an allusion perhaps fittingly
enough, we explain it in unnecessary detail.
The following paragraph from De Quincey illustrates the
most frequent violation of unity — including matter which
should be dropped altogether, or taken out and organized
by itself.
1. What reason is there for taking up this subject of Joanna
precisely in the spring of 1847 ? 2. Might it not have been left till
the spring of 1947; or, perhaps, left till called for? 3. Yes, but
it is called for ; and clamorously. 4. You are aware, reader, that
among the many original thinkers whom modern France has
314
What Not to Say, 815
produced, one of the reputed leaders is M. Michelet. 5. All these
writers are of a revolutionary cast ; not in a political sense merely,
but in all senses ; mad, oftentimes, as March hares ; crazy with the
laughing-gas of recovered liberty; drunk with the wine-cup of
their mighty revolution ; snorting, whinnying, throwing up their
heels like wild horses in the boundless pampas, and running races
of defiance with snipes, or with the winds, or with their own
shadows, if they can find nothing else to challenge. 6. Some time
or other I, that have leisure to read, may introduce you, that have
not, to two or three dozen of these writers; of whom I can assure
yon beforehand, that they are often profound, and at intervals are
even as impassioned as if they were come of our best English
blood. 7. But now, confining our attention to M. Michelet, we in
England who know him best by his w^orst book, the book against
priests, etc. — know him disadvantageously. 8. That book is a
rhapsody of incoherence. 9. But his " History of France " is quite
another thing. 10. A man, in whatsoever craft he sails, cannot
stretch away out of sight when he is linked to the windings of
the shore by towing-ropes of history. 11. Facts and the conse-
quences of facts draw the writer back to the falconer's lure from
the giddiest heights of speculation. 12. Here, therefore, — in his
*' France," — if not always free from flightiness, if now and then
off like a rocket for an airy wheel in the clouds, M. Michelet, with
natural politeness, never forgets that he has left a large audience
waiting for him on earth, and gazing upward in anxiety for his
return : return, therefore, he does. 13. But history, though clear
of certain temptations in one direction, has separate dangers of
its own. 14. It is impossible so to write a history of France, or of
England — works becoming every hour more indispensable to the
inevitably political man of this day — without perilous openings
for error. 15. If I, for instance, on the part of England, should
happen to turn my labors into that channel, and (on the model of
Lord Percy going to Chevy Chase)
" A vow to God should make
My pleasure in the Michelet woods
Three summer days to take,"
probably, from simple delirium, I might hunt M. Michelet into
delirium tremens. 16. Two strong angels standby the side of his-
316
Composition'Rhetoric,
tory, whether French history or English, as heraldic supporters :
the angel of research on the left hand, that must read millions of
dusty parchments, and of pages blotted with lies ; the angel of
meditation on the right hand, that must cleanse these lying records
with fire, even as of old the draperies of asbestos were cleansed, and
must quicken them into regenerated life. 17. Willingly 1 acknowl-
edge that no man will ever avoid innumerable errors of detail;
with so vast a compass of ground to traverse, this is impossible ;
but such errors (though I have a bushel on hand, at M. Michelet's
service) are not the game I chase ; it is the bitter and unfair spirit
in which M. Michelet writes against England. • 18. Even that, after
all, is but my secondary object ; the real one is Joanna the Pucelle
d'Orleans for herself.
Condensed and stripped of digressions, what the para-
graph stands for is this : " One reason for taking up this sub-
ject of Joanna now, is that M. Michelet, in his History of
France, while treating of this same subject, writes against
England in a bitter and unfair spirit. That, however, is
only a secondary reason ; the real one is Joanna the Pucelle
d'Orleans for herself." Where and how De Quincey has di-
gressed from this theme is shown in the following analysis.
I.
Main Theme.
1-3. Subject of Jo-
anna called for.
4. Michelet
7, 8. Michelet
9. Michelet's His-
tory of France a good
book.
II.
Slight Digression.
a leading French
thinker.
known in England by
his worst book.
III.
Serious Digression.
6, 6. All original
thinkers of modem
France revolutionary,
but profound and im
passioned.
What Not to Say.
317
12. Michelet'sIZiis-
tory adheres in the
main to facts.
10, 11. History does
not admit of wild
flights of speculation.
13, 14. History has
openings for error.
15. De Quincey, if
he wished, could find
errors in Michelet's
History.
16. The two angels
that stand by the side
of history.
17. No historian will
ever avoid error.
17. De Quincey's
c»bject of attack is
the bitter and unfair
spirit in which Mich-
elet writes.
18. Even that is a
secondary object ; the
primary object is Jo-
anna for herself.
The matter in the first column is clearly pertinent to the
theme of the essay, as well as to the theme of the paragraph.
That in the second column might be retained without seri-
ous offence against unity. But the matter in the third
column is so remotely connected with the theme of the
paragraph, and some of it so little pertinent even to the
theme of the essay, that it must be regarded as seriously
digressive. A considerable part of the matter in the third
column might be used to form a separate paragraph on the
general character of Michelet's History of France, were such
a paragraph desirable.
The following paragraph, after the first sentence, is a
318 Composition- Rhetoric,
series of digressions, each receding a little farther from the
proper subject of remark than its foregoer. The relation
of the digressions to the topic-sentence and to one another is
shown by the degree of indention.^
But what must we do with the sciences in schools — I mean
the elementary part of them ?
For I hope that the philosophers know a fact which I have
already laid down, — that the amount which we can teach in a
school to the ordinary kind of boys, that is, the very great
majority, is not much.
If the philosophers do not know this, they are unfit to
discuss the question, and are not worth arguing with.
I have already spoken of a small number of clever
boys in a school, who can learn anything, and will
learn something, whether you teach them or not.
I write as a man should write who deals with
realities and not with dreams — who is looking
after the great body of boys, and not the very
stupid or the very clever.
Writers who fail to secure unity in their compositions
may be helped by the following suggestions : —
1. Make a careful plan before writing. One may see
reasons for modifying and revising the "plan as the writing
proceeds, and one should never hesitate to do this, but.
having a plan to follow and trying to follow it closely will
help greatly to avoid offences against unity.
2. When the composition is completed, test each para-
graph by phrasing in a single sentence the main idea for
which the paragraph stands.
3. Challenge suspicious sentences, and make them give an
account of themselves. Ask persistently such questions as
" What business have these sentences in the paragraph ? "
1 This method of indicating digressive subordination is adopted from
Moulton's Literary Study of the Bible, Appendix IV, ** On the Use of the
Digression in the Book of Wisdom."
What Not to Say, 319
" What would be lost if I should strike them out ? " Espe-
cially be on your guard against the temptation to retain
" fine_paaaages/'
4. If digressions are discovered, consider whether the
digressive matter should be dropped altogether, or should
be taken out and organized by itself.
To secure unity, stick to your text.
EXERCISE 139.
What part of the following paragraph is on a different
subject from that announced in the topic-sentence at the
beginning ?
/ It is not requisite for the honor of Joanna, nor is there, in this
place, room to pursue her brief career of action. ^^ .That, though
wonderful, forms the earthly part of her story : the spiritual part
is the saintly passion of her imprisonment, trial, and execution.
I It is unfartuuate, therefore^for Southey's "Joan of Arc" (which,
however, should always be regarded as a juvenile effort), that, pre-
cisely when her real glory begins, the poem ends. >t But this hmita-
tion of the interest grew, no doubt, from the constraint inseparably
attached to the laws of epic unity. ) Joanna's history bisects into
two opposite hemispheres, and both could not have been presented
to the eye in one poem, unless by sacrificing all unity of theme, or
else by involving the earlier half, as a narrative episode, in the
latter ; which, however, might have been done, for it might have
been communicated to a fellow-prisoner, or a confessor, by Joanna
herself. |bt is sufficient, as concerns this section of Joanna's life,
to'^ay thait she fulfilled, to the height of her promises, the restora-
tion of the prostrate throne. ~/ France had become a province of
England ; and for the ruin of both, if such a yoke could be main-
tained^ Dreadful pecuniary exhaustion caused the English energy
to droop ; and that critical opening La Pucelle used with a corre-
sponding felicity of audacity and suddenness (that were in them-
selves portentous) for introducing the wedge of French native
resources, for rekindling the national pride, and for planting the
il
320 Composition- Rhetoric,
(Jauphin once "^iriore upon his >feet. (When Joanna appeared, he
had been on the point of giving up the struggle with the Eng-
lish, distressed as they were, and of flying to the south of France.
She taught him to blush for such abject counsels.]': She liberated
Orleans, that great city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of the
war, and then beleaguered by the English with an elaborate appli-
cation of engineering skill unprecedented in EuropeVVEntering the
city after sunset, on the 29th of April, she sang a mass on Sunday,
May 8, for the entire disappearance of the besieging force.^c; On the
29th of June, she fought and gained over the English the decisive
battle of Patay ; on the 9th of July, she took Troyes by a coup-
de-main from a mixed garrison of English and Burgundians ; on
the 15th of that month, she carried the dauphin into Rheims; on
Sunday the 17th, she crowned him ; and there she rested from her
labor of triumph.' ,> All that was to be done she had now accom-
plished : what remained was — to suffer,
EXERCISE 140.
In the following, two unrelated paragraphs are wrongfully
united. Where does the second begin ?
An amusing story is told in Gibraltar of an English soldier who
lost his heart to an officer's daughter on the voyage hither from
England. Impatient to behold his sweetheart again, he set out
for her house the very evening of the landing, but unluckily
entered the outer gate just as the sunset gun closed the inner
one, so the importunate loveig«ent the night miserably pacing
the pavement between the m1!#Xlibr altar has fared strangely in
the hands of fortune. Dedicated by the colonizing Moors with
an inscription in the castle mosque to the " God of Peace, the
great Pacificator," it has become the stronghold of war, and even
the quiet Franciscan convent has evolved into the governor's palace,
where balls and functions make it gay and festive. — Cosmopolitan,
]l9:624)
EXERCISE 141.
Make of the following a careful analysis by the method
suggested at the beginning of this lesson. Ee-write with
-) ^
What Not to Say, 321
due regard for unity, making as many paragraphs as you
think necessary.
! If the happy invention of printing had been known from the
beginning, we might have had the experience of men of olden
times, who lived ten times as long as I have lived, recorded in
folios without end or octavos endless, for it matters little, when a
book has no end, in what shape the volumes are. J^^And it may be , i
supposed that the experience of these aged men would have beeni
ten times as great as mine, and their books ten times as wise; bui^^
this I take the liberty of saying would be a very unsafe conclusion. ^
For I ain pretty nmch of the mind of the Roman emperor, Marcus
Aurelius, who says that a man who has lived forty years has seen
everything that is to be seen in the world.J^ I think indeed that he
was only forty years old when he wrote this, and that if he had SJ^k,
written it in the last years of his life, he would have allowed a (j
little longer time for seeing everything-T^ My own judgment is
that I have lived long enough to see all that a man can see in the
world, and partly for this reason that men after my age see very
little ; certainly I have lived long enough to hear all that is said
and a great deal more than is worth listening to.fo This mention
of Marcus Aurelius leads me to make a remark which the reader
ought to bear in mind all through this book, and I make it now
without considering whether it comes in the right place or not,
maintaining, as I do most stoutly, that a good remark is always ,
good, contrary to the opinion of those interested persons who
speak of a wise saying being spoiled by being put in the wrong
place ; which piece of criticism is bred of mere envy, such persons
knowing very well that they have nothing to say that is worth the
trouble of remembering."! On the, contrary, as I have a good many
good things to say, and as they come into my head quicker than
they can run off at the end of my pen, I am compelled to let them
come as they list, and it is better that they should jostle one an-
other a little and come in no order at all than that the world
should lose any of them.« For I verily believe, and I say it in seri-
ous sadness, that big books are written nowadays, in which a man
shall not find from beginning to end one single clear idea, one
remark worth pocketing and keeping, or one single fact that he
did not know before, but a great many false facts, and a great
322 Composition-Rhetoric,
many true facts put in a false light .^ I might go on to mention
various books of this kind, and I might even tell their names, if I
were spiteful enough and if I did not think more of doing good
myself than exposing those who do harm.KBut to cut this matter
short and not to do like so many who run away from their subject
as if they had forgotten it or were ashamed of it, I was speaking
of Marcus Aurelius, and of what he said about experience J' I now
say that this good emperor actually says what I say that he says ;
and so all through this book, when I tell the reader that any wise
man has said anything he may believe that I tell him the truth !
jV And I ask him to believe me because I tell him so, and not to
doubt because he does not see an exact reference to each passage
with book and chapter named, and sometimes Greek and Latin
and other languages printed with occasional mistakes; and how
^^. much trouble this has caused the printer, and whether it has not
sometimes almost brought an oath even out of a pious printer, I
rU^ will not say.'S But one thing I will say — and this is the way of
^ ^i saying a thing forcibly — one thing I will say, which is this: I
.^/^ know from my own experience, and my own experience is the best
part of my knowledge, that these learned references are as often
wrong as right in the books of all the second-hand dealers in learn-
ing; and I say it with great grief, that these poachers on other
men's lands are not near so useful as old clothesmen, for these fel-
lows carry at least a genuine article in their bags and have paid
for it, be it ever so tattered and worn ; and they are very much on
the increase, I mean the poachers ; and I know nothing short of
an act of Parliament that is likely to stop them, unless people
should give over buying their books, which I am disposed to think
would come to the same thing as not allowing them to be printed, y
^* I have another thing to say and then I have done with this matter/-
and it is this, — that the learned authors to whom these learned
writers of our days refer often contradict them, from which comes
the conclusion, that our fine scholar either never looked at the
passage to which he refers or that he could not understand it.
•^ Nothing of this kind will be found hereJ^I shall not quote any
learned man without looking into his book ; and as to my under-
standing what the book says, I trust that no reader will have got
so far in this address without placing full confidence in me. ' I
have already told the reader that I am a learned man, and I am
What Not to Say, 823
not ashamed of it, and I will not deny it; and before he has read
through this book, I hope that I shall have convinced him that I
am a man of sense, which is rather better than being a learned
man ; or at any rate if it is not better, I will say this, that learning
without sense, if the thing is possible, is not worth half as much
as learning and sense together; and lastly I earnestly wish the
reader to believe, and I shall try to convince him of that too, that
I am an honest man, and I think this is worth more than learning
and sense together, though I think that an honest man should
have some sense, and for my part I would not trust his honesty if
I could not trust his sense.
i
LESSOlsr 39.
Incoherence,
Closely connected with the question of unity, how to
stick to the text, is the question of coherence, how to make
the parts of a composition hang together. Incoherence in
a composition results most often from a lack of careful plan-
ning at the outset. Successive paragraphs in an incoherent
composition do not show logical relationship to one another,
and the same may be true of successive sentences within a
paragraph. When a sentence is unduly prolonged, it is
quite likely to lack coherence ; the parts do not hang to-
gether well.
Upon the return from Cales without success, though all the
ships, and, upon the matter, all the men were seen, (for though
some had so surfeited in the vineyards, and with the wines, that
they had been left behind, the generosity of the Spaniards had
sent them all home again ;) and though by that fleet's putting in
at Plymouth, near two hundred miles from London, there could
be but very imperfect relations, and the news of yesterday was
contradicted by the morrow ; besides that the expedition had been
undertaken by the advice of the parliament, and with an universal
approbation of the people, so that nobody could reasonably speak
loudly against it ; yet, notwithstanding all this, the ill success wasi
324 Composition-Ithetoric.
heavily borne, and imputed to ill conduct; the principal officers
of the fleet and army divided amongst themselves, and all united
in their murmurs against the general, the Lord Viscount Wimble-
don; who, though an old officer in Holland, was never thought
equal to the enterprise. — Clarendon: History of the Rebellion,
1,70.
The same danger which besets the paragraph, of forget-
ting the exact topic and putting in something irrelevant,
besets the sentence also.
In the United States every male child that is born has a chance,
though not an equal chance, for some are naturally more gifted
than their fellows with a genius for success, though our Constitution
says they are not, of becoming the foremost person in his city, in
his state, or in the community at large.
There is also the danger of over-crowding a sentence with
details which, though perhaps relevant, are so numerous as
to make the thought hard to follow. The third sentence
below is over-crowded with details about Dryden, which
would better have been omitted or taken out and organized
into a sentence by themselves.
1. Davies is remembered for his philosophical poem, the earliest
of the kind in the language. 2. It is written in rhyme, in the
common heroic ten-syllable verse, but disposed in quatrains. 3. No
other writer has managed this difficult stanza so successfully as
Davies : it has the disadvantage of requiring the sense to be in
general closed at certain regularly and quickly recurring turns,
which yet are very ill adapted for an effective pause ; and even all
the skill of Dryden has been unable to force it from a certain air
of monotony and languor, — a circumstance of which that poet
may be supposed to have been himself sensible, since he wholly
abandoned it after one or two early attempts. 4. Davies, how-
ever, has conquered its difficulties; and, as has been observed,
" perhaps no language can produce a poem, extending to so great
a length, of more condensation of thought, or in which fewer lan-
guid verses will be found."
What Not to Say, 825
The attempt to have a sentence say too much frequently
leads to confusion^ making the main idea hard to lind^
Of the French town, properly so-called, in which the product of
successive ages, not without lively touches of the present, are
blended together harmoniously with a beauty specific — a beauty
cisalpine and northern, yet at the same time quite distinct from
the massive German picturesque of Ulm, or Freiburg, or Augsburg,
and of which Turner has found the ideal in certain of his studies
of the rivers of France, a perfectly happy conjunction of river
and town being of the essence of its physiognomy — the town of
Auxerre is perhaps the most complete realization to be found by
the actual wanderer.
This confusion not infrequently shows itself in involved
clauses, — wheels within wheels, — which are to be avoided.
7 In the crowd near the door there was found upon the ground a
V hat, in the Jiiside whereof there was sewed upon the crown a papeiv
Am) i^^hi<^h was writ four or five lines of that declaration made by
i" the house of commons in which they had styled the duke an
\ enemy to the kingdom, and under it a short ejaculation or two
^ towards a prayer. — Clarendon : History of the Rebellion, I, 51.
The involution of clauses in the foregoing sentence may
be indicated thus : —
(a) There was found a hat
(&) in the inside whereof there was a paper.
(c) in which was w^rit four or five lines of that decla-
ration made by the house of commons
(d) in which they had styled the duke an enemy
to the kingdom.
There may be so many things mentioned in a sentence
that the reader cannot tell just what the seatence-topic is.
Such a sentence is said to be heterogeneous.
His [King Charles's] inclination to his new cup-bearer [Villiers]
disposed him to administer frequent occasion of discoursing of the
tesi <i^lj-iM.XA^
V)
326 Composition- Rhetoric,
court of France, and the transactions there, with which he 'had
been so lately acquainted, that he (iould pertinently enlarge upon
that subject, to the king*s great delight, an(| to^the gaining the
esteem and value of all the standers-by^jjio Jiimseff : which was a
thing the king was well pleased with, t^ afcted very few weeks
upon this stage, when he mounted higher ; and being knighted,
without any other qualification, he was at the same time made
gentleman of the bedchamber and knight of the order of the
garter J and in a short time (very short for such a prodigious
ascent) he was made a baron, a viscount, an earl, a marquis, and
became lord high admiral of England, lord warden of the cinque
ports, master of the horse, and entirely disposed of all the graces of
the kingj in conferring all the honors and all the offices of three
kingdoms, without a rival; in dispensing whereof, h^ Vfas guided
more by the rules of appetite than of judgment ; and so exalted
almost all of his own numerous family and dependants, whose
greatest merit was their alliance to him, which equally offended
the ancient nobility, and the people of all conditions, who saw the
flowers of the crown every day fading and withered ; whilst the
demesnes and revenue thereof were sacrificed to the enriching a
private family (how well soever originally extracted) scarce ever
heard of before to the nation; and the expenses of the court so
vast and unlimited, that they had a sad prospect of that poverty
and necessity, which afterwards befell the crown almost to the ruin
of it. — Clarendon : History of the Rebellion, I, 18.
A sudden and unexpected change of subject in a sentence
is a hindrance to cohesion.
As he paused on the crest of the hill, looking foolishly about
him and wondering where his tormentor could have hidden her-
self, a low faint tittering was heard, which seemed to come from
the interior of the earth.
Coherence will be promoted by making the principal
clause read _as follows: "He heard a low, faint tittering,
which seemed to come from the interior of the earth."
One needs to be cautious about appending a phrase or
clause to a sentence as if by an afterthought.
What Wot to Say, 327
Though he stood on the very spot where Leonidas and his hand-
ful of Greeks had repulsed the Persian hosts and stayed the tide of
Oriental barbarism, he could think of nothing but his lost umbrella
and he could call up no sentiment more noble than a desire to be
seated, clothed and in his right mind, in a first-class hotel before a
good hot dinner, which is not an uncommon experience for tourists.
Th words of reference, especially the pronouns, need
careful attention. The writer should see that every one of
his words of reference points with unerring accuracy to the
word or expression to which he wishes to refer. Common
errors are the use of their for its ^ (a word in the singular
preceding) and thei^e is for there are (a word in the plural
following).
1 A fortune of ^118,000 is hanging on the grammatical construction of a
single word, in the superior court of San Francisco. A jury, among whom
there is not a school-teacher or any one claiming to be an authority on
grammar, had, up to a week ago [Jan. 12, 1896], devoted 12 days to the
consideration of the point, and at last account the case was still unsettled.
The learned judg and some half dozen high-priced lawyers had been help-
ing to disentangle the intricacies of the problem.
The prize depends on the exact meaning of the word "their" as it
appears in a clause in a contract. It is plain that the word is a pronoun,
standing for an antecedent noun in the sentence, but there are two such
nouns, and the point is as to which it refers. This is the $118,000
sentence : —
And at their option the Adams company is to have the use of all the
machinery and coal hoisting appliances now in use by the Southern com-
panies.
The Southern companies referred to have the money which is at stake,
and if the jury decide that the *' their " refers to them they will keep it.
If they hold that " their " refers to the Adams company, then the Adams
company will get it. The sentence occurs in a contract by which the
Adams company was to unload all the coal ships of the Southern Pacific
Railroad company for five years. The Adams company owned machinery
for unloading the coal, but it broke down, and then the Southern Pacific
company's machinery was used, the Adams company claiming the right
to use it by virtue of the clause quoted. After the contract had run six
months the Southern Pacific's machinery also broke down, and the Adams
company alleged that the Southern people ought to repair it. The South-
328 Composition- Rhetoric.
In the following the writer has been careful to use the
word " it " to refer to but one thing throughout the para-
graph.
If there is such a thing as a prose poem, the grandest example
thereof is in our language : it is Carlyle's French Revolution. In
conception it is Epic ; in vocabulary Cyclopic, in execution Titanic.
It stands alone. It is strange, marvellous, sohtary. It has nothing
about it that is exemplary or propagative ; it may be admired, but
it cannot be imitated. It has no advice for the student but to
wonder and stand aloof. It is and must remain unique; prolific
it is not, belonging to no species ; it is a lusus naturce, a strange
and happy sport, a chanceling in Nature. — Earle : English
Prose, 165.
The main idea of a__paragi:aph is kept prominent, and
coherence thus helped, by repeating it Irt'erally or in syn-
onymous expressions at various points in the paragraph.
In the following paragraph, for example, Webster, desiring
to keep attention fixed upon the idea " the value of learning,
ern objected and insisted that as long as it used the machinery the Adams
company should keep it in order. The trouble thickened, and finally the
Southern company turned the Adams company out and got another con-
cern to unload the coal. Then the Adams company brought suit to recover
$118,000, the profit which would have been made had the contract run its
agreed length.
It is said that the Southern Pacific company's lawyer did not see the
possibilities in the queer bit of grammar until long after litigation had
been begun. It was admitted in the first answer to the suit, that the
Adams company had the option of using the Southern Pacific company's
machinery. But the latter company now rests the entire case on the con-
tention that the word " their " meant the Southern companies and not the
Adams company. In the sentence under dispute appear the words " Adams
company is," and the Southern companies claim that the word ** company "
is therefore written in the singular sense and the word " their " cannot
apply to it. If the writer had meant it to apply to the Adams company,
he would have used the word **its" instead of "their." The other side
claims that the word "their" must refer to the Adams company because
the latter is the nearest noun to the disputed pronoun. — San Francisco
Examiner,
What Not to Say. 329
especially of classical learning/' proceeds as follows : (1) the
idea of learning in general is carried from sentence to
sentence by means of the synonymous expressions ^^litera-
ture/' " learning/' " literature, ancient as well as modern/'
and the allied expression " learned men " ; (2) the idea of
classical learning is similarly carried on by literal repeti-
tion of the words " classical learning/' and by the synony-
mous expression "scholarship/' and the allied expression
" scholars." (3) The pronoun "it." is used to carry on now
one now the other of these ideas. In the illustration the first
series of reference words is put in small capitals, the second
in italics, and the word " it " is in small capitals or italics
according as it takes the place of the first or of the second.
Literature sometimes disgusts, and pretension to it much
oftener disgusts, by appearing to hang loosely on the character,
like something foreign or extraneous, not a part, but an ill-adjusted
appendage; or by seeming to overload and weigh it down by its
unsightly bulk, like the productions of bad taste in architecture,
where there is massy and cumbrous ornament without strength or
solidity of column. This has exposed learning, and especially
classical learning^ to reproach. Men have seen that it might exist
without mental superiority, without vigor, without good taste, and
without utility. But in such cases classical learning has only not
inspired natural talent ; or, at most, it has but made original feeble-
ness of intellect, and natural bluntness of perception, something
more conspicuous. The question, after all, if it be a question, is,
whether literature, ancient as well as modern, does not
assist a good understanding, improve natural good taste, add
polished armor to native strength, and render its possessor, not
only more capable of deriving private happiness from contem-
plation and reflection, but more accomplished also for action in
the affairs of life, and especially for public action. Those whose
memories we now honor were learned men ; but their learning
was kept in its proper place, and made subservient to the uses and
objects of life. They were sc/ioZ«rs, not common nor superficial;
but their scholarship was so in keeping with their character, so
330
Composition-Rhetoric,
blended and inwrought, that careless observers, or bad judges, not
seeing an ostentatious display of it, might infer that it did not
exist; forgetting, or not knowing, that classical learning in men
who act in conspicuous public stations, perform duties which exer-
cise the faculty of writing, or address popular, deliberative, or
judicial bodies, is often felt where it is little seen, and sometimes
felt more effectually because it is not seen at all. — Webster :
Adams and Jefferson.
Coherence is helped by employing what is known as the
" ,gcho " from sentence to sentence or from -paragraph to
paragraph.^ Compare the following, noticing how much
more closely the "^echo " words (here italicised) are brought
together in the second column than in the first.
The old Greek citizen founded
cities in his settlements beyond
the sea, cities free and indepen-
dent from the beginning. Let
us now see what has been founded
by the modern European colo-
nist, subject of a kingdom. He
has founded settlements of vari-
ous kinds in different cases;
but he has nowhere founded
cities free and independent like
the Greek and Phoenician be-
fore him. He has indeed
founded cities in one sense, vast
and mighty cities, busy seats
of art and industry and com-
merce, but not cities in the
elder sense, cities independent
from their birth, cities that are
born the political equals of the
mightiest kingdoms.
The old Greek citizen, in his
settlements beyond the sea^
founded cities, cities free and in-
dependent from the beginning.
Let us now see what the modern
European colonist, subject of a
kingdom, has founded. He has
founded settlements of various
kinds in different cases; but he
has nowhere founded free and
independent cities like the Greek
and Phoenician before him.
Cities indeed in one sense he
has founded, vast and mighty
cities, busy seats of art and in-
dustry and commerce, but not
cities in the elder sense, cities
independent from their birth,
cities that are born the political
equals of the mightiest king-
doms. — Freeman.
1 See J. M. Hart, Handbook of English Composition, pp. 14, 31.
What Not to Say, 331
Coherence is also helped by a careful use of words of
explicit reference, words which point clearly and accurately
to certain other words before or after. The principal words
of this kind are conjunctional and demonstrative words and
phrasesj such as further, on the contrary, moreover, nor, hut,
however, still, after what has been saicL fotJMsjreasoii, so too,
in this manner, therefore, first, secondly, lastly, the one — the
Qth^, and the relative and demonstrative pronouns.
Omit or re-organize any part of your composition which does not
hang together with the rest. Make each sentence stand for some
one idea. Attend carefully to the outward signs of coherence, such
as reference-words and repetitions.
EXERCISE 142.
Point out the words of reference in the following : —
One of the most graceful poetical writers of the reign of James I
is William Drummond, of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh ; ajid he
is further deserving of notice as the first of his countrymen, at
least of any eminence, who aspired to write in English. He has
left us a quantity of prose as well as verse ; thq foriaer very much
resembling the style of Sir Philip Sidney in his Arcadia, — thsu
latter, in manner and spirit, formed more upon the model of
Surrey, or^ather upon that of Petrarch and the other Italian poets
whom Surrey and many of his English successors imitated. I^o
early English imitator of the Italian poetry, however, has excelled
Drummond, either in the sustained melody of his verse, or in its rich
vein of thoughtful tenderness.
EXERCISE 143. A/ .^^^UL "O^ V^V/ ^
In the following paragraph are four different subjects of
remark : a, " several pious individuals '^ ; b, improvement
of the condition of criminals ; c, the new prisons ; d, the old
prisons. These are denoted, as often as they occur in the
UriJ^>unK : - ^ '^^>^ (>4^^ III CAjuyua^/l^
332 Composition-IthetoHa.'-
paragraph^ by tiie letters a, 5, c, and c? respectively. Re-write
the paragraph, substituting for these letters proper words
and phrases of explicit reference. Take care to introduce
some variety into the reference-words, and see that the
thought grows in repetition.
Some years ago several pious individuals midertook to meliorate
the condition of the prisons. The public was excited by the,state-4 |
ments which a put forward, and ^'became a-^we3?y popular twAiTV
taHiig. Xevv prisons were built; and, for the first time, the-'idFa ^^
oih formed a part of prison discipline. But &, in which the public
had taken so hearty an interest, and which the exertions of the
citizens had irresistibly accelerated, could not be completed in a
moment. While c were being erected (and it was the pleasure of
/; V the^ majority c should be terminated with all possible celerity),
^k/ i^i' existed, which still contained a great number of olfenders. d
became more unwholesome and more corrupt in proportion as c
were beautified and improved, forming a contrast which may be
readily i^iiderstood. The majority was so eagerly employed in
founding c tluit d were forgotten ; and as the general attention was
diverted to c, the care which had hitherto been bestowed upon d fj \
ceased. The salutary regulations of discipline were first relaxed, ^^^
IV and afterwards broken ; so tmit in tlie immediate neighborhood of
jp^ c, d might be met with. ^ .
EXERCISE 144. ^
Examine the following sentences closely for unity and
coherence. Ee- write or amend to avoid violations of unity
and coherence. '
If you had known when you writ ^ your letter the satisfaction
I have to hear from you, you would not have given yourself the
trouble to have made so many excuses t^^J^ for it \ and though I
hope my sister will never have more occasion to make you her
1 This letter is by the Princess Mary, wife of William of Orange. The
form "writ" for ** wrote" was in general use in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.
secretary, yet that you will sometimes write, wlnoll. whenever you
do iljVill jsfe with great pleasm-e tc^e both for your onvjj sake and *^ . ^
my sister Isabella, that 1 may hear how she does, wlii(;li will Ix;
the greatest joy that can be to me when I hear she is well, and
otherwise a very great* affliction ; for though she is so little as not
to be sensible of the love I have for her, yet I cannot help telling. 'Vx^ y<
it to you, and desir^ you to b6 very VA 'assured 'that for your-xT- ''r
' selM ShaH always ihave great' kindness for you, and be ever jouv^/"-^^
affectionate friend, ^.^ /, ,
I { Mary. Uj^
Having passed ^ife all the winter,\imtil about the latter, end
of January, without any such memorable accident as I shall think—-
fit to set down particularly, I took my leave of the French King, :
Queen Margaret, and the nobles and ladies in both courts; at - i(\JW
which time the Princess of Conti desired me to carry a- scarf into . . -
England, ayd preseni; it to Queen Anne on hor^pa^t, w^hich Wing' ^^^^
axicep^ed-, n^«fif and Sir Thomas Lucy (whose second I had been
twice in France, against two cavaliers of our nation, wh^ry^-ifere-
hindered to fight with us in the field wdiere we attended them),
^^^^ase^came on our way as far as Dieppe, in Norman dy^-imd there
took ship about f the .beginning of ^^bruary^ /wSaes>^a*Turious ^
storm arose, tKat with vei-y great daiigei' we were at sea alf night.
The master of ovir ship lost both the use of his compass andj
reason ; for *Kit knowing whither he was carried by the tempest.
the help he had was by the lightnings, which t
very frequently that night, terrified him, yet gave the adv^ttag
sometimes to- discover whether we were upon our coast^'to wnic
he thought, by the course of his glasses, we were near approached ;
and now towards day we found ourselves, by gjfeat providence of
G-od, within view of Dover, to which the master of our ship did
make. The men of Dover, rising by times in the morning to see
whether any ship were coming towards them, w^ere in great num-
bers upon shore, a| believing the tempest, which had thrown down
barns and trees near the town, might give them the benefit of
some wrreck, i£..pogohahoD^ny-ship -w^re driven thitherwards.
We coming thus fn extreme danger straight upon the pier of
Dover, which stands out in the sea,mnraiip was unfortunately split
against it; the master said, ^^Mes arnis, nous sommes perdus,'' or,
" My friends, we are cast away ; " when myself, who heard the ship
r\jt^
334 Composition-Rhetoric,
crack against the pier, and then found, by the master's words, it
was time for every one to save themselves, if they could\ got out of
my cabin (though very sea-sick), and, climbing up the mast a little
way, drew my sword and flourished it ; they at Dover having this
sign given them, adventurecrlh a shallop of six oars to relieve us,
which, b^^g^jcbikS With great danger to the side of our ship, I. got
into it first, with my sword in my hand, and called for Sir Thomas
■Lucy, saying that if any man offered to get in before him I should
resist him with my sword; whereupon a faithful servant of his
taking Sir Thomas Lucy out of thB- cabin, who was half dead of
sea-sickness, put him into my arms» wht^rti after I had received,
I bade the shallop make away for shore, and the ratlier thut I saw
another shallop comiijg to relieve us; when a post from France,
wHo carried letters, finiirig' the ship still rent more and more,
aSlventured to leap from the top of our ship into the shalloj^
^^*^e,*ialling fortunately on some of the stronger timber of the
boat, and not on the planks, which he mijst needs have broken,
and so sunk us had he fallen upon them, escaped,' ti^gethexLjfiith
us two, tAto the laijcj. \ [^ , ,
I must confess, myself, as also the seamen that were in the
shallop, thought once to have killed htm "for this desperate at-
tempt ; but finding"^ lic/'ifarm followed, we escaped together unto
the land, from whence we sent more shallops, and so. m^^de means
to save both men and horses that were in the sjjipi which yet itseli '
was wholly split and cast away, insomuch that,|^ pity to the mas-
X ter, Sir Thomas Lucy and myself ^'ave £30 towards hi^ loss, wh^ich
•yet was not so great as we thought, since the tide now ebbing,' he
recovered the broken parts of his ship.
EXERCISE 145.
In chapter 23, volume 1, of James Bryce's American Com-
monwealthy on the interpretation of the Constitution, the
introduction ends with this sentence, which, lays down the
plan of the whole chapter : —
"There are three points that chiefly need discussion:
(I) the authorities entitled to interpret the Constitution,
(II) the main principles followed in determining whether
What Not to Say. 335
or no the Constitution has granted certain powers, (III) the
checks on possible abuses of the interpreting power." "^
The chapter is an admirable illustration of the way in
Avhich coherence is secured. Following are the beginnings
and some of the endings of the paragraphs. Study them
closely and answer the questions at the close.
1. 1. To whom does it belong to interpret the Constitution?
-------- the Supreme Federal court.
2. Where the Federal courts have declared the meaning of a
law, every one ought to accept and guide himself by their deliver-
ance.
3. There are also points of construction on which every court
will refuse to decide ------_-. These points are
accordingly left to the discretion of the executive and legislative
powers.
4. It is therefore an error to suppose that the judiciary is the
only interpreter of the Constitution.
5. The above is the doctrine now generally accepted in America.
But at one time the Presidents claimed the much wider right of
being entitled to interpret the Constitution for themselves - - -.
Majorities in Congress have more than once claimed for themselves
the same independence. --------If the latter have
not used this freedom tostretch the Constitution even more than they
a. D. I he tonstitution Aas oeeri expanuea by construction m two
ways. - - - - _>>- - _ This is one way. The other is
7. Questions of the above kinds sometimes arise as questions
of interpretation in the strict sense of the term.
8. N'ow the doctrines laid down by Chief -Justice Marshall may
be summed up in two propositions.
9. Firsts every power alleged to be vested in the National gov-
ernment, or any organ thereof, must be affirmatively shown to
have been granted. --------
10. Secondly. When once the grant of a power by the people
to the iSTational government has been established, that powder will
be construed broadly. -------- Qq^ school of
336 Composition-Rhetoric,
statesmen urged that a lax construction would practically leave
the States at the mercy of the I^^ational government - _ _ -.
It was replied by the op£osite school that ------ -.
11. This latter contention derived much support from the fact
that there were certain powers -------- not men-
tioned in the Constitution --------so obviously
incident to a National government that they must be deemed to
be raised by implication. For instance -----_-_.
12. The three lines along'^trrciT'ifAis development of the implied
powers of the government has chiefly progressed, have been those
marked out by the three express powers of taxing and borrowing
money, of regulating commerce, and of carrying on war. - - -
The executive and the majority in Congress found themselves
obliged to stretch this [the war] power ------_-.
13. The courts have occasionally gone evenjurther afield.
14. The ali^}22£=^ii^mLaned instances of development have been worked
out hy the courts of law. But others are due to the action of the
executive, or of the executive and Congress jointly. Thus, in 1803,
15. The best way to give an adequate notion of the^Qxtent^o
which the outlines of the Constitution have been filed up by interpreta-
tion and construction would be to -------- enu-
merate the decisions.
III. 16. We notv come to the third question : How is the interpreting
authority restrained ?
17. The answer is two-fold. In the first place -----.
18. In the second place --------".
19. A singular result of the importance of constitutional interpre-
tation in the American government may be here referred to. It is tM&rm
that the United States legislature has been very largely occupied
in purely legal discussions.
20. A father consequence of this habit is pointed out by one of the
most thoughtful among American constitutional writers. Legal issues
are apt to dwarf and obscure the more substantially important
issues of principles and policy --------.
21. "The English legislature," says Judge Hare, "is free to
follow any course that will promote the welfare of the State
--------. In the United States, on theother hand^
the question primarily is one of power --------.
What Not to Say, 337
22. The interpretation of the Constitution has at times become
so momentous as to furnish a basis for the formation of political
parties; ---_-___ Constitutional interpretation
was a pretext rather than a cause, a matter of form rather than of
substance.
23. The results were both good and evil. They were good in
so far as--------. They were evil ------
in cultivating a habit of casuistry ---_--_-.
24. Since the Civil War there has been much less of this casu-
' in——— II n
istr]^, ________ the Broad Construction view of
the Constitution having practically prevailed.
(a) What expressions in paragraph 5 serve to prepare for
the second main division ?
(b) What words at the end of paragraph 1 are repeated
at the beginning of paragraph 2 ? Find other instances in
the subsequent paragraphs of this device for binding para-
graphs together.
(c) Explain the relationship to what precedes or what
follows which is expressed by the words " also " and "accord-
ingly;" in paragraph's ; the word "therefore" in paragraph
4; "above," "at one time," "the same," in paragraph 5;
"this," in 6; "now," in 8 ; "first," in 9 ; "secondly," "one,"
" opposite," in 10 ; " this latter contention," " for instance,"
in 11 ; " this development," in 12 ; " even further," in 13 ;
" above-mentioned," " others," " thus," in 14 ; " the extent,"
etc., in 15 ; " now," in 16 ; " result," "this," in 19 ; " further,"
in 20 ; " on the other hand," in 21 ; " this casuistry," in 24.
APPENDIX A.
DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING MANUSCRIPT.
1. Use only black ink, the blacker the better.
2. Write on one side of the sheet only.
3. Leave the margin blank for the teacher's corrections.
4. Write as legibly as you can, avoiding flourishes and curlicues.
5. Put the title on the first line, and to show what it is, under-
line it with three straight lines or one wavy line. Leave one blank
line between the title and the body of the essay.
6. By taking pains as you write, avoid the necessity of erasures
and interlineations. If corrections must be made, make them
neatly. To strike out a word draw a horizontal line through it,
but do not enclose it in parentheses. In making additions, use the
caret.
7. Indent for a paragraph at least one inch. Beware of indent-
ing where no paragraph is intended.
8. Except at the end of a paragraph, avoid a noticeable blank
space at the end of a sentence. (See Fig. 2, page 341.)
9. Leave the sheets of your manuscript flat. Do not fold them ;
do not fasten them together, or turn down the corners ; above all,
do not roll them.
10. Write your name and the number of the page in the upper
right-hand corner of each sheet.^
11. In making an outline, or skeleton, or analysis, follow the
form of outline given on page 274 of this book. Do not disfigure
the page by using "braces."
12. Locate your quotations by giving the author's name, the
name of the book, the number of the volume, and the page.
1 For more detailed instructions, the teacher is referred to the Rhetoric Tablet^
published by Ginn & Co., Boston.
339
340
Composition-Rhetoric,
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Fia. 1.— A page of manuscript prepared in accordance with the instructions given
on the preceding page. For the meaning of the figures in the upper right-hand corner
see the Rhetoric Tablet.
Appendix A. 341
L4/ cpjuit "WiM/ziy, TW^yvi/O X/j yviu \myi(iiAJMJL -n/rwvU
iMkaJjMAf Jb6 AjiUjJLoLhj an/ici MAMuyia jJ aJ'i4Vi'<4^
iru yyu/yyu.
lit aJ lAnju jUyi^rtrdjL^ynjyi^ (rl AvJ^ OMy, M^^ yi/iirdjJi, tw
JMmj OMJy AMh OyyuJuJ^ iJiAJU- yLrVj yUV^ oJUL tvUj
Fig. 2. —This shows a common fault in pupils' manuscripts. Beginning each new
sentence at the margin, the writer has left noticeable blank spaces at the right.
APPENDIX B.
MARKS USED IN CORRECTING.
a. In the MS.
The vfords, clauses, or sentences to which the marginal correc-
tions refer, are indicated by crossing out, by underscoring, or by
enclosing in brackets or circles. A caret shows the point at which
something is to be supplied. An inverted caret marks the omission
of the apostrophe or of quotation marks.
h. In the Margin.
Amb. — Ambiguous.
(1) Squinting construction.
When a phrase or clause is so placed that it may
equally well be understood to refer to what precedes it
and to what follows it, it is said to squint. See pp. 257,
258.
(2) Participle for clause.
Supplant a participle by a clause whenever more than
one interpretation is possible. Example : " Situated only
a few miles from St. Paul, Minneapolis has grown with
marvellous rapidity.'* Write either ^'Because it is situ-
ated," or "Although it is situated," according to the
meaning intended.
(3) Misrelated Participle.
The grammatical relation of the participle to the rest
of the sentence should not be left in doubt. Examples :
" Having dared to take up the cause of the abolitionists
his friends would no longer consort openly with him."
342
Appendix B. 343
Does "having dared" belong with "friends" or with
" him " ? " Looking across the bay a large ocean steamer
was seen headed directly for the harbor." To what word
does the participle "looking" belong?
Ant. — Antecedent needs Attention.
(1) Tioo or more possible antecedents.
Be sure fehat the antecedent to wiiich a relative refers
is clear and unmistakable. See pp. 327-329.
(2) No antecedent.
Guard against using a relative clause that has no ante-
cedent.
(3) Relative and antecedent do not agree.
Singular antecedents require singular pronouns of refer-
ence; relative and antecedent should agree in number.
"He is one of those men who disapproves of every new
idea," should be " He is one of those men who disapprovey'
etc. "Everybody votes according to their own convic-
tions," should be " Everybody votes according to Ms own
convictions."
(4) Repeat the antecedent.
Repeat an idea when the relative alone is not sufficient
for clearness. " His opponents w^ere at this time involved
in expensive litigation, which partly accounts for the
feebleness of their opposition." The meaning probably
is "a circumstance which partly accounts for," etc. See
pp. 328, 329.
Cap. — Capitalize.
See Appendix E.
CI. — Not Clear, Vague, Obscure, Indefinite.
(1) Omission of necessary word or ivords.
(2) Word or idea needs to be repeated.
Repeat a word when its omission would cause obscurity.
See pp. 328, 329.
(3) Confusion of Ideas.
344 Compositioyi-Rhetoric,
Cnst. — Construction Faulty.
(1) Wrong coiistricction.
Examples : " He found that going to school was differ-
ent than (say from what) he expected." " My principal
had forfeited the privilege to choose (say of choosing) his
own w^eapons."
(2) Unexpected change of construction.
In similar parts of the sentence use the same construc-
tion. Do not say, '' I prefer choosing my own friends and
to carry out my own plans," but either, " I prefer choosing
my own friends and carrying out my own plans," or "I
prefer to choose my own friends and to carry out my own
plans."
(3) Awkward construction.
Avoid awkward constructions, such as, " She inquired
of the Superintendent as to the probability of her brother's
suspension from the school" (better, "She asked the Su-
perintendent if her brother was likely to be suspended from
the school "). " Their destination was arrived at by them
by daybreak" (" By daybreak they arrived at their desti-
nation").
(4) Involved clauses.
Beware of involved clauses. See p. 325.
Con. — Connection Faulty.
(1) Means of explicit reference (conjunctions, demonstra-
tives, modifications of sentence-structure) not skilfully man-
aged.
See pp. 328-331.
(2) Wrong conjunction used.
Distinguish different degrees and dift'erent kinds of
connection in such words as yet, still, but, however, and,
so, while, whereas, even, together, with, since, hence, because,
for, etc. See p. 105.
Appendix B, 845
(3) Connectives used where they can be omitted.
Connectives may sometimes be omitted with a gain to
force. Thus it is less forcible to say " Run and tell your
father the house is on fire," than to say " Run ! Tell your
father the house is on fire."
(4) Transitional phrase or sentence needed.
Short summarizing phrases or sentences maybe needed,
at times, to indicate the direction which the thought is
next to take, or the manner of treatment to be pursued.
See pp. 134, 135.
(5) Illogical sequence.
See pp. 241-243, 323-325.
Cond. — Condense.
See pp. 306-310.
D. — See the Dictionary.
E. — Bad English.
(1) Diction impure^ inaccuratej or unidiomatic.
See pp. 205-209.
(2) Construction borrowed, from some other language.
A construction borrowed from some other language
requires a change to the natural word-order of English.
Eu. — Euphony Violated.
Exp. — Expand.
See pp. 297-301.
Fig. — Error in the Use of Figurative Language.
(1) Mixed metaphor.
See pp. 224, 225.
(2) Allusion obscure.
Images of things that are familiar are easier to under-
stand than images of things that are unfamiliar. See
p. 224.
346 Composition-Rhetoric.
(3) Figure uncalled for.
See p. 223.
rVT. — 'Fine Writing.'
The attempt to give a commonplace idea dignity and
force, or humor, by the use of big words and pretentious
phrases, is termed ' fine writing.' Thus ''An individual
designated by the not uncommon cognomen of Smith"
is 'fine writing' for " a man named Smith."
Gr. — Bad Grammar.
(1) Concord in number or tense not observed.
(2) Use of Shall and WUl
See p. 208.
Kp. — Out of Keeping.
(1) Tone of the composition not consistently maintained.
At no point should the composition vary perceptibly
from the level of thought or feeling on which it was begun.
A commonplace or colloquial remark in a composition
whose prevailing tone is pathetic, a jest or a piece of slang
in a composition whose prevailing note is spiritual, are
often ruinous to the effect that would otherwise be pro-
duced.
(2) In bad taste,
1. c. — Change Capital to Small Letter.
p. — Bad Punctuation.
See Appendix E.
Pos. — "Wrong Position.
(1) Related words separated.
Related words, phrases, and clauses should be brought
as close as possible to the elements which they modify.
See pp. 259, 260.
(2) Important words in unemphatic positions.
Important words should occupy emphatic positions.
See pp. 260-262.
Appendix B. 347
(3) Unimportant words in empliatic positions.
See pp. 260-262.
R. — Repetition to be Avoided.
Avoid needless repetitions of the same word or sound.
Rel. — Relative Pronoun at Fault.
(1) Coordinate for restrictive relative, or vice versa.
See p. 209.
(2) Relative may he omitted.
The restrictive relative, when the object of a verb,
may often be omitted without loss of clearness. Thus
" I am the man you seek " is sometimes preferable to " I
am the man that you seek."
Sent. — Wrong Form of Sentence.
(1) Periodic for loose sentence, or vice versa.
See pp. 161-165, 175-180.
(2) Monotonous recurrence of the same form of sentence.
See pp. 142-145, 157, 162-164, 177.
SI. —Slang.
See p. 207.
Sp. — Bad Spelling.
T. — Tautology.
Tr. — Transpose.
U. —Unity Violated.
(1) Sentence contains unrelated idea or too many ideas.
See pp. 324, 325.
(2) Clauses appended or not properly subordinated.
Appended phrases and clauses should be reduced to
inconspicuous forms or transferred to inconspicuous posi-
tions. Subordinate details should be kept subordinate in
form of statement.
(3) Unity of paragraph violated.
See pp. 314-319.
348 Composition-Rhetoric.
W. — Weak.
(1) Terms too general.
Use particular and concrete expressions to give vigor
and interest. See pp. 219-223.
(2) Anti-dimax.
See pp. 234-236.
(3) Hackneyed ivords or phrases.
Avoid trite and meaningless expressions.
1 — Paragraph.
Noll —Do not paragraph.
8 — Omit.
X or ? — Error, not specified.
O — Join the parts of a word, incorrectly separated.
(-) — Hyphen to be supplied.
c. At Beginning or End op the MS.
One of the above marks placed at the beginning or end of the
manuscript warns the writer against a prevailing fault. The gen-
eral character of the manuscript is indicated by the following
letters : A, excellent ; B, fair ; C, poor ; D, very bad, rewrite.
APPENDIX C.
MATERIAL FOR ANALYSIS AND REPRODUCTION.
(a) Stories.
1. Aldrich. Marjorie Daw. Atlan., 31 : 407.
2. Hawthorne. The Gentle Boy.
3. Higginson. A Charge with Prince Rupert. Atlan., 3 ; 725.
4. Hale. The Man without a Country. Atlan., 12 : 665.
5. Jewett. The Shore House. Atlan., 32 : 358.
6. Eggleston. Gunpowder Plot. Scribner, 2 : 252.
7. Davis. Life in the Iron Mills. Atlan., 7 : 430.
8. Hale. My Double and How He Undid Me. Atlan., 4 : 356.
9. Higginson. The Puritan Minister. Atlan. Essays, 191.
10. Howells. A Pedestrian Tour. Atlan., 24 : 591.
11. Higginson. A Mght in the Water. Atlan., 14 : 393.
12. Burroughs. Tragedies of the Nests. Century, 4 : 680.
13. Burroughs. Signs and Seasons. Century, 3 : 672.
14. Bishop. Braxton's New Art. Century, 6 : 871.
15. Bunner. The Red Silk Handkerchief. Century, 6 : 275.
16. Stockton. Wreck of the Thomas Hyke. Century, 6 : 587.
17. Janvier. Orpiment and Gamboge. Century, 7 : 397.
18. Foote. A Cloud on the Mountain. Century, 9 : 28.
19. Jackson. The Mystery of William Rutter. Century, 9 : 103.
20. Boyesen. A Child of the Age. Century, 9 :. 177.
21. Clemens. The Private History of a Campaign that Failed.
Century, 9 : 193.
22. Matthews. Perturbed Spirits. Century, 10 : 74.
23. Page. A Soldier of the Empire. Century, 10 : 948.
24. Hart. Left out on Lone Star Mountain. Longm., 3 : 259.
25. Dodge. Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties. Atlan.,
5 : 272, 417.
349
350 Composition-Rhetoric .
26. Thanet. Day of the Cyclone. Scribner (K S.), 3 : 350.
27. Haggard. Maiwa's Revenge. Harper, 77 : 181.
28. Harte. An Apostle of the Tules. Longm., 1885 : 67.
29. Wilson. Tale of Expiation. Recreations of Christopher
:^rorth, p. 33.
30. Aldrich. A Midnight Fantasy. Atlan., 35 : 385.
31. Phelps. In the Gray Goth. Atlan., 6 : 587.
32. Jewett. Deephaven Cronies. Atlan., 36 : 316.
33. James. The Last of the Yalerii. Atlan., 33 : 169.
34. Taylor. Who was She? Atlan., 34 : 257.
35. Stockton. Our Story. Century, 4 : 762.
36. Aldrich. A Struggle for Life. Atlan., 20 : 56.
37. Stockton. A Story of Assisted Fate. Atlan., 55 : 58.
38. Taylor. A Week on Capri. Atlan., 21 ; 740.
39. Howells. A Shaker Village. Atlan., 37 : 699.
40. Lowell. A Pocket Celebration of the Fourth. Atlan., 2 : 374.
41. Hawthorne. Ethan Brand. (In The Snow Image, etc.)
42. Cable. Don Joaquin. Harper, 52 : 281.
43. McCarthy. Wanted — A Soul. Harper, 52 : 549.
44. Woolson. Miss Yedder. Harper, 58 : 590.
45. Davis. A Story of the Plague. Harper, 58 : 443.
46. Stockton. The Transferred Ghost. Century, 2 : 43.
47. McDonald. The Portent. Cornh., 1 : 617, 670; 2 : 74.
48. Gray. The Silver Casket. Murray's Mag., 2 : 203.
49. Hardy. The Waiting Supper. Murray's Mag., 3 : 42, 199.
50. Appleton. A Half-Life and Half a Life. Atlantic Stories.
51. Whelpley. The Denslow Palace. Atlantic Stories.
52. Cooke. Miss Lucinda. Atlantic Stories.
53. Hale. The Queen of the Red Chessmen. Atlantic Stories.
54. ISTordhoff. Elkanah Brewster's Temptation. Atlantic Stories.
55. Chesbro. Victor and Jacqueline. Atlantic Stories.
56. Arnold. AVhy Thomas Was Discharged. Atlantic Stories.
57. Lowell. A Raft that No Man Made. Atlantic Stories.
58. O'Brien. The Diamond Lens. Atlantic Stories.
59. Jewett. Marsh Rosemary. Atlan., 57 : 590.
60. De Quincey. Joan of Arc.
61. Thackeray. The Fatal Boots.
62. Craddock. His Day in Court. Harper, 76 : 56.
63. Matthews. A Secret of the Sea. Harper, 71 : 78.
Appendix Q. 351
64. Bishop. Choy Susan. Atlan., 54 : 1.
65. Hawthorne. Ken's Mystery. Harper, 67 : 925.
66. Jewett. King of Folly Island. Harper, 74 : 10.
67. Frederic. Brother Arigelus. Harper, 73 : 517.
68. Craddock. Lonesome Cove. Harper, 72 : 128.
69. Reade. Tit for Tat. Harper, 66 : 251.
70. Boyesen. A Dangerous Virtue. Scribner, 21 : 745.
71. Boyesen. The Man who Lost his Name. Scribner, 12 : 808.
72. Clemens. A Curious Experience. Century, 1 : 35.
73. Phelps. The Tenth of January. Atlan., 21 : 345.
74. Bishop. The Brown-Stone Boy. Atlan., 55 : 330.
75. Taylor. Friend Eli's Daughter. Atlan., 10 : 99.
76. Thackeray. Bluebeard's Ghost.
77. James. The Romance of Certain Old Clothes.
78. Aldrich. A Rivermouth Romance. Atlan., 30 : 157.
79. Dickens. Wreck of the Golden Mary.
80. Dickens. George Silverman's Explanation.
81. Thackeray. Rebecca and Rowena. (In Christmas Books.)
82. Bishop. One of the Thirty Pieces. Atlan., 37 : 43.
83. Hale. The Modern Psyche. Harper, 51 : 885.
84. Stevenson. The Merry Men.
85. Lamb. Adventures of Ulysses.
86. Pyle. Stephen AVycherley. Harper, 75 : 56.
87. Woolson. A Flower of the Snow. Galaxy, 17 : 76.
88. Bates. The Intoxicated Ghost. Century, 24 : 393.
89. King. Balcony Stories. Century, 24 : 230, 372, 374, 544, 547,
722, 724, 884, 889.
90. Jewett. The Hiltons' Holiday. Century, 24 : 772.
91. Eggleston. The Redemptioners. Century, 24 : 625.
92. Drake. The Curious Vehicle. Century, 25 : 217.
93. King. Kitwyk Stories. Century, 25 : 27, 226, 759 ; 28 : 334
94. Foote. On a Side-Track. Century, 28 : 271.
95. Jewett. The Only Rose. Atlantic, 73 : 37.
96. Catherwood. The Windigo. Atlantic, 73 : 526.
97. Wister. The General's Bluff. Harper, 89 : 508.
98. Grant. In Fly-Time. Harper, 89 :.296.
99. Woolson. A Waitress. Harper, 89 : 88.
100. Matthews. Vignettes of Manhattan. Harper, 89 : 33, 222,
457.
352 Composition- Rhetoric,
101. Page. The Burial of the Guns. Scribner (N". S.), 15 : 410.
102. Shelton. A Man without a Memory. Scribner (N. S.),
16 : 68.
103. Bunner. French for a Fortnight. Scribner (1^. S.), 16 : 161.
104. Webb. Electrician-in-charge. Scribner (IST. S.), 16 : 316.
105. Palmer. The Mantle of Osiris. Scribner (X. S.), 16 : 718.
106. Matthews. A Primer of Imaginary Geography. Scribner
(K S.), 16 : 729.
107. Parker. The Going of the White Swan. Scribner (K S.),
17 : 65.
108. Matthews. The Kinetoscope of Time. Scribner, (N. S.),
18 : 733.
(h) Essays, Speeches, Sketches.
1. Representative British Orations. 3 vols.
2. Representative American Orations. 3 vols.
3. Huntington. A Plea for Railway Consolidation. No. Am.,
153 : 272.
4. Livermore. Cooperative Womanhood in the State. No.
Am., 153 : 283.
5. Douglass. Hayti and the United States. No. Am., 153 : 337.
6. Bryce. Thoughts on the Negro Problem. No. Am., 153 : 641.
7. Luce. Benefits of War. No. Am., 153 : 672.
8. Powderly. The Workingman and Frfie Silver. No. Am.,
153 : 728.
9. Hubert. The New Talking Machines. Atlan., 63 : 256.
10. Parkman. The Acadian Tragedy. Harper, 69 : 877.
11. Starbuck. Hawthorne. Andover Rev. 7 : 31.
12. Phelps. Shylock vs. Antonio. Atlan., 57 : 463.
13. Long. Of Style. An Old Man's Thoughts.
14. Davis. Shakespeare's Miranda and Tennyson's Elaine.
Poet-Lore, Jan. 1893.
15. Stoddard. The English Laureates. Cosmop. Jan. 1893.
16. Billson. The English Novel. Westmin. Rev. Jan. 1893.
17. Rogers. G. W. Curtis and Civil Service Reform. Atlan.
Jan. 1893.
18. Johnson. The Transformation of Energy. Westmin. Rev.
Dec. 1892.
Appendix C, 353
19. White. Homes of the Poor. Chautauquan, Jan. 1893.
20. Bartlett. The Prison Question. Am. Jour. Politics, Jan. 1893.
21. Higginson. Boston. St. Nicholas, Jan. 1893.
22. Acworth. Railway Mismanagement. 19th Cent. Dec. 1892.
23. Brooke. Tennyson. Contemp. Rev. Dec. 1893.
24. Mace. Universal Suffrage in France. No. Am. Jan. 1893.
25. Dodge. A Bible Lesson for Herbert Spencer. No. Am. Jan.
1893.
26. Williams. The Kindergarten Movement. Century, Jan. 1893.
27. Flower. Are We a Prosperous People? Arena, Jan. 1893.
28. Hadley. Jay Gould and Socialism. Forum, Jan. 1893.
29. Campbell. Women Wage Earners. Arena, Jan. 1893.
30. Gosse. Tennyson. New Rev. Nov. 1892.
31. Kingsley. English Literature. Lit. and Gen. Essays, 245.
32. Repplier. Benefits of Superstition. Books and Men, 33.
33. Dawkins. Settlement of Wales. Fort. Rev. Oct. 1892.
34. Edmunds. Politics as a Career. Forum, Dec. 1892.
35. Scudder. The Place of College Settlements. Andover Rev.
Oct. 1892.
36. Adams. Municipal Government. Forum, Nov. 1892.
37. Andrews. Are there too Many of Us? No. Am. Nov. 1892.
38. Matthews. Two Studies of the South. Cosmop. Nov. 1892.
39. Cable. Education for the South. Cosmop. Nov. 1892.
40. Walsh. The Ethics of Great Strikes. No. Am. Oct. 1892.
41. Gunsaulus. The Ideal of Culture. Chautauquan, Oct. 1892.
42. Stoddard. James Russell Lowell. Lippincott's, Oct. 1892.
43. Garner. Monkey's Academy in Africa. New Rev. Sept. 1892.
44. Patmore. Three Essayettes. Fort. Rev. July 1892.
45. Adams. Some Recent Novels. Fort. Rev. July 1892.
46. Johnson. The First University. Westmin. Rev. Sept. 1892.
47. Flower. The Menace of Plutocracy. Arena, Sept. 1892.
48. Habberton. Social Science in Business Life. Chautauquan,
Sept. 1892.
49. Besant. Literature as a Career. Forum, Aug. 1892.
50. Farrar. Shaftesbury's Work among the London Poor. Meth.
Mag. Aug. 1892.
51. Repplier. Wit and Humor. Atlan. Dec. 1892.
52. Fowler. Whittier and Tennyson. Arena, Dec. 1892.
53. Gladden. The Problem of Poverty. Century, Dec. 1892.
354 Composition- Rhetoric,
54. Smith. Arnold of Rugby. Educ. Rev. Dec. 1892.
55. Keviiison. Goethe as a Minister of State. Contemp. Rev.
Nov. 1892.
56. Schwatka. Land of the Living Cliff Dwellers. Century, June
1892.
57. Bigelow. Bismarck. Contemp. Rev. May 1892.
58. Parke. How General Gordon was Really Lost. Nineteenth
Cent. May 1892.
59. Tyndall. Coast Protection. New Rev. April 1892.
60. Gladden. The Plain Path of Reform. Charities Review,
April 1892.
61. Bradley. Patrick Henry. Macmillan's Mag. March 1892.
62. Scudamore. Egypt and the Late Khedive. Blackwood's, Feb.
1892.
63. Gilder. Paderewski. Century, March 1892.
64:. Hubbard. The Tax on Barbarism. N. E. and Yale Rev.
March 1892.
65. Buel. The Louisiana Lottery. Century, Feb. 1892.
66. White. Suppression of Lotteries. Forum, Feb. 1892.
67. The Short Story. Atlan. Feb. 1892.
68. Edmunds. Perils of our National Elections. Forum, Feb.
1892.
69. Tolman. Studies in Macbeth. Atlan. Feb. 1892.
70. Dodge. Progress in Agriculture. Amer. Agric. Jan. 1892.
71. Gale. The Marble Faun Interpreted. N. E. and Yale Rev.
Jan. 1892.
72. Boyesen. W. D. Howells and his Work. Cosmop. Feb. 1892.
73. Atkinson and Cabot. Personal Liberty. Pop. Sc. Mo. Feb.
1892.
74. Adams. Rise and Fall of Fonseca." Cosmop. Feb. 1892.
75. Goodwin. English and American Schoolboys. School and
College, Feb. 1892.
76. Walker. How a Bill presented in Congress becomes a Law.
Chautauquan, Feb. 1892.
77. Davies. Compulsory Education. Westminster Rev. Feb. 1892.
78. Earle. The Study of English. Forum, March 1892.
79. Cox. Men of '61. Why they Fought. Atlan. March 1892<
80. Lathrop. John Boyle O'Reilly. Century, Dec. 1891.
81. Lowell. Shakespeare's Richard IIL Atlan. Dec. 1891.
Appendix O, 355
82. Sears. Football — Sport and Training. No. Am. Rev. Dec.
1891.
83. James. James Russell Lowell. Atlan. Jan. 1892.
84. Powell. A World-wide Republic. Arena, Jan. 1892.
85. Stedman. Juliet's Runaway. Poet-Lore, Jan. 1892.
86. Mills. General Booth's Experiment. Unitar. Rev. Dec.
1891.
87. Walton. A Brief for Ophelia. Poet-Lore, Xov. 1891.
88. Handy. Negro Superstitions. Lippincott's, Dec. 1891.
89. Freeman. Dangers to the Peace of Europe. Forum, Nov.
1891.
90. Benton. Lowell's Americanism. Century, Nov. 1891.
91. Potter. The Profit of Good Country Roads. Forum, Nov.
189L
92. Atkinson. Free Coinage of Silver. Forum, Oct. 1891.
93. Farrar. An English Estimate of Lowell. Forum, Oct. 1891.
94. Gosse. Rudyard Kipling. Century, Oct. 1891.
95. Repplier. The Oppression of Notes. Atlan. Aug. 1891.
96. Clark. Public Life. Forum, July 1891.
97. McCracken. Six Centuries of Self-Government. Atlan. Aug.
1891.
98. W^alker. Immigration and Degradation. Forum, Aug. 1891.
99. Thatcher. The Failure of the Jury System. No. Am. Rev.
Aug. 1891.
100. Dilke. Trades Unions for Women. No. Am. Rev. Aug. 1891.
101. Hurlbut. Reciprocity and Canada. No. Am. Rev. Oct. 1891.
102. Shaler. Nature of the Negro. Arena, Dec. 1891.
103. Mathews. The Whole Duty of Critics. New Rev. Nov. 1890.
104. Martin. The Chinese as They See Us. Forum, Feb. 1891.
105. Gosse. Influence of Democracy on Literature. Contemp.
Rev. Apr. 1891.
106. Osgood. Political Ideas of the Puritans. Pol. Sc. Quart.
March 1891.
107. Rainsford. What can We Do for the Poor? Forum, Apr.
1891.
108. McCracken. Arnold Winkelried. Atlan. Apr. 1891.
109. Rice. The Example of a Great Life. No. Am. Rev. Apr.
1891.
110. Morris. New Africa. Lippincott's, Apr. 1891.
356 Composition-Rhetoric,
111. Nelson. Town and Village Government. Harper, June
1891.
112. Richardson. The College Settlement. Lippincott's, June
1891.
113. Walker. Colored Race in the United States. Forum, July
1891.
114. Caylor. Theory and Introduction of Curve Pitching. Out-
ing, Aug. 1891.
115. Blum. The Russia of To-day. Arena, May 1891.
116. Rouss. Cash vs. Credit. Belford's Mag. March 1891.
117. Spreckels. The Future of the Sandvv^ich Islands. No. Am.
Rev. March 1891.
118. Salter. The Problem of the Unemployed. New Eng. Mag.
March 1891.
119. Stark. Silver Coinage. Arena, Jan. 1891.
120. Shearman. The Coming Billionaire. Forum, Jan. 1891.
121. Shaler. Individualism in Education. Atlan. Jan. 1891.
122. Allen. The Case of Roger Williams. Unitar. Rev. Jan. 1891.
123. McCracken. Legend of William Tell. Atlan. Nov. 1890.
124. Gladden. The Embattled Farmers. Forum, Nov. 1890.
125. Kitson. The Logic of Free Trade and Protection. Pop. Sc.
Mo. Nov. 1890.
126. Tilly. The Shibboleth of Public Opinion. Forum, Nov. 1890.
127. Stoddard. Thomas Buchanan Reed. Lippincott's, Feb. 1891.
128. Bridges. Coeducation in Swiss Universities. Pop. Sc. Mo.
Feb. 1891.
129. Roosevelt. An Object Lesson in Civil Service Reform,
Atlan. Feb. 1891.
130. Miles. Progress in Agricultural Science. Pop. Sc. Mo.
Feb. 1891.
13L Hyatt. Public Parks. Atlan. Feb. 1891.
132. Woods. University Extension in England. Andover Rev.
March 1891.
133. Coxe. Do We Hate England? Forum, March 1891.
134. Danziger. Labor Unions and Strikes in Ancient Rome.
Cosmop. March 1891.
135. Graham. Supposed Tendencies to Socialism. Pop. Sc. Mo.
March 1891.
136. Child. The Argentine Capital. Harper, March 1891.
Appendix (7. 867
137. Parsons. The Saloon in Society. Atlan., 59 : 86.
138. Cable. The Freedman's Case in Equity. Century, 7 : 409.
139. Cable. The Silent South. Century, 8 : 674.
140. Landor. Steele and Addison. Works, Vol. 5.
141. De Foe. The Fire of London.
142. Johnson. Life of Addison.
143. Macaulay. Essay on History.
144. Quincy. Invasion of Canada. Speeches, p. 355.
145. Sumner. Are We a Nation ? Works, 12 : 19L
146. Sumner. No Property in Man. Works, 8 : 359.
147. Sumner. Duties of Massachusetts. Works, 3 : 121.
148. Everett. American Literature. Orations, 1.
149. Webster. The Constitution not a Compact. Works, 3.
150. Lowell. The Independent in Politics. Essays, 295.
151. Walker. Socialism. Scribner (N. S.), 1 : 107.
152. Lowell. Democracy, 3-42.
153. Macaulay. On the Athenian Orators.
154. Short. Claims to the Discovery of America. Galaxy,
20 : 50.
155. Fiske. The Federal Union. Harper, 70 : 407.
156. Higginson. The Era of Good Feeling. Harper, 68 : 936.
157. Kingsley. The Fount of Science. Natl Sermons, 108-133.
158. Geo. Eliot. Address to Workingmen. Essays, 322.
159. Whately. Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon. 11-85.
160. Dawes. An Unknown Nation. Harper, 76 : 598.
161. Warner. Comments on Canada. Harper, 78 : 520.
162. White. On Reading Shakespeare. Galaxy, 22 : 518.
163. House. The Thraldom of Japan. Atlan., 60 : 721.
164. Powell. The Failure of Protection. Eraser, 104 : 99.
165. Froude. The Book of Job. Short Studies, 1 : 228.
166. Howell. Strikes. Eraser, 101 : 118.
167. Black. The Electoral Conspiracy. No. Am., 125 : L
168. White. Popular Pie. Galaxy, 18 : 532.
169. White. Americanisms. Galaxy, 24 : 376.
170. Gladstone. Kin beyond Sea. Gleanings, 1 : 203.
171. Gladstone. Aggressions on Egypt. Gleanings, 4 : 341.
172. Gladstone. Wedgwood. Gleanings, 2 : 181.
173. Froude. England's War. Short Studies, 2 : 382.
174. Froude. Party Politics. Short Studies, 3 ; 309.
358 Composition-Rhetoric.
175. Freeman. George Washington. Greater Greece, etc., 62.
176. Green, ^neas. Studies, etc., 227.
177. Welles. History of Emancipation. Galaxy, 14 : 838.
178. Coan. The Value of Life. Galaxy, 15 : 751.
179. Sumner. Politics in America. No. Am., 122 : 47.
180. Roosevelt. Recent Criticism of America. Murray's Mag..
4 : 289.
'181. Arnold. General Grant. Murray's Mag., 1 : 130.
182. Allen. Landowning and Copyright. Fraser, 102 : 343.
183. Howell. Trades Unions. Fraser, 99 : 22.
184. Fiske. Manifest Destiny. Essays.
185. Tyndall. Scientific Use of the Imagination.
186. Bagehot. The English Constitution and Other Essays.
187. Camp. College Athletics. Century, 24 : 393.
188. Van Rennselaer. At the Fair. Century, 24 : 3.
189. Roosevelt. In Cowboy-Land. Century, 24 : 276.
190. West. The Poets Laureate. Century, 24 : 476.
191. Fortune. Street Paving in America. Century, 24 : 894.
192. Chamberlain. A Glance at Webster. Century, 24 : 709.
193. Nott. Hunting with the Chetah. Century, 25 : 567.
194. Simpson. Sir James Simpson's Introduction of Chloroform.
Century, 25 : 412.
195. Sewell. My First and Last Balloon Ascension. Century,
25 : 834.
196. Holden. Earthquakes and How to Measure them. Century,
25 : 749.
197. Adams. Lincoln's Place in History. Century, 25 : 590.
198. Seton-Karr. My First Lions. Century, 25 : 22.
199. Maxim. A New Flying-Machine. Century, 27 : 444.
200. Keeler. Picturing the Planets. Century, 28 : 455.
201. Flynt. How Men become Tramps. Century, 28 : 941.
202. McGifeen. The Battle of the Yalu. Century, 28 : 585.
203. Repplier. Ghosts. Atlan., 74 : 741.
204. Lowell. Mars. Atlan., 75 : 594, 749 ;• 76 : 106, 223.
205. Sidis. A Study of the Mob. Atlan., 75 : 188.
206. Bell. The Subtle Art of Speech-Reading. Atlan., 75 : 164.
207. Robinson. A Voyage in the Dark. Atlan., 75 : 172.
208. Trowbridge. Some Confessions of a Novel- Writer. Atlan.,
75 ; 316.
Scribner (N.
s.),
Scribner (N.
S.),
Scribner (N.
s.),
Scribner (N.
S.),
Appendix C, 359
209. Brooks. The Harvard and Yale Boat-Race. Harper, 89 : 181.
210. Sicard. Trial Trip of a Cruiser. Harper, 90 : 524.
211. Howells. True I talk of Dreams. Harper, 90 : 836.
212. Cook. Stories in Stone from Notre Dame. Scribner (N. S.),
15 : 69.
213. Winthrop. Webster's Reply to Hayne. Scribner (N. S.),
15 : 118.
214. Baldwin. The School-Master. Scribner (N. S.), 15 : 171.
215. Harris. The Sea Island Hurricanes.
15 : 228, 267.
216. Ferree. The High Building and its Art.
15 : 297.
217. Thanet. The Farmer in the North.
15 : 323.
218. Hubert. The Cable Street-Eailway.
15 : 371.
219. Kobbe. Life under Water. Scribner (N. S.), 15 : 426.
220. Danidge. Working-Girls' Clubs. Scribner (N. S.), 15 : 619.
221. Shaler. The Dog. Scribner (N. S.), 15 : 692.
222. Thanet. The Working-Man. Scribner (N. S.), 16 : 100.
223. Bergen. The Tapestry of the New World. Scribner (N. S.),
16 : 360.
224. Prout. Railroad Travel in England and America. Scribner
(N. S.), 16 : 399.
225. Ralph. Election Night in a Newspaper Office. Scribner
(N. S.), 16 : 531.
226. Shaler. The Horse. Scribner (N. S.), 16 : 566.
227. Dana. Giants and Giantism. Scribner (N. S.), 17 : 179.
228. Wetzler. Will the Electric Motor Supersede Steam ? Scrib-
ner (N. S.), 17 : 594.
229. Hubert. The Bicycle. Scribner (N. S.), 17 : 692.
230. Edwards. Life at the Athletic Clubs. Scribner (N. S.),
18:4.
231. Shaler. Domesticated Birds. Scribner (N. S.), 18 : 501.
232. Melliss. Wild Beasts as they Live. Scribner (N. S.),
18 : 705.
233. Roosevelt. What Americanism Means. Forum, 17 : 196.
234. Hopkins. The Stability of the House of Lords. Forum,
17 : 329.
860 Composition-Rhetoric.
235. Collier. Home Life, English and American. Forum,
17 : 345.
236. Cook. The Antarctic's Challenge to the Explorer. Forum,
• 17 : 505.
237. Harrison. George Eliot's Place in Literature. Forum,
20 : 66.
238. Nevvcomb. The Civil Service as a Career. Forum, 20 : 120.
239. Howells. The Nature of Liberty. Forum, 20 : 401.
i40. Ferrero. Crime among Animals. Forum, 20 : 492.
i41. Arnold. Victoria, Queen and Empress. Forum, 20 : 667.
APPENDIX D.
SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS.
(a) Essays in Description.
1. The face I know best.
2. A political cartoon.
3. In the wilderness.
4. A cabinet of curiosities.
5. Portraits of Tennyson.
6. Shylock, as I conceive him.
7. Some absurd costumes of our great-grandparents.
8. A street-arab.
9. The pop-corn man.
10. The oldest house in town.
11. A portrait of Goethe.
12. The face of Bryant compared with that of Longfellow.
13. A typical Indian.
14. An immigrant.
15. Portraits of George Washington.
16. A stone hatchet.
17. Our camp on the lake.
18. The beginning of the tournament — waiting for the signal.
19. A corner of the old barn.
20. An actor off the stage.
21. The House of Commons.
22. Costume of an ancient Roman.
23. Scene in a Roman school.
24. The Acropolis restored.
25. What a diver sees at the bottom of the ocean.
26. A freight train, in motion.
27. Moses, by Michael Angelo.
361
362 Composition-Rhetoric o
28. A piece of coral.
29. The first steamboat.
30. The tower-clock.
31. The long-distance telephone.
32. A ship on the stocks.
33. A curious advertisement.
34. Our newsboy.
35. A Chinese laundry.
36. A yacht under full sail.
37. The old boat on tl: 3 beach.
38. Two tramps.
39. An old violin.
40. The canals of Mars.
41. Scene on the Amazon.
42. The Eiffel tower.
43. An electric motor.
44. Interior of a power-house.
45. A cantilever bridge.
46. The inside ot a steam-boiler.
47. A Rontgen photograph.
48. The first' locomotive.
49. Our chemical laboratory.
50. Scientific kites.
51. A silver mine.
52. My favorite apple.
53. A spring flood.
54. Difference between a head of wheat and of rye.
55. How to tell a weed from a flower.
56. The most perfect shade tree in our town.
57. A dynamite explosion.
58. The old-time schoolmaster.
59. A natural gas well.
60. The inside of a piano.
61. The voting-booth.
62. A greenback compared with a national bank note.
63. A canal lock.
64. How orange orchards are irrigated.
65. The face of Napoleon compared with that of Julius Caesar.
66. Resemblances in the faces of great orators.
Appendix D, 363
67. A Japanese compared with a Chinese.
68. A Roman banquet.
69. The Alhambra.
70. An English cathedral.
71. The three most famous pictures in the world.
72. The Washington monument.
73. The park at night.
74. An ocean greyhound.
75. A torpedo boat.
76. The old garret.
77. A salt works.
78. The flag-man at the railway crossing.
79. The crowd at the ferry landing.
80. An old-fashioned ferry-boat.
81. The heart of the woods.
82. A Dutch windmill.
83. An African fetich.
84. Rare postage stamps.
85. How my bicycle looked after the collision.
(h) Essays in Narrative,
1. What happened at the caucus.
2. How cider is made.
3. A battle between flying-machines.
4. My first loaf of bread.
5. A day in Lilliput.
6. Legends of Merlin.
7. The story of Ruth.
8. The charge of the Light Brigade.
9. The signing of Magna Charta.
10. The building of the boat.
11. Our trolley-party.
12. How I learned to like good music.
13. A trip down the river.
14. The evolution of the modern bicycle.
15. Taming a squirrel.
16. My experiences as a reporter.
17. A moonlight ride.
364 Composition-Rhetoric,
18. A runaway.
19. Landing a big fish.
20. A visit to the falls.
21. An extraordinary dream.
22. Why I was tardy.
23. A singular coincidence.
24. My ghost.
25. A break-down on the road.
26. Flying the big kite.
27. A trip to the top of the water-tower.
28. How a railway is built.
29. How I caught the train.
30. How the nest was made.
31. Mending the clock.
32. What I remember of my earliest childhood.
33. Strange history of a dog.
34. How I tried to find my friend John Smith in Chicago.
35. A visit to a clairvoyant.
36. Where I found my knife.
37. The big storm.
38. The fish I left behind me.
39. A narrow^ escape.
40. Where our grapes went to.
41. How the fire started.
42. How I earned my first dollar.
43. The return of the birds.
44. How my friend Blank sharpens a lead-pencil.
45. A struggle with a fountain-pen.
46. Selling tickets for the concert.
47. The tramp's story.
48. How we harnessed the old horse.
49. A fashionable call.
50. Caught in the rain.
(c) Essays in Exposition.
1. Important city ordinances.
2. Why workmen strike.
3. Uses of a royal figure-head.
Appendix D, 365
4. What the Greeks knew about music.
5. Habits of ants.
6. Principle of the low-pressure steam-engine.
7. Comparison of a dynamo and a motor.
8. How a ship sails against the wind.
9. Cause of the moon's phases.
10. How electricity has affected the price of horses.
11. Condition of the roads in this neighborhood.
12. Diseases of flowers.
13. Movements of comets.
14. What are sun-spots ?
15. Uses of the spectroscope.
16. W^hy does not the sun go out ?
17. What is a storm centre?
18. Weather signals.
19. Why the tide rises.
20. The rings of Saturn.
21. Why we see only one side of the moon.
22. How to determine the height of a building by geometry.
23. Construction of a binocular microscope.
24. What is a copyright?
25. The Bertillon method of identifying criminals.
26. Why men become tramps.
27. Laws that young people ought to know.
28. The eight-hour question.
29. The veto power.
30. Powers of the English premier.
31. The Chiltern Hundreds.
32. How new money gets into circulation.
33. Who is entitled to a pension ?
34. How to obtain a position in the Civil Service.
35. Causes of financial panics.
36. Speed of railway trains.
37. Dangers of hypnotism.
38. Our city school system.
39. Benefits of manual training.
40. Spelling-reform.
41. Popular songs.
42. How water-mains are injured by currents of electricit}' .
366 Composition-Rhetoric.
43. The flora of the school-ground.
44. Kinds of dogs in our town.
45. How to patent an invention.
46. The Australian ballot system.
47. Why does cider become " hard "?
48. The single-tax theory.
49. How Canada is governed.
50. The Indians of Alaska.
51. How much power has the Interstate Commerce Commission?
52. The Speaker of the House of Commons compared with the
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
53. What is meant by "protection for revenue only"?
54. Imperial federation.
55. Reciprocity.
56. How the President is elected.
57. Why private post-offices are prohibited by the government.
58. What is a kindergarten?
59. A definition of slang.
60. Queer pronunciations.
61. How to read the newspaper.
(d) Essays in Argument.
1. The summer vacation should be shortened.
2. Bicycles should be carried free by the railroads.
3. Is lynching ever justifiable ?
4. The United States should adopt a general policy of annexation.
5. Lincoln was the greatest of orators.
6. The nihilists are justified in seeking the life of the Czar.
7. The President should be elected by popular vote.
8. A voter should always support the regular party nominees.
9. The civil war should have been prevented.
10. Alaska is not a paying investment.
11. The government should loan money to farmers.
12. Protection lowers wages.
13. Strikes injure the cause of labor.
14. Boycotting should be regarded as a crime.
15. All land should be owned by the government.
16. Supreme judges should be elected by popular vote.
Appendix D, 867
17. Foreign skilled labor should be kept out of the United States.
18. Nevada should be merged into California.
19. Voting should be compulsory.
20. The Declaration of Independence is a more important docu-
ment than Magna Charta.
21. This country should have been named Columbia.
22. Ought we to adopt a national flower ?
23. German is a more valuable acquirement than Latin.
24. Teachers should be made a part of the Civil Service.
25. The high school course should be shortened to three years.
26. Examinations should be done away with.
27. Arctic exploration has not paid.
28. Executions should be secret.
29. Livingstone was a greater explorer than Stanley.
30. The earth is superior to the other planets as a habitation for
man.
31. Grant was a greater general than Napoleon (Julius Caesar,
Frederick the Great, Wellington, Lee).
32. A great poet need not be a good man.
33. Novel-reading is a waste of time.
34. The population of this city will double in years.
35. Trotting horses will never go faster than a mile in two minutes.
36. The office of poet-laureate should be abolished.
37. The education of girls should be different from that of boys.
38. Sunday observance should be compulsory.
39. Alms-giving should be exclusively practised by charitable
organizations.
40. Ireland's demands are unreasonable.
41. Inheritances should be taxed.
42. Speculation in stocks is an unmitigated evil.
43. Horace Greeley would have made a good president.
44. The practice of tipping should be discountenanced.
45. Professor Henry was the real inventor of the electric telegraph.
46. Who discovered anaesthesia ?
47. What is the best kind of street-paving?
48. W^hat is the best make of bicycle?
49. Advantages of a multiplying reel.
50. Cooking and sewing should be taught in the schools.
APPENDIX E.
CAPITALS, PUNCTUATION, ETC.
General Rules for Capitals.
The following words should begin w^ith capitals : —
1. The first word of every book, chapter, letter, and paragraph.
2. The first word after a period ; and, usually, after the interro-
gation point and the exclamation point.
3. Divine names; as God, Jehovah, the Supreme Being.
4. Proper names of persons, places, rivers, oceans, ships; as,
Franklin, Chicago, Mississippi, Atlantic, the Monitor.
5. Adjectives derived from the proper names of places; as,
English, French, Roman, American.
6. The first word of an exact quotation in a direct form ; as, he
said, " There will be war."
7. The pronoun I and the interjection O !
8. Terms of great historical importance are usually capital-
ized ; as, the Reformation, the Civil War, the Whigs, the Revolu-
tion.
General Rules for Punctuation.
The comma, semi-colon, and colon mark the three degrees of
separation in the parts of a sentence; the comma the smallest
degree, the semi-colon a greater degree, and the colon the greatest
degree. To illustrate : —
Rhetoric is based upon Logic, Grammar, and ^Esthetics.
Rhetoric is based upon Logic, which deals with the laws of
thought; upon Grammar, which presents the facts and rules of
correct language ; and upon Esthetics, which investigates the prin-
ciples of beauty.
368
Appendix E. 869
Rhetoric is based upon the following sciences : Logic, which
deals with the laws of thought; Grammar, which presents the
facts and rules of correct language; and Esthetics, which investi-
gates the principles of beauty.
Rules for the Comma.
A comma is used in the following instances : —
1. To separate grammatically independent elements from the
context; as, '' Rejoice, young man ! "
2. To separate intermediate, transposed, and parenthetical ele-
ments from the context ; as, " Even good men, they say, sometimes
act like brutes."
3. To separate expressions in apposition from the context ; as,
" Washington, the first President, served two terms."
4. To separate contrasted words or phrases, and words or
phrases in pairs ; as, *' We live in deeds, not years." " Sink or
swin), live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart
to this vote."
5. To mark the omission of words ; as, " In war he was warlike ;
in peace, peaceable."
6. Before short and informal quotations; as, ^'He shouted,
* Come in ! ' "
Note. — It is quite possible to use the comma too frequently; as, "It
is well known, that, when water is cooled, below a certain point, contrac-
tion ceases, and expansion begins." Better: ** It is well known that when
water is cooled below a certain point, contraction ceases and expansion
begins."
Rules for the Semi-Colon. •
A semi-colon is used in the following instances : —
1. To separate members of a compound sentence, when they
are complex or loosely connected, or when they contain commas.
2. To separate short sentences closely connected in meaning.
3. To introduce an example, before as.
4. To separate clauses having a common dependence. Illustra-
tions of these rules : " Science declares that no particle of matter
870 Composition-Rhetoric,
can be destroyed ; that each atom has its place in the universe ;
and that, in seeking that place, each obeys certain fixed laws."
"When education shall be made a qualification for suffrage; when
politicians shall give place to statesmen ; — then, and not till then,
will the highest development of our country be reached."
Rules for the Colon.
The colon is used in the following instances : —
1. To introduce several particulars complex in form, in apposi-
tion to a general term, and separated from one another by semi-
colons. (Already illustrated.)
2. To introduce long formal quotations. If the quotation begins
a new paragraph a dash should be used instead of a colon.
Rules for the Period.
The period is used in the following instances : —
1. To mark the completion of a declarative sentence.
2. After abbreviations ; as, D.D., LL.D., Vt., Ala.
Rules for the Interrogation Point.
The interrogation point is used
1. After every direct question ; as, " Will you come ? " " You
have been to Niagara?" ''When was such a promise made? By
whom?"
2. In parentheses to express doubt ; as, " In the time of Homer,
850 (?) B.C."
Rules for the Exclamation Point.
The exclamation point is used
1. To express strong emotion ; as, " He is dead, the sweet
musician ! "
2. To express doubt or sarcasm ; as, " That man a poet ! "
3. After interjections ; as, " Oh ! " '' O my Country I "
^c^ulrVii.' ^
t-'
/
..Jmam^^
APPENDIX F
I. TYPES OF DISCOURSE.
a. DESCRIPTION.
/ Province and Kinds of Description.
Description has for its purpose the presentation, in language,
of a picture of some material objectcmental state, or character.
The object, state, or character may be either real or imagined ;
but, in both cases, it is presented as if real, and the same laws
govern both kinds of description.
l^ Selection of a Subject.
The value of a description depends upon clearness of observa-
tion and effectiveness in reporting what is observed. The advan-
tage is evident, therefore, of selecting objects for description which
the writer has himself seen, mental states which he has himself
experienced, characters with which he has himself been brought
in contact. Objects and characters close at hand afford the best
materials for description. A room, a scene, a face, a picture, a
building, a character, well known to the describer, furnish better
subjects than similar themes taken from history or reported at
second hand.
O Outlining the Subject.
Material objects carry their own outlines with them. The ob-
server discovers the main outlines of the object he wishes to
describe and arranges them in the order in which they appear to
him. As the main features of any material object are few in
number, the corresponding headings in the outline will be few,
and distinctly stated. The lesser details, so far as these require
371
v^AJOJIKjUI
nposition-li ketone .
372 Composition
mention, will be arranged as subdivisions of the main headings to
which they respectively belong. In selecting features for the main
headings, prominence js the rule that governs ; in selecting and
arranging the details for the sub-headings, the order of proximity
is to be followed. Descriptions of character furnish a less obvious
outline. Here the two or three chief characteristics, carefully dis-
tinguished, give the main headings. These larger headings are
presented usually in the order of their prominence, the most
prominent coming last ; lesser traits are arranged as subdivisions
under these in the order of similarity or of contrast.
l^ Purpose in Description.
Every descriptive essay has a purpose, though generally the pur-
pose is not directly expressed. If expressed at all, it will usually
be in the conclusion of the essay. The purpose may be merely to
convey information ; yet even here it will be information^ a cer-
tain end, and the whole description will show what the end is.''^
botamsT and a landscape-gardener will describe a tree in different
ways. The purpose may be no more definite than to produce a
favorable or an unfavorable impression of the object described,
and yet, though nowhere avowed in the essay, it will color the
whole description. For example, the description of a school-room
may all tend to show the need of improvement in lighting, care, or
ventilation. A scene may be described so as to produce the same
feeling of sympathy or abhorrence that was produced in the
observer. A character description may excite admiration, or rev-
erence, or awe, or detestation. It is the hidden purpose which
gives cohesion, unity, effectiveness, and individuality to a descrip-
tive jessay.
r
Point of View.
The purpose determines the point of view and gives charac-
ter and coloring to the whole essay. The expression, ' point of
view,* is used in two senses. In one sense it is to be understood
literally. In describing a scene, for instance, the observer takes his
stand (in thought) at some point, and describes the elements that
make up the scene as they appear to him from that point. It may
Appendix F, Types of Discourse. 373
be necessary, in describing extensive objects (as a large building
or an art gallery), for the describer to change his point of view,
but the imaginary path which he follows should be clearly marked
and due notice of each change should be given to the reader by
some such expression as, '' Passing now to the interior of the build-
ing," etc. But a wider meaning is evident in the expression, ' point
of view,' when we say that a description is written from the point
of view of a careless, or interested, or sympathetic observer ; or
from the point of view of the scientist, or the reformer, or the
teacher; the expression here referring to the spirit or bias of
the observer.
I
Selection of Details.
The purpose also influences the selection of details. The few
details will be chosen which are most suggestive and characteristic
of the thing described, and while enough will be said to give a
unified picture, those details wdll be especially emphasized which
tend to bring out the writer's purpose and to make the reader see
as the writer saw. Whatever the purpose may be, the points to
select for special mention are not those which the object to be
described has in common with other objects of the same class, but
those in which it differs and is peculiar.
1
Sequence and Grouping.
The order in which the details are presented is determined
largely by the character of the thing described ; but this order
may be modified by the purpose of the writer. In describing a
material object the general impression or effect produced upon the
observer at the first view naturally comes first : the impression of
greatness, massiveness, beauty, gloom, or brightrless, as the case
may be ; then the color, as this is one of the first things noticed ;
next the general plan, shape, and size, as these give the reader a
comprehensive outline into w^hich he may fit the details as they
are mentioned ; finally, the material, style, arrangement, furnish-
ings, and use. Lesser details will be mentioned only so far as
they are peculiar or are necessary to a unified picture, and they
will be presented in small groups in connection with some of the
374 Oomposition- Rhetoric.
main headings, or, if mentioned by themselves, will be used to
illustrate some characteristic of the object described, such as con-
venience, adaptedness to use, ornamentation, or plainness.
h. NARRATIVE.
A narrative is the presentation in language of successive related
events occurring in time. I Description represents an object as it
appeared at a single moment of time ; narration represents it as
undergoing changes. Every narrative involves some description ;
a history, for example, requires much descriptive matter ; but here,
as in other forms of narration, the descriptive matter is merely sub-
sidiary and explanatory, and is kept subordinate to the main pur-
pose of reciting events as they occur, one after another.
I Province and Kinds.
The field covered by narration is large, comprising biography,
history, fiction, and a large class of poetry. The simplest kind is
represented by the biography in which there is but one main char-
acter, whose fortunes are followed through life. Akin to biography,
in treatment, are imaginative and fanciful themes, such as " Expe-
riences in the Life of a Bank Note." History and fiction deal with
larger themes, and the interest is carried along several lines.
%
Selection of a Subject.
Here, as in description, there is great opportunity for originality
in the choice of a subject. Events and experiences in the student's
own life furnish the best material for first efforts. Later on, the
short story and the history of organizations in which he has had a
part may be tried. •
.^ Outlining the Subject.
In narratives of a simple form in which there is but one main
character, and in which the interest is confined to a single line, the
critical points of time furnish the basis of the outline structure and
the main heads of the outline. The narrative of a personal advent-
ure will serve to illustrate. If the adventure is worth recounting,
Types of Discourse, 375
it will have a centre of interest, a culminating point to which the
whole narrative looks forward. This fact suggests three distinct
points for a single outline of such an adventure. The first main
heading w ill include the events that lead up to this centre of inter-
est ; the next will stand for all that belongs to the critical point of
the adventure, the climax or height of interest ; and the third will
include the result, conclusion, or explanation. Naturally, these
three headings are placed in the order of time, and once these are
determined, the lesser details will arrange themselves under the
main headings to which they respectively belong.
Certain more abstract narratives require different treatment and
different planning. Take, for example, the class of themes repre-
sented by subjects of this kind : The History of the Ballot Reform
Movement; The Growth of the Poetic Spirit in Robert Burns.
Here the distinct elements of the History or of the Growth are dis-
cerned by analysis, and after being arranged in the order of causes
and effects, they are set down as the main heads of the outline.
The order of causes and effects may, and often does, coincide with
the time order; but, if not, it is the time order that must yield.
In such themes, it is often best to take up one line of cause and
effect and arrange the selected events that belong to it, in the time
order as sub-heads ; then a second line of cause and effect with its
selected events, and so on. This is the method, too, of some of our
best histories and of all novels.
i-
Unity and Selection.
As in description, so in narration the writer's point of view (in
the larger sense of that term) will influence his selection of details
and his manner of presenting them. The fact that a narrative is
told implies that it possesses a peculiar, individual, and unique in-
terest. This indicates the rule for the selection of details. Details
which differ from the ordinary give character to a narrative and
require the most important setting. There is even more oppor-
tunity for detecting and using peculiar characteristics in narrative
than in descriptive writing : it is the unexpected that often hap-
pens, and much is made of this fact by writers of fiction. Ability
and willingness to omit or curtail what is usual and common, that
876 Composition- Rhetoric.
the attention may be held to what is unique and peculiar, are dis-
cernible in the work of every good story-teller. The culminating
point, which gives the narrative distinction, is kept in view all the
time, and nothing is admitted which does not carry the narrative
forward towards it. This point furnishes the centre of unity to a
narrative. When it is reached, the reason is apparent for all the
details and incidents that have been previously mentioned in the
naiTative. Even the descriptive digressions are seen to have played
an important, though subordinate, part in leading to the culmi-
nation, y
if
^ Sequence and Grouping.
The narrative writer sees clearly (what his reader cannot see)
the end for which all the incidents are recounted and to which
they all contribute. This suggests the chief rule of sequence :
That sequence of events is best in which each occurrence stated is
necessary to the proper understanding of its successor. In simple
narratives, w^here the interest is undivided, this rule is easy to fol-
low ; but in complex narratives, such as the novel and the history,
sequence is harder to secure because of the fact that several con-
temporaneous lines of interest must be kept up. The writer will
in such cases show his sense for sequence by his method of group-
ing facts and events. One line of interest will be carried forward
to a point at which all the lines of interest meet ; then another
will be brought to the same point ; and so on. A new start w ill
then be taken to the next goal of interest, and this process will be
repeated until the culminating point is reached. In the historical
essay, these various meeting-places are indicated and emphasized
by summaries which prepare for the new start. Thus the grouping
of facts is by periods of time and by lines of interest, each period
being fixed by the writer with reference to the culmination.
{o
Suspense and Movement.
This topic applies mainly to a story with a complicated plot,
and to an extensive history. The management of a narrative of
either kind will involve attention to both suspense and movement.
Suspense retards the progress of the narrative and movement accel-
Appendix F, Types of Discourse. 377
erates it. Suspense is advisable just before the culminating point
of interest is reached, and it is secured usually by introducing
descriptive details or explanations. Sometimes suspense is secured
by beginning at some point along in the story, the events leading
up to the first scene being afterwards introduced as an explana-
tion, or as a part of a subsequent conversation between two of the
characters. Description detains the attention, but it must be rele-
vant, or its introduction is resented by the reader. In most parts
of a narrative, however, movement rather than suspense is desir-
able, and this is secured Jby^ reducing or omitting descriptions, by
hurrying over details and condensing lesser actions and events as
much as possible. Especially is movement desirable when the cul-
mination or principal action is reached, and, in general, those parts
of a narrative which portray rapid action should show it by a
hurried manner of treatment.
c. EXPOSITION
Exposition has been defined as " such an analysis of a general
term as will make clear to the mind the general notion of which it
is the sign." It takes the general term Music, for instance, and
seeks to explain and set forth clearly what music is, what are its
essential qualities, how much it includes, what it excludes, how it
differs from other fine arts, into what kinds it is divided, — in
short, exposition seeks to discover and set forth an adequate defini-
tion of music, to give a logical division into kinds, and to define
and explain the various kinds. Or, it takes a general proposition
such as " Education is beneficial in all the pursuits of life," and,
without assuming the truth or falsity of the proposition, it seeks
to answer the question. What is education? to analyze it into its
elements, and to classify the pursuits of life, leaving to argument
the work of determining whether the proposition is true or false.
Thus, education having been defined as training, the various kinds
of training having been determined, and the pursuits of life hav-
ing been classified, the results of the exposition of this proposition
might be outlined as follows: —
' the mind ^ ( the languages "I ( the professions
the heart r in - the sciences |- is beneficial in \ the trades
. the body J I the arts J I and commerce
Education, or
Training of
378 Composition- Rhetoric,
Kinds and Uses.
It is evident that the kind of exposition illustrated above is use-
ful mainly for planning and outlining a subject. It is concerned
w^ith laying the ground-work for subsequent discussion, description,
or narration. It analyzes, defines, divides, and classifies ; it plays
an important part in planning every essay that is written, whether
in description, narration, or argumentation. These methods may
all be included under the single designation of Scientific Exposition.
There is, however, another kind of exposition, of a less rigidly
scientific character, which we shall call Popular Exposition, and
under which may be included the Didactic Essay, the Conversa-
tional Essay, and the Critical Essay. These we shall discuss
under the headings indicated.
The Didactic Essay.
This is the type most frequently attempted. It takes a clearly
stated proposition as its subject, and attempts to establish it by
one or more of the various means of development, such as defini-
tion, contrast, explanation, illustration, particular instances, etc.
Most of the essays that appear in such reviews as the North Ameri-
can, the Forum, the Popular Science Monthly, the Contemporary,
and the Fortnightly belong to this class. The essays of Macaulay,
De Quincey, and Emerson, for the most part, belong here. Select-
ing a subject within one's powers, stating the subject clearly and
accurately, careful thinking, gaining information by reading and
conversation, and outlining before beginning the work of composi-
tion, are of the greatest importance in writing essays of this kind.
The Conversational Essay.
The conversational essay is illustrated in the essays of Charles
Lamb, Steele, Addison, Holmes, and Thackeray. It is generally
loose in structure, and gives the personal impressions, whims, and
fancies of the essayist in the easy confidential tone of conversation.
The subjects chosen are usually of a light character, and a whimsi-
cal view is n9t infrequently presented. To write good essays of
this type requires considerable original talent, or long training, or
Appendix F, Types of Discourse, 379
the combination of the two ; for, in spite of their seeming irregu-
larity, the best of these essays are underlaid by a carefully planned
framework, and guided in their erratic flights by a profound sense
of artistic form. The beginner, therefore, until he has learned to
lay the solid foundations of essay-structure, or has developed to
some degree a natural sense for structural unity, will do well
to avoid the writing of essays of this character.
The CRiTiCifL Essay
The aim of the critical essay is to estimate the value of a work
of literature or art, and to judge it by the principles of the class to
which it belongs, pointing out both excellences and defects. It is
evident that real criticism implies wide and thorough knowledge
on the part of the critic as well as a nature capable of entering
with sympathetic and appreciative interest into the thoughts and
feelings of others, while at the same time preserving his own indi-
viduality of judgment and opinion. The works of Ruskin give the
best-known (if not the best) art criticism ; while in literary criti-
cism the names of Arnold, Dowden, Stephen, Lowell, Stedman,
and Pater are most familiar.
d. ARGUMENTATION.
The argumentative essay devotes itself to proving the truth or
falsity of a proposition. " An argument," says Bain, " is a fact,
principle, or a set of facts or of principles adduced as evidence of
some other fact or principle." To illustrate, the fact that a large
proportion of the prisoners in our penitentiaries are ignorant men
is adduced ^s evidence of the principle that ignorance breeds
crime. It is evident that to be of value as an argument the state-
ment as to the large proportion of ignorant men among the pris-
oners in the penitentiaries must, first, either be admitted to be
true or must be shown to be true by statistics ; secondly, the same
statement must also be admitted or shown by statistics to have
been generally true for a long period and likely to be true in the
future. Both these conditions are essential to a valid argument.
should be elected by popular vote.
380 Co7npo8ition- Rhetoric.
The Proposition.
The proposition to be proved should be clearly and accurately
stated in the affirmative form. A close analysis of the terms of a
proposition will sometimes indicate a line of argument to be pur-
sued, and will very frequently furnish a good approach to the main
discussion.
A complex proposition may be proved by dividing it into its
constituent propositions and proving each of these. The proposi-
tion "Judges should be elected by popular vote" would require
such a division, since the con^derations which tend to make the
proposed step desirable are different for different classes of judges,
and the possible objections to the proposition are different for the
different classes also.
Thus the division might be
[ of U. S. courts
of State courts
Judges \ of County courts
of Police courts
etc.
Classification and Kinds of Arguments.
Proofs applied immediately to the establishment of the propo-
sition are called direct proofs. Proof is indirect when it is applied
to the overthrow^ of objections ; indirect proof is called refutation.
This classification is based on the purpose to which proofs are
applied, on the use made of them. Whether direct or indirect,
proofs are of three kinds : a priori, signs, and examples.
In a priori proofs (sometimes called proofs from antecedent
probability) the reasoning is from cause to effect, or from a gen-
eral law to the results of that law.
The prevalence of intemperance in a community is an a priori proof of
the existence of wretchedness in that community, because intemperance is
a cause of wretchedness.
Bountiful crops throughout the country furnish an a priori proof that
business will be good, since we know that these are a potent cause of gen-
eral prosperity. Arguments in regard to future events are always a priori.
General bad character in an accuser, long-standing hatred on his part
toward the accused, the existence of a wicked motive in making the accu-
sation, is a priori proof that his accusation is false.
Appendix F, Types of Discourse. 381
The validity of an a priori proof depends upon the certainty
that the cause assigned is adequate and operative. If it can be
shown that the cause assigned is inadequate or inoperative, or hin-
dered from producing its natural result, the argument is impaired
to that extent.
Signs are proofs from an eifect to a condition so connected with
the effect that the existence of the effect implies the existence of
the condition.
Widespread ignorance, pauperism, and crime in a country are signs
going to show the falsity of the proposition that that country is ready for
self-government.
Blood-stains upon the clothing of a man accused of murder are signs of
his guilt.
Signs are merely indications or circumstances, and are always
open to doubt. What is known as circumstantial evidence is a
collection of a priori proofs and signs. The most suspicious cir-
cumstances are often wholly inconclusive. If, for instance, the
blood-stains upon the clothing of a man accused of murder are
clearly accounted for in some other way than by the supposition
of guilt, doubt is cast upon the validity of the argument.
The same signs are frequently employed for opposite ends. One
writer regards strikes as signs that the influence ot trades unions
is pernicious; another quotes the same phenomena as signs that
the trades unions have given the working classes power to assert
and, in some cases, to maintain their rights.
The more numerous the signs, the greater their value as argu-
ments for the truth of a proposition.
Authority, or what books and competent persons have said,
irrespective of particular cases, as to the truth or falsity of a
proposition, and testimony, or the evidence of witnesses, have
been classified as signs by some writers ; but it is clear that
authority and testimony may be a priori proof, or signs, or proof
by examples, according to the nature of the proof given by the
authority or by the witness testifying. When authorities are
quoted to support a statement, reference should be made to the
edition, volume, and page ; and in general only those authorities
should be referred to who are acknoAvledged to be competent to
speak on the subject, and whose works, if quoted, are accessible.
382 Oomposition- Rhetoric.
Concurrence of authorities or of witnesses as to the truth of any
matter gives special force to this kind of argument.
Examples of the truth of a proposition are a form of proof
which gains its power on the principle that what has once hap-
pened under certain conditions may be expected to happen again
under like conditions. When the number of examples adduced is
sufficiently large to convince us that the whole class to which they
belong possess the same property, the proof is called Induction.
If, for instance, we find that several hundreds of roses have the
same number of petals and stamens, and conclude that all roses
of the same class have the same number of petals and stamens as
those examined, we have a case of Induction. The number of
examples necessary to make the proof of a, proposition conclusive
depends upon the nature of the proposition "to be proved, and must
be decided in each case as it arises. One of the most frequent of
faults in writing is a hasty generalization from too few examples.
It is evidently not sufficient to cite the cases of Homer and Milton
in proof of the proposition that blindness induces the growth of
the poetic spirit in a man. A form of the argument by example
is that which asserts that, if a principle is true in an admitted
case, much more will it be true in the case cited when the con-
ditions are more favorable. This is known as the argument
a fortiori.
II. FIGURES OF SPEECH.
A figure of speech, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, may
be defined as a form of expression which departs widely and strik-
ingly in certain specified ways ^ from what is literal, straightfor-
ward, and matter-of-fact. The names of the most common figures
are as follows : —
1 The ways must be specified, otherwise there will be no distin«tion between
figurative language and language that is simply picturesque or imaginative. When
Shakespeare says, for example : —
" I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool.
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news,"
the entire passage departs widely and strikingly from what is plain, literal, and matter-
of-fact, yet only the last line, because it contains the word "swallowing," would ordi-
narily be called figurative.
Appendix F, Figures of Speech. 383
1. Metaphor. 6. Apostrophe. 11. Irony.
2. Simile. 7. Allegory. 12. Epigram.
3. Synecdoche. 8. Antithesis. 13. Hyperbole.
4. Metonymy. 9. Climax. 14. Interrogation.
5. Personification. 10. Anti-climax.
These figures seem to fall naturally into the following groups : —
1. Figures of Imagery. — In this class may be placed figurative
expressions which differ from the literal in that they arouse in the
mind of the reader vivid images of things. Metaphor, simile,
synecdoche, metonymy, personification, apostrophe, and allegory
may be assigned to this division.
2. Figures of Arrangement. — These are figures in which there is
some peculiar and striking arrangement of words, phrases, clauses,
or sentences corresponding to some peculiar succession of ideas in
the mind. The figures — if they may be called figures — which
fall under this head, are antithesis and climax.
3. Figures of Contradiction. — This term, in default of a better,
may be applied to forms of expression in which there is an apparent
contradiction between the thought to be expressed and the form in
which it finds expression. Here belong anti-climax (m the good
sense), irony, epigram, hyperbole, and interrogation. Hyperbole,
however, may be classed also as a figure of imagery.
These three groups will be taken up in order, and the separate
figures defined and illustrated.
Figures of Imagery.
Metaphor. — A metaphor is an expression in which one object is
spoken of under the image of another.
Thus a gust of wind which heralds a storm may be spoken of
under the image of a frightened man, as in the following from
Lowell's Summer Storm : —
" Now leaps the wind on the sleepy marsh,
And tramples the grass with terrified feet."
Or the operations of the memory may be spoken of under the
image of the resurrection : —
"Vw^
Vi-" 0-
384 Composition-Rhetoric,
" His (Milton's) poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies less
in its obvious meaning than in its occult power, and there would seem
at first sight to be no more in his words than in other words. But they
are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced than the
past is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at
once into existence, and all the burial-places of the memory give up
their dead." — Macaulay : Essay on Milton.
For further remarks on metaphor, see pp. 222-225.
Simile. — In the simile an object is represented to the imagina-
tion as being like some other object, or as acting like some other
object.
In the following passage from Wordsworth, the evening is rep-
resented as being like a nun at her devotions : —
" The holy time is quiet as a nun
Breathless with adoration."
Sir Isaac Newton compared his discoveries in science to the
actions of a child picking up pebbles on the beach : —
" I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I
seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and divert-
ing myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier
shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
before me."
Other examples are : —
"A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as
narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet." — Johnson: Tour to the
Hebrides. Sept. 30, 1773.
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far
country." — P/'ouer&s xxv. 25.
For further remarks on the simile, see pp. 222-225.
Synecdoche and Metonymy. — These are varieties of metaphor in
which the image chosen to represent the object is something closely
connected with it. In synecdoche the image may be related to the
object as a part to a whole, or as a whole to a part ; as the genus
to the species, or as the species to the genus. The material may
Appendix F, Figures of Speech. 385
be used for the thing made, a quality for the object possessing the
quality, and so on.
In the following passage from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleo-
patra^ the word 'sail' — a part of a ship — is used for the ship
itseK : —
" I have sixty sails, Csesar none better."
In this from Henry the Fifths —
" I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot,"
the word 'foot' is used for 'foot-soldiers.' In the following the
word ' blue ' — a quality of the sky — is used for the sky itself : —
"I came and sat
Below the chestnuts when their buds
Were glistening in the breezy blue."
— Tennyson: Miller'' s Daughter.
The use of an individual name to designate a class is illustrated
in the following : —
"Most facts are very soon forgotten, but not the noblest Shake-
speare or Homer of them can be remembered forever." — C^klyle.
This last variety of synecdoche is sometimes termed antonomasia. \j*^»^\>\
In metonymy the image used to represent the object is an accom-
paniment of it, as for example, what contains it, what causes it,
what stands for it, etc.
In the following example, 'breath,' the accompaniment and
cause of words, is used in the sense of words : —
" Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, —
A breath can make them as a breath has made."
— Goldsmith : Deserted Village.
In the following the sceptre, the accompaniment of kings and
sign of their power, is used in the sense of kings, 'learning' in
the sense of learned men, 'physic ' in the sense of physicians : —
"The sceptre, learning, physic must
All follow this, and come to dust."
— Shakespeare : Cymheline.
The distinction between synecdoche and metonymy is disregarded by
many rhetoricians, as being trivial and conventional.
2c
386 Composition- Rhetoric.
Personijication. — This figure is a form of metaphor in which
objects without sense or life are spoken of as if they were human
beings, or are made to speak like human beings.
Thus labor is spoken of as if it could feel independence and pride :
"Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to
ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor."
— Webster.
The sea is spoken of as if it had a voice : —
"Deep calleth unto deep."
— Psalm xlii.
All metaphor in which the image is that of a human being, may be re-
garded as personification. See the two examples under metaphor above.
Apostrophe. — A speaker who turns away from his proper audi-
ence to address in imagination some one who is absent, or some
personified object, is said to make an apostrophe.
The following is an example. Lamb turns away from the reader
of his essay to address, in imagination, the spirit of Henry Man : —
" Whom next shall we summon from the dusty dead, in whom com-
mon qualities become uncommon ? Can I forget thee, Henry Man,
the wit, the polished man of letters, the author of The South Sea
House ? " — Lamb : The South Sea House.
Apostrophe is frequently combined with personification, as in
the following: —
" 0 sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse ! how have I frighted thee ? "
— Shakespeare : Henry IV.
The term apostrophe is sometimes applied to a eulogy addressed
to some one who is present, as, for example, Webster's address to
Lafayette and to the survivors of the Revolution, in the First
Bunker Hill Oration.
Allegory. — This is properly a form of literature. Regarded as
a figure of speech it may be defined as a metaphor worked out in
detail in the form of a narrative, the aim being to impress some
truth or moral.
The most notable example of allegory is Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress.
Appendix F, Figures of Speech. 387
Two common literary forms may be classed under the head of
allegory; namely, ih^fahle and the parable. A fable is, in popular
speech, a short pointed allegory in which animals are introduced
as speaking and acting like human beings. A parable is a short
allegory, but the term is now used solely of the biblical stories, or
of allegories framed after them. *
Figures of Arrangement.
Antithesis. — This term is applied to a sentence or part of a sen-
tence in which corresponding words, phrases, or clauses are set
over against one another in such a way as to make contrasting
ideas conspicuous. The term is also used of contrasting sentences,
or even of contrasting paragraphs.
"The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue."
— Emerson: English Traits.
"Demosthenes told Phocian, 'The Athenians will kill you some
day when they are in a rage.' 'And you,' said he, Sif they are
once in their senses.' " — Plutarch.
" Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied ;
We thought her dying whexi she slept,
And sleeping when she died."
— Hood : The Death- Bed.
For further remarks on antithesis, see pp. 231, 232, above.
Climax. — A speaker is said to employ climax when a series of
words, phrases, or clauses is so arranged that each in turn sur-
passes the preceding one in intensity of expression, or importance
of meaning. The term may also be used of a series of sentences
or of a series of paragraphs similarly arranged.
" Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon 'em." — Shakespeare: Twelfth Night.
"An unimportant, wandering, sorrow-stricken man."
" What a chimera, then, is man ! What a novelty, what a monster,
what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy ! "
— Pascal.
For further remarks on climax, see pp. 234, 236, above.
388 Composition- Rhetoric,
When a weaker idea follows a stronger, the result is bathos or
anti-climax (in the bad sense).
" Mr. Judson was an able lawyer, a shrewd diplomat, and a first-
rate after-dinner speaker."
For another use of the term anti-climax, see below.
Figures of Contradiction.
Anti-Climax. — This is a form of climax in which the last term
of the series, although surpassing the preceding terms in intensrfcy,
is "yet absurdly incongruous with them, the effect aimed at being
a shock of humorous surprise.
" The Chief- Justice jarafi rich,, quiets and infamous." — Macaulay :
Warren Hastings.
Irony. — An ironical expression is one in which the words of the
speaker seem to mean one thing, but in reality mean just the con-
trary, the real meaning being conveyed to us by the tone of the
voice or the rhythm and suggestiveness of the words. Thus Addi-
son, in the following passage, under guise of praising bribery as
an efficient means of persuasion, in reality holds it up to con-
demnation : —
" There is another way of reasoning which seldom fails, though it
be of a quite different nature from that I have last mentioned. I
mean convincing a man by ready money, or, as it is ordinarily called,
bribing a man to an opinion. This method has often proved success-
ful when all the others have been made use of to no purpose. A man
who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince the
antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and
philosophy. Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding ; it dis-
sipates every doubt and scruple in an instant ; accommodates itself to
the meanest capacities ; silences the loud and clamorous, and brings
over the most obstinate and inflexible." — Addison : Spectator, No. 239.
Epigram. — Acccfrding to Professor Bain, an epigram is " an
apparent contradiction in language, which, by causing a temporary
shock, rouses our attention to some important meaning under-
neath.'* This definition may be supplemented by the statement
Appendix F, Figures of Speech, 389
that the epigram usually takes the form of a brief, pointed, anti-
thetical sentence.
*'Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfor-
tunes hardest to bear are those which never come." — Lowell:
Democracy.
" There is nothing new, except what is forgotten."
Hyperbole. — This is a kind of metaphor in which the object
spoken of is greatly exaggerated in size or importance for purposes
of emphasis or humor.
"Falstaff sweats to death.
And lards the lean earth as he walks along."
— Shakespeare : Henry IV.
" And panting Time toiled after him in vain."
— Johnson : Prologue on the opening of Drury Lane Theatre.
Interrogation. — Attention is sometimes called to an important
assertion or denial by throwing it into the form of a question or
challenge to which no answer is expected. This figure is known
as interrogation, or the rhetorical question. It resembles irony in
that the form of the question is the opposite of the meaning it is
intended to convey.
" Much depends on when and where you read a book. In the five
or six impatient minutes, before the dinner is quite ready, who would
think of taking up the Faerie Queen for a stop-gap, or a volume of
Bishop Andrewes' sermons?" — Lamb: Thoughts on Books and
Beading.
" As I crossed the bridge over the Avon on my return, I paused to
contemplate the distant church in which the poet lies buried, and
could not but exult in the malediction which has kept his ashes un-
disturbed in its quiet and hallowed vaults. What honor could his
name have derived from being mingled in dusty companionship with
the epitaphs and escutcheons and venal eulogiums of a titled multi-
tude ? " — Ikving : Sketch Book^ Stratford-on-Avon,
390 Composition-Iihetoric.
III. POETRY.
Ruskin says that poetry is "the suggestion by the imagination,
in musical words, of noble grounds for noble emotions, — love,
veneration, admiration, and joy, with their opposites." The poet
working upon the imagination creates or awakens in us new and
beautiful conceptions of the world.
The object of poetry is the communication of exalted pleasure ;
and thus the term poetry implies an antithesis to the term science,
since the object of science is not pleasure, but truth, " hard facts/'
Poetry is usually expressed in verse, and science in prose ; but not
everything that is written in verse is poetry, and poetic thought is
often found in prose form.
In style, poetry is rhythmical and regular; that is, its preferred
form is verse arranged in lines of fixed lengths, composed of regu-
larly recurring accented and unaccented syllables. In diction,
poetry may employ abbreviated expressions, picturesque expres-
sions, epithets, and archaic w^ords, in cases in which these would
be out of place in prose. Poetry frequently takes other liberties
which would not be permitted to prose, — in an unusual order of
words and sentence-elements.
The materials of poetry are drawn (1) from external nature, the
sounds, colors, movements, and impressiveness of which we are
helped to appreciate by means of poetry ; (2) from human life, —
man*s deeds, emotions, intellectual powers, courage, and greatness.
Poetry deals with concrete rather than abstract notions; that
is, if ^ a poet wishes to hold up for our admiration generosity, for
instance, he does this by detailing a particular and beautiful in-
stance of generosity, and not by talking about the abstract virtue
generosity itself. He embodies general ideas in particular images,
and for this reason he expresses his thought largely in figures,
many of which owe their effectiveness to their concreteness.
Kinds of Poetry.
Poetry is of three kinds : epic, dramatic, and lyric poetry. A
fourth division is often made for convenience, called didactic
Appendix F, Poetry. 891
poetry. Epic and dramatic poetry are alike in one respect : both
embody a story ; but they differ in many respects, one of which is
this, — in the epic the poet narrates the story himself, whereas in
the drama the poet himself does not appear ; he makes the actors
show what the story is by what they do and say.
Epic Poetry.
Epic poetry is that kind in which the poet himself narrates a
story as if he were present. In this sense, epic poetry and narra-
tive poetry mean the same thing. Epic poetry is subdivided as
follows : —
' 1. The Great Epic. — In this the poet narrates, in stately, uni-
form verse, a series of great and heroic events, in which gods,
demi-gods, and heroes play the most conspicuous parts. The
Great Epic has (1) a noble theme based on mythology, legend, or
religion, involving, therefore, a supernatural element ; (2) a com-
plete and unified story-plot, the action of w^hich is concentrated in
a short time, and the chief events partly or wholly under super-
human control ; (3) a hero, of more than human proportions, and
other characters human and divine ; (4) it is simple in structure,
smooth, uniform, and metrical, dignified and grave in tone; it
employs dialogue, and may employ episode, which is a story not
needed for the main plot, although connected with some part of
the action ; (5) it enforces no moral ; the moral must be discov-
ered from the story, and the interest centres in the action.
The Odyssey and the Iliad are great epics which grew up among
the early Greeks ; Beowulf is a great epic which grew up among
our remote ancestors. Later poets who 7nade great epic poems are
Vergil, who made the ^neid^ and the English poet Milton, who
made Paradise Lost.
The Mock Epic treats of a trivial subject in the heroic style of
the great epic. An example is Pope's Rape of the Lock. Butler's
Hudihras is satire in mock-epic style.
2. In tl^eMetrical Romance, or narrative of adventure (1) the
theme is less noble and grandTlian in the great epic, and the super-
natural element, if occasionally admitted, is less prominent; (2) the
action is less concentrated, and the chief events are partly or wholly
^
392 Composition-Rhetoric,
under human control; (8) the element of love, which is almost
absent in the great epic, is conspicuous; (4) the metre is less
stately, and the style more easy and familiar. The llomance is
a product of the age of chivalry. Spenser's Faery Queen is an
example. Modern Romances are Scott's Marmion and The Lady of
the Lake.
3. The Tale is a still humbler form of narrative poetry ; it tells
a complete story, with love or humor predominant. Chaucer's Can-
terbury Tales and Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn furnish some
examples. Poe's Raven, Byron's Corsair, Burns's Tarn O'Shanter,
and Tennyson's Enoch Arden and Dora are tales.
• 4. The Ballad is generally shorter and is always less discursive
than the tale ; it tells its story rapidly and simply. Ballads were
originally folk-songs ; like the oldest epics, they grew up among the
people, and their authors are commonly unknown. Chevy Chase,
Sir Patrick Spens, the Robin Hood ballads, and the Battle of Maldon
are examples. Later, poets made ballads : Campbell's Battle of the
Baltic is a martial ballad ; Whittier's Maud Midler, a love ballad ;
Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner, a superstitious ballad ; Macaulay's
Lays of Ancient Rome are historical ballads.
5. The Pastoral is a slightly narrative poem depicting rural life,
with a large element of description, but with little action. Keats 's
Endymion, Goldsmith's Deserted Village, and Thomson's Seasons
are examples.
6. T\\^J.diill This word means " a little picture." It has been
used in two senses.: (1) a short narrative poem giving little pict-
ures of simple country life, quiet, homely scenes, and appealing to
gentle emotions. In this sense it is but another name for the short
Pastoral. Examples are, Longfellow's Evangeline, Whittier's Snow-
Bound, and Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night. (2) A short narrative
poem giving pictures of a more highly spectacular life, involving
scenes of action, and appealing to strong emotions. Such are Ten-
nyson's Idylls of the King and some of Browning's poems.
Dramatic Poetry.
The drama, like the epic, deals with the past, but the drama
represents the past in the present. It exhibits a story by means
Appendix F, Poetry. 393
of characters speaking and acting in a series of situations so con-
trived as to develop a plot, and show a single controlling purpose.
This subordination of all actions to the controlling purpose of a
play is known as unity of action. The drama, when enacted on
the stage, employs scenery and costume to produce the impression
of reality. The drama is "imitated human action," but it does
not imitate a series of human actions exactly as they occur in
actual life; it selects typical actions and arranges these with a
single purpose, as they might occur. The drama is divided into
"acts," usually five in number, the earlier acts exhibiting the
causes, starting conflicting lines of action, entangling and develop-
ing these to a climax or height of interest which is usually reached
in the fourth act, the last act exhibiting the consequences of
the action, denouement. The whole play thus makes a complete
story.
1. Tragedy (1) deals with solemn themes showing a mortal will
at odds with fate ; (2) produces, in the mind of the spectator, pity
and terror and awe, driving out trivial and unworthy thoughts ;
(3) leads through a complicated plot to a catastrophe, the final
overthrow of the mortal who has been either criminal in his motive
(Macbeth) or mistaken in his motive (Othello) , and (4) this catas-
trophe is foreshadowed, is felt to be coming, and when it does
come is felt to be inevitable, beyond human power to prevent.
Tragedy prefers verse ; its language is nobler than that of daily
life, so that we are not reminded of common concerns even by the
words used, but live for the time in a higher and nobler world,
the world of the imagination. Julius Ccesar, Lear, Hamlet, Romeo
and Juliet, are examples. Such a play as the Merchant of Venice,
in which both tragedy and comedy are present in a subdued form,
is classified as Reconciling Drama.
2. Comedy (1) deals with lighter themes, with the follies, acci-
dents, or humors of life ; (2) produces no terror or pity, but pro-
duces amusement or mirth ; (3) ends not with a catastrophe, but
brings the story to a conclusion naturally desired, all ending as we
would have it ; (4) does not foreshadoW the end, as tragedy does,
but frequently surprises us happily. Comedy is nearer to daily
life, does not employ verse so often as tragedy does, inclines to
prose, and employs less noble language. In Comedy Proper, such
394 Composition- Rhetoric.
as Shakespeare's As You Like It and Twelfth Night, Goldsmith's
She Stoops to Conquer, and Sheridan's Rivals, the amusement
may arise both from the chai-acters and from the plot or from
either alone. Comedy Proper does not result in continued peals
of uproarious laughter. In the Farce we have a short comedy that
does so result. The Farce is "broad" in its effects, and consists
of highly ridiculous situations and greatly exaggerated characters.
Melodrama introduces music, is partly spoken and partly sung ; in
modern melodrama the scenes are highly romantic and sensa-
tional. The Mask was a kind of pastoral drama of simple plot,
rural, romantic scenes, and masked characters (shepherds and shep-
herdesses mainly), with some supernatural personages. Originally
it was largely song and dance by masked characters. Milton's
Comus, the greatest English Mask, showed to what perfection the
Mask might be developed, and what a lofty moral tone might be
given to it. The Opera is properly a kind of comedy in which
the actors sing their parts, the words having less importance than
the music, and the whole being of little literary value. But in
Grand Opera we have the best music joined to high and serious
themes of legendary or romantic character, and sometimes the best
poetry.
Lyric Poetry.
The Lyric is a poem which voices the personal feeling, senti-
ment, or passion of the poet himself. The word ' lyric ' shows that
such poetry was originally sung to the accompaniment of the lyre
or harp. Many lyrics are still set to music, though not primarily
\\Titten to be sung. (1) The Lyric has to do with the inner feel-
ings of the poet, not (like the epic) with outward events, and
hence it is said to be subjective. (2) The best lyrics are sincere
and imaginative. (3) Lyric Poetry expresses itself in many differ-
ent forms of verse and metre, and does not have a preferred form,
as the Great Epic and the Drama have. Lyric Poetry may be clas-
sified as follows : —
1. The Song. — This is usually short, simple in measure, and
divided into stanzas each complete in itself but related to the
sentiment of the whole. Sacred songs include hymns, psalms,
choruses, and anthems. Secular songs may be patriotic, comic,
Appendix F, Poetry, 395
moral, political, or sentimental, may treat of war, love, or death.
The song is the simple natural expression of the poet's immediate
feeling.
2. The Ode. — This is the expression of intense feeling, feeling
which has become enthusiasm in the poet. The Ode has a more
elaborate structure and scheme of verse than the song. It is not
intended to be sung. Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, Dryden's Ode to
St. Cecilia, Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality^ Sir William
Jones's What Constitutes a State f are examples.
3. The Elegy. — This expresses grief mingled with reflection ;
regret for the dead is its usual theme, or plaintive reflection on
mortality. Gray's Elegy, Milton's Lycidas, Hood's Bridge of Sighs,
Shelley's Adonais, Tennyson's In Memoriam, are examples. Whit-
tier's Ichdbod laments Webster's fall, his death to a high ideal.
4. The Sonnet. — This is a short poem in fixed form, limited to
fourteen lines, and generally with a prescribed arrangement of
rhymes. It usually deals with a single phase of feeling, but is
sometimes less specific, and may be devoted to description. Milton,
Wordsworth, Keats, Shakespeare, furnish examples.
5. Dramatic Lyric. — This is a lyric which vividly suggests
human action. A single character located by the poet, speaks to
an imaginary audience, and, by his suggestive words, pictures a
scene, the actors, and what they did. To the imagination of the
reader, it is as if a drama were being enacted. Browning's The
Patriot, The Bishop Orders His Tomb, are examples.
6. Simply Lyric. — A great many lyrics lack the specific aims
and characteristics mentioned under the foregoing heads. They
are simply lyrics : Wordsworth's Cuckoo, Tennyson's St. Agnes'
Eve, Burns's To a Mouse.
Didactic Poetry.
Epic, dramatic, and lyric poetry aim to give refined pleasure ;
they work on the imagination and the feelings. In their lower
forms, however, an element of instruction, an aim to teach, an
address to the intellect or reason sometimes enters. To describe
this element, the adjective didactic is used. Spenser's Faery
Queen is a metrical romance with a didactic element expressed
396 Composition- lihetoric.
in allegory. Wordsworth's lilxcursion is epic in plan and style,
but is didactic in mubh of its philosophical reflection. Banyan's
Pilgrim's Progress is didactic allegory. When the didactic ele-
ment becomes too prcuninent, and tlie principal aim is evidently
to teach, the high title "poetry" is withheld. Pope's Moral
Essays and the Essay on Man appeal to the reason and intellect,
and not to the imagination at all.
Satire assumes the form of poetry (verse) merely to increase its
sharpness. Satire aims to belittle men and events, to expose vice,
weakness, folly, and to effect political or social reforms. Exam-
ples : Johnson's London, Butler's Hudibras, Lowell's Biglow Papers,
Dryden's MacFlecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel, Byron's Eng-
lish Bards and Scottish Reviewers.
Versification.
Versification is the art of making verses ; it deals with the me-
chanical side of poetry. In reading poetry aloud we notice a regular
recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. This is called
rhythm. Prose has rhythm, but prose rhythm is not regular and
uniform. Metre is the measure of rhythm. The smallest recurring
combination of accented and unaccented syllables is called a foot.
The smallest recurring combination of feet is called a verse. A
verse is a line of poetry. The number of feet in English verse
varies from one to eight. The number of feet in a line of verse
determines its metre; the kind of foot employed determines the
rhythm.
1. The principal feet occurring in English verse are dissyllabic
and trisyllabic. Dissyllabic feet are (1) the Iambus, consisting of
an unaccented followed by an accented syllable, as suppose ; it is
the favorite foot in English poetry. (2) The Trochee, consisting
of an accented followed by an unaccented syllable ; as morning.
, Trisyllabic feet are (1) the Dactyl, consisting of an accented syl-
lable, followed by two unacccented; as edify; (2) The Anapest,
consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented ;
as persevere. A foot may take in parts of two words. The accent
of a foot coincides with the English word-accent.
2. Metre is doubly named : first from the kind of foot ; secondly,
Appendix F, Poetry. 397
from the number of feet in the line. Thus a line of one iambic
foot is called iambic monometer ; of two iambic feet, iambic dimeter ;
of three iambic feet, iambic trimeter ; of four iambic feet, iambic
tetrameter. In the following examples we use ^-^ to indicate an
unaccented syllable, and ' to indicate an accented syllable. The
vertical lines mark off the feet.
I know I a maid | en fair | to see, (iambic tetrameter)
Take care ! (iambic monometer)
She can | both false | and friend |ly be, (iambic tetrameter)
Beware ! | Beware ! (iambic dimeter)
His hair | is crisp | and black | and long, (iambic tetrameter)
His face | is like | the tan (iambic trimeter)
A line of five iambic feet is called iambic pentameter. It is also
known as heroic measure.
We live | in deeds, | not years : | in thoughts, | not breaths.
A line of six iambic feet is called iambic hexameter. It is also
known as Alexandrine measure.
The things | which I | have seen | I now | can see | no more.
A line of seven iambic feet is called iambic heptameter*
Now glo I ry to | the Lord | of Hosts | from whom | all glo | ries are.
A line of eight feet is called iambic octameter.
Oall I yepeo|ple, clap | your hands | and with | trium | phant voi | ces
sing.
3. The words monometer, dimeter , trimeter, tetrameter, etc., are
also used with the adjectives trochaic, dactyllic, and anapestic, to
tell how many trochaic, dactyllic, or anapestic feet there are in a
line. The following illustrate some of these : —
398 Composition-Rhetoric,
Do not I shoot me, | Hi a | wa tlia ! (trochaic tetrameter)
Like a [ high-born | maiden (trochaic trimeter)
Turning
Burning
Changing J
(trochaic monometer.)
Once up I on a I midnight | dreary | as I | pondered | weak and | weary
(trochaic octameter)
^^fV !!'r'"" 1 (trochaic dimeter)
Joys en | suing J
There's a bliss | beyond all | that the min|strel has. told
(anapestic tetrameter)
And we came | to the Boun|teous Isle, | where the heav|ens lean
low I on the land (anapestic hexameter)
Touch her not | scornfully (dactyllic dimeter)
Think of her | mournfully (dactyllic dimeter)
This is the | forest pri|meval; the | murmuring | pines and the |
hemlocks (dactyllic hexameter, last foot incomplete)
Separating lines into the feet of which they are composed (as
we have been doing) is called Scansion. Each line that we have
scanned has consisted of only one kind of foot. Such lines are
called Pure. Some lines show two kinds of feet. Such lines are
said to be Mixed.
One of I those lit | tie pla | ces that | have run
(first foot, trochee ; the rest, iambic)
Meanwhile a | mid the | gloom by the | church E | vangeline |
lingered.
Appendix F. Poetry. 399
In this last, the second, fourth, and sixth feet are trochees, and
the rest are dactyls. The line is mixed trochaic and dactylic
hexameter.
Whene'er | is spo | ke7i a no \ ble thought
(third foot, anapest ; the rest, iambic)
Frequently a line is incomplete, an unaccented syllable (most
often at the end) being missing, its place being supplied by a pause.
In the I market | place of | Bruges | stands the | belfry | old and |
brown .
This line is trochaic octameter, the last foot incomplete.
Gold ! ^ I Gotd ! ^ \ Gold ! ^ \ Gold ! ^ (each foot incomplete)
Bright and | yellow, | hard and | cold (last foot incomplete)
Listen my | children and | you shall | hear
(mixed ; and last foot incomplete)
Pauses occur naturally in verse as in prose ; the chief pause (if
there is one) occurring in the body of a line is called the caesura.
It may divide a foot, and does not usually come at the same place
in successive lines. In the following examples we use double
vertical lines to mark the caesura : —
Build me | straight, |1 0 | worthy | Master ! (dividing a foot)
O lyr I ic Love ! || half-an | gel and | half -bird (not dividing a foot)
The number of syllables and the length of time required to pro-
nounce the separate syllables affect the rhythm of a line, in a
marked degree. Long syllables predominating produce the effect
of slowness ; short syllables, the effect of hurry and liveliness.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea !
I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three.
400 Compositwn-Rhetoric,
Rhyme is correspondenoe of sound. It is most readily seen at
the ends of lines, but occurs also within the lines. It is assonantal
when the vowels alone correspond, in the rhyming syllables. It is
consonantal when the final consonants also correspond. In the fol-
lowing, thou and now are assonantal ; last and past are consonantal
also.
Yet did I love tkee to the last
As fervently as thoUj
Who didst not change through all the past^
And canst not alter now.
Rhyme is seen within the first and third lines of the following : —
I bring fresh shoivers for the fhirsting flowers
From the seas and the streams ;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
Alliteration, a kind of rhyme, is the recurrence, at short inter-
vals, of the same initial consonant.
And thistles, and nettles, and darnels rank,
And the dock, and the /lenbane ; and hemlock dank.
Blank verse is verse without rhyme. In its perfect form it is a
continuous metre of iambic pentameter lines. It is the most ele-
vated and dignified measure, and is used for the high themes of
epic and drama. Read Portia's " The quality of mercy is not
strained," etc.
A stanza is a part of a poem consisting of a group of lines
arranged according to a definite plan. Stanzas of the same poem
are usually constructed alike.
Two consecutive rhyming lines constitute a couplet ; a couplet is
not usually referred to as a stanza. Three consecutive lines (usu-
ally, but not always, rhyming together) constitute a Triplet or
Tercet.
A stanza of four lines rhyming alternately or otherwise is called
a Quatrain. A quatrain of four iambic pentameters with alternate
rhyme, is called Elegiac Stanza. See Gray's Elegy. A quatrain
of four iambic tetrameters is called Long Metre.
Appendix F. Poetry, 401
Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run ;
Shake off dull sloth, and early rise
To pay the morning sacrifice.
A quatrain of four iambic trimeters with an additional foot in
the third line is called Short Metre.
The world can never give
The bliss for which we sigh :
'Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die.
A quatrain of four iambic tetrameters alternating with three
is called Common Metre, or Ballad Metre (because a favorite in
ballads).
When all Thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.
Long, short, and common metre are the favorite hymn-stanzas.
Five-line stanzas (Shelley's To a Skylark) and six-line stanzas
(Longfellow's The Village Blacksmith) are also used. The seven- .
line stanza of iambic pentameter is called Chaucerian stanza (be-
cause used by Chaucer), or Rhyme Royal (because adopted by King
James I. of Scotland). In this the first four lines are an alter-
nately-rhyming quatrain ; the fifth line rhymes with the fourth,
and the last two lines form a couplet. Ottava Rima is an eight-
line stanza of iambic pentameter, the first six lines rhyming alter-
nately, the last two lines having no rhyme (Byron's Don Juan).
The Spenserian stanza, invented by the author of the Faery Queen,
consists of nine lines, the first eight being iambic pentameters, and
the ninth an Alexandrine (iambic hexameter) ; the first and third
lines rhyming together ; also the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh ;
also the sixth, eighth, and ninth. Burns used this stanza in the
Cotter'^s Saturday Night.
A canto consists of a number of stanzas which together make up
a natural division of a long poem. Scott's Lady of the Lake has
six cantos.
402 Composition-Rhetoric.
The Sonnet is a lyric of fourteen iambic pentameter lines ar-
ranged according to a prescribed order of rhyme, and usually
restricted to the expression of a single sentiment. Mr. R. W.
Gilder shows the strict order of rhymes in the following ; the col-
umn of letters to the right indicating the scheme of end-rhymes : —
What is a sonnet ? 'Tis a pearly shell a
That murmurs of the far-off murmuring sea, h
A precious jewel carved most curiously ; 6
It is a little picture painted well. a
What is a sonnet ? 'Tis the tear that fell a
From a great poet's hidden ecstasy ; h
A two-edged sword, a star, a song — ah me ! h
Sometimes a heavy-tolling funeral bell. a
This was the flame that shook with Dante's breath, c
The solemn organ whereon Milton played, d
And the clear glass where Shakespeare's shadow falls : e
A sea this is — beware who ventureth ! c
For like a fiord the narrow floor is laid d
Deep as mid-ocean to sheer mountain walls. e
Sonnet writers do not hold uniformly to this scheme of rhyme-
order. Wyatt, Surrey, Shakespeare, Milton, and other sonneteers
since their time, show a variety in the number and order of
rhymes.
INDEX.
[The reference is to pages. Names of authors whose works are quoted and of periodi-
cals from which extracts have been made, are in Small Capitals.]
Abbott, 68.
Abstract expressions, 222, 223.
Agassiz, 48.
AiNGER, 62.
Alcott, 9.
Allegory, 386.
Analogies, Development of theme
by, 92-98.
Analysis, Material for, 3^9-360.
Andersen, 5.
Andrews, 120.
Antecedent, 327-329, 343.
Anti-climax, 388.
Antithesis, 231-236, 387.
Antonomasia, 385.
Apostrophe, 386.
Argumentation, 379-382.
Arrangement, 241-243.
Atlantic Monthly, 153, 213.
Audubon, 253.
Bagehot. 89, 96, 122.
Ballad, The, 392.
Bancroft, 178.
Barrie, 9, 32.
Black, 84.
Blank verse, 400.
Brett, 60.
Brown, 83, 201.
Bryce, 213, 236, 334.
Burke, 106, 135, 138, 180, 182, 183,
232.
Burroughs, 161, 196.
Canto, The, 401.
Capitalization, 368.
Carlyle, 38, 287.
Cause and effect, 110-113.
Century Magazine, 74, 84.
Change of subject, Unexpected, 326.
Chatham, 179.
Clarendon, 323, 325.
Clauses, Involved, 325.
Clearness, Sentence-order for, 257-
263.
Climax, 231-236, 387.
Coherence, 323-331.
Coleridge, 100.
Comedy, 393, 394.
Comparisons, Development of theme
by, 92-98.
Concrete expressions, 222, 223.
Condensation, 306-310.
Congressional Record, 227.
Conjunctions, 105, 112, 124, 292, 344,
345.
Construction, Faulty, 344.
Contrasts, 103-105.
COPPEE, 54.
Correction-marks, 342-348.
Cosmopolitan Magazine, 320.
Crane, 142.
Crawford, 96, 100.
Creighton, 111.
Cumberland Presbyterian, 60.
Curtis, 80.
Description, 371-374.
De Quincey, 136, 300, 314.
Diction, Choice of, 205-209.
403
404
Composition- Rhetoric,
Didactic poetry, 395, 396.
Digressions, 314-319.
Discourse, Types of, 371-382.
DOWDEN, 54.
Dramatic poetry, 392-394.
Earle, 328.
'Echo,' 330.
Elegy, The, 395.
Eliot, 307.
Emerson, 143, 144, 153, 228.
Emphasis, Sentence-order for, 257-
263.
Epic poetry, 391, 392.
Epigram, 388.
Everett, 155, 213.
Examples, 87-91.
Explicit reference, 344.
Exposition, 377-379.
Expression, 297-301.
Expression, Choice of, 205-209.
Fable, 387.
Farce, 394.
Farrar, 151, 228, 294.
Fields, 238.
Figures, 222-225, 382-390.
'Fine Writing,' 346.
Fortnightly Review, 55.
Foster, 113.
Franklin, 28, 50, 75, 113.
Freeman, 330.
Froude, 63.
Gaynor, 54.
General ideas, 219-223.
Gibbon, 61, 152, 156.
GiLMAN, 54.
Grady, 36, 56.
Gray, 210.
Green, 299.
Guyot, 114.
Hale, 284.
Hamerton, 58, 90, 105, 127, 128, 162,
163.
Hardy, 226.
Harper's AVeekly, 62.
Hart, 330 note.
HiGGINSON, 36, 125.
Holland, 247.
Holmes, 7, 72, 83, 106, 135, 225.
Hood, 28.
HOSMER, 57.
Howard, 191.
HowELLS, 95, 101, 129.
Hudson, 56.
Hughes, 49, 298.
Hugo, 29.
Huxley, 95.
Hyperbole, 389.
Idiomatic expressions, 207
Idyll, The, 392.
Images, 219-221.
Imaginative expressions, 219-225.
Incoherence, 323-331,
Indention, 5-29,
Instances, specific. Development of
theme by, 87-91.
Interrogation, 389.
Irony, 388.
Irving, 11, 17, 19, 35, 82, 103, 121,
its, 2^21.
Jebb, 118.
Johnson, 73, 121.
Jowett, 308.
Keats, 305.
Keeping, 346.
KiNGLAKE, 112.
Kingsley, 141.
Lalor and Mason, 57, 62.
Lamb, 63, 68.
Langley, 94.
Lewis, 3 note.
Lincoln, 140, 217.
Literal expressions, 222, 223.
Lodge, 104.
London Daily Telegraph, 311.
London Saturday Review, 312.
Longfellow, 8, 52, 53, 78, 154, 194,
198.
Lovelace, 304.
Lowell, 38, 88, 94, 97, 139, 179,
220.
Lutheran World, 53.
Lyric poetry, 394, 395.
Index,
405
Macaulay, 37, 55, 7G, 78, 89, 93, 9G,
135, 155, 175, 203, 224, 307, 319.
Mackenzie, 138, 143.
Mahaffy, 118.
McMaster, 107, 123.
Manuscript, Preparation of, 339-341.
Mary, Princess, 332.
Mask, The, 394.
Matthews, 108.
Melodrama, 394.
Merivale, 62.
Metaphor, 383, 384.
Metaphor, Mixed, 224, 225.
Metaphorical expressions, 222-225.
Metonymy, 384, 385.
Metre, 39G, 397.
Mill, 120.
Milton, 304.
Montaigne, 298.
Montgomery, 114.
Motley, 28, 47.
Moulton, 318 note.
Napier, 236.
Narrative, 374-377.
not only — hut also, 259.
Ode, The, 395.
Oliphant, 137.
only, 259 and note.
Opera, 394.
Order, Logical, 241-243.
Order, Time and space, 246-250.
Parable, 387.
Paragraph, a sentence-group, 1-3;
External form of, 1-29 ; Structure
of, 30-39; Theme of, 42-44; Growth
of, 72-133.
Participle for clause, 342.
Participle, Misrelated, 342.
Particular terms, 222, 223.
Particulars, Development of theme
by, 79-86.
Pastoral, The, 392.
Personification, 386.
Plain statements, 222, 223.
Plutarch, 49.
Poetry, 390-402.
Pope, 229.
Preposition at end of sentence, 259.
Prescott, 34.
Pronouns, 327-329.
Proofs, Development of theme by,
117-119.
Proportion, 269-280.
Punctuation, 368-370.
Quatrain, 400.
QuiNCY, 176.
Randolph, 213.
Reference, Words of, 327-331.
Relative, Omission of, 347.
Repetition, Development of theme
by, 72-74.
Repetitions for coherence, 328-331.
Reproduction, Material for, 349-360.
Rliyme, 400.
Robertson, 306.
Roosevelt, 104.
RusKiN, 77, 99, 101, 154, 189.
San Francisco Examiner, 327 note.
Satire, 396.
Saunders, 27.
Scansion, 398.
SCHMITZ, 119.
SCHURZ, 51.
Scott, 114, 250.
Selection, 41, 42, 270.
Sentence-groups, 1-3.
Sentence-order, 257-263.
Sentences, Balanced, 188, 189 ; Long,
151-158 ; Loose, 161-165 ; Periodic,
175-180; Short, 134-145.
Sentence-types, Combination of, 194-
198.
Seward, 218, 219 note.
Shaler, 30.
shall and loill. Use of, 208.
Simile, 222, 223, 384.
Slang, 207.
Song, The, 394.
Sonnet, The, 395, 402.
SOUTHEY, 60.
Specific expressions, 222, 223.
* Squinting ' construction, 257, 258,
342.
Stanza, 400.
406
Oomposition- Rhetoric,
Stedman, 287.
Stevenson, 295, 297, 301.
Subject, Selection of a, 41, 42.
Subjects for essays, 361-367.
Subordination of parts, 291-294.
Suspense, 178.
Synecdoche, 384, 385.
Taylor, 249.
Tennyson, 303.
Thackeray, 162.
Thanet, 80.
that, who, which, 209.
their, 327 and note.
Theme of the paragraph, 42-44.
Thomas, 307.
Thoreau, 88.
Thucydides, 308.
Title, 46, 47.
Topic-sentence, 52-61.
Tragedy, 393.
Tyndall, 90.
Types of discourse, 371-382.
Unity, 314-319, 324, 325.
Van Dyke, 190.
Verse, 390.
Versification, 396-401.
Walker, 75.
Webster, 60, 76, 77, 139, 176, 177,
196, 293, 329.
Wellington, 261.
which, who, that, 209.
who, which, that, 209.
will and shall, Use of, 208.
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