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P H

PARAGRAPH-WRITING

T
BY

FRED N. SCOTT, PH.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF KHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF MICHIGAN

AND

JOSEPH V. DENNEY, A.B.

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.

THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

Boston

ALLYN AND BACON

1895

Nortoooli ^rrgg :

]. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

PREFACE.

THE principles embodied in this work were developed
and put in practice by its authors at the University of
Michigan several years ago. When the nature of the class-
room work and its results became known, there were many
inquiries from teachers in preparatory schools and colleges
in regard to the methods employed. In response to these
inquiries a small pamphlet (now out of print) was pub-
lished and circulated. The present work, while in a lim-
ited sense a revision of that pamphlet, is virtually another
book. In the earlier work the aim was to suggest a useful
exercise in writing English. This book goes farther. Its
aim is to make the paragraph the basis of a method of
composition, to present all the important facts of rhetoric
in their application to the paragraph. Since the point of
view which is assumed is in some respects novel, a few
words of explanation will not be out of place.

Learning to write well in one's own language means in
large part learning to give unity and coherence to one's
ideas. It means learning to construct units of discourse
which have order and symmetry and coherence of parts.
It means learning theoretically how such units are made,
and practically how to put them together ; and further, if
they turn out badly the first time, how to take them apart
and put them together again in another and better order,
The making and re-making of such units is in genera?
terms the task of all who produce written discourse.

iii

iv Preface.

The task of the teacher of those who produce written
discourse, it follows, is in great part setting students to
construct such units, explaining the principles upon which
the units are made, arousing a sense that they are units
and not mere heaps or nebulous masses, and (hoc opus,
hie labor est) correcting departures from unity, order, and
coherence when such departures occur.

Work of this kind on the part of writer or of teacher
presupposes a unit of discourse. Of these units there are
three, — the sentence, the paragraph, and the essay or
whole composition. Which of these three is best adapted,
psychologically and pedagogically, to the end proposed?
The sentence may be rejected at the outset as at once too
simple and too fragmentary. Practice in the composing of
disconnected sentences is not of much service to students
of composition. This remark applies to the lower as well
as to the higher grades.1 Moreover, as Professor Barrett
Wendell has pointed out (English Composition, p. 117), the
sentence is properly a subject of revision, not of prevision,
— good sentences are produced by criticising them after
they are written rather than by planning them beforehand.
Putting the sentence aside, then, what shall be said of the
paragraph and the essay ? Of the two the essay is theo-
retically the more proper unit of discourse. But is it
always so in practice ? Is it not true that for students at
a certain stage of their progress the essay is too complex
and too cumbersome to be appreciated as a whole ? Aris-
totle long ago laid down the psychological principle which
should govern the selection of a structural unit : " As for
the limit fixt by the nature of the case, the greatest con-

1 A series of experiments conducted by Miss H. M. Scott, Principal of
the Detroit Training School for Teachers (Report of the Detroit Normal
Training School for 1893) , show that . children even in the lowest grades
comprehend a paragraph-group, or ' sequence ' of sentences, more readily
than sentences taken separately. They learn to read more easily and
rapidly by the ' paragraph method ' than by the sentence method.

Preface. v

sisterit with simultaneous comprehension is always the
best." If students who have written essays for years have
with all their labor developed but a feeble sense for struct-
ural unity, may the reason not lie in the fact that the unit
of discourse employed has been so large and so complex
that it could not be grasped with a single effort of the
mind?

If there is a measure of truth in what has here been
urged, it would appear that for certain periods in the stu-
dent's development the paragraph, as an example of struct-
ural unity, offers peculiar advantages. The nature of these
advantages has already been suggested. They are, in brief,
as follows : The paragraph, being in its method practically
identical with the essay, exemplifies identical principles of
structure. It exemplifies these principles in small and
convenient compass so that they are easily appreciable by
the beginner. Further, while the writing of the paragraph
exercises the student in the same elements of structure
which would be brought to his attention were he drilled in
the writing of essays, he can write more paragraphs than
he can write essays in the same length of time ; hence the
character of the work may be made for him more varied,
progressive, and interesting. If the paragraph thus suits
the needs of the student, it has even greater advantages
from the point of view of the teacher. The bugbear of the
teacher of Rhetoric is the correcting of essays. When
the compositions are long and crude and errors abound,
the burden sometimes becomes almost intolerable. In
many cases it is a necessary burden and must be borne
with patience, but this is not always so. Since the student
within the limits of the paragraph makes the same errors
which he commits in the writing of longer compositions,
in the greater part of the course the written work may
profitably be shortened from essays to paragraphs. Para-
graph-writing has the further advantage that, if necessary,

vi Preface.

the composition may be re-written from beginning to end,
and, most important of all, when completed is not too long
for the teacher to read and criticise in the presence of the
class.

Finally, the paragraph furnishes a natural introduction
to work of a more difficult character. When the time
comes for the writing of essays, the transition from the
smaller unit to its larger analogue is made with facility.
Upon this point we cannot do better than to quote the
words of Professor Bain : —

Adapting an old homely maxim, we may say, Look to the Para-
graphs, and the Discourse will look to itself, for, although a discourse
as a whole has a method or plan suited to its nature, yet the confining
of each paragraph to a distinct topic avoids some of the worst faults of
Composition ; besides which, he that fully comprehends the method of
a paragraph will also comprehend the method of an entire work. —
Bam : Composition and Rhetoric, I. § 178.

This book is an attempt to embody in a manual the ideas
which have just been advanced, — to utilize this convenient
element of discourse, this half-way house between the sen-
tence and the essay, as a basis for a method of English compo-
sition. In Part I., following the natural order of treatment,
the nature and laws of the paragraph are presented; the
isolated paragraph, its structure and function, are dis-
cussed : and finally, considerable space is devoted to related
paragraphs, that is, those which are combined into essays.
Part II. is a chapter on the theory of the paragraph in-
tended for teachers and advanced students. In Part III.
will be found copious materials for class-room work, —
selected paragraphs, suggestions to teachers,1 lists of sub-

1 The hints and suggestions given on the following pages will, it is
hoped, be found of especial interest to teachers : (in fine print) pp. 15, 16,
18, 24, 36, 39, 44, 58, 60, 68, 84, 85, 106 ; (in large print) pp. 119, 120, 172,
173, 174, 180, 182, 191, 202, 203, 212, 213, 255-259.

Preface. vii

jects for compositions (about two thousand in all), and
helpful references of many kinds.

A general acknowledgment of the sources from which
assistance has been received will be found on p. 106. For
the ingenious and workable method of drill outlined in
Appendix A 12 (pp. 119, 120), the authors are indebted to
Dr. A. F. Lange, Associate Professor of English in the
University of California.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IN completion of the general plan of the book, and in
deference to the wishes of many teachers who are using
PARAGRAPH-WRITING as an elementary rhetoric, the authors
have added to this revision, as Appendix H, a chapter on
the Rhetoric of the Paragraph, in which will be found
applications of the paragraph-idea to the sentence and to
the constituent parts of the sentence so far as these demand
especial notice. The new material thus provided, supplies,
in the form of principles and illustrations, as much additional
theory as the student of elementary rhetoric needs to master
and apply in order to improve the details of his paragraphs
in unity, clearness, and force.

Each of these three essentials is first presented as a
requisite of the paragraph as a whole. It is then applied
to the sentence and to the lesser articulations of thought
within the sentence. Principles governing such matters as
the choice of sentence-forms, the placement of clauses and
phrases, and the minutiae of composition, thus find their
reason and explanation in the needs of the paragraph as the
larger and determining unit.

The study of Elegance, or Beauty, as a distinct topic, is
purposely omitted. Students need first of all to learn the

viii Preface.

beauty of unified thought and the beauty of clear statement.
Through long practice of these excellences they may come,
at a later stage of their study, to safe and sound ideas of
beauty as a definite rhetorical principle; but until they
reach that stage, attempts to teach them Elegance are only
too likely to result in 'fine writing/ exhibitions of crude
taste, and the misconception that rhetoric, in one of its
departments, deals largely in adornment and sentimentality.

Figures of speech are referred to only so far as their
misuse hinders the attainment of unity, clearness, and force.
Questions of word-usage are left to be answered by refer-
ence to the dictionary.

Appendix H is not an exercise in the correction of bad
English. The groups of quotations given are intended, with
the accompanying theory, to furnish sufficient material from
which to deduce the principles that follow each group. The
appendix may properly be introduced as supplementary text
in connection with the chapter that closes on page 47.

References to Appendix H have been inserted in Appendix
G 5 for the convenience of the student in revising and cor-
recting errors that are marked in his paragraphs and essays.

In other respects, also, the book has been revised for this
edition; but the changes in the text, while numerous, are
too minute to deserve mention in detail. For most of these
corrections and improvements the authors are indebted to
teachers who are using the work in their classes. To these,
and to all others who have been so kind as to offer sug-
gestions, the authors wish to make here a general acknowl-
edgment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

PAGE

INTRODUCTORY 1

(a) Definition of the Paragraph 1

(6) Classes of Paragraphs 2

(1) The Related Paragraph 2

(2) The Isolated Paragraph 2

(1) Unity 4

(2) Selection 6

(3) Proportion 10

(4) Sequence 13

(5) Variety 15

(d) Application of these Laws in Choice of Paragraph Subject 17
THE ISOLATED PARAGRAPH 18

1. Paragraph Subject 19

(a) Where placed 19

(1) First 19

(2) First and Last 20

(3) Last 21

(6) Subject Implied 23

2. Means of Developing 24

• (a) Repetition 25

• (6) Definition 26

• (d) Explanation and Illustration 28

(e) Particulars and Details 30

•(/) Proofs 31

(#) Enforcement 32

(ft) Introduction and Transition 33

3. Effect on Sentence Structure 36

(a) Inversion 37

(6) Parallel Construction 38

x Table of Contents.

PAGE

(d) Subordination 40

(e) Punctuation 42

4. Types of Paragraph Structure 47

(a) Expository and Argumentative 48

1. The Logical Type 48

(1) Deductive 49

(2) Inductive 50

2. The Less Formal Types 51

(1) Paragraphs of Definition 52

(2) Paragraphs of Detail 54

(3) Other Types '. 54

(6) Descriptive and Narrative 55

(1) Portrait Sketches 56

(2) Character Sketches 58

THE RELATED PARAGRAPH 60

1. Special Form^ 60

(a) Introductory and Concluding Paragraphs 61

(6) Transitional ctnd Directive Paragraphs 63

2. The Writing of Essays 64

(a) The Descriptive Essay 65

(1) Province and Kinds of Description 65

(2) Selection of a Subject 66

(3) Outlining the Subject 66

(4) Purpose in Description 67

(5) Point of View 67

(6) Selection of Details 68

(7) Sequence and Grouping of Details 69

(8) Helps to Description 69

(6) The Narrative Essay 70

(1) Province and Kinds of Narration 70

(2) Selection of a Subject 70

(3) Outlining the Subject 71

(4) "Unity and Selection 72

(5) Sequence and Grouping of Details 73

(6) Suspense and Movement 73

(7) Plausibility and Verisimilitude 74

(8) Helps to Narration 74

1. Kinds and Uses of Exposition 76

Table of Contents. xi

PAGE

-^2. Scientific Exposition 76

(1) Analysis by Partition 77

(2) Analysis by Division 78

(3) Exposition by Definition 80

(4) Exposition by Similarity and Contrast 81

-"3. Popular Exposition 82

(1) The Didactic Essay 82

(2) The Conversational Essay 83

(3) The Critical Essay 83

4. The Paraphrase and the Abstract 85

(d) The Argumentative Essay 87

1. The Proposition 87

2. Classification and Kinds of Arguments 88

3. The Order of Arguments 91

PAKT II.

THEORY OF THE PARAGRAPH 93

PAKT in.

APPENDICES 107

A 1. Paragraphs to be criticised and re-written 107

2. General subjects to be narrowed 110

3. Topic-sentences to be developed by repetition Ill

4. Topic-sentences to be developed by definition 112

5. Topic-sentences to be developed by contrast 112

6. Topic-sentences to be developed by explanation 113

7. Topic-sentences to be developed by particulars 114

8. Topic-sentences to be developed by proofs 115

9. Topic-sentences to be developed by enforcement 116

10. Topic-sentences to be developed by any method 117

11. Table of typical paragraph structure 118

12. Outlines for paragraph- writing and specimen outlines 119

13. Paragraphs for analysis by thought divisions 137

B. A selected list of typical paragraphs for various exercises 141

«<C 1 (a). Ten-minute themes in exposition and argument 172

1(6). Other sources of themes 174

1 (c). Themes for practice in outlining 175

2. Ten-minute themes in narration and description . . . 179

xii Table of Contents.

PAGE

3 (a). List of references to selections for short reproduc-
tions in class 180

3 (6). List of references to selections for paraphrases and

abstracts 182

D 1. Typical introductory and concluding paragraphs 185

2. Typical transitional and directive paragraphs 187

3. Typical amplifying paragraphs 189

E (a). A list of references to short stories for rhetorical

analysis 191

(6). A list of references to essays, speeches, and sketches

for rhetorical analysis 195

F. Suggestions of exercises in reporting, editing, and proof-
reading 202

G 1. A general reference list to bibliographies 212

2. A classified list of essay- subjects 213

3. A miscellaneous list of essay- subjects j 237

4. General rules for capitals and punctuation, with news-

paper variations 244

5. Abbreviations used in correcting manuscripts 255

H. The Rhetoric of the Paragraph 260

INDEXES.

I. GENERAL INDEX 289

II. INDEX TO ESSAY-SUBJECTS , 291

PARAGRAPH-WRITING.

PART I.

INTKODUCTOKY.
(a) DEFINITION OF THE PARAGRAPH.

A paragraph is a unit of discourse developing a single
idea. It consists of a group or series of sentences closely
related to one another and to the thought expressed by the
whole group or series. Devoted, like the sentence, to the
development of one topic, a good paragraph is also, like a
good essay, a complete treatment in itself.

The following paragraphs illustrate this close relation of
sentences : —

I willingly concede all that you say against fashionable society as a
whole. It is, as you say, frivolous, bent on amusement, incapable of
attention sufficiently prolonged to grasp any serious subject, and
liable both to confusion and inaccuracy in the ideas which it hastily
forms or easily receives. You do right, assuredly, not to let it waste
your most valuable hours, but I believe also that you do wrong in
keeping out of it altogether.

The society which seems so frivolous in masses contains individual
members who, if you knew them better, would be able and willing to
render you the most efficient intellectual help, and you miss this help
by restricting yourself exclusively to books. Nothing can replace
the conversation of living men and women ; not even the richest
literature can replace it. — Hamerton : The Intellectual Life, Part IX.
Letter V.

Paragraph - Writing.

(b) CLASSES OF PARAGRAPHS.

A paragraph may be studied as constituting with other
paragraphs a complete essay, or, it may be regarded by
itself as a separate and complete composition in miniature.

(1) The Belated Paragraph.

Paragraphs of the first class we will call related para-
graphs since they are closely related to each other and* to
the essay of which they are the constituent units. Succes-
sive related paragraphs, as portions of a larger whole, treat
in turn the topics into which, according to the general plan
of the production, the subject naturally divides itself. If
the subject of the essay requires but a brief treatment and
the plan includes but two or three main headings, a single
paragraph may suffice for each. Of a more extensive produc-
tion, involving carefully planned divisions and subdivisions
in the outline, each sub-topic may require a separate para-
graph for its adequate treatment.

(2) The Isolated Paragraph.

A large class of subjects, however, admit of complete
treatment in single paragraphs. Such are simple in their
nature ; for example, incidents, brief descriptions of per-
sons and of places, terse comments upon current events,
and short discussions on isolated phases of political and
social questions. A single paragraph, which in itself gives
an adequate treatment of any subject or of a single phase
of any subject, we will call an isolated paragraph.

Both classes of paragraphs are units of discourse, though in slightly different senses.
An isolated paragraph, standing by itself and existing for itself is an independent unit,
whereas related paragraphs, existing as portions of a larger whole, are dependent or
subordinate units.

Introductory. 3

The quotation from Hamerton, on page 1, illustrates
related paragraphs, treating two phases of a single idea.
The topic in the outline treated by the first of these para-
graphs is, " Society is frivolous as a whole " ; that treated
by the second is, " But society contains individuals who are
not frivolous." These paragraphs are so closely related,
in thought, that each is necessary to the other ; but each
represents a distinct phase of the thought.

The following are illustrations of isolated paragraphs.
In these cases the treatment is sufficiently complete and
adequate in a single paragraph : —

Not many years ago two women in this country, one in Boston and
one in New York, became successful swindlers by simply promising
excessive rates of interest on money deposited in their hands. They
offered not the slightest security, and their success was due simply to
the desire for inordinate returns on money. Some women in the
island of Malta have done still better. A charwoman offered to
receive deposits and pay a shilling a week per pound as interest, or
about two hundred and sixty per cent per year. The money and
valuables deposited in her hands, of course, became capital from
which, for a time, she was able to pay her interest, and her business
was so immediately successful that other women started in, with the
result of setting in motion a mania, the Maltese of all classes seem-
ing to be possessed of a desire to put deposits in the hands of these
women, until the amount in their keeping exceeded half a million
dollars. For a time all went well, but presently there was a default
and the bubble burst, leaving not a rack behind except a few pawn-
tickets. The singular thing about this performance was the fact that
everybody knew the women to be living in poverty, and some of them
in squalor, and yet nobody seemed to hesitate to put valuables into
their keeping. Evidently the desire to make money rapidly is not
confined to the American genus. — Christian Union, 19 Nov., 1892.

Lowell's legacy as a poet is great, but not greater than his legacy
as a patriot. The true patriot does not love his country, labor and
suffer for it, simply because he happened to be born in it, — that
would be the infatuation of the egotist ; but because, being born in it,
his duty and pleasure are to help on all human progress by helping
on first the progress of the land to which he belongs. This is Lowell's

4 Paragraph - Writing.

legacy as a patriot, — not the sentiment uMy country, right or
wrong," but "My country — it shall never be wrong if I can help
it ! " The true patriot is not the one who says it is my country, and
its institutions, that are sacred; but who says, with Lowell, "It is
Man who is sacred." The citizen who holds to this sacredness of
humanity will be the most useful in securing institutions and a coun-
try whose services to humanity will make them also sacred in his own
heart, and in the hearts of all good men. — Century ', 43 : 150.

As a unit of discourse, every paragraph, whether related
or isolated, is subject to the general laws of unity, selection,
proportion, sequence, and variety, which govern all good
' composition.

(1) Unity.

The most important of these is the law of unity, which
('requires that the sentences composing the paragraph be
\ intimately connected with one another in thought and pur-
'pose. The fundamental idea of the paragraph is oneness
of aim and end in all of its parts. Unity is violated, there-
fore, when any sentence is admitted as a part, which does
not clearly contribute its share of meaning towards the
object for which the paragraph is written. Unity forbids
digressions and irrelevant matter. The most common vio-
lation of unity is including matter in one paragraph which
should either be taken out and made a separate paragraph
by itself or be dropped altogether.

The following paragraph from Dryden, on Translation,
will serve to illustrate how unity is frequently violated : —

(1) Translation is a kind of drawing after the life ; where every
one will acknowledge there is a double sort of likeness, a good one
and a bad. It is one thing to draw the outlines true, the features
like, the proportions exact, the colouring itself perhaps tolerable ; and

Introductory. 5

another thing to make all these graceful, by the posture, the shadow-
ings, and chiefly by the spirit which animates the whole. (2) I can-
not, without some indignation, look on an ill copy of an excellent
original ; much less can I behold with patience Virgil, Homer, and
some others, whose beauties I have been endeavouring all my life to
imitate, so abused, as I may say, to their faces by a botching inter-
preter. What English readers, unacquainted with Greek or Latin,
will believe me or any other man, when we commend these authors,
and confess, we derive all that is pardonable in us from their foun-
tains, if they take those to be the same poets whom our Oglevies have
translated ? But I dare assure them that a good poet is no more like
himself in £ dull translation, than his carcase would be to his living
body. (3) There are many who understand Greek and Latin and yet
are ignorant of their mother tongue. The proprieties and delicacies
of the English are known to few ; it is impossible even for a good wit
to understand and practise them without the help of a liberal educa-
tion, long reading and digesting of those few good authors we have
amongst us ; the knowledge of men and manners, the freedom of
habitudes and conversation with the best company of both sexes;
and, in short, without wearing off the rust which he contracted while
he was laying in a stock of learning. Thus difficult it is to under-
stand the purity of English, and critically to discern, not only good
writers from bad, and a proper style from a corrupt, but also to dis-
tinguish that which is pure in a good author from that which is vicious
and corrupt in him. And for want of all these requisites, or the
greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young men take up some
cried-up English poet for their model ; adore him, and imitate him,
as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is
boyish and trifling, wherein either his thoughts are improper to his
subject, or his expressions unworthy of his thoughts, or the turn of
both is unharmonious.

The section of this paragraph marked (2) is an expression of Dryden's personal feel-
ings towards bad translations, and shows no connection with what precedes in the sec-
tion marked (1), which states the nature and difficulties of translation. Section (2)
should either be omitted entirely or be taken out and made into a separate paragraph,
prefaced, as Bain suggests (Rhetoric, Part 1. p. 113), by some such statement as this :
"A good original must not be judged by an ill copy." Section (3) would, in the latter
case, also become a separate paragraph, prefaced by some such statement as this :
" That good translations are few is not to be wondered at. For a good translation two
things are required : a knowledge of English, as well as a knowledge of the original."
The order of the paragraphs would then be (1), (3), (2). If section (2) were omitted
entirely, section (3) might be unified with section (1) by prefacing (3) with the single

6 Paragraph - Writing.

sentence: "For a good translation two things are required: a knowledge of English,
as well as a knowledge of the original." The changes suggested here in the order of
sentences illustrate also the law of sequence (the fourth law of the paragraph).

Good examples of paragraphs possessing unity will be
seen in the quotation from Hamerton, already given, and
in the quotations from Emerson's Essay on Art (see Pro-
portion), from Macaulay's Essay on the Earl of Chatham,
in the quotation from Dr. Johnson (see Sequence), and in
the descriptive paragraph quoted in illustration of the next
law (see Selection).

In the following from Ruskin, unity is secured by the
figure of speech which runs through the whole paragraph : —

Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth what violent
muscular action is to the body of man. The muscles and tendons of
its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with fierce and con-
vulsive energy, fullv of expression, passion, and strength ; the plains
and the lower 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. This,
tlren, is the first grand principle of the truth of the earth. 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
inactive 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 ! " — Modern Painters,
Vol. I. pt. ii. sec. iv. chap. i.

Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1.

(2) Selection.

The law of selection requires that of all which might be
said on the subject treated, only those points be chosen for
mention in the sentences which will best subserve the pur-
pose of the paragraph and will give force and distinction to
its main idea. In narrative or descriptive paragraphs, a

Introductory. 7

few well-chosen points will usually serve better than the
mention of many minute and unimportant particulars.
What to omit is here the important question for the writer.
The effort to make the narrative or description complete
even to the smallest details frequently renders the account
obscure. There is less danger of this in paragraphs of an
expository or argumentative character. In these, violations
of this law more often arise from selecting remote and
inapplicable figures of speech and far-fetched and mislead-
ing contrasts.

The following quotation contains two such contrasts, so
far-fetched and inapplicable to the subject that their force
is lost, to most readers. They are here printed in italics : —

Ordinary criminal justice knows nothing of set-off. The greatest
desert cannot be pleaded in answer to a charge of the slightest trans-
gression. If a man has sold beer on Sunday morning, it is no defence
that he has saved the life of a fellow-creature at the risk of his own.
If he has harnessed a Newfoundland dog to his little child's carriage,
it is no defense that he was wounded at Waterloo. — Macaulay : Lord
Clive.

Some more obvious ' transgression ' than * harnessing a Newfoundland dog to his
little child's carriage,' (it will occur to most readers,) ought to have been cited, in order
to justify the extraordinary method of defense suggested — that of exposing the wounds
the prisoner received at Waterloo. The very wideness from each other of the things
selected for contrast defeats the writer's purpose. This is a charge, however, that can-
not often be brought against Macaulay. His paragraphs are, in general, models of struc-
ture, unity, and force.

De Quincey, especially when he tries to be humorous,
often suffers from what may be called a temporary
paralysis of the selective faculty. In the following
example, if the subject of the paragraph is ' The Hebrew
Source of Mendelssohn's Music/ the portions in italics are
not happily chosen.

It strikes me that I see the source of this music. We that were
learning German some thirty years ago must remember the noise made
at that time about Mendelssohn, the Platonic philosopher. And why f

8 Paragraph - Writing.

Was there anything particular in " Der Phcedon " on the immortality
of the soul ? Not at all ; it left us quite as mortal as it found us ;
and it has long since been found mortal itself. Its venerable remains
are still to be met with in many worm-eaten trunks, pasted on the lids
of which I have myself perused a matter of thirty pages, except for a
part that had been too closely perused by worms. But the key to all
the popularity of the Platonic Mendelssohn is to be sought in the whim-
sical nature of German liberality, — which, in those days, forced Jews
into paying toll at the gates of cities, under the title of "swine," but
caressed their infidel philosophers. Now, in this category of Jew and
infidel stood the author of " Phsedon." He was certainly liable to toll
as a hog ; but, on the other hand, he was much admired as one who
despised the Pentateuch. Now, that Mendelssohn, whose learned
labours lined our trunks, was the father of this Mendelssohn, whose
Greek music afflicts our ears. Naturally, then, it strikes me that, as
"papa" Mendelssohn attended the synagogue to save appearances,
the filial Mendelssohn would also attend it. I likewise attended the
synagogue now and then at Liverpool and elsewhere. We all three
have been cruising in the same latitudes ; and, trusting to my own
remembrances, I should pronounce that Mendelssohn has stolen his
Greek music from the synagogue. There was, in the first chorus of
the " Antigone," one sublime ascent (and once repeated) that rang to
heaven : it might have entered into the music of Jubal's lyre, or have
glorified the timbrel of Miriam. All the rest, tried by the deep
standard of my own feeling, — that clamours for the impassioned in
music, even as the daughter of the horse-leech says, " Give, give," —
is as much without meaning as most of the Hebrew chanting that I
heard at the Liverpool synagogue. I advise Mr. Murray, in the event
of his ever reviving the "Antigone," to make the chorus sing the
Hundredth Psalm rather than Mendelssohn's music, or, which would
be better still, to import from Lancashire the Handel chorus-singers. —
De Quincey : The Antigone of Sophocles.

What connection is there, in the following, between the
anecdote of Lord Nelson and the remainder of the para-
graph ?

During pedestrian tours in New England, in various parts of the
West, and in every Southern State, I have frequently stayed for the
night at the houses of poor farmers, laborers, fishermen, and trappers.
In such journeys I have invariably listened to the tales of the neigh-

Introductory. 9

borhood, stimulating them by suggestion, and have found the belief
in witchcraft cropping out in the oldest towns in New England, some-
times within the very shadow of the buildings where a learned minis-
try has existed from the settlement of the country, and public schools
have furnished means of education to all classes. The horsehoes seen
in nearly every county, and often in every township, upon the houses
of persons, suggested the old horseshoe beneath which Lord Nelson,
who had long kept it nailed to the mast of the Victory, received his
death-wound at Trafalgar. — J. M. Buckley : " Witchcraft," in Cen-
tury, 21 : 409.

In the following paragraph, no principle or purpose
seems to have guided the selection of the ideas ; they ?re
set down just as they came, by chance, into the writer's
head : —

As for Charles Cotton, his " Virgil Travesty," is deader than Scar-
ron's, and deserves to be so. The famous lines which Lamb has made
known to every one in the essay on " New Year's Day," are the best
thing he did. But there are many excellent things scattered about his
work, despite a strong taint of the mere coarseness and nastiness
which have been spoken of. And though he was also much tainted
with the hopeless indifference to prosody which distinguished all these
belated cavaliers, it is noteworthy that he was one of the few English-
men for centuries to adopt the strict French forms and write rondeaux
and the like. On the whole, his poetical power has been a little under-
valued, while he was also dexterous in prose. — Saints bury : Eliza-
bethan Literature, p. 385.

In the following description, notice that the points se-
lected for mention are few in number and are all chosen
with the single purpose of bringing out the idea of great
wealth : —

Of the provinces which had been subject to the house of Tamerlane,
the wealthiest was Bengal. No part of India possessed such natural
advantages both for agriculture and for commerce. The Ganges, rush-
ing through a hundred channels to the sea, has formed a vast plain of
rich mould which, even under the tropical sky, rivals the verdure of
an English April. The ricefields yield an increase such as is elsewhere
unknown. Spices, sugar, vegetable oils, are produced with marvelous
exuberance. The rivers afford an inexhaustible supply of fish. The

10 Paragraph - Writing.

desolate islands along the sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation,
and swarming with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated districts
with abundance of salt. The great stream which fertilizes the soil is,
at the same time, the chief highway of Eastern commerce. On its
banks, and on those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts,
the most splendid capitals, and the most sacred shrines of India. The
tyranny of man had for ages struggled in vain against the overflowing
bounty of nature. In spite of the Mussulman despot and of the
Mahratta freebooter, Bengal was known through the East as the
Garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied
exceedingly. Distant provinces were nourished from the overflowing
of its granaries ; and the noble ladies of London and Paris were
clothed in the delicate produce of its looms. — Macaulay : Lord Olive,
p. 51.

Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1.

(3) Proportion.

The law of proportion requires, first, that enough be said
to exhibit fully the purpose and idea of the paragraph.
Paragraphs will, therefore, differ in length according to the
importance and scope of the ideas they present. No arbi-
trary rules can be given as to the proper length of para-
graphs. Observing the custom of some of our best writers,
we may safely say that it is not well to extend a single
paragraph beyond three hundred words. The advantage
of at least one paragraph-indention on almost every page
of a printed book is felt by every reader. On the other
hand, as Professor Earle says (English Prose, p. 212),
"The term paragraph can hardly be applied to anything
short of three sentences," though skilful writers sometimes
make a paragraph of two sentences, or even of one.

This law requires, secondly, that the details which make
up the paragraph be treated and amplified in proportion to
their respective importance to the main idea and purpose
of the paragraph. Subordinate ideas and subsidiary details
should be kept subordinate and subsidiary.

Introductory. 11

Thirdly, over-amplification and too extensive illustration
of a simple statement admitted by every one, are violations
of the law of proportion.

In illustration of the first requirement of this rule, con-
trast the two paragraphs that follow. In the first, the main
thought is found in the words, " A man is a fagot of thun-
derbolts," and " We only believe as deep as we live." This
thought is not sufficiently illustrated for the general reader,
and what is said by way of explanation is as indefinite in
character as the proposition it purports to explain. The
force of the last sentence in the quotation will hardly be
felt at the first reading, unless one happens to emphasize
the word "we." The second paragraph, from the same
writer, is quoted as an illustration of the perfect fulfil-
ment of the law of proportion.

We are just so frivolous and skeptical. 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 duties are measured by that
instrument he is ; and a right and perfect man would be felt to the
centre of the Copernican 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 magnet-
isms flow incessantly to draw great events. But we prize very hum-
ble utilities, a prudent 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 artist who is to produce a work which is to be admired, not by
his friends or his townspeople or his contemporaries, but by all men,
and which is to be more beautiful to the eye in proportion to its cul-
ture, must disindividualize himself, and be a man of no party, and no

12 Paragraph - Writing.

manner, and no age, but one through whom the soul of all men circu-
lates, as the common air through his lungs. He must work in the
spirit in which we conceive a prophet to speak, or an angel of the
Lord to act ; that is, he is not to speak his own words, or do his own
works, or think his own thoughts, but he is to be an organ through
which the universal mind acts. — Emerson : Essay on Art.

The two paragraphs cited from Emerson are of about equal difficulty in regard to
the thought ; the ease of comprehension in the -case of the latter and the difficulty of
comprehension in the case of the former are fairly attributable to the observance of the
law of proportion in the one and to its neglect in the other.

The following will illustrate undue prominence given to
a subordinate idea, at the cost of clearness : —

(1) If we would study with profit the history of our ancestors, we
must be constantly on our guard against that delusion which the well-
known names of families, places, and offices naturally produce, and
must never forget that the country of which we read was a very differ-
ent country from tha,t in which we live. (2) In every experimental
science there is a tendency towards perfection. (3) In every human
being there is a wish to ameliorate his own condition. (4) These
two principles have often sufficed, even when counteracted by great
public calamities and by bad institutions, to carry civilization rapidly
forward. (5) No ordinary misfortune, no ordinary misgovernment,
will do so much to make a nation wretched, as the constant progress
of physical knowledge and the constant effort of every man to better
himself will do to make a nation prosperous. [Then follows a page
showing the vast increase of wealth in England during the last six
centuries and the reasons for it.] (12) The consequence is that a
change to which the history of the old world furnishes no parallel has
taken place in our country. (13) Could the England of 1685 be, by
some magical process, set before our eyes, we should not know one
landscape in a hundred or one building in ten thousand. [Another
page of details, similar to those in the last sentence, follows. ] —
Macaulay : History of England, Vol. I. chap. iii.

The undue prominence given to the second and third sentences, stated (as they are)
as independent propositions apparently of equal importance with the first sentence and
illustrated at great length, occasions doubt in the mind of the reader as to what is the
main idea of the paragraph ; and it is not until sentence (12) is reached that it becomes
evident that sentence (1) contains, after all, the main idea, and that the ten sentences
intervening are subordinate and are intended to account for the fact that " the coun-
try of which we read was a very different country from that in which we live." The

Introductory. 13

subordination might be plainly indicated, and all doubt of the reader removed, by intro-
ducing immediately after sentence (1) some such statement as this : "In the course of
centuries, vast differences are inevitably brought about in a country by the operation of
social principles alone."

The following paragraph, which illustrates unnecessary
amplification of a self-evident proposition, is termed by the
writer of it " a string of platitudes " : —

Lucidity is one of the chief characteristics of sanity. A sane man
ought not to be unintelligible. Lucidity is good everywhere, for all
time and in all things, in a letter, in a speech, in a book, in a poem.
Lucidity is not simplicity. A lucid poem is not necessarily an easy
one. A great poet may tax our brains, but he ought not to puzzle
our wits. We may often have to ask in humility, What does he mean?
but not in despair, What can he mean ? — A. Birrell : Obiter Dicta.

Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1.

(4) Sequence.

The law of sequence, or method, requires that the sen-
tences be presented in the order which will best bring out
the thought. In narrative paragraphs the order of events
in time is usually the best ; in descriptions, the order of
objects in space or according to their prominence. In ex-
pository or argumentative paragraphs, climax, or that order-
ing of sentences which proceeds steadily from the least to
the most forcible and important, will sometimes prove to be
the best method. But usually, the thought of each para-
graph as it develops will dictate the natural sequence of
the sentences.

In the following paragraph, a logical method is strictly
observed, the second, third, and fourth sentences particular-
izing the idea of "prerogative," and the fifth, sixth, and
seventh, the idea of "purity."

The watchwords of the new government were prerogative and
purity. The sovereign was no longer to be a puppet in the hands of
any subject, or of any combination of subjects. George the Third

1 4 Paragrap h - Writing.

would not be forced to take ministers whom he disliked, as his
grandfather had been forced to take Pitt. George the Third would
not be forced to part with any whom he delighted to honor, as his
grandfather had been forced to part with Carteret. At the same time,
the system of bribery which had grown up during the late reigns was
to cease. It was ostentatiously proclaimed that, since the accession of
the young King, neither constituents nor representatives had been
bought with the secret service money. To free Britain from corrup-
tion and oligarchical cabals, to detach her from continental connec-
tions, to bring the bloody and expensive war with France and Spain
to a close, such were the specious objects which Bute professed to
procure. — Macaulay : Second Essay on the Earl of Chatham, p. 40.

The following will serve to illustrate the order of climax.
The clauses of the last sentence grow in length, power, and
in volume both of sound and of idea until the end is reached
in the strongest words.

The great wheel of political revolution began to move in America.
Here its rotation was guarded, regular and safe. Transferred to the
other continent, from unfortunate but natural causes, it received an
irregular and violent impulse ; it whirled along with a fearful 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, spread-
ing conflagration and terror around. — Webster : First Bunker Hill
Oration.

The first of the two paragraphs which follow illustrates
in the last three sentences, what may be called the alter-
nating method, in which the main idea (that of " sublimity")
occurs, under different forms of expression, in every sen-
tence, accompanied in each case by the statement of some
other characteristic of Milton's style, of lesser importance.
The three lesser qualities mentioned are arranged in the
order of climax. The second of these two paragraphs is
quoted for the sake of completeness.

He had considered creation in its whole extent, and his descriptions
are therefore learned. He had accustomed his imagination to unre-
strained indulgence, and his conceptions therefore were extensive.

Introductory. 15

The characteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes
descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occa-
sionally invest himself with grace ; but his natural port is gigantic
loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required ; but it is his pecu-
liar power to astonish.

He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and
to know what it was that nature had bestowed upon him more bounti-
fully than upon others ; the power of displaying the vast, illuminating
the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggra-
vating the dreadful ; he therefore chose a subject on which too much
could not be said, on which he might tire his fancy without the cen-
sure of extravagance. — Johnson: Life of Milton (M. Arnold's Chief
Lives, p. 51).

In the last paragraph, just quoted, the logical method is (1) Milton's knowledge of
the character of his own genius, (2) what that character was, (3) result of this knowledge
on his choice of a subject.

Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1.

(5) Variety.

The law of variety requires that as much diversity as is ;,
consistent with the purpose of the paragraph be introduced.
Variety will appear in length of sentences, in their struc-
ture, in phraseology, in the ordering of details, and in the
method of building different paragraphs. Variety in the
length of different paragraphs as well as in their structure
is also desirable.

To illustrate fully this important law is obviously impossible. Let the student note
carefully the paragraphs already quoted :

First, as to length of sentences. The use of both long and short sentences will be
noticed as helpful in sustaining the reader's interest. Observe the forceful but curt
and choppy effect of the almost exclusive use of short sentences in the first quotation
from Emerson ; equal length giving all of the sentences equal prominence, thus making
the main idea harder to find. In the other quotations, note that one use of the short
sentence is to state forcibly the main thought in brief, the* longer sentences being
devoted to explanations or details. Point out instances of this, especially in the quota-
tion from Dryden. Observe also the smooth effect of the long sentences. It is the
character of the thought of the paragraph that decides in many cases whether the
sentence shall be long or short. Point this out in the quotations from the Christian
Union, Emerson, Macaulay, and Webster.

Secondly, as to structure of sentences. Point out the various ways in which the
sentences of these quotations begin, Is the subject introduced first in all cases ?

1 6 Paragraph - Writing.

Notice the relief, experienced in reading Emerson's first paragraph after several short
sentences constructed alike, by the slight change of structure in the seventh sentence
beginning, "From a great heart," etc. Find examples of sentences, in these quota-
tions, in which the full idea is not apparent until the close of the sentence is reached
(Periodic structure). Notice in the conversational paragraphs of the first quotation
examples of loose structure, in which the sentence might come to a full stop before
the close, and still make sense. Find other examples of this. Find examples of
balanced structure, in which the different elements of a sentence are made to answer
to each other and set each other off by similarity of form ; especially in the quotations
from Macaulay, Dryden, Johnson, and Emerson. Find examples in which whole sen-
tences have this similarity of form and answer to each other. Do the complex sentences
usually contain the main idea of these paragraphs ? Note that it is the nature of the
thought which makes some of the sentences interrogative and which causes other
departures from the usual form of sentence structure. Find examples of this.

Thirdly, as to phraseology. Notice, first, variety in the words used for expressing
the same idea in a paragraph. What words in the quotation from Hamerton bring out
the idea of " frivolous " ? What, in the quotation from the Christian Union the idea of
"swindling" ? What, in the second quotation from Emerson, the idea of "disindivid-
ualize" ? What, in the next quotation (from Macaulay), the idea of "difference and
change"? What, in the quotation from Dr. Johnson, the idea of "sublimity"?
Notice, next, the variety in the relation-words (of, by, to, from, for, etc.) which intro-
duce different phrases. The value to a writer of having a large stock of expedients for
securing variety in introducing phrases, is very great. Some writers over-work the
relation-word " of," when,* by a slight modification in phrase-structure, other relation-
words might be used instead and the sentence improved. For practice try the plan
of substituting adjectives for some of the phrases in the quoted paragraphs on the
preceding pages. Notice that such substitutions often compel remodeling the whole
sentence.

Fourthly, as to ordering of details and method of building different paragraphs.
These subjects will be considered more fully at a later stage of our study. At present,
notice the variety in method of presenting the various details in Macaulay 's descriptive
paragraph. (See Selection.) Do you find anything to criticise in the order of the
sentences ? Notice also the ordering of details in the paragraph from Euskin. (See
Unity.)

For practice in securing variety, some of the paragraphs in Appendices A and B
should be re-written by the student in his own words, changing the phraseology and
constructions, but preserving the sense.

It will be found in practice that the close observance of
any one of the general laws, unity, selection, proportion,
and sequence, will tend to give a paragraph the qualities
required by the other three. Eor instance, the rearrange-
ment of the order (method) of the sentences will often
secure unity to a paragraph which seemed without unity.
The law of unity understood in a large sense would include
selection, proportion, and sequence. These, however, have
been deemed worthy of study by themselves. A good

Introductory. 17

maxim, summing up these laws, is, In writing paragraphs,
aim at unity of thought and variety of statement.

Paragraphs for further criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1.

(d) APPLICATION OF THESE LAWS IN CHOICE OF PARA-
GRAPH SUBJECT.

The observance of these laws will be made less difficult
for the writer, if, in selecting subjects for isolated para-
graphs and in selecting subdivisions of the essay that will
serve for paragraph-subjects, he is careful to see that the
idea chosen is sufficiently narrowed in scope. An idea may
be narrowed by imposing upon it successive conditions and
limitations of time, place, point of view, etc.

To illustrate : General subject — "The Study of Latin."
Subject limited to a single point of view — " Uses of Latin
study." Limited further, as to place — " Uses of Latin
study to American students." Limited further, as to
time — " Uses of Latin study to American students of the
present time" Limited further, by selection, to available
theme — " Use of Latin study to American students of the
present time in widening their English vocabulary."

Looking at the illustration just given, the student will see that the general subject,
stated first, is too broad for treatment in a paragraph. It is, furthermore, suggestive
of several lines of thought, any one of which would be sufficient for a paragraph or even
for a whole essay. Moreover, it is indefinite, because it indicates no aim or purpose
on the part of the writer. It acquires definiteness, however, as soon as the first limita-
tion imposed upon it converts the general subject into a theme. With each subsequent
limitation this theme grows in concreteness, indicating each time a narrower scope, a
closer scrutiny, and a more definite aim on the part of the writer.

The general subject is the broad statement of a general
idea without limitation. The theme is the general subject
narrowed in scope and made definite by limitation, so as to
show the purpose of the writer. The full statement of the
theme is often long and unattractive in form, and may
often be re-stated in a briefer and more attractive form.
It is then called a title. A briefer statement of the theme

18 Paragraph - Writing.

in the illustration above, to be used as a paragraph-title,
might be, "One Reason for Studying Latin." The title
should be suggestive of the theme, but should not over-
state the theme. Most themes may be used as titles with-
out re-statement.

Examples of paragraph -titles may be found in the newspapers and in the marginal
notes of such books as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gardiner's Thirty Years9 War,
Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, CreightorTs Age of Elizabeth, and Hallam's Works.
The shorter isolated paragraphs to be found in the editorial columns of the newspapers
and the related paragraphs of most books are usually printed without titles.

In Appendix A 2 will be found a list of general subjects each of which the student is
expected to narrow, by successive limitations, to an available working theme and then
provide with an appropriate title. The student may also be given practice in discov-
ering the working theme of some of the paragraphs in Appendix B, and in providing a
title for each.

THE ISOLATED PAEAGEAPH.

The isolated paragraph was denned, in the last chapter,
as a single paragraph which in itself gives an adequate
treatment of any subject or of a single phase of any sub-
ject. By the expression " adequate treatment " is meant,
not all that might be said on a given subject, but enough
for the purpose in hand, whatever that may chance to be.
Adequate treatment is therefore treatment sufficiently com-
plete for carrying out the writer's purpose. A paragraph,
however short, which, when taken by itself, is unified and
intelligible and produces a satisfying effect, may (for pur-
poses of study) be regarded as an isolated paragraph, even
though it form part of an essay or part of a chapter of a
book. The following short paragraph taken from Thomas
Carlyle's James Garlyle will illustrate this satisfying effect,
this sense of completeness : —

The first impulse of man is to seek for enjoyment. He lives with
more or less impetuosity, more or less irregularity, to conquer for
himself a home and blessedness of a mere earthly kind. Not till
later (in how many cases never) does he ascertain that on earth there
is no such home : that his true home lies beyond the world of sense,
is a celestial home.

The Isolated Paragraph. 19

In the present chapter we shall disregard those special modifications of structure
found in related paragraphs of various kinds (which are treated in the next chapter) and
shall study all the paragraphs quoted in this as independent, miniature essays. Only by
such isolation and study of the paragraph as a complete structure in itself can the stu-
dent be given a sense for paragraphic unity and sequence. This is, indeed, of practical
value in itself, since the writing of single, unrelated paragraphs has become a recognized
feature of newspaper and magazine work.

1. PARAGRAPH SUBJECT.

Every paragraph should have a clearly defined idea to the
development of which each sentence contributes. This idea
is usually expressed definitely and unmistakably in* one of the
sentences of the paragraph, called the topic-sentence. The
topic-sentence is generally most effective when short and
striking. It is often found to be, however, not a whole sen-
tence in itself, but only a part of a sentence, what precedes
being obviously preparatory to its more forcible presenta-
tion. Sometimes the topic-sentence need not be expressed
definitely. In such a paragraph the topic is implied in all
that is said. The test of a good paragraph of this kind is
the possibility of phrasing the main idea, which it contains,
in a single sentence. Whether expressed or implied, there-
fore, the topic-sentence should exist as a working theme in
the mind of the writer while constructing each sentence,
and the bearing of each sentence on the paragraph-theme
should be clear and distinct.

(a) WHERE THE TOPIC-SENTENCE SHOULD BE PLACED.
(1) Stated First.

Many paragraphs require a formal statement of the
theme. This is usually true when the paragraph consists
of a principle that is proved by particular examples, or
when a general idea is expounded by argument, or when a
formal proposition is treated. In such cases the theme is

20 Paragraph - Writing.

usually announced in the first sentence. The following will
illustrate : —

America as a nation may not be in favor of burdening itself with
the care of distant colonies, but [Topic-sentence] individual American
enterprise is penetrating to every part of the globe. [Example]
When Stanley was in Chicago he told a group of reporters that a
certain kind of cloth, used exclusively among the natives of Africa,
was made in New England. The English have tried to supersede this
trade, but have been unsuccessful. Nothing but the American brand
will go. [Example] The railroad through the island of Jamaica fur-
nishes another example of Yankee enterprise. It is owned principally
by two rich New Yorkers and by Mr. Eastman, a La Crosse, Wis.,
millionaire. — Chicago Herald.

In the following paragraph, the topic-sentence comes first
and is afterwards re-stated in the quotation given in the
fourth sentence, as a practical precept.

The one fatal mistake which is committed habitually by people
who have the scarcely desirable gift of half-genius is "waiting for
inspiration." They pass week after week in a state of indolence,
unprofitable alike to the mind and the purse, under pretext of waiting
for intellectual flashes like those which came to Napoleon on his battle-
fields. They ought to remember the advice given by one of the
greatest artists of the seventeenth century to a young painter of his
acquaintance. "Practise assiduously what you already know, and in
course of time other things will become clear to you." The inspira-
tions come only to the disciplined ; the indolent wait for them in vain.
— Hamerton : Intellectual Life, p. 449.

Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated first.

(2) Stated First and Last.

Sometimes, to emphasize the leading idea, the topic-sen-
tence is stated both at the beginning and at the end of a
paragraph. When the thought is sufficiently important to
justify such emphasis, this practice is commendable, for
the repetition of the subject at the close completes the cir-

The Isolated Paragraph. 21

cuit of the thought and gives the appearance of finished
roundness to the whole idea. This plan is especially com-
mendable in spoken paragraphs, the repetition, in this case,
being a notification to the hearer that the discussion of the
point in hand is finished. The following will illustrate
these statements : —

[Topic-sentence] The grand reason for paying debt is that we
want to strengthen the credit of the State as the cheapest and best of all
insurances. [Example] If any one doubts that, let him look at the
position of the United States. That grand republic has no fleet, and
on the water could hardly fight Spain ; but she has reduced her debt
by strenuous paying, and every one knows that if she wanted a fleet
to blow Spain out of the water, or to contest the seas with us, she
could buy and complete one in twelve months. [Topic repeated]
Her payment of her debt is an insurance, not only against defeat but
against attack. — London [England] Spectator.

I begin with the postulate, that [Topic-sentence] it is the law of
our nature to desire happiness. This law is not local, but universal ;
not temporary, but eternal. It is not a law to be proved by excep-
tions, for it knows no exception. [Examples] The savage and the
martyr welcome fierce pains, not because they love pain ; but because
they love some expected remuneration of happiness so well, that they
are willing to purchase it at the price of the pain, — at the price of
imprisonment, torture, or death. [Another example] The young
desire happiness more keenly than any others. This desire is innate,
spontaneous, exuberant ; and nothing but repeated and repeated over-
flows of the lava of disappointment can burn or bury it in the human
breast. On this law of our nature, then, we may stand as on an
immovable foundation of truth; Whatever fortune may befall our
argument, our premises are secure. [Topic repeated] The conscious
desire of happiness is active in all men. — Horace Mann : Thoughts
for a Young Man, p. 8.

Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated first and last.

(3) Stated Last.

The details of a paragraph may, in special cases, precede
the statement of the subject ; the proofs may be presented

22 Paragraph -Writing.

before the proposition is stated. In such cases the topic-
sentence may be delayed until the close of the paragraph.
This plan will usually be found expedient when the thought
is not likely to be favorably received if stated abruptly at
the beginning, when the topic-sentence contains an unwel-
come truth, or when some new idea is presented to which the
reader is not at once prepared to assent. For example : —

We have new evidence of the treacherous character of the Sioux
Indians in the tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek. When their sur-
roundings are considered their treachery is not a subject for wonder.
The Sioux lad is taught that duplicity, lying, treachery, theft, and
bloodshed are the manly attributes. He must be very wily about
shedding blood, but is nothing but a " squaw " until he has a scalp at
his belt. Then he is fed by the Government, clothed by the Govern-
ment, sheltered by the Government — that is, maintained in absolute
idleness, while he broods over real or fancied wrongs. When he gets
worked up to the proper pitch of frenzy he wants to kill somebody,
and generally does kill somebody if he is not killed himself. It has
been the Government policy to treat the Indian as a spoiled child
rather than as the dangerous brute that he is. [Topic-sentence]
The events of the present Indian outbreak have made it clear that
the policy of gentleness is disastrous both to the country and to the
Indian.— The Press (N.Y.).

In the following paragraph the subject, while it is hinted
at in the second sentence, is purposely denied full and
definite statement until the very last sentence : —

I will not ask your pardon for endeavoring to interest you in the
subject of Greek Mythology ; but I must ask your permission to ap-
proach it in a temper differing from that in which it is frequently
treated. We cannot justly interpret the religion of any people, unless
we are prepared to admit that we ourselves, as well as they, are liable
to error in matters of faith ; and that the convictions of others, how-
ever singular, may in some points have been well founded, while our
own, however reasonable, may in some particulars be mistaken. You
must forgive me, therefore, for not always distinctively calling
the creeds of the past "superstition," and the creeds of the present
day " religion " ; as well as for assuming that a faith now confessed

The Isolated Paragraph. 23

may sometimes be superficial, and that a faith long forgotten may
once have been sincere. It is the task of the Divine to condemn the
errors of antiquity and of the Philologist to account for them. I will
only pray you to read with patience, and human sympathy, the
thoughts of men who lived without blame in a darkness they could
not dispel ; and to remember that, whatever charge of folly may
justly attach to the saying, " There is no God," the folly is prouder,
deeper, and less pardonable, in saying, ct There is no God but for me."
— Ruskin : Queen of the Air.

Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated last.

(b) SUBJECT IMPLIED.

In a large number of cases, however, the theme cannot
be stated so directly ; it is not found expressed in a topic-
sentence anywhere in the paragraph ; but must be grasped
by the reader from the effect produced upon him by the
paragraph as a whole. If the effect is single, is an effect of
oneness and of unity, the reader will be able to supply for
himself, in thought, the theme of the paragraph; — and the
test of a good paragraph will always be his ability to do
this. But a paragraph cannot produce the effect of unity
upon the reader unless there was unity of idea or of feeling
in the mind of the writer when the paragraph was written.
It is of especial importance, therefore, in the case of para-
graphs which have no formally stated topic-sentence to hold
the writer to his theme, that the writer keep his theme
prominently in mind while constructing each sentence.
This is very important in writing narrative and descriptive
paragraphs. In these, it is seldom that the theme is ex-
pressed in so many words. Yet a good narrative or descrip-
tive writer will so marshal his details that the effect will
be single.

The following paragraph, of which the subject may be
stated as, " The Annihilation of the Army of Cabul," illus-
trates this unity of effect : —

24 Paragraph - Writing.

Then the march of the army, without a general, went on again.
Soon it became the story of a general without an army ; before very
long there was neither general nor army. It is idle to lengthen a tale
of mere horrors. The straggling remnant of an army entered the
Jugdulluk Pass — a dark, steep, narrow, ascending path between
crags. The miserable toilers found that the fanatical, implacable
tribes had barricaded the pass. All was over. The army of Cabul
was finally extinguished in that barricaded pass. It was a trap ; the
British were taken in it. A few mere fugitives escaped from the scene
of actual slaughter, and were on the road to Jellalabad where Sale and
his little army were holding their own. When they were within six-
teen miles of Jellalabad the number was reduced to six. Of these six,
five were killed by straggling marauders on the way. One man alone
reached Jellalabad to tell the tale. Literally, one man, Dr. Brydon,
came to Jellalabad out of a moving host which had numbered in all
some sixteen thousand when it set out on its march. The curious eye
will search through history or fiction in vain for any picture more
thrilling with the suggestion of an awful catastrophe than that of this
solitary survivor, faint and reeling on his jaded horse, as he appeared
under the walls of Jellalabad, to bear the tidings of our Thermopylae
of pain and shame. — McCarthy : A History of our Own Times, Vol. I.
p. 199.

Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is implied. Discover
the theme in each of these paragraphs and state it in a brief sentence or phrase suitable
for a title.

The student may also be given useful practice in locating the topic-sentences of the
paragraphs quoted in the introductory chapter of this book. In each case he should
phrase a brief and appropriate title for the paragraph.

• It will also be a profitable exercise for the student to attempt giving appropriate
single headings to the short editorial paragraphs to be found in any of the carefully
edited metropolitan papers. Of the headed articles in the news-columns of the papers,
the first generally corresponds to the title, and the second, which is usually longer, cor-
responds, roughly, to the working theme.

Another useful exercise in detecting the paragraph-subject, consists in the reading
aloud, by the instructor, of several paragraphs, the student to give, at the conclusion of
each, the paragraph-subject as he has determined it from the reading. As another exer-
cise, mimeograph copies of paragraphs from which the topic-sentence has been omitted
may be distributed, the student to fill the gap as skillfully as he can.

2. MEANS OF DEVELOPING.

We shall now study some of the means by which the idea
or theme of a paragraph, as given formally in the topic-

The Isolated Paragraph. 25

sentence or held in the mind of the writer, may be system-
atically developed. If we regard the topic-sentence as the
germ-idea, it is evident that it contains, potentially, all that
may be said on the subject in hand. The work of the other
sentences is to bring out and develop clearly the thought
contained in the topic-sentence, or so much of the thought
as is necessary for the purpose which the writer has in view.
The means by which they do this will of course vary in
different cases ; and the forms in which the growing idea
clothes itself as the paragraph progresses will present many
different modifications.

All of these various forms and means of developing the
germ-idea may, however, be grouped, for practical purposes,
under the following heads : repeating the theme in other
words ; defining or limiting the theme j presenting its con-
trary ; explaining or amplifying its meaning by examples,,
illustrations, or quotations ; particularizing by means of
specific instances or details ; presenting proofs ; and apply-
ing or enforcing the theme. Any sentence which performs
one of these functions may claim a place in the paragraph :
any sentence (not introductory, transitional, or summariz-
ing) which does none of these things should be excluded.

It need hardly be said that these means of developing the
theme are employed in various combinations. The same
paragraph may use one or several of them. What one shall
be employed by the writer, in any case, will be decided by
the nature of the thought discussed, by his purpose, and by
the demands of the subject and occasion. Some of these
combinations will be designated in the quotations that
follow.

(a) REPETITION OF THE THEME IN OTHER WORDS.

When the subject under discussion is in any way obscure,
or requires special emphasis, it may be repeated in other

26 Paragraph - Writing.

words immediately after the topic-sentence. Sometimes
the repetition is delayed until a later stage of the para-
graph. Illustrations of repetition may be seen in the par-
agraph quoted from Ruskin (see Unity), and in those
quoted from the London Spectator and Horace Mann (see
Paragraph Subject). It also occurs in the following para-
graphs : -

[Topic-sentence] The peculiarity of ill-temper is that it is the vice
of the virtuous. [Repeated] It is often the one blot on an otherwise
noble character. [Particularized] You know men who are all but
perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily
ruffled, quick-tempered or 'touchy' disposition. — Drummond : The
Greatest Thing in the World, p. 29.

[Topic-sentence] There are few delights in any life so high and
rare as the subtle and strong delight of sovereign art and poetry ;
there are none more pure and more sublime. [Repeated and particu-
larized] To have reacj the greatest work of any great poet, to have
beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or musician,
is a possession added to the best things of life. — Swinburne : Essays
and Studies (Victor Hugo: ISAnnee Terrible).

In Appendix A 3 will be found a list of topic-sentences which require repetition in
other words. The student should write all of these exercises. Also find in Appendix
B paragraphs in which the topic-sentence is treated in this way.

DEFINITIVE STATEMENTS.

The topic-sentence is not always sufficient to give the
exact content of the idea to be expounded. It may mean
more or less than the writer intends. In this case it
becomes necessary for the writer to define, by restriction or
enlargement, the terms of the topic-sentence. Synonymous ex-
pressions are of the greatest value for this purpose. Their
felicitous use may be noticed in the quotations given below.
The following will illustrate the use of definitive state-
ments : —

[Topic] Practically, then, at present, * advancement in life ' means,
becoming conspicuous in life ; obtaining a position which shall be

The Isolated Paragraph. 27

acknowledged by others to be respectable or honorable. [Defined]
We do not understand by this advancement, in general, the mere
making of money, but the being known to have made it ; not the
accomplishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accom-
plished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of d^t thirst for
applause. — Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies, p. 5.

[Topic] Nature ... is a collective term for all facts actual ^
and possible ; or (to speak more accurately) a name for the mode
. . . in which all things take place. [Defined] For the word
suggests not so much the multitudinous detail of phenomena, as the
conception which might be formed of their manner of existence as a
mental whole by a mind possessing a complete knowledge of them.
— John Stuart Mill.

In Appendix A 4 will be found a list of topic-sentences which require treatment by
definition, restriction, or enlargement. The student .should write all of these exer-
cises. Also find paragraphs in Appendix B in which the topic-sentence is treated in
thi»» way.

Often the idea can be made clearer by presenting a con-
trary, negative, or contrasting idea in connection with it.
This is illustrated by the paragraph from Ruskin, just
quoted. It appears also in the following : —

[Topic and Details] 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 ;
[Contrary] Whenever, on the other hand, we see in wise
and good men any vanity, boasting, pompousness of any kind, we call
it a weakness in them, and are sorry to see them lowering them-
selves by the least want of divine modesty. — Kingsley : Country
Sermons, III.

Frequently the contrasted thought takes the form of a
concession, and is stated first : -

Despotism may find here and there its logicians to defend it. But
despotism can find no poet to chant its praises. From first to last,
and with increase of power from age to age, the voice of literature in
all its forms has been the voice of popular liberty. — J. O. Murray. /

28 Paragraph - Writing.

Such contrasting ideas naturally express themselves in
antitheses and in balanced sentences. These produce mo-
notony and weariness, if employed often. They should be
used sparingly, and their form of presentation varied.

In the following we have the topic-sentence treated both
by contrast and by example : —

Mannerism is pardonable and is sometimes even agreeable, when
the manner, though vicious, is natural. Few readers, for example,
would be willing to part with the mannerism of Milton or of Burke.
But a mannerism which does not sit easy on the mannerist, which has
been adopted on principle, and which can be sustained only by con-
stant effort, is always offensive. And such is the mannerism of
Johnson. — Macaulay : Life of Johnson.

In Appendix A 5 the student will find a list of topic-sentences to be treated by con-
trast. Also find paragraphs in Appendix B in which the topic-sentence is elucidated by
contrast.

(d) EXPLAINING OB ILLUSTRATING.

Some thoughts require explanation and concrete illustra-
tion. Similar or analogous cases .and associated facts or
experiences (as distinguished from specific instances or
details) are needed to deepen the impression made by the
topic-sentence. An explanation or illustration, being usu-
ally of considerable length, detains the attention of the
reader upon the thought presented for a sufficient time to
enable him to contemplate it at greater advantage. The
parables of the New Testament are concrete illustrations
of abstract truths, and abound in explanations. The fol-
lowing will serve as a specimen of illustration and ex-
planation : —

[Topic] Have you never seen men and women whom some disaster
drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgot,
but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their soul ?
[Illustration] So have I seen a storm in latter spring ; and all was
black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent.
The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its

The Isolated Paragraph. 29

windows. What a devastation there was ! Not a spider's web that was
out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched
oak. But pre long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent
and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet
breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw
a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and
looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight.
But for weeks long the fields held up their hands full of ambrosial
flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks
were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because that
storm passed by — though all the rest of earth had long ago forgot the
storm, its rainbows, and its rain. — Theodore Parker.

In the following the whole paragraph is occupied with
an extended illustration of the character of truth : —

When we are as yet small children there comes up to us a youthful
angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his left spheres
like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on each is written
in letters of gold, — Truth. The spheres are veined and streaked and
spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above, where the light falls
on them, and in a certain aspect you can make out upon every one of
them the three letters L, I, E. The child to whom they are offered
very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most convenient
things in the world ; they roll with the least possible impulse just
where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at all ;
they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right side
up. But very soon the young philosopher finds that things which roll
so easily are very apt to roll into the wrong corner, and to get out of
his way when he most wants them, while he always knows where to
find the others, which stay where they are left. Thus he learns —
thus we learn — to drop the streaked and speckled globes of falsehood,
and to hold fast the white angular blocks of truth. But then comes
Timidity, and after her Good-nature, and last of all Polite-behavior,
all insisting that truth must roll, or nobody can do anything with it ;
and so the first with her coarse rasp, and the second with her broad
file, and the third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and smooth
and polish the snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they have got
a little dingy by use, it becomes hard to tell them from the rolling
spheres of falsehood. — Holmes : TJie Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table.

[Topic] The vast results obtained by science are won by no

30 Paragraph - Writing.

mystical faculties, "by 110 mental processes, other than those which are
practiced by every one of us in the humblest and meanest affairs of
life. [Illustrations] A detective policeman discovers a burglar from
the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that
by which Cuvier restored 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 discovered
a new planet. [Topic repeated] 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, p. 78.

Develop by illustration and explanation the topic-sentences given in Appendix A 6.
Also find, in Appendix B, paragraphs which employ this method of explanation.

(e) PARTICULARS AND DETAILS.

The topic-sentence may contain an expression which
naturally leads the reader to expect a more detailed state-
ment. Particulars and specific instances are frequently
needed in abundance to insure the acceptance of a claim
which seems to assert too much. So, too, a topic-sentence
which is couched in general terms may require particulars
and details to render it luminous. The following illus-
trate : —

[Topic] 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 ser-
pents ; 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, travelers and fathers of families, courtiers in soft
clothing and brides in nuptial robes — all these are found in His dis-
courses. — Farrar : Life of Christ, Vol. I. p. 271.

[Topic] The parts and signs of goodness are many. [Particulars

The Isolated Paragraph. 31

and specific instances] If a nian 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 thankful
for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their
trash. But, above all, if he have St. Paul's 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
himself. — Bacon : Of Goodness.

Develop the list of topic-sentences given in Appendix A 7, by means of particulars,
specific instances, and details. Also find pai agrapks in Appendix B in which this method
of development is employed.

(/) PRESENTING PROOFS.

Some topic-sentences call for proofs, more or less formally
stated according to the character of the subject. A topic-
sentence which contains an affirmation likely to raise doubt
in the mind of the reader should always be accompanied by
sentences containing proofs of its truth.

[Topic] It is too soon as yet to attempt to estimate the effect of
the Reform Act of 1867. [Proof I] 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. [Proof II] The Reform
Act of 1832 did not for many 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: English Constitution,
p. 3.

[Topic-sentence] This superiority of specific expressions is
clearly due to a saving of the effort required to translate words into
thoughts. [Proof] As we do not think in generals, but in par-
ticulars— as, [Proof explained] whenever any class of things is re-
ferred to, we represent it to ourselves by calling to mind individual
members of it — it follows that when an abstract word is used, the

3 2 Pa rag rap h - Writing.

hearer or reader has to choose from his stock of images one or more
by which he may figure to himself the genus mentioned. [Result]
In doing this some delay must arise — [Repeated] some force be ex-
pended ; and if, [Enforced] by employing a specific term, an appro-
priate image can be at once suggested, an economy is achieved, and a
more vivid impression produced. — Spencer : Philosophy of Style.

Give proofs of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 8. Find paragraphs in Appendix B
which employ proofs and inferences.

(g) APPLICATION OR ENFORCEMENT.

Frequently a topic-sentence states a principle the truth
of which is assumed ; the application of the principle to
some particular case usually follows at once. Sentences
enforcing the application and emphasizing it in various
ways are also introduced. The following will illustrate
the statement of » a principle and its application : -

[Principle] People who cannot spend ten millions to the best
advantage are just as incapable of the economical and business-like
disbursement of nine. [Application] It is an easy and a showy
thing for a Chancellor of the Exchequer to say bluntly that he will
reduce the Estimates by so much, and the departments must do what
they can with what remains. But that procedure no more solves the
economical problem than [Illustration] the well-known methods of
Procrustes altered the real stature of his victims. — London Times.

A sentence of enforcement is indicated in the paragraph
quoted from Spencer, on the preceding page. Enforcement
is also seen in the following : -

Whoever yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement
from which he can never rise. . . . Every unrighteous act tells with a
thousand- fold more force upon the actor than upon the sufferer. The
false man is more false to himself than to any one else. . . . The
moment that any one of the glorious faculties with which God has
endowed us is abused or misused, that faculty loses forever a portion
of its delicacy and its energy. Physiology teaches us that all priva-
tions and all violence suffered by our physical system, before birth,
impairs the very stamina of our constitution,, and brings us into this

The Isolated Paragraph. 33

world, so far shorn of the energies, and blunted in the fineness of the
perceptions we should otherwise possess. ' So, every injury which we
inflict upon our moral nature, in this life, must dull forever and ever
our keen capacities of enjoyment, though in the midst of infinite bliss,
and weaken our power of ascension, where virtuous spirits are ever
ascending. . . . Every instance of violated conscience, like every
broken string in a harp, will limit the compass of its music and mar
its harmonies forever. [Enforcement of principles] Tremble, then,
and forbear, O man ! when thou wouldst forget the dignity of thy
nature and the immortal glories of thy destiny ; for if thou dost cast
down thine eyes to look with complacency upon the tempter, or bend
thine ear to listen to his seductions, thou dost doom thyself to move
forever and ever through inferior spheres of being ; thou dost wound
and dim the very organ with which alone thou canst behold the splen-
dors of eternity. — Mann : Thoughts, p. 67.

Apply and enforce the topic-sentences in Appendix A 9 which state a principle.
Find paragraphs in Appendix B which use application and enforcement.

(h) INTRODUCTORY, TRANSITIONAL, AND SUMMARIZING

SENTENCES.

Besides the sentences which, in the development of a
iragraph, perform one or more of the functions mentioned
under the seven headings just preceding, there are in some
paragraphs other sentences whose main business is to pre-
pare the way for the topic-sentence, to act as a bridge be-
tween different parts of the paragraph, or to summarize the
sentences of one part before the next part is taken up.

A whole sentence may be devoted to introducing the
topic of the paragraph ; but, more often, a short clause pre-
fixed to the topic-rsentence will be sufficient; and in most
paragraphs no introduction is needed. When the introduc-
tion takes the form of a clause, this clause is frequently in
direct contrast to what is to be the main idea of the para-
graph. The following will illustrate : —

[Introductory contrast] I will not ask your pardon for endeavor-
ing to interest you in the subject of Greek Mythology ; [Subject

34 Paragraph - Writing.

indicated] but I must ask your permission to approach it in a temper
differing from that in which it is frequently treated. — Kuskin. (The
whole quotation is given under Paragraph Subject (c).)

[Introduction] The administration has erred in the steps to restore
peace ; but its error has not been in doing too little, but [Topic] in
betraying too great a solicitude for that event. [The paragraph is
devoted to the discussion of the administration's 'solicitude' for
peace.] — Henry Clay : Speech on the War of 1812.

The effect of an introductory sentence is often to
pone the statement of the topic-sentence to a later stage of
'the paragraph. This is seen in the following : —

[Introductory] The statement is made from time to time that we
are admitting great masses of socialists. The number is exaggerated,
and more importance is attached to the utterances of these than they
deserve. It must be admitted however that some of them know just
enough to be dangerous. [Indicating what the subject is to be] But
they are permitted to go among their fellows to inoculate them with
whatever doctrines they choose, and there is nothing to oppose them.
Nobody has furnished their hearers with arguments, or taken steps
to teach them that in America, where conditions are fairly equal, no
necessity exists for the violent agitation of these questions. [Topic-
sentence] But train bright young men among these immigrants to
know what their duties are, teach them their rights, put at their dis-
posal arguments with which to meet the specious assertions of self-
styled and talkative leaders, and the much-vaunted dangers of socialism
would disappear. — Century.

Short summarizing sentences may be needed, at times, to
indicate the direction which the thought is next to take, or
the manner of treatment to be pursued. An explanation
or a reason, of considerable length, which is to be followed
by a resumption of the main line of thought, needs such a
sentence. The following paragraph illustrates this : —

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions
and uncommon abilities. The reason is obvious. [The next twelve
sentences state the reason at length, and the paragraph concludes]
The most influential of constitutional statesmen is the one who most
felicitously expresses the creed of the moment, who administers it,

The Isolated Paragraph. 35

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 : Sir
Robert Peel.

In the following, notice how the short summarizing sen-
tences (here placed in italics) perform the double duty of
acting as transitions and of furnishing a basis for the longer
sentences made up of details : —

Without force or opposition, it (national chivalry) subdued the
fierceness of pride and power ; it obliged sovereigns to submit to the
soft collar of social esteem, compelled stern authority to submit to
elegance, and gave a domination vanquisher of laws, to be subdued
by manners.

But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions which
made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the
different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incor-
porated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private
society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light
and reason. All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All
the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imag-
ination, which the heart owns, and the understanding ratifies, as
necessary to cover the defects of our naked shivering nature, and to
raise it to dignity in our own estimation, are to be exploded as a ridic-
ulous, absurd, and antiquated fashion. — Burke : Reflections on the
Revolution in France, p. 90, Macmillan's edition.

Such expressions as " The main point is this " ; " After all,
the fact remains," etc., are useful in a long paragraph for sum-
marizing what has gone before, and for indicating the relative
importance of the different ideas which make up the para-
graph. The following contains two expressions of this kind,
the first subordinating, the second giving prominence : —

As a single man, I have spent a good deal of my time in noting
down the infirmities of married people to console myself for those
superior pleasures, which they tell me I have lost by remaining as I
am. I cannot say that the quarrels of men and their wives ever made
any great impression on me. . . . What oftehest offends me at the
houses of married persons where I visit, is an error of quite a different

36 Paragraph - Writing.

description ; it is that they are too loving. Not too loving neither :
that does not explain my meaning. Besides, why should that offend
me ? The very act of separating themselves from the rest of the
world, to have the fuller enjoyment of each other's society, implies
that they prefer one another to all the world. But what I complain of
is, that they carry this preference so undisguisedly, they perk it up in
the faces of us single people so shamelessly, you cannot be in their
company a moment without being made to feel, by some indirect hint
or open avowal, that you are not the object of this preference. —
Charles Lamb : Essays of Elia, A Bachelor's Complaint.

Find introductory, transitional, and summarizing sentences in Appendix B. In
Appendix A 10 will be found a list of topic-sentences of a miscellaneous character. The
student is to develop each of these into a paragraph, using those methods of develop-
ment which seem most natural and suitable to each topic. Appendix A 11 should be
now thoroughly memorized. Some of the exercises in Appendix A 12, should be care-
fully worked out before proceeding further, with especial attention to the formation of
transitions.

3. EFFECT ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE.

The methods of development, treated and illustrated in
the preceding pages, must have suggested to the student
that the requirements of any paragraph modify considerably
the forms of the sentences composing it. The whole para-
graph being the unit of thought, it follows that the sentences
are influenced, both as to their structure and as to their
position, by the demands of the * main idea or theme of the
paragraph. It is the theme that reduces some sentences,
which would otherwise stand independent, to subordinate po-
sitions ; that compels the employment of connecting words ;
that determines whether or not a certain word shall be put
out of the usual order which it would occupy in an indepen-
dent sentence ; and that decides what words, phrases, clauses,
or sentences must be given the most emphatic positions.
Even questions of punctuation assume, many times, a very
important aspect for the paragraph-writer. The unity of a
paragraph may be destroyed by carelessness in this respect.
We shall examine in the following pages some of the most

The Isolated Paragraph. 37

important of the modifications which the paragraph imposes
upon the usual forms of sentences, and shall also mention
and illustrate some of the additional apparatus which the
paragraph employs.

(a) INVERSION.

The most obvious of the modifications which the para-
graph may impose upon one of its sentences is inversion.
Any sentence which, if stated in its usual order, would tend
to obscure the main idea or would seem for the moment to
introduce a new topic, may have its parts re-arranged for
the sake of preserving the unity and sequence of the para-
graph. This is illustrated in the following : —

For choice and pith of language he [Emerson] belongs to a better
age than ours, and might rub shoulders with Fuller and Browne —
though he does use that abominable word reliable. His eye for a fine,
telling phrase that will carry true is like that of a backwoodsman for
a rifle ; and he will dredge you up a choice word from the mud of
Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so rich and so homely as
his I know not where to match in these days of writing by the page ;
it is like homespun cloth- of -gold. — Lowell : My Study Windows.

In this paragraph, the topic, ' Emerson's choice of lan-
guage/ announced in the first sentence, occurs again near
the close of the second. The inversion in the third sentence
is solely determined by the need of keeping the topic promi-
nent. It brings together, in close juncture, the two things
that are alike in the last two sentences, the words l choice
word ' and ' a diction/ etc. Try the effect of re-writing, in
the usual order, the last sentence of the quotation above.
In the following, it is the expression ' to do so ' which
required the inversion so that ' to do so ' might be brought
as close as possible to the words, Ho repudiate/ and 'to
disclaim.'

It is among the most memorable facts of Grecian history that —
in spite of the victory of Philip at Chaeroneia — . . . the Athenian

38 Paragraph - Writing.

people could never be persuaded either to repudiate Demosthenes,
or to disclaim sympathy with his political policy. [Inversion] How
much art and ability were employed to induce them to do so, by his
numerous enemies, the speech of ^Eschines is enough to teach us. —
Grote : History of Greece, C. 95.

Account for any inversions you find in the paragraphs given in Appendix B. Often
the reason for the inversion will appear if the sentence is re-written in its. usual order.

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION.

The main idea sometimes demands for itself the same
place in all of a series of sentences, in order to ensure
prominence by repetition and by similarity of form and
position. This gives rise to the balancing of one part of a
sentence against another. Balanced structure is sometimes
extended to clauses, phrases, and even to single words.
Paragraph requirements will not often dictate this struct-
ure ; some writers employ it too frequently. When whole
sentences have this similarity of form, the result is what is
known as parallel construction. The following will illus-
trate all these varieties of balance : —

Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a
representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence,
and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their
wishes ought to have great weight with him ; their opinions high
respect ; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacri-
fice his repose, his pleasure, 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 judgment, his enlightened conscience,
he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men
living. These he does not derive 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 only, but his judgment ; and 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 on any
side, yours, without question ought to be superior. But government

The Isolated Paragraph. 39

and legislation are matters of reason and judgment and not of inclina-
tion ; and what sort of reason is that in which the determination pre-
cedes the discussion, in which one set of men deliberate and another
decide, and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three
hundred miles from those who hear the arguments ? To deliver an
opinion is the right of all men ; that of constituents 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 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 teuour
of our constitution. — Burke: Obedience to Instructions, Speeches,
p. 113.

In the foregoing quotation, note that the details in the first five sentences are stated
by threes ; that the balanced structure is extended even to the adjectives and the adverb-
ial expressions ; that the details of one sentence, while corresponding in number and
form to those of another, are in the order of climax ; that the inversion in sentence
four is made for the purpose of bringing the details of that sentence as close as possible
to the details with which they are in contrast, in the third sentence. Note that beginning
with the seventh sentence, the details occur by twos ; that the ninth sentence is a short
summary furnishing the basis for the sentences that follow ; that the repetition in the
thirteenth sentence is made for the purpose of bringing contrasting details in juxta-
position. Point out contrasting words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the quota-
tion, and all likenesses of form and arrangement. In the quotation from Bacon (Means
of Developing (e)) all the sentences after the first have similarity of form. Find illus-
trations of balanced structure and parallel constructions in Appendix B.

It has already been noted that the topic-sentence is some-
times repeated while the paragraph is developing. The
theme of the paragraph will reappear in various forms of
expression at important points. These forms may repeat
the whole topic-sentence, or only its significant words ; may
repeat literally, or by means of equivalent synonymous ex-
pressions. More often, the theme is kept prominent by the
use of pronouns and demonstrative expressions. The fol-
lowing will illustrate : —

40 Paragraph - Writing.

[Topic-sentence] The great thing for us is to feel and enjoy his
[the true poet's] work as deeply as ever we can, and to appreciate the
wide difference between it and all work which has not the same high
character. This is what is salutary ; -this is what is formative ; this
is the great benefit to be got from the study of poetry. Everything
which interferes with it, which hinders it, is injurious. True, we
must read our classic with open eyes, and not with eyes blinded with
superstition ; we must perceive when his work comes short, when it
drops out of the class of the very best, and we must rate it in such
cases, at its proper value. But the use of this negative criticism is
not in itself, it is entirely in its enabling us to have a clearer sense and
a deeper enjoyment of what is truly excellent. To trace the labor, the
attempts, the weaknesses, the failures of a genuine classic, to acquaint
oneself with his time and his life and his historical relationships, is mere
literary dillettantism unless it has that clear sense and deeper enjoyment
for its end. — Arnold : Introduction to Ward's English Poets.

In the example just quoted there is another set of references to carry the thought
back to the words, 'his [the true poet's] work.' Eead the paragraph again and point
them out. Other examples for practice of this kind may be found in Appendix B.

The need of closely watching the pronouns and demon-
strative words, while a paragraph is being written, cannot
be emphasized too much. When a word is employed to
point back to some other word or statement that precedes,
the writer should make sure that the reference is clear and
explicit. The little word it requires special attention and
care, in order to avoid ambiguity. When used retrospec-
tively, the word it should be employed to refer to but one
thing, in the same paragraph.

Other words useful at times for keeping the theme prominent and for pointing back
to something already said are, this, that, these, those, the former, the latter, he, she,
it, here, there, hence, whence, hither, thither, thence, now, then. They are called
words of retrospective reference. The expressions, it is, there are, first, secondly, etc.,
are sometimes used to point forward to something that is to follow and are called words
of prospective reference. Point out some of the words of reference in the paragraphs to
be found in Appendix B.

SUBORDINATION.

In maintaining its prominence in a paragraph the theme
requires the subordination of all subsidiary and modifying

The Isolated Paragraph. 41

statements. This subordination need not be indicated al-
ways by an introductory word ; for frequently the thought
itself is obviously subordinate. It is not often necessary,
for instance, to introduce a proof by the word because or
for; the hearer can many times supply these words for
himself. Still there are many cases in which the thought
requires that the subordination be plainly indicated. Con-
cessions leading up to a contrast usually require an intro-
ductory expression, such as, it is true, to be sure, looking
forward to a sentence beginning with still, but, yet, or how-
ever. Conditions usually need an introductory if, unless.
Degrees of subordination in thought are indicated by such
words as at least, probably, and perhaps, — which require
skillful handling and placing. The longer expressions used
for this purpose have been mentioned under Means of De-
veloping (h).

Such words as also, likewise, too, further, therefore, conse-
quently, etc., may sometimes be needed for showing the
exact relation between the sentences which they introduce
and the main idea of the paragraph, and for making the con-
nection from sentence to sentence. It is quite easy to use
them in too great profusion. Far better than burdening a
paragraph with such words is the practice of making each
sentence the obvious outgrowth of the sentence that precedes
and the obvious preparation for the sentence that follows.

The paragraph quoted below &hows a considerable num-
ber of these words of reference, here printed in italics : -

Finally, it is urged that the small number of editions through which
Shakespeare passed in the seventeenth century, furnishes a separate
argument, and a conclusive one, against his popularity. We answer,
that considering the bulk of his plays collectively, the editions were
not few ; compared with any known case, the copies sold of Shakespeare
were quite as many as could be expected under the circumstances.
. . . The truth is, we have not facts enough to guide us ; for the
number of editions often tells nothing accurately as to the number of
copies. With respect to Shakespeare, it is certain that, had his master-

42 Paragraph - Writing.

pieces been gathered into small volumes, Shakespeare would have had
a most extensive sale. As it was, there can be no doubt that, from his
own generation, throughout the seventeenth century, and until the
eighteenth began to accommodate, not any greater popularity in him,
but a greater taste for reading in the public, his fame never ceased to
be viewed as a national trophy of honour. ... It is therefore a false
notion that the general sympathy with the merits of Shakespeare ever
beat with a languid or intermitting pulse. Undoubtedly, in times
when the functions of critical journals and of newspapers were not at
hand to diffuse or to strengthen the impressions which emanated from
the capital, all opinions must have travelled slowly into the provinces.
But even then, whilst the perfect organs of communication were want-
ing, indirect substitutes were supplied by the necessities of the times,
or by the instincts of political zeal. Two channels especially lay open
between the great central organ of the national mind and the remotest
provinces. Parliaments were occasionally summoned . . . the nobil-
ity continually resorted to the court. . . . Academic persons stationed
themselves as sentinels at London for the purpose of watching the
court and the course of public affairs. These persons wrote letters
. . . and thus conducted the general feelings at the centre into lesser
centres, from which again they were diffused into the ten thousand
parishes of England. . . . And by this mode of diffusion it is that we
can explain the strength with which Shakespeare's thoughts and
diction impressed themselves from a very early period upon the na-
tional literature, and even more generally upon the national thinking
and conversation. — De Quincey : Biography of Shakespeare.

Point out some of the subordinating expressions in the paragraphs given in Appen-
dix B.

(e) PUNCTUATION.

The grammars and rhetorics, which regard the sentence
as the unit of discourse, give rules for punctuation applying
mainly to the proper pointing of the various parts of a
sentence. Considering the paragraph, however, as the
true unit of discourse, we are met by questions of punctua-
tion which the rules usually given do not answer. The
rule tells us to put a period at the close of every declarative
sentence ; but the important question, for the paragraph-
writer, often is, what is the proper place at which to bring

The Isolated Paragraph. 43

the sentence to a close ? In the paragraph, not every dis-
tinct statement is followed by a full stop. Statements
which standing alone would properly be independent sen-
tences, are frequently united into one sentence when they
become part of a paragraph.

The rule dictated by paragraph-unity for the division of
a paragraph into sentences is that the full stops should be
placed at the close of the larger breaks in the thought.
What the sentence divisions shall be will depend upon the
meaning in each case ; upon the need of giving prominence
to the chief assertion and of keeping the other assertions
subordinate. If every assertion were followed by a full
stop the style would be too broken. A sentence in a para-
graph may contain a number of assertions if they are more
closely connected in thought than the matter of two succes-
sive sentences. To illustrate : —

(1) The Commons denied the King's right to dispense, not indeed
with all penal statutes but with penal statutes in matters ecclesiasti-
cal, and gave him plainly to understand that, unless he renounced
that right, they would grant no supply for the Dutch war. (2) He,
for a moment, showed some inclination to put everything to hazard ;
but he was strongly advised by Lewis to submit to necessity, and to
wait for better times, when the French armies, now employed in an
arduous struggle on the continent, might be available for the purpose
of suppressing discontent in England. (3) In the Cabal itself the
signs of disunion and treachery began to appear. (4) Shaftsbury,
with his proverbial sagacity, saw that a violent reaction was at hand,
and that all things were tending towards a crisis resembling that of
1640. (5) He was determined that such a crisis should not find him
in the situation of Strafford. (6) He therefore turned suddenly
round, and acknowledged, in the House of Lords, that the Declara-
tion was illegal. (7) The King, thus deserted by his ally and by his
Chancellor, yielded, cancelled the Declaration, and solemnly promised
that it should never be drawn into precedent. — Macaulay : History of
England, Vol. I. chap. ii.

The first sentence of the quotation above contains two distinct assertions, which
might, so far as ordinary rules of punctuation go, form two distinct sentences; but
they are more closely connected in thought than with the sentence numbered (2) and

44 Paragraph - Writing.

so are properly united in one sentence. Likewise, the two assertions in sentence (2)
have to do with one subject, "he," — the King — and so are properly joined in one sen-
tence. Sentence (3) has a different subject and properly stands alone. Sentences (4),
(5), and (6) are on one subject ; and (4) and (5) might have been united without injury ,
but (6), containing one of the most important assertions of the paragraph, required the
distinction which separate statement gives it. Sentence (7), being on a different subject,
is, of course, stated by itself. Re-write the paragraph, making each assertion a separate
sentence, and note the loss of unity. Combine these assertions differently and note the
loss of meaning which results.

A general statement containing the main idea, may be
followed by a specific statement, with only a colon or semi-
colon separating the two. The same rule is followed when
the second statement gives a short reason, an example, a
qualification, a consequence, an explanation, or a repetition.
To illustrate : —

Now surely this ought not to be asserted, unless it can be proved ;
we should speak with cautious reverence upon such a subject. —
Quoted by Bain : Rhetoric, p. 87.

Agriculture is the 'foundation of manufactures ; the productions
of nature are the materials of art. — Ibid.

The education of this poor girl was mean, according to the present
standard : was ineffably, grand, according to a purer philosophic stand-
ard : and only not good for our age because for us it would be unat-
tainable. — De Quincey : Joan of Arc, p. 39.

M. Michelet, indeed, says that La Pucelle was not a shepherdess.
I beg his pardon : she was. What he rests upon, I guess pretty well :
it is the evidence of a woman called Haumette. — Ibid., p. 42.

With what reverence have I paced thy great bare rooms and courts
at eventide ! They spoke of the past : — the shade of some dead ac-
countant, with visionary pen in ear, would flit by me, stiff as in life. —
Lamb: Essays of Elia, The South-Sea House.

The effect of the semicolon or colon used in this way is to indicate the subordina-
tion of the second assertion, which has less importance and prominence when attached
to the main proposition than if it should stand alone in a separate sentence.

When a contrast, introduced usually by the word < but,7
is brief and is not to be dwelt upon, it is attached to the
main assertion after a colon or semicolon. When, how-
ever, the assertion introduced by 'but' is especially em-
phatic, or is to be discussed further, it is usually given

The Isolated Paragraph. 45

distinction by being set off in a separate sentence. The fol-
lowing will illustrate these two facts : —

Some modern writers have blamed Halifax for continuing in the
ministry while he disapproved of the manner in which both domestic
and foreign affairs were conducted. But this censure is unjust. —
Macaulay : History of England, Vol. I. chap. iii.

There were undoubtedly scholars to whom the whole Greek litera-
ture, from Homer to Photius, was familiar : but such scholars were to
be found almost exclusively among the clergy resident at the Uni-
versities. — Ibid.

Thus emboldened, the King at length ventured to overstep the
bounds which he had during some years observed, and to violate the
plain letter of the law. The law was that not more than three years
should pass between the dissolving of one Parliament and the con-
voking of another. But, when three years had elapsed after the
dissolution of the Parliament which sate at Oxford, no writs were
issued for an election. This infraction, etc. — Ibid., chap. ii.

It is not very easy to explain why the nation which was so far
before its neighbors in science should in art have been far behind
them. Yet such was the fact. It is true that in architecture . . .
our country could boast of one truly great man, Christopher Wren ;
. . . But at the close of the reign of Charles the Second there was
not a single English painter or statuary whose name is now remem-
bered. This sterility, etc. —Ibid., chap. iii.

He acted at different times with both the great political parties :
but he never shared in the passions of either. . . . His deportment
was remarkably grave and reserved : but his personal tastes were low
and frivolous. — Ibid., chap. ii.

The same considerations of prominence, emphasis, and
length determine whether a reason introduced by 'for'
shall be appended to the main statement or shall be given
the distinction of a separate sentence. To illustrate: —

The commencement of the new system was, however, hailed with
general delight ; for the people were in a temper to think any change
an improvement. They were also pleased by some of the new nomi-
nations.— Macaulay: History of England, Vol. I. chap. ii.

France, indeed, had at that time an empire over mankind, such as
even the Roman Republic never attained. For, when Rome was

46 Paragrap h - Writing.

politically dominant, she was in arts and letters the humble pupil of
Greece. France had, over the surrounding countries, at once the
ascendency which Rome had over Greece and the ascendency which
Greece had over Rome. — Ibid., chap. iii.

A paragraph of details may group the details in a few long
sentences, the parts being divided by semicolons or colons ;
or each detail may be presented as a separate sentence.
The advantage of the former is that it better secures unity
of effect ; the advantage of the latter is that it secures a
more emphatic presentment of the details. A combination of
the two plans is advisable. They are illustrated in the
following : —

France united at that time almost every species of ascendency.
Her military glory was at its height. She had vanquished mighty
coalitions. She had dictated treaties. She had subjugated great
cities and provinces. She had forced the Castilian pride to yield her
the precedence. She had summoned Italian princes to prostrate them-
selves at her footstool. — Ibid.

The interest which the populace took in him whom they regarded as
the champion of the true religion and the rightful heir of the British
throne, was kept up by every artifice. When Monmouth arrived in
London at midnight, the watchmen were ordered by the magistrates
to proclaim the joyful event through the streets of the city : the peo-
ple left their beds : bonfires were lighted : the windows were illumi-
nated : the churches were opened : and a merry peal rose from all
the steeples. — Ibid.

The following selections are cited as examples of logical
paragraphic division into sentences, in which the punctua-
tion is a decided help to clearness of presentation, and
assists, to a marked degree, in keeping the main subject
prominent and lesser details subordinate : —

Lawrence Hyde was the second son of the Chancellor Clarendon,
and was brother of the first Duchess of York. He had excellent parts,
which had been improved by parliamentary and diplomatic experi-
ence ; but the infirmities of his temper detracted much from the
effective strength of his abilities. Negotiator and courtier as he was,
he never learned the art of governing or of concealing his emotions.

The Isolated Paragraph. 47

When prosperous, he was insolent and boastful : when he sustained
a check, his undisguised mortification doubled the triumph of his
enemies : very slight provocations sufficed to kindle his anger ; and
when he was angry he said bitter things which he forgot as soon as he
was pacified, but which others remembered many years. His quick-
ness and penetration would have made him a consummate man of
business but for his self-sufficiency and impatience. His writings
proved that he had many of the qualities of an orator : but his irrita-
bility prevented him from doing himself justice in debate ; for nothing
was easier than to goad him into a passion ; and, from the moment
when he went into a passion, he was at the mercy of opponents far
inferior to him in capacity. — Ibid., chap. ii.

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 bring happiness, as much as seems pos-
sible to the nature of man. In all other paths, by which that happi-
ness is pursued, there is disappointment, or destruction : 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. But, ascending from lowest to highest,
through every scale of human industry, that industry worthily fol-
lowed gives peace. 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 in bronze, and in marble, and with the
colors of light ; and none 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 Mystery
of Life, sec. 128.

Examine and criticise the punctuation of some of the paragraphs in Appendix B.
In Appendix G 4 will be found some of the rules for punctuation, etc., which are fol-
lowed by leading newspapers.

4. TYPES OF PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE.

The illustrative paragraphs quoted in the preceding pages
have been sufficient to show that there are many distinct

48 Paragraph - Writing.

types of paragraph structure. Under the heading, Means
of Developing the Paragraph, the various expedients were
pointed out, by which the theme may be effectively pre-
sented and wrought out in detail We shall now name and
illustrate some of the more important types of structure in
the isolated paragraph which result from the character of
the theme as Expository, Argumentative, Descriptive, or
Narrative.

(a) EXPOSITORY AND ARGUMENTATIVE,

This type is devoted to explaining and expounding an
idea or to proving a proposition. It is the type in which
regular structure is most obvious. It may employ one or
several of the means of developing, according to the nature
of the theme and to the method of treatment demanded. In
some cases a strictly logical plan is needed ; in others a less
formal method will be better.

1. The Logical Type.

There are two orders of progress in thought, one pro-
ceeding from the statement of a general principle to
particular applications of the principle (deductive rea-
soning), the other proceeding from the statement of par-
ticular facts to a general conclusion from those facts
(inductive reasoning) . In deductive reasoning, the general
principle (stated usually at the beginning) is applied in
the particulars ; in inductive reasoning the general prin-
ciple (stated usually at the end) is inferred from the
particulars, as a conclusion. In a deductive paragraph,
as would be expected, the sentences applying the principle
to the particular case in hand, usually follow the topic-
sentence, which states the principle. In an inductive
paragraph the sentences stating the particular facts

The Isolated Paragraph. 49

usually precede the topic-sentence, which states the general
conclusion.

(1) Deductive.

It is evident from the nature of deduction that the means
of development which it most often employs will be those
indicated and illustrated under the headings, Presenting
Proofs, Application, and Enforcement (see Means of
Developing, (/), (#)). For deduction has for its standard
of reasoning, this maxim: Whatever is affirmed or denied
truthfully of a whole class, may be affirmed or denied truth-
fully in like manner of everything comprehended under
that class. To illustrate : —

[Statement of principle] The general principle of right arrange-
ment in sentences, which we have traced in its application to the lead-
ing divisions of them, equally determines the proper order of their
minor divisions. [Application to particulars] In every sentence of
any complexity the complement to the subject contains several clauses,
and that to the predicate several others ; and these may be arranged
in greater or less conformity to the law of easy apprehension. Of
course with these, as with the larger members, the succession should
be from the less specific to the more specific — from the abstract to
the concrete. — Spencer : Philosophy of Style.

Nihilism, so far as one can find out, expresses rather a method, or a
means, than an end. It is difficult to say just what Nihilism does im-
ply. So much appears reasonably certain — [General statement] that
the primary object of the Nihilists is destruction ; [Particulars] 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 ; and 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.

50 Paragraph - Writing.

(2) Inductive.

From the nature of induction, it is evident that the
means of development which it employs most often are
those indicated and illustrated under the heading, Par-
ticulars and Details (see Means of Developing, (e)). The
other means of development, repetition, contrast, definition,
and explanation are used in paragraphs of both orders, as
occasion may require. The following illustrate the induc-
tive order : —

Sir, whilst we held this happy course, [Particulars] 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 contribut-
ing, 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. [General conclusion] Tyranny is a
poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor how to
extract. — Burke: American Taxation, p. 158 (Payne's ed.).

Is it better to place the adjective before the substantive, or the sub-
stantive before the adjective ? Ought we to say with the French — un
cheval noir ; or to say as we do — a black horse ? [Particulars from
which conclusion is to be drawn] Probably most persons of culture
would decide that one order is as good as the other. Alive to the bias
produced by habit, they would ascribe to that the preference they feel
for our own form of expression. They would expect those educated
in the use of the opposite form to have an equal preference for that.
And thus they would conclude that neither of these instinctive judg-
ments is of any worth. There is, however, a philosophical ground
for deciding in favour of the English custom. If " a horse black" be
the arrangement, immediately on the utterance of the word " horse,"
there arises, or tends to arise, in the mind, a picture answering to
that word ; and as there has been nothing to indicate what kind of
horse, any image of a horse suggests itself. Very likely, however,
the image will be that of a brown horse, brown horses being the

The Isolated Paragraph. 51

most familiar. The result is that when the word " black " is added, a
check is given to the process of thought. Either the picture of a
brown horse already present to the imagination has to be suppressed,
and the picture of a black one summoned in its place ; or else, if the
picture of a brown horse be yet unformed, the tendency to form it
has to be stopped. Whichever is the case, a certain amount of hin-
drance results. But if, on the other hand, "a black horse" be the
expression used, no such mistake can be made. The word " black,"
indicating an abstract quality, arouses no definite idea. It simply
prepares the mind for conceiving some object of that colour ; and the
attention is kept suspended until that object is known. [Conclusion]
if, then, by the precedence of the adjective, the idea is conveyed with-
out liability to error, whereas the precedence of the substantive is apt
to produce a misconception, it follows that the one gives the mind
less trouble than the other, and is therefore more forcible. — Spencer :
Philosophy of Style.

Examine some of the more formal paragraphs in Appendix B, and classify them as
deductive or inductive. Treat some of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 9 deductively.
Treat some of the same sentences as conclusions to be reached by the inductive process.

2. The Less Formal Types.

All paragraphs, whatever their method of construction,
might be classified either as deductive or as inductive, and
there would be room for considerable casuistry in determin-
ing under which head many paragraphs would fall. The
fact that it is extremely difficult to find examples of para-
graphs which are undeniably deductive or clearly inductive
indicates a close relationship between the two orders of
thought and their constant intermingling in the mind. As
a matter of fact, the two progressions are always combined
in thought. The negation of one means the negation of
the other also. In putting into language his mental pro-
cedure the writer may pursue a variety of methods. He
may (1) suppress the inductive operations which have gone
on in his mind while thinking on the subject in hand, (2)
suppress the deductive operations, (3) mingle the two. The

52 Paragraph - Writing.

tendency in good prose is always to mingle the two orders
of thought. Thus in a paragraph which is clearly deprived
of most of the deductive features, the conclusion will yet
be stated first. In a paragraph deprived of most of the
inductive features, the general principle will be stated, or
re-stated at the close. In other cases one progression will
succeed another at rapid intervals throughout the para-
graph.

This intermingling of deduction and induction which is
seen in almost all paragraphs of an expository and argu-
mentative character gives a less formal appearance to para-
graphs of this kind. For purposes of illustration, there-
fore, all expository and argumentative paragraphs which
are not exclusively deductive or exclusively inductive are
here brought under the title of ' less formal types.'

(1) Paragraphs of Definition.

A whole paragraph may be devoted to defining the sub-
ject. Some terms require a careful statement of their
scope. A term is defined not only by giving its etymology,
a history of its changes in meaning, and its current uses, but
by giving its applications to various departments of thought.
In the following quotation, Sir William Hamilton defines
the term Philosophy : -

There are two questions to be answered : 1st, What is the meaning
of the name ? and 2d, What is the meaning of the thing ? An an-
swer to the former question is afforded in a nominal definition of the
term philosophy, and in a history of its employment and application.
In regard to the etymological signification of the word, Philosophy is
a term of Greek origin. It is a.compound of <f>i\os, a lover OT friend,
and (ro<f>ta, wisdom — speculative wisdom. Philosophy is thus, liter-
ally, a love of wisdom. ... It is probable, I think, that Socrates was
the first who adopted, or at least th'6 first who familiarized, the ex-
pression. It was natural that he should be anxious to contradistin-
guish himself from the Sophists (ol cro0oc, ol cro0«rral), literally, the

The Isolated Paragraph. 53

wise men ; and no term could more appropriately ridicule the arro-
gance of these pretenders, or afford a happier contrast to their haughty
designation, than that of philosopher (i.e. the lover of wisdom) ; and,
at the same time, it is certain that the substantives 0t\o<ro0ia and
0iX60-o0os first appear in the writings of the Socratic school. It is
true, indeed, that the verb 0tXo(ro0e?j> is found in Herodotus, in the
address by Croesus to Solon ; and that, too, in a participial form, to
designate the latter as a man who had traveled abroad for the purpose
of acquiring knowledge. It is, therefore, not impossible that, before
*the time of Socrates, those who devoted themselves to the pursuit
of the higher branches of knowledge were occasionally designated
philosophers : but it is far more probable that Socrates and his school
first appropriated the term as a distinctive appellation ; and that the
word philosophy, in consequence of this appropriation, came to be
employed for the complement of all higher knowledge, and, more
especially, to denote the science conversant about the principles or
causes of existence. The term philosophy, I may notice, which was
originally assumed in modesty, soon lost its Socratic and etymological
signification, and returned to the meaning of o-o(f>La, or wisdom. Quin-
tilian calls it nomen insolentissimum ; Seneca, nomen invidiosum j
Epictetus counsels his scholars not to call themselves ' Philosophers ' ;
and proud is one of the most ordinary epithets with which philosophy
is now associated.

In the following, from George William Curtis, we have
definition and explanation combined : —

By the words public duty I do not necessarily mean official duty,
although it may include that. I mean simply that constant and
active practical participation in the details of politics without which,
upon the part of the most intelligent citizens, the conduct of public
affairs falls under the control of selfish and ignorant, or crafty and
venal men. I mean that personal attention which, as it must be
incessant, is often wearisome and even repulsive, to the details of poli-
tics, attendance at meetings, service upon committees, care and
trouble, and expense of many kinds, patient endurance of rebuffs,
chagrins, ridicules, disappointments, defeats — in a word, all those
duties and services which, when selfishly and meanly performed,
stigmatize a man as a mere politician, but whose constant, honor-
able, intelligent and vigilant performance is the gradual building,
stone by stone, and layer by layer, of that great temple of self-

5 4 Paragrap h - Writing .

restrained liberty which all generous souls mean that our government
shall be.

(2) Paragraphs of Detail.

This is one of the most common types of paragraphs in
exposition, consisting simply of the inclusive topic-sentence,
preceded or followed by particulars, examples, and illustra-
tions.

We do not notice the ticking of the clock, the noise of the city
streets, or the roaring of the brook near the house ; and even the din
of a laundry or factory will not mingle with the thoughts of its
workers, if they have been there long enough. When we first put on
spectacles, especially if they be of certain curvatures, the bright reflec-
tions they give of the windows, etc., mixing with the field of view,
are very disturbing. In a few days we ignore them altogether. . . .
The pressure of our clothes and shoes, the beating of our hearts and
arteries, our breathing, certain steadfast bodily pains, habitual odors,
tastes in the mouth, etc., are examples from other senses of [Topic-
sentence] the same lapse into unconsciousness of any too unchanging
content — a lapse which Hobbes has expressed in the well-known
phrase, 'Semper idem sentire ac non sentire ad idem revertunt.' —
James's Psychology, Vol. II. p. 455.

(3) Other Types.

As the paragraph which conforms most nearly to the
theoretical structure is the expository or the argumentative
paragraph, this has been used for purposes of illustration
throughout the preceding part of this book. Further illus-
tration here is therefore unnecessary. The student is
referred to the chapter on Means of Developing the Para-
graph, where he will find the other types of expository and
of argumentative paragraphs sufficiently illustrated.

Develop some of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 10 by methods that seem most
fitting in each case. Analyze the paragraphs in Appendix A 13 according to their
thought-divisions as the illustrative paragraph there given is analyzed. In Appendix C 1
will be found an exercise in Ten-Minute Themes in Exposition and Argumentation to
be here introduced. ^. list of subjects is also given.

The Isolated Paragraph. 55

(&) DESCRIPTIVE AND NARRATIVE PARAGRAPHS.

In paragraphs of this kind the plan is not so easily seen,
for in these paragraphs the sequence is not determined
solely by the logical order of thought, but is determined in
a measure by the nature of the object described or the event
narrated. It may have to deal with seemingly unrelated
particulars. These, however, may be grouped so as to pro-
duce a single effect on the mind. A building is something
more than foundations, walls, roof, door, and windows. It
has a meaning as a whole to which these in their united
capacities contribute. A series of events, taken singly, are
without significance unless reported with their total mean-
ing as a group clearly in mind.

In the following descriptive paragraph from Euskin
(Prseterita, II. v.) notice how the comparison of the river
Rhone to a wave (the theme) binds all the details into a
unified whole : —

Waves of clear sea are, indeed, lovely to watch, but they are always
coming or gone, never in any taken shape to be seen for a second.
But here was one mighty wave [The Rhone] that was always itself,
and every fluted swirl of it, constant as the wreathing of a shell. No
wasting away of the fallen foam, no pause for gathering of power, no
helpless ebb of discouraged recoil ; but alike through bright day and
lulling night, the never-pausing plunge and never-fading flash, and
never-hushing whisper, and, while the sun was up, the ever-answering
glow of unearthly aquamarine, ultramarine, violet blue, gentian blue,
peacock blue, river-of-paradise blue, glass of a painted window melted
in the sun, and the witch of the Alps flinging the spun tresses of it
forever from her snow.

In the following narrative paragraph notice that the nar-
rative details are grouped about the character description,
which is here placed in brackets. The particulars are all
colored by the writer's evident sympathy with the King : —

Charles appeared before the Court only to deny its competence and
to refuse to plead ; but thirty-two witnesses were examined to satisfy

56 Paragraph - Writing.

the consciences of his judges, and it was not till the fifth day of the
trial that he was condemned to death as a tyrant, traitor, murderer
and enemy of his country. The popular excitement had vented itself
in cries of "Justice," or "God save your Majesty," as the trial went
on, but all save the loud outcries t)f the soldiers was hushed as Charles
passed to receive his doom. [The dignity which he had failed to pre-
serve in his long jangling with Bradshaw and the judges returned at
the call of death. Whatever had been the faults and follies of his life,
"he nothing common did, or mean, upon that memorable scene."]
Two masked executioners awaited the King as he mounted the scaf-
fold, which had been erected outside one of the windows of the Ban-
queting House at Whitehall ; the streets and roofs were thronged with
spectators ; and a strong body of soldiers stood drawn up beneath.
His head fell at the first blow, and as the executioner lifted it to the
sight of all, a groan of pity and horror burst from the silent crowd. —
Green's Short History, p. 555.

In Appendix C 2 will be found a list of subjects for Ten-Minute Themes in Descrip-
tion and Narration, with suggestions for impromptus and reproductions. A list of
readings suitable for class exercises is given in Appendix C 3.

(1) Portrait Sketches.

Two varieties of descriptive paragraphs merit special
attention. These are portrait sketches and character de-
scriptions. The simplest form of portraiture gives a mere
catalogue of features. A higher form adds to this the men-
bion of accessories, as of clothes, and scraps of conversation.
A still higher type imputes to the subject of the sketch
personal qualities that put a meaning into the features
described — makes the face tell the story of the life. The
various kinds run into one another, and all may be employed
in the same sketch. The following paragraphs will illus-
trate : —

SNUBBIN.

Mr. Serjeant Snubbin was a lantern-faced, sallow-complexioned
man, of about five-and-f orty, or — as the novels say — he might be
fifty. He had that dull-looking boiled eye which is so often to be seen

The Isolated Paragraph. 57

in the heads of people who have applied themselves during many years
to a weary and laborious course of study ; and which would have been
sufficient, without the additional eye-glass which dangled from a broad
black riband round his neck, to warn a stranger that he was very
near-sighted. His hair was thin and weak, which was partly attribu-
table to his having never devoted much time to its arrangement, and
partly to his having worn for five-and-twenty years the forensic wig
which hung on a block beside him. The marks of hair-powder on his
coat-collar, and the ill- washed and worse-tied white neckerchief round
his throat, showed that he had not found leisure since he left the
court to make any alteration in his dress : while the slovenly style of
the remainder of his costume warranted the inference that his per-
sonal appearance would not have been very much improved if he had.
Books of practice, heaps of papers, and open letters were scattered
over the table, without any attempt at order or arrangement ; the
furniture of the room was old and rickety ; the doors of the book-case
were rotting in their hinges ; the dust flew out from the carpet in little
clouds at every step ; the blinds were yellow with age and dirt ; and
the state of everything in the room showed, with a clearness not to
be mistaken, that Mr. Serjeant Snubbin was far too much occupied
"with his professional pursuits to take any great heed or regard of his
personal comforts. — Pickwick Papers, Vol. II. chap. iii.

DANTE.

To me it is a most touching face ; perhaps of all faces that I know,
the most so. Lonely there, painted as on vacancy, with the simple
laurel wound round it, the deathless sorrow and pain, the known vic-
tory which is also deathless ; — significant of the whole history of Dante.
I think it is the mournf ulest face that ever was painted from reality ;
an altogether tragic, heart- affecting face. There is in it, as foundation
of it, the softness, tenderness, gentle affection as of a child ; but all
this is as if congealed into sharp contradiction, into abnegation, isola-
tion, proud hopeless pain. A soft ethereal soul looking-out so stern,
implacable, grim-trenchant, as from imprisonment of thick-ribbed ice !
Withal it is a silent pain too, a silent scornful one ; the lip is curled in
a kind of godlike disdain of the thing that is eating out his heart, — as
if it were withal a mean insignificant thing, as if he whom it had power
to torture and strangle were greater than it. The face of one wholly
in protest and life-long unsur render ing battle, against the world.
Affection all converted into indignation ; an implacable indignation ;

5 8 Paragrap h - Writing.

slow, equable, silent, like that of a god ! The eye, too, it looks-out
in a kind of surprise, a kind of inquiry, why the world was of such a
sort ? This is Dante : so he looks, this 4 voice of ten silent centuries,'
and sings us ' his mystic unfathomable song.' — Carlyle : On Heroes,
p. 80.

Other examples may be found in Ben Hur, chaps, ii. and viii. ; Bracebridge
Hall, p. 25; Cromwell at Huntingdon and Naseby, in Carlyle's Cromwell; Pater's
description of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, in his Studies in the History of the Renaissance ;
and Lodge's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 380. Note the advantage of epithet and
strong adjectives in descriptions of this kind. A few portrait sketches are included
among the paragraphs in Appendix B. Short sketches of persons and faces known to
students should be carefully written outside of class by students, for presentation in
class. For impromptu writing in class, portraits of well-known historical characters
may be exhibited in class and written descriptions made of them.

(2) Character Sketches.

Success in 'character sketches depends upon the writer's
power to seize upon the principal trait of character pos-
sessed by the subject of the sketch, the predominating
characteristic, and to group other traits as the natural
results of the leading quality, in the light of which the
deeds of the subject of the sketch are to be explained.
Every developed character has a central quality about which
other traits group themselves. That we speak naturally of
Washington's purity, Lincoln's honesty, and Queen Eliz-
abeth's versatility is unconscious evidence of this. This
central trait, once found, will furnish the paragraph theme.
Traits should be illustrated by deeds, events, and words.
Epithet, contrast, and figurative language tend to make a
character portrayal vivid and effective. The following
paragraph, from Green's History of the English People, Vol.
III. p. 55, will illustrate all these points : —

CHARACTER OF JAMES.

[Introductory] On the sixth of May, 1603, after a stately prog-
ress through his new dominions, King James entered London. [Por-
trait] In outer appearance no sovereign could have jarred more

The Isolated Paragraph. 59

utterly against the conception of an English ruler which had grown
up under Plantagenet or Tudor. His big head, his slobbering tongue,
his quilted clothes, his rickety legs, stood out in as grotesque a con-
trast with all that men recalled of Henry or Elizabeth as his gabble
and rhodomontade, his want of personal dignity, his buffoonery, his
coarseness of speech, his pedantry, his personal cowardice. [Charac-
ter contrasted with portrait] Under this ridiculous exterior indeed
lay no small amount of moral courage and of intellectual dignity.
James was a ripe scholar, with a considerable fund of shrewdness, of
mother wit, and ready repartee. His canny humour lights up the
political and theological controversies of the time with quaint incisive
phrases, with puns and epigrams and touches of irony which still
retain their savour. His reading, especially in theological matters,
was extensive ; and he was already a voluminous author on subjects
which ranged from predestination to tobacco. [Statement of the cen-
tral quality — a confirmed pedantry] But his shrewdness and learn-
ing only left him, in the phrase of Henry the Fourth of France, uthe
wisest fool in Christendom." He had, in fact, the temper of a pedant,
a pedant's conceit, a pedant's love of theories, and a pedant's inabil-
ity to bring his theories into any relation with actual facts. It was
this fatal defect that marred his political abilities. As a statesman he
had shown no little capacity in his smaller realm ; his cool humour
and good temper had held even Melville at bay ; he had known how
to wait and how to strike ; and his patience and boldness had been
rewarded with a fair success. He had studied foreign affairs as busily
as he had studied Scotch affairs ; and of the temper and plans of for-
eign courts he probably possessed a greater knowledge than any Eng-
lishman save Robert Cecil. But what he never possessed, and what
he never could gain, was any sort of knowledge of England or Eng-
lishmen. He came to his new home a Scotchman, a foreigner, strange
to the life, the thoughts, the traditions of the English people. And
he remained strange to them to the last. A younger man might have
insensibly imbibed the temper of the men about him. A man of
genius would have flung himself into the new world of thought and
feeling and made it his own. But James was neither young nor a
man of genius. He was already in middle age when he crossed the
Border ; and his cleverness and his conceit alike blinded him to the
need of any adjustment of his conclusions or his prejudices to the facts
which fronted him.

Point out in the above the lesser contrasts, epithets, strong adjectives, and figurative
language. Make an analysis of the paragraph like that given in Appendix A 13. Other

60 Paragraph - Writing.

illustrations of character sketches will be found in Hosmer's Samuel Adams, p. 363 ;
Irving's Philip of Pokanoket (last par.), in the Sketch Book, p. 409 ; Green's His-
tory of England, Vol. II. chap. iii. p. 316. A few character sketches are also included
among the paragraphs given in Appendix B. After studying and analyzing some of
these, the student may attempt to write a description of the character of an intimate
friend.

THE EELATED PARAGRAPH.

Each of the paragraphs examined thus far in our study
has been treated as a complete composition in itself. At-
tention will now be directed to those modifications of struct-
ure which result when a paragraph becomes a part of an
essay. Related paragraphs are those which, taken together,
form a complete essay. In most of them the structure is
not materially different from that which has been discov-
ered in one or another of the various forms of the isolated
paragraph. Like the isolated paragraph, most related para-
graphs have distinct topic-sentences which are developed in
one or more of the ways already pointed out ; the topic-
sentences, in the case of related paragraphs, introducing in
turn the various headings and sub-headings of the essay-
outline. There are a few special kinds of related para-
graphs, however, so different in form and function from
any of the isolated paragraphs studied, that they require
notice and illustration at the outset. What these forms
are will appear from a comparison of the functions of the
various sentences in an isolated paragraph with those of
the various paragraphs in an essay.

1. SPECIAL FORMS.

Regarded as sections of a whole composition, the various
paragraphs have different functions to perform analogous to
those performed by the different sentences of the paragraph.

The Related Paragraph. 61

As the subject sentence of a paragraph states the paragraph
theme, so the introductory paragraph of an essay presents,
more or less distinctly, the theme of the essay. As transi-
tion words and sentences may be necessary, sometimes, to
connect the sentences of a paragraph, so transition para-
graphs may be needed at focal points in the essay to con-
nect the paragraphs of the essay. Some words like ' but/
'yet,' 'still/ i however/ presenting a contrast, serve in a
paragraph to arrest the thought and direct it into a differ-
ent channel. There are paragraphs that serve the same
purpose in the essay. A sentence may be devoted wholly to
restricting, denning, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or
enforcing an idea set forth in a previous sentence. So in
an essay whole paragraphs may be employed for restricting,
denning, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or enforcing
the idea of a preceding paragraph. As there are certain
expressions at important points in a paragraph to carry the
thought back to the subject sentence, so there may be para-
graphs in an essay that show the bearing of the thought of
contiguous paragraphs upon the main idea of the essay. Of
course these functions vary in different kinds of composi-
tions, since the paragraphs are colored by the nature of the
piece as a whole. In a given essay some may be absent
entirely, not being needed for the kind of production in
hand, just as in a given paragraph some of the means of
development, indicated in the typical plan (see Appen-
dix A 11), are absent. A few of these functions will be
indicated and illustrated.

(a) INTRODUCTORY AND CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS.

Of these little need be said. The object of an introduc-
tory paragraph is to segregate the ideas of the composition
in hand from all other ideas. As this is nearly always
apparent from a mere statement of the theme, the introduc-

6 2 Paragrap h -Writing.

tion usually needs to do little more than state the theme,
and indicate briefly the line of development to be followed.
In a description, the introduction frequently gives the total
impression produced by the object described. A narrative
introduction usually requires nothing more than the place
and time of the story. A newspaper article narrating an
important series of events usually employs the introductory
paragraph for the purpose of giving a summary of the
events detailed at length in the succeeding paragraphs. In
such an article, the introduction tells the whole story in
brief.

[The subject of the section from which the following paragraph is
taken is ''Political Institutions of Germany." The marginal note
gives as the subject of this paragraph, " Want of National Institutions
in Germany."]

It was the misfortune of Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries that, [Subject of section] with most of the conditions requisite
for the formation of national unity, [Subject of paragraph] she had no
really national institutions. There was [Subjects of sections and
paragraphs to follow] an Emperor, who looked something like an
English King, and a Diet, or General Assembly, which looked some-
thing like an English Parliament, but [Subject of paragraph repeated]
the resemblance was far greater in appearance than in reality. —
Gardiner: Thirty Years' War, p. 1.

The concluding paragraph should gather into itself the
force of all the preceding paragraphs. The effort should be
to leave a strong impression. It is no place for digressions ;
but must be in line with what has been said before.

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. In his own prov-
ince he still stands unapproachably alone. [Enumeration of points
made in the essay] If 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 Shake-
speare, if to have charmed four generations make a man a great poet
— then he is one. He was the chief founder of an artificial style of

The Related Paragraph. 63

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. Measured by any high standard of imagination, he will be
found wanting; tried by any test of wit he is unrivalled. —Lowell:
My Study Windows, p. 433.

Other examples of introductory and concluding paragraphs will be found in Ap-
pendix D 1.

TRANSITIONAL AND DIRECTIVE PARAGRAPHS.

Transitional and directive paragraphs serve to make plain
the logical connection between the main topics of the dis-
course and to direct the thought both to the subject of the
preceding paragraph and to that of the following paragraph.
Transitional paragraphs have, therefore, two offices to per-
form. There must be the " backward look" to the subject
that precedes, and the " forward look" to the subject that
follows. The following will serve to illustrate : —

[In a preceding paragraph the author has called attention to the fact
that Confucius is worthy of high respect. This idea is repeated in the
opening sentence.] Confucius belongs to that small company of
select ones whose lives have been devoted to the moral elevation of
their fellow-men. Among them he stands high. For [Transition to
new subject] he sought to implant the purest principles of religion and
morals in the character of the whole people, and succeeded in doing
it. To show that this was his purpose [Subject of next paragraph
definitely stated] it will be necessary to give a brief sketch of his life.
— Clarke: Ten Great Eeligions, p. 45.

Other examples of transitional and directive paragraphs will be found in Appendix D 2.

It is often the case that a thought which bears directly
on the subject, but which can be mentioned only briefly in
one paragraph, is of sufficient importance to deserve a more
extended treatment. To give it such treatment in the para-
graph in which it is first mentioned might destroy the unity

64 Paragraph - Writing.

and due proportion of that paragraph. In such a case it is
better to develop the thought, in detail, in the paragraph
immediately following. Separate treatment of this kind
will permit the reader to dwell upon the thought thus
amplified, long enough for him to appreciate its bearing and
importance. The amplifying paragraph is of especial value
in enforcing an idea in a particular way and in making it
contribute to the main purpose of the composition. Often
an amplifying paragraph consists of details which enforce
or illustrate the idea of the preceding paragraph as a whole.
The following is in point : —

[The thought of the preceding paragraph is that everything has two
sides, a tragic and a comic.] We read Mrs. Caudle's curtain lectures,
and find them very funny. To poor Caudle they were not all fun.
We make merry over Jack Falstaff. Was there no tragedy there ?
Prince Hal laughed atv the comedy. King Henry saw the full force of
the tragedy. Who so funny as Dogberry ? His blunders and his
stupidity are irresistible. But suppose him to have a daughter who
had been to the schools, who knew that ' vagrant ' was not pronounced
' vagrom,' who had been proud of her father's appointment, and had
hoped for a certain social elevation from it, and was proportionally
mortified at the exhibition he was making of himself ; or suppose a
reformer to have been present who was indignant that such men should
hold office. . . . Neither of these would see the joke. — Everett :
Poetry ', Comedy, and Duty, p. 169.

Other examples of amplifying paragraphs will be found in Appendix D 3. The exer-
cises provided for by the outlines in Appendix A 12 should now be resumed, with especial
reference to the formation of a variety of introductory, transitional, amplifying, and con-
cluding paragraphs, wherever these appear to be necessary. Another useful exercise is
suggested in connection with the list published in Appendix E.

2. THE WRITING OF ESSAYS.

Up to this point in our study, we have concentrated our
attention upon the individual paragraph ; we have exam-
ined the laws, means of development, and types of structure
of isolated paragraphs, and have pointed out the special
forms of certain related paragraphs so far as they have

The Related Paragraph. 65

required notice on account of their difference in function
from isolated paragraphs. The student having thus been
led, through exercises in the writing of single paragraphs
and a study of paragraph structure, to a knowledge of rhe-
torical forms and functions, is prepared to undertake the
composition of those groups or series of paragraphs which
we call articles or essays. In our further study, then,
attention will be concentrated not upon the individual
paragraph but upon the whole essay. This change in the
object of attention necessitates a corresponding change in
our method of presenting the subject. Beginning with the
usual division of discourse, we shall take up in turn the
descriptive essay, the narrative essay, the expository essay,
and the argumentative essay, pointing out, in the case of
each, those principles and cautions which have been found
most useful in actual writing.

(a) THE DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY.

In studying types of paragraph structure (see p. 55) the
student was given some practice in description. What was
said there of descriptive paragraphs applies with equal
force to the descriptive essay, which may be regarded as a
larger and more extensive form of the descriptive para-
graph.

(1) Province and Kinds of Description.

The descriptive essay has for its purpose the presenta-
tion, in language, of a picture of some material object,
mental 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.

66 Paragraph - Writing.

(2) Selection of a Subject.

The value of a description depends upon clearness of
observation and effectiveness in reporting what is observed.
The advantage 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 char-
acters close at hand afford the best materials for descrip-
tion. A room, a scene, a face, a picture, a building, a
character, well known to the describer, furnish better sub-
jects than similar themes taken from history or reported at
second hand.

A list of subjects suitable for short descriptions may be found in Appendix C 2.

(3) Outlining the Subject.

Material objects carry their own outlines with them.
The observer 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 mention, will be arranged as
subdivisions of the main headings to which they respec-
tively belong. In selecting features for the main headings,
prominence is the rule that governs ; in selecting and
arranging the details for the subheadings, the order of
proximity is to be followed. Descriptions of character fur-
nish a less obvious outline. Here the two or three chief
characteristics, carefully distinguished, give the main head-
ings. These larger headings are presented usually in the
order of their prominence, the most prominent coming

The Related Paragraph. 67

last ; lesser traits are arranged as subdivisions under these
in the order of similarity or of contrast.

Specimen outlines in description are given in Appendix A 12. An exercise in rhetor-
ical analysis, including work in discovering outlines from descriptive articles, is sug-
gested in Appendix E.

(4) Purpose in Description.

Every descriptive essay has a purpose, though generally
the purpose 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 to a certain end, and the whole de-
scription will show what the end is. A botanist and a land-
scape-gardener will describe a tree in different ways. The
purpose may be no more definite than to produce a favor-
able 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 reverence, or awe, or detestation.
It is the hidden purpose which gives cohesion, unity, effec-
tiveness, and individuality to a descriptive essay.

(5) Point of View.

The purpose determines the point of view and gives the
character 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

6 8 Paragrap h - Writing.

appear to him from that point. It may 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 building, 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.

Let the student determine the point of view of any description that he has read :
the most advantageous position from which to view the school building ; the changes in
the point of view which would be required in describing a winding avenue, or the course
of a river, or the interior of a large manufactory. In the wider sense of the term, what
is the point of view of Green's description of Elizabeth (Short History of the English
People, chap, vii.), of Irving' s description of Wouter van T wilier (History of Neio
York, Book III. chap, i.), of Johnson's description of the Happy Valley (Rasselas,
chap, i.) ?

(6) 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 will 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.

Let the student make a list of the details selected for mention by the writer of any
description that he has read. What details, for instance, are selected in Whittier's
Snow-bound, in Longfellow's The Bridge, in Tennyson's Mariana, in Hawthorne's
The Custom House (Scarlet Letter), in Irving's Ichabod Crane (Sketch- Book), in Cole-
ridge's A ncient Mariner? What gives these details their significance? What other
details might have been mentioned and why were they purposely omitted ?

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(7) Sequence and Grouping.

The order in which the details are presented is deter-
mined 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 natu-
rally comes first : the impression of greatness, massiveness,
beauty, gloom, or brightness, 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 which he may fit the details as
they are mentioned; finally, the material, style, arrange-
ment, furnishings, 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 con-
nection with some of the main headings, or, if mentioned
by themselves, will be used to illustrate some characteristic
of the object described, such as convenience, adaptedness to
use, ornamentation, or plainness.

See, also, what is said under ' outlining the subject,' and under Portrait and Character
Sketches (pp. 56-60).

(8) Helps to Description.

The object of description being to make the reader see
mentally what the writer saw actually, description becomes
to a large degree a matter of conveying impressions. Com-
parisons, similes, contrasts, epithet, and figurative language
are the natural means resorted to for conveying personal
impressions from one to another and have a prominent part
in effective description. Feelings and circumstances natu-
rally associated with objects of the class described give
clearness and vividness to a description, and a final and
unified impression is given by stating in conclusion the

70 Paragraph - Writing.

effect produced upon the mind of the observer when in the
presence of the object.

Subjects for longer essays in description may be selected from Appendix G. Sugges-
tions of a useful exercise in reporting will be found in Appendix F.

THE NARRATIVE ESSAY.

A narrative is the presentation in language of successive
related events occurring in time. Description represents
an object as it appeared at a single moment of time ; narra-
tion 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 subsidiary and
explanatory, and is kept subordinate to the main purpose of
reciting events as they occur, one after another.

.
(1) Province and Kinds.

The field covered by narration is large, comprising biog-
raphy, history, fiction, and a large class of poetry. The
simplest kind is represented by the biography in which
there is but one main character, whose fortunes are followed
through life. Akin to biography, in treatment, are imagi-
native and fanciful themes, such as " Experiences in the
Life of a Bank-note." History and fiction deal with larger
themes, and the interest is -carried along several lines.

(2) Selection of a Subject.

%
Here, as in description, there is great opportunity for

originality in the choice of a subject. Events and experi-
ences in the student's own life furnish the best material
for first efforts. Later, the short story and the history of
organizations in which he has had a part may be tried.

i ITJSttVERSITY
The Related Paragraph. S^AUFQffjfe

But it is generally unwise for him to take up complex sub-
jects in imaginative and historical narration until wide
reading and protracted thought justify it.

A list of subjects suitable for shorter articles in narration may be found in Appendix
02.

(3) 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 adventure will serve to illus-
trate. If the adventure is worth recounting, it will have a
center 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 will include the events that lead up to this
center of interest ; 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, conclu-
sion, 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 treat-
ment and different planning. Take, for example, the class
of themes represented by subjects of this kind : The His-
tory 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 discerned 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

7 2 Paragraph - Writing.

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.

Specimen outlines in narration are given in Appendix A 12. An exercise in rhetorical
analysis, including practice in discovering the outlines from narrative articles, is sug-
gested in Appendix E.

(4) 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 interest. 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 opportu-
nity for detecting and using peculiar characteristics in nar-
rative than in descriptive writing : it is the unexpected that
often happens, and much is made of this fact by writers of
fiction. Ability and willingness to omit or curtail what is
usual and common, that the attention may be held to what
is unique and peculiar, are discernible in the work of every
good story-teller. The culminating point, which gives the
narrative distinction, is kept in view all the time and noth-
ing is admitted which does not carry the narrative forward
towards it. This point furnishes the center 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 narrative. Even the descriptive digres-
sions are seen to have played an important, though subor-
dinate, part in leading to the culmination.

The Related Paragraph. 73

(5) 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, where the interest is
undivided, this rule is easy to follow ; but in complex narra-
tives, such as the novel and the history, sequence is harder
to secure because of the fact that several contemporaneous
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 will 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 cul-
mination.

(6) 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 accelerates it. Suspense is
advisable just before the culminating point of interest is
reached, and it is secured usually by introducing descrip-
tive details or explanations. Sometimes suspense is secured
by beginning at some point along in the story, the events

74 Paragraph - Writing.

leading up to the first scene being afterwards introduced as
an explanation, or as a part of a subsequent conversation
between two of the characters. Description detains the
attention, but it must be relevant, or its introduction is re-
sented by the reader. In most parts of a narrative, how-
ever, movement rather than suspense is desirable, and this
is secured by reducing or omitting descriptions, by hurry-
ing over details and condensing lesser actions and events as
much as possible. Especially is movement desirable when
the culmination or principal action is reached, and, in gen-
eral, those parts of a narrative which portray rapid action
should show it by a hurried manner of treatment.

(7) Plausibility and Verisimilitude.

This topic has to do mainly with imaginative narratives.
Here the story must bear the marks of reality and likeli-
hood or it fails to secure attention. This does not mean
that long explanations are necessary ; these too often spoil
a climax for which they are intended to prepare the reader ;
nor does it preclude < surprises/ for these are among the
most real and likely things of life. Rather does it involve
a more careful planning and outlining of details at the
outset and a more careful handling of the phraseology of
description and narration.

(8) Helps to Narration.

It has already been indicated that description is fre-
quently used in narratives of all kinds. Usually descrip-
tion forms the introduction of a scene or story, giving it a
time and a place and an air of reality. Character descrip-
tions and portrait sketches are also employed in narratives,
and their use is obvious both for detaining the attention
upon the chief characters of interest, and for aiding in the

The Related Paragraph. 75

appreciation of the subsequent actions of the characters.
Contrasts of characters are another help to narration : two
unlike characters serving to set each other off and to give
greater distinction to both. Contrasts of scenes are also
helpful : scenes which are full of action alternating with
scenes of a comparatively quiet character. Transitions are
everywhere important but nowhere more so than in narra-
tion. When to indicate plainly a change of scene, and
when to leave the change to be inferred is a problem best
solved by noticing the practice of the standard writers of
narratives. Episodes afford relief to a reader when they
are introduced into a long narrative of intense action, but
are elsewhere out of place : the short story and the narra-
tive of adventure are hindered rather than helped by the
introduction of episodes.

Subjects for longer essays in narration may be selected from Appendix G. Sugges-
tions of a useful exercise in reporting will be found in Appendix F.

Exposition has been defined as " such an analysis of a gen-
eral 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 in-
cludes, 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 definition 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

76 Paragraph - Writing.

the proposition is true or false. Thus, education having
been defined as training, the various kinds of training hav-
ing been determined, and the pursuits of life having been
classified, the results of the exposition of this proposition
might be outlined as follows : —

f the mind 1 f the languages 1 f the professions ^

Education, or I

' the heart ^ in J the sciences \ is beneficial in J the trades

[ the body j [ the arts j | and commerce.

1. Kinds and Uses.

It is evident that the kind of exposition illustrated above
is useful mainly for planning and outlining a subject. It
is concerned with laying the ground-work for subsequent
discussion, description, or narration. It analyzes, defines,
divides, and classifies ; it plays an important part in plan-
ning every essay that is written, whether in description, nar-
ration, or argumentation ; and for that reason it will be
treated under the headings that follow : Analysis by Parti-
tion; Analysis by Division; Exposition by Definition;
Exposition by Similarity and Contrast, — all of these being
presented mainly as helps to planning and outlining themes.
These methods may all be included under the single desig-
nation 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 Conversational Essay, and the Critical Essay.
These we shall discuss under the headings indicated, after
taking up the various kinds of Scientific Exposition.

2. Scientific Exposition.

It should be remembered that the chief use of scientific
exposition to the student is the practice which it gives him

The Related Paragraph. 77

in outlining and planning subjects for composition. The
sense for outlining and planning is at the basis of essay
structure of all kinds, and the student should carefully
perform all of the exercises provided under the following
heads, with the purpose of improving his sense for logical
outlining.

(1) Analysis by Partition.

In partition, the theme is a whole made up of parts, and
the work of exposition demands that this whole be sepa-
rated or analyzed into its component parts. Thus, taking
the theme 'Tree,' partition separates it into root, trunk,
branches, and fruit ; or, on another principle, separates it
into woody fiber and sap. It takes a theme like 'The Ad-
vantages of Railways ' and separates it, on one principle, as
follows: 1. Advantages to Individuals: (a) in widening
their knowledge by travel, (b) in widening the field of
their social activity, (c) in widening and extending their
business and commercial field. 2. Advantages to the Pub-
lic as a whole : (a) in uniting remote parts of the country,
(b) in fostering the development of the country's material
resources, (c) in giving the parts of a country one political
life.

The work of partition stops with the plan or the outline.
Treatment of the various headings of the outline may be
by any of the processes of narration, description, and argu-
mentation, or by the methods of exposition to be mentioned
further on. The headings of the outline in partition need
not cover the whole subject. Much more might be said
on the subject outlined above than is indicated in the out-
line. Only so much of any topic needs to be parted off
as will serve to fulfill the purpose which the writer has
in view.

Other outlines in partition may be found in Appendix A 12. A list of topics and
propositions to be outlined by partition inay be found in Appendix 0 1.

7 8 Paragrap h - Writing.

(2) Analysis by Division.

In division the theme is separated into similar parts.
Division would take the theme 'Tree7 (which partition
separates into the component parts of root, trunk, branches,
and fruit) and would separate it into the various kinds,
classes, varieties of trees. It takes a theme like ' The Leg-
islative Government in the United States ? and separates it
into the ' House of Representatives, the Senate, and the
Veto Power of the President.'

In dividing a theme, care must be taken that the main
headings of the outline be selected on a single principle.
Thus, taking the subject ' Kinds of Sentences/ it may be
divided on one principle into ' simple, complex, compound ' ;
on another, into ' long and short J ; on another, into ' peri-
odic and loose.' To divide sentences into ' complex, short,
and periodic' would obviously lead to nothing but confu-
sion, as more than one principle of division would be intro-
duced. So, when a recent writer speaks of ' Our Duties '
as i personal, religious, and political/ the same error of a
double principle of division is presented, though here it is
less obvious, on account of the character of the subject.
It is apparent, however, when we consider that our religious
and political duties are personal duties. This illustrates,
also, the violation of another law of division : No one of the
headings should of itself cover the whole subject to be
divided.

However, the theme may be divided on one principle for
the main headings of the outline, while the groups of sub-
headings under each of the main heads may follow entirely
different principles of division. This is illustrated by the
outline (in Appendix A 12) of the subject: History of the
Temporal Power of the Pope. Here the main headings are
chronological, while the sub-heads follow different principles
of division.

The Related Paragraph. 79

Whatever principle of division be chosen, it is important
that the headings be distinct, and do not over-lap one an-
other. If the main headings of the outline are clearly dis-
tinguished from one another, the effect on the essay will be
to give the principal ideas their due prominence. The
hearer or reader will be able to discover the plan of the
essay and to state to himself the main points as the essay
is heard or read.

A single reading of Ruskin's Fors Clavigera, Letter V., in which
he -arraigns the accepted political economy of the time, discovers the
following outline : —

1. The essentials which ought to be secured by a true Political Economy,
(a) Material things essential to life.

(1) Pure air; (2) Water; (3) Earth. (Advantages of each.)
(6) Immaterial things essential to life.

(1) Admiration ; (2) Hope ; (3) Love. (Each is defined and its value stated.)

2. What under modern Political Economy is done with these.

(a) With the Material things essential to life.

(1) The air is vitiated by the smoke of factories and towns.

(2) The water of rivers is made foul by sewage.

(3) The earth is made a deadly battle-ground instead of a life-giving harvest-

field.

(b) With the Immaterial things essential to life.

(1) Instead of Admiration for the past there is contempt and conceit.

(2) Instead of Hope there is lack of spirit and of patriotism.

(3) Instead of Love, the constant instinct of man is assumed by Political

Economy to be the desire to defraud his neighbor.

It is also important that the successive divisions of the
subject follow one another in close order, each division of
the outline leading naturally to the one that comes next.
A carefully divided outline will usually ensure unity and
sequence in the essay. This close order, or sequence, will
be secured (1) if the thoughts expressed by the headings are
felt to be near to one another. The outline on the Uses of
Novel-Reading (Appendix A 12) illustrates. Here each
heading suggests the next. Such arrangement is by Con-
tiguity. (2) A second principle of arranging outline divi-
sions is the principle of Cause and Effect. No tendency of
the mind is stronger than that which impels us to seek the

80 Paragraph - Writing.

cause of an existing fact or to trace the consequences of a
past action. Some of the best histories are constructed in
the main on this plan : —

(a) Statement of a group of facts or events.

(b) Causes of these facts or events.

(1) Upon those immediately involved,

(2) Upon the nation as a whole.

The same plan is then applied to another group of facts or
events. See outline of a lecture by Dr. Washington Gladden
on 'The Modern Cerberus' (Appendix A 12). (3) A third
principle of arranging outline divisions is the principle of
Contrast. Two clearly contrasted notions may be placed in
immediate succession. This principle will be treated under
the heading i Exposition by Contrast/ in a succeeding
paragraph. (See p. 81.)

Finally, the general arrangement of the headings and sub-
headings of the outline should be in the order of climax,
proceeding from the less to the more important and im-
pressive.

Other outlines in division may be found in Appendix A 12. A list of topics and
propositions to be outlined by division may be found in Appendix C 1.

(3) Exposition by Definition.

A whole essay may be devoted to ascertaining the mean-
ing of a term which is not generally understood, or which,
is understood in different ways by different people. Thus,
John Stuart Mill devotes a whole exposition to finding the
meaning of the term ' Nature7 (Mill: Three Essays on
Religion, p. 3), Sir William Hamilton to finding the mean-
ing of the term ' Philosophy' (see p. 52). Many ex-
pressions in common use, such as i Liberty/ < Equality/
' Freedom of the Press/ ' Education/ ' Civilization/ ' Cul-

The Related Paragraph. 81

ture/ etc., require careful definition to test especially the
correctness of the application which is often given to them.
A proposition is defined by the definition of its principal
•terms. The careful definition of a proposition will some-
times suggest a good plan of treating the subject, and will
furnish the basis of the essay-outline. Thus the plan of the
first part of Macaulay's Essay on Hallarn's History is fur-
nished by Macaulay's definition of history, given in the first
sentence of the essay. This definition of history as <a com-
pound of poetry and philosophy' determines the division
of historical writings into historical novels and critical and
argumentative histories. Each of these two classes is then
given thorough treatment. So, too, the definition of the
term ' Education ' in the proposition given at the beginning
of the present discussion (p. 75) suggests the divisions of
the subject there given as the outline-plan to be followed.

The student will find it profitable to attempt an adequate definition of one or more
of the terms mentioned above.

(4) Exposition by Similarity and Contrast.

An idea may be made clear by comparing it with similar
ideas. An animal may be described to one who has never
seen it by comparing it and contrasting it with a similar
animal which he has seen. It is by noticing likenesses and
differences that new knowledge is acquired. Many of the
most important ideas in religion are conveyed by this
method of exposition. Whenever particular examples are
given to show what is meant by an abstract theme, and
whenever comparisons are drawn, it is on the principle of
exposition by similarity. We gain an idea of the virtue,
heroism, by particular examples of heroism, and the effect
is made still stronger by examples of cowardice.

Themes to be outlined in this subject may be found in Appendix C 1. Outlines in
comparison and contrast will be found in Appendix A 12.

82 Paragraph - Writing.

3. Popular Exposition.

Strictly scientific exposition is possible only for a master
of thought. Modified and simplified forms of scientific
exposition may, however, be attempted with success by
writers of more limited powers. Indeed, most of the essays
written by students are forms of exposition of a less rigidly
scientific kind. We shall examine briefly three of the most
common types of popular exposition.

(1) 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 develop-
ment already mentioned, definition, contrast, explanation,
illustration, particular instances, proofs, and enforcement.
In the structure of such essays a careful plan and outline,
following some one of the methods mentioned under Scien-
tific Exposition, is essential. Most of the essays that appear
in such reviews as the North American, the Forum, Popular
Science Monthly, the Contemporary, and the Fortnightly be-
long to this class. The essays of Macaulay, De Quincey,
and Bagehot, for the most part, belong here. Selecting 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 composition are of the greatest importance in writing
essays of this kind.

The following directions may be of service to the student : —

(1) Select a subject in which you are likely to be interested and on
which you can gain information.

(2) State this subject in the form of a proposition.

(3) Surround the subject with questions. Think about these ques-
tions and seek the answers, when you need help, from books and by
conversations with well-informed persons.

The Related Paragraph. 88

(4) Do not confine your investigations to one book ; read all within
reach that treat of the subject ; learn to use the indexes of books.

(5) Take but few notes while reading, and let those be brief and in
your own words. Keep a list of authorities consulted.

(6) Determine upon such a plan of treatment as your view of the
subject demands. If further thought and reading modify your views,
revise your plan accordingly.

(7) Make an outline before writing. (See Analysis by Division.)

(8) Omit formal introduction and conclusion unless they are clearly
necessary.

Subjects for didactic essays may be selected from Appendix G. Specimen outlines
are given in Appendix A 12. Subjects for outlining are given in Appendix C 1.

(2) 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 whimsical view is not
infrequently presented. To write good essays of this type
requires considerable original talent, or long training, or the
combination of the two; for, in spite of their seeming
irregularity, 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.

Subjects for conversational essays will be found in Appendix G 3, at the close of
the list.

(3) The Critical 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

84 Paragraph - Writing.

of the class to which it belongs, pointing out both excel-
lences 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 individu-
ality of judgment and opinion. The works of Ruskin give
the best-known (if not the best) art criticism; while in
literary criticism the names of Arnold, Dowden, Stephen,
Lowell, Stedman, and Pater are most familiar.

A simple form of the critical essay, and one of the most
useful to the student of literature, is the review of some
book which he has read. The following general plan sug-
gests some of the matters of which such an essay may treat.
In a single essay, it is not likely that all the points enumer-
ated in the plan below would need to be mentioned ; only
those points would require mention of which the work
furnishes striking and peculiar illustrations. The need of
condensing the description of the plot and of the characters
must be kept in mind : a due regard to the law of propor-
tion requires this. The order of the points in the following
plan is probably not the best arrangement for the criticism
of some works. Each work will require its own method
of treatment ; the following plan is intended to be merely
suggestive of points for discussion in essays of this kind: —

(a) Historical:

(1) Sources of the work.

(2) Cause, Occasion, Purpose — Dim or apparent?

(3) Circumstances under which the work was produced

(4) Eelation of the work to its author.

(5) Eelation to the time in which it was written.

(6) Effect of the work upon the public.
(6) Descriptive:

(1) Brief sketch of the subject-matter — Plot.

(2) Characters — Their qualities as persons, relative importance, relation to one

another, contrasting- characters, what each is intended to bring out.

(3) Art in presenting scenes and characters — Illustrate.

(4) Literary Qualities — Each to be illustrated by quotations or explanation.

The Related Paragraph. 85

(a) External Form :

(1) Words— Peculiar forms, meanings, use. Their euphony. In general, sim-

ple or generic ?

(2) Phrases — Idiomatic or foreign ? If foreign, justify or criticise use.

(3) Sentences — Simple or involved? Smooth or rough? Compact or loose?

Criticise order of sentence elements, if unusual.

(4) Figures — Numerous ? Kinds ? Useful or ornamental ?

(5) Paragraphs — Attention paid to structure and connection ?

(6) Qualities of Style — Simplicity, clearness, strength, pathos, melody, harmony,

taste.

(6) Internal Structure — Description, Narration, Exposition, or Argument? Are
the laws of unity, selection, proportion, sequence, variety, observed ?
Quote in illustration.

(5) Qualities of mind displayed — Emotional, intellectual, moral, or spiritual?
(c) Critical:

(1) Is the evident object of the work attained ?

(2) Comparison of this with other works of the same author. Their rank.

(3) Rank among works of the same kind written by others.

(4) Its value and its lesson.

(5) Judge the work.by the best of its kind, by the laws of its process and by literary

laws in general.

4. The Paraphrase and the Abstract.

The paraphrase and the abstract are most naturally
classified as forms of exposition. Although they merely
reproduce an author's thought and add no new idea to the
original, they nevertheless require the exercise of the stu-
dent's powers of analyzing, dividing, defining, grouping, and
explaining, in the same way in which scientific exposition
requires the exercise of those powers.

The paraphrase is a reproduction in which the same
thought is expressed in equivalent words. Its object is
to make the thought of any selection clearer and better
adapted to a given class of hearers or readers, than it was
in its original form. Practice in paraphrasing selections of
prose and poetry, whose thought is already clear, will give
facility of expression and variety of phraseology ; but the
chief value of paraphrasing appears when it is applied to
selections whose thought is more or less obscure and diffi-
cult of apprehension, — thought which needs explanation
by re-statement in simpler terms.

86 Paragraph - Writing.

The following rules are to be observed in paraphrasing :

1. Do not change the thought of the original. Change the form
only. Follow the thought closely. Reproduce the meaning of the
figures, in plain language.

2. Make all changes in the interest of clearness. The mere sub-
stitution of definitions for difficult words is not sufficient : it some-
times leads to ludicrous effects. The whole thought must be re-stated.

3. Try to maintain the dignity and spirit of the original. Do not
weaken the thought. If the original is poetry, guard against inad-
vertent rhymes in the paraphrase.

4. Study the use of synonyms. Sometimes changes in the whole
sentence are necessitated by the use of one phrase for another. In
some places, it may be needful to leave the original unchanged.

The abstract is a condensed statement of another's thought.
It presents the main ideas and follows closely the structu-
ral plan of the original, but omits unimportant or illustra-
tive details. The* abstract is an outline in which the
headings are stated in complete sentences and presented in
a connected discourse. The main problem in abstracting
is the problem of determining what are the main thoughts
and of selecting these for presentation.

The most important rules of the abstract are as follows : —

1. Give nothing in the abstract that is not in the original.

2. Discover, by a careful reading of the original, the author's plan
or outline and follow this closely in the abstract.

3. Give only the main ideas, omitting or condensing all illustra-
tions, repetitions, and explanations, making the author's plan of treat-
ment and his conclusions stand out plainly.

4. Observe the law of proportion. Condense all parts of the
original on the same scale. There is a danger of reproducing too
many details in the early part and of condensing too much in the lat-
ter part.

5. The author's language may be used a little more freely than in
the paraphrase ; yet the author's language should be avoided when his
thought can be precisely expressed in other words.

6. Make complete and connected sentences and aim at clearness,
accuracy, force, and plainness of statement.

Titles of works and parts of works suitable for use in paraphrasing and abstracting
are given in Appendix C 3.

The Related Paragraph. 87

(d) THE ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY.

The argumentative essay devotes itself to proving the
truth or falsity of a proposition. "An argument," says
Bain, " is a fact, principle, or 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 as evi-
dence of the principle that ignorance breeds crime. It is
evident that to be of value as an argument the statement
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 sta-
tistics 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.

1. 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 pursued and will very frequently furnish
a good approach to the main discussion. (See The Exposi-
tory Essay [p. 75], introductory paragraph and illustra-
tion.)

A complex proposition may be proved by dividing it into
its constituent propositions and proving each of these.
The proposition " Judges should be elected by popular
vote " would require such a division, since the considera-
tions 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.

88 Paragraph - Writing.

Thus the division might be

Judges <

of U. S. courts
of State courts
of County courts
of Police courts
etc.

> should be elected by popular vote.

2. Classification and Kinds of Arguments.

Proofs applied immediately to the establishment of the
proposition 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. In the outline from Burke (see Appendix A 12)
the second group of proofs are indirect. Whether direct or
indirect, proofs are of three kinds : a priori, signs, and
examples.

(1) In a priori proofs (sometimes called proofs from
antecedent probability) the reasoning is from cause to
effect, or from a general 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 general 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 accusation, is a priori proof
that his accusation is false.

The validity of an a priori proof depends upon the cer-
tainty that the cause assigned is adequate and operative.
If it can be shown that the cause assigned is inadequate or
inoperative, or hindered from producing its natural result,
the argument is impaired to that extent.

(2) Signs are proofs from an effect to a condition so
connected with the effect that the existence of the effect
implies the existence of the condition.

The Related Paragraph. 89

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 circumstances 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
of 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
arguments for the truth of a proposition.

(3) 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 wit-
ness 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 acknowledged to be competent to speak
on the subject, and whose works, if quoted, are accessible.
Concurrence of authorities or of witnesses as to the truth
of any matter gives special force to this kind of argument.

(4) Examples of the truth of a proposition are a form
of proof which gains its power on the principle that what

90 Paragraph - Writing.

has once happened under certain conditions may be expected
to happen again under like conditions. The use of ex-
amples as proof and illustration has been given (see The
Isolated Paragraph, p. 28) . 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 (see also The
Isolated Paragraph, p. 50). 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 proposi-
tion 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
conditions are more favorable. This is known as the argu-
ment a fortiori.

(5) In regard to refutation, the following suggestions
may be useful : —

(a) Often there are valid objections to a proposed
plan. These should be candidly admitted, but explained
either as necessarily incident to any plan, or as less likely
to be operative under the plan proposed than under any
other.

(6) An objection should be fairly stated before its re-
futation is undertaken. Understatement of an objection
indicates inability to answer it fairly.

The Related Paragraph. 91

much labor expended on a weak objection may secure
greater attention to the objection than it deserves.

(d) The force of a proof by example will be destroyed
if it is shown that the cause which operated to produce
the result in the example cited, is different from the cause
assigned.

(e) An argument is refuted if it is shown that it does
not follow from the facts on which it is based.

(/) In some cases a proposition is shown to be untrue
by reducing it to an alternative, and disproving each of the
two possible cases. Thus the proposition that "Convict
labor deprives free laborers of work " is answered : —

These convicts, before they were imprisoned, were either workers or idlers. If idlers,
they had to be supported at the expense of free labor, and to make them work while in
prison relieves free labor of the burden of their continued support. If they were
workers before their imprisonment, they competed with other free laborers, and to
make them work while in prison does not, therefore, alter former conditions in this
respect ; whereas enforcing idleness upon them would throw the additional burden of
their support upon free labor.

(g) One presumption may be overthrown by another.
The presumption is in favor of established institutions and
against a change, but it is also in favor of what is right,
charitable, and likely to promote welfare. As these pre-
sumptions are sometimes in conflict, one may be used to
overthrow another.'

3. The Order of Arguments.

In general, the best order of arguments will be that indi-
cated in the preceding section, namely: first, a priori;
secondly, signs, testimony, and authority ; and thirdly, ex-
amples. Objections may be answered at one point in the
essay (either at the beginning or at the close), or they may
be answered separately at those points in the discussion
where they would naturally arise. The latter plan is usually
the better. It is well to begin with one of the strongest

92 Paragraph - Writing.

arguments, or with overthrowing the strongest objection,
the order, after that, being in general the order of climax,
indicated above, closing with the strongest argument. The
introduction will usually consist of nothing more than a
plain statement of the proposition, with an explanation of
the writer's interpretation of the terms of the proposition,
or some other obviously preparatory matter. If an appeal
to the feelings is to be made the place for it is the conclu-
sion, when, if at all, the reader is presumably aroused to
a sufficient degree to receive it.

Specimen outlines in Argumentation may be found in Appendix A 12. Subjects for
outlining are provided in Appendix C 1. Subjects for longer essays may be selected from
Appendix G.

PART II.

THEORY OF THE PARAGRAPH.

Obviously the first question to be asked in dealing with
the theory of the paragraph is, Why do we paragraph at
all ? Why should not the essay be written (as the beginner
commonly does write it) in an unbroken succession of sen-
tences ? Why divide it into sentence-groups ?

One answer to these questions is, that a page of printed
or written matter looks more attractive when paragraphed
than when not thus diversified. The indented lines serve
as landmarks for the reader's eye, enabling him to find his
place again if he should happen to turn aside for a moment.

This reason, as far as it goes, is an excellent one and
should never be left out of consideration. Indeed, it is not
improbable that many writers have no other. But whether
as a practical rule of composition or as an explanation of
the phenomena of paragraphing, it is manifestly inadequate.
As the first, it leaves the place and limits of the paragraph
to the caprice of the writer; as the second, it makes the
relation of the paragraph to the essay merely accidental.
In either case the essay is treated as a homogeneous mass
of words which may be divided as properly in one place as
in another. We need, therefore, to look a little farther for
the answer to the question, Why paragraph at all ?

The proper method of inquiry, since the paragraph is
assumed to be a constituent element of the essay, will be
to determine first what is the essential principle of essay
structure, then to consider how, from this essential prin-

94 Paragraph - Writing.

ciple, the paragraph, or a structural feature corresponding
to it, may be logically derived.

The essay, with its beginning, its development, and its
conclusion, owes its existence to the peculiar way in which
writers do their thinking. If the flow of thought were a
uniform, unruffled stream, ever moving steadily in one direc-
tion, its expression in discourse would doubtless partake of
this uninterrupted character. Discourse would be a smooth
succession of verbal signs, each gliding into the next with-
out pause or jar. In such case a writer, once started,
might not find any point which, more than another, marked
a resting-place in the flow of words. An illustration of this
manner of expression is seen in the case of persons under
the influence of mesmerism. A subject who has been told
to talk, talks uninterruptedly until he is told to stop. Then
he breaks off abruptly. The monotonous patter of words
shows slight tendency to fall into the essay form. Examples
of minds naturally thus constituted are common in fiction.
Thus Justice Shallow : —

Jesu, Jesu, dead ! a' drew a good bow ; and dead ! a' shot a fine
shoot ; John o' Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his
head. Dead ! a' would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score ; and
carried you a forehand shaft at fourteen and fourteen and a half, that
it would have done a man's heart good to see. How a score of ewes
now?

But the better kind of thinking is not at all of this type.
When our thoughts have a character that makes them worth
expressing, when we are thinking to some purpose, the
thought-process consists of a series of leaps and pauses.
The stream shoots toward some point of interest, eddies
about it a moment, then hurries on to another. "In all
our voluntary thinking," says Professor James (Psychology,
I. 259), "there is some topic or subject about which all the
members of the thought revolve. Half the time this topic
is a problem, a gap we cannot yet fill with a definite picture,

Theory of the Paragraph. 95

word, or phrase, but which influences us in an intensely
active and determinate psychic way. Whatever may be
the images and phrases that pass before us, we feel their
relation to this aching gap. To fill it up is our thought's
destiny." Toward this objective point the thought presses
with an imperiousness that is no inadequate test of the value
of the process. The feeble mind feels only in a vague way
the propulsion toward the central idea; the genius often
flies toward the goal as unerringly as the armature leaps to
the magnet.

This fact, that our best thinking tends to move toward
some conclusion felt, more or less determinately, to be
possible of attainment, lies at the basis of all essay struct-
ure. The writer may write the essay as he works his way
toward that end, or he may first reach the end by a process
purely mental, and then take up his pen to make the verbal
record. In either case in the work of composition he
traverses the same ground (though not always necessarily
in the same order) that he traversed in his thought. The
essay, therefore, is not a fortuitous concourse of ideas. It
is a careful record of the mind's activity when exercised in
a single direction. This fact it is which gives the essay
that striking characteristic known as organic unity. By
this is meant that every part of the structure derives its
significance from its relation to the whole. Each sentence,
each word is what it is and is where it is because it has a
certain function to perform in the service of the whole
organism. It contributes its share to the fulfilling of 4f the
thought's destiny." When the end is reached it is seen that
each preceding element in its appropriate place and in its
due relation was essential to the attainment of the end.
The production, therefore, taken as a whole, is a symmetri-
cally developed organism.

If the essay has this organic character, it follows that
the paragraph, as a constituent element of the essay, can be

96 Paragraph - Writing.

neither arbitrary nor accidental. It must be a part of the
essay finding a reason for existence in the peculiar func-
tion which it performs. It must play a definite part in
the structure of the whole organism. Whatever peculi-
arities of function or structure a paragraph possesses must
be explainable by its relation to the function and struct-
ure of the whole composition. Let us see what this rela-
tion is.

The essay is the result of a sustained movement of the
writer's thought toward a definite goal, but within this
large development several intermediate steps are discover-
able. The thought, on its way to the main conclusion,
passes through many stages of transition, attains many
minor conclusions, pauses for many retrospective glances.

The portions of the essay marked off by these resting-
places partake of the organic character of the essay, except
that each portion exists not for itself alone, but for each
other portion and for the whole. Further, each of these
subdivisions has an organic character, and therefore pos-
sesses unity, completeness, and sequence. Like the essay,
it has a theme of its own — some partial aspect of the
essay-theme — which it treats as exhaustively as the main
theme is treated in the essay. It is these minor subdivi-
sions, these articulations of the thought found in every
well constructed essay, which form the basis for the para-
graphic division.

The natural articulations form the basis of the para-
graphic subdivision, but do not necessarily correspond ex-
actly to the paragraphing. The mechanical paragraphing
does not always represent every joint in the structure of
the essay. The joints are of greater and lesser importance,
and hence it is frequently left to the option of the writer
to determine whether he shall mark the articulation (1) at
every joint, (2) at the larger joints, or (3) for the sake
of variety follow now one plan, now the other. These vari-

Theory of the Paragraph.

eties of construction may be represented diagrammatically
thus : —

a : b : c

a : b :

c : d

a : b :

_ B

A, B, and C here represent the more important stadia of
the developing thought ; the small letters, the partial con-
clusions. The vincula above show the three methods of
paragraphing. Many variations of the third method might
of course be adopted, according to the kind of discourse
and the varying degrees of subordination of the minor
articulations.

These three varieties of paragraph-arrangement are made
to appear in the following quotation and adaptations of
an extract from Professor Whitney's Essentials of English
Grammar, pp. 37 4. Professor Whitney, in the original,
makes a paragraph of each minor division of the thought.
This arrangement is shown in the first extract. In the sec-
ond arrangement the indentations are made to occur so as
to indicate the large divisions only. In the third, a consid-
erable variety is introduced.

: b : c :

d e

a : b

a b

A B C

A a. When we say simply "English," we mean the language of
our time, such as we ourselves understand and use.

6. But there are considerable differences in the language even of
English speakers at the present day.

c. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in the way in
which its speakers use their English.

98 Paragraph - Writing.

d. There are, for example, the peculiarities of the English of Ire-
land, noticed by us in the Irish emigrant ; those of the English of
Scotland, seen in the poetry of Burns, the stories of Scott, and other
such places ; and those of the negro English of the Southern United
States. And, in general, an Englishman can tell an American, and
an American can tell an Englishman, by the way he talks.

e. When these peculiarities amount to so much that they begin to
interfere a little with our understanding the persons who have them,
we say that such persons speak a dialect of English, rather than
English itself.

B a. Then there is also the difference between what we call " good
English" and "bad English."

6. By good English we mean those words, and those meanings of
them, and those ways of putting them together, which are used by the
best speakers, the people of best education ; everything which such
people do not use, or use in another way, is bad English. Thus bad
English is simply that which is not approved and accepted by good
and careful speakers ;

C a. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call
it, has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around
him as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming
bad and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those who
have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits. There
are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak,
acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards.

b. It is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad
habits, that the good and approved usages of a language are collected

grammar.

II.

a :

b :

d : e

a : b

A. When we say simply " English," we mean the language of our
time, such as we ourselves understand and use. But there are con-
siderable differences in the language even of English speakers at the
present day. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in the
way in which its speakers use their English. There are, for example,
the peculiarities of the English of Ireland, noticed by us in the Irish

Theory of the Paragraph. 99

emigrant ; those of the English of Scotland, seen in the poetry of
Burns, the stories of Scott, and other such places ; and those of the
negro English of the Southern United States. And, in general, an
Englishman can tell an American, and an American can tell an
Englishman, by the way he talks. When these peculiarities amount
to so much that they begin to interfere a little with our understand-
ing the persons who have them, we say that such persons speak a
dialect of English, rather than English itself.

B. Then there is also the difference between what we call "good
English1' and "bad English." By good English we mean those
words, and those meanings of them, and those ways of putting them
together, which are used by the best speakers, the people of best
education ; everything which such people do not use, or use in an-
other way, is bad English. Thus bad English is simply that which is
not approved and accepted by good and careful speakers.

C. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call it,
has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around him
as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming bad
and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those who
have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits. There
are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak,
acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards. It
is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad habits, that
the good and approved usages of a language are collected and set
forth in a book which is called a " grammar."

III.

b : c

A B C

A a-c. When we say simply " English," we mean the language of
our time, such as we ourselves understand and use. But there are
considerable differences in the language even of English speakers at
the present day. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in
the way in which its speakers use their English.

d-e. There are, for example, the peculiarities of the English of
Ireland, noticed by us in the Irish emigrant ; those of the English of
Scotland, seen in the poetry of Burns, the stories of Scott, and other
such places ; and those of the negro English of the Southern United

100 Paragmp h - Writing.

States. And, in general, an Englishman can tell an American, and an
American can tell an Englishman, by the way he talks. When these
peculiarities amount to so much that they begin to interfere a little
with our understanding the persons who have them, we say that such
persons speak a dialect of English, rather than English itself.

B a-b. Then there is also the difference between what we call
"good English" and "bad English." By good English we mean
those words, and those meanings of them, and those ways of putting
them together, which are used by the best speakers, the people of
best education ; everything which such people do not use, or use in
another way, is bad English. Thus bad English is simply that which
is not approved and accepted by good and careful speakers.

C a. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call
it, has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around
him as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming
bad and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those
who have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits.
There are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak,
acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards.

b. It is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad
habits, that the good and approved usages of a language are collected
and set forth in a book which is called a " grammar."

Each of the arrangements given above is correct, and
each may be called for by the nature of the work in which
it occurs, or by the character of the readers to whom the
writer is addressing himself. The paragraph-arrangement
is faulty, however, if a paragraph is made in the middle of
a stadium or a main articulation is brought into the middle
of a paragraph, thus : —

a : b : c

a b

: c

d e

a : b :

The writer " may, if he likes," says Eenton (Logic of
Style, p. 138), "turn a waggon-load of small paragraphs into
one, with a view of keeping the resources of the paragraph
for the grouping of the larger masses of his thought. But

Theory of the Paragraph. 101

in that case he ought to be the very last person who should
wish to distribute one section into two. It is very ungen-
teel to straddle back against a door-post, one leg in the
room, and the other in the lobby. Indefeasibly his section
is one and continuous, notwithstanding the mechanical divi-
sion. And when a French novelist writes : —

4 Jacques could not collect his thoughts.

« Why ?

'He was mad,'

in three parallel lines, we pass it by without remark, because
it is too furious an exaggeration to be harmful, or to escape
anybody's notice. On the other hand, when a section opens,
for example, with a ' therefore/ we take the first conception
to be a resultant of the preceding section as a whole, and not
of its last proposition."

The principle that determines the relation of the para-
graph to the essay, determines also the internal structure
of the paragraph. The paragraph taken by itself is, in-
deed, an essay in petto, the one difference being that the
essay is complete in itself, whereas the paragraph (except
in the case of the unrelated newspaper paragraph which we
are here purposely leaving out of the account) can be truly
understood only in its relation to the remainder of the
essay.1 It has, therefore, its own subject, its own introduc-
tion, development, and conclusion, with such linking appara-
tus as is necessary to show its connection with what goes
before and what comes after.

Precisely what the character of the paragraph-structure
shall be in any given instance is determined by the part
such paragraph has to play in the building-up of the whole
essay. Some paragraphs will seem to be little more than

1 When we consider, however, that in order truly to understand an essay, we must
know what preceded and followed it, what part it played in the literary experiences of
the writer, even this distinction loses some of its force.

102 Paragrap h - Writing.

enumerations of particulars, others will apparently have the
office only of making a graceful transition from one aspect
of the theme to another. In the typical paragraph, how-
ever, we may distinguish one main function, which remains
one, whatever forms it may at various times take on. It is
the business of the paragraph, as a section of the essay, to
develop a specific subject by bringing particular facts into
their due relation to the theme of the whole essay. This
may be done in two ways : either by exhibiting the particu-
lars as illustrations of some aspect of the main theme, or
by finding this aspect of the main theme exhibited in the
particulars. The first is called the deductive method of
progression ; the second, t'he inductive method. It must be
repeated, however, that the two are but faces of the same
process, and come practically to the same result. That is,
whichever method v is employed, the double result is to ex-
hibit the facts in the light of the theme, and the theme in
the light of the facts. Examine, for instance, the following
paragraph from Merivale (Conversion of the Roman Empire,
p. 121):-

"And here we must leave them for the present. Another and a
wilder scene will shortly be presented to us — a scene of desolation
and dismay and frenzy ; of prayer hoarsening into imprecation ; of the
cutting away of boats, of breaking in twain of oars, of rushing madly
to the spirit-room. They will lash themselves into fury ; they will
quarrel, fight, and threaten to slay ; they will prepare to go together
to the bottom, with fire in their brain and defiance on their lips."

This is undoubtedly the deductive progression. The sub-
ject of the chapter is " The Heathen Awakened to a Sense
of his Spiritual Danger." The special aspect of that theme
treated in this paragraph is "Results of the Awakening."
This subject is shown as applied in certain particulars.
That is, the particulars, the imprecations, quarreling, fight-
ing, and the rest, derive their significance from the dismay
and frenzy announced at the outset. But it is quite as true

Theory of the Paragraph.

103

that the dismay and frenzy have gained new significance by
the enumeration of the particulars.

Again, examine the following passage by Miss Paget
(Belcaro, p. 59) : —

"Most people can recognize a horse or a lion, while they cannot
be expected to recognize a person they have never seen, especially a
purely imaginary one ; the case is evidently one of degree ; if we had
never seen a cow, and did not know that cows are milked, we should
no more understand the meaning of a representation of cow- milking
than we should understand the meaning of a picture of Achilles in
Scyros if we knew nothing about Achilles. The comprehension of
the subject of a work of art would therefore seem to require certain
previous information ; the work of art would seem to be unable to
tell its story itself, unless we have the key to that story."

In this case the subject of the essay is " The Bas-relief of
Orpheus and Eurydice." The specific subject of the pas-
sage is "The Necessity of an Interpreter for Works of
Art," a conclusion which is drawn from the facts cited.
But here again it is evident that the conclusion, once
reached, gives new significance to the facts. The cow-
milking and the picture of Achilles get a new and special
meaning from their bearing on the interpretation of art.

The two modes of progression and their relation may be
represented thus : —

b b

104 Paragraph - Writing.

In each figure the small circle a represents the specific
theme of the paragraph ; the large circle bb, the particulars
through which it is developed. The direction of the arrows
shows in the first that the particulars are being brought to
bear on the theme ; in the second, that the theme is expand-
ing into the particulars. In each case the content of the
figure is the same.

It follows that one method of progression is as "right"
as the other. But each has its special uses. " Some writers
insist/' says Lewes (Principles of JSuccess in Literature),
" and others practice the precept without insistence, that
the proposition should be stated first, and all its qualifica-
tions as well as its evidences be made to follow : others
maintain that the proposition should be made to grow up
step by step with all its evidences and qualifications in
their due order, ancl the conclusion disclose itself as crown-
ing the whole. Are not both methods right under different
circumstances ? If my object is to convince you of a gen-
eral truth, or to impress you with a feeling, which you are
not already prepared to accept, it is obvious that the most
effective method is the inductive, which leads your mind
upon a culminating wave of evidence or emotion to the very
point I aim at. But the deductive method is best when I
wish to direct the light of familiar truths and roused emo-
tions upon new particulars, or upon details in unsuspected
relation to those truths ; and when I wish the attention to
be absorbed by these particulars which are of interest in
themselves, not upon the general truths which are of no
present interest except in as far as they light up these
details. A growing thought requires the inductive exposi-
tion, an applied thought the deductive."

If, in accordance with these general principles, we con-
struct outlines for the two types of paragraph, we shall
find them to take some such form as the following : —

Theory of the Paragraph.

105

Deductive.

Inductive.

Connection with pre-
ceding paragraph.

i
1

Statement of para-
graph-subject.

Application of spe-
cific theme.

$»

1
I

Theme restated in
the light of the
particulars.

0
0

Connection with pre-
ceding paragraph.

£
2

[Statement of para-
graph-subject.]

and retrospecth

Statement of partic-
ulars.

: : : : :

Subject stated as
conclusion from
particulars.

As pointed out in a preceding portion of this book, the
statement of the subject may sometimes be taken out of its
natural order : it may come at the beginning of an induc-
tive progression or at the end of a deductive progression.
In either case, an examination of the essay as a whole
will discover good reasons for the inversion. The unusual
position will be found to be demanded by the natural
sequence of the thought.

The various devices for securing continuity of structure
have already been discussed in Part I. All that needs to
be said here is that the apparatus of connectives, inversions,
parallel constructions, explicit references and the rest, is
but the sign of the paragraph's organic unity, the natural
outgrowth and expression of the relating activity of the
mind. These features of the paragraph are the sign-posts
which the thought, hurrying on to its appointed end, leaves
behind to mark the way whence it came and whither it is
going.

106 Paragraph - Writing.

It may be well to point out, for those who care to study the subject further, some
of the more important sources of information. By the earlier writers the paragraph
was consistently ignored. Campbell treats, in passing1, of the "manner of using- con-
nectives in combining sentences " (Philosophy of Rhetoric, III. 5, § 2). Not a word
on the subject is to be found in the treatises of Kames, Blair, "Whately, Theremin,
Graham, Kerl, Day, Haven, Bardeen, and many others that might be named. Hart,
Quackenbos, and Boyd dismiss it with a few lines. According to Minto, Professor Bain
was the first to lay down rules for the construction of paragraphs. His treatment will
be found in his Composition and Rhetoric, Pt. I. chap. 5. Minto's own discussion of
the subject in the Introduction to his Manual of English Prose is brief and frag-
mentary, but his detailed analysis of Macaulay's paragraph-structure (pp. 89-9T) makes
good the omissions. Later writers who have given the subject attention are A. S. Hill
(Foundations of Rhetoric, pp. 305-325; Principles of Rhetoric, pp. 157-161), D. J.
Hill (Elements of Rhetoric, pp. 71-77 ; Science of Rhetoric, pp. 198-202), J. S. Clark
(Practical Rhetoric, pp. 28-32), T. W. Hunt (Principles of Written Discourse, pp.
82-84), G. B. Carpenter (Exercises in Rhetoric, chap, xii.), Barrett Wendell (Eng-
lish Composition, pp. 114-149), J. G. E. McElroy (Structure of English Prose, pp.
196-222). A brief account of the isolated paragraph will be found in De Mille (Ele-
ments of Rhetoric, pp. 264, 468-469). For an exhaustive analysis, the best that has
yet appeared, see Genung's Practical Elements of Rhetoric, pp. 193-213.

An elaborate study of the history of the English paragraph has recently been pub-
lished as a doctoral thesis bv Mr. Edwin H. Lewis. By a minute examination of the
paragraph-structure of seventy-three representative prosaists, the author reaches a
number of interesting conclusions, of which the following are the most important :

(I) The rise of the paragraph is largely owing to its economy as compared with the long
periodic sentence. (2) From the start there has been a distinct unit of invention larger
than the modern sentence. Writers " have thought roughly in long stages before they
have analyzed such stages into smaller steps." (3) The favorite type of paragraph has
been the loose type (subject stated first). (4) In the history of English prose, no writer
before Tyndale has any sense of paragraph-structure. (5) There has been no pro-
nounced increase or decrease in the average total number of words per paragraph.
(6) In a list of 52 authors the average word-length of the paragraph falls between 100
and 300 words, 25 showing an average between 200 and 300 words, and 27 an average
between 100 and 200 words. (7) The modern paragraph, first exemplified in Temple, is
the product of five influences : (a) the mediaeval tradition that a paragraph distinguishes
a stadium of thought, (b) the Latin tradition that a paragraph is for emphasis, (c) the
Anglo-Saxon structure, (d) the oral style, (e) French prose. (8) There has been during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a tendency to make the topic-sentence short.
(9) The paragraph of the nineteenth century is, in general, better organized than that
of the eighteenth. (10) Single-sentence paragraphs are not uncommon in the best prose.

(II) Coherence secured by connectives was in most active force in the early period. It
declined until the opening of the present century, rose with Coleridge, then declined
again. To-day there are two tendencies : (a) in popular prose, to drop sentence-con-
nectives ; (b) in classical prose to use them freely but vitally.

UNIVERSITY
CALIFQS-

PART III.
APPENDICES

APPENDIX A.

Criticise the following paragraphs, pointing out violations
of the laws of unity, selection, proportion, and sequence.
Eewrite, varying the form of expression without changing
the idea. (See Introductory (c).)

If a boy who comes to town can begin by paying his way in the
most economical manner, he will do remarkably well. The chances
are against his doing as much as that, so great is the demand for
places. Some men even pay to have their sons taken into great mer-
cantile establishments, though the general experience of merchants
is that the boys who come from poorer homes and have been brought
up to hard work are more likely to push ahead. Natives and for-
eigners who have learned frugality and have known hardship from
their boyhood, are getting ahead of those brought up more tenderly.

1 Yet, as I said before, a country boy who must earn his own supj ort
from the very beginning should not risk his fortune in a great city
until he has found an actual opening there. It is better for him to
compel fortune where he is ; to improve the chance nearest to his
hand ; l this country is increasing so rapidly in population and in
the variety of its industries and their demands that throughout
its extent new opportunites for a career are constantly arising.

2 Probably the United States will contain at least 200,000,000 of
people by the time boys who read this paper have reached middle
life, and are in the prime of their manly power. New cities will
grow up by the hundred and new outlets for energy and enterprise

1 Unity. 2 Sequence.

107

108 Paragraph - Writing.

will rise.1 The twentieth century is at hand and it will bring abun-
dance of work and plentiful opportunities for every boy of to-day who
lives to enjoy its light and participate in its progress. The chances of
fortune in the future will be as great as they have been in the past,
and the facilities which a young man can obtain will be more numer-
ous. 2 With very few exceptions — you could count them on the
fingers of one hand — the great fortunes of the Union have been accu-
mulated within the last fifty years. All the greatest of them have
been made within that period, and they have been made by country
boys. 3 But there is something more, better, and higher than a for-
tune to make. It is character ; and there is acquirement more valu-
able than the acquirement of money, and it is the knowledge which
enables a man to get the most out of life and to make himself of the
most use, whatever his circumstances, whether he lives among the
crowd of a great city or in the solitude of a country farm.

When in his seat in the Senate, listening to proceedings, his feet
were usually employed in holding down the desk, and his hands,
whittling a pine stick, a supply of which he engaged the sergeant-at-
arms to furnish him. 4 He was a regular attendant at church, and
during service he " improved the occasion" in whittling out little
articles to give children, among whom he had many friends. Some
of these pine souvenirs of Sam Houston are to this day treasured by
men and women to whom he gave them as children.

Mr. Carnegie gives it as his opinion that out of every $1000 spent
in charity, $950 does more harm than good, and it has come to be an
axiom of the charity organizations that * ' two-thirds of the efforts of
the wise are needed to correct the mischievous effects of the acts of
the benevolent." 5 These principles are growing in society and are
at the bottom of much of the hostile criticism which is bestowed on
General Booth's scheme for lighting "Darkest England." The large
amount of money he demands and the magnitude of the organization
he contemplates, lead many to overlook the fact that the real basis of
his scheme is work and to compel to work all whom he aids. The
work test, the mendicant farms, and the colonies, all mean that those
helped are to help themselves.

We have never changed our language, but our language itself has
changed greatly. This is a most important distinction. Some nations
have really changed their language. The people of Gaul changed their

1 Unity. 2 Sequence.

8 Unity. Kewrite in two distinct paragraphs.
4 Sequence. Subordinate idea made principal.
s What principles ? Improve the reference.

Appendix A 1. 109

language when they left off speaking their natural tongues, Celtic or
Iberian, and took to speaking Latin instead. Since then they have
never changed their tongue ; but their tongue itself has greatly
changed. That is, there was no time when they left off speaking
Latin and took to speaking some other tongue. But the Latin which
they spoke gradually changed in so many ways that it practically
became another tongue ; it ceased to be Latin and became French and
Proven9al. So the people of Cornwall changed their language when
they left off speaking Welsh, and took to speaking English instead.
The Normans, too, changed their language when they left off speaking
Danish and took to speaking French instead. And it might not have
seemed very wonderful if we too had changed our language in the like
sort, if we had left off speaking English and had taken to speaking
French. For the French tongue was brought into England, as the
Latin tongue was brought into Gaul, as the tongue of a conquering
people. But the different circumstances of the two conquests hindered
the results from being the same in the two cases. Gaul was a province
of Rome, and was gradually absorbed into the life of Rome. England
never became a province of Normandy; a Norman prince became
King of the English, and brought many Norman followers with him :
and that was all. French was for a while spoken in England along-
side of English. But the English people never left off speaking Eng-
lish, and took to speaking French.1 It was the English language itself
that was greatly changed through the presence of many French-
speaking people in the land.2

There is some impatience with the epoch of Queen Anne. We do
not mean the Augustan age, as it used to be called — in which, how-
ever, it would not be easy to point out the Virgil or the Horace — but
the era of the Queen Anne house, the epoch of decorative art in build-
ing and in furnishing. 3 But, on the other hand, the epoch of Queen
Anne is a delightful insurrection against the monotonous era of rec-
tangular building and of the divorce of beauty and use. 4 The distinc-
tion of the present or recent dispensation is that the two are blended,
that neither the house nor anything in it need be clumsy or ugly.
There is no longer an excuse for an unsightly table or chair or utensil
or the least object of household convenience. There need be no more

1 Any needless repetitions ?

2 Condense the paragraph.

3 Is " but, on the other hand " the proper connecting-phrase to use here ? Point
out the two ideas in adversative relation.

4 Is the reference clear?

110 Paragraph - Writing.

waste spaces in the house. The old entry, which had degenerated
from a hall into a mere lobby or vacant passage, is now taken into the
general "treatment" of the interior, and becomes a delightful part of
it, as pleasant and home-like as any other. The staircase is no longer
a railed ladder, but has risen into a chief ornament of the house, as
the noble staircases in the new Capitol of New York are the most
imposing of its details and decorations.

A man who is in the Wisconsin penitentiary for life has appealed
to the Secretary of the Navy, suggesting that as it is difficult to recruit
men for the Navy, that the department might find a large number of
men in the penitentiaries who would be willing to serve in the Navy
rather than in prison. l This prisoner had reasons aside from his
desire for release, for writing his letter ; during the Civil War prison-
ers were taken from penitentiaries, and enlisted in both armies, North
and South, and many of them made good soldiers. Of course it would
seem to degrade the naval service to adopt such a policy, but why
should our thought run in that direction ? We educate convicts to be
shoemakers, and to o"ther trades, in prison ; why might we not set
apart certain war-ships to be manned by United States prisoners ?
They would be quite as safe in a war-ship at sea, their confinement
would be as close, their work as hard, and the punishment as severe
as when confined in any stone building that is protected with iron
bars and doors.

Narrow each, of the following general subjects to an
available working theme, and then give to each an appro-
priate title (see p. 17) : —

1. Algebra. 11. Prison Eeform.

2. Literature. 12. Commerce.

3. Law. 13. The Arts.

4. Travel. 14. Longfellow.

5. High Schools. 15. Talking Machines.

6. Athletics. 16. Public Libraries.

7. Science. 17. City Governments.

8. Manual Training. 18. English.

9. Newspapers. 19. Letter- Writing.
10. The Jury System. 20. Protective Tariff.

1 Unity. Is this sentence needed ?

Appendix A 3. Ill

Find the working theme in each of the first ten para-
graphs in Appendix B, and give to each an appropriate
title.

Develop the following topic-sentences by repetition of
the idea in other words (see p. 25) : —

[NOTE. — Mere substitution of synonyms is not sufficient. The central thought of
each sentence must be varied in form and must grow by addition and emphasis ; it must
never stand still, or ' mark time ' ; it must move ahead while repeating. It is useless
to repeat sentence 1 thus : "No excellence will assist the pupil so much as devotion to
his lessons." But if we say, "Hard study pays," we have a good repetition, for we
have not only repeated the thought, but varied its form, and added to its force and con-
creteness, making it mean more.]

1. No virtue will help the student so much as close ap-
plication to his books.

2. There are few that ever forget their school-days.

3. At this electiorMhey were overwhelmingly defeated.

4. Study and discipline will accomplish much.

5. Not all poets have written poems.

6. The common notion of success is fallacious.

7. In this crisis he did not hesitate.

8. A bad beginning does not always imply a bad ending.

9. Those who work should be paid.

10. There is nothing we should encourage more than
cheerfulness.

11. There is a kind of criticism which is in itself crea-
tive.

12. A good partisan is not always a good citizen.

13. A public office is a public trust.

14. The study of Latin may be for one student as practi-
cal as is the study of engineering for another.

15. The Prodigal Son did well to repent and return to
his home, but he would have done better not to have left
his home at all.

112 Paragrap h - Writing.

Develop the following topic-sentences by defining, limit-
ing, restricting, or enlarging the terms of the topic-sen-
tences (see p. 26): —

1. No man ever tells the whole truth.

2. We must educate the hand as well as the brain.

3. When he says that the schools are anti-Christian he
says too much.

4. ' All men are created equal ? ; but equality here has a
peculiar meaning.

5. When one speaks of a natural manner of expression
he means .

6. I have said that Lincoln was trusted by all the friends
of the Union ; but the word ( trusted' is not strong enough ;
he was .

7. We speak of the ' right' to vote; but is voting prop-
erly regarded as a right ?

8. In this country there is no longer any North or
South ; the terms are obsolete ; there is only .

9. What do we mean when we say that one man is lib-
eral and another man is conservative ? What can we mean
but that ?

10. A true man of the world is something more than a
frequenter of the clubs ; he is .

11. To say that honesty is the best policy is to put
moral conduct on a very low plane.

12. Free trade is not the sole alternative to protection.

13. The problem of aerial navigation will still be far
from solution when men have learned to fly in pleasant
weather.

Develop the following topic-sentences by presenting the
negative, contrary, or contrasting ideas which suggest
themselves in connection with each (see p. 27): —

Appendix A 6. 113

1. The dangers of work are not the greatest in the
world.

2. Though Longfellow's poetry falls short of the highest,
yet .

3. Poverty cannot be abolished entirely, but .

4. It may be that strong opposition will delay this re-
form ; still .

5. In most cases students choose their studies wisely.

6. When rhetoric is taught by practice it is one of the
most useful studies ; when, however, .

7. I concede that there are cases in which one may
safely indulge in moderate drinking.

8. When he was angry he was unendurable.

9. When young men make mistakes a remedy may be
found.

10. It is true that the use of chloroform is sometimes
attended with danger to the patient's life.

11. The good, it is said, die young.

12. Stage-coaches were fast enough for our grandfathers.

13. Natural gas is a great convenience as long as it lasts.

14. At the first sight of Niagara Falls, the visitor is
pretty sure to feel some disappointment.

15. Theoretically, a writer who has not lived among the
lower classes should be unable to represent them truthfully
in fiction.

16. If young men were willing to forego all the luxuries
of life, they might easily save up a competence for old age.

Develop the following topic-sentences by concrete illus-
trations, and by explanation where explanation seems to be
needed (see p. 28): —

1. Country life abounds in healthful pleasures.

2. Eeason unaided will not always lead a man to correct
his errors.

114 Paragraph - Writing.

3. There was much that is admirable in the old Boman
character.

4. A republic is not the best form of government for
every nation.

5. One's opinions are not always a sure indication of
one's probable conduct in a given case.

6. Mere wishing is not desire.

7. Unless a duty is performed in the right spirit, it* is
not done morally.

8. The greatest names in literature are those of men
who were not rich.

9. We can imagine cases in which the best statesman
might fail to see what law was needed.

10. It is a mooted question whether a lawyer is justified
in undertaking the defence of a man whom he knows to be
guilty.

11. It is within the reach of the humblest American citi-
zen to become President of the United States.

12. We need not go far from our own homes to find
examples of courage and fortitude.

13. Kailroads and telegraphs make the world smaller.

14. It is the minor characters in Dickens's novels which
often prove the most entertaining.

15. An examination is often a poor test of a student's
acquirements.

16. In times of peril the strong men come to the front.

Develop the following topic-sentences by stating- the par-
ticulars and details which naturally seem to be called for
(see p. 30) : -

1. The experiences of Washington's army at Valley
Forge were terrible.

2. McClellan seemed to have all the qualities of a great
military leader.

Appendix A 8. 115

3. The feudal system had many advantages.

4. The United States would gain by annexing Canada.

5. Education should mean more than training the mind.

6. The list of American writers includes the names of
many humorists.

7. The American citizen has other political duties be-
sides voting.

8. History is full of examples of heroism.

9. Elizabeth's, reign was most eventful.

10. There was disaffection in the South for years before
the war.

11. A young man may enter public life by any one of
several doors.

12. There are many things to be said in favor of a longer
presidential term.

13. American laborers have had what they think to be
good reasons for forming unions and co-operative societies.

14. The causes which produced the ( Black Friday ' panic
are now well known.

15. Nothing is more important than caring for the health.

16. A book, to be worth reading, should have the follow-
ing characteristics.

17. There is much to observe even in the most common-
place surroundings.

18. The shape of the elm-tree is noticeably different from
that of the maple.

Supply proofs of the following topic-sentences (see
p. 31):-

1. The best educated nations are the most prosperous.

2. Essay writing is usually distasteful to students.

3. It is not surprising that Jefferson and Hamilton were
enemies.

4. Labor is in a state of unrest.

116 Paragrap h - Writing.

5. A liberal education should precede the professional.

6. The labor day should be restricted to eight hours.

7. The writer has greater influence than the lecturer.

8. Caesar's reign was a benefit to Rome.

9. The Mexican war was unjustifiable.

10. The government should establish postal savings
banks.

11. Municipal elections ought to be non-partisan.

12. The national capital ought to be removed to a place
nearer the center of the country.

13. The predictions of the weather bureau are coming to
be more trustworthy.

14. The number of those slain in our Civil War is much
smaller than is generally supposed.

15. If Cicero were alive to-day, his speeches would be
listened to with indifference.

16. Electricity as a means of illumination will ultimately
supersede gas.

17. Manufacture has developed more in the nineteenth
century than in the thousand years preceding that century.

18. Improvement of weapons of precision tends to abol-
ish war.

19. Travel in the United States may be made as improv-
ing as travel in Europe.

20. The course of history has been shaped, to some extent,
by superstitions.

Apply and enforce the following topic-sentences (see p.
32): —

1. A good habit, persisted in, becomes continually easier
of performance.

2. A nation, like a person, is bound by the demands of
justice.

3. If education is to be of value, it must be systematic.

v Appendix A 10. 117

4. One's better nature cannot be neglected without loss.

5. The health of a city depends largely upon cleanli-
ness.

6. The exercise of suffrage is a duty.

7. Monopolies are seldom beneficial to the people.

8. Education will solve the race question in the South.

9. The country owes a debt to its literary men.

10. The Bible is one of the monuments of literature.

11. No pursuit is ignoble if it is conscientiously fol-
lowed.

/12. A taste for books is a safeguard against evil
thoughts.

13. A good memory is a priceless possession.

14. When good men enter politics corruption will go out
of fashion.

15. Conversation is the greatest of the fine arts.

16. Do the duty that lies nearest you.

17. It is false charity to give to every stranger that asks
for aid.

18. The shoemaker should stick to his last.

19. Do not try to tell all you know.

20. Good workmanship always tells in the end.

21. Do not be ashamed of poor relations.

10.

Develop each of the following topic-sentences, using
those methods which seem most suitable in each particular
case. Memorize the table in Appendix A 11.

1. There are some evils unavoidably connected with
athletic sports.

2. Arbitration will ultimately do away with war.

3. The newsboy has his troubles.

4. A standing army is unnecessary in this country.

5. Washington and Lincoln present several contrasts in
character.

118 Paragraph - Writing.

6. Newspaper English has a few well-defined characteris-
tics.

7. Unanimity should not be required of a jury.

8. There should always be a motive in reading.

9. The American Indian, as represented in the old school
readers, was a heroic figure.

10. Novel-reading presents some dangers.

11. All have their peculiarities.

12. The lazy man has some advantages over the active
man, after all.

13. Lincoln's administration was most eventful.

14. Kef orms are being advocated without number.

15. Book-buying has become a fine art.

16. The world must present a queer spectacle to a man
seven feet tall.

17. Whittier's "poems show that he was a friend of the
slave.

18. Selfishness often defeats its own ends.

19. Books written by very good men are. sometimes
extremely tedious.

20. Races between ocean steamers are attended with
great danger.

21. There are persons to whom the commission of a sole-
cism is nothing short of a crime.

22. At the opening of the present century the map of
Europe was in many respects different from that with
which our school-children are familiar.

11.

The following scheme of typical paragraph structure is,
with slight changes, taken from Genung's Practical Rheto-
ric, p. 199. It will be found helpful to the student in
suggesting means of developing the paragraph in an orderly
way, and should be memorized. Of course, no one para-

Appendix A 12. 119

graph can employ more than three or four of the means
suggested. The character of the thought to be expressed
will dictate the natural method to be selected for its devel-
opment. If kept in mind as a whole, the following table
will show the student what his resources are, in any given
case. The ' obverse ' mentioned below is one of the many
forms which a contrast may assume.

1. The subject proposed (stated in a topic-sentence usu-

ally).

2. Whatever is needed to explain the subject,
(a) Kepetition.

(6) Obverse (presenting the contrary),
(c) Definition (limitation, restriction, or enlarge-
ment) .

3. Whatever is needed to establish the subject.

(a) Exemplification or detail.

(b) Illustration.

4. Whatever is needed to apply the subject.

(a) Result or consequence.

(b) Enforcement.

12.

The following outlines (or similar ones, provided by the
instructor, and better adapted to the grade and attainments
of the class) may be employed in a profitable exercise for
teaching the need of paragraphic unity. Let one of the
numbered topics of an outline be assigned to each student.
He is to write a paragraph on his topic for the next recita-
tion, keeping in mind what ought to be said on the topics
preceding and following his own, and determining what
properly belongs to the topic assigned to himself. At the
appointed time, the paragraphs are read in their numbered

120 Paragraph - Writing.

order in class, together forming an essay on the subject.
Any intermingling of topics or violation of unity is criti-
cised, transitions between sentences and paragraphs are
supplied, various methods of treating the same topics are
compared, and the need that each student ' stick to his
text7 is duly enforced. Such points as choice of words,
variety of expression, and construction of sentences will
also call for attention. It has been found profitable to
continue this work for several recitations and at intervals
throughout the course. Some of these may be studied as
specimens. Account for the arrangement of topics. Make
other outlines on the same subjects.

USES OF NOVEL-BEADING.

1. Introductory. Increase of novel-reading to be ex-
plained by its uses.

2. Affords relaxation and entertainment.

3. A valuable aid to the study of history and geography.

4. Information about various classes of society.

5. Eeforms brought about in law, education, etc. Dickens.

6. Insight into human character, making reader more
charitable in his judgments of others.

7. Conclusion. A summary.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.
Theme : Importance of Physical Culture.

1. Promotes health and prevents disease.

2. Increases strength and endurance.

3. Trains the muscles to act with accuracy, making more
efficient workers.

4. Influence on the mind.,

5. Moral influence.

Appendix A 12. 121

COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAWS.
Theme: Such laws are necessary.

1. Introductory. Eight of the State to do all that is
necessary for its own safety. Eesults of a contrary doc-
trine.

2. An educated citizenship necessary. Eeasons.

3. An educated citizenship cannot be secured if educa-
tion is left to parental caprice ; for some parents are neg-
lectful, others avaricious, others criminal.

4. Nor can it be secured by merely providing free public
schools, for not all will attend voluntarily.

5. Nor can it be secured through the private schools, for
not all of these teach what children most need to prepare
them for the duties of citizenship.

6. Conclusion. Attendance upon public schools or upon
private schools approved by state authorities should be
compulsory.

THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM.

Theme: It should be lengthened to seven years, and the
President made ineligible to re-election.

1. Various opinions among the framers of the Constitu-
tion. The four years' term is the result of a compromise.

2. Desire for re-election and its effect upon the use of
patronage.

3. Its effect upon the President's exercise of the veto
power in respect to bad partisan measures, and river and
harbor bills.

4. Its effect upon the President's treatment of Civil
Service Eeform.

5. Ineligibility to re-election would remedy these evils.

122 Paragraph - Writing.

6. A seven years' term would be long enough to enable
the President to develop a broad policy on great questions.

7. Would avoid the evil effects on business and invest-
ments every four years.

8. Would give greater stability to the public service at
home and at foreign courts.

9. Concluding summary.

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY.
What shall be its character?

1. Growing disregard of Sunday by large corporations.

2. Various views of individuals as to proper Sunday
observance.

3. The true basis is the need of rest and spiritual culture.

4. Means of securing rest : cessation of unnecessary
labor, reading, walking or riding, a visit to the public
library, art gallery.

5. Spiritual culture : the church, the lecture, the concert.

6. The ideal Sunday ; its distinguishing features.

NEWSPAPER BEADING.

1. Newspapers indispensable, but evil tendencies not to
be overlooked.

2. Often take time which might be spent to better advan-
tage.

3. Slang, careless use of language, etc. Effect on reader.

4. Readers may acquire a taste for the sensational in life.

5. An inferior quality of fiction published.

6. Too much prominence given to the dark side of life.
Effect.

7. Newspapers should be read judiciously and with selec-
tion.

Appendix A 12. 123

AN INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW SHOULD BE SECURED.

(Argument.)

1. The law of property-protection a fundamental law of

society.

(a) A man has the right to protect his own property.
(6) He is entitled to such protection from the gov-
ernment.

2. The products of one's thought are property.

(a) Because they are the result of labor, and therefore
valuable.

(5) This is recognized by every government in respect

to its own citizens.

3. Such property should receive international protection,
(a) Since, without it, an author's product does not

receive from foreign countries the property-
protection which they accord to other species
of property. The author is singled out to be
cheated of his rights. Examples : Uncle Tom's
Cabin, Bancroft's United States, and others.

(6) In the absence of such protection an author does

not receive equal treatment with other laborers.

4. Special application to American authors.

THE MODERN CERBERUS (POVERTY, IGNORANCE, SIN).

(Outline of a lecture by Dr. Washington Gladden.)
[An example in Parallel Construction.]

1. Causes of Poverty.

(a) Physical disability.

(&) Social arrangements (Land Question).

2. Causes of Ignorance,
(a) Mental disability.

124 Paragraph - Writing.

(b) Faulty educational arrangements.

(1) The Negro problem.

(2) The Indian question.

(3) Education in large cities.

3. Causes of Sin.

(a) Moral disability.

(b) Bad social arrangements.

4. How slay Cerberus.

(a) Patience and charity for the disabled.

(6) Improved social and educational arrangements by

legislation,
(c) Inspire an efficient motive by example.

THE NlCARAUGUA EOUTE IS THE BEST FOR A SHIP-
CANAL FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC.

(Argument.)

Introduction : The routes proposed.
Discussion :

1. Nicaraugua the easiest built.

(a) No tunneling.

(b) No mountain cutting.

2. No trouble from floods.

(a) The Chagres Eiver at Panama.

(b) The San Juan at Nicaraugua.
(1) No tributaries.

3. The climate more favorable

(a) Than at Panama.

(b) Than on other routes.

4. It is the shortest and cheapest route.

Conclusion : Summary.

TY
Appendix A 12. ""^

ANNEXATION OF CANADA. *

(Exposition.)

A. Probability of ultimate separation of Canada from

England.

1. Because of divergence of commercial interest.

2. Distance and difference in character of the people.

3. Influence of the United States.

B. Shall annexation to the United States follow ?

1. Considerations favorable to annexation.

(a) Extradition laws rendered unnecessary.

(b) The United States would acquire a vast and

valuable territory.

(d) 4 Manifest destiny.' The two countries natu-

rally one.

2. Considerations opposed to annexation.

(a) The financial condition of both countries.

(1) Canada's debt increasing.

(2) Debt of the United States decreasing.
(6) Undesirable classes of Canada's population.

essary.

(d) All the advantages of annexation may be

acquired by better trade- and extradition-
treaties, with no disadvantages.

3. Estimate of weight of arguments and inference

against annexation.

DANGERS OF UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION.

(Division.)
Introduction :

1. Extent of immigration before the Civil War ; charac-
ter of immigrants.

126 Paragraph - Writing.

2. Numbers and general character of present immigrants.
Discussion :

1. Political dangers.

(a) Influence when consolidated against American

interests.
(6) Hostility of some to American political ideas.

gogues.

(d) Evil results of party efforts to secure solid foreign

vote.

2. Social dangers.

(a) Tendency to clannishness in mode of life.
(&) The educational question.
(c) The religious question.

Conclusion :

1. Need of new naturalization laws.

2. Need of a restricted franchise.

3. Need of more stringent immigration laws.

INFLUENCE OF .AMERICA ON EUROPE.

(Exposition.)

1. Our democratic institutions have diffused the senti-

ment of liberty.

2. America an example of creative energy in material

development.

3. America an example of political stability.

4. America has made an original appeal to Europe on

behalf of the dignity of labor.

5. Influence of our educational systems and our litera-

ture.

Appendix A 12. 127

SHOULD NEVADA BE DEPRIVED OF STATEHOOD.

(Exposition.)

1. Statement of the facts about Nevada.

2. Considerations favoring deprival of statehood.

(a) Decrease in population.

(b) Unjust representation in Congress.

mining interest.

3. Considerations opposing deprival of statehood,
(a) Vast resources of the State.

(6) Likelihood of future growth.

4. Summary and estimate of points, concluding that the

plan proposed is, on the whole, unwise.

COLLEGE EXAMINATIONS.

(Method of Inquiry.)

I. Principles sought.

1. Obviously necessary to ascertain fitness for ad-

mission to

(a) The learned professions.

(b) The civil service.

(1) Admission by diploma from accredited

schools,

(2) Admission by certificate from teachers

of known excellence.

2. The purpose in examining in the three cases

above is

To ascertain fitness or unfitness, — something
unknown to the examiners.

128 Paragraph - Writing.

II. Antithesis. But in college this cannot be the pur-
pose in regard to most students, since

1. The instructor learns the attainments of his
students from their daily work. Modifica-
tions of 1 :

(a) In large recitation classes, doubt about in-
dividual cases.
(6) In lecture courses, doubt may exist about all.

III. Partial conclusions :

1. For doubtful cases, examination necessary for

information of instructor.

2. For the majority of students, examination unnec-

essary for this purpose.

3. Kesultiug alternatives : either abolish for (2) or

seek further reasons.

IV. The real purposes :

1. To convince unfaithful students of their defi-

ciencies.

2. To give the others an opportunity for compre-

hensive review.

3. To show all what are regarded as the most

important points.

V. Application of principles locally.

HAMILTON AND JEFFERSON.
(Exposition by Comparison and Contrast.)

1. Early life and education. Results of early training.

2. Life during the Revolution, compared.

3. Their work on the Constitution, compared,
(a) Principles championed.

(&) Divergency of views.

Appendix A 12. 129

4. Their positions in Washington's cabinet.

(a) Hamilton's financial measures.

(b) Jefferson's antagonism.

5. Subsequent life, contrasted.

6. Eesults of their work, compared.

IDEAL COMMONWEALTHS.

(Division of a Class.)
Introduction :

1. The longing for an ideal life and ideal government.

2. Ideal commonwealths are literary outgrowths of this

longing.

Discussion :

1. Lycurgus's State (see Plutarch's Lives).

(a) Characteristic features.

(b) Which of these are practicable ?

2. Plato's Republic (see Morley's Universal Library,

No. 23).

(a) Characteristic features.

(b) Socrates's idea of justice.

3. More's Utopia (see Morley's Universal Library, No. 23).

(a) Features in common with the preceding.

(b) Abuses in England, hinted at.

4. Campanella's City of the Sun (see Morley, as above).

5. Bacon's New Atlantis (see Morley, as above).

6. Sidney's Arcadia.

7. Bellamy's Looking Backward.

(a) Parts that are practicable.

(b) Parts that criticise existing evils.

Conclusion :

1. Common features of these ideal schemes.

2. Suggestive value.

1 30 Paragraph - Writing.

THE FUTURE OF ALASKA.

(Exposition.)
Introduction : .

1. The growth of a country depends on

(a) Physical environment and resources,
(6) Position and accessibility.

2. These largely determine

(a) The character of the people,
(6) Their pursuits,
(c) Their culture.

Discussion : Application of these considerations to Alaska.

1. Position unfavorable.

2. Physical environments.

(a) Climate*

(b) Agricultural lands.

(d) Mining.

(e) Trading.
(/) Fisheries.

3. Character of the people.
(a) The natives.

(&) The traders and miners.

Conclusion : Probabilities of future growth estimated.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF EAILWAYS.

(Exposition and Argument.)
Introduction :

1. Eapid growth, magnitude, and importance of the rail-

way system.

2. Some evils and abnormal conditions.

Appendix A 12. 131

Discussion :

1. Need of some reform evinced by

(a) Disregard of public good by corporations,

(b) The failure of competition,

2. Legal methods of reform, short of ownership.

(a) State and national commissions with power to
force fair treatment.

(6) Withdrawal of franchises in case of gross mis-
management.

3. Dangers of government ownership.

(a) Mismanagement and loss. Examples from foreign

countries.

(b) Deterioration of roads through lack of interest.

1. Government ownership not the solution.

2. Legal methods of reform, short of ownership, sufficient.

THE BOOK-EOOM OF A MODERN LIBRARY.

(Description.)
Introduction :

1. Purpose.

2. Necessary characteristics — convenience and simplic-

ity.

Discussion :

1. General shape and approximate size.

2. Number of stories and means of communication.

3. The material — iron, brick, and stone, exclusively.

4. Provision for light.

(a) Location of windows.
(6) Location of gas-jets.

132 Paragraph - Writing.

5. Bookcases.

(a) Number and accessibility.

(b) Symmetrical division and distribution.

6. Distribution of the books.

(a) With reference to subjects.

(b) With reference to frequency of use.

7. To whom accessible and by whom used.

Conclusion : The book-room answers the requirements
mentioned in the introduction, because its arrangement is

1. Simple,

2. Convenient,

3. Symmetrical,

4. Systematic. x

THE STORY OF RIP VAN WINKLE.
(Narration.)

1. Where and when he lived ; condition of his farm.

2. His family ; how they prospered.

3. His appearance, character, occupations.

4. The important expedition of his life.

(a) Why, when, where.

(b) Sights he saw ; acquaintance ; amphitheater ; the

game.

(d) Waking up — dog, gun, feelings.

5. The return homeward ; changes noticed.

(a) House, inn, people.

(b) His reception, perplexity, recognition.

6. How he passed the rest of his life.

Appendix A 12. 133

BIOGRAPHY OF AN AUTHOR.
(Narration.)

1. Birth and early life.

(a) Time and place.

(b) Parentage.

(d) Result of early influences.

(e) Early character.
(/) Anecdote.

2. Education and travel.

(a) Places of education.

(b) Influences and their effect.

(d) Choice of vocation.

(e) Literary attempts.

(/) Travel — influence, and results.

3. Career as a writer.

(a) Publications ; their success.

(b) Share in public movements.

(d) Friendships.

(e) Character of works in brief.

4. Death — time and place. Estimate of character.

5. Influence of the author and of his works.

THE COMBAT. (SCOTT'S Talisman.)
(Narration.)

1. Time, Third Crusade. Place, the Diamond of the

Desert. Persons, Sir Kenneth and Conrad.

2. Preparations,
(a) Arming.^

(6) The herald's proclamation.

134 Paragraph - Writing.

(d) The invocation.

3. The encounter.

(a) Signal.

(b) Start.

(d) Meeting.

4. Eesult of the combat. Effect in settling the dispute.

HISTORY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE FROM

755 TO 1303.

(Narration.)

1. Origin.

(a) Pippin's v gift to Stefano III., 755 A.D.
(&) Agreement between Carolingians and Pontiffs,
800 A.D.

(1) Extent of concessions to the Pontiffs.

(2) Eesult when political unity ceased and relig-

ious unity remained.

2. Gradual increase of power up to the time of Gregory

VII.
(a) Heinrich III.'s gift, to the Papacy, of Benevento,

1053.
(&) Countess Matilda's bequest, ' Patrimony of St.

Peter,' 1073.

3. Rapid accessions of power under Gregory VII., 1073.
(a) Gregory's plans :

(1) To free the Papacy of German supremacy.

(2) To increase the discipline of the Church.

(3) To make the Church independent of any

monarch.

(4) To rule people and princes in the interest of

their salvation.

Appendix A 12. 135

(b) Their realization :

(1) Humiliation of Henry IV.

(2) Quarrel over investitures. Resulting com-

promise.

4. Supremacy of the Pope's temporal power, 1073 to 1250.

(a) Evidences.

(b) Final fall of German power in Italy.

5. Decline and loss of Pope's temporal power, 1295 to

1303.

(a) Results of the quarrel with Philip the Fair.

(b) Failure under Boniface VIII.

CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA.

(Argument.)

Burke, urging the British Parliament to grant concessions
to the American colonies before it should be too late, pre-
sented the following arguments : —

I. The condition of America demands concessions on
account of

1. Its large and increasing population,

2. Its valuable commerce,

3. Its advanced agriculture,

4. Its extensive fisheries.

II. If America is so valuable, it may be thought that
force is justifiable in retaining it. But

1. Force is temporary, war cannot be perpetual,

2. Its outcome is uncertain ; it may fail of its

object,

3. It impairs or destroys the value of its object,

4. It cannot be justified by experience.

III. The temper and character of the Americans call for
concessions. Love of freedom and resistance to

136 Paragraph - Writing.

oppression are their chief characteristics. These
have been

1. Inherited from English parentage,

2. Fostered by their form of government,

3. Promoted by their religion and domestic insti-

tutions,

4. Cultivated by their education, and

5. Confirmed by their remoteness from England.

THE RELATION OF FICTION TO EELIGION.

Exemplified in Ben Hur.

(Exposition by Example.)
Introduction : v

1. Growing favor of the religious novel.

2. Some of its requirements.

(a) A respectful tone and worthy aims.

(6) A sympathetic treatment.

Discussion : How Ben Hur fulfils these essentials ;

(a) In its aims, which are

(1) To show the intolerant Roman character,

(2) To compare and contrast Jew and Roman,

(3) To imply the need of a moral revolution,

(4) To show Christ as an historical character,

(5) To re-tell the story of his life in a novel and

attractive way,

(6) To set forth the beauty of the highest type

of character.
(6) In tone and treatment,

(1) It exalts the personal virtues,

(2) It presents types of heroism,

Appendix A 13. 137

(3) It portrays the moral awakening of nations,

(4) It upholds the best standards,
(c) In effect on the reader,

(1) It strengthens faith in goodness,

(2) It adds to appreciation of what is best,

(3) It cultivates admiration for true character.

Conclusion :

1. Contrast with another type of the religious novel.

2. The popularity of Ben Hur accounted for.

13.

A close analysis and outlining of the thought of a long
paragraph from a careful author will always give evidence
of regular structure in the building of the paragraph. The
main thought-divisions of the following are numbered for
the sake of convenient reference. '

1. The originality of form and treatment which Macaulay gave to
the historical essay has not, perhaps, received due recognition. With-
out having invented it, he so greatly improved and expanded it that he
deserves nearly as much credit as if he had. He did for the historical
essay what Haydn did for the sonata, and Watt for the steam-engine :
he found it rudimentary and unimportant, and left it complete, and
a thing of power. 2. Before his time there was the ponderous his-
tory, generally in quarto, and there was the antiquarian dissertation.
There was also the historical review, containing alternate pages of ex-
tract and comment, generally dull and gritty. But the historical essay,
as he conceived it, and with the prompt inspiration of a real discoverer
immediately put into practical shape, was as good as unknown before
him. 3. To take a bright period or personage of history, to frame it
in a firm outline, to conceive it at once in article size, and then to fill
in this limited canvas with sparkling anecdote, telling bits of color,
and fact's all fused together by a real genius for narrative, was the
sort of genre-painting which Macaulay applied to history. 4. And to
this day his essays remain the best of their class, not only in England,
but in Europe. Slight, or even trivial, in the field of historical erudi-
tion and critical inquiry, they are masterpieces if regarded in the light

138 Paragraph - Writing.

of great popular cartoons on subjects taken from modern history.
They are painted, indeed, with such freedom, vividness, and power,
that they may be said to enjoy a sort of tacit monopoly of the periods
and characters to which they refer, in the estimation of the general
public. — J. Cotter Morison.

ANALYSIS BY THOUGHT-DIVISIONS.

1. Macaulay gave to the historical essay originality of form and treatment,
(a) He did not invent it, but

(6) He improved it greatly. (Parallel cases — Haydn and Watt.)
(c) He found it rudimentary and left it complete.

2. Forms of historical writing, before Macaulay.
(a) The ponderous history.

(6) The dissertation,
(c) The review.

3. In what consisted Macaulay's originality of treatment.

(a) Selection of effective points and periods and telling personages.
(6) Framing the selected period or personage in firm outline — Unity,
(c) A sense of due proportion. Genius for narrative.

4. His essays the best of their class.

(a) Others surpass them in erudition and critical research, but

(6) They are masterpieces if judged as specimens of broad, popular treatment.

Analyze the following paragraphs according to their
thought-divisions : —

It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this : that poetry is at
bottom a criticism of life ; that the greatness of a poet lies in his
powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life, — to the question :
How to live. Morals are often treated in a narrow and false fashion,
they are bound up with systems of thought and belief which have had
their day, they are fallen into the hands of pedants *and professional
dealers, they grow tiresome to some of us. We find attraction, at
times, even in a poetry of revolt against them ; in a poetry which
might take for its motto Omar Kheyam's words: "Let us make up
in the tavern for the time which we have wasted in the Mosque."
Or we find attractions in a poetry indifferent to them, in a poetry
where the contents may be what they will, but where the form is
studied and exquisite. We delude ourselves in either case ; and the
best cure for our delusion is to let our minds rest upon that great and
inexhaustible word life, until we learn to enter into its meaning. A
poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life ;

Appendix A 13. 139

a poetry of indifference toward moral ideas is a poetry of indifference
towards life. — Matthew Arnold : Preface to Wordsworth's Poems.

The qualities of the great masters in art or literature, the combina-
tion of those qualities, the laws by which they moderate, support,
relieve each other, are not peculiar to them ; but most often typical
standards, revealing instances, of the laws by which certain aesthetic
effects are produced. The old masters indeed are simpler ; their
characteristics are written larger, and are easier to read, than their
analogues in all the mixed confused productions of the modern mind.
But when once one has succeeded in defining for oneself those char-
acteristics, and the law of their combination, one has acquired a
standard or measure which helps us to put in its right place many a
vagrant genius, many an unclassified talent, many precious though
imperfect products. It is so with the components of the true char-
acter of Michelangelo. That strange interfusion of sweetness and
strength is not to be found in those who claimed to be his followers ;
but it is found in many of those who worked before him, and 'in
many others down to our own time, in William Blake, for instance,
and Victor Hugo, who, though not of his school, and unaware, are his
true sons, and help us to understand him, as he in turn interprets and
justifies them. Perhaps this is the chief use in studying old masters.
— Pater: The Renaissance, p. 88.

That no great political improvement, however plausible or attrac-
tive it may appear, can be productive of lasting benefit, unless it is
preceded by a change in public opinion, and that every change of
public opinion is preceded by changes in knowledge, are propositions
which all history verifies, but which are particularly obvious in the his-
tory of Spain. The Spaniards have had everything except knowledge.
They have had immense wealth, and fertile and well-peopled terri-
tories, in all parts of the globe. Their own country, washed by the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and possessed of excellent harbors,
is admirably situated for the purposes of trade between Europe and
America, being so placed as to command the commerce of both hemi-
spheres. They had at a very early period, ample municipal privi-
leges ; they had independent parliaments ; they had the right of
choosing their own magistrates, and managing their own cities. They
have had rich and flourishing towns, abundant manufactures and
skilful artisans, whose choice productions could secure a ready sale in
every market in the world. They have cultivated the fine arts with
eminent success. . . . They speak a beautiful, sonorous and flexible
language, and their literature is not unworthy of their language.

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Their soil yields treasures of every kind. ... In short, nature has
been so prodigal of her bounty, that it has been observed, with hardly
an hyperbole, that the Spanish nation possesses within itself nearly
every natural production which can satisfy either the necessity or the
curiosity of mankind. — Buckle : History of Civilization, Vol. II.
pp. 583-585.

The truth is, that by economy and good management — by a sparing
use of ready money and by paying scarcely anybody — people can
manage, for a time at least, to make a great show with very little
means. ... If every person is to be banished from society who
runs into debt and cannot pay, — if we are to be peering into every-
body's private life, speculating upon their income, and cutting them if
we don't approve of their expenditure, — why, what a howling wilder-
ness and intolerable dwelling Vanity Fair would be. Every man's
hand would be against his neighbor in this case, my dear sir, and
the benefits of civilization would be done away with. We should be
quarreling, abusing, avoiding one another. Our houses would become
caverns : and we should go in rags because we cared for nobody.
Rents would go down. Parties wouldn't be given any more. All
the tradesmen of the town would be bankrupt. Wine, wax-lights,
comestibles, rouge, crinoline-petticoats, diamonds, wigs, old china,
park hacks and splendid high-stepping carriage-horses — all the de-
lights of life, I say, would go to the deuce, if people did but act upon
their silly principles, and avoid those whom they dislike and abuse.
Whereas, by a little charity and mutual forbearance, things are made
to go on pleasantly enough: we may abuse a man as much as we
like, and call him the greatest rascal unhung, — but do we wish to
hang him therefor ? No ; we shake hands when we meet. If his
cook is good we forgive him, and go and dine with him ; and we
expect he will do the same by us. Thus trade flourishes — civilization
advances ; peace is kept ; new dresses are wanted for new assemblies
every week ; and the last year's vintage of Lafitte will remunerate the
honest proprietor who reared it. — Thackeray : Vanity Fair.

Equally, throughout the whole nature, may be traced the law that
exercised faculties are ever tending to resume their original state. Not
only after continued rest, do they regain their full power — not only
do brief cessations partially reinvigorate them ; but even while they
are in action, the resulting exhaustion is ever being neutralized. The
two processes of waste and repair go on together. Hence with facul-
ties habitually exercised — as the senses of all persons, or the muscles
of any one who is strong — it happens that, during moderate activity,

Appendix B. 141

the repair is so nearly equal to the waste, that the diminution of
power is scarcely appreciable ; and it is only when the activity has
been long continued, or has been very violent, that the repair becomes
so far in arrear of the waste as to produce a perceptible prostration.
In all cases, however, when, by the action of a faculty, waste has been
incurred, some lapse of time must take place before full efficiency can
be reacquired ; and this time must be long in proportion as the waste
has been great. — Spencer : Philosophy of Style.

APPENDIX B.

A selected list of typical paragraphs of many kinds and
from many sources, to be used by the student for the vari-
ous exercises prescribed in the text.

In the long lists of reformers and philanthropists, like a planet
among lesser stars, stands out the name of John Howard, who at-
tacked with indefatigable ardor and industry the hideous abuses ex-
istent in the prisons. Each jail in the country was a festering social
sore, a den in which decency, cleanliness, or discipline was unknown
and in which every abomination was practiced. He visited them all,
collected evidence of the extortion, cruelty, favoritism, and vice which
marked their management, and startled the public conscience by the
terrors of his story. He did not see the results of the labors which
cost him his life, but his fame will always be associated with the great
work of social reformation in England, which began more than a hun-
dred years ago and can never cease until civilization itself is ended.

Eree government is self-government — a government of the people
by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the
people think best. An imposed government, a government like that
of the English in India, may very possibly be better ; it may represent
the views of a higher race than the governed race ; but it is not there-
fore a free government. A free government is that which the people
subject to it voluntarily choose. In a casual collection of loose people
the only possible free government is a democratic government. Where
no one knows or cares for or respects any one else, all must rank
equal ; no one's opinion can be more potent than that of another.
But, as has been explained, a deferential nation has a structure of its
own. Certain persons are by common consent agreed to be wiser

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than others, and their opinion is, by consent, to rank for much more
than its numerical value. We may in these happy nations weigh
votes as well as count them, though in less favored countries we can
count only. But in free nations, the votes so weighed or so counted
must decide. A perfect free government is one which decides per-
fectly according to those votes ; an imperfect, one which so decides
imperfectly ; a bad, one which does not so decide at all. Public opin-
ion is the test of this polity ; the best opinion which, with its existing
habits of deference, the nation will accept : if the free government
goes by that opinion, it is a good government of its species ; if it con-
travenes that opinion, it is a bad one. — Bagehot : The English Con-
stitution, p. 221.

There is in an English collection a portrait of Jean Jacques, which
was painted during his residence in this country by a provincial artist,
and which, singular and displeasing as it is, yet lights up for us many
a word and passage in Rousseau's life here and elsewhere, which the
ordinary engravings, and the trim self-complacency of the statue on
the little island at Geneva, would leave very incomprehensible. It is
almost as appalling in its realism as some of the dark pits that open
before the reader of the Confessions. Hard struggles with objective
difficulty and external obstacle wear deep furrows in the brow, and
throw into the glance a solicitude, half penetrating and defiant, half
dejected. When a man's hindrances have sprung up from within,
and the ill-fought battle of his days has been with his own passions
and morbid breedings and unchastened dreams, the eye and the facial
lines that stamp character tell the story of that profound moral de-
feat, which is unlighted by the memories of resolute combat with evil
and weakness, and leaves only external desolation and the misery
that is formless. Our English artist has produced a vision from that
prose Infer no' which is made so populous in the modern epoch by
impotence of will, and those who have seen the picture, may easily
understand how largely the character of the original, at the time when
it was painted, must have been pregnant with harassing confusion
and distress. — Morley : fiousseau, Vol. II. p. 282.

The Americans of 1787 thought they were copying the English
Constitution, but they were contriving a contrast to it. Just as the
American is the type of composite governments, in which the supreme
power is divided between many bodies and functionaries, so the Eng-
lish is the type of simple constitutions, in which the ultimate power
upon all questions is in the hands of the same persons. — Bagehot :
The English Constitution, p. 295.

Appendix B. 143

The history of this, as of all nations (or so much of it as there is
occasion for any of us to know), is the history of the battles which
it has fought and won with evil ; not with political evil merely, or
spiritual evil ; but with all manifestations whatsoever of the devil's
power. We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good ;
we learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel
the mystery of our mortal existence ; and in the companionship of
the illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world,
we escape from the littleness which clings to the round of common
life, and our minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key. — Froude.

In the centre of the court, under the blue Italian sky, and with the
hundred windows of the vast palace gazing down upon it, from four
sides, appears a fountain. It brims over from one stone basin to
another, or gushes from a Naiad's urn, or spirts its many little jets
from the mouths of nameless monsters, which were merely grotesque
and artificial when Bernini, or whoever was their unnatural father,
first produced them ; but now the patches of moss, the tufts of grass,
the trailing maiden-hair, and all sorts of verdant weeds that thrive in
the cracks and crevices of moist marble, tell us that Nature takes the
fountain back into her great heart, and cherishes it as kindly as if
it were a woodland spring. And, hark, the pleasant murmur, the
gurgle, the plash ! You might hear just those tinkling sounds from
any tiny waterfall in the forest, though here they gain a delicious
pathos from the stately echoes that reverberate their natural language.
So the fountain is not altogether glad, after all its three centuries of
play ! — Hawthorne : Marble Faun, chap. v.

I know nothing in the world tenderer than the pity that a kind-
hearted young girl has for a young man who feels lonely. It is true that
these dear creatures are all compassion for every form of human woe,
and anxious to alleviate all human misfortunes. They will go to Sun-
day-schools, through storms their brothers are afraid of, to teach the
most unpleasant and intractable classes of little children the age of
Methuselah and the dimensions of Og the king of Bashan's bedstead.
They will stand behind a table at a fair all day until they are ready
to drop, dressed in their prettiest clothes and their sweetest smiles,
and lay hands upon you, — to make you buy what you do not want,
at prices which you cannot afford ; all this as cheerfully as if it were
not martyrdom to them as well as to you. Such is their love for all
good objects, such their eagerness to sympathize with all their suffer-
ing fellow-creatures ! But there is nothing they pity as they pity a
lonely young man. — Holmes : The Poet at the Breakfast- Table.

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The use of the House of Lords — or, rather, of the Lords, in its
dignified capacity — is very great. It does not attract so much rever-
ence as the Queen, but it attracts very much. The office of an order
of nobility is to impose on the common people — not necessarily to im-
pose on them what is untrue, yet less what is hurtful ; but still to im-
pose on their quiescent imaginations what would not otherwise be there.
The fancy of the mass of men is incredibly weak ; it can see nothing
without a visible symbol, and there is much that it can scarcely make
out with a symbol. Nobility is the symbol of mind. It has the marks
from which the mass of men always used to infer mind, and often still
infer it. A common clever man who goes into a country place will
get no reverence ; but the " old squire " will get reverence. Even after
he is insolvent, when every one knows that his ruin is but a question
of time, he will get five times as much respect from the common peas-
antry as the newly-made rich man who sits beside him. The common
peasantry will listen to his nonsense more submissively than to the
new man's sense. An old lord will get infinite respect. His very ex-
istence is so far useful* that it awakens the sensation of obedience to a
sort of mind in the coarse, dull, contracted multitude, who could
neither appreciate or perceive any other. — Bagehot : The English
Constitution, p. 157.

All education is, in a sense, education of will. Of course, for scien-
tific exactness, we distinguish will from other activities of mind, and we
may for convenience here assume the ordinary psychological division
into intelligence, emotion and will ; but it is an elementary common-
place of psychology, that though these activities are distinguishable
in thought, they are not to be treated as if they were usually sepa-
rated in mental life. Will is therefore not to be conceived as an
activity in itself, capable of being isolated from intelligence and
emotion. In such isolation it is unreal abstraction, it is merely the
abstract concept which physical science finds useful for its purposes
under the name of force. As a concrete reality, will is active intelli-
gence stimulated by emotion : or, as it may equally well be described,
it is active emotion directed by intelligence. — J. C. Murray : Educa-
tional Review, June, 1891.

It is so easy to feel pride and satisfaction in one's own things, so
hard -to make sure that one is right in feeling it ! We have a great
empire. But so had Nebuchadnezzar. We extol the " unrivalled
happiness" of our national civilisation. But then comes a candid
friend, and remarks that our upper class is materialised, our middle
class vulgarised, and our lower class brutalised. We are proud of our

Appendix B. 145

painting, our music. But we find that in the judgment of other people
our painting is questionable, and our music non-existent. We are
proud of our men of science. And here it turns out that the world is
with us ; we find that in the judgment of other people, too, Newton
among the dead, and Mr. Darwin among the living, hold as high a
place as they hold in our national opinion. — Matthew Arnold : Preface
to Wordsworth's Poems.

This was the physiognomy of the drawing-room into which Lydgate
was shown ; and there were three ladies to receive him, who were also
old-fashioned, and of a faded but genuine respectability : Mrs. Fare-
brother, the Vicar's white-haired mother, bef rilled and kerchiefed with
dainty cleanliness, upright, quick-eyed, and still under seventy ; Miss
Noble, her sister, a tiny old lady of meeker aspect, with frills and
kerchief decidedly more worn and mended ; and Miss Winifred Fare-
brother, the Vicar's elder sister, well-looking like himself; but nipped
and subdued as single women are apt to be who spend their lives in
uninterrupted subjection to their elders. Lydgate had not expected
to see so quaint a group : knowing simply that Mr. Farebrother was a
bachelor, he had thought of being ushered into a snuggery where the
chief furniture would probably be books and collections of natural
objects. The Vicar himself seemed to wear rather a changed aspect,
as most men do when acquaintances made elsewhere see them for the
first time in their own homes. — George Eliot : Middlemarch.

Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law is method, which con-
stitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd of
men go up to Faneuil Hall ; they are all pretty well acquainted with
the object of the meeting ; they have all read the facts m the same
newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers
have not; yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By
the new placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth.
Every fact gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become
important. His expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and
fly from mouth to mouth. His mind has some new principle of
order. Where he looks all things fly into their places. What will he
say next ? Let this man speak, and this man only. — Emerson :
Eloquence.

Finally, Gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which is practi-
cally of very great importance, though a very humble one. In the
midst of our zeal and ardor, — for such, I forsee, will rise high
enough, in spite of all the counsels to moderate it, I can give you, —
remember the care of health. I have no doubt you have among you

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young souls ardently bent to consider life cheap, for the purpose of
getting forward in what they are aiming at of high ; but you are to
consider throughout, much more than is done at present, and what it
would have been a very great thing for me if I had been able to con-
sider, that health is a thing to be attended to continually ; that you
are to regard that as the very highest of all temporal things for you.
There is no kind of achievement you could make in the world that is
equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets and millions ? The
French financier said, " Why, is there no sleep to be sold ! " Sleep
was not in the market at any quotation. — Carlyle.

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 marshaled
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 Christian-
ity, p. 14.

No body can be heathful without exercise, neither natural body
nor politic ; and certainly to a kingdom or estate, a just and honour-
able war is the true exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the heat of
a fever : but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to
keep the body in health ; for in a slothful peace both courages will
effeminate, and manners corrupt. But howsoever it be for happiness,
without all question for greatness it maketh to be still for the most
part in arms : and the strength of a veteran army (though it be a
chargeable business), always on foot, is that which commonly giveth
the law, or, at least, the reputation, amongst all neighbour states ; as
may well be seen in Spain ; which hath had, in one part or other, a
veteran army almost continually, now by the space of six-score years.
— Bacon : Civil and Moral Essays, p. 207.

Home affections are the first and the last of human attachments ;
they begin with the first opening of the soul, and they abide when all
other feelings have faded away. Families are the unity of which
society is composed, as tissue is made of cells, and matter of mole-
cules. The attractions of parent and child, man and wife, brother
and sister, are fundamental and primary. They are the deep roots
from which social life is developed. According as the family is, so is
the State. — J. F. Clarke: Self - Culture ; The Affections and Social
Powers, p. 225.

It has been frequently remarked, that the period of the highest

Appendix B. 147

literary glory of civilized nations is generally found to follow close on
some remarkable or portentous achievements in commerce or in war.
Among the ancient Greeks, the combination of great literary names
in the age of Pericles follows the defeat of the Persians. The Roman
age of Augustus, when that mighty nation was resting from her
conquests, produced the same galaxy of genius. In the same way,
the famous literary age of Louis XIV was certainly prepared, if not
produced, by the religious wars of the Reformation, and after the
national enthusiasm had been excited by the success of the French
arms in Germany and Flanders. In our own case a gigantic revolu-
tion had been accomplished. The intellect of England had been
engaged in a violent struggle for religious liberty, and the nation now
started on its race of poetical immortality. — Graham.

It must never be forgotten, in discussing the past and present of
Oxford or Cambridge, that the university and most of its colleges
were originally ecclesiastical institutions, dating from the time when
there was complete communion and accord between the Church of
England and the Papacy. The colleges were originally, like the old
hospitals, eleemosynary establishments, and like the monasteries, under
a common rule of life and intended primarily for religious purposes.
From the original statutes of the colleges, moreover, it is abundantly
clear that they were in many cases founded "ad studendum," i.e.,
with the idea that the inmates should devote themselves to study,
not to teaching. Their founders desired their inmates to acquire more
learning themselves, but did not require them to impart more learning
to others. After the Reformation, the compromise between Catholi-
cism and Protestantism, which is the basis of the Book of Common
Prayer and the Church of England, was fully reflected in the university
and its colleges. The old statutes were retained and professedly
respected, but practices which those statutes enjoined were disregarded.
The universities remained, indeed, the nursery of the clergy and the
headquarters of ecclesiastical learning, but as the Anglican Church
now professes to be both Catholic and Protestant, and is really neither,
but only Anglican, so the universities then professed to be national
and religious, but were neither, and only academic. In 1850 their
position had become incompatible with the England of Free Trade ;
and the Royal Commission appointed that year as the Oxford Uni-
versity Commission, while a similar Commission was appointed for
Cambridge, was the recognition of the fact. — Contemporary Review,
November, 1892, p. 694.

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will, or

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against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions
by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a
thread-ball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the throw-
er's bag. Or, rather, it is a harpoon hurled at the whale, unwinding,
as it flies, a coil of cord in the boat : and if the harpoon is not good or
not well thrown, it will go nigh to cut the steersman in twain, or to
sink the boat. — Emerson : Compensation, p. 273.

Covetousness is not natural to man — generosity is ; but covetous-
ness must be excited by a special cause, as a given disease by a given
miasma ; and the essential nature of a material for the excitement of
covetousness is, that it shall be a beautiful thing which can be retained
without a use. The moment we can use our possessions to any good
purpose ourselves, the instinct of communicating that use to others
rises side by side with our power. If you can read a book rightly,
you will want others to hear it ; if you can enjoy a picture rightly,
you will want others to see it : learn how to manage a horse, a plough,
or a ship, and you will desire to make your subordinates good horse-
men, ploughmen, or sailors : you will never be able to see the fine
instrument you are * master of, abused ; but once fix your desire on
anything useless, and all the purest pride and folly in your heart will
mix with the desire, and make you at last wholly inhuman, a mere
ugly lump of stomach and suckers, like a cuttle-fish. — Ruskin :
Ethics of the Dust, Valley of Diamonds, p. 18.

The evidences of the Christian religion may be sufficient and yet not
so strong as inevitably to produce conviction. Our conduct in the
pursuit and reception of truth may be intended by our Creator to be
an important part of the probation to which we are subjected ; and
therefore the evidence of revelation is not so great as to be irresistible,
but is of such a kind that the sincere and diligent inquirer will be in
no danger of fatal mistake ; while men of pride and prejudice, who
prefer darkness to light, will be almost sure to err. — Alexander :
Evidences of Christianity, p. 91.

We are now ready to compare the imagination with the faculty of
the mind that is most distinctly opposed to it. This antithetical fac-
ulty is the understanding. The understanding represents the mind
in its analytical activity, as the imagination represents it in its con-
structive activity. Practically, analysis is for the most part connected
to a greater or less degree with synthesis. We can, however, abstract
it from all connection of the sort, and consider it purely in itself. The
understanding, then, gives us the details of prose ; the imagination
gives us the fulness and unity of poetry. The understanding thus

Appendix B. 149

claims to give us the actual ; the imagination gives us the ideal. The
understanding, tearing the world apart, analyzing it into its ultimate
particles, gives us the poor fragments that remain as its equivalent ; the
imagination rests content with nothing less than the rounded beauty
of the whole. — C. C. Everett : Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, p. 25.

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
Eoman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake.
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 appearance of valleys
and mountains, which had never, since the formation of the globe,
been exposed to the sun. 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 com-
memorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost
their lives in the inundation. 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. 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 to
confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking world. —
Gibbon : History of the Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire, Vol.
III. pp. 1-2.

There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an
inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to
the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What
Plato has thought, he may think ; what a saint has felt, he may feel ;
what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who
hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be
done, for this is the only and sovereign agent. — Emerson : Essay on
History.

Oliver Goldsmith was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at the
hamlet of Pallas, or Pallasmore, county of Longford, in Ireland. He

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sprang from a respectable, but by no means a thrifty stock. Some
families seem to inherit kindliness and incompetency, and to hand
down virtue and poverty from generation to generation. Such was
the case with the Goldsmiths. "They were always," according to
their own accounts, "a strange family ; they rarely acted like other
people ; their hearts were in the right place, but their heads seemed to
be doing anything but what they ought." — "They were remarkable,"
says another statement, " for their worth, but of no cleverness in the
ways of the world." Oliver Goldsmith will be found faithfully to in-
herit the virtues and weaknesses of his race. — Irving : Oliver Gold-
smith.

Nature and religion are in the bonds of friendship ; excellency and
usefulness are its great endearments ; society and neighborhood, that
is, the possibilities and the circumstances of converse, are the deter-
minations and actualities of it. Now, when men either are unnatural
or irreligious, they will not be friends : when they are neither excel-
lent nor useful, they are not worthy to be friends ; when they are
strangers or unknown, they cannot be friends actually and practically ;
but yet, as any man tiath anything of the good, contrary to those evils,
so he can have and must have his share of friendship. — J. Taylor :
The Measures and Offices of Friendship.

They thanked him, and, entering, were pleased with the neatness
and regularity of the place. The hermit set flesh and wine before them,
though he fed only upon fruits and water. His discourse was cheerful
without levity, and pious without enthusiasm. He soon gained the
esteem of his guests, and the princess repented of her hasty censure.
— Johnson: Easselas, chap. xxi.

Let every one be himself, and not try to be some one else. God,
who looked on the world he had made, and said it was all good, made
each of us to be just what our own gifts and faculties fit us to be.
Be that and do that and so be contented. Reverence also each
other's gifts, do not quarrel with me because I am not you, and I will
do the same. God made your brother as well as yourself. He made
you perhaps to be bright ; he made him slow ; he made you prac-
tical ; he made him speculative ; he made one strong and another
weak, one tough and another tender ; but the same good God made
us all. Let us not torment each other because we are not all alike,
but believe that God knew best what he was doing in making us so
different. So will the best harmony come out of seeming discords, the
best affection out of difference, the best life out of struggle, and the
best work will be done when each does his own work, and lets every

Appendix B. 151

one else do and be what God made him for. — J. F. Clarke : Self-
Culture ; Every Man His Proper Gift, pp. 428-429.

There are two ways of considering life. One is the way of senti-
ment ; tEe other is the way of faith. The sentimental way is trite
t'li'iugh. Saint, sage, sophist, moralist and preacher have repeated,
in every possible image, till there is nothing new to say, that life is
a bubble, a dream, a delusion, a phantasm. The other is the way of
faith : the ancient saints felt as keenly as any moralist could feel the
brokenness of its promises ; they confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims here ; they said that here they had no continuing city ;
but they did not mournfully moralize on this ; they said it cheerfully
and rejoiced that it was so. They felt that all was right ; they knew
that the promise itself had a deeper meaning ; they looked un-
dauntedly for "a city which hath foundations. . . ." — Robertson:
Illusion and Delusion.

Wordsworth has been in his grave for some thirty years, and
certainly his lovers and admirers cannot flatter themselves that this
great and steady light of glory as yet shines over him. He is not
fully recognised at home ; he is not recognised at all abroad. Yet
I firmly believe that the poetical performance of Wordsworth is, after
that of Shakespeare and Milton, of which all the world now recognises
the worth, undoubtedly the most considerable in our language from
the Elizabethan age to the present time. Chaucer is anterior ; and
on other grounds, too, he cannot well be brought into the comparison.
But taking the roll of our chief poetical names, besides Shakespeare
and Milton, from the age of Elizabeth downwards, and going through
it, — Spenser, Dryden, Pope, Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns,
Coleridge, Scott, Campbell, Moore, Byron, Shelley, Keats (I mention
those only who are dead), — I think it certain that Wordsworth's
name deserves to stand, and will finally stand, above them all.
Several of the poets named have gifts and excellences which Words-
worth has not. But taking the performance of each as a whole, I say
that Wordsworth seems to me to have left a body of poetical work
superior in power, in interest, in the qualities which give enduring
freshness, to that which any of the others has left. — Matthew Arnold :
Preface to Wordsworth"1 s Poems.

The business of the present novel, however, lies neither with priest
or pagan, but with Mr. Clive Newcome, and his affairs and his com-
panions at this period of his life. Nor, if the gracious reader expects
to hear of cardinals in scarlet, and noble Roman princes and princesses,
will he find such in this history. The only noble Roman into whose

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mansion our friend got admission was the Prince Polonia, whose
footmen wear the liveries of the English Royal family, who gives
gentlemen and even painters cash upon good letters of credit; and
once or twice in a season, opens his transtiberine palace and treats his
customers to a ball. Our friend Clive used jocularly to say, he be-
lieved there were no Romans. There were priests in pretentious
hats ; there were friars with shaven crowns ; there were the sham
peasantry, who dressed themselves out in masquerade costumes, with
bag-pipe and goat-skin, with crossed leggings and scarlet petticoats,
who let themselves out to artists at so many pauls per sitting ; but he
never passed a Roman's door except to buy a cigar or to purchase a
handkerchief. Thither, as elsewhere, we carry our insular habits with
us. We have a little England at Paris, a little England at Munich,
Dresden, everywhere. Our friend is an Englishman and did at Rome
as the English do. — Thackeray : The Newcomes.

The idea that poetry is uttered emotion, though now somewhat in
abeyance, is on the whole modern. It was distinctive with the roman-
tic school, until the successors of Scott and Byron allied a new and
refined tenderness to beauty. The first rush had been that of splendid
barbarians. It is so true that strong natures recognize the force of
passion, that even Wordsworth, conscious of great moods, was led to
confess that " poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings,"
and saved himself by adding that it takes "its origin from emotion
recollected in tranquillity." Poets do retain the impressions of rare
moments, and express them at their own time. But "the passion of
Wordsworth," under which title I have read an ingenious plea for it
by Dr. Coan, was at its best very serene, and not of a kind to hasten
dangerously his heart-beats. Like Goethe, he regarded human nature
from without ; furthermore, he studied by choice a single class of
people, whose sensibilities were not so acute, say what you will, as
those of persons wonted to varied and dramatic experiences. The
highest passion of his song was inspired by inanimate nature ; it was
a tide of exultation and worship, the yearning of a strong spirit to be
at one with the elements. Add to this his occasional notes of feeling :
the pathos of love in his thought of Lucy —

But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me !

the pathos of broken comradeship in the quatrain —

Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has brother followed brother
From sunshine to the sunless land I

Appendix B. 153

include also his religious and patriotic moods, and we have Words-
worth's none too frequent episodes of intense expression. — Stedman :
"The Nature and Elements of Poetry," Century Magazine, October,
1892, p. 860.

This is the history of the world, and all that is in it. It passes
while we look at it. Like as when you watch the melting tints of the
evening sky — purple, crimson, gorgeous gold, a few pulsations of
quivering light, and it is all gone. — Robertson.

The Chinese fought very bravely in a great many instances ; and
they showed still more often a Spartan-like resolve not to survive
defeat. When one of the Chinese cities was taken by Sir Hugh
Gough, the Tartar general went into his house as soon as he saw that
all was lost, made his servants set fire to the building, and calmly sat
in his chair until he was burned to death. One of the English officers
writes of the same attack, that it was impossible to compute the loss
of the Chinese, 'for when they found they could stand no longer
against us, they cut the throats of their wives and children, or drove
them into wells or ponds, and then destroyed themselves. In many
houses there were from eight to twelve dead bodies, and I myself saw
a dozen women and children drowning themselves in a small pond,
the day after the fight.' —Justin McCarthy : A History of Our Own
Times, Vol. I. p. 143.

Most of Mr. Kipling's characters possess the intense reality I have
spoken of in connection with Mulvany. We feel that they must exist,
though we are unfamiliar with the type. They are not in the least
like ordinary story-people who are introduced to us bit by bit with
their brains dissected and the pieces carefully labelled for identification.
They are presented to us as people are introduced in real life. From
their friends we learn something of their characters, we perceive what
they do and say, and that is all. We can puzzle our brains to divine
their thoughts and motives just as we can in the case of people we
meet every day ; but Mr. Kipling rarely tells us what we should think ;
very rarely tries to analyze the thoughts and motives of his people just
to save the reader trouble. — Harvard Monthly.

Perhaps there never was a more moral man than Mr. Pecksniff,
especially in his conversation and correspondence. It was once said
of him by a homely admirer, that he had a Fortunatus' purse of good
sentiments in his inside. In this particular he was like the girl in the
fairy tale, except that if they were not actual diamonds which fell
from his lips, they were the very brightest paste that shone prodig-
iously. He was a most exemplary man ; fuller of virtuous precept

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than a copy oook. Some people likened him to a direction-post,
which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes there, but
these were his enemies, the shadows cast by his brightness ; that was
all. His very throat was moral. You saw a good deal of it. You
looked over a very low fence of white cravat (whereof no man had
ever beheld the tie, for he fastened it behind), and there it lay, a valley
between two jutting heights of collar, serene and whiskerless before
you. It seemed to say, on the part of Mr. Pecksniff, ' There is no de-
ception, ladies and gentlemen, all is peace, a holy calm pervades me.'
So did his hair, just grizzled with an iron-gray, which was all brushed
off his forehead, and stood bolt upright, or slightly drooped in kindred
action with his heavy eyelids. So did his person, which was sleek
though free from corpulency. So did his manner, which was soft and
oily. In a word, even his plain black suit, and state of widower, and
dangling double eye-glass, all tended to the same purpose, and cried
aloud, ' Behold the moral Pecksniff ! ' — Dickens.

Language, then, is the spoken means whereby thought is communi-
cated, and it is only that. Language is not thought, nor is thought
language ; nor is there a mysterious and indissoluble connection be-
tween the two, as there is between soul and body, so that the one
cannot exist and manifest itself without the other. There can hardly
be a greater arid more pernicious error, in linguistics or in metaphysics,
than the doctrine that language and thought are identical. It is,
unfortunately, an error often committed, both by linguists and by
metaphysicians. " Man speaks because he thinks " is the dictum out
of which more than one scholar has proceeded to develop his system
of linguistic philosophy. The assertion, indeed, is not only true, but
a truism ; no one can presume to claim that man would speak if he
did not think : but no fair logical process can derive any momentous
conclusions from so loose a premise. So man would not wear clothes
if he had not a body ; he would not build spinning mules and jennies
if cotton did not grow on bushes, or wool on sheep's backs : yet
the body is more than raiment, nor do cotton bushes and sheep
necessitate wheels and water power. The body would be neither
comfortable nor comely, if not clad ; cotton and wool would be of
little use, but for machinery making quick and cheap their conver-
sion into cloth ; and, in a truly analogous way, thought would be
awkward, feeble, and indistinct, without the dress, the apparatus,
which is afforded it in language. Our denial of the identity of
thought with its expression does not compel us to abate one jot or
tittle of the exceeding value of speech to thought ; it only puts that

Appendix B. 155

value upon its proper basis. — Whitney : Language and the Study of
Language, p. 405.

It would be untrue to say of Jenny Lind that her artistic career did
not fully justify her fame, for that career was quite Napoleonic in its
splendid and unbroken success ; her conquest of Europe was no less
rapid and complete than that of the great world-shaker himself. Yet
no one can read the recently published volume of her memoirs without
feeling that in her too was present that reserve force of which Emer-
son speaks. She was not merely one of the greatest operatic artists of
her age, but an absolutely unique character and personality — a per-
sonality which found its highest expression, it is true, in her art, but
which was always perceived, even by those who most appreciated her
art, to be something quite independent of it, and impressed profoundly
even those to whom music had nothing to say. — McNeill : "Jenny
Lind," Century, December, 1892.

Finally, Gentlemen, there was in the breast of Washington one
sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper
occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he
signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent
out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand) to that last
paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union, — the Union
was the great object of his thoughts. In that first letter he tells them
that, to him and his brethren of the Convention, union appears to be
the greatest interest of every true American ; and in that last paper
he conjures them to regard their unity of government which consti-
tutes them one people as the very palladium of their prosperity and
safety, and the security of liberty itself. He regarded the union of
these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure-
house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the
great magazine of all our means of prosperity ; here, as he thought,
and as every true American still thinks, are deposited all our animat-
ing prospects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught
us to maintain this union not by seeking to enlarge the powers of the
government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other ;
but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pursuing
objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity.
— Daniel Webster : Works.

Truth of presentation has an inexplicable charm for us, and throws
a halo around even ignoble objects. A policeman idly standing at the
corner of the street, or a sow lazily sleeping against the sun, are not
in nature objects to incite a thrill of delight, but a painter may, by

156 Paragraph - Writing.

the cunning of his art, represent them so as to delight every spectator.
The same objects represented by an inferior painter will move only a
languid interest ; by a still more inferior painter, they may be repre-
sented so as to please none but the most uncultivated eye. Each
spectator is charmed in proportion to his recognition of a triumph
over difficulty, which is measured by the degree of verisimilitude.
The degrees are many. In the lowest the pictured object is so remote
from the reality that we simply recognize what the artist meant to
represent. In like manner we recognize in poor novels and dramas
what the authors mean to be characters rather than what our experi-
ence of life suggests as characteristic. — Lewes : Principles of Success
in Literature, p. 123.

Is there, then, no remedy ? Are the decay of individual energy,
the weakening of the influence of superior minds ov.er the multitude,
the growth of charlatanerie, and the diminished efficacy of public
opinion as a restraining power, — are these the price we necessarily
pay for the benefits of civilization ? and can they only be avoided by
checking the diffusion^ of knowledge, discouraging the spirit of combi-
nation, prohibiting the improvements in the arts of life, and repress-
ing the further increase of wealth and of production ? Assuredly not.
Those advantages which civilization cannot give — which in its uncor-
rected influence it has even a tendency to destroy — may yet co-exist
with civilization ; and it is only when joined to civilization that they
can produce their fairest fruits. All that we are in danger of losing
we may preserve, all that we have lost we may regain, and bring
to a perfection hitherto unknown ; but not by slumbering, and leav-
ing things to themselves, no more than by ridiculously trying our
strength against their irresistible tendencies : only by establishing
counter-tendencies, which may combine with those tendencies, and
modify them. — Mill : Dissertations and Discussions.

There is a deeper fact in the soul than compensation, to wit, its own
nature. The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul is.
Under all this running sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb and flow
with perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Essence,
or God, is not a relation or a part, but the whole. Being is the vast
affirmative, excluding negation, self-balanced, and swallowing up all
relations, parts and times within itself. Nature, truth, virtue, are the
influx from thence. Vice is the absence or departure of the same.
Nothing, Falsehood, may indeed stand as the great Night or shade on
which as a back ground the living universe paints itself forth, but no
fact is begotten by it ; it cannot work, for it is not. It cannot work

Appendix B* 157

any good ; it cannot work any harm. It is harm inasmuch as it is
worse not to be than to be. — Emerson : Essay on Compensation ;
Essays, p. 116.

To the student of political history, and to the English student above
all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a military em-
pire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many differ-
ences, 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 knowledge, 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 per-
ished 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.

Thackeray was a master in every sense, having, as it were, in himself
a double quantity of being. Robust humor and lofty sentiment alter-
nated so strangely in him, that sometimes he seemed like the natural
son of Rabelais, and at others he rose up a very twin brother of the
Stratford Seer. There was nothing in him amorphous and unconsid-
ered. Whatever he chose to do was always perfectly done. There
was a genuine Thackeray flavor in everything he was willing to say or
to write. He detected with unfailing skill the good or the vile wher-
ever it existed. He had an unerring eye, a firm understanding, and
abounding truth. " Two of his great master powers," said the chair-
man at a dinner given to him many years ago in Edinburgh, " are
satire and sympathy." George Brimley remarked, " That he could not
have painted Vanity Fair as he has, unless Eden had been shining in
his inner eye." He had, indeed, an awful insight, with a world of
solemn tenderness and simplicity, in his composition. Those who
heard the same voice that withered the memory of King George the
Fourth repeat ' ' The spacious firmament on high " have a recollection
not easily to be blotted from the mind, and I have a kind of pity for
all who were born so recently as not to have heard and understood
Thackeray's Lectures. But they can read him, and I beg of them to
try and appreciate the tenderer phase of his genius, as well as the sar-
castic one. He teaches many lessons to young men, and here is one
of them, which I quote " memoriter " from Barry Lyndon : " Do you
not, as a boy, remember waking of bright summer mornings and find-

158 Paragraph •• Writing.

ing your mother looking over you? had not the gaze of her tender
eyes stolen into your senses long before you woke, and cast over your
slumbering spirit a sweet spell of peace, and love, and fresh -springing
joy ? " — J. T. Fields : Yesterdays with Authors.

When this had been done it would be impossible for our rulers to
misunderstand the law : but, unless something more were done, it
was by no means improbable that they might violate it. Unhappily
the Church had long taught the nation that hereditary monarchy,
alone among our institutions, was divine and unavoidable ; that the
right of the House of Commons to a share in the legislative power
was a right merely human, but that the right of the king to the
obedience of his people was from above ; that the Great Charter was
a statute which might be repealed by those who had made it, but that
the rule which called the princes of the blood-royal to the throne in
order of succession was of celestial origin, and that any act of Parlia-
ment inconsistent with that rule was nullity. — Macaulay : History of
England.

The evening of life has many compensations. Youth has its pleas-
ures and old age its recollections. The evening hours of life may
even be the most beautiful, as the finest leaves of the flower are the
last to disclose themselves. The fruit grows while the flower and
leaves wither, as the mind ripens while the body appears to decay.
Cornaro, at eighty- five, said: "The spirit increases in perfection as
the body grows older." — Samuel Smiles : Life and Labor, p. 422.

There is no more interesting spectacle than to see the effects of wit
upon different characters of men ; than to observe it expanding cau-
tion, relaxing dignity, unfreezing coldness, teaching age and care and
pain to smile, extorting reluctant gleams of pleasure from melan-
choly, and charming even the pangs of grief. It is pleasant to see
how it penetrates through the coldness and awkwardness of society,
gradually bringing men nearer together, and like the combined force
of wine and oil, gives every man a glad heart and a shining counte-
nance. Genuine and innocent wit like this is surely the flavor of the
mind ! Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life
by tasteless food ; but God has given us wit and flavor and brightness
and laughter and perfumes to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage,
and to charm his pained steps over the burning marl. — Sidney Smith.

Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the
world, an hereditary monarch seems to present the fairest scope for
ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an indignant smile, that, on
the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of

Appendix B. 159

oxen, descends to his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to
himself ; and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relin-
quishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with
bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity? Satire and
declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling
colors, but our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice,
that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of
mankind ; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which
deprives the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal power, of
giving themselves a master. — Gibbon : The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 196.

""Rich as we are in biography," said Carlyle, "a well-written
life is almost as rare as a well-spent one." In the main, Hogarth's life
was well spent, so any fair-minded* critic must admit. That his life
has now been well written by Mr. Austin Dobson no fair-minded
critic would doubt for a moment. In its way, Mr. Dobson's life of
Hogarth is as good as Mr. Dobson's life of Fielding, of Steele, of Gold-
smith ; perhaps it is even richer than any of these in color and easier
in manner. It is not less a labor of love than the others, nor is it less
finely buttressed by solid knowledge. — Mathews : "Two English Men
of Letters," Cosmopolitan, April, 1892.

" You mistake the matter completely," rejoined Westervelt.

" What, then, is your own view of it ? " I asked.

" Her mind was active, and various in its powers," said he. " Her
heart had a manifold adaptation ; her constitution an infinite buoy-
ancy, which (had she possessed only a little patience to await the
reflux of her troubles) would have borne her upward, triumphantly,
for twenty years to come. Her beauty would not have waned — or
scarcely so, and surely not beyond the reach of art to restore it — in
all that time. She had life's summer all before her, a hundred varie-
ties of brilliant success. What an actress Zenobia might have been !
It was one of her least valuable capabilities. How forcibly she might
have wrought upon the world, either directly in her own person, or
by her influence upon some man, or a series of men, of controlling
genius! Every prize that could be worth a woman's having — and
many prizes which other women are too timid to desire — lay within
Zenobia's reach."

" In all this," I observed, "there would be nothing to satisfy her
heart."

"Her heart!" answered Westervelt, contemptuously. — Haw-
thorne : Blithedale Romance.

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Wheresoever the search after truth begins, there life begins ; where-
soever that search ceases, there life ceases. As long as a school of
art holds any chain of natural facts, trying to discover more of them
and express them better daily, it may play hither and thither as it
likes on this side of the chain or on that ; it may design grotesques
and conventionalisms, build up the simplest buildings, serve the most
practical utilities, yet all it does will be gloriously designed and glo-
riously done ; but let it once quit hold of the chain of natural fact,
cease to pursue that as a clew to its work ; let it purpose to itself any
other end than preaching this living word, and think first of showing
its own skill or its own fancy, and from that hour its fall is precipi-
tate, — its destruction sure ; nothing that it does or designs will ever
have life or loveliness in it more ; its hour has come and there is no
work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither it
goeth. — Ruskin : The Grounds of Art, p. 87, in Students' Series of
Classics.

I call it atheism by establishment, when any state, as such, shall
not acknowledge the existence of God as a moral governor of the
world ; when it shall abolish the Christian religion by a regular de-
cree ; when it shall persecute with a cold, unrelenting, steady cruelty,
by every mode of confiscation, imprisonment, exile, and death, all its
ministers ; when it shall generally shut up or pull down churches ;
when in the place of that religion of social benevolence, and of indi-
vidual self-denial, in mockery of all religion, they institute impious,
blasphemous, indecent, theatric rules, in honor of their vitiated, per-
verted reason, and erect altars to the personification of their own cor-
rupted and bloody republic ; when schools and seminaries are founded
at the public expense to poison mankind, from generation to genera-
tion, with the horrible maxims of this impiety ; when, wearied out
with this incessant martyrdom and the cries of a people hungering
and thirsting for religion, they permit it as a tolerated evil — I call
this atheism by establishment. — Burke.

The third function of Parliament is what I may call — preserving a
sort of technicality, even in familiar matters, for the sake of distinct-
ness— the teaching function. A great and open council of consider-
able men cannot be placed in the middle of a society without altering
that society. It ought to alter it for the better. It ought to teach the
nation what it does not know. How far the House of Commons can
so teach, and how far it does so teach, are matters for subsequent dis-
cussion. — Bagehot: The English Constitution, p. 201.

Buildings which are pictorially, if not architecturally, very valuable

Appendix B. 161

can here and there be found in every quarter of New York. The
Tombs is one of them. Jefferson Market is another. Grace Church is
a third, when we stand so far off to the southward that it seems to
finish Broadway once and for all. And still another, very different in
character, is the Quaker Meeting-house on Stuyvesant Square, which,
with its simple shape, big trees, and little plot of well-tended grass,
looks as though it had been bodily transported from some small Penn-
sylvanian town. — " Picturesque New York," Century, December, 1892.

I have talked of the danger of wit. I do not mean by that to enter
into commonplace declamation against faculties because they are
dangerous ; wit is dangerous, eloquence is dangerous, a talent for
observation is dangerous, everything is dangerous that has efficacy
and vigor for its characteristics ; nothing is safe but mediocrity. The
business is, in conducting the understanding well, to risk something ;
to aim at uniting things that are commonly incompatible. The mean-
ing of an extraordinary man is, that he is eight men, not one man;
that he has as much wit as if he had no sense, and as much sense as
if he had no wit ; that his conduct is as judicious as if he were the
dullest of human beings, and his imagination as brilliant as if he were
irretrievably ruined. But when wit is combined with sense and infor-
mation ; when it is softened by benevolence, and restrained by strong
principles ; when it is in the hands of a man who can use it and
despise it, who can be witty and something much better than witty,
who loves honor, justice, decency, good nature, morality, and religion,
ten thousand times better than wit ; wit is then a beautiful and de-
lightful part of our nature. — Sidney Smith.

I expected, upon my entrance, to find nothing but lamentations
and various sounds of misery ; but it was different. The prisoners
all seemed employed in one common design, that of forgetting thought
in merriment or clamour. I was apprised of the usual perquisite
required upon these occasions, and immediately complied with the
demand, though the little money I had was very near being ex-
hausted. This was immediately sent away for liquor and the whole
prison was soon filled with riot, laughter and profaneness. — Gold-
smith : Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xxv.

What, then, are the proper encouragements of genius ? I answer,
subsistence and respect ; for these are rewards congenial to nature.
Every animal has an aliment suited to its constitution. The heavy
ox seeks nourishment from earth ; the light chameleon has been
supposed to exist on air. A sparer diet than even this satisfies the
man of true genius, for he makes a luxurious

Off TKJJ

"UNIVERSITY

162 Paragraph - Writing.

applause. It is this alone which has inspired all that ever was truly
great and noble among us. It is, as Cicero finely calls it, the echo of
virtue. Avarice is the passion of inferior natures ; money the pay
of the common herd. The author who draws his quill merely to take
a purse no more deserves success than he who presents a pistol.

Homer calls words winged ; and the epithet is peculiarly appropri-
ate to his, which do indeed seem to fly, so rapid and light is their
motion, and which have been flying ever since over the whole peopled
earth, and still hover and brood over many an awakened soul. Latin
marches, Italian struts, French hops, English walks, German rumbles
along. The music of Klopstock's hexameter is not unlike the tune
with which a broad- wheeled wagon tries to solace itself when crawling
down a hill. But Greek flies, especially in Homer. — Hare.

But this is not enough to say. I think it certain, further, that if
we take the chief poetical names of the Continent since the death of
Moliere, and, omitting Goethe, confront the remaining names with
that of Wordsworth, the result is the same. Let us take Klopstock,
Lessing, Schiller, Uhland, Ruckert, and Heine for Germany ; Filicaia,
Alfieri, Manzoni, and Leopardi for Italy; Racine, Boileau, Voltaire,
Andre Chenier, Beranger, Lamartine, Musset, M. Victor Hugo (he
has been so long celebrated that although he still lives I may be per-
mitted to name him) for France. Several of these, again, have
evidently gifts and excellences to which Wordsworth can make no
pretension. But in real poetical achievement it seems to me indubi-
table that to Wordsworth, here again, belongs the palm. It seems to
me that Wordsworth has left behind him a body of poetical work which
wears, and will wear, better on the whole than the performance of any
one of these personages, so far more brilliant and celebrated, most of
them, than the homely poet of Rydal. Wordsworth's performance in
poetry is on the whole, in power, in interest, in the qualities which
give enduring freshness, superior to theirs. — Matthew Arnold : Preface
to Wordsworth"1 s Poems.

The personality of Rousseau has most equivocal and repulsive sides.
It has deservedly fared ill in the esteem of the saner and more rational
of those who have judged him, and there is none in the history of
famous men and our spiritual fathers that begat us, who make more
constant demands on the patience or pity of those who study his life.
Yet in no other instance is the common eagerness to condense all
predication about a character into a single unqualified proposition so
fatally inadequate. If it is indispensable that we should be forever
describing, naming, classifying, at least it is well, in speaking of such

Appendix B. 163

a nature as his, to enlarge our vocabulary beyond the pedantic formulas
of unreal ethics, and to be as sure as we know how to make ourselves,
that each of the sympathies and faculties which together compose our
power of spiritual observation, is in a condition of free and patient
energy. Any less open and liberal method, which limits our senti-
ments to absolute approval or disapproval, and fixes the standard either
at the balance of common qualities which constitutes mediocrity, or at
the balance of uncommon qualities which is divinity as in a Shake-
speare, must leave in a cloud of blank incomprehensibleness those
singular spirits who come from time to time to quicken the germs of
strange thought and shake the quietness of the earth. — Morley :
Rousseau, Vol. I. p. 5.

The number of graduates who go forth each year from our American
colleges must be nearly five thousand, since the number of under-
graduates is about twenty thousand. If we add those who are gradu-
ates of academies — those who have, as Mr. Poore generously puts it
in his Congressional Record, " received an academical education " —
the number will be greatly swelled. The majority of all these gradu-
ates will be called upon, at some time or other during their lives, to
make a speech, as will also thousands of young Americans who have
never seen the inside of college or academy. Perhaps a few hints on
speech-making may not be unavailing, when addressed to this large
class by a man much older — one who has made so many speeches
that the process has almost ceased to have terror to him, whatever
dismay it may sometimes cause to his hearers. Certainly there are a
few suggestions to be made which are not to be found in the elocu-
tionary manuals, and which would have saved the present writer
much trouble and some anguish had any one thought of offering them
to him when he left college. — T. W. Higginson : Hints on Writing
and Speechmaking.

It is only the views of important men upon important subjects
which are worth reporting, and such men are competent to express
their views in their own way. The larger number of interviewers are
not phonographers. They write out the conversation from memory,
and with the purpose of filling a certain space. But the reports of
interviews in general are merely records of the most trivial gossip or
unimportant opinion. As a part of our morning's news, for instance,
we are told at length in the newspaper that a foreign actress of doubt-
ful eminence as an artist and character as a woman was interviewed
at her hotel after arriving, and declares that she is too happy to find
herself in dear America, which blessed land it has been the hope of

164 Paragraph - Writing.

her life to see, and she is sure that she is going to like everything and
everybody ; or Mr. Brown having been nominated to be light- house
keeper, Mr. Jones and Mr. Robinson are promptly interviewed, and
declare that it is a very good or a very bad nomination, according to
their political views. — Harper's Magazine, 74 : 319.

Organization, discipline, and order characterize the new undertak-
ings on the northern ranges. In a word, the cattle business of that
section is now and has from the beginning been carried on upon
strictly business principles. Under such proprietorships, and guided
by such methods, a new class of cow-boys has been introduced and
developed. Some have come from Texas, and have brought with
them a knowledge of the arts of their calling, but the number from
the other States and the Territories constitutes a large majority of the
whole. Some are graduates of American colleges, and others of col-
legiate institutions in Europe. Many have resorted to the occupation
of cow-boy temporarily and for the purpose of learning the range
cattle business, with the view of eventually engaging in it on their
own account, or in the interest of friends desirous of investing money
in the enterprise. — Harper's Magazine, 73 : 883.

Very rough magic, as it now seems, he used in working his miracle,
but there is no doubt about his working it. One opens his Christmas
stories in this later day — The Carol, The Chimes, The Haunted Man,
The Cricket on the Hearth, and all the rest — and with "a heart
high-sorrowful and cloyed," asks himself for the preternatural virtue
that they once had. The pathos appears false and strained ; the
humor largely horse-play ; the characters theatrical ; the joviality
pumped ; the psychology commonplace ; the sociology alone funny.
It is a world of real clothes, earth, air, water, and the rest ; the people
often speak the language of life, but their motives are as dispropor-
tioned and improbable, and their passions and purposes as over-
charged, as those of the worst of Balzac's people. Yet all these
monstrosities, as they now appear, seem to have once had symmetry
and verity ; they moved the most cultivated intelligences of the time ;
they touched true hearts ; they made everybody laugh and cry. -
Harpers Magazine, 74 : 322.

At fourteen this typical New-Englander left the common schools of
Salem with such learning and love of it as the common schools seemed
to impart oftener in that day than in ours, and entered a counting-
room of the old town. At eighteen he went to sea, and at twenty-
four he was the master of a vessel. His career began in the troubled
times following the American Revolution, and it led him with varying

Appendix B. 165

fortune through the picturesque and dramatic perils of the next
thirty years in nearly every sea that washes the globe. During the
English wars with the French republic, the English wars with Napo-
leon, the English wars with ourselves, the Spanish wars with their
revolted South American provinces, the French wars with everybody,
he trafficked in every port open to honest gain. Sometimes he sailed
under one flag, and sometimes under another ; now he was an Ameri-
can citizen, and now a Danish subject ; he now carried despatches
for the French Directory, and now he protected himself with an Eng-
lish register. He turned every phase of the shifting politics and hos-
tilities of the time to account ; he was ready for any opportunity or
any emergency ; he was alert, prompt, prudent ; but he kept through
all a conscience unsullied by baseness or dishonesty. He kept some-
thing more — a faith in human nature unshaken by wrong, and a
generosity which the epithet of knightly would cheapen. On one side
he was a shrewd Yankee adventurer ; on the other, he was as fine
and high a spirit as ever dared danger in any cause. — Harper's Mag-
azine, 74 : 158.

The following paragraphs are drawn from a variety of
sources, mostly from current magazines and newspapers.
The wording and arrangement are in some instances less
careful than in the preceding examples.

The patriotic citizen who applies himself to the study and practice
of politics must have his worldly competence already assured, or he
must starve, or be tempted to forget or disregard his patriotism — one
of the essential elements of which is honesty — and pursue politics as
a trade, from which personal and pecuniary gain is to be derived. In
tne first case, if the man with a competence becomes a politician, it is
from the patriotic motive, pure and simple, of doing good to his fel-
low-men, without selfish ambition of his own ; or he follows it from a
desire to attain station and place of power; or his ultimate motive
may be a blending of both of these. If he be the rare individual who
pursues politics from the first-mentioned motive and aspires to noth-
ing but to study and understand the institutions of his country and to
make known his knowledge and the reason of it to his fellow-citizens,
he is indeed a living beneficence ; and the more of such politicians a
country can possess, the better. They may not agree in respect to
the ascertainment of their historical or practical facts ; they may widely
diverge in their conclusions in regard to the best policies to be pursued ;

166 Paragraph - Writing.

yet they are none the less the most valuable part of a political commu-
nity. If places of authority and power are bestowed upon them by the
selection of their fellow-citizens rather than by their own solicitations,
such honors become decorations of greater value than the prizes of
Grecian games or the boss ships of States.

The overwhelming tendency of modern life is toward the cities. It
almost seems as if they would have to be walled about in order to keep
in the country the proportion — four-fifths at least — which must re-
main there in order to provide food for all. Everything done " to alle-
viate the condition of the poor in great cities ' ' works in the direction
of bringing more into them ; and no argument or persuasion, or more
solid consideration of betterment, prevails to get them out after once
immersed in the pleasurable excitement of gregarious existence ; they
would rather starve in a crowd than grow fat in quietude — especially
if the "crowd" is sprinkled with aromatic "charity." Humanity,
like other semifiuids, moves in the line of least resistance and most
propulsion. Idleness drifts toward where commiseration and alms-
giving are most generous and unquestioning ; love of drink toward
where beer and liquor are most plentiful. The free soup kitchen is a
profitable neighbor for the saloon. Labor is a blessing — in disguise ;
and a free gift is often a disguised curse.

We are not among those who believe that corruption of the ballot
is sensibly increasing. Elections are increasing in expensiveness, and
there is a legitimate way to use an immense amount of money. Never-
theless it is beyond all question that in both parties there is employed
by responsible or irresponsible persons, with or without the knowl-
edge of candidates to be benefited thereby, a very large amount of
money for the purchase of venal voters. The Australian ballot laws
in so many of our States tend to diminish this evil, and public senti-
ment also has its effect. But it is not stamped out, and the lower
class of politicians are not anxious to have it stamped out. There is a
tendency to have it increased, because where one party adopts meth-
ods of corruption the other party feels forced to do the same. It is
often easier to fight fire with fire than to fight fire with water.

What will be the state of affairs, what the dawning hope, when this
century shall have closed ? The law of all things human is that of ebb
and flow. History attests and observation shows that ideas constantly
react one against another. In philosophy it is from the asjies of skep-
ticism that spiritualism has always sprung ; a tumult of ideas politi-

Appendix B. 167

cal, social, religious, has always been followed by a period of consoling
calm and of fruitful progress. So if the same mysterious influence is
still in force, the generation to follow the present one will not feel the
present discouragements, will scorn the indecisions and the vain agita-
tions of this twilight period, and will push on with burning ardor to
some new development or to some redevelopment. That of which we
are assured is, that this great nineteenth century will leave its suc-
cessor, besides the material and scientific results which will survive it,
elements of force and of life holding large possibilities and capable of
developing into grander attainments than any yet reached.

The crushing defeat of the Republican party amazes as much as it
appals many Republicans. They could understand the reverse of
eight years ago. It came from an objectionable candidate for the
Presidency, and it was won only by carrying States which had been
doubtful for some years previously. But this election takes in the
whole northern portion of the country in its revolutionary features,
and is as all-pervading a verdict against the Republicans as could well
have been rendered. Their voters were unprepared for such a result,
and many of them honestly fail to understand it. Yet we have never
known a defeat the causes of which were plainer or more obviously
apparent.

The relation of trades unions to civilization is much misunderstood,
and this misunderstanding has resulted in hostility to the unions.
Unions discipline, train and educate the working classes beyond all
other agencies. They turn them from inchoate mobs into drilled
bodies. They are far better than armies because they discuss impor-
tant questions, spread information among those who most need it,
set minds to thinking that otherwise would never stir, protect the
ignorant, the weak, and the oppressed, and tend to abolish poverty by
their constant push for higher wages. To join a trades union always
signifies in the workman a willingness to submit to discipline and
restraint, to hear questions discussed, to consider rights and wrongs.
The better workmen are more generally unionists than the inferior.

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 suc-
cess, 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

168 Paragraph - Writing,

he feels secure. Why should we not require of every immigrant also
his letter of recommendation ? Why should we allow the whole riff-
raff of creation to come here, either to become a burden on our chari-
table 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 enough for such persons. But for immigrants who have
neither capital nor skill, who never earned a living in their own coun-
try and will never earn one here, we have no room whatever. Popu-
lar opinion throughout the country is running in this direction and
Congress will do well to take heed.

The substitution of shells for solid shot marks an important epoch
in naval artillery. The probable effect of a shot could be predeter-
mined and provided for ; that of a shell was unknown. In order to
produce serious injury with a shot, it was necessary to perforate the
side of an enemy. This was not indispensable with a shell ; with the
latter, perforation might be dispensed with, as penetration to such a
depth as would give efficacy to the explosion might prove more destruc-
tive to the hull than would absolute perforation. With the shot,
damage was done to life and material in detail ; with the shell, if
successfully applied, destruction was threatened to the entire fabric,
with all it contained. Naval artillery entered a new phase ; the rough
appliances of the past would no longer answer all demands. The
founder could not alone equip the battery ; the laboratory was called
into use and pressed to provide from its devices. The "new arm "
depended upon the successful working of the fuse of the shell, without
which it was but a hollow substitute for a solid shot, and this detail
demanded the utmost care in preparation. It was the perfecting of
this device which, more than aught else, delayed the general adoption
of the new artillery for so long a time after its advantages had been
recognized.

Only those who know what the condition of the English working
classes some fifty years ago really was can properly appreciate the
changes which have been wrought largely by independent associative
work in trades unions, cooperative societies, and friendly societies.
The three movements have gone on hand in hand, and some day I trust
the link between unionists and cooperators will be tightened. Mr.
Burt, whose opinion is so widely respected by his fellow-unionists and

Appendix B. 169

all who care for English working-men, has told us that he too looks
forward in hope that cooperative industry may do great things for the
future of the industrial class. The wastefulness of our present method
of supply through unnecessary middle-men, and the constant strain of
relations between employers and employed, are two of the problems
of to-day which need the thoughtful consideration of all earnest men.
The cooperative movement has attempted to deal with them, and in
so doing may fairly claim the widest sympathy. If it has not alto-
gether succeeded, yet the work it has accomplished in forty years has
surpassed the hopes of those who were most sanguine at its be-
ginning.

Truly, this is an age of blither, and I am not sure that, of all,
the most offensive is not the Wagner blither. That the Bayreuth
performances have many good qualities, it would be senseless to deny ;
that Wagner cannot be as adequately rendered elsewhere, it would be
equally foolish to pretend. That some of his best interpreters are to
be heard at Bayreuth is true; but that their singing there without
wage adds to their merit, when nowhere could they find a better
advertisement or be more royally feted, is but the sentimental fancy
of a fashionably sentimental public. Of all the Bayreuth fallacies,
however, none is greater than the belief that at the Wagner Theatre
the problem of artistic stage management has been most successfully
solved.

Mr. Harrison's announcement that he will use the veto power, if
he is given a chance, shows the Republican politicians in the West
who have been demanding free coinage that they will simply dig their
own graves if they keep up their shouting. Mr. Harrison is the head
of the Republican party. He declares that he will veto a certain bill
if it reaches him. The great majority of his party applaud this
announcement of his purpose. The minority of the party can accom-
plish nothing practical in the way of legislation by continuing their
agitation. Moreover, they cannot help their party in their own States,
or their own standing in the party, by keeping up the cry for free
coinage. They will simply array themselves against the overwhelm-
ing sentiment of their party, and will get nothing but abuse in
return. In short, so far as free coinage in the Republican party is
concerned, Mr. Harrison's deliverance shows that "there is nothing
in it" for the party as a party, or for ambitious politicians as self-
seekers ; and that is all that was necessary to make them ready to
drop it.

170 Paragraph - Writing.

His book is thoroughly interesting, and has a unique value as a
contribution to the history of American civilization. It is not possible
always to agree with Mr. Clay about himself, but he is a man, and it
is no harm that he should know it. One need not care that he is not
aware of his limitations, that he speaks with equal confidence on all
points, and that his bold ideas of art and literature are somewhat
grotesque. When others, who knew art and literature so very much
better, were cowering before that hideous idol of slavery, he rose and
dealt it a deadly blow in its sanctuary, among worshippers whose
hands were instantly lifted against his life. About a book or a statue
we can let him be mistaken, since he was right about humanity.

The growing dissatisfaction in Germany with the sugar-bounty laws
has at last led to their practical repeal. A law of May 31, regulating
the inspection of beet-grown sugar and its domestic taxation, provides
for the gradual lessening and final discontinuance of the drawback
and bounty heretofore paid to exporters of refined sugar. The
bounty is to cease altogether at the end of five years. The bounty
laws have undoubtedly extended the area of beet culture. The
sugar-producers have also been benefited at the expense of the rest of
the community, for while they were getting their bounty out of the
public treasury, the English were getting all the cheap sugar. The
authorities have at last grown tired of taxing Germans for the sake of
lowering the price of sugar in England. The curious question
remains, how long it will be before the other Continental countries
that copied German sugar legislation will admit, as Germany now
does, that it is all a delusion and a snare. The German precedent
was freely cited by our own bounty advocates in the last Congress,
who have nothing but contempt for the example of " abroad," except
when it is a bad example and they want to follow it. Now that it
fails them, they will doubtless disown all foreign models, and fall
back on their favorite thesis that the United States are privileged to
defy all the established canons of taxation and finance.

To Great Britain's jingoism in Venezuela the United States is sure
to oppose the Monroe doctrine sooner or later, no matter what party
may be in power in the former country. This hemisphere is destined
to be free from foreign shackles from the utmost North to the remot-
est South. And the United States will see to it that not one foot
more of territory is appropriated in either North or South America by
any European power. The boundary of British Guiana as it existed
under treaty cannot be exceeded by Great Britain. All the recent

Appendix S. 171

encroachments and claims are illegal and void. The presence of a
strong squadron of United States war vessels may not imply hostility,
but it implies a maintenance of the Monroe doctrine. The compara-
tively feeble navy of the United States is not the only obstacle in Eng-
land's way on this occasion. All the men and all the wealth of the
Western Hemisphere, with slight exception, would be ready to resist
Great Britain in her attempt to extend her possessions from her lawful
boundary at the Essequibo to the Orinoco over the gold fields and one-
third of the entire territory of the republic of Venezuela. With such
a leader for the Americas as the United States, and with the United
States fully determined under a vigorous administration to maintain
American rights, the Western Hemisphere will be safe from Eastern
aggression. If Great Britain has any real doubt about the legal
boundaries here is an admirable opportunity for further strengthening
the principle that all international disputes between the New World
and the Old are to be settled by arbitration, not by force.

Necessary restraints upon judicial excesses are expressed in three
generally accepted maxims : that a man is considered innocent until
he is proven guilty, that trial must be public, and that the accused
cannot be compelled to criminate himself. These principles occasion
much inconvenience in detection and consequent conviction, and are
often conveniently ignored or violated. The experience of the detec-
tive leads him to assume that any suspected man is guilty, and to
treat him accordingly. It is therefore common to use the power of
confinement to keep away legal counsel from the accused as long as
possible. The excuse for this is that a shrewd attorney finds some
way of setting a client free before the legal process is well under
motion. As confession is more easily secured in private than in pub-
lic, the prisoner is subjected to what amounts to secret examination.
In this way many criminals are brought to conviction. The end is
understood to justify the means. It is said that in China judges
resort to torture as the only practicable way of eliciting truth. With
us, also, it is difficult to secure the needed facts. But whether it is
necessary that the inferior officers of the law should, at preliminary
stages and in secret, pursue a course that contradicts maxims of per-
sonal liberty acknowledged in higher courts, is a fair subject of
inquiry. When a young woman whose parents have been murdered
is subjected to repeated examinations for the purpose of eliciting tes-
timony which may amount to criminating herself, while any adviser
is rigidly excluded, we have something not wholly unlike the torture
chamber.

172 Paragraph - Writing.

Although the heart and mind of Whittier were for the most part
absorbed in the agitation against slavery, some of the strongest proofs
of his purely artistic faculty were exhibited before the close of the
civil war ; among these may be named such ballads as Maud Mul-
ler, Skipper Ireson, and The Pipes at Lucknow. It is, nevertheless,
true that the national as distinguished from the sectional awakening
to the charm of Whittier 's verse dates from the publication in 1866-7
of Snow Sound and The Tent on the Beach. In these compositions
it is evident that his aspirations and endeavors are tending to turn
away from a homiletical or didactic purpose to the embodiment of
aesthetic beauty. But, although he no longer weakened the artistic
effect of a composition by tacking to it a moral, it must not be in-
ferred that Whittier was ever a conscious advocate of art for art.
His whole nature was steeped in a sense of duty and responsibility,
and it is doubtful if he could even comprehend beauty divorced
from goodness. His conception of the poet was rather that of the
vates, or bard, who elevates, than that of the pceta, or maker, whose
exclusive purpose is tp please. In his view the possession of artistic
powers implied a divine commission to lift, invigorate and purify
mankind. — New York Sun. .

APPENDIX C.

1.
(a) TEN-MINUTE THEMES IN EXPOSITION AND ARGUMENT.

The exercises provided in Appendix A 12 demand
deeper subjects of a character requiring time for prepara-
tion and reading on the part of the student. As a correc-
tive for the bookishness that will often appear in the
paragraphs written outside the class, it will be well for the
student to write frequently, in the class-room, paragraphs
on simple familiar subjects. The time for writing should
be limited to ten or fifteen minutes, at the expiration of
which, members of the class should be called upon, at
random, to read what they have written, the class and

Appendix C 1. 173

instructor joining in the criticism. This exercise may be
continued advantageously throughout the course. Constant
practice in writing under pressure produces rapidity, facil-
ity, naturalness, and individuality of expression. At first
it will be well to allow each student to select his own sub-
ject and to determine what he will say about it, before
coining to the class. Later, the exercise should be wholly
impromptu. Subjects of immediate local interest about
which the student community is talking and thinking at
the time are especially valuable for this impromptu work.
Subjects which have come up during the week in the his-
tory and literature classes may also be utilized in this work.
The following are printed merely to show the range and
character of subjects that may be employed in this connec-
tion. They are necessarily general in character, whereas
the actual subjects given should be specific. The instructor
will be able to supplement this list with other subjects of
more immediate interest and better adapted to the grade
and attainments of his class. A choice of subjects should,
if possible, be offered at all times.

1. Why do many dislike the study of rhetoric ?

2. Advantages of literary societies.

3. Proper observance of Sunday by students.

4. Manners in the class-room.

5. Advantages of the work in manual training.

6. What does the school most need ? Reasons.

7. How may a student best divide his time ?

8. Some of the uses of writing frequently.

9. Why we lost the last ball-game.

10. Why I like or dislike the last book I read.

11. A defense of Shylock.

12. Arguments against long examinations.

NOTE. — Other subjects for ten-minute themes may be found under ' Practice in
Outlining Themes ' (p. 175), the main headings of the outlines made by the class being
used for titles.

1 74 Paragraph - Writing.

(b) OTHER SOURCES OF THEMES.

The work which the class may be doing in other branches
of study will frequently suggest numerous themes for im-
promptus. Thus, if the composition class is also working
in English history, themes like the following may occasion-
ally be given : —

1. Life of our ancestors in Germany.

2. How our ancestors punished crime.

3. Eoman influences in England.

4. A description of the Conqueror's reforms.

5. Wat Tyler's Kebellion.

6. The scene at Eunnymede.

7. The work of the Star-chamber.

8. The story of Mary, Queen of Scots.

9. Jack Cade's Kebellion.

10. Story of Thomas a Becket.

11. Eichard and the princes.

12. The Eoyal Oak.

13. The Spanish Armada.

Thus, too, if the composition class is also doing work in
reading and studying English authors or American authors,
themes in abundance may be chosen in the direct line of
their work. To illustrate, a class studying Longfellow, and
reading some of his poems, might properly be given themes
like the following : —

1. Longfellow at Bowdoin and at Harvard.

2. The great sorrow of Longfellow's life.

3. How Edgar A. Poe regarded Longfellow.

4. A description of Longfellow's home.

5. The story of the children's armchair.

6. Longfellow's friends.

7. The main points of Morituri Salutamus.

Appendix O 1. 175

8. Longfellow's travels.

9. The story of Evangeline.

10. The story of Miles Standish.

11. The story of one of the Tales of a Wayside Inn.

12. Longfellow's ideas of slavery.

13. A scene from Hiawatha.

Set down in brief the points you would mention if writing
on the following topics. Re-arrange the points under a
few main heads, distinguishing principal from subordinate
points. Account for the order in which you have re-ar-
ranged the points.

Descriptions.

1. Abridge. 2. The human hand. 3. A landscape. 4. A
ball-game. 5. A portrait. 6. A room. 7. A face. 8. A
statue. 9. A flower. 10. A church. 11. A foot-race.
12. A city. 13. A busy street. 14. A building. 15. A
riot. 16. A field of corn. 17. A skating scene. 18. A fire.
19. A workshop. 20. A country village. 21. A flour mill.
22. A gypsy woman. 23. A book agent. 24. A wanderer.
25. A lawyer's office.

Narratives.

1. An eventful day. 2. A horseback ride. 3. Learning
to swim. 4. Sitting for a picture. 5. Earliest recollec-
tions. 6. A beggar's story. 7. Story of the Prisoner of
Chillon. 8. Story of Burns's life. 9. A visit to Bunker
Hill Monument. 10. Story of Goldsmith's life. 11. Story
of Kasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. 12. Early life of John
Milton. 13. Story of Joan, of Arc. 14. The Regicides.
15. The Charter Oak. 16. Paul Eevere's ride. 17. The

176 Paragraph - Writing.

Fountain of Youth. 18. The Man in the Moon. 19. Story
of the experiences of a school-desk. 20. A lost letter.

Exposition.
(By Partition and Division.)

1. Clouds. 2. Winds. 3. Forms of government. 4. Fine
arts. 5. Educational systems. 6. Theories of the origin of
language. 7. Theories of electricity. 8. Duties. 9. Eights.
10. The human eye. 11. A steam-engine. 12. A state.
=3. The federal government. 14. Useful books. 15. The
electric telegraph. 16. Law. 17. Politeness. 18. Herbert
Spencer's literary work. 19. Duties of a citizen. 20. Plans
for private reading. 21. The great religions. 22. Habits
of ants. 23. Habits of climbing plants. 24. Orders of
architecture. 25. Classes of literature.

Exposition.
(By Examples.)

1. Power of inherited tendencies. 2. Persecution favor-
able to a cause. 3. Intelligence in dogs. 4. Power of early
training in literary men. 5. Literature as an aid to social
reforms. 6. The prodigality of Nature. 7. Caprices of
fashion. 8. Moral heroism. 9. Follies of our ancestors.
10. Intolerance in colonial New England. 11. Intelligence
in ants. 12. Convenience of slang. 13. Statesmanship in
recent Congresses.

Exposition.

(By Comparison and Contrast.)

1. Longfellow and Tennyson. 2. The two Locksley
Halls. 3. History and biography. 4. The drama and the
novel. 5. Mechanical and artistic invention. 6. Pauperism

Appendix (71. 177

and poverty. 7. Talent and genius. 8. The British Parlia-
ment and the Congress of the United States. 9. Dickens
and Thackeray. 10. The Hebrew patriarch and the Scottish
chief. 11. Caesar and Alexander. 12. Shakespeare's Rich-
ard III. and the Richard III. of history. 13. Shakespeare's
Brutus and the Brutus of history. 14. German and Italian
music. 15. A Roman home and an American home. 16. A
Roman boy's sports and an American boy's sports. 17. A
Roman boy's schooling and an American boy's schooling.
18. Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots. 19. Napo-
leon and Wellington. 20. Grant and Lee. 21. Socialism
and individualism. 22. A Stoic and a Christian. 23. Web-
ster and Calhoun. 24. Jefferson and Jackson. 25. Wash-
ington and Lincoln.

Exposition.
(Popular.)

1. The uses of science studies. 2. Prospects of civil ser-
vice reform. 3. Results, to science, of Arctic explorations.
4. The principles of the Whig party. 5. The revival of
Know-nothingism. 6. Benefits of foreign immigration.
7. Influence of the theater. 8. The University Extension
movement. 9. The work of Chautauqua. 10. Value of
African explorations. 11. Significance of the People's
party movement. 12. Advantages of the World's Colum-
bian Exposition. 13. Was the purchase of Alaska wise ?
14. Training afforded by historical study. 15. Modern farm-
ing. 16. Influence of Thomas Carlyle. 17. Reasons for the
success of the American Revolution. 18. Causes of the Civil
War. 19. Influence\pf James Russell Lowell. 20. The mis-
takes of strikes. 21? Education value of popular lectures.
22. How to take notes. 23. The meaning of the Ancient
Mariner. 24. The problem of Elsie Venner. 25. Dickens
as a reformer of schools. 26. The character of the English-

178 Paragraph - Writing.

speaking people. 27. Advantages of the Australian ballot
system. 28. Power of Tammany. 29. Causes of the
French Ee volution. 30. How to read periodicals. 31. How
to read by topics and indexes. 32. The prevailing thought
of Shakespeare's Tempest. 33. The meaning of reciprocity.

Argument.

1. Military schools should be encouraged. 2. Thackeray
had no sympathy for the poor. 3. A large standing army
is desirable in this country. 4. Our sea-coast defenses
should be increased. 5. The assassination of Julius Caesar
was justifiable. 6. Intercollegiate athletic contests should
be abolished. 7. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots,
was justifiable. 8. There should be an educational qualifi-
cation for voting. 9. Church property should be taxed like
other property. 10. The Governor of Ohio should have the
veto power. 11. The treatment of Koger Williams was un-
justifiable. 12. Mohammedanism has been a benefit to the
world. 13. Foreign missions are not so important as home
missions. 14. The Sandwich Islands should be annexed to
the United States. 15. Grant's administration was a fail-
ure. 16. The civil service reform law should be extended
to apply to more classes of officials. 17. The Indian has
not been treated justly. 18. Protection by bounties is
cheaper than protection by tariff. 19. The war of the
United States against Mexico was unjustifiable. 20. Eng-
land's occupation of Egypt is right. 21. Strikes are inex-
pedient. 22. English is likely to become the language of
the world. 23. Capital punishment for murder is justifi-
able. 24. Party spirit is beneficial. 25. Prohibition is
rightfully made a national issue. 26. Trusts and trade
combinations are an evil. 27. Education should be compul-
sory. 28. Fortunes should be limited by law.

Appendix O 2. 179

2.
TEN-MINUTE THEMES IN NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION.

Subjects for ten-minute impromptus in narration and
description are found in abundance. The writing of such
paragraphs constitutes the greater part of the work of news-
paper men, and, indeed, of almost all writing, and a large
amount of such practice should be given. The list ap-
pended will suggest the class of subjects suitable for this
work. Others of more local interest should be provided.

1. A description of a sleigh-ride.

2. A report of the last lecture I heard.

3. How I spent the holidays.

4. The coasting party.

5. A description of the ball-game.

6. Antics of a fountain-pen.

7. The new building.

8. Views from my window.

9. The room in which we recite.

10. The reading-room.

11. A day camping.

12. My experience at fishing.

13. A personal adventure.

14. Loss of a trunk.

15. A visit to an art-gallery.

16. A visit to a machine-shop.

17. Below the falls at Niagara.

18. A report of the last concert.

19. An historical incident.

20. A story from General Grant's life.

21. A letter describing my school-life.

22. A report of last Sunday's sermon.

NOTE. — Other subjects for ten-minute themes may be found under 'Practice in
Outlining Themes,' (j>. 175), the main headings of the outlines made by the class beint;
used for titles.

180 Paragraph - Writing.

(a) REPRODUCTIONS.
(Class-room work.)

It is advisable, in beginning this work, for the instructor,
after having read the selection, to develop with the class
an orderly outline of topics to be followed by all. This
will be found advantageous until the habit of detecting the
principal points of a selection, has been formed, when each
student may be left to make his own selection of topics.
The following directions will be helpful to the student in
making his outline : (1) Select but few general topics and
those the main ideas of the piece read, (2) Express each
topic briefly and clearly, (3) Do not repeat the same idea
in two or more places, (4) See that none of the main points
are omitted, (5) Ee-arrange the topics selected, so that
the order will be natural.

The following contain selections or are themselves of
suitable length for reading by the instructor, outlining, and
reproduction by the class within the limits of a recitation
hour : —

1. Selections from Irving's Sketch Book.

2. Anderson's Historical Reader.

3. Swinton's Studies in English Literature.

4. Keadings from English History by J. R. Green.

5. The Student's Eeader, by Eichard Edwards.

6. Hawthorne's Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales.

7. Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales.

8. Garnett's English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria.

9. Genung's Rhetorical Analysis.

10. Cathcart's Literary Eeader.

11. Andrew Lang's Letters to Dead Authors.

12. Hamerton's Intellectual Life.

13. Parton's Life of Jackson.

Appendix C 3. 181

14. Dickens's Pickwick Papers, — short stories in Vol. I.
chaps. 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, portraits in chaps. 15, 17, 21, 25,
others in Vol. II.

15. Irving's Tales of the Alhambra.

16. Addison's Vision of Mirza.

17. Burroughs's Birds and Bees.

18. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

19. Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal.

20. Lowell's The Singing Leaves.

21. Matthew Arnold's The Forsaken Merman.

22. Whittier's Skipper Ireson's Eide.

23. Bryant's Ode to a Waterfowl.

24. Holmes's Chambered Nautilus.

25. Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night.

26. Burns's John Barleycorn.

27. Longfellow's Bell of Atri.

28. Leigh Hunt's Abou Ben Adhem.

29. Whittier's Voices of Freedom.

30. Whittier's Pipes at Lucknow.

31. Whittier's Ballads.

32. Longfellow's Shorter Poems.

33. The Humbler Poets.

34. Proctor's Half-hours with the Stars.

35. Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.

36. Scudder's Book of Folk Stories.

37. Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur.

38. Lanier's The Boy's Percy.

39. Knox's Boy Travelers.

40. Burke's Speeches.

41. Studies from Euripides. (Morley's Univ. Libr.)

42. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair.

43. Thompson's Green Mountain Boys.

44. Gray's How Plants Behave.

45. Lander's Imaginary Conversations.

46. Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii.

182 Paragraph - Writing.

47. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Eome.

48. Tennyson's Sir Galahad.

49. Whittier's Tent on the Beach and Snow Bound.

50. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather.

51. Church's Story of the Iliad.

52. Church's Story of the ^neid.

53. Hanson's Stories from Vergil.

54. Church's Stories from Homer.

55. Winchell's Sketches of Creation.

56. Church's Roman Life in the Days of Cicero.

57. Bret Harte's Luck of Eoarin' Camp.

58. Selections from Plutarch's Lives.

59. Selections from Pepys's Diary.

60. Headley's Napoleon and His Marshals.

61. Thackeray's Roundabout Papers.

62. Gayley's Classic Myths in English Literature.

(6) PARAPHRASES AND ABSTRACTS.

(Outside work.)

The following list is made up of books, containing chap-
ters especially adapted to this work, and of articles, or
essays, in which the plan of construction is prominent and
admirable. The selections are too long for reading in class
and are intended for special assignment as outside work, a
written paraphrase, abstract, or outline to be presented in
class by the student.

1. Parsons. The Saloon in Society. Atlan., 59 : 86.

2. Cable. The Freedman's Case in Equity. Century,
7 : 409.

3. Cable. The Silent South. Century, 8 : 674.

4. Landor. Steele and Addison. Works, Vol. 5.

5. De Foe. The Fire of London.

6. Johnson. Life of Addison.

Appendix O 3. 183

7. Macaulay. Essay on History.

8. Quincy. Invasion of Canada. Speeches, p. 355.

9. Suniner. Are We a Nation? Works, 12 : 191.

10. Sumner. No Property in Man. Works, 8 : 359.

11. Sumner. Duties of Massachusetts. Works, 3 : 121.

12. Everett. American Literature. Orations, 1.

13. Webster. The Constitution not a Compact. Works, 3.

14. Lowell. The Independent in Politics. Essays, 295.

15. Walker. Socialism. Scribner (N. S.), 1 : 107.

16. Lowell. Democracy, p. 3-42.

17. Macaulay. On the Athenian Orators.

18. Short. Claims to the Discovery of America. Galaxy,
20 : 50.

19. Fiske. The Federal Union. Harper, 70 : 407.

20. Higginson. The Era of Good Feeling. Harper,
68 : 936.

21. Kingsley. The Fount of Science. Nat'l Sermons,
108-133.

22. Geo. Eliot. Address to Working Men. Essays, 322.

23. Whately. Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon,
p. 11-85.

24. Dawes. An Unknown Nation. Harper, 76 : 598.

25. Warner. Comments on Canada. Harper, 78 : 520.

26. Sill. Should a College Educate? Atlan., 56 : 207.

27. White. On Reading Shakespeare. Galaxy, 22 : 518,

28. House. The Thraldom of Japan. Atlan., 60 : 721.

29. Mulford. The Object of a University. Atlan.,
58 : 747.

30. Powell. The Failure of Protection. Eraser, 104 : 99.

31. Froude. The Book of Job. Short Studies, 1 : 228.

32. Howell. Strikes. Eraser, 101 : 118.

33. Black. The Electoral Conspiracy. No. Am., 125 : 1.

34. White. Popular Pie. Galaxy, 18 : 532.

35. White. Americanisms. Galaxy, 24 : 376.

36. Gladstone. Kin beyond Sea. Gleanings, 1 : 203.

184 Paragraph - Writing.

37. Gladstone. Aggressions on Egypt. Gleanings,
4:341.

38. Gladstone. Work of Universities. Gleanings, 7 : 1.

39. Gladstone. Wedgwood. Gleanings, 2 : 181.

40. Froude. England's War. Short Studies, 2 : 382.

41. Froude. Party Politics. Short Studies, 3 : 309.

42. Freeman. George Washington. Greater Greece,
etc., 62.

43. Green. ^Eneas. Studies, etc., 227.

44. Welles. History of Emancipation. Galaxy, 14 : 838.

45. Coan. The Value of Life. Galaxy, 15 : 751.

46. Spencer. Philosophy of Style. Essays, 9.

47. Sumner. Politics in America. No. Am., 122 : 47.

48. Roosevelt. Kecent Criticism of America. Murray's
Mag., 4 : 289.

49. Arnold. General Grant. Murray's Mag., 1 : 130.

50. Allen. Landowning and Copyright. Eraser, 102 : 343.

51. Howell. Trades Unions. Eraser, 99 : 22.

52. Arnold. Introduction to Wordsworth's Poems.

53. Arnold. Literature and Dogma.

54. Arnold. Introduction to Johnson's Chief Lives.

55. Arnold. Introduction to Ward's English Poets.

56. Taine. Introduction to History of English Litera-
ture.

57. De Quincey. Essay on English Language. Works, 3.

58. Eiske. Manifest Destiny. Essays.

59. Tyndall. Scientific Use of the Imagination.

60. Bagehot. Physics and Politics.

61. Bagehot. The English Constitution and Other
Essays.

62. Leckey. History of Eationalism.

63. Mill. Dissertations and Discussions.

64. Fiske. Darwinism and Other Essays.

65. Pater. Appreciations.

Appendix D 1. 185

APPENDIX D.

INTRODUCTORY AND CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS.
An Introduction of Purpose.

The design of this supplemental chapter is to exhibit some of the
evidences on which the foregoing points are taken. — Stedman : Vic-
torian Poets, p. 203. [The paragraph continues at some length,
showing the interest of the subject for students of minstrelsy.]

An Introduction giving the Writer's Point of View.

Life is not only "stranger than fiction," but frequently also more
tragical than any tragedy ever conceived by the most fervid imagina-
tion. Often in these tragedies of life there is not one drop of blood to
make us shudder, nor a single event to compel the tears into the eye.
A man endowed with an intellect far above the average, impelled by a
high-soaring ambition, untainted by any petty or ignoble passion, and
guided by a character of sterling firmness and more than common
purity, yet, with fatal illusion, devoting all his mental powers, all his
moral energy and the whole force of his iron will to the service of a
doomed and unholy cause, and at last sinking into the grave in the
very moment when, under the weight of the top-stone, the towering
pillars of the temple of his impure idol are rent to their very base, —
can anything more tragical be conceived ?

That is, in a few lines, the story of the life of John C. Calhoun. —
Von Hoist: John C. Calhoun, p. 1.

A Conclusion adding a Thought.

Whatever may be the fate of this plan for a national federation of
women, [The essay has advocated this plan.] one thing is certain.
Women have learned the omnipotence and happiness of cooperative
work, and the weakness and weariness of that which is isolated. And
this is sure to make them more fruitful of accomplishment hereafter,
whether their plans of work shall include themselves, their homes and

186 Paragrap h - Writing .

their children, society or the nation. — Mary A. Livermore, in North
American Review, September, 1891.

A Summarizing Conclusion.

Meanwhile let practical America recognize the truth that war is a
calamity that may overtake the most peaceful nation and thatr insurance
against war by preparation for it, is, of all methods the most business-
like, the most humane, and the most in accordance with the teachings
of the Christian religion. [Points that were argued in the essay.] —
S. B. Luce, in North American Review, December, 1891.

A Partial Conclusion repeating the Theme which was proposed

at the Beginning.

On the whole, then, as I said at the beginning, not only is Words-
worth eminent by reason of the goodness of his best work, but he is
eminent also by reason of the great body of good work which he has
left to us. With the ancients I will not compare him. In many
respects the ancients are far above us, and yet there is something
that we demand which they can never give. Leaving the ancients, let
us come to the poets and the poetry of Christendom. Dante, Shaks-
peare, Moliere, Milton, Goethe, are altogether larger and more splen-
did luminaries in the poetical heaven than Wordsworth. But I know
not where else, among the moderns, we are to find his superiors. —
Matthew Arnold : Preface to Wordsworth's Poems.

An Introduction setting forth broadly the Limits and Purpose.

Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that
the Emperor Francis II. had announced to the Diet his resignation of
the imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the
oldest political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it
was so. The Empire which a note issued by a diplomat on the banks
of the Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew
of Julius had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath
the cliffs of Actiuin ; and which had preserved almost unaltered,
through eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes
in extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which
all meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked
the old world to the new — nothing else displayed so many strange

Appendix D 2. 187

contrasts of the present and the past, and summed up in those con-
trasts so much of European history. From the days of Constantine
till far down into the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy,
the recognized head and center of Christendom, exercising over the
minds of men an influence such as its material strength could never
have commanded. It is of this influence and of the causes that gave
it power, rather than the external history of the Empire, that the fol-
lowing pages are designed to treat. — Bryce : The Holy Eoman
Empire^ p. 1.

Introduction by a Comparison.

Quiritus Curtius tells us that, in certain seasons, Bactria was dark-
ened by whirlwinds of dust, which completely covered and concealed
the roads. Left thus without their usual landmarks, the wanderers
awaited the rising of the stars, — "To light them on their dim and
perilous way." May we not say the same of Literature ? From
time to time its pathways are so obscured beneath the rubbish of the
age, that many a footsore pilgrim seeks in vain the hidden route. In
such times it may be well to imitate the Bactrians : ceasing to look
upon the confusions of the day, and turning our gaze upon the great
Immortals who have gone before, we may seek guidance from their
light. In all ages the biographies of great men have been fruitful in
lessons ; in all ages they have been powerful stimulants to a noble
ambition ; in all ages they have been regarded as armories wherein
are gathered the weapons with which great battles have been won. —
Lewes : The Story of Goethe's Life.

TRANSITIONAL AND DIRECTIVE PARAGRAPHS.
A Paragraph of Transition.

And now permit me to add a few observations on another aspect
of this subject, which is not without its importance. — Hamerton :
Intellectual Life, Part ix. Letter v.

A Directive Paragraph.

From Milton's poetry we turn to his prose ; and first it is objected
to his prose writings that the style is difficult and obscure, abounding

188 Paragraph - Writing.

in involutions, transpositions, and Latinisms ; that his protracted
sentences exhaust and weary the mind, and too often yield it no
better recompense than confused and indistinct perceptions. — Chan-
ning: Milton.

[The thought having thus been directed from Milton's poetry to
the objections urged against Milton's prose, the next paragraph is
occupied with the consideration of these objections.]

A Paragraph of Transition.

[Shelley (Defense of Poetry) has just shown that the highest
pleasure is linked with pain.]

The production and assurance of pleasure in this highest sense is
true utility. Those who produce and preserve this pleasure are poets
or poetical philosophers. [In the next paragraph they are named.]

A Paragraph of Transition and Amplification.

A second reason which lends an emphasis of novelty and effective
power to Shakespeare's female world is a peculiar fact of contrast
which exists between that and his corresponding world of men. Let
us explain. — De Quiricey : Biographies. [The remainder of the
paragraph is occupied with the explanation.]

A Directive Paragraph.

Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the reasons I
have just given, I think this new project of hedging- in population to
be neither prudent nor practicable. — Burke : Speech on Concilia-
tion. [In the following paragraphs Burke shows why.]

A Directive Paragraph making an Unexpected Change of

Subject.

The very great length to which this article has already been
extended makes it impossible for us to discuss, as we had meant to
do, the characters and conduct of the leading English statesmen at
this crisis. But we must offer a few remarks on the spirit and

Appendix D 3. 189

tendency of the Revolution of 1688. — Macaulay : Sir James Mack-
intosh's History of the Bevolution, p. 338.

AMPLIFYING PARAGRAPHS.

[Lord Bolingbroke, in his Study of History, announces, in one
paragraph, the fact that history widens our experience and corrects
our narrowness. In the next paragraph he amplifies this idea by
means of examples, as follows : ]

Let me explain what I mean by an example. There is scarce any
folly or vice more epidemical among the sons of men than that
ridiculous and hurtful vanity by which the people of each country are
apt to prefer themselves to those of every other ; and to make their
own. customs, and manners, and opinions, the standards of right and
wrong, of true and false. The Chinese mandarins were strangely
surprised, and almost incredulous, when the Jesuits showed them how
small a figure their empire made in the general map of the world.
The Samojedes wondered much at the Czar of Muscovy for not living
among them ; . . . now nothing can contribute more to prevent us
from being tainted with this vanity than to accustom ourselves early
to contemplate.the different nations of the earth in that vast map
which history spreads before us ... I might shew by a multitude
of other examples how history prepares us for experience and guides
us in it ... 1 might likewise bring several other instances wherein
history serves to purge the mind of those national partialities and prej-
udices that we are apt to contract in our education. — Bolingbroke :
Of the Study of History, Letter ii.

A Paragraph of Amplification expanding a Thought
already hinted at.

What may we imagine his own feeling to have been in this crisis of
his fate ? The thought of Edinburgh society would naturally stir
that ambition which was strong within him, and awaken a desire to
meet the men who were praising him in the capital, and to try his
powers in that wide arena. It might be that in that new scene some-
thing might occur which would reverse the current of his fortunes,
and set him free from the crushing poverty that had hitherto kept him

190 Paragraph -Writing.

down. Anyhow, he was conscious of strong powers which fitted him
to shine, not in poetry only, but in conversation and discussion ; and,
ploughman though he was, he did not shrink from encountering any
man or any set of men. Proud, too, we know he was, and his pride
showed itself in jealousy and suspicion of the classes who were socially
above him, until such feelings were melted by kindly intercourse with
some individual man belonging to the suspected orders. He felt him-
self to surpass in natural powers those who were his superiors in rank
and fortune, and he could not, for the life of him, see why they should
be full of this world's goods, while he had none of them. He had not
yet learned — he never did learn — that lesson, that the genius he had
received was his allotted portion, and that his wisdom lay in making
the most of this rare inward gift, even on a meagre allowance of the
world's external goods. But perhaps, whether he knew it or not,
the greatest attraction of the capital was that in that new excitement
he might escape from the demons of remorse and despair which had
for many months been dogging him. He may have fancied this, but
the pangs which Burns had created for himself were too deep to be
in this way permanently put by. — Shairp : Robert Burns, p. 39.

A Paragraph amplifying the Thought stated at the Close

of the Preceding.

•

The secret of his settled unhappiness lay in the affections that he
had abused in himself and in others who had trusted him. The course
he had run since his Irvine sojourn was not of a kind to give peace to
him or to any man. A coarse man of the world might have stifled the
tender voices that were reproaching him, and have gone on his way
uncaring that his conduct —

" Hardened a' within,
And petrified the feeling."

But Burns could not do this. The heart that had responded so feel-
ingly to the sufferings of lower creatures, the unhoused mouse, the
shivering cattle, the wounded hare, could not without shame remem-
ber the wrongs he had done to those human beings whose chief fault
was that they had trusted him not wisely but too well. And these
suggestions of a sensitive heart, conscience was at hand to enforce —
a conscience wonderfully clear to discern the right, even when the will
was least able to fulfil it. The excitements of a great city, and the
loud praises of his fellow-men, might enable him momentarily to for-

Appendix E. 191

get, but could not permanently stifle inward voices like these. So it
was with a heart but ill at ease, bearing dark secrets he could tell to
no one, that Burrs passed from his Ayreshire cottage into the applause
of the Scottish capital. — Shairp : Robert Burns, p. 40.

APPENDIX E.
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS.

1. Let each student read one of the stories, essays, or
speeches referred to in the list below. The essays and
speeches will be the best to begin the work with.

2. As he reads he should write in his note-book, (1) the
theme of each paragraph ; (2) the function of each para-
graph, whether transitional, directive, amplifying, illustra-
tive, etc. ; (3) he should note what bearing each paragraph
has upon the subject of the whole selection and how it car-
ries forward the plan as a whole ; (4) he should make from
his notes a connected synopsis of the selection.

3- At a subsequent meeting of the class, the members
report, the selections are reproduced orally from the synop-
sis, and any paragraph whose function could not be deter-
mined is read in full and criticised or explained by the
class.

4. In the case of the longer selections, report the main
points and make a synopsis of the whole selection; but
determine the rhetorical functions of only a reasonable
number of the paragraphs. The work may be done piece-
meal, the student reporting a part of his analysis from week
to week. Copy and bring into class for criticism and dis-
cussion whole paragraphs about which there is doubt when
read.

5. For the first exercise let all the class analyze the same
speech or essay.

192 Paragraph - Writing.

6. The list given in Appendix C 3 (&) may also be drawn
upon for this work.

(a) STORIES.

1. Aldrich. Marjorie Daw. Atlan., 31 : 407.

2. Hawthorne. The Gentle Boy.

3. Higginson. A Charge with Prince Eupert. 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 Night 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. Boyeson. 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.

Appendix E. 193

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.

26. Thanet. Day of the Cyclone. Scribner (1ST. 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 Chris-
topher North, 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 Valerii. 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. 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 Vedder. 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. Corah., 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.

1 94 Paragrap h - Writing.

51. Whelpley. The Denslow Palace. Atlantic Stories.

52. Cooke. Miss Lucinda. Atlantic Stories.

53. Hale. The Queen of the Red Chessmen. Atlantic
Stories.

54. Nordhoff. Elkanah Brewster's Temptation. Atlantic
Stories.

55. Chesbro. Victor and Jacqueline. Atlantic Stories.

56. Arnold. Why Thomas Was Discharged. Atlantic
Stories.

57. Lowell. A Eaft 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. Craddocls. His Day in Court. Harper, 76 : 56.

63. Matthews. A Secret of the Sea. Harper, 71 : 78.

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 Angelus. Harper, 73 : 517.

68. Craddock. Lonesome Cove. Harper, 72 : 128.

69. Reade. Tit for Tat. Harper, 66 : 251.

70. Boyeson. A Dangerous Virtue. Scribner, 21 : 745.

71. Boyeson. 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.

Appendix E. 195

81. Thackeray. Eebecca and Eowena. 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 Wycherley. Harper, 75 : 56.

87. Woolson. A Flower of the Snow. Galaxy, 17 : 76.

(b) ESSAYS, SPEECHES, SKETCHES.

1. Eepresentative British Orations. 3 vols.

2. Eepresentative American Orations. 3 vols.

3. Huntington. A Plea for Eailway 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 Free 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 Eeview, 7 : 31.

12. Phelps. Shylock vs. Antonio, Atlan., 57 : 463.

13. Long. Of Style. An Old Man's Thoughts.

14. Locksley Hall and Sixty Years After. Poet Lore,
Jan. 1893.

15. Davis. Shakespeare's Miranda and Tennyson's Elaine.
Poet Lore, Jan. 1893.

16. Stoddard. The English Laureates. Cosmop. Jan.
1893.

196 Paragraph - Writing.

17. Billson. The English Novel. Westminster Eev.
Jan. 1893.

18. Rogers. G. W. Curtis and Civil Service Eeform.
Atlan. Jan. 1893.

19. Johnson. The Transformation of Energy. West-
min. Eev. Dec. 1892.

20. White. Homes of the Poor. Chautauquan, Jan.
1893.

21. Bartlett. The Prison Question. Am. Jour. Politics,
Jan. 1893.

22. Higginson. Boston. St. Nicholas, Jan. 1893.

23. Acworth. Eailway Mismanagement. 19th Cent. Dec.
1892.

24. Brooke. Tennyson. Contemp. Eev. Dec. 1893.

25. Mace. Universal Suffrage in France. No. Am. Jan.
1893*

26. Dodge. A Bible Lesson for Herbert Spencer. No.
Am. Jan. 1893.

27. Williams. The Kindergarten Movement. Century,
Jan. 1893.

28. Flower. Are We a Prosperous People ? Arena, Jan.
1893.

29. Hadley. Jay Gould and Socialism. Forum, Jan.
1893.

30. Campbell. Women Wage Earners. Arena, Jan. 1893.

31. Hadley. Ethics as a Political Science. Yale Eev.
Nov. 1892.

32. Gosse. Tennyson. New Eev. Nov. 1892.

33. Kingsley. English Literature. Lit. and Gen. Essays,
245.

34. Eepplier. Benefits of Superstition. Books and Men,
33.

35. Dawkins. Settlement of Wales. Fort. Eev. Oct.
1892.

36. Edmunds. Politics as a Career. Forum, Dec. 1892.

Appendix E. 197

37. Scudder. The Place of College Settlements. An-
dover Eev. Oct. 1892.

38. Adams. Municipal Government.. Forum, Nov. 1892.

39. Andrews. Are there too Many of Us ? No. Am.
Nov. 1892.

40. Matthews. Two Studies of the South. Cosmop.
Nov. 1892.

41. Cable. Education for the South. Cosrnop. Nov.
1892.

42. Walsh. The Ethics of Great Strikes. No. Am. Oct.
1892.

43. Gunsaulus. The Ideal of Culture. Chautauquan,
Oct. 1892.

44. Stoddard. James Russell Lowell. Lippincott's, Oct.
1892.

45. Garner. Monkey's Academy in Africa. New Eev.
Sept. 1892.

46. Lowell. Old English Dramatists. Harper's, June-
Sept. 1892.

47. Patmore. Three Essayettes. Fort. Eev. July
1892.

48. Adams. Some Eecent Novels. Fort. Eev. July
1892.

49. Johnson. The First University. Westmm. Eev.
Sept. 1892.

50. Flower. The Menace of Plutocracy. Arena, Sept.
1892.

51. Habberton. Social Science in Business Life. Chau-
tauquan, Sept. 1892.

52. Besant. Literature as a Career. Forum, Aug. 1892.

53. Farrar. Shaftesbury's Work among the London
Poor. Meth. Mag. Aug. 1892.

54. Woodbury. Shelley's Work. Century, Aug. 1892.

55. Eepplier. Wit and Humor. Atlan. Dec. 1892.

56. Fowler. Whittier and Tennyson. Arena, Dec. 1892.

1 98 Paragraph - Writing.

57. Gladden. The Problem of Poverty. Century, Dec.
1892.

58. Smith. Arnold of Eugby. Educ. Rev. Dec. 1892.

59. Nevinson. Goethe as a Minister of State. Contemp.
Rev. Nov. 1892.

60. Gladstone. Did Dante Study in Oxford? Nine-
teenth Cent., June 1892.

61. Schwatka. Land of the Living Cliff Dwellers. Cen-
tury, June 1892.

62. Bellamy. Progress of Nationalism in the United
States. No. Am. -June 1892.

63. Bigelow. Bismarck. Contemp. Eev. May 1892.

64. Parke. How General Gordon was Really Lost. Nine-
teenth Cent. May 1892.

65. Eddy. My Business Partner — the Government.
Forum, May 1892.

66. Tyndall. Coast Protection. New Eev. April 1892.

67. Mooney, Catholic Controversy about Education.
Educ. Eev. March 1892.

68. Hanus. The Influence of Comenius. Educ. Eev.
March 1892.

69. Gladden. The Plain Path of Reform. Charities
Review, April 1892.

70. Delboef. Criminal Suggestion by Hypnotism. Mon-
ist, April 1892.

71. Bradley. Patrick Henry. Macmillan's Mag. March
1892.

72. Scudamore. Egypt and the Late Khedive. Black-
wood's, Feb. 1892.

73. Gilder. Paderewski. Century, March 1892.

74. Hubbard. The Tax on Barbarism. N. E. and Yale
Rev. March 1892.

75. Buel. The Louisiana Lottery. Century, Feb. 1892.

76. White. Suppression of Lotteries. Forum, Feb.
1892.

Appendix 'E. 199

77.

The Short Story. Atlan. Feb. 1892.

78. Edmunds. Perils of our National Elections. Forum,
Feb. 1892.

79. Tolman. Studies in Macbeth. Atlan. Feb. 1892.

80. Dodge. Progress in Agriculture. Amer. Agric. Jan.
1892.

81. Gale. The Marble Faun Interpreted. K E. and
Yale Eev. Jan. 1892.

82. Boyesen. W. D. Howells and his Work. Cosmop.
Feb. 1892.

83. Arnold. Love and Marriage in Japan. Cosmop. Feb.
1892.

84. Atkinson and Cabot. Personal Liberty. Pop. Sc.
Mo. Feb. 1892.

85. Adams. Eise and Fall of Fonseca. Cosmop. Feb.
1892.

86. Goodwin. English and American Schoolboys. School
and College, Feb. 1892.

87. Macgregor. Socialism. Bib. Sac. Jan. 1892.

88. Walker. How a Bill presented in Congress becomes
a Law. Chautauquan, Feb. 1892.

89. Davies. Compulsory Education. Westminster Eev.
Feb. 1892.

90. Earle. The Study of English. Forum, March
1892.

91. Cox. Men of '61. Why they Fought. Atlan. March
1892.

92. Lathrop. John Boyle O'Eeilly. Cent. Dec. 1891.

93. Lowell. Shakespeare's Eichard III. Atlan. Dec.
1891.

94. Sears. Football — Sport and Training. 'No. Am.
Eev. Dec. 1891.

95. James. James Eussell Lowell. Atlan. Jan. 1892.

96. Powell. A World-wide Eepublic. Arena, Jan. 1892.

97. Stedman. Juliet's Runaway. Poet-Lore, Jan, 1892.

200 Paragrap h - Writing.

98. Mills. General Booth's Experiment. Unitar. Rev.
Dec. 1891.

99. Walton. A Brief for Ophelia. Poet-Lore, Nov.
1891.

100. Handy. Negro Superstitions. Lippincott's, Dec.
1891.

101. Freeman. Dangers to the Peace of Europe. Forum,
Nov. 1891.

102. Benton. Lowell's Americanism. Cent. Nov. 1891.

103. Potter. The Profit of Good Country Eoads. Forum,
Nov. 1891.

104. Atkinson. Free Coinage of Silver. Forum, Oct.
1891.

105. Farrar. An English Estimate of Lowell. Forum,
Oct. 1891.

106. Gosse. Eudyard Kipling. Century, Oct. 1891.

107. Eepplier. The Oppression of Notes. Atlan. Aug.
1891.

108. Clark. Public Life. Forum, July, 1891.

109. McCracken. Six Centuries of Self-G-overnment.
Atlan. Aug. 1891.

110. Walker. Immigration and Degradation. Forum,
Aug. 1891.

111. Thatcher. The Failure of the Jury System. No.
Am. Eev. Aug. 1891.

112. Dilke. Trades Unions for Women. No. Am. Eev.
Aug. 1891.

113. Hurlbut. Eeciprocity and Canada. No. Am. Eev.
Oct. 1891.

114. Shaler. Nature of the Negro. Arena, Dec. 1891.

115. Mathews. The Whole Duty of Critics. New Eev.
Nov. 1890.

116. Martin. The Chinese as they See Us. Forum, Feb.
1891.

117. Gosse. Influence of Democracy on Literature.
Conternp. Eev. Apr. 1891.

Appendix E. 201

118. Osgood. Political Ideas of the Puritans. Pol. Sc.
Quart. March 1891.

119. Eainsford. What can We Do for the Poor ? Forum,
Apr. 1891.

120. McCracken. Arnold Winkelreid. Atlan. Apr. 1891.

121. Eice. The Example of a Great Life. No. Am. Eev.
Apr. 1891.

122. Morris. New Africa. Lippincott's, Apr. 1891.

123. Nelson. Town and Village Government. Harper's,
June 1891.

124. Eichardson. The College Settlement. Lippincott's,
June 1891.

125. Walker. Colored Eace in the United States.
Forum, July 1891.

126. Buckley. Christianity and Socialism. Harper's,
July 1891.

127. Dewey. Poetry and Philosophy. Andover Eev.
Aug. 1891.

128. Caylor. Theory and Introduction of Curve Pitch-
ing. Outing, Aug. 1891.

129. Blum. The Russia of To-day. Arena, May 1891.

130. Eouss. Cash vs. Credit. Belford's Mag. March 1891.

131. Spreckels. The Future of the Sandwich Islands.
No. Am. Eev. March 1891.

132. Salter. The Problem of the Unemployed. New
Eng. Mag. March 1891.

133. Stark. Silver Coinage. Arena, Jan. 1891.

134. Shearman. The Coming Billionaire. Forum, Jan.
1891.

135. Shaler. Individualism in Education. Atlan. Jan.
1891.

136. Allen. The Case of Eoger Williams. Unitar. Eev.
Jan. 1891.

137. McCracken. Legend of William Tell. Atlan. Nov.
1890.

202 Paragraph - Writing.

138. Gladden. The Embattled Farmers. Forum, Nov.
1890.

139. Kitson. The Logic of Free Trade and Protection.
Pop. Sc. Mo. Nov. 1890.

140. Tilly. The Shibboleth of Public Opinion. Forum,
Nov. 1890.

141. Stoddard. Thomas Buchanan Reed. Lippincott's,
Feb. 1891

142. Bridges. Coeducation in Swiss Universities. Pop.
Sc. Mo. Feb. 1891.

143. Eoosevelt. An Object Lesson in Civil Service Ee-
form. Atlan. Feb. 1891.

144. Miles. Progress in Agricultural Science. Pop. Sc.
Mo. Feb. 1891.

145. Hyatt. Public Parks. Atlan. Feb. 1891.

146. Woods. University Extension in England. An-
dover Eev. March 1891.

147. Coxe. Do we Hate England ? Forum, March
1891.

148. Danziger. Labor Unions and Strikes in Ancient
Eome. Cosmop. March 1891.

149. Graham. Supposed Tendencies to Socialism. Pop.
Sc. Mo. March 1891.

150. Child. The Argentine Capital. Harper's, March
1891.

APPENDIX F.
EEPOBTING, EDITING, AND PROOFREADING.

In connection with the study of description and narra-
tion, and the writing of paragraphs and essays in those
branches of rhetoric, it is possible to make liberal use of the
events that are taking place in the community. The class

Appendix F. 203

may be organized into groups for reporting different local
events of importance, and for describing local points of
interest. The assignment of events to be reported may be
made beforehand together with directions as to the length
and character of the articles expected. Reports are written
and handed in at a time specified, and are -read by the in-
structor and criticised by the class as to wording, method
of treatment, success in picturing the scene, etc. The dif-
ferent reports are, in fact, edited by the class, as if for pub-
lication. The use of printers' marks as given on page 1928
of Webster's International Dictionary, or on pages 131-3 in
HilPs Elements of Rhetoric may be taught by practice in
connection with this work. Proof-sheets in which errors
of all kinds are purposely multiplied, may be secured at any
printing office at small expense, and these may be distrib-
uted to students for correction of errors.

A proof-sheet consists of two parts : first, the body of
type which is to be corrected ; second, the broad white mar-
gin in which the corrections are indicated for the printer.
Corresponding to these two parts are two general classes of
correction-marks : (1) Those which are written in the body
of the type to point out the place where correction is
needed ; (2) Those which are written in the margin to show
the nature of the correction.

(1) The marks inserted in the type comprise (a) strokes
made through letters, words, or marks of punctuation,
(b) carets and inverted carets, (c) horizontal curves, and
(d) underscoring with lines and dots.

(2) The signs used in the margin may be classified as

(a) words, letters, punctuation, etc., that are intended to
take the place of errors in the type, or to supply omissions ;

(b) abbreviations of such terms as ' transpose/ ' wrong font/
etc., words which indicate to the printer the kind of error
chat has been committed; (c) conventional signs that have
come down from the early days of the art of printing.

204 Paragraph - Writing.

These two classes of signs should always be used in con-
junction. Every error marked in the type must have a cor-
responding mark in the margin to attract the printer's eye ;
no mark is to be made in the margin which has not some
corresponding mark in the type. But the two classes must
be kept each in its proper place. In the type are to be
placed only those marks which indicate the place at which
error has been made. The margin is reserved for marks
denoting the nature of the correction.

Although the errors which are possible of occurrence in
the setting of type are numerous, all, or nearly all, may
be brought under the following heads : (1) Insertion of
new or omitted matter ; (2) striking-out ; (3) substitution ;
(4) transposition ; (5) inversion ; (6) spacing.

The errors and, the method of correcting them are illus-
trated in the accompanying plate. In the explanation which
follows, the numbers which stand before the headings of
the paragraphs refer to the corresponding numbers in the
plate.

EXPLANATION OF THE CORRECTIONS.
1. Substitution of one letter for another.

In the type : A stroke through the letter. In the margin :
The letter which is to be substituted for that in the type,
followed by a slanting line.

The slanting line serves both to attract the printer's eye and to separate one letter
or word from another in case two or more corrections are made in the same line of
type.

2. A Letter Inverted.

In the type : A stroke through the inverted letter. In the
margin: The inversion-sign.

> /

Appendix F. 205

THOUGH several differing opinions exist as to

the individual by wrfom the art of printing was
first discovered; yet all authorities concur in
admitting Peter Schoeffer to be the person3
who invented cast metal types, having learned
the art -e£ of cutting the letters from the Gu-
s:/ tenbergs/ he is also supposed to have been
6$ the first whoengraved on copper plates. The?/-/
following testimony is preseved in the family, 8 ^/
V by I/Jo. l/Fred. ^ Faustus, ^of ^Ascheffenburg :
">| — | i\' Peter Schoeffer, of Gernsheim, perceiving
»\y his master Fausts design, and being himself
"^ ^desirous | ardently] to improve the art, found
out (by the good providence of God) the
method of cutting (incidendi) the characters
in a matrix, that the letters might easily be
5;/ singly castl instead of bieng cut. He pri-
«4j_ vately cut matrices\ for the whole alphabet:

Faust was so pleased with the contrivan
^-"" / / A

-^at he promised .Peter to give him hjaronly ^/-

16 " daughter Christina in marriage, ^c promise

which he soon after performed.
I9^/ ^But there were many^xlffficulties at first

with these letters, as/mere had been before
ao , with wooden one>^the metal being too soft 3 /^ /

to support th^force of the im pression: but21^^

this defect was soon remedied, by mixing

3 S 21 Ja

a sut^Cance with the metal which sufficiently ^.
5 Q hamened it/

/cma ^cwe/n n& 4newea ntA
catf fiom

206 Paragraph - Writing.

3. Change of Type.

(a) Lower case to capitals (line 4). In the type: Three
lines under the words to be changed. In the margin : The
abbreviation ' Caps.'

Small letters are called, by printers, lower case letters ; capitals and small capitals,
upper case letters. A change from upper to lower case, is indicated by underscoring
once the word in the type and writing the abbreviation '1. c.' in the margin. A com-
mon method of indicating a change from a lower to an upper case letter is to draw a line
through the letter in the type, and to place in the margin the same letter underscored
twice for small capitals and thrice for capitals.

(b) Lower case to small capitals (line 11). In the type:
Two lines under the words to be changed. In the margin :
The abbreviation ' S. Caps.'

(c) Roman to italics (lines 21, 25). In the type: One
line under the word to be changed. In the margin: The
abbreviation < Ital.'

(d) Italic to Roman (line 24). In the type: One line
under the word to be changed. In the margin : The abbre-
viation ' Rom.'

4. Striking-out.

In the type : A horizontal stroke through the word which
is to be removed. In the margin : The dele, or sign of omis-
sion.

The dele (a Latin imperative meaning * destroy ') is made in a variety of ways, all
resembling in some degree the Greek letter 5.

5. Change of Punctuation.

(a) Comma to colon (line 7). In the type: A stroke
through the comma. In the margin : A colon followed by a
slanting stroke.

(b) Colon to comma (line 17). Same as (a).

Appendix F. 207

6. Space between Words increased.

In the type : A caret at the point where correction is to
be made. In the margin : A double cross.

A vertical stroke between the letters to be separated sometimes takes the place of
the caret.

7. Insertion of an Omitted Hyphen.

In the type : A caret at the point where correction is to
be made. In the margin: A hyphen between slanting
strokes.

8. Insertion of an Omitted Letter.

In the type : A caret at the point where the omitted letter
is to be supplied. In the margin : The missing letter fol-
lowed by a slanting stroke.

9. Space between Words diminished.

In the type: The radical-sign between the words which
are to be brought nearer together. In the margin: The
same sign.

Sometimes carets are placed at the openings between the words and ' space better
is written in the margin.

10. Indenting for Paragraph.

In the type : A caret at the point where the indentation is
to be made. In the margin : A square.

Other marginal signs for a paragraph-indentation are the following : ^, ] .

11. Insertion of an Omitted Apostrophe.

In the type : A caret at the point where the apostrophe is
to be inserted. In the margin: An apostrophe in an in-
verted caret.

The inverted caret serves to distinguish the apostrophe from the comma. For the
insertion of the latter, see No. 5 (6). Sometimes an inverted caret is used in the type
as well as in the margin.

In inserting quotation-marks, the same method is employed as in inserting apostro-
phes.

208 Paragraph - Writing.

12. Transposition.

(a) Transposing words (line 13). In the type: A line
passed over the first word and under and around the second.
In the margin : The abbreviation ' tr.?

(b) Transposing letters (line 17). In the type: A line
under the letters to be transposed. In the margin: The
abbreviation <tr.'

(c) Changing the order of several words (line 28). In
the type : Numbers placed over the words to be transposed,
so as to indicate the order in which they are to be arranged.
In the margin : The abbreviation ' tr.'

In transposing letters, a curved line is sometimes passed above the first and below
the second. When it is desired to transfer a word or mark of punctuation from one
place to another, a circle is thrown about the word or mark, and a line carried through
the type (as in No. 15) to'a caret at the point where the insertion is to be made. The
marginal sign in such cases is the same.

13. Restoring a Word which has been stricken out.

In the type : A line of dots under the word. In the mar-
gin: The Latin word stet (( Let it stand ').

14. Depressing a Quad.

In the type: A horizontal line under the quad. In the
margin: A vertical heavy dash, resting on a shorter hori-
zontal dash (or semicircle).

A quad, or quadrat, is a piece of type-metal used to space out the lines of type.
Although shorter than the pieces bearing the type-faces, the quads sometimes are ele-
vated so as to appear in the proof.

15. Insertion of Omitted Glauses or Sentences.

In the type : A caret, showing the point at which the
words are to be supplied. In the margin: The omitted

DIVERS:

Appendix F.

clause or sentence, from which is drawn a line to the caret
in the type.

When the omitted passage is so long that to rewrite it in the margin would be a waste
of time, the printer is referred to the original manuscript. In such case a caret is placed
in the type and the words ' out, see copy,' or • out, s. c.,' are written in the margin. In
the manuscript the omitted words should be inclosed in brackets.

16. Straightening Crooked Lines of Type.

In the type: The depressed words or letters inclosed in
parallel lines. In the margin : The parallel lines extended
into the margin.

Sometimes other shorter parallel lines are placed In the margin opposite those in
the type.

17. Change of Font.

In the type: A stroke through the letter or word to be
changed. In the margin: The abbreviation <w. f.' (' wrong
font7)-

The letter P in line 20 is blacker than the other capitals, as will be seen by compar-
ing it with the same letter in line 4.

18. Two Paragraphs united in One.

In the type: A curved line drawn from the end of the
first paragraph to the beginning of the second. In the
margin : ' No If .'

In the margin the words * run in * are sometimes used.

19. Insertion of a Word.

In the type: A caret at the point where the omission
occurs. In the margin : The omitted word, followed by a
slanting stroke.

210 Paragrap h - Writing .

20. Substitution of a Perfect for a Defective Type.

In the type: A cross under (or through) the defective
letter. In the margin : A cross.

21. Uniting the Separated Parts of a Word.

In the type: Horizontal curves inclosing the separated
parts. In the margin : Horizontal curves.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

1. In cases of doubt, strike out the matter to be corrected
and rewrite it in the margin exactly as it should appear in
the type.

2. The logotypes fi, ffi, are used instead of the separate
letters fi, ffi. When ae is desired in place of ae, it is indi-
cated by a horizontal line or curve above the two letters.

3. The following errors are somewhat difficult of detec-
tion : (a) changes of font, when the types of the two fonts
are much alike; (b) inversion of s and x; (c) the occur-
rence of inverted n; u, b, and p, for u, n, q, and d,
respectively.

(a) Differences in fonts can be learned only by expe-
rience. The principal differences are in the shape of the
letters, the thickness or blackness of the lines, and the
size of the face.

(b) Inverted s and x may be detected by the fact that the
lower part of these letters is slightly larger than the upper
part.

(c) The main differences between n and inverted u, b
and inverted q, d and inverted p, lie in the small pro-
jections which start at right angles from the sides or stems
of these letters. For example, in n the projections at the
bottom of the letter are seen on both sides of the prongs or

Appendix F. 211

'legs.' In u these projections are seen on but one side.
The differences in the other pairs of letters will be readily
detected upon examination.

4. Other inversions for which it is well to be watchful
are those of the letter o, the cipher, the period, the comma,
and the colon.

5. The spacing of the punctuation requires some care.
Notice that the comma follows immediately the preceding
word, but is separated by a slight space from the word that
follows ; that the semicolon and colon stand a little way off
from the preceding word ; that the period is followed by a
considerably greater space than the other points.

6. Type is set either ' solid,' that is, without spacing
between the lines ; or ' leaded/ that is, with the lines sepa-
rated by thin strips of type-metal, known as ' leads.' When
but one 'lead' is used between each pair of lines, the type
is said to be ' single-leaded ' ; when two e leads ' are used,
the type is said to be 'double-leaded.' The type in this
book is single-leaded; that in the accompanying plate is
double-leaded. Errors in leading are of two kinds, (a)
omitting leads, and (6) inserting them where they are not
needed. In correcting the first error a horizontal caret is
placed with its point between the lines of type which are
to be separated, and in the margin at the opening of the
caret is written the word 'lead.' When a lead has been
unnecessarily used, the same sign is inserted in the type
and 'no lead' is written in the margin.

7. Words may be carried up or down, to the right or left,
by means of brackets placed about the words and repeated
in the margin. The significance of the brackets is as fol-
lows : ] means ' carry to the right ; ' [ means ' carry to the
left ' ; , — , means ' move up ' ; , , means ' move down.'

8. Corrections are made in the margin nearest which they
occur. If the corrections are numerous, it is well to draw
lines from the marks in the type to those in the margin.

212 Paragrap h - Writing.

APPENDIX G.
1.

GENERAL REFERENCE LIST.

The student should learn how to consult and use the
following in investigating a subject.

1. Poole's Index of Magazine Literature. This consists
of classified lists of references to magazine articles on all
subjects, arranged alphabetically. It is supplemented by
yearly issues, and a new volume is published at intervals
of several years.

2. Encyclopedias, notably the Britannica, usually give
at the close of each important article a list of authorities
that may be consulted in further investigation of the
subject.

3. Card Catalogues. Almost every library of consider-
able size is provided with a card catalogue both of subjects
and of authors.

4. References for Literary Workers, by H. Matson.
This book contains classified lists of references to subjects
in history, biography, politics, literature, science, etc. It
should be in every reference library. Especially valuable
to debaters.

5. A Manual of Historical Literature, by C. K. Adams.
Especially valuable in estimating the weight of a historian's
statements.

6. Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science gives special
articles on subjects in political science, political economy,
and United States History, and at the close of each article
a valuable bibliography.

7. Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia is valuable for recent
history and accounts of recent progress in science.

8. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.

Appendix Gr 2. 213

9. The Review of Reviews and the Literary Digest
devote much space to classified lists of important magazine
articles of the current month. Public Opinion is made up
mainly of selections from newspapers.

10. Allibone's Dictionary of Authors.

11. Providence Library Reference Lists.

12. Old South Leaflets.

13. Brewer's Reader's Handbook.

14. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

15. British Year-Book and Companion.

16. Bowker and Iles's The Reader's Guide in Economic,
Social, and Political Science.

17. J. F. Sargent's Reading for the Young (Boston:
1890).

18. Descriptive Index of Current Engineering Literature
(Chicago: 1892).

19. Galloupe's General Index to Engineering Periodicals
(Boston: 1888,1892).

The United States Census Reports and the Circulars of
Information issued by the National Board of Education can
be used to good effect when they are available. A Subject-
Index of the latter was issued in 1891.

A CLASSIFIED LIST OF ESSAY SUBJECTS.
English Language and Literature.

1. Dickens as a reformer.

2. What part of his course should a student devote to
English ?

3. Arguments for spelling-reform.

4. Compare Tennyson's two poems on Locksley Hall.

5. A history of the office of Poet-Laureate.

6. Should the office of Poet-Laureate be abolished ?

214 Paragraph - Writing.

7. The problems in the Marble Faun.

8. The late Cardinal Newman as a literary man.

9. Lowell's essay on Democracy.

10. What is the problem discussed in Elsie Venner ?

11. Dr. Johnson's strength and weakness as a prose
writer.

12. What are the peculiar characteristics of Bryant's
poetry ?

13. Justify Whittier's title " The Poet of Freedom."

14. Dr. Holmes's " Story of Iris " — its meaning.

15. Richard III. in Shakespeare and in history.

16. Shy lock vs. Antonio — a plea for Shylock.

17. Shelley's place in English Poetry.

18. Goldsmith's Parson (Deserted Village) compared
with Chaucer's. ,

19. Problems in Hawthorne's House of the Seven
Gables.

20. The Book of Job treated as a tragedy.

21. Emerson's Essay on Manners — is the theory ade-
quate ?

22. Were Matthew Arnold's criticisms on America just ?

23. Is Taine's estimate of the influence of the Puritans
on literature correct ?

24. Literary characteristics of Dr. Watts's hymns.

2$. Compare Emerson's idea of Napoleon with Taine's.

26. The effect of Methodism on eighteenth century lit-
erature.

27. Account for the present neglect of Paradise Lost,
by readers.

28. Dr. Johnson's estimate of Dryden.

29. Influence of Lowell's Biglow Papers.

30. A study of words ending in -able or -ible.

31. Compare Shakespeare's Caesar with the Caesar of
history.

32. What is the meaning of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner ?

Appendix 6r 2. 215

33. A comparison of Tennyson's Ulysses and Guinevere.

34. A comparison of Tennyson's Ulysses and Northern
Farmer.

35. Is the English language likely to become universal ?

36. The Bacon-Shakespeare controversy.

37. Richelieu in Bulwer and in history.

38. Fashions in literature.

39. The Bible in Tennyson.

40. Pathos in Dickens.

41. Tennyson's earlier and later poetry compared.

42. Spelling-reform.

43. Some over-worked words.

44. Rhythm in prose.

45. The use of slang.

46. Cant English expressions.

47. Influence of the so-called religious novel.

48. The Brook Farm experiment.

49. Pronunciation of English words.

50. What classes speak the best English ?

51. A study of the word " reliable."

52. Defective rhymes in English verse.

53. Some Americanisms examined.

54. Crime in standard fiction.

55. Henrik Ibsen's influence in America.

56. Voltaire on Shakespeare.

57. The tragedy of Lear.

58. Dickens the people's novelist.

59. The work of Amelia B. Edwards.

60. The Alhambra.

61. Famous literary clubs at the English Universities.

62. Early forms of the drama in England.

63. The England of Chaucer.

64. Influence of the Puritans on literature.

65. Milton's religious views.

66. Character of Thackeray's Becky Sharp.

216 Paragraph - Writing.

67. Bryant's and Walt Whitman's Americanism.

68. Irving — a typical literary man.

69. Historical basis of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

70. Scott's reason for ceasing to write poetry.

71. Causes of dramatic decline in the seventeenth century.

72. Influence of patrons on literature.

73. Coffee-house criticisms in the eighteenth century.

74. Theocritus in Tennyson.

75. Seventeenth century satire.

76. Walt Whitman's place in American poetry.

77. American literature in the eighteenth century.

78. Tennyson as a dramatist.

79. Lanier's theory of English verse.

80. The lesson of Browning's Grammarian's Funeral.

81. Carlyle's estimate of Coleridge.

82. Is the highest type of poetry religious ?

83. Dramas to be read and dramas to be acted.

84. Distinguishing features of an epic.

85. Distinguishing features of a drama.

86. Distinguishing features of a lyric.

87. Novel and romance compared.

88. Idealism and realism compared.

89. Classicism and romanticism.

90. The three unities.

91. Burke's views on the American and French revolu-
tions contrasted.

92. Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction.

93. The true function of criticism.

94. What principles of literary criticism have we ?

95. Was Pope a poet in the true sense ?

96. Is Stedman's definition of poetry adequate ?

97. A study of prefaces and their peculiarities.

98. Shakespeare's fools.

99. Ruskin's revision of Modern Painters — a study in
rhetoric.

Appendix Q- 2. 217

100. Should a novel teach something ?

101. Does novel-reading lead to inaction and will-
paralysis ?

102. Discuss Poe's arguments for the short story.

103. Poe and Longfellow.

104. How Poe hoaxed the American people.

105. Poe's account of the composition of the Raven.

106. Literary horrors.

107. Characteristics of current magazine poetry.

108. An examination of Stedrnan's Ariel.

109. The story of Chatterton.

110. Characteristics of Maurice Thompson's poetry.

111. Edith Thomas as a poetess.

112. The dialect poem and its rank.

113. James Whitcomb Eiley.

114. Military men as writers.

115. Mark Twain as a representative humorist.

116. Philip Freneau — the poet of the Revolution.

117. Celebrated literary friendships.

118. The quarrels of writers.

119. Beginnings of English fiction.

120. English writers as reformers.

121. Charles Brockden Brown as a novelist.

122. Differences between written and spoken English.

123. Causes of the Italian Renaissance.

124. Influence of the Revival of Learning.

125. Was Hamlet really mad ?

126. Has fiction been more of a good than an evil ?

127. Cooper's rank as a novelist.

128. Lowell and Holmes compared as humorists.

129. Shakespeare's borrowings.

130. Classic forms in modern literature.

131. Oliver Wendell Holmes — the man as we know him
through his writings.

218 Paragraph - Writing.

Modern Languages and Literatures.

1. An outline of Hermann and Dorothea.

2. The legend of William Tell.

3. A sketch of one of Paul Heyse's novels.

4. The Troubadours and Minnesingers.

5. Theories of the Romantic School in France.

6. What has been Voltaire's influence ?

7. Schiller's Mary Stuart compared with the Mary
Stuart of history.

8. Influence of the Reformation on German litera-
ture.

9. The French Acadenry.

10. Influence of literature in bringing about the unifica-
tion of Germany. x

11. Influence of the Revolution on French litera-
ture.

12. Influence of German literature upon English litera-
ture since Goethe's time.

13. French theories of realism.

14. The influence of Heinrich Heine.

15. The morality of Moliere's plays.

16. Is Rousseau the father of modern socialism ?

17. The meeting of the two queens in Maria Stuart.

18. Goethe's indifference to German liberation — how
explained ?

19. The growth of the Faust-legend.

20. Schiller as a critic.

21. Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and Goethe's Faust compared
as characters.

22. Recent movements in German literature.

23. French and German newspapers.

24. German folk-poetry.

Appendix Gr 2. 219

The Classics.

1. The necessity of a classical education.

2. Effect of the elective system upon classical study.

3. The arts of the Athenians. (Vide Plutarch's Peri-
cles.)

4. Plutarch's estimate of Pericles compared with that
of Thucydides.

5. Theories as to the authorship of the Homeric poems.

6. Mommsen's characterization of Julius Caesar.

7. Contrast the historians Thucydides and Herodotus.

8. The defence of Socrates before his judges.

9. The value of the Socratic method.

10. Discuss Horace's view of life.

11. Effect of the satirists upon Roman morals.

12. Describe a Roman theatre.

13. Can Cicero be considered a Stoic ?

14. Reasons for the tardy development of Attic oratory.

15. The best method of pronouncing Latin.

16. Value and defects of Ostracism.

17. Describe a Greek theatre.

18. Ideas of the Greeks on education.

19. Rome as a civilizer of her conquerors.

20. Slavery as a Roman institution.

21. The education of a Greek boy.

22. The education of a Roman boy.

23. Influence of conquest on Roman literature.

24. The collegia poetarum.

25. Influence of Roman philosophy on our views of life.

26. Influence of Cicero on modern morals.

27. Schliemann's work.

28. Is the story of the Trojan war based on fact ?

29. Woman in Greece and in Rome.

30. The moral attitude of Achilles.

31. Greek ideas of a future life.

220 Paragraph - Writing.

32. A Roman banquet described.

33. Greek use of the three unities.

34. Compare the Greek and the Roman family.

35. Results of the battle of Marathon.

36. Contribution of Greece to civilization.

37. Greek and Roman influence compared.

38. Influence of the classics on the English language.

39. The Roman element in civilization.

40. Caesar as a statesman.

41. Christianity in the Roman Empire.

42. The first Christian emperor of Rome.

43. What did the Stoics believe ?

44. What did the Epicureans believe ?

45. The JEneid as a religious poem.

46. Virgil as a vpoet of nature.

History, Economics, and Politics.

1. Results of the Pan-American Congress.

2. The Federal control of railways.

3. International copyright.

4. Recent political experiments in Japan.

5. Pauperism.

6. The Australian ballot system.

7. Waste by fire.

8. Municipal misgovernment.

9. Re-establishment of guilds.

10. Uses of royalty in England.

11. The anti-poverty movement.

12. Ought Nevada to have been made a State ?

13. Influence of the cabinet on congress.

14. Evils attending our labor-saving machinery.

15. Strikes — how far beneficial ?

16. Pardoning power of state governors.

17. The original package decision.

Appendix Gr 2. 221

18. Benefits of historical study.

19. Advantages of the World's Fair at Chicago.

20. Defects of the present electoral system in the United
States.

21. The policy of the present emperor of Germany.

22. Powers of the speaker of the national house of repre-
sentatives.

23. What is reciprocity ?

24. The judicial work of John Marshall.

25. How does public opinion rule in the United States ?

26. Should the presidential term be lengthened ?

27. Should secret sessions of the senate be abolished ?

28. Hamilton as a financier.

29. The confederation in Australia.

30. Ought the Governor of Ohio to have the veto power ?

31. The Know-Nothing Party.

32. How far may our government wisely go in restrict-
ing immigration ?

33. Early English law courts.

34. Effect of the Crusades on England.

35. Origin of Parliament.

36. Effect of maritime discoveries on England.

37. Is Nationalism practicable? (Read Looking Back-
ward. )

38. Napoleon as an exile.

39. Committee government in Congress.

40. Railway pools.

41. Socialistic tendencies in the United States.

42. Federal supervision of elections.

43. Alaska's race problem.

44. The eight-hour question.

45. Gladstone's treatment of Gordon.

46. Fallacies of Henry George.

47. A southern view of the Negro problem.

48. Spread of Mormonism.

222 Paragraph - Writing.

49. Tax reform.

50. Prohibition a reducer of crime.

51. Should fortunes be limited by law ?

52. Work of the Federal court of claims.

53. Probability of the abolition of the House of Lords.

54. Effect of Bismarck's retirement.

55. What did the Salisbury ministry accomplish ?

56. Pensions in the United States.

57. Increase of Federal powers in the United States since
1865.

58. Rise of the House of Commons.

59. The present status of Home Rule.

60. A government postal telegraph.

61. The fisheries dispute.

62. Lynch lawv and law reform.

63. Municipal should be separated from general elections.

64. An American apprentice-system.

65. The saloon in politics.

66. The work of John Brown.

67. Our methods of charity.

68. Reform of local taxation.

69. Influence of the independent in politics.

70. Evils of competition.

71. Is prohibition rightfully a national issue ?

72. Should trusts be suppressed ?

73. Reform in prison management.

74. The work of Howard the philanthropist.

75. The work of Wilberforce.

76. Ex-presidents — United States Senators for life.

77. Judges — elected or appointed ?

78. Co-operation tried by experience.

79. Legal-tender decisions.

80. The ethics of boycotting.

81. Power to veto items in appropriation bills.

82. Causes of decline in American ship-building.

Appendix G 2. 223

83. Should not church property be taxed ?

84. Relation of railways to business.

85. Black-listing — can it be defended ?

86. Irrigation in the United States.

87. Reasons for private ownership of land.

88. Origin and brief history of English trades unions.

89. The story of Tammany Hall.

90. Local government in Japan.

91. Problems involved in the annexation of Canada.

92. Recent history-making in the Hawaiian Islands.

93. American political ideas in Japan.

94. The Farmers' Alliance movement.

95. The three great strikes of 1892 — their lesson.

96. The problem of the unemployed.

97. The progress of civil service reform.

98. What does state socialism include ?

99. The Newfoundland fisheries dispute.

100. How woman suffrage has worked in Wyoming.

101. The United States Navy — its present condition.

102. Character of William the Conqueror.

103. Influence and work of Savonarola.

104. Sherman as a financier.

105. Moral aspects of tariff legislation.

106. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.

107. The story of Bulgaria.

108. Influence of protective duties on wages of labor.

109. The infant industry argument.

110. The ' tariff for revenue only ' idea.

111. Is free trade possible in America at present ?

112. Shall the production of raw materials or of finished
products be encouraged ?

113. Influence of profit-sharing on the sharers.

114. Canals vs. railways.

115. What is the argument of the greenbacker ?

_.. 116. Does labor-saving machinery drive men out of work ?

224 Paragraph - Writing.

117. Labor-unions as social centres.

118. The history of the interstate commerce commission.

119. The interstate commerce law.

120. What determines the value of inconvertible paper
currency ?

121. Relation of money supply to rate of interest.

122. Is pooling really an evil, and ought it to be for-
bidden ?

123. Are railway wars an ultimate benefit to the people ?

124. Has there been an excess of railroad building ?

125. Is suffrage correctly regarded as a natural right ?

126. Are government or national bank notes preferable ?

127. Should the government loan money to farmers?

128. Does Henry George state Malthus's doctrine cor-
rectly ?

129. What part should government have in charity ?

130. Duties of cities in regard to sanitation.

131. The Dawes Indian severalty bill and its results.

132. The industrial status of woman.

133. The 'free western land' alternative for discontented
labor.

134. Does the accumulation of wealth increase poverty ?

135. Are the rich growing richer and the poor poorer ?

136. Winsor's estimate of Columbus.

137. Our recent behavior towards Chile — was it right ?

138. The Mexican war — was it a righteous war ?

139. Treatment of resident Chinese — right ?

140. Was the execution of the Salem witches justifiable?

141. The Monroe Doctrine — is it still effective ?

142. Policies of James I. and Charles I. in suppressing
Puritans.

143. Guizot's and Balmes's estimate of the Reformation
compared.

144. A description of the machinery of government in
Germany.

Appendix G 2. 225

145. ' Initiative ' and < referendum' in Swiss government.

146. The communes of France and the free cities of Italy
compared.

147. Effect of the French Revolution on Switzerland.

148. Differences between the Reformation in Germany
and that in England.

149. A medieval free city.

150. The Hanseatic league and its influence.

151. Are the laws of Russia against Jews justifiable ?

152. The Michigan plan of electing Presidential electors.

153. History of the rise of nominating conventions.

154. The rise of the Whig party and its make-up.

155. Motive of the Crusades.

156. The Children's Crusade.

157. Results of the Crusades.

158. The good and evil in chivalry.

159. Monasticism in its results on society.

160. Results of Feudalism on society.

161. Influence of early Christianity.

162. Results of the battle of Waterloo.

163. Intellectual results of Alexander's conquests.

164. Constitution of the Roman Empire.

165. England's colonial policy.

166. Was the Reformation mainly a religious movement ?

167. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

168. Cromwell's Protectorate — justifiable ?

169. Execution of Charles I. — justifiable ?

170. Causes of the panic of 1893.

171. Causes of the French Revolution.

172. Napoleon's place in history.

173. Emerson's estimate of Napoleon.

174. Puritans, Quakers, and Witches.

175. Banishment of Roger Williams ^-justifiable ?

176. Beechers work for the Union.

177. Jackson's idea of the President's responsibility.

226 Paragraph - Writing.

178. Jackson and Lincoln — points of similarity.

179. Was John Brown's raid justifiable ?

180. Howard as a philanthropist.

181. The work of Bismarck.

182. The work of Gladstone.

183. William Lloyd Garrison.

184. Ignatius Loyola.

185. International copyright.

186. Dangers of unrestricted immigration.

187. Did Warren Hastings deserve impeachment ?

188. Did Andrew Johnson deserve impeachment ?

189. What is known about Alfred the Great ?

190. The English government and the United States
government compared.

191. Evils of party government.

192. Is the existence of parties necessary?

193. Should party lines be drawn in state elections ?

194. Should party lines fye drawn in municipal elections ?

195. Specialization in politics.

196. Should partisan considerations have weight in vot-
ing for judges ?

197. Ought the negro to have been enfranchised ?

198. Should the duty of suffrage be imposed upon
women ?

199. Are there dangers from continued centralization in
our Federal government ?

200. Should the President be elected by popular vote ?

201. Should cabinet officers have seats in Congress ?

202. Should we require residence in a district to make a
man eligible to Congress ?

203. Should unanimity be required of juries in all cases ?

204. Ought capital punishment to be abolished ?

205. Should oaths be administered to witnesses in court ?

206. Should there be a national bankrupt law ?.

207. Is nihilism in Russia justifiable?

Appendix Gr 2. 227

208. Has the aristocracy been a benefit to England ?

209. Has English rule been a benefit to India ?

210. Does protection protect ?

211. Is bimetallism logical ?

212. Is the tendency to industrial consolidation deplor-
able ?

213. Are trusts of any benefit to the country ?

214. Has co-operation in production been successful ?

215. Should usury laws be repealed ?

216. Should there be uniform requirements for voting in
the several States ?

217. Is Froude's characterization of Henry VIII. correct ?

218. Was Charlotte Corday justifiable in murdering
Marat ?

219. Did Mohammed help or hinder civilization ?

220. Was Russia's war on Turkey in 1877 justifiable ?

221. Compare Magna Charta and the Declaration of In-
dependence.

222. Were Germany's impositions upon France, in 1871,
just ?

223. Did Burr aim at an independent empire ?

224. Was the Underground Railway morally right?

225. Is lynching ever right ?

226. Was Henry of Navarre justified in his change of
religion ?

227. Was it right to pardon Jefferson Davis ?

228. Was Webster's 7th of March speech worthy of him ?

229. Is further acquisition of territory by the United
States desirable ?

230. Should drunkenness be considered an extenuation
of crime ?

231. Should failure to vote take away the right to vote ?

232. Should convict labor compete with labor in general ?

233. The political education of the country voter.

234. The predecessors of Columbus.

228 Paragraph Writing.

235. How banks are conducted.

236. Characteristics of the American Indians as observed
by the first colonists.

Education.

1. Ought the college course to be shortened ?

2. City school systems.

3. The object of a university.

4. Benefits of college athletics.

5. Novel-reading and the school.

6. Methods of college discipline.

7. The Y. M. C. A. in college life.

8. The German gymnasium.

9. What is a liberal education ?

10. A defence of state universities.

11. Secret societies in college.

12. Industrial education for the negro.

13. The place of manual training in higher education.

14. Should academic degrees be abolished ?

15. Theories of children's reading.

16. Value of summer schools.
17.. Evils of examinations.
IS.MThe work of Chautauqua.

19. Should the State supervise private schools ?

20. Arguments for or against compulsory chapel.

21. Advantages of coeducation.

22. Is over-education possible ?

23. University extension.

24. Books that help and books that hinder.

25. Flashy literature.

26. Education of women.

27. Future of the country college.

28. Is the city or the village the ideal location for a
college ?

Appendix Gr 2. 229

29. A professorship of reading.

30. Advantages of foreign study.

31. The place of Bible study in a course of literature.

32. Christianity and popular education.

33. Indian education.

34. The place of physical culture in education.

35. Value of literary societies.

36. Some hints on the use of books.

37. How to use a card-catalogue.

38. The study of English in the schools.

39. Teacher and community.

40. Methods of memory-training.

41. Value of instruction by lecture.

42. Manners in schools.

43. College life for women.

44. Should intercollegiate games be abolished ?

45. Practical value of a liberal education.

46. The old university at Anolszekein.

47. Sympathy in the school-room.

48. Religious training in the schools.

49. A model high school.

50. Can the primary and grammar school courses be
shortened ?

51. The American school at Athens.

52. Influence of vocal training on health.

53. The value of music as a school study.

54. Relation of education to crime.

55. The best education for women.

56. Has manual training properly a place in the univer-
sity ?

57. How may morality best be taught in the schools ?

58. Is specialism begun too early in our schools and col-
leges ?

59. Student life in the University of Paris in the four-
teenth century.

230 Paragraph - Writing.

60. The value of cooking and sewing as school studies.

61. Are large educational endowments beneficial to soci-
ety ?

62. Can the schools be expected to do more than train
the mind ?

63. Is training or information the object of education ?

64. Is there a distinction between culture studies and
other studies ?

65. Can an ordinary college course of study, not supple-
mented by reading, furnish an adequate education ?

66. Are there too many colleges ?

67. Should a university undertake the moral guidance of
students ?

68. Should gymnastics be compulsory in college ?

69. Should attendance at classes in college be compul-
sory ?

70. Should prospective ministers receive pecuniary aid
from college funds ?

71. Is ignorance productive of crime?

72. Are systems of self-government by college students
advisable ?

73. Are examinations a true test of scholarship ?

74. Should the study of Greek and Latin be compul-
sory ?

75. The school master of forty years ago.

The Sciences generally.

1. Results of Arctic exploration.

2. The cliff-dwellers.

3. The mound-builders.

4. Food adulteration.

5. Possible abuses of hypnotic power.

6. Natural gas and its uses.

7. The arrangement of leaves on the stems of plants.

Appendix Gr 2. 231

8. To what extent and for what purpose should the
general student study physiology?

9. On what theory is vivisection justified ?

10. Use of the study of anatomy to the general student.

11. Advances in the science of chemistry since 1820.

12. The manufacture and properties of illuminating gas.

13. Needed improvements in electric lighting.

14. Polar expeditions.

15. Military ballooning.

16. Action of alcohol on the nervous system.

17. Conditions producing cyclones.

18. Kace types in America.

19. Weather wisdom.

20. The law of conservation of energy.

21. Modes of evolution.

22. Correlation of forces.

23. Cerebral localization.

24. Problem of the soaring birds.

25. The Thomson-Helmholz theory of matter.

26. Instinct and reason.

27. The Scientific Congress of the Catholics.

28. The radiation of the sun's heat.

29. Science and miracles.

30. The economy of nature in the forest.

31. What is the germ theory ?

32. Uses of microscopes.

33. How cannon fire-crackers are made.

34. Theories of the cause of geysers.

35. Peat-bogs.

36. Is phrenology a science ?

37. Science and the negro problem.

38. Dangers of hypnotism.

39. Value of hypnotism to medical science.

40. Effect of climate on race types.

41. Artificial methods of producing fire.

232 Paragraph - Writing.

42. How some rare elements were discovered by the
spectroscope.

43. History of dynamite manufacture.

44. Influence of Sir Humphrey Davy.

45. The aniline color industry.

46. The atomic theory.

47. Industries based on fermentation.

48. Diamond cutting.

49. Life and work of Bunsen.

50. History of photography.

51. The relative values of foods from cereals.

52. Antiquity of the human race.

53. The theory of natural selection.

54. Distinction between animal and plant life.

55. How were the fjords probably produced?

56. Probable cause of volcanic action.

57. Metamorphoses of insects.

58. Types of race structure.

59. Is alcohol a food ?

60. The conclusions of science as to tobacco.

61. Present status of economic entomology.

62. Treeless prairies — how explained?

63. Causes of climatic change.

64. Rainfall in the glacial period.

65. Slaty cleavage — how produced ?

66. Sudden appearance of fishes in the Silurian age —
how harmonize this fact with the evolution hypothesis ?

67. Theories of storms.

68. The hypothesis of contraction of the earth's sur-
face.

69. The drying up of interior lakes — how explained?

70. Tides in palaeozoic times.

71. Theories about tornadoes.

72. Formation of vegetable mould through the action of
worms,

Appendix Gr 2. 233

73. Influence of geography on history.

74. Scientific results of Alexander the Great's conquests.

75. Conflict between science and religion.

76. Galileo's abjuration of truth.

77. The work of Agassiz.

78. Charles Darwin.

79. Work of Herbert Spencer.

80. Revelations of the microscope.

Mathematics and Astronomy.

1. Application of least squares to problems in physics.

2. Value of the study of geometry.

3. Short history of logarithms.

4. What conditions enter into observations with mathe-
matical instruments ?

5. How shall an observer test his observations ?

6. History of Taylor's formula and its applications.

7. Compare Euclid's idea of proportion with Legendre's
in geometry.

8. Of what sciences is mathematics the basis ?

9. Inhabitancy of planets.

10. Nebular hypothesis.

11. Meteoric hypothesis.

12. Photography as an aid to astronomy.

13. The spectroscope in astronomy.

14. Theories of sun spots.

15. The history of algebra.

16. Origin and nature of comets.

17. Theories of meteors.

18. The rings of Saturn.

19. Recent observations of Mars.

20. The canals of Mars.

21. Has the moon any influence on crops ?

22. The fourth dimension.

234 Paragraph - Writing.

Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry.

1. Advantages of silo.

2. Recent experiments in rain-making.

3. Advantages of farmers7 institutes.

4. Plans for a model barn.

5. Should experiment stations be dissociated from agri-
cultural colleges ?

6. Sheep-raising in this State.

7. Horse-racing at county fairs.

8. Requisites of an ideal grape.

9. Moral aspect of wine-making.

10. The establishment of a commercial apple orchard.

11. The germination of seed.

12. What is a 'seed?

13. The bud propagation of plants.

14. A study of an apple.

15. Best method of destroying weeds.

16. The value of weeds.

17. Essentials of a good shade-tree.

18. Necessity of tree-planting in this State.

19. Value of bees in fruit culture.

20. Preservation of forests.

21. American farming methods.

22. Hesiod's ideas of farming.

23. The fertilization of flowers.

24. Relation of plant life to soil formation.

25. Diseases of trees.

26. How a bushel of Dakota wheat gets to market.

27. The most profitable apple to raise in your State.

28. To what extent apply rotation in crops ?

29. Applications of electricity to farming.

30. A discussion of soils.

31. Seasons for grafting.

32. The care of farm machinery.

Appendix G- 2. 235

33. Breeds of horses for farm work.

34. Value of education to the farmer.

35. Social life in agricultural communities.

36. How should the government protect forests ?

37. Does government seed-distribution pay ?

38. Success of the war against pleuro-pneumonia.

39. Oleomargarine and the dairyman.

40. Best means of securing good country roads.

41. Do forests affect rain-fall ?

42. Influence of forests on water-storage.

43. Causes of increase of floods in the Mississippi valley.

Engineering.

1. Relative value of iron and steel in truss construction.

2. Advantage of electricity over compressed air in min-
ing operations.

3. What place should be assigned Captain Eads as an
engineer ?

4. What part did Professor Henry have in Morse's
invention of the telegraph ?

5. What is the best type of high-masonry dams.

6. Comparative merits of cedar, brick, and stone as
street-pavement.

7. Effect on street railway traffic of the substitution of
electric power for horse power.

8. Effect of cable and electric railways in promoting the
growth of cities.

9. Comparative merits of cable and electric street rail-
way systems.

10. What obstacles must be overcome before electricity
can supplant steam on long-distance railways ?

11. Best means for providing for the sewerage of the
university grounds.

12. How can the local water supply be improved ?

236 Paragraph - Writing.

13. Characteristic differences between types of bridges.

14. Compare different sewerage systems.

15. What is the best method of sewage disposal ?

16. Influence of Stephenson on modern civilization.

17. Need of local sanitary improvements.

18. Advantages of national geodetic surveys.

19. Defend the Hennepin canal project.

20. Should an architect be a civil engineer ?

21. Should a civil engineer be a mechanical engineer
also?

22. How should the engineering corps of the United
States be made up ?

23. Modern methods of tunnel-building.

24. Flying machines.

25. A short history of metallurgy.

26. Light-house construction.

27. The Eads ship railway.

28. How is a suspension bridge constructed ?

29. Describe the method of producing silver from the
ores of the Comstock lode.

30. A short description of the Comstock lode.

31. History of silver mining in Virginia City.

32. Conditions affecting high speed of railway trains.

33. A description of the General Electric Co.'s Diamond
Drill.

34. Use of the sextant in sounding surveys.

35. Aerial Navigation.

36. Modern applications of electricity.

37. The manufacture of tile.

38. Improvements in locomotive construction during
twenty years.

39. Future uses of gas and electricity.

40. Best route for a ship-canal between the Atlantic and
Pacific.

41. Advantages of laboratory work.

Appendix Gr 3. 237

42. Value of manual training in a liberal education.

43. On what problems are leading physicists working ?

44. Will laboratory work in physics be useful to a
lawyer ?

45. Contrast Faraday and Maxwell as to habits of thought.

46. How much work in physics should a student take
who purposes to study medicine ?

47. Influence of discoveries in physics upon commerce.

48. On what ground is elementary physics prescribed for
admission to most American colleges ?

49. What has been added to the general stock of physical
knowledge during the last ten years ?

50. The modern locomotive and its development.

51. Morse as an inventor.

52. Credit due to Joseph Henry.

53. The manufacture of steel.

54. The system of United States land surveys.

55. West Point and a general polytechnic school com-
pared.

56. Systems of house drainage.

57. The Mississippi levee system.

58. How to fire a boiler.

59. Old and recent methods of steam-engine practice.

60. What Edison has accomplished.

61. The building of the Cantilever bridge at Niagara.

62. Small motors.

A MISCELLANEOUS LIST OF ESSAY SUBJECTS.

1. The Eiffel tower. 4. Journalists and news-

2. Importance of Foreign mongers.

and Home Missions 5. Sunday observance,
compared. 6. Eesults of Stanley's ex-

3. The United States Navy. plorations.

238

Paragraph - Writing.

7. The G. A. B. as a politi- 29.

cal force. 30.

8. The new talking ma- 31.

chines.

9. Social influence of 32.

churches.

10. China and modern ideas. 33.

11. Library architecture.

12. Social uses of the kieker. 34.

13. Executions by electricity. 35.

14. Influence of public libra-

ries.

15. American influence in 36.

China.

16. Heligoland. 4

17. The ideal newspaper. 37.

18. The map of Africa.

19. Materials for art in

America. 38.

20. A Chinese theatre. 39.

21. The Chinese in San Fran-

cisco. 40.

22. Methods of communica-

tion with inhabitants
of other planets.

23. Acoustics.

24. The history of the violin. 41.

25. Is Christianity thriving 42.

in Turkey ?

26. The utilitarian theory of 43.

morals. 44.

27. Egoism and altruism as 45.

moral principles. 46.

28. The moral aspect of alms- 47.

giving.

The divorce problem.

Morality and art.

The oratorio as a musical
form.

Gluck and Mozart com-
pared.

Martin Luther and
church music.

Wagner.

The probable effect of
socialism on literary
activity.

Causes of England's dif-
ficulty in governing
Ireland.

How can better food be
secured to working-
men?

Remedies against floods.

Should inheritances be
taxed?

Should the amount of
money that may be
bequeathed to an in-
dividual be limited by
law?

Phonetic spelling.

Is art amenable to a
moral standard ?

Popular amusements.

Archery.

Boating.

Boat-races.

Prize-fights should be
prohibited.

Appendix Gr 3.

239

48. The use and abuse of 74.

athletic sports. 75.

49. Yachting. 76.

50. Martin Luther.

51. Mahomet and his follow-

ers. 77.

52. The Huguenots. 78.

53. Confucius. 79.

54. Benvenuto Cellini. 80.

55. The Albigenses.

56. Hermits. 81.

57. The newsboy.

58. Beggars. 82.

59. Agriculture in England.

60. Agriculture in Italy. 83.

61. Progress in agriculture.

62. Knights of Labor. 84.

63. The Chicago Board of 85.

Trade.

64. Paper. 86.

65. The art of advertising. 87.

66. Curiosities of advertis- 88.

ing. 89.

67. Glass-making. 90.

68. History of brick-mak- 91.

ing. 92.

69. Has Prohibition been 93.

successful in Maine ? 94.

70. The American system 95.

of government. 96.

71. Shall Americans build 97.

ships ?

72. Our National Congress. 98.

73. Civil Service in Great 99.

Britain.

The schools of England.

The use of note-books.

A liberal education
should precede the
professional.

German universities.

Electricity and its uses.

Artesian wells.

Artesian wells in the
Great Sahara.

The history of teleg-
raphy.

The measurement of
time.

History of the steam-
boat.

The fixed stars.

The other side of the
moon.

Habits of ants.

Honey-making ants.

Animal intelligence.

Insects.

The intelligence of ants.

The coral animal.

Ants, bees, wasps.

Light.

Sound.

History of music.

Grecian music.

Michael Angelo as a
sculptor.

The Laplanders.

Is there an open polar
sea?

240

Paragraph - Writing.

100. Genghis Khan. 129.

101. Brigands of Sicily. 130.

102. Zuni Indians. 131.

103. The Japanese Constitu-

tion. 132.

104. Was Alaska a profitable 133.

investment ? 134.

105. The Northern Pacific 135.

Eailroad.

106. The romance of the sea. 136.

107. Stanley and Living-

stone. 137.

108. The Mammoth Cave. 138.

109. Depths of the ocean. 139.

110. The Rhine. , 140.

111. Cyprus. 141.

112. Greenland. 142.

113. History of Paris.

114. The Arabian Nights. 143.

115. The Fiji Islands. 144.

116. The Koman Emperors. 145.

117. Hannibal. 146.

118. The Olympic games. 147.

119. The Manilian law. 148.

120. Caesar's wars in Gaul. 149.

121. Social life in Greece. 150.

122. Old Greek education.

123. The Gracchi. 151.

124. The Homeric question. 152.

125. Ancient and Modern 153.

Greece. 154.

126. Thucydides. 155.

127. Socrates and the Soph- 156.

ists. 157.

128. Social life in Kome. 158.

Alexander and Caesar.

^Eschylus.

A Greek naval fight,
by an eye-witness.

Nero.

The age of Pericles.

Xerxes.

Dr. Schliemann's dis-
coveries.

Pompeii, ancient and
modern.

A day in ancient Athens.

School life in Athens.

Rome and Carthage.

The Letters of Junius.

Greek literature.

The dress of the Greeks
and Eomans.

Charles Ste wartParnell.

Madame de Stael.

Charles James Fox.

Eosa Bonheur.

George Canning.

Benjamin West.

Paul the Apostle.

Longfellow's home and
home life.

Charles Dudley Warner.

Sir John Franklin.

Florence Nightingale.

William Pitt.

Horace Greeley.

Peter Stuyvesant.

William Wilberforce.

Liszt.

Appendix Cr 3.

241

159. Richard Brinsley Sheri- 185.

dan. 186.

Cornelius Vanderbilt. 187.

Edwin Booth. 188.

160.
161.
162.

163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.

171.
172.

173.
174.
175.

176.
177.

178.
179.

180.
181.
182.
183.

New England farms, 189.

past and present. 190.

Lord Olive.

The South-sea Bubble. 191.

Frederick the Great. 192.

The Tournament. 193.

William the Silent. 194.

The battle of Shiloh.

Alexander the Great. 195.

The battle of Water- 196.
loo.

The City of Mexico, an- 197.

cient and modern. 198.

The Civil Rights Bill 199.

and its effects. 200.

The study of history. 201.

Peter the Great.

The Missouri Com-
promise. 202.

The British Peerage. 203.

Witchcraft inNewEng- 204.

land. 205.

Chevalier La Salle. 206.

The character of Co- 207.

lumbus. 208.

Hernando Cortez. 209.

The dark ages. 210.

Charles the Great. 211.

The Northmen in Amer-
ica. 212.
184, Feudalism and chivalry. 213.

The Lion-hearted King.

Marlborough.

The Feudal system.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

Louis the Fifteenth.

The Seven Wonders of
the World.

The Ferris wheel.

Magna Charta.

The Flagellants.

Early social life in
New England.

Races of the Danube.

Social life of the Anglo-
Saxons.

American antiquities.

Louis the Fourteenth.

The Pilgrim Fathers.

The Norman Conquest.

The reasons for the
success of the Ameri-
can Revolution.

The Earl of Chatham.

The Thirty Years' War.

The French Revolution.

Zenobia.

Palmyra.

English in Egypt.

Emin Pasha.

The Eastern question.

Ireland.

Chile : its rise and
power.

Russians in Asia.

The Soudan.

242

Paragraph - Writing.

214. Slavery and the slave 241.

trade in Brazil. 242.

215. Prescott's Conquest of 243.

Mexico.

216. Almanacs. 244.

217. Old almanacs. 245.

218. The Faerie Queen. 246.

219. The British Museum. ; 247.

220. Longfellow's Songs of 248.

Hiawatha. 249.

221. Edmund Burke. 250.

222. Thomas Carlyle and his 251.

influence. 252.

223. Caliban. 253.

224. Hypatia. , 254.

225. Lowell's Among My

Books. 255.

226. King Arthur.

227. Eound Table of King 256.

Arthur.

228. Times of King Arthur. 257.

229. Legends of King Arthur. 258.

230. The prevailing thought

of the Tempest. 259.

231. The story of Euth. 260.

232. Dr. Arnold. 261.

233. Stanley's Through the

Dark Continent. 262.

234. S. T. Coleridge. 263.

235. Edmund Spenser. 264.

236. Beaumont and Fletcher.

237. Goethe's character. 265.

238. Our Mutual Friend.

239. The Pilgrim's Progress. 266.

240. Shakespeare's villains. 267.

William Cullen Bryant.

Hero worship.

The Cotter's Saturday

Night.

Longfellow's Outre-Mer.
Joseph Addison.
Don Quixote.
The Koran.

Shakespeare's Tempest.
Washington Irving.
John Lothrop Motley.
Bret Harte.
Gil Bias.
Rip Van Winkle.
J. G. Holland's Mistress

of the Manse.
How to read periodi-
cals.
Longfellow's Tales of a

Wayside Inn.
Female novelists.
Dickens' humorous

characters.
The Kalevala.
W. D. Howells.
J. G. Holland's Bitter-

Sweet.

Shakespeare's heroines.
Little Dorrit.
Oliver Goldsmith's She

Stoops to Conquer.
Burnaby's Ride to

Khiva.

Last Days of Pompeii.
Childe Harold.

Appendix Cr 3.

243

268. The Wandering Jew. 293.

269. The sources of the plot

of the Tempest. 294.

270. The power of oratory. 295.

271. A comparison of the

Tempest and Mid- 296.
summer Night's
Dream. 297.

272. Gulliver's Travels. 298.

273. National hymns.

274. Cervantes. 299.

275. T. B. Macaulay. 300.

276. A comparison of Dick- 301.

ens and Thackeray.

277. Was Thackeray a snob? 302.

278. The verse of the Tem-

pest.

279. Macaulay as an histo- 303.

torian.

280. Ariel and Puck. 304.

281. The motive of reading.

282. Longfellow's shorter 305.

poems.

283. Scott's Quentin Dur-

ward. 306.

284. Robert Southey. 307.

285. N. P. Willis. 308.

286. Tolstoi.

287. Ariel and Miranda. 309.

288. The English novel. 310.

289. Nicholas Nickleby. 311.

290. Apiculture.

291. How postage stamps 312.

are made.

292. The tulip mania. 313.

The philosophy of Benj.

Franklin.

National peculiarities.
Is the jury system a

failure ?
The character of the

Indian.

Teachers' Institutes.
Form and material of

ancient books.
The Grange movement.
A Roman library.
Some of my queer

friends.
The dangers of work —

reflections of a lazy

man.
The advantage of being

small.
A day on the planet

Mars.
What I remembered

when I was drown-
ing.

Books that I like.
Three great failures.
The corner-grocery phi-
losopher.
Life in Utopia.
The art of forgetting.
How we are deceived

by our senses.
How to be happy though

rich.
The Anglornaniac.

244 Paragraph - Writing.

314. Elements of savagery in men derived from the

modern civilization. comic papers.

315. The horrors of peace. 319. Rambles in the diction-

316. On the rapidity of po- ary.

lite conversation. 320. At the primary.

317. A modern Aristides. 321. The unwritten law of

318. Impressions of great the campus.

CAPITALS, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

The rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc., given in
grammars and rhetorics are, of purpose, laid down some-
what dogmatically. In actual practice no such uniformity
can be found. Each publishing firm, each magazine and
each newspaper has its own rules, — rules which its editors
follow and impose, so far as possible, on all who supply it
with manuscript. We shall first present the general rules
for capitals and for the six most common marks of punctua-
tion, and then shall show some of the variations from those
rules in actual practice, by means of extracts from the
6 cards ' of representative daily papers.

General Rules for Capitals.
The following words should begin with capitals : —

1. The first word of every book, chapter, letter, and
paragraph.

2. The first word after a period; and, usually, after the
interrogation 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.

Appendix Gr 4. 245

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 0 !

8. Terms of great historical importance ; as, the Refor-
mation, the Civil War, the Whigs, the Revolution.

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 : —

Ehetoric 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 in-
vestigates the principles of beauty.

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 investigates 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
elements from the context ; as, ' Even good men, they say,
sometimes act like brutes.'

3. To separate expressions in apposition from the con-

246 Paragraph - Writing.

text ; 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.7
' Sink or swim, 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, con-
traction ceases, and expansion begins.' Better: 'It is well known
that when water is cooled below a certain point, contraction ceases
and expansion begins.'

Mules 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 mean-
ing.

3. To introduce an example, before as.

4. To separate clauses having a common dependence.
Illustrations of these rules: * Science declares that no
particle of matter 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 politi-
cians shall give place to statesmen; — then, and not till
then, will the highest development of our government be
reached.'

Appendix Gr 4. 247

Mules for the Colon.

The colon is used in the following instances : —

1. To introduce several particulars complex in form, in
apposition 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.'

Mules for the Exclamation Point.

The exclamation point is used

1. To express strong emotion ; as, i He is dead, the sweet
musician ! '

2. To express doubt or sarcasm ; as, 'That man a poet ! '

3. After interjections ; as < Oh ! ' ' 0 my Country ! '

248 Paragraph - Writing.

Variations from the Rules.

The explanation of the abbreviations used is as follows : —

Trans. = Boston Evening Transcript.

Trib. = Chicago Tribune.

F. P. = Detroit Free Press.

Bl. = Toledo Blade.

C. G. = Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette.

P. D. = Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Varieties of Punctuation.

1. After an introduction to an extract or quotation, use a
colon if the voice naturally falls ; as, " He spoke as fol-
lows : " If the stop is not a complete one, use a comma,
except when the paragraph closes, when a dash should be
used. The following will illustrate : —

A dispatch from Los Angeles says, "The yield of grapes,"
etc. Says the editor — [Trans.]

2. Omit comma in cases like the following : John Smith
of New York, Mr. and Mrs. Brown of Detroit, and Mr. Jones
of Chicago. In lists of names use only the comma after
the town, except in cases where phrases occur describing
the persons or their business, in which case use the comma
and semicolon. Thus: James Brown of No. 272 Wabash
Avenue, Chicago ; W. D. Ho wells, the popular novelist, of
Boston; and Labouchere, editor of London Truth, were
present. [Trib.]

3. Use comma before "and," "or," "nor," etc., when
they connect three or more nouns, adjectives, etc. ; as John,
James, and Henry leave town next week ; he was kicked,
and cuffed, and beaten. [Trib.]

4. Use the dash before and colon after viz., to wit, namely,
etc. [Trib.]

Appendix G 4. 249

5. The name of the State in the following case should be
enclosed in parentheses: "The Jackson (Mich.) Pilot has
enlarged." [Trib.]

6. When two sentences compose a headline, use a dash
between them instead of a period. [F. P.]

7. In testimony, use semi-colon when sentences are in-
complete. [F. P.] "Went to the window; looked out;
saw the prisoner, etc." [Trib.]

8. In a run-in [not paragraphed] list of officers, use
comma and semi-colon. When paragraphed, use a dash
between title and name. [F. P.]

9. When the words cheers, applause, hear, laughter, or a
reference in a legal decision, occur without a break in the
sentence, use parentheses ; but when such interpolation
occurs at the end of a sentence, punctuate as a separate
sentence and inclose in brackets. [F. P.]

10. Use brackets to inclose interruptions in speeches,
and ail other interpolations ; as — [Applause], [Laughter],
[Signed]; "The senator from Delaware [Mr. Saulsbury]
saw fit." [Trans.]

11. Use hyphen in such cases as first- and second-class
stocks, 8- to 6-100, etc. [Bl.]

Varieties of Capitalization.

12. Do not capitalize common names of grains, fruits, or
flowers. [F. P.]

13. Keep up [i.e., capitalize] pronouns referring to the
Deity or Savior. [F. P.]

14. Capitalize pronouns referring to the Deity only when
standing alone, without an antecedent noun. [Trans.]

15. Do not capitalize pronouns referring to the Deity.
[Trib.]

16. Capitalize all synonyms of the Deity, but not he or
him. [P. D.]

250 Paragraph - Writing.

17. All full titles of nobility, etc., to be capitalized, as —
Prince of Wales, etc. ; but when standing alone, the words
duke, earl, etc., to begin with lower-case letter. Titles of
sovereignty to begin with a lower-case letter when followed
by the name of the country, etc., ruled over, but in caps
when followed by name of ruler ; thus — grand duke of
Hesse, queen of England ; also, the king, the pope, etc. ;
but King Kalakaua, etc. In exception to this rule, capitalize
President and Vice-President, whenever they occur, whether
with the name or not, when referring to the United States
officers ; also Chief Magistrate, meaning the President.
[Trans.]

18. All titles of office to be capitalized when before the
name, but not when alone ; thus — General Burrell, ex-
Mayor Stokley ; the general, the mayor, etc. Cases such
as the following, however, to be put as here given : pilot
Sayles, officer Tapley, baggage-master Bangs, lawyer Cross,
and the like. [Trans.]

19. Capitalize the names of national, state, county, city,
and town official bodies and departments of this and other
governments ; as Senate, Diet, House of Nobles, Coast
Survey, Life Saving Service (but not life saving station),
Civil Service Commission (but not civil service), Common
Council, but central precinct, police headquarters, fire de-
partment. [F. P.] Adjectives derived from these names
to begin with small letter. [Trans.]

20. In " College News " capitalize University, College,
Faculty, names of Classes, Professors and their Chairs
(Professor of Mathematics). [C. G.]

21. Lower-case [i.e., do not capitalize] departments in
universities, schools, W. C. T. U., etc. — as, literary depart-
ment, grammar class, sailors' department. [F. P.]

22. In compound names of corporations, organizations,
official bodies, etc., the distinctive word or words are proper
adjectives or nouns, and are to be capitalized, but not the

Appendix Gr 4. 251

remainder : the Lake Shore railroad company, the Young
Men's Christian association, First Congregational church.
There is a small class of compound names which are proper
names and need capitals — the Boody House, House of
Refuge, Custom-house, Wheeler's Opera House. Never
capitalize these when used in the plural, or in a general
sense, but only when referring to a particular one. [Bl.]

23. All positions in the church up to Bishop (Presiding
Elder) are in lower case, such as rector, deacon, monk, etc.

[C, G.]

24. Do not capitalize Christian, church, any church
officers. [Trib.]

25. Capitalize committee, association, club, company,
etc., when name is given, as Finance Committee, Eureka
Insurance Company ; all other instances lower case. Names
of political parties, etc., are capitalized. [C. G.]

26. Keep up official titles of city, county, state, and
national officers, no matter how referred to, as Mayor,
Clerk (but not the Clerk's clerk or his chief clerk), Sheriff,
Receiver of Taxes, Consul General, Speaker (of a legislative
body), but not a consul, commercial agent, warden, alder-
man, constable, deputy sheriff, justice of the peace, inspector
of election, market clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper.
[F. P.]

27. A waved line under a head indicates it is to be set
in Nonpareil Title ; two dashes in SMALL CAPS. In double
heads, three dashes under first line, a waved line under the
second. [Bl.]

28. In headlines capitalize first and last words, all nouns
and important words, except short adjectives, prepositions
and conjunctions — such as a, an, the, in, by, of, and, or,
nor, for. [F. P.]

29. Capitalize without quoting (on the principle that the
name or title is the proper name of the specific thing
mentioned) all the words of the name of a book, lecture,

252 Paragraph - Writing.

song, play, opera, picture, etc., excepting conjunctions,
prepositions, and articles. As, He read a paper on the
Theory of Gases ; I am reading The Mill on the Floss.
[P. D.J

30. Capitalize North, South, East, West, North-west,
etc., when referring to a section of the country; in other
cases use the lower case. [C. G.]

31. Capitalize the prefixes von, de, de la, etc., in foreign
proper names only when not preceded by title or Christian
name; as De Lesseps, M. de Lesseps. [Trans.]

32. When the titles M., Mme., Mile., Sig., or Mgr.
(Monsignor) precede "de" or "du," use small "d." When
a name of which "De" or "Du" forms a part is preceded
by Mr. or Mrs., use a capital " D." [Trib.]

33. In reports, of meetings in which papers are read,
capitalize the principal words, if the title is short ; but if
long put in lower case; as — Papers were read on "The
Physician's Duties," and " Should the physician desire to
obtain a profit on articles prescribed for patients ? " But
the principal words in all titles of books to begin with
capitals invariably. [Trans.]

34. Do not capitalize esq., sr., jr., a. m., p. m., m. [BL]

Compounds.

35. Use hyphen with compounds of self-, semi- and anti-.

36. Make separate words of three or more words involv-
ing one idea. Thus : never to be forgotten time, commander
in chief. [P. D.]

37. Compound such words as well-to-do, commander-in-
chief, and all three word combinations ; other compounds
to be avoided as much as possible. [Trib.]

38. Make one word of all words formed by the addition
of "re/' "over/' "under," "sub," ["non"] and similar pre-
fixes. [Trib.] Ee-marked (pertaining to price). [P. D.]

Appendix Gr 4. 253

39. Make two words of bondholder, snowstorm, and
similar words, in cases like the following : He is a stock
and bond holder; rain and snow storm; also, such words
as any one, every one. [Trib.]

40. Compound words are to be avoided as much as pos-
sible. Make one word of most of those in which a hyphen
is used. Instances in which a hyphen should be used :
After-life, co-education, commander-in-chief, good-by, half-
dozen, half-century, and the like (but half a dozen, half a
century), one-half (and all fractions), self-control (and
the like), under-estimate, twenty-odd years; the so-called
science (but the science, so called), a well-known merchant
(but a merchant well known for his integrity, etc.) ; up-
stairs, B-flat. [Trans.J

Quotations.

41. Quote names of papers and magazines when occurring
in headlines. [Trib.]

42. Do not quote a solid extract preceded and followed
by leaded matter. [P. D.]

43. Do not quote an extract in smaller type than the
main article. [P. D.]

44. In quoted matter of more than one paragraph, quota-
tion marks must be put at the beginning of every paragraph.
This does not apply to verses of poetry, however. [Trans.]

45. Quote names of books (but not of periodicals) ; names
of plays (but not of characters in them) ; and names of
statues and pictures. [Trans.]

Miscellaneous.

46. "Sales by auction" in preference to "sales at auc-
tion." [Trans.]

47. Murderers are hanged, pictures are hung. [Trans.]

254 Paragraph - Writing.

48. Never say "this A. M.,77 or " p. M.,77 but "this
forenoon (morning)/7 or "this afternoon (evening)."
[Trans.]

49. Spell out the points of the compass ; as north-north-
east, not 1ST. N. E. [Trans.]

50. Dived is the past tense of the verb to dive, and not
dove. [Trans.]

51. He pleaded not guilty, not plead. [Trans.]

52. Sewerage, the system of drainage, sewage, the deposit
resulting from drainage. [Trans.]

53. Knights Templars. [Trans.]

54. The building was damaged $2,000, not $2,000 worth.
[Trans.]

55. Repeat the s after the apostrophe in the possessive
case of proper names ; as Jones's, Edmonds's, and the like ;
but not in the plural possessive of common nouns ; as — the
Elks7 benefit ; the Poncas7 wrongs ; or after the words Jesus,
Moses, Parnassus. [Trans.]

56. Use farther when distance is meant ; as — "a few
miles farther,77 "farther on,77 "farther down the lapse of
ages.77 " And, further, I would say 77 ; " furthermore,77 " the
further consideration of the subject.77 [Trans.]

57. One7s self, and not oneself. [Trans.]

58. Don't erase and write over on the same space. Strike
out and rewrite. Interline as little as possible. Never
write up the side of the paper. [Bl.]

59. Never use " burglarize,77 " jailed,77 " Sundayed,77
"cracked77 (a safe). [BL]

60. Never use such expressions as "Rev. Smith next
spoke,77 make it "Rev. Mr. Smith,77 "Hon. C. H.,77 or "Hon.
Mr. Scribner.77 [BL]

61. Put " the 77 before Rev. and Hon. when used before a
proper name ; as the Rev. Mr. Cheney, the Hon. Mr. Dis-
raeli, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bourget. [Trib.]

62. Omit the word " very 77 as ordinarily used. [Trib.]

Appendix Gr 5. 255

63. Say "last ten years/' and not, "past ten years."
[Trib.]

64. Omit the word " on " before the days of the week,
and in the following cases : On the 10th of July ; the races
on the first day of the meeting ; on yesterday ; on to-morrow ;
not otherwise. [Trib.]

65. O, and not oh; without the comma when used thus :
O Lord ! 0 Liberty ! Generally otherwise with the comma.
[Trib.]

66. Distinguish between 0 and Oh. The former is used
only in addresses : 0 ye people ! 0 Heavens ! And with-
out any point ; the latter as an exclamation : Oh ! oh, for a
letter from home ! [BL]

67. Use "etc." instead of "&c." [BL]

68. Paragraphs must be marked plainly, either by deep
indentation, or the use of the mark H". Where copy is in
separate sheets, if a paragraph runs over from one to the
next, draw a diagonal line across the lower right-hand corner
of the first, and the upper left-hand corner of the one fol-
lowing. If a paragraph comes within a line or two of the
bottom of a page, begin on the next page. Avoid also making
one within a line or two of the top. [BL]

(,-; H, £4 A^J^ J'J^

5- tc/i^J

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN CORRECTING MANUSCRIPTS.

The following system of abbreviations is intended to be
used by teachers in marking errors in the manuscripts of
students. The references accompanying the abbreviations
will enable the student to correct the errors thus pointed
out in his written work, before handing it back to his teacher
for the second reading. The references are to pages of this
book and other rhetorics.

P. = Scott and Denney's Paragraph-Writing.
K. = Keeler's English Composition.

256 Paragraph - Writing.

W. = Williams' Composition and Rhetoric (Rev. and En-
larged ed. 1891).

H. = A. S. Hill's Principles of Rhetoric (1891).

C. = Clark's Practical Rhetoric (1884).

D. = D. J. Hill's Elements of Rhetoric and Composition
(1884).

G. = Genung's Practical Elements of Rhetoric (1887).

MARKS USED IN CORRECTING.

a. In the MS.

The words, clauses, or sentences to which the marginal
corrections refer, are indicated by crossing out, by under-
scoring, or by inclosing in brackets or circles. A caret
shows the point at which something is to be supplied. An
inverted caret marts the omission of the apostrophe or of
quotation marks.

b. In the Margin.

Amb. — Ambiguous. P. pp. 268-270; K. pp. 114-116.

(1) " Squinting construction." P. p. 267 ; K. p. 115 ;

G. pp. 120-122 ; W. p. 82 ; H. p. 42 ; C. p. 50 ;
D. p. 56.

(2) Participle for clause. P. p. 271 ; K. p. 115 ; G.

p. 116, § 11 ; W. p. 82 ; C. p. 51.

Ant. — Antecedent needs attention. P. p. 269 ; G. pp. 123-
127 ; W. p. 87 ; H. p. 72 ; C. p. 48 ; D. p. 56.

(1) Two or more possible antecedents.

(2) No antecedent. P. p. 270, 271 ; H. p. 35.

(3) Relative and antecedent do not agree. P. pp.

269-271 ; K. p. 37 ; H. p. 44.

(4) Repeat the antecedent. P. pp. 39, 40, 270, 271 ;

W. p. 88; H. p. 110-112; C. p. 52.
Cap. — Capitalize. P. p. 244, 249 ; K. p. 201.
Cl. — Not clear ; vague, obscure, indefinite. P. pp. 52, 53 ; G.

pp. 19-21 ; H. pp. 72-74 ; C. pp. 48-55 ; D. p. 54.

Appendix Gr 5. 257

(1) Words necessary to the sense omitted. P. p.

272; W. p. 97; H. p. 107.

(2) Word or idea needs to be repeated. P. pp. 270,

272; G. p. 126, § 23, 160; W. p. 139; H. p.
110 ; C. p. 49.

(3) Confusion of ideas. P. p. 270.
Cnst. — Construction faulty. P. pp. 284, 285.

(1) Wrong construction. P. pp. 284, 285.

(2) Unexpected change of construction. P. p. 284 ;

G. p. 164; H. p. 137.

(3) Awkward construction. P. p. 284.

(4) Involved causes. P. p. 265; K. p. 116; W. p.

82 ; H. p. 139 ; C. p. 142 ; D. p. 60.

Con. — Connection faulty. P. pp. 39-42, 273; K. pp. 24,
119 ; D. p. 64.

(1) Means of explicit reference (conjunctions, de-

monstratives, modifications of sentence-struct-
ure) not skillfully managed. P. pp. 16, 39-
42, 273; G. pp. 202-205; W. p. 147; H. p.
116 ; C. p. 29 ; D. p. 52.

(2) Wrong conjunction used. P. p. 273 ; K. p. 116 ;

D. p. 74.

(3) Connectives used where they can be omitted. P.

pp. 273, 275, 286; G. p. 206 ; H. p. 109; C. p. 66.

(4) Transitional sentence needed. P. pp. 12, 13,

33-36, 63, 67, 68.

(5) Illogical sequence. P. pp. 13-15.

Cond. — Condense. P. pp. 11, 13, 68, 72, 286; G. pp. 154-

159 ; C. p. 54.
E. — Bad English. P. pp. 261, 285.

(1) Diction impure, inaccurate, or unidiomatic. P.

p. 261 ; K. pp. 14-22 ; G. pp. 28^8 ; W. pp.
39-62 ; C. p. 107 ; D. p. 29.

(2) Construction borrowed from some other lan-

guage. P. p. 285.

258 Paragraph - Writing.

. — Expand. P. pp. 24-32, 63, 271, 285 ; G. pp. 150-154.

(1) Importance of the idea demands fuller treatment.

(2) Connecting links omitted. (3) G-aps in the logic.
Fig. — Error in the use of figurative language. P. p. 288 ;

K. pp. 99-105 ; G. pp. 85-107.

(1) Mixed metaphor. P. p. 288 ; H. p. 96 ; C. p. 221.

(2) Allusion obscure. P. pp. 7-9.

(3) Figure uncalled for. P. p. 288.
Gr. — Bad grammar.

(1) Concord in number or tense not observed. P. p.

275; K. p. 33; G. pp. 110-112; W. p. 49;
H. p. 32 ; C. pp. 112, 113 ; D. pp. 45-47.

(2) Use of shall and will. P. pp. 276-278 ; K. p. 35 ;

G. pp. 113-115 ; W. p. 55 ; H. p. 39 ; C. p. 84 ;

D. p. 48.
Kp. — Out of keeping. Tone of the essay not consistently

maintained. P. pp. 7-9, 260-262; G. p. 83;

W. p. 139.

1. c. — Change capital to small letter. P. pp. 244, 249.
p. — Bad punctuation. P. pp. 42-47, 245-249 ; K. pp. 204-208.
pos. — Wrong position. P. pp. 265, 268, 269, 282 ; K. p. 117 ;

W. p. 82 ; H. pp. 141, 142 ; C. p. 65 ; D. p. 64.
(1) Related words separated. P. p. 268; G. pp.

117-119 ; C. p. 65. (2) Important words in

unemphatic positions. P. p. 283; W. p. 92.

(3) Unimportant words in emphatic positions.

P. p. 282 ; K. p. 117 ; G. pp. 117-122, 179-181.
22. _ Repetition to be avoided. P. p. 286; K. p. 118; W.

p. 139; H. p. 112; C. p. 87; D. p. 63.
Eel — Relative pronoun at fault. P. pp. 274, 275; K. p.

115 ; H. pp. 43, 44.
(1) Co-ordinate for restrictive relative, or vice versa.

P. pp. 274, 275; G. pp. 127-131; W. p. 88;

H. p. 105 ; C. p. 48 ; D. p. 49. (2) Relative

may be omitted. P. p. 275 ; G. p. 131 ; W. p.

88 ; C. p. 63.

Appendix Gf- 5. 259

Sent. —Wrong form of sentence. P. pp. 15, 265, 279-281;
K. pp. 68-70.

(1) Periodic for loose sentence, or vice versa. P.

pp. 265, 279-281.

(2) Monotonous recurrence of same form of sentence.

P. p. 283 ; W. p. 169 ; D. pp. 73, 93-100.
81 — Slang.
sp. — Bad spelling.
tr. — Transpose.
U. — Unity violated. P. pp. 4, 12, 19, 41, 260-265 ; W. pp.

127-129 ; H. p. 183 ; C. p. 141.
(1) Sentence contains unrelated ideas or too many

ideas. P. pp. 262, 263 ; K. p. 116 ; GL p. 176 ;

C. p. 141 ; D. p. 60. (2) Clauses appended,

or not properly subordinated. P. p. 264 ; K.

p. 116; G. pp. 150, 176-179; C. p. 142; D.

p. 60. (3) Unity of paragraph violated. P.

pp. 4, 260; K. p. 70; G. p. 194; W. p. 149;

C. pp. 29, 30 ; D. p. 72.
W. — Weak. P. pp. 278-288.

(1) Terms too general. P. pp. 13, 14, 286; K. p.

118 ; G. pp. 21, 22. (2) Anti-climax. P. p.

288; K. p. 104; G. pp. 105-107; H. p. 135;

C. p. 68 ; D. p. 90. (3) Hackneyed words or

phrases. P. p. 287 ; W. p. 120 ; C. p. 68.
IT — Paragraph. P. pp. 10, 15, 96-101.
No 1. — Do not paragraph.
g> — Omit.
Xor ? — Error, not specified.

c. At beginning or end of the MS.

One of the above marks placed at the beginning or end of
the manuscript warns the writer against a prevailing fault.
The general character of the manuscript is indicated by the
following letters : A — excellent; B — fair; C — poor; D —
very bad, rewrite.

26 0 Paragrap h - Writing.

APPENDIX H.

THE RHETORIC OF THE PARAGRAPH.
(PRINCIPLES ANI> ILLUSTRATIONS.)

1. Method of Treatment. — There are three prime charac-
teristics of every good paragraph: (1) Unity, or oneness,
by means of which the reader recognizes that some one,
particular, significant thing or idea, and nothing else, is
being presented ; (2) Clearness, or intelligibility, by means
of which he understands what is said of that one thing or
idea; and (3) Force, or emphasis, by means of which both
the thing or idea and what is said of it are firmly impressed
on his mind. We shall consider each of these three charac-
teristics, first in its application to the paragraph as a whole,
and secondly in its application to the component elements
of the paragraph ; namely, sentences, clauses, phrases, and
single words. We shall notice, also, some of the common
errors that hinder the attainment of Unity, Clearness, and
Force in writing, and shall deduce principles for guidance.

A. UNITY.

(a) UNITY OF THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE.

2. Two Kinds of Unity. — In a good paragraph we notice
two kinds of unity, — unity of idea and structure, and unity
of tone. Unity of idea and structure has already been dis-
cussed. (See pp. 4, 12, 23, 41.) Unity of tone requires
that the paragraph shall at no point vary perceptibly from
that level of thought or of feeling on which the paragraph
began. A commonplace or colloquial remark in a paragraph
whose prevailing tone is pathetic, a jest or a piece of slang
in a paragraph whose prevailing note is spiritual, are often
ruinous to the effect that would otherwise be produced ; and

Appendix H. 261

a few words of bad English or a badly chosen figure of
speech, may work irreparable mischief in a paragraph which
would, but for that, be excellent in tone. For maintaining
unity of tone in a paragraph, a careful selection of appro-
priate details (see pp. 6-10, 30, 55-60), and of appropriate
words and images by which to express them, is needful.
Notice the paragraphs on pages 37, 40, 47, 57, 142 (middle),
143 (last), 158 (last), and 169 (last) ; decide in each case
what is the purpose and point of view ; then decide whether
the tone is purely intellectual, emotional, or spiritual ; and,
finally, mark the words which preserve this distinctive tone
throughout the paragraph, and words which in tone fall
below the level on which the paragraph begins. Choice of
appropriate words is the main consideration in preserving
unity of tone.

Judicious use of blunt idiomatic expressions should not
be mistaken for violation of unity of tone. In the following
selection the italicized words do not fall below the general
tone of the paragraph : ' This instinctive belief, confirmed
by every other kind of studious experience, that all serious
study must inherently tend toward isolated specialization,
seems to me the first difficulty that besets earnest pupils
who make a mess of their English in the secondary schools.
Clearly enough, a really intelligent teacher can explain it
away. The process may involve vexatiously tedious reiter-
ation of good sense; but such reiteration ought to do the
business.9

3. Unity of Tone not Maintained. — ' The sight oppressed
me with sorrow, my heart swelled into my throat, my eyes
filled with tears, / couldn't stand it any longer, and I left.7
Better, 'I could no longer endure the painful scene, and
turned sadly away.'

' He prays that his friends grieve not at his death/ Better,
' will not grieve,'

262 Paragraph - Writing.

'My greatest difficulties in writing were organizing and
classifying material, formulating outlines, and adhering to
said (better, the) outlines.'

6 Again last year he w^as elected to that high office by such
a majority that his opponent did not know which end he
stood on.' Better, <by an overwhelming majority.'

' The best side of the boy's nature was aroused by these
potent stimuli.' Better, ' influences,' or ' incentives.'

'The odor of the blossoms, or of the gum, or the height
of the place, makes me dizzy, (Omit) or I have become dizzy
from something else.' See also page 7 (bottom).

4. Construct and arrange sentences in a way to give unity of
structure ; choose and arrange words and images in a way to
give unity of tone,,

(6) UNITY OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH.

5. Division of the Subject. — Each sentence must con-
tribute to the unity of the paragraph ; and each must have
a unity of its own, in the number and relationship of its
ideas (pp. 42-47), in the subordination of its parts (pp. 37,
41), and in its form as a whole (pp. 36, 38). The most
common violations of these three requirements are, (1) put-
ting too many ideas, or unrelated or insignificant ideas in
one sentence, (2) failing to keep prominent the main subject
or idea of a sentence, or failing to keep subsidiary details
subordinate, and (3) failing to adjust the form of the sen-
tence as a whole to the requirements of the paragraph.

6. (1) Too Many Ideas in One Sentence. — ' The Church
and Parliament, always conservative when ftieir own privi-
leges are threatened (proofs of which fact may be found in
every chapter of English History), created a strong opposi-
tion to his claims, — claims which to them appeared arro-
gant, — so he pretended, for a time, to favor each, in order

Appendix IT. 263

to weaken their hostility; but, at last, he threw off the
mask, and opposed them openly.' This sentence is correct,
but it attempts to say too many things. There is material
in it for three sentences. Omit the matter in parenthesis,
which is sufficiently indicated by the word always; put
periods after arrogant and hostility, and revise the three
sentences thus formed.

7. Unrelated Ideas in One Sentence. — ' The new Congress-
man comes of good old New England stock, is in favor
of tariff-reform, and at present resides at Washington Court
House, the town which gained an unenviable notoriety last
year on account of the mob attack on the jail.' Omit the
last eighteen words; they are of no significance in giving
an idea of the new Congressman. Better, 'The new Con-
gressman is at present a resident of Washington Court
House. He comes of good old New England stock (insert
in this sentence another item or two, relative to his ances-
try, or stock-characteristics). He is in favor of tariff-reform'
(add to this one or two related particulars, in order to justify
separate sentence-statement).

' The University was organized by Act of Legislature in
1837, and is a wonderful testimony to the efficiency of govern-
ment by the people and for the people.' Better, ' The Uni-
versity was organized by Act of Legislature in 1837. Its
rapid growth is a wonderful testimony,' etc.

8. The parts of each sentence, whatever its length or the
number of its details, should all bear a close relation to one
principal idea.

9. A long parenthetical statement should be omitted if not
clearly needed, If needed, it should either be organized into a
separate sentence, or be shortened and closely knit into the
subordinate texture of the sentence to which it belongs,

264 Paragraph - Writing.

10. (2) Subordination Badly Managed. — ' This revolt, con-
ducted by Senara against the Empire of Brazil, resulted
in his being declared President of the Brazilian Republic.'
(The important fact is that a Eepublic was established.)
Better, 'This revolt, conducted by Senara against the Em-
pire of Brazil, resulted in the establishment of the Brazilian
Eepublic, of which Senara was declared President.'

' In case the President should die while in office, a near
election might be an advantage ; for a man living in a
" doubtful " state like New York is frequently chosen Vice
President, not because he is a statesman, and should the
Presidency devolve on him, he would prove incompetent,
and hence an early opportunity to select another would be
desirable.' Better, ' In case the President should die while
in office, a near election might be an advantage. For the
Vice President, chosen, as he frequently is, not because he
is a statesman, but solely because he lives in a " doubtful "
state like New York, might prove to be an incompetent
President. In this event, an early opportunity to select

another would be desirable.'

<•>

11. Subordinate details should be kept subordinate in form
of statement,

12. Appended Phrases and Clauses. — ' At present, in the
House of Refuge, religious exercises are held without re-
gard to the classification, of the inmates with regard to
the sect of which they are adherents.' Better, 6 At present,
in the House of Refuge, religious exercises are held without
regard to the sectarian preferences of the inmates.'

'You will not find a more courageous President, among
those who have held the office of late years, at least.'
Better, ' Among all of our presidents, at least among those
who have held the office of late, you will not find a better
example of courage.'

Appendix H. 265

' Among the guests is one whose name is honored by all
luhose lives have been made better by Ms writings (see § 14)
and whose presence affords us the greatest pleasure.'
Better, ( Among the guests is one whose name is honored
wherever lives have been made better by his writings.
His presence affords us the greatest pleasure.'

' In the second panel we are shown at the right a small
palm-tree by whose side is another from behind which three
Indians are timidly peeping at Columbus and his followers
who have just landed.' Better, 'In this panel we are
shown the landing of Columbus and his followers. At the
right are two palm-trees ; from behind one of them three
Indians are timidly peeping.'

13. Appended phrases and clauses should be reduced to in-
conspicuous forms or transferred to inconspicuous positions,

14. A subordinate clause within a subordinate clause should
not be clothed in the same form of words as clauses of higher
rank, Beware of involved clauses,

15. (3) Loose for Periodic Sentence. — ' Serfs were com-
pelled to pay for their land and shelter. They gave a
percentage of all they raised and of all the game they
might capture, to their lord, as part payment.' Better,
' As part payment they gave to their lord a percentage
both of all they raised and of all the game they might
capture.'

16. Change a loose to a periodic sentence (see p. 16, top),
or vice versa, when the change will result in a closer continua-
tion of the thought of the preceding sentence, (Even when
clearness is attained by a certain ordering of parts, further
rearrangement will often better the unity both of the sen-
tence and of the paragraph.)

266 Paragraph - Writing.

B. CLEARNESS.
PERSPICUITY, OR CLEARNESS OP THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE.

17. Sow Perspicuity may be Secured. — Each sentence in
a paragraph may be clear in meaning, and yet the paragraph,
as a whole, may lack clearness. This is true of the para-
graph on page 107 and of that at the bottom of page 109.
Clearness of the paragraph, as a whole, is more conveniently
and accurately called Perspicuity. Perspicuity depends upon
paragraph-structure (pp. 24-54), upon the order (pp. 13-15)
and connection (pp. 40-42) of sentences, and especially
upon the sufficient use of repetition (p. 25), definition (p. 26),
explanation, illustration, and details (pp. 28-31). Propor-
tion (p. 10, bottom), sequence and grouping (pp. 69, 73),
and careful planning (pp. 77-81) must be attended to by
the writer who would be perspicuous in style.

18. To secure perspicuity, observe the laws of sequence and
grouping, see that each thought is stated and illustrated with
sufficient fulness, and attend to the connection of related sentences.

CLEARNESS OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH.

19. Division of the /Subject. — As in the paragraph, so in
the sentence, clearness is a problem of sequence, grouping,
and placing of parts, a problem of pointing out relations and
connections between parts, of using a sufficient number of
words and of using them accurately. When a qualifying
word, phrase, or clause is not so placed as to indicate, with
certainty, what word or words it qualifies, we have (1) the
squinting construction, or (2) ambiguity resulting from the
separation of words that ought to be close together. When
reference-words do not point out with unerring accuracy the
words to which they refer, (3) the antecedent is often hard

Appendix H. 267

to detect, or when found is seen to be incommensurate with
the reference word. (4) The words of reference chosen may
be too vague and indefinite to suggest the antecedent, and
(5) confusion of ideas may result from the fact that no ante-
cedent is expressed to which the words of reference may
refer. When words are not employed in sufficient numbers,
a participle may be left without a word in the sentence to
which it may attach itself, in which event we may have (6) a
case of unrelated or of misrelated participle. The participle
carries with it several implications of meaning, hence it is
sometimes necessary (7) to expand a participle into a clause
in order to indicate the precise implication of meaning in-
tended. (8) Words have to be inserted or repeated in form
or substance when their omission would cause ambiguity.
(9) An infinitive of purpose, when used in connection with
an infinitive in another function, requires the insertion of
additional distinguishing words. When words are not used
accurately in pointing out relations between parts of a sen-
tence, lack of clearness is sure to result. Inaccuracies result-
ing in obscurity or ambiguity are most frequent (10) in the
use of connectives and (11) relative pronouns, (12) in the
use of number and tense and (13) in the use of will and
shall. We shall now consider in order these thirteen viola-
tions of clearness.

20. (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.

'He thought his choice of elective studies, at all events,
as good as the average. (Insert (1) was after studies, or
(2) at all events after good, or (3) after choice, or (4) before
He, — according to the meaning.)

<A Senate of rich men holding their seats by bribing
legislatures, to tell the truth, will not longer be tolerated.'
Better (1) 'will not (to speak plainly) be tolerated any

268 Paragraph - Writing.

longer ' ; or (2) ( holding their seats (if the truth were known)
by bribing/ etc.

' A literary education in the minds of some people seems
to be unnecessary.' (Place the italicized words first.)

21. Guard against the squinting construction, Place phrases
and clauses in unambiguous positions,

22. (2) Related Words Separated. — ' He looked back upon
those years spent in wandering about Europe with regret.7
Better, ( He looked back with regret upon/ etc.

'He speaks on too deep topics to be readily understood
by the ordinary man.' Better3 'On topics too deep to be
readily understood/ etc.

' It is not impossible that future ages may develop a means
of expressing thoughts and feelings to us unknown.' Better,
6 Future ages may express their thoughts and feelings by
some means to us unknown.'

' During my junior year there was some work in composi-
tion in connection with the work in *English that continued
through the whole year.' Better, ' During my junior year,
in connection with the work in English, there was some
work in composition that continued/ etc.

' Eed Cap would not shake hands with or even allow any-
one to touch him that he did not like.' Better, 'Red Cap
would not shake hands with anyone that he did not like, or
even allow such a person to touch him.'

' He derives his power from, and should always hold him-
self responsible to, the people.' Better, 'He derives his
power from the people, and should always hold himself
responsible to them.' (Or, to the people.) See § 24.

' He only thought he could stay a few days.' Better, ' He
thought he could stay only a few days.'

'He only (use alone) was able to work the hard problems.'

6 To so act is foolish ! ' Better, 80 to act, or To act so.
See § 26.

Appendix H. 269

' He put himself on the defensive, not against the whole
world, but against those whom he had found it necessary to
be on the defensive towards.' (Better, towards whom.) See
§ 27.

6 They not only intend to pass another low-tariff bill, but
also a free-silver bill.' Better, 'They intend to pass not
only another low-tariff bill, but also a free-silver bill.7

23. Bring related words as close together as possible,

24. Avoid the ' splitting of particles,' that construction by
which the emphasis is suspended upon a preposition and is de-
layed there until another preposition, referring to the same word,
is passed,

25. Distinguish between 'only' and 'alone,' Place a single-
word adverb (such as the word ' only ') immediately before the
word or expression that it modifies,

26. Do not separate the infinitive from its sign 'to,'

27. When possible, place the preposition immediately before
the word to which it refers, The prepositions that can best
stand at the end of a sentence are to, for, of, by, and these will
not bear a separation of more than two or three words from their
idea-word, even in idiomatic expressions,

28. Be careful to place 'not only — but also,' ' either— or,'
'both — and,' immediately before the corresponding words to
which they refer,

29. (3) Antecedent needs Attention. — *A brother of Gen-
eral Sherman* who was sitting near by, corrected the state-
ment.' Better, 6 General Sherman's brother, who/ etc., or,
' A brother of General Sherman, while the General himself
was sitting near by/ etc. — according to the meaning in-
tended. See § 33.

•Everybody found it best for their (their should be his)
health to shun the place.'

270 Paragraph - Writing.

' The injured man with the whole circle of his relations
and friends rose in their (their should be his) fury to wreak
vengeance on the offender.7

* He whispered that the enemy were all about us, which
would have terrified me under other circumstances.' See
§ 35. (For which substitute an announcement that, or a
method of communication that, — according to the meaning.)

30. (4) Ambiguous Words of Reference. — ' Topography in
a broader sense may be represented approximately by hatch-
ings or by washes of color. Very beautiful effects may be
produced in this way.7 (Better, by these methods.) See § 36.

' At that time Doctor and Master were synonymous, but
when an initiatory stage of discipline was prescribed, each
term became significant of a certain rank, and was called a
step or degree ; this was instituted by Gregory IX.' Better,
'this change/ or 'this distinction.'

' Composition has always been hard for me, and I must
confess that the encyclopaedia has been in that connection
my closest friend.' Better, 'I must confess that in the
preparation of my essays the encyclopaedia,' etc.

' There has been a small-pox scare, but it has been stamped
out entirely. At one time it looked as if it would spread
over the entire city, but it is over now.' (Substitute for the
first it, ' the disease ' ; for it looked as if it, ' we thought the
disease ' ; for the last it, ' the scare.') See page 40.

31. (5) Confusion of Ideas. — ' A seven-year term would
cause the President to make his administration the best of
those who had held the office.9 See § 32. Better, 'A seven-
year term would enable the President to make his adminis-
tration better than any former administration.'

( Where can you find a more enthusiastic crowd than a
body of college students ? ' Better, ' Where can you find
greater enthusiasm than in a crowd of college students ? '

Appendix H. 271

32. Guard against using a relative clause that has no antecedent,

33. Be sure that the antecedent to which a relative refers is
clear and unmistakable,

34. Singular antecedents require singular pronouns of reference ;
relative and antecedent should agree in number,

35. Eepeat an idea when the relative alone is not sufficient
for clearness.

36. Words of reference should denote accurately the number
and character of the antecedent,

37. (6) Misrelated and Unrelated Participle. — ' Having
proved compulsory education necessary, it remains (add, for
us) to prove it beneficial and expedient.'

' Accustomed from childhood to hearing incorrect speech,
systematic drill is needed in the schools.' ' Accustomed
from childhood to hearing incorrect speech, pupils need
systematic drill in the use of good English.7

38. A participle usually requires that a word be expressed with
which it may agree, Supply the word when omission would cause

ambiguity.

39. (7) Participle for Clause. — ' Eeduced to his last
dollar, he felt that he was ready for any emergency.' (Sup-
ply before reduced, When he was, If he were, Whenever he
was, Since he was, Though he was, Because he was, or After
he was, according to the meaning intended.)

'The skeletons in the vault, exposed to the air, turned
suddenly to dust.' Better, 'when they were exposed/ or
'if they were exposed.'

40. Supplant a participle by a clause whenever more than one
interpretation is possible,

272 Paragraph - Writing.

41. (8) Omission of Necessary Words. — ' Republics are not
desirable (insert if, because, since, ivhenever, or wherever)
unaccompanied by intelligence.'

'He was generous to all who had aided him to acquire
wealth, and (insert to) his business partner especially.7

' When he came to his majority, after a long struggle with
poverty and hardship, and (substitute when) more prosper-
ous days began for him, and (insert when) he found himself
influential, he repaid all those who had helped him.'

'He said that he meant no offence and (repeat that he)
intended to repair the mischief.'

'He reported that there were two applicants for the
degree of Master in Pharmacy, (repeat a degree) for which
the University had not yet provided.'

'For many years we have been troubled with disputes
about the various fisheries, (repeat disputes) which might
be in large measure done away with by the appointment of
a commission/

' They could do nothing further until the war closed and
cooler counsels prevailed.' (Eepeat until before cooler, or
substitute so for and, according to the meaning intended.)

42. Kepeat a word when its omission would cause ambiguity,

43. (9) Infinitives in Different Offices. — 'He loved to
give to the poor, to show them that he was their friend.'
The two offices indicated : ' He loved to give to the poor in
order to show them that he was their friend 5 ' or the mean-
ing may be, 'He loved to give to the poor, and, in other
ways, to show them that he was their friend.'

' It is not every one who knows just how much tension
a brush needs (insert in order) to secure good contact.'

44. Make it plain whether an infinitive is co-ordinate with a
preceding infinitive or is dependent, Distinguish a subjective, an
objective, or a complementary infinitive from an infinitive of purpose,

Appendix H. 273

45. (10) Connection Faulty. — 'The Church and Parlia-
ment created a strong opposition to his claims ; and (better,
so) he pretended, for a time, to favor each, in order to
weaken their hostility. But at last he threw off the mask/ etc.

6 In Germany and England the military expenditure goes
on as before, and (better, while) in Italy the cost of the
army has bankrupted the country.'

'The snow had been falling for several days, and was
now nearly three feet deep; but (better, nevertheless) Mr.
Smith considered it necessary to go to the Zoological
Laboratory.'

6 Landor lacks the power of attraction which we find in
writers of great genius; (omit and) and though a classic
in the best sense, he will never be widely read.'

'The prospects of the team, against Harvard, are not
flattering, and (add even) against the smaller eastern col-
leges we cannot hope for much.'

' Austria and Prussia and (better, together with) the whole
body of the German states, fell upon this feeble kingdom.'

' Hawthorne, the author of ' Twice Told Tales,' and who
was a contemporary of Irving, speaks of Irving's humor.'
(Omit and.) See § 48.

'His was a character of sterling integrity, and which
deserves to be imitated.' (Better, ' His was a character of
sterling integrity and worthy of imitation.') See § 48.

' It is often necessary to make a careful examination for
the purpose of ascertaining the exact form of the ground
and to construct a map that can be followed.' (Better, in
order to ascertain, etc., and in order to construct.) See § 49.

' They wanted to make the weekly meeting not so much
a social force, but, on the other hand, a means of cultivating
oratory.' Better, 'not so much a social force as a means,'
etc.

' His manners were not acquired, but natural, but (better,
yet) he never felt awkward in society.' See § 50.

274 Paragraph - Writing.

46. Distinguish different degrees and different kinds of con-
nection in such words as and, so, while, whereas, even, together
with, since, hence, because, for, etc,

47. Do not overwork the words and, of, etc,

48. And cannot be used with who or which unless a correspond-
ing who or which has been used in the same sentence, or has been
clearly implied,

49. Introduce by similar words, clauses or phrases which perform
similar functions,

50. In the same sentence do not use the word 'but' in two
functions, Distinguish between the larger and smaller contrasts
in a sentence by using different conjunctions,

51. (11) Relative Pronoun at Fault. — The relative pro-
noun that is restrictive, and introduces a clause that closely
defines, limits, or qualifies the antecedent. A that-cl&use
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 equiva-
lent 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 who. Which is equiva-
lent 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 (1) when
the use of that would make a harsh combination, (2) when
the word that has already been used in another function
in the same sentence, and (3) when the use of that would
throw a preposition to the end of the sentence.

Appendix ff. 275

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 ivho or ivhich will give to the clause
a restrictive force.

< He asked me who (whom, is correct) I expected.'

' Whom (who, is correct) do you think would wear such
a thing ? '

' Nothing which (better, that) could add to their comfort
was forgotten.'

4 He gave up his law practice that (better, ( his law prac-
tice which ') he had built up only after years of hard work.'

'The society has twenty members that (or ' members
who') intend to make this their life-work.' (Who would
imply a total membership of but twenty. That implies a
larger membership.)

6 There is a saloon next door that (or, which) is a nuisance.'
(That implies that the saloon is a nuisance. Which implies
that its being next door is a nuisance.)

' That man was the first that saw (better, to see) what
was needed.'

6 This is the town that you mentioned.' Better, ( This is
the town you mentioned.'

52. Distinguish between the restrictive relative that and the
co-ordinating relatives, who and which.

53. That may sometimes be omitted with a gain to clearness,

54. Eecast a whole sentence if necessary to avoid the use of
that in two functions,

55. (12) Lack of Concord in Number or Tense. — ' No
one knew his age, but it would not have been difficult to have
guessed it.' (Corrected : to guess it.) See § 56.

' He said that honesty was the best policy.' (Better, is.)
See § 57.

276 Paragraph - Writing.

'As civilization advanced, they began to feel that the
sweetest thing man possessed is liberty.' (Better, possesses.)

'He had never, put aside the old and narrow idea that
higher education was for men alone.' (Better, is.)

6 Sometimes we have been attracted by the melodies that
have floated towards us, and drew near to discover the
source.' (Better, ' have drawn near.')

'He came to the hill, and, watching his chance, slyly
creeps near the game; then he raised his gun.' (Either, came,
crept, raised; or, comes, creeps, raises.) See § 58.

'Each of these men were great financiers.' (Both were,
etc. ; or, each was a great financier.)

' There are (is) one of these rooms on each corner.'

'The beautiful location of the school, together with its
many historical associations, make it a delightful place to
visit.' (Make should be makes.)

' Thus, through his avarice, his honor as well as his prop-
erty and business enterprises were gone.' (Were should be
was.)

'The number of co-educational colleges have increased.'
(Have should be has.)

56. In dependent clauses and infinitives reckon the tense rela-
tively to the tense of the principal verb,

57. According to the usage of most good writers, general truths
require the present tense, irrespective of the tense of the principal
verb,

58. Consistency in the tenses of the verbs of a sentence should
be maintained throughout,

59. The verb should agree with its subject in number*

60. (13) Witt, Shall, Would, Should. — (1) 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

Appendix H. 277

book/ and 'You, he, or they will enjoy reading the book.'

(2) In sentences expressing determination, 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.'

(3) In questions, the same distinction between shall and will
as expressing simple futurity or determination is seen in
the following : ' Shall I, or we ? ' (simple future, or equivalent
to ' do you wish me or us to ? ') ; ' Will I ? ' (ironical) ; ' Shall
you subscribe ? ' (mere information desired) ; ' Will you sub-
scribe ? ' (I want you to) ; ' Shall he or they ? ' (Do you wish
him or them to ?) ; ' Will he or they ? ' (mere information
desired.) (4) In secondary clauses the reporter uses will,
if the speaker used or would have used will; shall if the
speaker used or would have used shall. Thus : Speaker, —
6 1 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, —
6 You (or they) shall seek in vain for it ' ; Reporter, — ' He
says you (or they) shall seek,' etc. (5) Should corresponds
to shall, and would 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.' (6) In conditional clauses ex-
ceptional care is needed, though the same distinctions are
maintained.

'He tells me that he will be twenty-one years old next
month.' (No determination. Will should be shall.)

'We would be pleased to have you call.' (Should is cor-
rect. Would, implying determination to be pleased, is
impolite as well as incorrect.)

' If he should come to-morrow, ivould you be surprised ? '
(Should is correct.)

' What would we do with Samoa if we would succeed in
annexing it ? ' (Use should in both cases.)

278 Paragraph - Writing.

61. With the first person, shall denotes simple futurity, and will
denotes determination, With the second and third persons, shall
denotes determination, and will denotes simple futurity, Should
follows the rule of shall and would follows the rule of will.

62. Keport what another has said, thought, known, or felt, by
using the verb that he, speaking in the first person, would have
used, If the dependence of tense requires, change his shall to
should, and his will to would.

C. FORCE.
(a) FORCE OF THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE.

63. How Force may be Secured. — Each paragraph carries
with it a certain weight and value for the reader. This weight
and value is due primarily to the character of the thought and
emotion with which the paragraph is freighted ; but, since
thought and emotion gain or lose according to the way in
which they are presented, the writer must take into account
style as an element of force. The style must correspond to
the character of the thought and emotion. Some thoughts
and emotions are by nature less forcible than others; the
attempt to overcharge with force a weak or commonplace
thought leads to bombast. A subject not in itself pic-
turesque or capable of exciting emotion will not be made so
by presenting it in highly figurative or impassioned diction.
The character of the thought as pathetic, humorous, witty,
ironical, or picturesque, will determine the language to be
used in expressing it. Some writers mistake effect for
force, and in striving after effect employ big words and
high-sounding phrases, or are guilty of over-niceness in
expression (k fine writing '), forgetting that plain statement
is nearly always the most forcible. In general, whatever
contributes to Unity and Clearness, contributes to Force,
but a paragraph already unified and clear may sometimes

Appendix H. 279

be improved in respect of Force (1) by a change of order in
the sentences (see pp. 13-15), (2) by the addition of partic-
ulars and applications (see pp. 30, 32), (3) by parallel con-
struction and repetition (see pp. 38-40), (4) by omission of
connectives (see p. 41), and (5) by condensing and short-
ening sentences (see p. 151. top).

A common violation of the principle of Force is over-use
of one kind of sentence. The student should guard against
this fault by familiarizing himself with the different kinds,
and by learning the advantage of each. Sentences are
sometimes classified as short sentences and long sentences,
terms which do not need to be defined ; and sometimes as
loose, periodic, and balanced. Each has its peculiar uses.
Short sentences arrest the attention more sharply than long
sentences ; hence they may be used for marking transitions,
for summarizing, and for announcing ideas that are to be
developed in succeeding sentences. Short sentences may
also be used to give quickness of movement and abrupt
emphasis. (See the selection from Thackeray, p. 140 ; the
selections from Emerson, pp. 145, 157 ; and Carlyle, p. 145 ;
the selection from Everett, p. 148. Notice the different use
which each author makes of the short sentence.) Long
sentences are useful to exhibit the relation of a principal
idea to several subordinate ideas within a single group, or
to show connectedly the development of an idea in its
details. Long sentences are often necessary to secure effects
of rhythm, antithesis, and climax. Employed in consider-
able numbers, they often give an impression of dignity and
grace. (See the selection from Morley, p. 142 ; from Haw-
thorne, p. 143 ; from Webster, p. 155 ; and notice the use
which each author makes of the long sentence.)

According to the second classification, sentences are loose,
periodic, or balanced. A loose sentence is one in which the
sense is fairly complete at one or more points before the end.
The following is an example : ' He expresses what all feel,

280 Paragraph - Writing.

but all cannot say ; (1) and his sayings pass into proverbs
among his people, (2) and his phrases become household
words and idioms of their daily speech, (3) which is tessel-
lated with the rich fragments of his language, (4) as we see
in foreign lands the marbles of Roman grandeur worked
into the walls and pavements of modern palaces.' If inter-
rupted at any one of the points indicated by numbers, this
sentence would still be fairly complete in sense. Loose
sentences resemble in structure those which we use in con-
versation ; hence they give an impression of ease and natu-
ralness. (See the selection from Holmes, p. 143; from
Bagehot, p. 144; from Dickens, p. 153.) A periodic sen-
tence is one which seems incomplete when interrupted
at any point before the close. Consider the structure of
the following sentence : ' A language in the condition in
which ours is at present, when thousands of eyes are jeal-
ously watching its integrity, and a thousand pens are ready
to be drawn, and dyed deep in ink, to challenge and oppose
the introduction into it of any corrupt form, of any new and
uncalled-for element, can, of course, undergo only the slow-
est and the least essential alteration.' The meaning of this
sentence is suspended until the very end. Interrupted at
any point before the end, it is grammatically incomplete.
Periodic sentences are used to maintain interest and to give
to style an impression of dignity and completeness. (See
the selection from Morison, p. 137 ; from Gibbon, p. 149 ;
from Arnold, p. 151.) A balanced sentence is one in which
different parts are made similar in form in order to bring
out parallelism in meaning. (See pp. 38, 39.) The follow-
ing is an example : ' On the third of November, 1640, a day
to be long remembered, met that great Parliament, destined
to every extreme of fortune, to empire and to servitude, to
glory and to contempt; at one time the sovereign of its
sovereign, at another time the servant of its servants.'
Sentences of this type are used to give force and point to

Appendix H.

contrasted ideas. In form they are more impressive than
other kinds of sentences, and consequently are more liable
to abuse. A safe rule is to use the balanced sentence only
when it is demanded by a parallelism in the thought.

To use in successive paragraphs one length or one type
of sentences results in feebleness and monotony of style.
Over-use of the short sentence leads to scrappiness ; of the
long sentence, to diifuseness or obscurity. Loose sentences
are apt to be slovenly. Periodic sentences, especially if
long, require sustained attention and soon weary. A para-
graph composed solely of balanced sentences is almost
unreadable. The principle of Force requires a judicious
mingling of these various kinds. If the student inclines to
write short sentences, let him now and then introduce a
moderately long one. If he inclines to write long sentences,
let him introduce among them sentences that are brief and
pointed. A succession of periods should be interrupted by
looser forms, and in a succession of loose sentences a sus-
pended sentence should now and then appear.

64. Gauge force of expression by force of thought,

65. Avoid bombast and fine writing,

66. Depend for force mainly upon paragraph structure, order
and brevity of sentences, and condensation,

67. Avoid monotony by mingling sentences of various lengths
and of various kinds,

(5) FORCE OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH.

68. Problems of Sentential Force. — Force in the sentence,
as in the paragraph, presents two kinds of problems, —
problems of position and structure of parts, and problems
of choice among words, sounds, and figures. (1) Important
words should be so placed that the reader cannot help em-

282 Paragraph - Writing.

phasizing them. (2) Unimportant words should be so
placed as to refuse emphasis when read. Emphasis is
secured to a word, phrase, or clause by placing it out of its
usual position in the sentence. The positions most natu-
rally emphatic in the sentence are at the end and at the
beginning. There is in every good sentence one point at
which the emphasis culminates ; that point should be occu-
pie^. by the most important expression. But emphasis
must be varied, or (3) we have monotony of structure.
When (4) an unexpected change of construction is made,
or (5) awkward constructions are introduced, there is loss
of force and of emphasis. (6) Since the end of the sen-
tence is a naturally strong position, it should not be surren-
dered to an unimportant phrase or clause. (7) Constructions
borrowed from another language, by violating the English
word-order, dissipate or divert the emphasis and weaken
the force of the sentence. (8) Condensation of clauses to
phrases, or of phrases to single words, will often strengthen
a sentence. Weakness results when (9) the terms employed
are too general, when (10) unimportant words are repeated,
when (11) there is an unintended jingle of sounds or a queer
combination of sounds. There are, also, (12) expressions
that are weak in themselves, from having been used loosely
or indefinitely for a long time. (13) Finally, faulty figures
are a source of weakness. We shall take up in order these
thirteen violations of Force-requirements.

69. Unimportant Words Emphasized. — ' Washington en-
camped for the winter, with the remnant of his army, in a
small valley near the city in which his enemies swarmed ;
but the weather was so cold that he was in no danger of
attack.' Better, 'The small valley in which Washington
with the remnant of his army encamped for the winter, was
near the city in which his enemies swarmed; but the
weather/ etc.

Appendix H. 283

' This is not true of any other country.' Better, ' Of no
other country is this true.? See § 72.

70. (2) Important Words Unemphasized. — ' It is remark-
able that although Washington had that excessive pride in
his high position which is shown in his portrait, he always
evinced the deepest interest in the humblest of his soldiers.'
Better, ' It is remarkable that, although Washington's pride
in his high position, as shown in his portrait, was excessive,
he always evinced/ etc.

' Of course in America, where the names college and uni-
versity are applied indifferently to the same institution, the
term degree has lost its exactness and is but a seeming
parallel to the term as used originally in the older universi-
ties of Europe.' Better, ' And its identity with the term as
used originally in the older universities of Europe is only
apparent.'

'We see frankness and honesty in this face.' Better,
'What we see in this face is frankness and honesty.'

< His fall was sad.' Better, < How sad his fall ! '

' This will not be denied.' < Better, ' Will any one deny
this ? '

71. Important words should occupy emphatic positions,

72. Emphasis is sometimes secured by inversion, See page 37.

73. Emphasis is sometimes gained by changing a declarative
to an exclamatory or an interrogative sentence,

74. (3) Monotonous Recurrence of the Same Structure.
— 'That Washington was a great general, we know; that
he was an honest statesman, we are certain; that he was
never moved by selfish ambition, history proves.' Better,
' We know that Washington was a great general ; that he
was an honest statesman, we are certain; and history
proves that he was never moved by selfish ambition.'

284 Paragraph - Writing.

75. Vary the emphasis by varying the structure,

76. (4) Unexpected Change of Construction. — ' The Indians
make signals by covering the fire until a sufficient quantity
of smoke is accumulated, and it is then allowed to ascend in
short puffs.' Better, ' And then allowing it to ascend/ etc.

'The young man's fists were impressing his arguments
on the radiator more forcibly perhaps than he will ever
be able to impress them in a less literal sense.7 Better,
' Than he will ever be able to impress them on the public.7

( She saw them striving to find the unknown and that
they never found it.7 Better, ( But never finding it.7

'The women7s parlors are admirably adapted for social
gatherings as well as a retreat for the weary.7 Better,
* They are also a retreat for the weary.7

'We know of his irreproachable character and that he
is not capable of such a deed.7 Better, * We know that
his character is irreproachable and that he is not capable
of such a deed.7

' He saw his danger and that another step would be fatal.7
Better, ( He saw that his position was dangerous and that/
etc. ; or, ( He saw his danger and the fatality of another
step.7

77. In similar parts of the sentence, use the same construction,

78. (5) Awkward Constructions. — ' The building is of
brown-stone, having been erected two years ago.7 Better,
' The building is of brown-stone and was erected two years
ago.7 See § 79.

'There is no need of discussing the question of how it
happened.7 Better, 'There is no need of discussing how
it happened.7

' I came in contact with creatures whose existence, as
possible, had never occurred to me.7 Better, ' Creatures the
possibility of whose existence/ etc.

Appendix H. 285

'The air becomes vitiated and without any life-giving
qualities.' Better, ' And loses its life-giving qualities.'

'The desks follow the shape of the wall, thus causing
them to assume the form of concentric curves.' Better,
' Assuming the form of concentric curves.'

79. Do not subordinate an independent thought,

80. Avoid awkward constructions,

81. (6) Weak or Abrupt Ending. — ' The change would
be of the greatest value to all students, that is, to those
who regularly study on Sunday, at least.' Better, 'The
change would be of the greatest value to all students, and
especially to those who regularly study on Sunday.'

'Let those who are ambitious to win place or power,
worry.' Better, ' Let those worry who,' etc.

82. Do not put a weak phrase at the end of a sentence,

83. An important thought at the close of a sentence requires a
volume of sound corresponding to the sense,

84. (7) Construction Borrowed from Another Language.
— ' Under the then existing circumstances, nothing could
be done.' Better, 'Under the circumstances then existing,
nothing could be done.'

'The too great distance of the proposed field from the
campus is another objection. An admittedly by far better
location is on High Street.' Better, ' The proposed field is
too far from the campus. It is admitted that High Street
would afford a much better location.'

'We ran the entire gamut of our at that time possibilities.'
(Omit at that time.)

' He, when he had put a white tie on, looked around for
his gloves.' Better, ' After putting on a white tie, he looked
around for his gloves.'

286 Paragraph - Writing.

85. A construction borrowed from another language requires a
change to the natural word-order of English,

86. (8) Condensation. — ' The Church and Parliament
were opposed to his claims and created a strong opposi-
tion.' Better, < The Church and Parliament created a strong
opposition to his claims.'

4 Two green eyes glared at him through the darkness and
came nearer and nearer, and when he was about to call for
help he found that it was only a cat.' Better, < Two green
eyes glared at him through the darkness ; nearer and nearer
they came; he was about to call for help when he found
that it was only a cat.'

'The twenty-eight hundred students (omit) assembled
united in giving the University yell.7

'If you will only coddle him, he will treat you well.'
Better, ' Coddle him, and he/ etc.

'When he had done the deed, he disappeared.' Better,
< The deed done, he disappeared.'

87. Force is gained by cutting out all words that may be dis-
pensed with,

88. The imperative and the participle are means of conden-
sation,

89. (9) Terms too General. — ' An epidemic existed in
the interior; the inhabitants were dying in large numbers.'
Better, ( An epidemic was raging in the interior ; the people
were dying by thousands.'

90. lor strength use particular terms instead of general terms,

91. (10) Repetition to be Avoided. — ' His person and
manner were ungracious enough, so that he prevailed only
by strength of his reason, which was enforced with con-
fidence enough.'

Appendix H. 287

' Near by are some shells thrown up by the waves in some
storm.'

'It is only comparative??/ recen% that it has been dis-
tinct^ seen by astronomers.7

6 Certain characteristics are certain to offend/

6 Letting our eyes fall once more to the surface of the
water, let us look more carefully at the scene.7

6 His life went on on the peaceful lines which he had laid
down for himself.'

'A simple-hearted man with nothing to influence other
men with but goodness of heart.'

92. (11) Euphony Violated. — ''Recall all the thrilling
incidents of that day.7 Better, Recollect, etc.

' He was proud of the learning he had got.' Better, which
he had acquired.

'The second tumbril empties and moves off; the third
comes up.' Better, approaches.

' Suc/i changing scenes.7 (' Such varying scenes.7)

93. Avoid needless repetitions of the same word,

94. Avoid close repetitions of the same sound,

95. Avoid a succession of monosyllables,

96. Avoid harsh or abrupt endings,

97. (12) Weak and Hackneyed Expressions. — If I may
be allowed to use the figure; Situated as it is, on Lake
Michigan, etc. ; very nice ; very happy ; as it were ; I
think; that is to say; this subject is very important; the
end is not yet ; suffice it to say ; etc. — when used fre-
quently.

'Just beyond the laboratory is a storeroom, (omit) so to
speak, where chemicals and apparatus are kept.7

'The Library is the best place, (omit) to be found for
collecting class-taxes.7

288 Paragraph - Writing.

'He seemed at times to mock at reason, defy judgment,
and lack (better, break througJi) all restraint.7
' Near the palace is (better, totters) the hovel.7

98. Avoid trite and meaningless expressions.

99. A verb implying action is more forcible than a verb pas-
sive in sense,

100. (13) Figures Faulty or Uncalled for. — ' He would
have given his all — life itself, his hopes, his prospects —
to blot out that deed.7 (Anticlimax. Put life itself Sifter
prospects.)

6 The wildest excitement prevailed, and at two o7clock the
hungry eyes of the sailors feasted once more upon dry
land.7 See § 101.

' In our Teachers7 Association will be found many of the
wheel horses who teach the young idea how to shoot.7 See
§§ 98 and 102.

<Life7s sunset is approaching.7 Better, <Life7s sun is
setting.7

' The plan of representing the character of the surface by
contour lines has its advantages and disadvantages and,
(omit) like the Nebular Theory, has many supporters.7

' The teacher should be all that is noble and pure. The
children, (omit) those blossoms of love, are constantly look-
ing to the teacher for guidance.'

101. Beware of the mixed metaphor and the anticlimax,

102. Do not use a figure unless it brings strength to the
sentence,

INDEXES.

I. GENERAL INDEX.

[The numbers refer to the pages of the text. Names of authors whose
works are quoted and of periodicals from which extracts have been made,
are in SMALL CAPITALS.]

ABBOTT, 146. Abstracts, 85, 182-184. ALEXANDER, 147,
148. Amplifying Paragraphs, 63, 64, 189-191. Analysis, 137-
141, 191-202. Application, 32. A Priori Proofs, 88, 89. Argu-
ment, 87-92, 123, 124, 130, 135. Argument, Subjects for Essays in
(see Index II.). Argumentative Type, 48-54. ARNOLD, 139,
144, 151, 162, 186. Authority, 89.

BACON, 31, 146. BAGEHOT, 31, 34, 141, 142, 144, 160. BAIN,
44. Bain, 106. BIRRELL, 13. BOLINGBROKE, 189. BRYCE,
186. BUCKLE, 139. BUCKLEY, 8. Burden of Proof, 91.

BURKE, 35, 38, 50, 160, 188.

Campbell, 106. CARLYLE, 18, 57, 145. Carpenter, 106.
CENTURY, 3, 34, 160. CHANNING, 187. Character Sketches, 58.
CHICAGO HERALD, 30. CHRISTIAN UNION, 3. Clark, J. S., 106.
CLARKE, 63, 146, 150. Clearness, 266-278. Climax, 13, 14. CLAY,
34. Concluding Paragraphs, 61, 63, 185, 186. CONTEMPORARY
REVIEW, 147. Contrary, Presenting the, 27, 28. Correcting Manu-
scripts, Abbreviations for, 255-259. Criticism, 83-85. CURTIS, 53.

Deduction, 49, 102, 105. Definition, 52, 80. Definitive

Statements, 26. De Mille, 106. DE QUINCEY, 7, 41, 44.
Description, 55, 56, 65-70, 131. Description, Subjects for Essays
in (see Index II.). Developing, Means of, 24-36. DICKENS, 56,
153. Directive Paragraphs, 63, 187, 188. Division, 78, 125,
129. DRUMMOND, 26. DRYDEN, 4.

EARLE, 10. Editing, 202-203. ELIOT, GEORGE, 145. EMER-
SON, 11, 145, 147, 149, 156. Enforcement, 32. Essays, 64-92.

289

290 Indexes.

EVERETT, 64. Examples, 88-90. Explanation, 28-30. Ex-
position, 75-87, 125-128, 130, 136. Exposition, Subjects for Essays
in (see Index II.). Expository Type, 48-54.

FARRAR, 30. FIELDS, 157. Force, 278-288. FROUDE, 143, 157.

GARDINER, 62. Genung, 106, 118, 119. GIBBON, 149, 159.
GOLDSMITH, 161. GRAHAM, 146. GREEN, J. R., 55, 58." GROTE, 37.

HAMERTON, 1, 20, 187. HAMILTON, 52. HARE, 162. HAR-
PER'S MAGAZINE, 163-165. HARVARD MONTHLY, 153. HAW-
THORNE, 143, 159. HIGGINSON, 163. Hill, A. S., 106. Hill,
D. J., 106. HOLMES, 29, 143. Hunt, 106. HUXLEY, 30.

Illustration, 28-30. Induction, 50, 90, 102-105. Introduc-
tory Paragraphs, 61, 63, 185-187. Introductory Sentences, 33, 34.
Inversion, 37. IRVING, 149. Isolated Paragraph, 2, 18.

JAMES, W., 54, 94. JOHNSON, 14, 150.

KlNGSLEY, 27.

LAMB, 35, 44. Length of Paragraph, 10. LEWES, 104, 156,
187. LIVERMORE, 185. Logical Type, 48. LONDON SPECTATOR,
21. LONDON TIMES, 32. LOWELL, 37, 62. LUCE, 186.

MCCARTHY, 24, 153. MACAULAY, 7, 9, 12, 13, 28, 43, 45, 46,

158, 188. McElroy, 106. MC^EILL, 155. MANN, 21, 32.

MATHEWS, 159. MERIVALE, 102. Method, 13. MILL, J. S.,

27, 156. Minto, 106. MORLEY, 142, 162. MORISON, 137.
MURRAY, J. C., 144. MURRAY, J. O., 27.

Narration, 55, 56, 70-75, 132-134. Narration, Subjects for

Essays in (see Index II.). NEW YORK PRESS, 22.

Outlines of Essays, 119-137.

PAGET, 103. Paragraph Structure, Typical, 119. Parallel
Construction, 38, 123. Paraphrase, 85, 182-184. PARKER, 28.
Partition, 77. PATER, 139. Portrait Sketches, 56. Proof-
reading, 202-211. Proofs, 31, 88, 89. Proportion, 10. Punctu-
ation, 42-47, 244-255.

Reference, Explicit, 40. Reference List, 212, 213. Refuta-
tion, 90, 91. Related Paragraph, 2, 60-92. RENTON, 100.
Repetition, 39, 40 ; of Theme, 25, 26. Reporting, 202-203. Re-
productions, 180-182. Rhetoric of the Paragraph, 260-288. ROBERT-
SON, 151, 153. RUSKIN, 6, 22, 27, 33, 47, 55, 79, 148, 160.

II. Index to Essay-Subjects. 291

SAINTSBURY, 9. Selection, 6. Sentence Structure, 36. Se-
quence, 13. SHAIRP, 189, 190. SHELLEY, 188. Signs, 88, 89.
SMILES, 158. SMITH, SIDNEY, 158, 161. SPENCER, 31, 49, 50, 140.
STEDMAN, 152, 185. Subject, General, 17 ; of Paragraph, 19.
Subjects of Essays, 213-244 (see Index II.). Subjects to be
narrowed, 110. Subordination, 40-42. Summarizing Sentences,
33-36. SWINBURNE, 26.

TAYLOR, 150. Ten-minute Themes, 172-179. THACKERAY,
151. Theme, 17. Theory of Paragraph, 93-106. Topic-
sentence, 19-24. Topic-sentences to be developed, 111-118.
Transitional Paragraphs, 63, 187-188'; Sentences, 33. Types of
Paragraph Structure, 47-54.

Unit of Discourse, 1, 2. Unity, 4, 16, 23, 260-265.
Variety, 15. VON HOLST, 185.

WALKER, 49. WEBSTER, 14, 155. Wendell, 106. WHIT-
NEY, 97, 154.

II. INDEX TO ESSAY-SUBJECTS.

[The figures (in bold-faced type) before the colon refer to the page;
the figure or figures after the colon refer to the number of the subject.]

Description. — 214 : 8 ; 217 : 116, 131 ; 219 : 12, 17 ; 220 :
32, 42 ; 221 : 33, 34, 36, 38 ; 223 : 101, 102, 106 ; 225 : 149 ;
226 : 180, 183, 184 ; 228: 236 ; 229 : 46, 59 ; 23O : 75, 2, 3 ;
231:35,41; 233:80,18-20; 235:27-30,33,37; 237:1;
238 : 8, 16, 18, 20, 21, 32, 34 ; 239 : 50-58, 63, 84, 85, 87, 91, 92,
97, 98; 240: 100, 101, 102, 105, 107-112, 115, 117, 118, 121, 122,
125, 127-132, 134, 136, 138, 139, 142, 146, 148-151, 153, 155-158;
241 : 159-162, 166, 167, 169, 171, 174, 179, 180, 182, 185, 186, 188-191,
193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 202, 206, 208, 210 ; 242: 213, 219, 221-224,
226, 227, 232, 234-237, 241, 245,249-251,274,275,284-287,296-298,
301, 308, 313 ; 244 : 317, 318, 320.

Narration. — 213: 5; 217: 117-119; 218: 1-3, 17; 219:
27; 221: 31, 34, 38; 223: 88, 89, 92, 94, 100, 103, 107;
224: 118; 225: 153, 154, 156, 167; 227: 234; 231: 14, 15,
27, 33 ; 232 : 42, 43, 49, 50 ; 233 : 76, 78 ; 234 : 3, 6, 15, 26 ;

292 Indexes.

235 : 25, 31 ; 237 : 61 ; 238 : 24 ; 239 : 68, 81, 83, 86, 95 ;
240 : 106, 113, 116, 120, 123, 126, 129, 130, 132-135, 137, 143-145, 147,
152-155, 158 ; 241 : 160, 163-170, 174, 177, 178, 180-186, 188, 189,
193, 199, 200, 203-205, 207, 208, 211, 212 ; 242 : 215, 228, 229, 231,
245, 274, 275, 291, 292, 299, 304, 305, 307, 309.

Exposition. — 213 : 12, 4 ; 214 : 7, 9-12, 14, 15, 17-20, 24-32 ;
215 : 33, 34, 36-66 ; 216 : 67-81, 83-94, 97-99 ; 217 : 102-115,
120-124, 127-130; 218: 4-15, 18-24; 219: 3-8, 10, 11, 14-16,
18-27, 29-31 ; 22O : 33-41, 43-46, 1, 4, 7-11, 17 ; 221: 18-25, 28,
29, 31, 33, 39-41, 43, 46, 47, 48; 222: 52, 55-59, 61, 62, 64-68,
73-75, 79, 80, 82 ; 223 : 84, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 103-105 ;
224: 117, 119, 121, 130-133, 136, 142-144; 225: 145-148, 152,
155, 157-165, 170-174, 176, 177; 226: 178, 181, 182, 185, 186,
189-191, 195; 227 : 221, 233 ; 228 : 235, 2-9, 12, 15, 18, 23-27 ;
229: 29-40, 42, 47-49, 51, 52, 57; 230 : 60, 1, 4-7; 231: 8,
10-13, 16-26, 28-32, 34, 37-40 ; 232 : 44-48, 51-58, 60-72 ; 233 :
73, 74, 77, 79, 1, 4, 17, 8, 10-14, 16, 17, 22 ; 234 : 1-4, 6-8, 10-25,
28-32 ; 235 : 33-36, 38-40, 42, 43, 1-8, 10-12 ; 236 : 13-18, 22-24,
26, 32, 34-36, 38-41 ; 237 : 42, 43, 45-60, 62, 2, 3, 4, 6 ; 238 : 9-12,
14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25-31, 33, 36-38, 43-46 ; 239 : 48, 49, 60-62,
64-67, 70, 72-75, 77-80, 82, 84-90, 93, 94, 96; 240 : 103, 114, 119,
121, 122, 124, 125, 128, 140, 141 ; 241 : 72, 173, 175, 176, 181, 184,
187, 192, 195, 197, 201, 209; 242: 214, 216-218, 220, 222, 225,
230, 233, 238-240, 242-244, 246-248, 252-267 ; 243 : 268-273, 276,
288-290, 293, 294,297, 302, 303, 306, 310-312; 244: 314-316, 319,
321.

Argument. — 213: 3, 6; 214: 13, 16, 21-23; 215: 35;
216: 82, 95, 96; 217: 100, 101, 125, 126; 218: 10-12, 14-16;
219 : 1, 2, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 25, 26, 28 ; 22O : 35, 36, 38, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,
9, 10, 12-16; 221 : 18, 19, 26, 27, 30, 32, 37, 42, 44, 45, 46 ; 222 :
49-51, 53, 54, 56, 60, 63, 69-72, 76-78, 80, 81 ; 223 : 83, 85, 108, 109,
110-116, 120, 122-129, 134-141; 225: 151, 166, 168, 169, 175;
226 : 179, 185-188, 192-194, 196-207 ; 227 : 208-220, 222-232 ;
228: 1, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19-22, 28; 229: 29, 41, 43-45,
50, 53-56, 58 ; 230 : 61-74 ; 231 : 9, 36 ; 232 : 59 ; 233 : 75,
9, 21 ; 234 : 5, 7, 9, 27 ; 235 : 37, 41, 9, 19, 20, 21 ; 237 : 44, 5 ;
238 : 13, 35, 39-42, 47 ; 239 : 69, 71, 76, 99 ; 240 : 104, 124, 140 ;
243 : 277-283, 287, 295.

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