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THE EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH 
 AND SENTENCE 
 
 AN ELEMENTARY MANUAL OF COMPOSITION 
 
THE EXPOSITORY 
 PARAGRAPH AND SENTENCE 
 
 AN ELEMENTARY MANUAL 
 OF COMPOSITION 
 
 BY 
 CHARLES SEARS BALDWIN, A.M., Ph.D. 
 
 INSTRUCTOR IN RHETORIC IN YALE UNIVERSITY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON AND BOMBAY 
 1898 
 
v 
 
 u'^'^"^ 
 
 Copyright, 1897, by 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 First Edition, September, 1897 
 Reprinted, September, 1898 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
 Astor Place, New York 
 
8/<f/ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This little manual aims to supply for the 
 first term in college such elementary instruc- 
 tion as seems necessary in reviewing and sup- 
 plementing the work of the preparatory 
 schools before proceeding to more special 
 courses. To this end it deals exclusively with 
 structure, and with expository structure as 
 being at once more obvious, more useful, and 
 less artistic than the other kinds. The book 
 may thus be used as a direct introduction to 
 Mr. Lamont's Specimens of Exposition^ for in- 
 stance, or to Mr. Brewster's Studies in Structure 
 and Style. But it aspires to more general use- 
 fulness as a students' pocket-book of rhetoric. 
 
 For advice on the manuscript and for correc- 
 tions in proof I am indebted to my colleague, 
 Mr. Chauncey Wetmore Wells ; for the latter 
 favour, to Professor Thomas R. Price and 
 Professor G. R. Carpenter of Columbia Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 C. S. B. 
 
 Yale University, /^/j/, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 I. The Composition as a Whole (§§ i-g) 
 
 A. The Composition Considered as a Brief 
 Undivided Whole (§§ 1-7) 
 
 B. The Composition Considered as a Series 
 of Paragraphs (§§ 8-9) 
 
 II. The Paragraph (§§ 10-22) . 
 
 A. The Paragraph Considered as an Undi. 
 vided Whole (§§ 10-18) . . . 
 
 B. The Paragraph Considered as a Series of 
 Sentences (g§ 19-22) 
 
 III. The Sentence (§§ 23-42) 
 Index to the Sections 
 Index to the Extracts 
 
 PAGES. 
 I- 2 
 
 3-10 
 
 3- 8 
 
 8-10 
 11-27 
 
 11-21 
 
 22-27 
 28-48 
 49-51 
 
 52-53 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Beneath all forms of prose lie four kinds 
 of writing, which, though variously combined, 
 are yet distinct and separate. These are de- 
 scription^ the methods of suggesting mental 
 images corresponding in some degree to scenes 
 beheld or imagined by the writer ; narration^ 
 the methods of conducting a story ; persuasion^ 
 the methods of moving men to action, whether 
 through their reason or through their feelings ; 
 and exposition^ the methods of lucid explana- 
 tion. The principles set forth in this book, 
 though they are generally applicable to all four 
 kinds, are here applied exclusively to expo- 
 sition. All brief pieces of exposition are in- 
 cluded in the extended sense given here to the 
 term essay. 
 
 The direct use of these rules of construction 
 is confined to revision. Indirectly, sound 
 principles, and even sound rules of detail, may 
 
2 Introduction 
 
 lead to good habits ; but directly they are of 
 no use till something, at least, is written. To 
 write by rule, in the sense of pausing to apply 
 rules in the process of composition, is, of 
 course, futile. In that sense probably nobody 
 ever wrote by rule. To rewrite by rule is 
 simply to follow the method of progress in 
 any art. 
 
Uftity 
 
 I. The Composition as a Whole. 
 
 A. The Composition Considered as a Brief 
 Undivided Whole. 
 
 1. Composition in any art is guided by 
 three fundamental principles : unity, cohe- 
 rence, emphasis. The principle of unity de- 
 mands that the whole composition shall show 
 one main purpose and have one main effect, 
 and that every part of it shall harmonize with 
 that purpose and contribute to that effect. 
 Negatively, unity means the exclusion of 
 everything irrelevant or incongruous. In 
 writing it expresses the difference between an 
 accumulation of notes and an essay. 
 
 2. Unity appears plainly in the following 
 essay of Bacon : 
 
 OF ADVERSITY. 
 
 It was a high speech of Seneca (after the 
 manner of the Stoics), that the good things 
 which belong to prosperity are to be wished j 
 
4 Unity of Bacon's 
 
 but the good things that belong to adversity 
 5 are to be admired. Bona rerum secundarum 
 optabilia, adversarum mirabilia. Certainly 
 if miracles be the command over nature, they 
 appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher 
 speech of his than the other (much too high for 
 
 lo a heathen), // is true greatness to have i7i one 
 the frailty of a man, ajtd the security of a 
 god. Vere magnum, habere fragilitatem 
 ho?ninis, securitatem dei. This would have 
 done better in poesy, where transcendences * 
 
 15 are more allowed. And the poets, indeed, 
 have been busy with it ; for it is in effect the 
 thing which is figured in that strange fiction 
 of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be 
 without mystery ; nay, and to have some ap- 
 
 20 proach to the state of a Christian ; that Her- 
 cules, when he went to unbind Prometheus 
 (by whom human nature is represented), sailed 
 the length of the great ocean in an earthen 
 pot or pitcher ; lively describing Christian 
 
 25 resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the 
 flesh through the waves of the world. But to 
 speak in a mean.' The virtue of prosperity is 
 temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude ; 
 which in morals ^ is the more heroical virtue. 
 
 30 Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testa- 
 ' hyperboles. * i,e.^ in plain prose. ^ ethics. 
 
Essay on Adversity 5 
 
 ment; adversity is the blessing of the New, 
 which carrieth the greater benediction, and 
 the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even 
 in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's 
 harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs 35 
 as carols ; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost 
 hath laboured more in describing the afflictions 
 of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosper- 
 ity is not without many fears and distastes ; and 
 adversity is not without comforts and hopes. 40 
 We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is 
 more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad 
 and solemn ground, than to have a dark and 
 melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. 
 Judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by 45 
 the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is 
 like precious odours, most fragrant when they 
 are incensed * or crushed : for prosperity doth 
 best discover vice, but adversity doth best 
 discover virtue. 50 
 
 3. Here is nothing that does not contribute 
 to the elucidation of the theme — The blessings 
 of adversity are superior to the blessings of 
 prosperity. To test the unity of any brief 
 essay, try to sum it up thus in a single 
 
 ^ burned. 
 
6 Coherence 
 
 sentence. And, in shaping rough notes into 
 an essay, let the first step be to express the 
 theme, not in a topic, as The Uses of Trans- 
 iationSy but rather in a sentence, as The use of 
 translations is a hindrance in the acquisition of 
 a language^ or So77ie knowledge of a literature 
 may be gained through translations. Then, by 
 successive modifications of this trial sentence 
 and of the notes, bring the two into harmony. 
 4. The principle of coherence demands that 
 the composition shall proceed in natural 
 sequence without break or jar, that one thing 
 shall lead to another. This means, of course, 
 that the thoughts must be brought into order. 
 It usually means also that the logical relation 
 between each thought and the preceding shall 
 be, not merely latent, but explicit. In the 
 essay quoted above, the second thought is 
 explicitly connected with the first by the cor- 
 respondence of phrase : It was a high speech 
 — // is yet a higher speech. The transitional 
 phrase. But to speak in a mean (26), leads 
 naturally to the following summary. But the 
 thought. Prosperity is not without many fears 
 (38), etc., is brought in abruptly. It is not 
 
Emphasis of Position 7 
 
 out of relation, but its relation is not shown. 
 Most students will find it necessary to make 
 a separate revision solely to insure the explicit 
 reference that is so important a part of 
 coherence. 
 
 5. The principle of emphasis demands that 
 those parts which elucidate the theme directly 
 shall have prominence of position and of 
 space. Negatively, this means that whatever 
 is merely indirect or subsidiary must be kept 
 subordinate. Now the most prominent posi- 
 tion in any piece of writing is the end. Thus 
 of all laws of composition the most familiar 
 is climax. In the essay above, Bacon closes 
 with a pithy iteration of the theme in a sort 
 of proverb. The reference to the Psalms 
 (line 34) or the figure of embroidery (line 41) 
 would make an ending obviously inferior 
 because those parts are subsidiary. The law of 
 emphasis, then, coincides with the law of unity 
 in keeping uppermost in mind the conclusion. 
 
 6. Next to the end the most emphatic 
 place is the beginning. Introduction being 
 often unnecessary in brief essays, a direct 
 statement of the theme, such as that which 
 
8 Emphasis of Space 
 
 results from the revision for unity, may often 
 be made in the very first sentence. In any 
 case, wherever the essay begins, with or 
 without introduction, the theme should usually 
 be stated there. Thus many good essays 
 begin and end with the theme. 
 
 7. Prominence of position, however, is not 
 more important than prominence of space. 
 In a short essay especially, nothing of indirect 
 bearing should receive more than a few lines. 
 In the essay above, the illustrations from the 
 myth of Hercules and from embroidery are 
 the only ones stated, and these doubtless 
 because neither would have been plain from 
 mere allusion. Mere allusion suffices for the 
 rest, and here appears a due proportion of 
 space. Proportion, in fact, sums up in a word 
 this aspect of the law of emphasis. 
 
 B. The Composition Considered as a Series of 
 Paragraphs. 
 
 8. So soon as an essay is developed beyond 
 a certain length, it falls naturally into para- 
 graphs corresponding more or less to some 
 
The Essay in Paragraphs 9 
 
 division of the subject into parts. A para- 
 graph ^ is a part which, during the process of 
 composition, has defined itself as one distinct 
 stage in the progress of the essay. It is a 
 unit, but a component unit. As a unit it is 
 marked for the eye by indentation,^ and is 
 governed by the principles of unity, coherence, 
 and emphasis. As a component, being like a 
 link in a chain or a step in a stair, it contains 
 in its first sentence some reference to the pre- 
 ceding paragraph. 
 
 9. By expressing the gist of each paragraph 
 in a single sentence, one may reduce an essay 
 to its lowest terms without affecting its cohe- 
 rence. By conceiving, on the other hand, each 
 paragraph amplified into a chapter, one has a 
 graphic idea of what is meant by the devel- 
 
 * The term paragraph is commonly applied also to 
 what are sometimes called " isolated " or '* unrelated " 
 paragraphs. Thus a brief editorial is often called a 
 paragraph. In this book the term is used only in the 
 sense defined above. 
 
 ^ Since indentation is the accepted indication of a 
 new paragraph, the student is warned never to indent 
 except for that purpose. 
 
lo The Essay in Paragraphs 
 
 opment^ of a theme. Bacon might easily 
 have presented the extremely concise essay 
 on Adversity in more ample form. The ends 
 of the undeveloped paragraphs may be dis- 
 cerned at lines 8, 26, 38. 
 
 * No reference is to be understood here to the actual 
 process of composition. 
 
The Paragraph ii 
 
 II. The Paragraph. 
 
 A. The Paragraph Considered as an Undivided 
 Whole. 
 
 10. The paragraph being already defined- 
 in its main relation, there remains only the 
 application to it of those fundamental prin- 
 ciples that govern the whole composition. A 
 paragraph has unity when it can be summed 
 up readily in a single sentence. In many 
 paragraphs such a sentence appears at the 
 beginning, or at the end, or in both places; 
 but unity requires only that the reader should 
 be able to sum up, not necessarily that the 
 writer should sum up for him. Note which 
 paragraphs, quoted in the following pages, state 
 their themes, and which merely imply them. 
 
 11. The material proper to the development 
 of a paragraph within the limits of unity is set 
 forth by Professor Genung^ in the following 
 table for a typical paragraph: 
 
 ^Practical Elements of Rhetoric, page igg. Pro- 
 fessor Genung adds : "Of cotirfje this scheme is too 
 
12 The Paragraph : Unity 
 
 The subject proposed : 
 
 I. Whatever is needed to explain the subject. 
 
 Repetition. 
 
 Obverse (/.^., presenting the contrary). 
 
 Definition. 
 
 II. Whatever is needed to establish the subject. 
 
 Exemplification or detail. 
 
 illustration. 
 
 Proof. 
 
 , III. Whatever is needed to apply the subject. 
 Result or consequence. 
 Enforcennent. 
 Summary or recapitulation. 
 
 In the paragraph next quoted point out 
 these elements. 
 
 12. Coherence in a paragraph demands (i) 
 a logical sequence of sentences, (2) usually 
 the indication of this sequence by words of 
 explicit reference. In the following para- 
 extensive for any particular paragraph ; it merely repre- 
 sents the natural place for each manner of treatment 
 adopted. Some parts may be condensed or altogether 
 elided, others expanded so as to take up a prominent, 
 even predominating proportion of the paragraph." 
 
Coherence : Explicit Reference 13 
 
 graph the words of explicit reference are 
 printed in italics. 
 
 First, the people of the colonies are descend- 
 ants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation 
 which still I hope respects, and formerly adored, 
 her freedom. The colonists emigrated from 
 you when this part of your character was most 5 
 predominant; and they took this bias and direc- 
 tion the moment they parted from your hands. 
 They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, 
 but to liberty according to English ideas, and 
 on English principles. Abstract liberty, like 10 
 other mere abstractions, is not to be found. 
 Liberty inheres in some sensible object; and 
 every nation has formed to itself some favorite 
 point, which by way of eminence becomes the 
 criterion of their happiness. It happened, you 15 
 know, Sir, that the great contests for freedom 
 in this country were from the earliest times 
 chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of the 
 contests in the ancient commonwealths turned 
 primarily on the right of election of magis- 20 
 trates, or on the balance among the several 
 orders of the State. The question of money 
 was not with them so immediate. But in Eng- 
 land it was otherwise. On this point of taxes 
 the ablest pens and most eloquent tongues have 25 
 
14 Explicit Reference in a 
 
 been exercised ; the greatest spirits have acted 
 and suffered. In order to give the fullest satis- 
 faction concerning the importance oithis point, 
 it was not only necessary for those who in 
 
 30 argument defended the excellence of the Eng- 
 lish Constitution to insist on this privilege of 
 granting money as a dry point of fact, and to 
 prove that the right had been acknowledged in 
 ancient parchments and blind usages to reside 
 
 35 in a certain body called a House of Commons. 
 They went much further; they attempted to 
 prove, and they succeeded, that in theory it 
 ought to be so, from the particular nature of a 
 House of Commons as an immediate represent- 
 
 40 ative of the people, whether the old records 
 had delivered this oracle or not They took 
 infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental 
 principle, that in all monarchies the people 
 must in effect themselves, mediately or imme- 
 
 45 diately, possess the power of granting their 
 own money, or no shadow of liberty could sub- 
 sist. The colonies draw from you, as with 
 their life-blood, these ideas and principles. 
 Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and 
 
 50 attached on this specific point of taxing. Lib- 
 erty might be safe, or might be endangered, 
 in twenty other particulars, without their being 
 much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its 
 
Paragraph from Burke 15 
 
 pulse; and as they found that beat, they 
 thought themselves sick or sound. I do not 55 
 say whether they were right or wrong in 
 applying your general arguments to their 
 own case. It is not easy indeed to make a 
 monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The 
 fact is, that they did thus apply those general 60 
 arguments; and your mode of governing them, 
 whether through lenity or indolence, through 
 wisdom or mistake, confirmed them in the 
 imagination, that they, as well as you, had 
 an interest in these common principles. — 65 
 Burke: On Conciliation with America. 
 
 13. On analysis, the logical connection ap- 
 pears to be indicated mainly in three ways : 
 (a) by conjunctions, etc.; (J?) by demonstra- 
 tives ; (c) by repetition of important words. 
 With so great a range of choice the student 
 is inexcusable who confines himself to perpet- 
 ual and and but. For though Burke's nicety 
 of adjustment is a distinguishing mark of his 
 mastery, some care in adjustment must be 
 taken from the beginning, or there will be 
 small progress in composition. Examine also 
 the following paragraph, and compare § 22. 
 
1 6 Explicit Reference in a 
 
 The situation here contemplated exposes a 
 dreadful ulcer, lurking far down in the depths 
 of human nature. It is not that men generally 
 are summoned to face such awful trials ; but 
 5 potentially, and in shadowy outline, such a 
 trial is moving subterraneously in perhaps all 
 men's natures. Upon the secret mirror of 
 our dreams such a trial is darkly projected, 
 perhaps, to every one of us. That dream, so 
 
 lo familiar to childhood, of meeting a lion, and, 
 through languishing prostration in hope and 
 the energies of hope, that constant sequel of 
 lying down before the lion, publishes the secret 
 frailty of human nature — reveals its-deep- 
 
 15 seated falsehood to itself — records its abysmal 
 treachery. Perhaps not one of us escapes that 
 dream ; perhaps, as by some sorrowful doom 
 of man, that dream repeats for every one of 
 us, through every generation, the original 
 
 20 temptation in Eden. Every one of us, in this 
 dream, has a bait offered to the infirm places 
 of his own individual will ; once again a snare 
 is presented for tempting him into captivity to 
 a luxury of ruin ; once again, as in aboriginal 
 
 25 Paradise, the man falls by his own choice ; 
 again, by infinite iteration, the ancient earth 
 groans to heaven, through her secret caves, 
 over the weakness of her child : " Nature, from 
 
Paragraph from De Qidncey 1 7 
 
 her seat, sighing through all her works," again 
 " gives signs of woe that all is lost ; " and again 30 
 the counter sigh is repeated to the sorrowing 
 heavens for the endless rebellion against God. 
 It is not without probability that in the world 
 of dreams every one of us ratifies for himself 
 the original transgression. In dreams, per- 35 
 haps under some secret conflict of the midnight 
 sleeper, lighted up to the consciousness at the 
 time, but darkened to the memory as soon as 
 all is finished, each several child of our myste- 
 rious race completes for himself the treason of 40 
 the aboriginal fall. — De QuUicey : The English 
 Mail-Coach. 
 
 14. But observe that by no means all the 
 sentences in the paragraph at § 12 have 
 explicit reference, that some stand in asynde- 
 ton. Moreover, many of these sentences are 
 not less closely connected than the others. 
 Connection they have, but not connectives. 
 Examination will show here the rule that 
 asyndeton occurs : (a) when the succeeding 
 sentence is an expansion, iteration, example, 
 or illustration of the preceding — in other 
 words, when the connection is obvious ; {h) 
 
1 8 Asyndeton 
 
 when, as at line 15, a slight break is intended 
 to mark a wider transition. (Compare § 4.) 
 
 15. In the following paragraph, which has 
 asyndeton throughout, observe the effect of 
 abruptness. 
 
 But now, on the new system of travelling, 
 iron tubes and boilers have disconnected man's 
 heart from the ministers of his locomotion. 
 Nile nor Trafalgar has power to raise an extra 
 5 bubble in a steam-kettle. The galvanic cycle 
 is broken up for ever ; man's imperial nature 
 no longer sends itself forward through the 
 electric sensibility of the horse ; the inter-agen- 
 cies are gone in the mode of communication 
 
 10 between the horse and his master, out of which 
 grew so many aspects of sublimity under acci- 
 dents of mists that hid, or sudden blazes that 
 revealed, of mobs that agitated, or midnight 
 solitudes that awed. Tidings, fitted to con- 
 
 15 vulse all nations, must henceforwards travel by 
 culinary process ; and the trumpet that once 
 announced from afar the laurelled mail, heart- 
 shaking when heard screaming on the wind, 
 and proclaiming itself through the darkness to 
 
 20 every village or solitary house on its route, has 
 now given way for ever to the pot-wallopings 
 
The Paragraph : Emphasis 1 9 
 
 of the boiler. — De Qiiincey : The English 
 Mail- Coach. 
 
 Compare also the second example in § 19. 
 
 In revising for coherence, then, look first to 
 the sequence of sentences, then to the indica- 
 tions of that sequence ; and, except in the 
 cases noted above, or in the rare cases where 
 abruptness is desired, avoid asyndeton. 
 
 16, The principles of emphasis as stated 
 i^^ §§ 5-7 ^PPly without modification to the 
 paragraph. Of the emphasis secured by 
 prominence of position Bacon furnishes a 
 more striking instance in the opening para- 
 graph of his essay on Ceremonies and Respects : 
 
 He that is only real had need have exceeding 
 great parts of virtue, as the stone had need to be 
 rich that is set without foil. But if a man mark 
 it well, it is in praise and commendation of men 
 as it is ingettings and gains. For the proverb is 
 true that light gains make heavy purses ; for light 
 gains come thick, whereas great come but now 
 and then. So it is true that small matters win 
 great commendation, because they are continu- 
 ally in use and note, whereas the occasion of any 
 great virtue cometh but on festivals. Therefore 
 
20 The Paragraph : Emphasis 
 
 it doth much add to a man's reputation, and is, 
 as Queen Isabella said, like perpetual letters 
 commendatory, to have good forms. 
 
 17. Of the emphasis gained by proper pro- 
 portion of space an admirable example is the 
 paragraph quoted in § 12. The proposition 
 developed by this paragraph may be stated as 
 follows : Since the American colonists are de- 
 scendants of Englishmen^ their love of liberty is 
 fixed on this specific point of taxing. The part 
 concerning English descent, being subsidi- 
 ary, is compressed within ten lines : the part 
 concerning taxation, being the main point, 
 occupies practically all the rest of the para- 
 graph, fifty-five lines. The last sentence, 
 though summing up only this latter part, is 
 skilfully made to close with a reminder (" these 
 common principles ") of the former.^ 
 
 ^ Professor Wendell's formula for paragraph emphasis 
 is useful, but too rigid : " A paragraph whose unity can 
 be demonstrated by summarizing its substance in a sen- 
 tence whose subject shall be a summary of its opening 
 sentence, and whose predicate shall be a summary of its 
 closing sentence, is theoretically well massed." — Ejtglish 
 Composition, page 129. 
 
Parallel Construction 21 
 
 18. A particular means of paragraph em- 
 phasis is parallel construction, the balancing 
 of sentence against sentence. It is most nat- 
 ural in successive expansions or iterations, or 
 in an oratorical cumulation like the following: 
 
 Carry the principle on by which you expelled Mr. 
 Wilkes, there is not a man in the House, hardly 
 a man in the nation, who may not be disqualified. 
 That this House should have no power of ex- 
 pulsion is a hard saying. That this House should 
 have a general discretionary power of disqualifi- 
 cation is a dangerous saying. That the people 
 should not choose their own representative is a 
 saying that shakes the constitution. That this 
 House should name the representative is a saying 
 which, followed by practice, subverts the constitu- 
 tion. — Burke ; Speech on the Middlesex Election, 
 
 This last means of emphasis is somewhat 
 too artificial to be commonly available. On 
 the other hand, the first means, a strong close, 
 is practically always useful ; and the second, 
 due proportion of space, is obligatory. 
 
2 2 The Paragraph in its Sentences . 
 
 B. The Paragraph Considered as a Series of 
 Sentences. 
 
 19. A paragraph is commonly defined as a 
 group of sentences with unity of purpose ; 
 and though a paragraph is not primarily a 
 group of sentences, yet ultimately it must be 
 considered in this aspect. " In how many 
 sentences shall this paragraph be developed ? " 
 is a question, not merely of the extent, but 
 also of the manner of development. Com- 
 pare the two following paragraphs : 
 
 For my religion, though there be several 
 circumstances that might persuade the world I 
 have none at all, as the general scandal of my 
 profession, the natural course of my studies, 
 5 the indifferency of my behaviour and discourse 
 in matters of religion, — neither violently de- 
 fending one, nor with that common ardour 
 and contention opposing another — yet in de- 
 spite hereof, I dare, without usurpation, as- 
 10 sume the honourable style of a Christian. 
 Not that I merely owe this title to the font, 
 my education, or the clime wherein I was born, 
 as being bred up either to confirm those princi- 
 
Nu77iber of Se?ite?ices 23 
 
 pies my parents instilled into my unwary un- 
 derstanding, or by a general consent proceed 15 
 in the religion of my country : but having in 
 my riper years and confirmed judgment seen 
 and examined all, I find myself obliged, by the 
 principles of grace, and the law of mine own 
 reason, to embrace no other name but this. 20 
 Neither doth herein my zeal so far make me 
 forget the general charity I owe unto human- 
 ity, as rather to hate than pity Turks, infi- 
 dels, and (what is worse) Jews ; rather con- 
 tenting myself to enjoy that happy style, than 25 
 maligning those who refuse so glorious a title. 
 Sir Thomas Browne : Religio Medici. 
 
 What is the hardest task in the world ? To 
 think. I would put myself in the attitud'e 
 to look in the eye an abstract truth, and I 
 cannot. I blench and withdraw on this side 
 and on that. I seem to know what he meant 5 
 who said, No man can see God face to face and 
 live. For example, a man explores the basis 
 of civil government. Let him intend his mind 
 without respite, without rest, in one direction. 
 His best heed long time avails him nothing. 10 
 Yet thoughts are flitting before him. We all but 
 apprehend, we dimly forebode the truth. We 
 say, I will walk abroad, and the truth will take 
 
24 The Paragraph in its Sentences: 
 
 form and clearness to me. We go forth, but 
 15 cannot find it. It seems as if we needed only 
 the stillness and composed attitude of the 
 library to seize the thought. But we come in, 
 and are as far from it as at first. Then, in a 
 moment, and unannounced, the truth appears. 
 20 A certain wandering light appears, and is 
 the distinction, the principle, we wanted. But 
 the oracle comes because we had previously 
 laid siege to the shrine. It seems as if the law 
 of the intellect resembled that law of nature 
 
 25 by which we now inspire, n^w expire the 
 breath ; by which the heart now draws in, 
 then hurls out the blood, — the law of undula- 
 tion. So you must labor with your brains, and 
 now you must forbear your activity and see 
 
 30 what the great Soul showeth. Emerson : In^ 
 tellect. * 
 
 20. Apparently the question is *' Long sen- 
 tences or short ? " And the answer is two- 
 fold. First, as a matter of logic, a given 
 statement is left as an independent sentence or 
 is combined in the same sentence with other 
 statements according as it is coordinate or 
 
 * Quoted in Carpenter's Exercises in Rhetoric anR 
 English Composition in this connection. 
 
Number of Sentences 25 
 
 subordinate. Logically, then, the question 
 becomes : " Should this statement receive the 
 prominence of a separate sentence, or should 
 it be reduced to a clause or a phrase ? " ^ 
 Here also is involved the principle of empha- 
 sis-. 
 
 21. In the second place, as a matter of 
 rhetoric, the succession of sentences in the 
 first paragraph is smooth, in the second para- 
 graph abrupt. And the difference, though it 
 lies partly in explicit reference, lies mainly in 
 the predominance of long or of short sen- 
 tences. A paragraph of long sentences, then, 
 has the advantage over a paragraph of short 
 sentences in a nicer subordination and an 
 easier flow. But it will not do to think of 
 a paragraph as limited to one or the other. 
 Each has its purpose^ and both are necessary 
 to variety. Moreover, since monotony of 
 style means monotony in sentence-forms, va- 
 riety in length is an end in itself. 
 
 22. Again, it is evident from §§ 12-15 
 that a paragraph is a group of sentences 
 
 ^ Practice in reduction of this kind is a direct means 
 of overcoming a habit of redundancies. 
 
26 The Paragraph in its S^iitetues : 
 
 when we consider its coherence. But para- 
 graph coherence affects even the form of the 
 sentences, by what has been called '* inver- 
 sion for adjustment." A striking example of 
 this is the following oratorical paragraph : 
 
 But the age of chivalry is gone. That of soph- 
 isters, oeconomists, and calculators, has suc- 
 ceeded ; and the glory of Europe is extinguished 
 for ever. Never, never more, shall we behold 
 that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud 
 submission, that dignified obedience, that sub- 
 ordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in 
 servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. 
 The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of 
 nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic 
 enterprise, is gone ! It is gone, that sensibility 
 of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a 
 stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst 
 it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it 
 touched, and under which vice itself lost half its 
 evil, by losing all its grossness. — Burke : Reflec- 
 tions on the Revolution in France, 
 
 It should be added, first, that such inver- 
 sions, besides contributing to paragraph co- 
 herence, contribute also, like the exclamatory 
 
Form of Sentences 27 
 
 and interrogative forms, to emphasis and va- 
 riety ; secondly, that inversion, exclamation, 
 interrogation, all three must be regarded as 
 exceptional. The frequent use of these de- 
 vices makes style laboured and pompous. 
 
 The length of a sentence, then, and its 
 form are to be decided, not absolutely for 
 the sentence itself, but relatively to the para- 
 graph. 
 
28 The Sentence: Unity 
 
 III. The Sentence. 
 
 23. In English every statement is punctu- 
 ated as a sentence unless it be definitely 
 subordinated to some other statement as a 
 dependent clause, or coordinated as an equal 
 member. It is a common error to write — / 
 
 The tide was rising, so we ran. 
 
 Those seven words make two sentences — 
 
 The tide was rising. So we ran. 
 
 For the two statements are left independent, 
 side by side. Not punctuation, but only a 
 definite subordination will make them one 
 sentence — 
 
 We ran because the tide was rising ; 
 
 or, better,. 
 
 Since the tide was rising, we ran. 
 
 It is a grosser error to punctuate a clause 
 as if it were a sentence. Until these two con- 
 
Punctuation 29 
 
 verse errors are eradicated, nothing further 
 can be done. No one can revise for sentence 
 unity until he recognizes the unit. 
 
 24. Except in that it is easier to unify a 
 short sentence than a long one, the length of 
 a sentence has nothing to do with its unity. 
 Above are seven words not in unity, and at 
 lines 27-35 ^^ the paragraph at § 12 are seventy 
 words entirely in unity. Besides, the length 
 of a sentence depends, partly upon the exi- 
 gencies of the individual thought, partly upon 
 the emphasis of the whole paragraph (§ 20). 
 Length, then, is not the test, but relevance, 
 the bearing of the modifiers on the main part. 
 In the following sentence the modifiers move 
 steadily away from the main part : 
 
 In this uneasy state Cicero was oppressed by a 
 new and cruel affliction, the death of his daughter 
 Tullia, which happened soon after her divorce 
 from Dolabella, whose manners and humours 
 were entirely disagreeable to her. 
 
 The remedy here is simple. Cast out the 
 irrelevant modifiers. If they are not worthy 
 the dignity of separate sentences, suppress 
 
30 The Sentence : Unity 
 
 them altogether. In general, beware of the- 
 House-that-Jack-built sentence. 
 
 25. But the trouble is deeper. Wherein lies 
 the absurdity of the following sentence ? 
 
 I turned to reply, when the platform on which 
 I was standing gave way with a crash. 
 
 Here the writer unintentionally represents 
 himself as unmoved in the midst of disaster : 
 
 When the platform on which I was standing 
 gave way with a crash, I turned to reply. 
 
 The sentence is logically upside down, the 
 main thought being expressed as subordinate, 
 the subordinate thought as main. This cor- 
 rected, the sentence is at once logical. 
 
 When I turned to reply, the platform on which 
 I was standing gave way with a crash. 
 
 The following sentence has the same fault, 
 but the remedy is to cut the sentence in two : 
 
 Vasco de Gama first doubled Cape Colony, and 
 later, in 1652, the Dutch came and made settle- 
 ments there, when England, always anxious for 
 new territory, seized all South Africa, with the 
 
Logical Subordinatioji 31 
 
 attending results of six wars with the natives and 
 with a mixture of natives and Dutch settlers. 
 
 In a word, a complex sentence must have 
 only one main part, and that part must be ex- 
 pressed as the main clause. 
 
 26. In compound sentences, where there is 
 no one main part, unity demands that there 
 shall be real coordination, that the mem- 
 bers shall be co-equal parts of one main idea. 
 Unity appears in the balanced sentences at 
 § 40. Most of the compound sentences that 
 violate unity, except such as make merely 
 irrelevant additions with and^ do so because 
 they violate coherence (§ 28). 
 
 In revising sentences for unity, then : 
 
 (i) See that the punctuation tells the truth. 
 
 (2) See that the main thought is in the 
 main clause, not in some modifier. 
 
 (3) See that the modifiers are relevant. 
 
 (4) See that the members of compound 
 sentences are really coordinate parts of one 
 idea. 
 
 27. Coherence in a sentence is primarily 
 correctness in syntax, and, as such, is hardly 
 
32 The Sentence: Coherence 
 
 matter of rhetoric. Almost all solecisms are 
 but forms of what the Greeks called anacolu- 
 thon. Thus different than puts a conjunction 
 after a word logically followed by a preposi- 
 tion ; thus the so-called hanging participle ^ 
 is a construction left unfinished ; thus and 
 which ' tries to make a clause at once coordi- 
 nate and subordinate ; and so of faults in 
 correlation ' and in the sequence of tenses.* 
 28. But coherence in a sentence is also 
 
 ^ " Coming nearer, the shores were seen to be 
 wooded." 
 
 ^ The combination a7id which is correct only when 
 t£///zV/z-clauses are coordinated, as in the last sentence 
 of the paragraph quoted at § 22. 
 
 * The rule for correlatives {eitJur-or, neither-nor, 
 rather than ^ par tly-partly ^ etc., etc.) is that they should 
 stand in positions absolutely corresponding, each to 
 each (compare § 32, b, c). The error is the slipshod 
 *' Neither by sea nor land." 
 
 * e.g., " He intended to have gone," for " He in- 
 tended to go." Professor Genung states the rule thus : 
 "In dependent clauses and infirfitives the tense is to 
 be counted relatively to the principal assertion, not 
 absolutely in itself." — Practical Elements of Rhetoric, 
 page 112. 
 
Grammar and Logic 33 
 
 matter of logic. The legend in open electric 
 cars — 
 
 Avoid danger. Keep your seats till the car stops, 
 
 or 
 
 Avoid danger and keep your seats, etc., 
 
 is illogical. The error of the former will 
 appear on reference to § 20, Substantially 
 the same is the error of the latter. The writer 
 has made two requests where he meant to 
 make one. He has written as coordinate 
 a clause that is clearly subordinate. He 
 means — 
 
 To avoid danger, keep your seats, etc. 
 
 The connecting thus by the coordinating con- 
 junction and or but of two statements that are 
 not coordinate is one of the commonest, as it 
 is one of the gravest, phases of incoherence. 
 The remedy is to be found not so much in the 
 avoidance of and and but as in educating one- 
 self to distinguish readily what is subordinate 
 from what is coordinate. In brief, avoid 
 illogical compound sentences. 
 3 
 
34 The Sentence : Cohere^ice 
 
 29. Thus unity and coherence unite in de- 
 manding that the sentence adhere throughout 
 to one plan. But, furthermore, that plan must 
 at every point be clear. Failure in this may 
 almost always be traced to one of three kinds 
 of error : (a) undue ellipsis, (b) faulty refer- 
 ence, (c) faulty placing of modifiers. 
 
 (a) undue ellipsis. 
 
 Cardinal Richelieu hated Buckingham as sin- 
 cerely as the Spaniard Olivares (eUipsis of the 
 verb). 
 
 Daudet is nearer Trollope than Dickens (ellipsis 
 of the preposition). 
 
 Even to-day many people are found who could 
 not be induced to sit down in a party of thirteen 
 at table, in the dread that one of the number would 
 die within a short time, or would surely faint if a 
 white cat were to enter the house (ellipsis of the 
 relative). 
 
 (b) faulty reference. 
 
 If a man has done an Indian a wrong his only 
 safety lies in killing him (ambiguity of personal 
 pronouns). 
 
 So on the third day he rode over a long bridge, 
 
Clearness 35 
 
 and there started upon him a passing foul churl, 
 and he smote his horse on the nose so that he 
 turned about and asked him why he rode over 
 that bridge without his license [ambiguity of per- 
 sonal pronouns. Compare (c)]. 
 
 , Black Death was the name given to an Oriental 
 plague marked by inflammatory boils which in 
 the fourteenth century desolated the world [am- 
 biguity of the relative pronoun. Compare (c) ]. 
 
 (c) faulty placing of modifiers. 
 
 They are separated from the class to which 
 they belonged m consequeiice of their crunes. 
 
 Though we are all by no means connoisseurs, 
 yet we all go to exhibitions, not because it is the 
 fashion, but because we think it elevates our minds. 
 
 In this chapter is seen the master of Thornfield 
 led about like a child crushed in attempting to 
 save his wife who perished in the flames she had 
 created. 
 
 30. Blunders of these types have given rise 
 to the following cautions : 
 
 (i) A given pronoun must refer throughout 
 a given sentence exclusively and unmistakably 
 to one antecedent. 
 
36 The Sentence : Coherence 
 
 (2) The position of any modifier should be 
 next to the word it modifies, or as near as 
 possible. Negatives and the words only^ 
 merely, hardly, etc., demand especial attention. 
 
 (3) Non-restrictive (" coordinate ") relative 
 clauses are always set off by commas, restric- 
 tive clauses never.' 
 
 31. The unity and coherence of a sentence 
 being properly matters of grammar, under 
 emphasis is included all that may strictly be 
 called the rhetoric of the sentence, the rules, 
 that is, of effective form. For most effective 
 sentence-forms are applications of the rule 
 (§§ 5"6) concerning prominence of position. 
 Of all such forms two stand as types, the 
 period and the climax, A third, the balance, 
 though not logically distinct from the two 
 former, is so marked as to deserve separate 
 treatment. None of these terms, in fact, is 
 
 ^ It is a practice with some careful writers to accen- 
 tuate this distinction by confining who and which, so 
 far as is possible, to non-restrictive clauses; i.e., 'by 
 using that always for restrictive clauses. Though 
 this practice may not be insisted on, it is undoubtedly 
 useful. 
 
Emphasis 37 
 
 exclusive of the others; but each marks a 
 model of construction. 
 
 32. The periodic sentence^ or period^ keeps 
 its construction incomplete up to the end. It 
 closes grammatically with the last word, not 
 before. All sentences that are not periodic 
 are technically called loose. In general, that 
 suspension of the sense which is characteristic 
 of the period is accomplished (a) by putting 
 all the modifiers before the main part, or (b) 
 by the use of correlatives and other words of 
 suspense, or (c) by a combination of these 
 methods. 
 
 (a) 
 
 Apart from such an assertion, or such a result, 
 I myself am little aware of the pace. — De Quincey: 
 The English Mail- Coach. 
 
 Such now being at that time the usages of mail- 
 coaches, what was to be done by us of young 
 Oxford ? — ibid. 
 
 Many a stern republican, after gorging himself 
 with a full feast of admiration of tlfe Grecian com- 
 monwealths and of our true Saxon constitution, 
 and discharging all the splendid bile of his vir- 
 tuous indignation on King John and King James, 
 
38 The Sentence : Emphasis 
 
 sits down perfectly satisfied to the coarsest work 
 and homeliest job of the day he lives in. — Burke : 
 Thoughts on the Present Discontents. 
 
 An influence which operated without noise and 
 without violence ; an influence which converted 
 the very antagonist into the instrument of power; 
 which contained in itself a perpetual principle of 
 growth and renovation ; and which the distresses 
 and the prosperity of the country equally tended 
 to augment, was an admirable substitute for a 
 prerogative that, being only the offspring of anti- 
 quated prejudices, had moulded in its original 
 stamina irresistible principles of decay and disso- 
 lution. — ibid. 
 
 Compare the first sentence in the paragraph 
 quoted at § 19. 
 
 (b), (c) 
 
 This doctrine, as applied to the prince now on 
 the British throne, either is nonsense, and there- 
 fore neither true nor false, or it affirms a most 
 unfounded, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitu- 
 tional position. — Burke : Reflections on the Rev- 
 olution in France, 
 
 Yet have I not so shaken hands with those des- 
 perate resolutions who had rather venture at 
 
The Period 39 
 
 large their decayed bottom, than bring her in to 
 be new trimmed at the doci<, who had rather 
 promiscuously retain all, than abridge any, and 
 obstinately be what they are, than what they have 
 been, as to stand in diameter and swords' point 
 with them. — Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Me- 
 dici. 
 
 The little cany carriage— /^r/Zy, perhaps, from 
 the violent torsion of the wheels in its recent 
 movement, partly from the the thundering blow 
 we had given to it — as if it sympathized with hu- 
 man horror, was all alive with tremblings and 
 shiverings. — De Quincey : The Eiiglish Mail- 
 Coach. 
 
 Some twenty or more years before I matricu- 
 lated at Oxford, Mr. Palmer, at that time M.P. 
 for Bath, had accomplished two things, very hard 
 to do on our little planet the Earth, however cheap 
 they may be held by eccentric people in comets — 
 he had invented mail-coaches, and he had married 
 the daughter of a duke. — ibid. 
 
 Among them, indeed, I saw some of known 
 rank, some of shining talents ; but of any practical 
 experience in the state, not one man was to be 
 found. — Burke : Refiectioiis on the Revolution iti 
 France. 
 
40 The Sentence: Emphasis 
 
 33. The main characteristics of this peri- 
 odic form are four : 
 
 (1) It is more formal than the loose sen- 
 tence. 
 
 (2) It tends toward unity, the suspense 
 tending to force out irrelevant modifiers. 
 
 {3) It tends toward coherence. 
 
 (4) It is decidedly emphatic, both because 
 the main part comes at the close and because 
 the suspense stimulates the mind to receive 
 the close with attention. Naturally, there- 
 fore, it has been a favourite form with all 
 great orators. Moreover, Herbert Spencer^ 
 explicitly maintains that by presenting the 
 whole idea at once to the mind, instead of 
 building it up bit by bit as the loose sentence 
 does, the period secures the greatest economy 
 of attention. 
 
 34. In all these respects, except the single 
 one of formality, the loose sentence seems in- 
 ferior. But formality is hardly to be sought, 
 and most certainly to be sought is variety 
 (§ 21). Therefore no one is free to use the- 
 period exclusively, even if he would. Be- 
 
 ^ Philosophy of Style, pages 20-22 (American edition). 
 
The Loo Si Sentence 41 
 
 sides, the term loose sentence^ being so much 
 more inclusive than the term period^ being in 
 fact only a negative, needs further elucida- 
 tion. 
 
 We frequently hear the habit of reading lauded 
 highly and the acquiring of it recommended, to 
 the young in particular, usually in very general 
 terms, as if its advantages were truths so self-evi- 
 dent that no one would think of denying them, 
 very much indeed as we hear religion praised, or 
 industry, no matter to what applied, or any other 
 of what are considered the safeguards of society. 
 
 The weakness of this loose sentence lies in 
 the fact that it sounds, in great part, like a 
 succession of after-thoughts. Instead of re- 
 ceiving a definitely formulated idea, the reader 
 feels as if he were called on to assist at the 
 process of formulation. The successive modi- 
 fiers call for successive revisions of the origi- 
 nal statement. Few styles are more tiresome 
 or more irritating than one in which such 
 sentences are habitual. 
 
 He sent a life of Milton to the Edinburgh Re- 
 view, and contributed several articles to that 
 
42 The Sentence : Emphasis 
 
 magazine up to the time he entered Parliament, 
 where he made himself immediately famous as an 
 orator. 
 
 This loose sentence violates emphasis by 
 violating unity. 
 
 In western cities the theatres are open on Sun- 
 day, but in New York Sunday entertainments of 
 that class are confined principally to so-called 
 sacred concerts, although it is doubtful what se- 
 lections that are played could be rightly termed 
 sacred music. 
 
 Here the writer evidently has not even de- 
 cided which is his main idea. 
 
 35. All three loose sentences above violate 
 the principle of emphasis ; all are typical of 
 the danger of the loose sentence, the danger 
 of mere aggregation. But in the following 
 loose sentence the principle of emphasis is 
 just as evidently observed as in the period : 
 
 In such a people the haughtiness of domination 
 combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, 
 and renders it invincible. — Burke: On Concilia-- 
 Hon with America. 
 
Climax 43 
 
 Equally emphatic are the loose sentences 
 in the paragraph quoted from the same author 
 at § 22. Sentences in which, as in these, the 
 parts succeed in ascending scale are said to 
 have climax. 
 
 36. Climax, moreover, does not mean merely 
 that the succeeding clauses have stronger and 
 stronger words. The climax in the following 
 is gained by such successive expansions of 
 the thought as make it grow in significance 
 while one reads : 
 
 Such preeminently is Shakespeare among our- 
 selves ; such preeminently Virgil among the 
 Latins ; such in their degree are all those writers 
 who in every nation go by the name of Classics. — 
 Newman : Literature, 
 
 A sentence has climax when there is a logi- 
 cal advance from clause to clause up to the 
 point of the sentence. Both the following 
 sentences exemplify this, and at the same 
 time, by the way in which the first leads up 
 to the second, show how sentence emphasis 
 is involved in paragraph coherence (§ 22). 
 
44 The Sentence : Emphasis 
 
 And what that energy, which is the life of 
 genius, above everything demands and insists 
 upon, is freedom ; entire independence of all 
 authority, prescription, and routine, — the fullest 
 room to expand as it will. Therefore, a nation 
 whose chief spiritual characteristic is energy, 
 will not be very apt to set up, in intellectual mat- 
 ters, a fixed standard, an authority, like an acad- 
 emy. — Matthew Arnold: The Literary Influ- 
 ence of Academies, 
 
 37. " Period or loose sentence ? " then, in 
 so far as the question concerns the single 
 sentence, not the whole paragraph, should be 
 answered with an eye to certain maxims : 
 
 (i) Either form may be good or bad. 
 
 (2) The period is more stimulating to close- 
 ness of thought, in the reader and in the writer. 
 
 (3) A short period is more commonly use- 
 ful than a long one. The short period, in 
 fact, might be called the most useful of sen- 
 tence-forms. 
 
 (4) The loose sentence has often a more 
 direct, a more conversational effect. 
 
 (5) The loose sentence is emphatic in pro- 
 portion as it has climax. 
 
Inversion 45 
 
 38. So far only one position of emphasis 
 has been considered, the end. The beginning 
 is also emphatic, but not in the same degree 
 as the beginning of a paragraph. For the 
 fact that most English sentences, on account 
 of the lack of inflections in English and the 
 consequent dependence of clearness upon the 
 order of words (§ 29, c), begin with the sub- 
 ject, detracts somewhat from the emphasis of 
 the subject in this position. Conversely, some 
 other part of the sentence, not so naturally 
 expected in that position, receives emphasis 
 at the beginning : 
 
 At Sens, thirty miles away to the west, a place 
 of far graver aspect, the name of Jean Cousin 
 denotes a more chastened temper, even in these 
 sumptuous decorations. — Pater : Imagi7iary Por- 
 traits. 
 
 39. Observe also that additional emphasis 
 is thrown upon the opening phrase of the 
 sentence above by the break that follows. 
 Even the subject may be emphasized in this 
 position by a following parenthesis : 
 
 The Cecils, we suspect, did their best to spread 
 
46 The Sentence : Emphasis 
 
 this opinion by whispers and insinuations. — Ma- 
 caulay : Francis Bacon, 
 
 Strangers, meanwhile, were less unjust to the 
 young barrister than his nearest kinsman had 
 been. — ibid. 
 
 It should be remembered, however, that 
 the beginning of any sentence, more than any 
 other part of it, is subject to the paragraph. 
 
 40. The term balance^ as applied to sen- 
 tences, is self-defining (compare § 18). Bal- 
 ance to a certain extent is required of all 
 sentences (§ 27). In all ordinary colloca- 
 tions symmetry has been made a part of cor- 
 rectness. Lapses in this jar upon the ear. 
 And such sentences as the following, though 
 they cannot be called incorrect, have the 
 same effect of discord : 
 
 The Roman Catholic goes to mass and devotes 
 the rest of the day to pleasure, while the Protest- 
 ant goes to church and rests the remainder of the 
 day. 
 
 One feels that the two contrasted state- 
 ments should be alike in form, that in form 
 
Balance f 47 
 
 as in substance they should be halves of one 
 whole. Developed more highly, this desire 
 for balance has led to many memorable sen- 
 tences : 
 
 When his imagination wells up, it overflows in 
 ornament ; when his heart is touched, it thrills 
 along his verse. — Newman : Literature, 
 
 The power of French literature is in its prose 
 writers ; the power of English literature is in its 
 poets. — Maithetv Arnold: The Literary Influ- 
 ence of Academies. 
 
 41. Here the sentence is cast in halves. 
 This, technically speaking, is the balanced 
 sentence, as distinguished from such sen- 
 tences as contain balance incidentally. 
 Where the effect of correspondence is height- 
 ened by repetition, the balance approaches 
 epigram : 
 
 The party whose principles afforded him no 
 guarantee would be attached to him by interest : 
 the party whose interests he attacked would be 
 restrained from insurrection by principle. — Ma- 
 caulay : History of England, 
 
4^ The Sentence : Emphasis 
 
 To make us love our country, our country- 
 ought to be lovely. — Burke : Reflections on the 
 Revolution in France. 
 
 It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Au- 
 gustus : to seem to distrust it was still more dan- 
 gerous. — Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Ro- 
 man Empire, 
 
 42. The last example has the inverted bal- 
 ance called by the Greeks chiasmus. It is 
 hardly necessary to point out that the Eng- 
 lish sentence is not flexible to such forms. 
 Even simple balance easily conveys in Eng- 
 lish an impression of artificiality hardly felt 
 in the more flexible Greek and Latin. For 
 this reason, and on account of the obvious 
 monotony of a series of balanced sentences, 
 the form has in English a limited use. But, 
 though limited, its use is very distinct and 
 very great. Pithy summaries, especially such 
 as approach epigram, are much heightened 
 by the balance ; and, in general, it is an 
 admirable mould for emphatic compound 
 sentences. 
 
INDEX TO THE SECTIONS 
 
 Anacoluthon, 27. 
 
 asyndeton, 14, 15. 
 
 Balance, in the paragraph, 18. 
 
 in the sentence, 26, 40-42. 
 Chiasmus, 42. 
 climax, 5, 16, 18, 34-37. 
 coherence, in general, 4. 
 
 in the paragraph, 12-15, 2^2, 
 
 in the sentence, 27-30. 
 correlation, 27, 32 b, 40. 
 Development of a theme, g. 
 Ellipsis, undue, 29. 
 emphasis, in general, 5-7. 
 
 in the paragraph, 16-18, 20« 
 
 in the sentence, 31-42. 
 
 after parenthesis, 39. 
 explicit reference, 12, 13, 21. 
 Genung, Professor^ quoted, 11, 27. 
 Indentation to mark a paragraph, 8. 
 inversion, 22, 38. 
 
 Long sentences or short, 19-21, 24. 
 loose sentences, 34-37. 
 Modifiers, placing of, 29, 30, 
 4 
 
50 Index to the Sections 
 
 Paragraph defined, 8, 19. 
 
 indentation, 8. 
 
 first sentence of, 8, 10. 
 
 unity, 10, II. 
 
 last sentence of, 10, 16, 17. 
 
 suibject of, 10. 
 
 coherence, 12-15, '^- 
 
 parallel construction, i^. 
 
 emphasis, 16-18, 20. 
 
 number of sentences, 19^21. 
 period, or periodic sentence, 32, 33, 37, 
 pronouns, reference of , 29, 30. 
 proportion, 7, 17, 40 (see emphasis). 
 Redundancy, practice to avoid, 20. 
 Sentences, longf or short, 19-21, 24. 
 
 unity, 23-26, 33, 34. 
 
 eoordinatioo and subordination, 23, 25, 26, 28. 
 
 coherence, 27-30, 33, 
 
 solecisms, 27. 
 
 clearness, 29^ 3a 
 
 emphasis, 31-42. 
 
 periodic, 32, 33, 37. 
 
 k)ose, 34-37- 
 
 elimax, 35-37. 
 
 balanced, 40-42:. 
 
 ehiasmus, 42. 
 sotecisms, 27. 
 
 Spencer^ He^'bert^ cited, 33. 
 Theme, statement of the, 3, 6, 
 
Index to the Sections 51 
 
 Theme, development of the, 9, 11. 
 Unity, in general, 1-3. 
 
 test of, 3. 
 
 in the paragraph, 10, 11. 
 
 in the sentence, 23-26. 
 Variety, in sentence-forms, 21, 22. 
 Wendell^ Professor, quoted, 17. 
 
INDEX TO THE EXTRACTS 
 
 (Note. Punctuation and capitals have in some cases 
 been modified in the direction of uniformity^ 
 
 Arnold^ Matthew^ Essays in Criticism, First Series, 
 pages 51, 53 §§ 36, 40. 
 
 Bacon, the Essays on Adversity and on Ceremonies and 
 Respects §§ 2^ 16. 
 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, the Religio Medici, GreenHill's 
 edition, pag* 7, 8 . . • §§ ^9^ 32 b, c. 
 
 Burke, Works, 9 volumes, Boston, 1839. On Con- 
 ciliation with America ; volume ii., pages 32, 36, 
 
 §§ 12, 35. 
 On the Middlesex Election ; volume v., page 382, 
 
 § 18. 
 
 Reflections on the Revolution in France ; volume 
 iii., pages 32, 60, 98, 100 . §§ 22, 32 b, c, 41. 
 Thoughts on the Present Discontents ; volume i., 
 
 pages 355, 357 § 32 a. 
 
 De Quincey, The English Mail-Coach and the Vision 
 of Sudden Death, Miscellaneous Essays, American 
 {1851) collective edition; volume iii., pages 127, 
 131, 142, 143, 190 (the passage at § 13 is from the 
 English edition) . . §§ 13, 15, 32 a, b, c. 
 
Index to the Extracts 53 
 
 Emerson^ Essays, First Series, Riverside collective 
 edition ; volume ii., page 308 . . . § 19. 
 
 Gibbon^ The History of the Decline and Fall of the 
 Roman Empire, 12 volumes, London, 1806; vol- 
 ume i., page 98 §41. 
 
 Macaulay, Francis Bacon § 39* 
 
 History of England § 4i« 
 
 Newman, John Henry, Cardinal, The Idea of a Uni- 
 versity, pages 292, 293 . . • §§ 3^1 40* 
 
 Pater, Imaginary Portraits, page 54 • • § 38. 
 
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