wwrnwrmwwvwLiwwPMae' t«8)»«w» A-tfwr. <-^: i K' 6Y (W»«ao»ijw!KWi»a»Kww»WHWvnii««waft^ ' «l»PlS«!WaWMS»VOWl«IW«NW»«>«v IN MEMORIAM Frederick Slate Professor of Physics Composition-Rhetoric DESIGNED FOB USE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS FEED :NrEWTON SCOTT Junior Professor of Ehetoric in the University of Michigan AND JOSEPH VILLIEES DENNEY Professor of Ehetoric and English Language in Ohio State University ALLYN AND BACON Boston anlr Cl)tcag0 Copyright, 1897, by FRED N. SCOTT and JOSEPH V. DENNEY, Noriuoat ^xtM J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Norwood Mam. U.S.A. PREFACE. In the preparation of this work the authors have been guided by three considerations, which have seemed to them to be of fundamental importance. First, it is desirable that a closer union than has pre- vailed hitherto be brought about between secondary com- position and secondary rhetoric. That rhetoric in the high school should be regarded as a thing apart from composi- tion, that it should be regarded simply as a " course/' to be pursued and passed and put out of remembrance as quickly as possible, is not good either for rhetoric or for composi- tion. In this book, as the name signifies, no such apartness has been recognized. The rhetoric which is found in this book is meant to be the theory of the pupil's practice, nothing more, — the explicit statement of principles which are implicit in all successful elementary composition. If here and there the temptation to put in rhetorical .furniture which no gentleman's mind should be without, has not been wholly thrust aside, such temptation has, at least, been manfully resisted. To this let the treatment of figurative expressions bear witness. Second, it is desirable in secondary composition that greater use be made of the paragraph than has hitherto been done in the majority of schools. The idea that the iii 9^595 iv Preface. paragraph may be made the basis of a systematic method of instruction was advanced in Paragraph - Writing six years ago. Since that time the method has been tested in many schools under a variety of conditions, and has found its way into other text-books. The authors believe that in the main it has approved itself to every teacher who has tried it fairly, and acting upon this belief they have made it the central idea of the present work. They would call atten- tion, however, to the fact that a considerable proportion of longer compositions — descriptive, narrative, and argument- ative — are provided for in the exercises, the necessary additional theory being furnished in the text accompanying. A third idea which underlies the work is the idea of growth. A composition is regarded not as a dead form, to be analyzed into its component parts, but as a living prod- uct of an active, creative mind. The paragraph is com- pared to a plant, springing up in the soil of the mind from a germinal idea, and in the course of its development assuming naturally a variety of forms. ^ This kinetic con- ception of discourse, besides being psychologically more correct, has proved to be practically more helpful and inspiring in composition-classes than the static conception which it. is intended to displace. Where it has been employed, pupils attempt various forms of self-expression with greater willingness and confidence, and their efforts are attended with greater success. In working out these ideas, care has been taken to pro- 1 For a similar conception of judgment-forms, see the Preface to Bosan- quet's Logic, Vol. I, p. vii. Mr. Bosauquet acknowledges indebtedness for the idea to Mr. Alfred Robinson, of New College, Oxford. Preface, vide illustrative material of a kind that should be thoug provoking, interesting and valuable in itself, but not 1 far above the standard of literary practice, material whi the pupil can appreciate readily and can turn to accou at once in his own written work. Many of the exercises a suggested directly by the selections used in the same If sons, and may be attacked by the pupil without furth help than that given in the text. With some of the topic prescribed for class-room compositions, however, it will t found advantageous to hold a fifteen-minute conversation lesson, in order to start the ideas of the class and bring their total resources to light, before the writing begins. Care has also been taken in the way the text is stated, as well as in the way the exercises are presented, to suggest at every step that the study is pursued for the purpose of acquiring constructive rather than critical power, and the authors venture to advise that until chapter four is reached minute criticism of the pupil's written work be avoided; let the criticisms be made solely with reference to the mat- ters treated in the current lesson, and to bad English that may be used by the pupil. The attention of teachers is called to the caret and bracket devices used in the later chapters of this book. These devices avoid the evil of putting bad English before pupils, and compel the exercise of the pupils' judgment. Attention is also called to the fact that by using the method of marking shown in Appendix B, pupils will be trained to correct their own errors. Persistence in this method, it is believed, will beget in the pupil a habit of attention to his writing, a habit of watchfulness, an ability Preface, ^ correct himself, a desire for self -improvement, which will 't beyond his school days. s The following books and articles are recommended iis ing helpful to the teachers of English in secondary hools. Titles that are marked with an asterisk are lapted to the pupil as well as to the teacher, and may be isigned as collateral reading. Aristotle. Rhetoric. Welldon's Translation. Macmillan. Bain. English Composition and Rhetoric. 2 vols. Appleton. ^Bainton. Art of Authorship. Appleton. Baker. Principles of Argumentation. Ginn. *Baker. Specimens of Argument. Holt. *Baldwin. Specimens of Prose Description. Holt. *Bates. Talks on Writing English. Houghton. *Brewster. Specimens of Narrative. Holt. Brewster. Studies in Structure and Style. Macmillan. Buck. Figures of Rhetoric : a Psychological Study. (Contributions to Rhetorical Theory, edited by F. N. Scott. No. 1.) Campbell. Philosophy of Rhetoric. Harper. Carpenter. Exercises in Rhetoric. Advanced Course, Macmillan. *Carpenter. Exercises in Rhetoric. High School Course. Macmillan. Coleridge. Style. De Qdincey. Essays on Style, Rhetoric, and Language. AUyn & Bacon. Emerson. History of the English Language. Macmillan. Fletcher and Carpenter. Introduction to Theme- Writing. Allyn &. Bacon. *Genung. Outlines of Rhetoric. Ginn. *Genung. Practical Rhetoric. Ginn. *Hale. Constructive Rhetoric. Holt. *Hart. a Handbook of English Composition. Eldredge. *Higgins'on. Hints on Writing and Speecli-making. Lee «& Shepard. *HiLL, A. S. Foundations of Rhetoric. Harper. *HiLL, A. S. ' Principles of Rhetoric. Harper. Hill, D. J. Science of Rhetoric. Sheldon. Jebb. ' Rhetoric' Encycl. Brit. 9th Ed. Preface, vii Jespersen. Progress in Language. Sonnenschein. *Keeler and Davis. Studies in English Composition. AUyn & Bacon. *Lamoxt. Specimens of Exposition. Holt. Lewes. Principles of Success in Literature. Allyn & Bacon. Lewis. The History of the English Paragraph. Univ. of Chicago Press. McElroy. Structure of English Prose. Armstrong. *MiNTO. Manual of English Prose Literature. Ginn. *MiNTO. Plain Principles of Prose Composition. Blackwood. ^Newcomer. A Practical Course in English Composition. Ginn. Pater. Literary Style. Macmillan. Paul. Principles of the History of Language. Macmillan. QuiNTiLiAN. Institutes of Oratory. Bohn Library. Renton. Logic of Style. Longmans. *Saintsbury. Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 1-4L Scribner's. *ScoTT and Denney. Paragraph- Writing. Allyn & Bacon. Sherman. Analytics of Literature. Ginn. Spencer. Philosophy of Style. Allyn & Bacon. Stevenson. Style in Literature. Contemporary Magazine, Vol. XLVII, p. 548. Symonds. Essays, Speculative and Suggestive. Vol. I, p. 256 ; Vol. II, p. 1. *Wendell. English Composition. Scribner's. Whately. Elements of Rhetoric. Sheldon. Cairns. The Forms of Discourse. Ginn. Hinsdale. Teaching the Language- Arts. Appleton. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION In response to an earnest desire, persuasively expressed, on the part of certain teachers of English, there is added to this edition an Appendix containing a brief treatment of the Types of Discourse (condensed from Paragraph- Writing), of Figures of Speech, and of Poetry. It is the opinion of the authors, however, that between the matter of this Appen- dix and the original plan of the work the connection is very slight. They trust that no secondary teacher will teach these things to his pupils as a substitute for exercises in composition. May, 1898. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/compositionrhetoOOscotrich CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. External Form of the Paragraph. PAGE Lesson 1. The Sentence-Group 1 Lesson 2. Indention 5 Lesson 3. Faults of Indention : Indenting Every Sentence . 7 Lesson 4. Faults of Indention : Indentions too Few . . 11 Lesson 6. Faults of Indention : Indentions Irregular and Meaningless 17 Lesson 6. Other Uses of Indention 26 CHAPTER II. Paragraph-Structure. Lesson 7. Thought-Divisions 30 CHAPTER III. What to Say. Lesson 8. Selecting a Subject 41 Lesson 9. The Paragraph- Theme 42 Lesson 10. The Title 46 Lesson 11. The Topic-Sentence 52 Lesson 12. How Paragraphs Grow — Repetition ... 72 Lesson 13. How Paragraphs Grow — Particulars and Details . 79 Lesson 14. How Paragraphs Grow — Specific Instances or Ex- amples 87 Lesson 15. How Paragraphs Grow — Comparisons and Analogies 92 Lesson 16. How Paragraphs Grow — Telling what a Thing is not 99 Lesson 17. How Paragraphs Grow — Contrasts .... 103 Lesson 18. How Paragraphs Grow — Cause and Effect . .110 Lesson 19. How Paragraphs Grow — Proofs . . . .117 Lesson 20. How Paragraphs Grow — Combination of Two or More Methods 123 ix Contents. CHAPTER IV. How to Say It. Lesson 21. Short Sentences and their Uses Lesson 22. Long Sentences and their Uses . Lesson 23. Uses of the Loose Sentence Lesson 24. Uses of the Periodic Sentence . Lesson 25. Uses of the Balanced Sentence . Lesson 26. Combinations of Sentence- Types Lesson 27. Choice of Expression . Lesson 28. Imaginative Expressions . PAGE 134 151 161 175 188 194 205 219 CHAPTER V. In What Order to Say It. Lesson 29. Antithesis and Climax .... Lesson 30. The Logical Order Lesson 31. The Time Order and the Space Order Lesson 32. Sentence-Order for Clearness and Emphasis 231 241 246 257 CHAPTER VL How Much to Say. Lesson 33. Scale of Treatment 269 Lesson 34. Proportion of Parts 281 Lesson 35. Subordination of Parts 291 Lesson 36. Expansion 297 Lesson 37. Condensation , , . 306 CHAPTER VII. What Not to Say Lesson 38. Digressions 314 Lesson 39. Incoherence 323 Appendix A. Directions for Preparing Manuscript . . . 339 Appendix B. Marks Used in Correcting 342 Appendix C. Material for Analysis and Reproduction . . 349 Appendix D. Subjects for Essays 361 Appendix E. Capitals, Punctuation, etc 368 Appendix F. I. Types of Discourse 371 II. Figures of Speech .382 III. Poetry 390 Index 403 COMPOSITION-KHETORIC. CHAPTER I. EXTERNAL FORM OF THE PARAGRAPH. LESSON L The Sentence-Group. There are two ways in which we may write an essay or any other kind of composition. One way is to write it sentence by sentence. A person who composes in this way usually begins writing before he has given his subject very much consideration. A sentence comes by chance into his mind. He traces it on the paper before him. The first sen- tence suggests a second, which also he writes down. The second suggests a third, the third a fourth, and so on to the end of the composition. This is one way, and a common way, of composing, but it is not a good way. A better way is to compose, not sentence by sentence, but sentence-group by sentence-group. When a writer com- poses in this way, he does not begin with a single sentence, but with a series or train of sentences. Before putting pen to paper he thinks out carefully the topics on which he means to write, and arranges them in the order in which he means to treat them. Then as soon as he takes up his 1 2 Composition-Rhetoric, pen to write, this is what happens : a succession of sen- tences or of ideas for sentences, bearing upon the topic to be treated first, pass rapidly through his mind. They seem to flow or to grow naturally out of the topic, as naturally as water flows from a spring or a vine grows from a seed. When he has written these sentences down, there arises in his mind another series of sentences upon a second topic ; and this process goes on until the essay is completed. One or two familiar illustrations will help to make clear what has been said about this second method of composing. A school-boy, let us suppose, is writing to a friend about his plans for the summer vacation. The first thing he means to do is to;n>ake'a trip on foot through some parts of the • White "^Mountains. Then he will go to Portland, and join -:^ party on i)Oi^.rd of a yacht, with whom he will go to 'Ba;r Harbor. After a short stay at Bar Harbor, he will return to Portland by steamer and to his home by the rail- road. If now he has given the subject some thought so that he knows just what he wants to say, there will come into his mind when he begins to write, not one sentence alone, nor odds and ends of sentences from various parts of the letter that is to be, but instead a chain or train of sentence- ideas bearing upon the topic he intends to treat first. Perhaps they will be something like this : " Start from De- troit July 1 . . . Excursion at low rates . . . Leave train at Fabyan's ... A week in the White Mountains . . . Up Mt. Washington on foot . . . Catch trout in the Saco . . . Train to Portland." When the sentences for which these skeleton sentences stand have been put on paper, another set will come into his mind touching the yachting trip to Bar Harbor ; and so on until the letter is completed. To take another illustration, suppose that some one has just examined with great interest a remarkable bust of Emer- son. He has seen it in a studio and has talked with the sculptor about it. The sculptor has told him that one side External Form of the Paragraph, 3 of Emerson's face looks like the profile of a Yankee and that the other side looks like the profile of a Greek. If now he sits down to write to a friend a brief account of his visit to the studio, he will not think merely, " I saw to-day a fine bust of Emerson/' or, " I went to-day to a sculptor's studio," but something like the following : " Visited a studio . . . Saw fine bust of Emerson . . . Talked with sculptor . . . Sculptor said sides of face different , . . One side Yankee, the other side Greek . . . Said Emerson combined two natures, the modern and the classical." Just as in the first illustration, these skeletons of sentences, or pictures that answer to them, will race through his mind, before he writes a single word. If his mind works as it should, they will pass in just the order in which he wants to write them. Written in the manner suggested by these illustrations, a composition will consist of a group, or of groups, of closely connected sentences. A good writer thinks a group of sentences upon one topic before lie writes the separate sentences which go to make up the group-^ Such sentence-groups we shall call paragraphs. A paragraph may be a whole composition, or it may be a part of a whole composition, It is these groups of sentences that we purpose studying in this book. EXERCISE 1. Select one of the following questions. Think about it until you know just how you will answer it. Write the 1 This view is corroborated by the recent researches of Dr. E. H. Lewis, set forth in the pamphlet entitled History of the English Paragraph (Chicago : 1894) ; see especially p. 172 : " There has been, from the earliest days of our prose, a unit of invention much larger than the modern sen- tence, and always separated, in the mind of the writer, from the sentenco- unit, of whatever length. In other words, English writers have thought roughly in long stages before they have analyzed such stages into smaller steps." 4 Composition' Rhetoric, answer in full. At each point in your writing where you are compelled to pause in order to think what comes next, insert a sign like this : IT. When you have finished, note how many sentences and parts of sentences have been written without pausing. 1. How does the inside of your hand differ from the other side ? 2. What does a photographer do in taking a person's picture ? 3. What do you see in mind when you read the words ^Bunker Hill'? 4. What would happen in the school-room if some one outside should suddenly cry, ' The school-house is on fire ! ' ? 5. What did you do in the algebra recitation yesterday ? 6. What do you think of and see when the words ^ Sunday school ' are pronounced ? 7. How did the tramp look who came to your home, and what did he say ? 8. What is suggested to you by the following sentence, * Never give up the ship ! ' ? 9. What is suggested to you by the following sentence, ' He sought the Fountain of Youth ' ? 10. How is the tire of a bicycle repaired when it has been punctured ? 11. How does a baseball pitcher throw a ball so as to make it curve ? 12. What do you see in mind when you read the words, ' Boston Tea Party ' ? If you were asked to write again on the same question, could you add anything to any part of what you have writ- ten ? Where would the new material best be brought in ? Can you improve what you have written ? Try again, and bring both your first and your second effort to the class. Be ready to tell why you made additions to or changes in your first writing. External Form of the Paragraph, LESSON 2. Indention. To indicate to the reader's eye the sentence-groups of a composition, a device is employed known as indention. The nature of this device may be illustrated by printing side by side two arrangements of the same matter, as in the parallel columns below. The column on the left is indented at three points, that on the right has no indentions. 1. It was delightful in the country, for Summer was in the height of its splendor. 2. The corn was yellow, the oats green, the hay, heaped into cocks in the meadow below, looked like little grass hillocks ; and the stork strutted about on its long, red legs, chattering Egyptian, for that was the language it had learned from its mother. 3. The fields and meadows were surrounded by more or less thickly wooded forests, which also enclosed deep lakes, the smooth waters of which were sometimes ruffled by a gentle breeze. 4. It was, in- deed, delightful in the country. 5. In the bright sunshine stood an old mansion surrounded by a moat and wall, strong and proud almost as in the feudal times. 6. From the wall all the way down to the water grew a complete forest of burdock leaves, which were so high that a 1. It was delightful in the coun- try, for Summer was in the height of its splendor. 2. The corn was yellow, the oats green, the hay, heaped into cocks in the meadow below, looked like little grass hillocks ; and the stork strutted about on its long, red legs, chattering Egyptian, for that was the language it had learned from its mother. 3. The fields and meadows were surrounded by more or .less thickly wooded forests, which also enclosed deep lakes, the smooth waters of which were sometimes ruffled by a gentle breeze. 4. It was, indeed, de- lightful in the country. 5. In the bright sunshine stood an old mansion surrounded by a moat and wall, strong and proud almost as in the feudal times. 6. From the wall all the way down to the water grew a complete forest of burdock leaves, which were so high that 6 Composition-Rhetoric, little child could stand upright among them. 7. It was a real wilderness, so quiet and sombre, and here sat a Duck upon her nest hatching a quantity of eggs ; but she was almost tired of her tedious though important occupation, for it lasted so very long and she seldom had any visitors. 8. The other ducks preferred swimming about on the moat, and the canals that ran through the garden, to visiting her in her solitude. — Andersen. a little child could stand up- right among them. 7. It was a real wilderness, so quiet and sombre, and here sat a Duck upon her nest hatching a quan- tity of eggs ; but she was almost tired of her tedious though im- portant occupation, for it lasted so very long, and she seldom had any visitors. 8. The other ducks preferred swimming about on the moat, and the canals that ran through the garden, to vis- iting her in her solitude. The term " indention " refers to the position of the first word in a sentence. If such a word begins at the left margin like the word " It '' in sentence 1, on the right, or if it fol- lows directly after the close of a preceding sentence, like the word "The" at the beginning of sentences 2 and 8 in the same column, the word and the sentence it begins are said not to be indented. But if the first word of a sentence begins a little way to the right of the margin, as the word " It " (sentence 1), the word "' The '' (sentence 3), and the word " In " (sentence 5), in the left-hand column, the word and the sentence it begins are said to be indented. A group of related sentences making up a paragraph is marked as such, and is separated from other similar groups by an indention of the first word. In the foregoing selec- tion the sentences in the left-hand column are by indention made into three groups. The first paragraph consists of sentences 1 and 2 ; the second of sentences 3 and 4 ; the third of sentences 5-8. Note the appearance of each para- graph : it seems to be a solid block of type ; the various sentences of which it is composed look as if they belonged together. External Form of the Paragraph. 7 A word is indented when it is begun to the right of the margin. The first word of a paragraph should always be indented. In printed matter, the indention is usually slight. It is of the width of the letter m of the type in which the mat- ter is set, or of the letters m and n put together. In manu- script the indention should be wider. The beginner should make a practice of indenting at least one inch. In printed books the first word of a chapter is frequently unindented. LESSON 3. Faults of Indention : Indenting Every Sentence. A common fault in the use of indention ma}^ be illustrated by again putting side by side two arrangements of the same selection : — Once upon a time, a notion was started, that if all the peo- ple in the world would shout at once, it might be heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it should be done in just ten years. Some thousand ship- loads of chronometers were dis- tributed to the selectmen and other great folks of all the different nations. For a year beforehand, nothing else was talked about but the awful noise that was to be made on the great occasion. When the time came, everybody had his ears so wide open, to hear the universal ejaculation of Boo, — the word agreed upon, — that Once upon a time, a notion was started, that if all the peo- ple in the world would shout at once, it might be heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it should be done in just ten years. Some thousand shiploads of chronometers were distributed to the selectmen and other great folks of all the different nations. For a year beforehand, noth- ing else was talked about but the awful noise that was to be made on the great occasion. When the time came, every- body had his ears so wide open 8 Composition- Mhetoric, nobody spoke except a deaf man in one of the Fiji Islands, and a woman in Pekin, so that ' the world was never so still since the creation. — Holmes. to hear the universal ejacula- tion of Boo, — the word agreed upon, — that nobody spoke ex- cept a deaf man in one of the Fiji Islands, and a woman in Pekin, so that the w^orld was never so still since the creation. The arrangement in the left-hand column is preferable. It gives us an impression that the sentences belong together, that is, it gives us a true impression ; whereas the arrange- ment in the right-hand column gives us an impression that the sentences are independent, that is, it gives us a false impression. Almost primeval simplicity reigns over this Northern land, — almost primeval solitude and stillness. You pass out from the gate of the city, and, as if by magic, the scene changes to a wild, woodland landscape. Around you are forests of fir. Overhead hang the long fan-like branches trailing with moss, and heavy with red and blue cones. Underfoot is a carpet of yellow leaves, and the air is warm and balmy. On a wooden bridge you cross a little silver stream. Anon you come forth into a pleasant and sunny land of farms. Wooden fences divide the adjoining fields. Across the road are gates, which are opened for you by troops of flaxen-haired children. The peasants take off their hats as you pass. You sneeze, and they cry, " God bless you ! " The houses in the villages and smaller cities are all built of hewn timber, and for the most part painted red. The floors of the taverns are strewn with the fragrant tips of fir boughs. In many villages there are no taverns, and the peasants take turns in receiving travellers. The thrifty housewife shows you into the best chamber, the walls of which are hung round with rude pictures from the Bible ; External Form of the Paragraph, 9 and brings you her heavy silver spoons — an heirloom — to dip tho curdled milk from the pan. You have oaten cakes baked some months before ; or bread with anise-seed and coriander in it, and perhaps a little pine-bark. — Longfellow: Driftwood, 318. Printed as it appears above, with each sentence separated by indention from its neighbor, the selection seems jagged and disjointed. Re-write it, indenting only the first word, and now^ observe how smoothly each sentence flows into the sentence that follows, and how compact and orderly the selection appears and is. Beware of separating by indentions sentences that belong together. EXERCISE 2. Re- write the following selections. Combine the sentences of each, group without changing the wording, or adding any words, and note the difference in effect, and the greater ease of understanding. Twenty years had passed since Joey ran down the brae to play. Jess, his mother, shook her staff fondly at him. A cart rumbled by, the driver nodding on the shaft. It rounded the corner and stopped suddenly, and then a woman screamed. A handful of men carried Joey's dead body to his mother, and that was the tragedy of Jess's life. — Barrie : A Windorv in Thrums. [As written above, the third and fourth sentences do not seem to have any connection, in thought, with what precedes and follows. Close up the indentions, and the whole paragraph becomes an intelli- gible picture. ] I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and I was to put it in order ; so I swept out useless thoughts and dusted foolish fancies away, and furnished it with good resolutions and began again. 10 Composition-Rhetoric, But cobwebs get in. I'm not a good housekeeper, and never get my room in nice order. I once wrote a poem about it when I was fourteen, and called it " My Little Kingdom." It is still hard to rule it, and always will be, I think. — Louisa May Alcott : Life^ Letters, and Journals. [As written above, the connection of the thought is hard to keep. Close up the indentions, and it becomes clear that the words " cob- webs," " housekeeper," " room," "kingdom," and "rule," in the dif- ferent sentences, all refer to the mind or the care one should give it.] EXERCISE 3. On one of the following topics write a single paragraph of one or two pages. Indent the first word one inch. Except at the close of the paragraph, beware of leaving a noticeable blank space at the end of a sentence.^ 1. An incident in the recitation room. 2. The principal cause of the American Eevolntion. 3. How to tell an oak leaf from a maple leaf. 4. Direct a stranger at the railway station to the high- school building, describing the building so that he would know it when he reached it. 5. One result of the Civil War. 6. The source of the water supply of this city. 7. How does a bank make any money ? 8. How I usually spend Saturday. 9. The way I used to make a kite. 10. The appearance of the school-house from the street. 11. Learning to ride a bicycle. 12. The story of King Midas. 13. The story of King Eobert of Sicily. 14. General Howe and. the Boston boys. 1 For directions in regard to the preparation of the manuscript, see Appendix A. For the meaning of the signs used by your teacher in cor- recting what you write, see Appendix B. External Form of the Paragraph. 11 LESSON 4. Faults of Indention: Indentions too Few. 1. In a preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday in the country, and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape ; but where is its sacred influence more strikingly apparent than in the very heart of that great Babel, London ? 2. On this sacred day, the gigantic monster is charmed into repose. 3. The intol- erable din and struggle of the week are at an end. 4. The shops are shut. 5. The fires of forges and manufactories are extin- guished; and the sun, no longer obscured by murky clouds of smoke, pours down a sober, yellow radiance into the quiet streets. 6. The few pedestrians we meet, instead of hurrying forward with anxious countenances, move leisurely along ; their brows are smoothed from the wrinkles of business and care ; they have put on their Sunday looks, and Sunday manners, with their Sunday clothes, and are cleansed in mind as well as in person. 7. And now the melodious clangor of bells from church towers summons their various flocks to the fold. 8. Forth issues from his mansion the family of the decent tradesman, the small children in advance ; then the citizen and his comely spouse, followed by the grown-up daughters, with small morocco-bound prayer-books laid in the folds of their pocket-handkerchiefs. 9. The housemaid looks after them from the window, admiring the finery of the family, and receiving, perhaps, a nod and smile from her young mistresses, at whose toilet she has assisted. 10. Now rumbles along the carriage of some magnate of the city, peradventure an alderman or a sheriff; and now the patter of many feet announces a procession of charity scholars, in uniforms of antique cut, and each with a prayer-book under his arm. 11. The ringing of bells is at an end ; the rumbling of the carriage has ceased ; the pattering of feet is heard no more ; the flocks are folded in ancient churches, cramped up in by-lanes and corners of the crowded city, where the vigilant beadle keeps watch, like the shepherd's dog, round the threshold of the sanct- uary. 12. For a time everything is hushed ; but soon is heard the deep, pervading sound of the organ, rolling and vibrating through the empty lanes and courts ; and the sweet chanting of 12 Composition-Rhetoric. the choir making them resound with melody and praise. 13. ISTevei have I been more sensible of the sanctifying effect of church music than when I have heard it thus poured forth, like a river of joy, through the inmost recesses of this great metropolis, elevating it, as it were, from all the sordid pollutions of the week ; and bearing the poor world-w^orn soul on a tide of triumphant harmony to heaven. 14. The morning service is at an end. 15. The streets are again alive with the congregations returning to their homes, but soon again relapse into silence. 16. N'ow comes on the Sunday dinner, which, to the city tradesman, is a meal of some importance. 17. There is more leisure for social enjoyment at the board. 18. Members of the family can now gather together, who are separated by the laborious occupations of the week. 19. A school- boy may be permitted on that day to come to the paternal home ; an old friend of the family takes his accustomed Sunday seat at the board, tells over his well-known stories, and rejoices young and old with his well-known jokes. 20. On Sunday afternoon the city pours forth its legions to breathe the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine of the parks and rural environs. 21. Satirists may say what they please about the rural enjoyments of a London citizen on Sunday, but to me there is something delightful in beholding the poor prisoner of the crowded and dusty city enabled thus to come forth once a week and throw himself upon the green bosom of nature. 22. He is like a child restored to the mother's breast ; and they who first spread out these noble parks and mag- nificent pleasure-grounds w^hich surround this huge metropolis, have done at least as much for its health and morality, as if they had expended the amount of cost in hospitals, prisons, and peni- tentiaries. — Irving : Sketch Book. The pupil should make himself familiar with this selec- tion by reading it a number of times. Let him then note the connection of the sentences. Certain sentences, he will observe, treat of one part of the subject ; certain others treat of another part. Thus, sentences 1-6 speak in general terms of the Sunday aspect of the city. These sentences, belong- ing together in thought, should form a single paragraph. Sentences 7-10 speak of the appearance of the streets when External Form of the Paragraph, 13 the bells begin ringing for church; these sentences should form another paragraph. The same may be said of sentences 11-13, which tell what happens during the service ; of sen- tences 14-19, which tell of what happens 'after the service; and of sentences 20-22, which tell of the enjoyments of Sun- day afternoon. By indenting at the beginning of sentences 7, 11, 14, and 20, these paragraph-groups may be indicated to the eye. Beware of running together in one group sentences that should form separate groups. EXERCISE 4. I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many days to the academy. Every room has in it one or more pro- jectors, and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms. The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin were all of the same color. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials her- metically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers. He told me he did not doubt that in eight years more he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine at a reasonable rate ; but he complained that the stock was low, and entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers. I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money, on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them. I saw another at work to calcine ice into gunpowder, who likewise showed me a treatise he had written concerning the malleability of fire, which he intended to publish. There was a most ingenious architect, who had con- trived a new method for building houses, by beginning at the roof, and working downwards to the foundation ; which he justified to me by the like practice of those two prudent insects, the bee and the spider. In another apartment I was highly pleased with a 14 Composition-Rhetoric, projector who had found a device of ploughing the ground with hogs, to save the charges of ploughs, cattle, and labor. The method is this : in an acre of ground, you bury, at six inches distance, and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other masts or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest ; then you drive six hundred or more of them into the field, where in a few days they will root up the whole ground in search of their food, and make it fit for sowing. It is true, upon experiment they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop. However, it is not doubted that this invention may be capable of great improvement. I went into another room, where the walls and ceilings were all hung round wdth cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the artist to go in and out. At my entrance he called aloud to me not to disturb his webs. He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silk-worms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects, who infinitely excelled the former because they understood how to weave as well as spin. And he proposed, farther, that by employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silks should be wholly saved ; whereof I was fully convinced when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully colored, wherewith he fed his spiders ; assuring us that the webs would take a tincture from them ; and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to fit everybody's fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter, to give a strength and consistence to the threads. In this selection there is first a general statement regard- ing the author's visit to the Academy ; then the author de- scribes various rooms and their occupants. What words should be indented ? The characteristic peculiarity of the Pilgrim's Progress is that it is the only work of its kind which possesses a strong human interest. Other allegories only amuse the fancy. The allegory of Bunyan has been read by many thousands with tears. There are some good allegories in Johnson's works, and some of still higher merit by Addison. In these performances there is, per- haps, as much wit and ingenuity as in the Pilgrim's Progress. But the pleasure which is produced by the Vision of Mirza, the Vision External Form of the Paragraph, 15 of Theodore, the Genealogy of Wit, or the contest between Rest and Labor, is exactly similar to the pleasure which we derive from one of Cowley's odes or from a canto of Iludibras. It is a pleasure which belongs wholly to the understanding, and in which the feel- ings have no part whatever. It is not so with the Pilgrim's Prog- ress. That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it. Doctor Johnson, all whose studies were desultory, and who hated, as he said, to read books through, made an exception in favor of the Pilgrim's Progress.. That work, he said, was one of the two or three works which he wished longer. In the wildest parts of Scotland the Pilgrim's Progress is the delight of the peas- antry. In every nursery the Pilgrim's Progress is a greater favor- ite than Jack the Giant-Killer. Every reader knows the straight and narrow path as well as he knows a road in which he has gone backward and forward a hundred times. This is the highest mira- cle of genius, — that things which are not should be as though they were ; that the imaginations of one mind should become the per- sonal recollections of another. And this miracle the tinker has w^rought. There is no ascent, no declivity, no resting-place, no turnstile, with which we are not perfectly acquainted. The wdcket- gate, and the desolate swamp which separates it from the City of Destruction ; the long line of road, as straight as a rule can make it ; the Interpreter's house and all its fair shov/s ; all the stages of the journey, all the forms w^hich cross or overtake the pilgrims, giants and hobgoblins, ill-favored ones and shining ones; the tall, comely, swarthy Madam Bubble with her great purse by her side, and her fingers playing with the money; the black man in the bright vesture; Mr. Worldly Wiseman and my Lord Hategood, Mr. Talkative and Mrs. Timorous ; — all are actually existing be- ings to us. We follow the travellers through their allegorical progress with interest not inferior to that with which we follow Elizabeth from Siberia to Moscow, or Jeanie Deans from Edin- burgh to London. Observe that in this selection there are three distinct ideas : first, Pilgrim\s Progress is different from other alle- gories ; second, Pilgrim'' s Progress touches the heart and imagination of every one ; third, every event and figure in 16 Composition-Rhetoric. this allegory is interesting to us. With this clue, decide what sentences belong together and where indentions should be made. The young prince Hamlet was not happy at Elsinore. It was not because he missed the gay student-life of Wittenberg, and that the little Danish court was intolerably dull. It was not because the didactic lord chamberlain bored him with long speeches, or that the lord chamberlain's daughter was become a shade weari- some. Hamlet had more serious cues for unhappiness. He had been summoned suddenly from Wittenberg to attend his father's funeral ; close upon this and while his grief was green, his mother had married with his uncle Claudius, whom Hamlet had never liked. The indecorous haste of these nuptials — they took place within two months after the king's death, the funeral baked meats, as Hamlet cursorily remarked, furnishing forth the marriage-tables — struck the young prince aghast. He had loved the queen his mother, and had nearly idolized the late king ; but now he forgot to lament the death of the one in contemplating the life of the other. The billing and cooing of the newly-married couple filled him with horror. Anger, shame, pity, and despair seized upon him by turns. He fell into a forlorn condition, forsaking his books, eating little save of the chameleon's dish, the air, drinking deep of Rhenish, letting his long, black locks go unkempt, and neglecting his dress — he who had hitherto been "the glass of fashion and the mould of form," as Ophelia had prettily said of him. Often for half the night he would wander along the ram- parts of the castle, at the imminent risk of tumbling off, gaz- ing seaward and muttering strangely to himself, and evolving frightful spectres out of the shadows cast by the turrets. Some- times he lapsed into a gentle melancholy ; but not seldom his mood was ferocious, and at such times the conversational Polonius, with a discretion that did him credit, steered clear of my lord Hamlet. He turned no more graceful compliments for Ophelia. The thought of marrying her, if he had ever seriously thought of it, was gone now. He rather ruthlessly advised her to go into a nunnery. His mother had sickened him of women. It was of her he spoke the notable words, ^' Frailty, thy name is woman ! " which, some time afterwards, an amiable French gentleman had neatly engraved on External Form of the Paragraph. IT the head-stone of his wife, who had long been an invalid. Even the king and queen did not escape Hamlet in his distempered moments. Passing his mother in a corridor or on a staircase of the palace, he would suddenly plant a verbal dagger in her heart ; and frequently, in full court, he would deal the king such a cutting reply as caused him to blanch, and gnaw his lip. Four ideas will be found in this selection: (1) reasons for Hamlet's sadness ; (2) the effect upon him of the hasty marriage of the Queen; (3) his varying moods; (4) his harshness towards Ophelia, the Queen, and the King. Where should the second paragraph begin ? the third ? the fourth? LESSON 5. Faults of Indention : Indentions Irregular and Meaningless, 1. On one of those sober and rather melancholy days, in the latter part of Autumn, when the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle together, and throw a gloom over the decline of the year, I passed several hours in rambling about Westminster Abbey. 2. There was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence of the old pile ; and, as I passed its thresh- old, seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiquity, and losing myself among the shades of former ages. 3. I entered from the inner court of Westminster School, through a long, low, vaulted passage, that had an almost subterranean look, being dimly lighted in one part by circular perforations in the massive walls. 4. Through this dark avenue I had a distant view of the clois- ters, with the figure of an old verger, in his black gown, moving along their shadowy vaults, and seeming like a spectre from one of the neighboring tombs. 5. The approach to the abbey through these gloomy monastic remains prepares the mind for its solemn contemplation. 6. The cloisters still retain something of the quiet and seclusion of former days. 18 Composition-Rhetor ie. 7. The gray walls are discolored by damps, and crumbling with age ; a coat of hoary moss has gathered over the inscriptions of the mural monuments, and obscured the death's head and other funereal emblems. 8. The sharp touches of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery of the arches ; the roses which adorned the keystones have lost their leafy beauty ; every thing bears marks of the gradual dilapi- dations of time, which yet has something touching and pleasing in its very decay. 9. The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the square of the cloisters ; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in the centre, and lighting up the angle of the vaulted passage with a kind of dusky splendor. 10. From between the arcades, the eye glanced up to a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud ; and beheld the sun-gilt pinnacles of the abbey towering into the azure heaven. In this selection as it appears above, there are several irregularities of paragraphing. Following the indention, one would infer that sentences 1-3 form a sentence-group ; that sentences 4-6 form another ; and that sentences 8 and 9 form a third; while sentences 7 and 10 would seem to be independent of the rest. But this is not the case. Sen- tences 1 and 2 are much more closely connected than sen- tences 2 and 3. Sentences 1 and 2 treat of the Abbey in a general way; sentence 3 begins a description of the interior. Sentence 3, then, because it introduces a new subject, should be separated from sentences 1 and 2 by an indention. Sentence 4, since it dwells upon the idea of the dark avenue described in sentence 3, should bear no mark of separation from that sentence. Nor should sentence 7 be separated from sentences 6 and 8. It is the office of sentences 7 and 8 to continue the idea of sentence 6 by giving particulars regarding the gloom and dilapidation of the cloister. Obviously sentences 6, 7, and 8 belong to- gether as much as do sentences 3-6. Note, however, that while sentence 8 carries on the idea of sentence 7, sentences 9 and 10 are upon a different theme. Sentences 3-8 dwell External Form of the Paragraph, 19 upon the gloom and dilapidation of the cloister ; sentences 9 and 10 describe the brightness of the exterior. Sen- tences 3-8, therefore, should oe put in One paragraph ; sen- tences 9 and 10 in another paragraph. Arranged in accord- ance with the foregoing suggestions, the selection appears as follows : — On one of those sober and melancholy days, in the latter part of Autumn, when the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle together, and throw a gloom over the decline of the year, I passed several hours in rambling about Westminster Abbey. There was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence of the old pile ; and, as I passed its threshold, seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiquity, and losing myself among the shades of former ages. I entered from the inner court of Westminster School, through a long, low, vaulted passage, that had an almost subterranean look, being dimly lighted in one part by circular perforations in the massive walls. Through this dark avenue I had a distant view of the cloisters, with the figure of an old verger, in his black gown, moving along their shadowy vaults, and seeming like a spectre from one of the neighboring tombs. The approach to the abbey through these gloomy monastic remains prepares the mind for its solemn contemplation. The cloisters still retain something of the quiet and seclusion of former days. The gray walls are discolored by damps, and crumbling with age ; a coat of hoary moss has gath- ered over the inscriptions of the mural monuments, and obscured the death's head and other funereal emblems. The sharp touches of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery of the arches ; the roses which adorned the keystones have lost their leafy beauty; every thing bears marks of the gradual dilapidations of time, which yet has something touching and pleasing in its very decay. The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the square of the cloisters; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in the centre, and lighting up an angle of the vaulted passage with a kind of dusky splendor. From between the arcades, the eye glanced up to a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud ; and beheld the sun-gilt pinnacles of the abbey towering ijito the azure heaven. — Irving : Sketch Book. 20 Composition-Rhetoric, EXERCISE 5. Criticise the following selection with reference to the place of indention. Eead the selection carefully, noting the various ways in which the subject is treated, or the various parts of the subject that are taken up in succession. Sentences that treat the subject in the same w^ay or tell of the same part of the subject, should be brought together in a single group. The store was kept by a hard-faced looking man who went by the name of Shubael, sometimes with and sometimes without the prefix " Colonel." He was an elderly man, quiet and cool in his air and manner, and with a countenance placid but heartless in its expression. There was a certain quick motion of his eye which showed that he was shrewd and observant. His store had a bad name, and yet no one seemed to know exactly why. Colonel Shu- bael himself, too, was the object of a certain mysterious fear, and even hate ; and yet no one had anything very decided to say against him. He was believed to be a perfectly honest man, so far as legal honesty is concerned. !N"o man understood the law better than he, or the sound policy of keeping on good terms with it. Mr. Shu- bael's store was small, but it had a snug, social air within. It was nearly square, with a door in the middle of the front. A counter extended along one side and across the back of the store ; and on the remaining side, near the corner next the road, was a fireplace, with a barrel of oil and another of cider near it, to keep them from freezing. There were other barrels and hogs- heads, less likely to freeze, behind the counter against the back side of the room. A door between two great black hogsheads mounted on sticks, opened to a dark-looking back room behind. Tubs, bundles of whip-handles, hoes and shovels, barrels, kegs of nails, and iron-ware, encumbered the floor, leaving only narrow passages along in front of the counters and toward the fire. There was a little area near the fire also unoccupied, and two or three basket-bottomed chairs, with high wooden backs, stood there. A half-keg of closely packed tobacco was near, with one loose fig and an old hatchet lying on it ; and there was an ink bottle, with a blackened and dried-up quill thrust through the cork, in the External Form of the Paragraph, 21 chimney corner. This was the aspect of the store in the winter ; but it was now summer, between haying and harvesting. The fire was dead, and a great tin fender concealed the ashes and brands. The chairs were put out before the door, and two or three men were sitting and standing there, waiting for the " stage." It was a calm and pleasant afternoon ; the forests around were in their best dress, and the view up the pond was picturesque in the highest degree. But the company paid little attention to the beauty of the scenery. They were looking out for the " stage." Mr. Shubael was the postmaster. A little high paling, at the end of the counter opposite the fire, was the post-office. The mail came once a week, bringing a few newspapers and sometimes some letters. The company which was collected on this occasion were not interested so much in the con- tents of the mail, as in a new team of horses, and a large coach, which was that day for the first time to be put on the road. They were looking off beyond the bridge, where the road could be seen for a considerable distance winding around a hill, and talk- ing with noisy laughter about various subjects that came up. By the side of the door, outside, his chair tipped back against the side of the building and his feet resting upon a bar which passed along between two posts placed there for fastening horses, sat a tall, dark- complexioned man, with black bushy hair and eyebrows, and an intelligent but sinister expression of countenance. They called him McDonner. EXERCISE 6. On one of the following outlines write an essay of about 300 words. The paragraph-sign shows the places where indention should be made. A Skating Scene. ^ Time and place -«^ weather favorable — condition of the ice — number of skaters — di:fferent colors of clothes, scarfs, etc. — T Noticeable characters — fancy skaters — beginners — ^ A race — result — a collision — other mishaps — the return home. 22 Composition-Rhetoric, The Human Hand. ^ General shape outside and inside — advantage of this shape — divisions — parts enumerated and described — ^ Kinds of joints and special uses — ^ Nails, description and uses — the ends of the fingers, why so sensitive ? -^ If The thumb, special situation and form, and adaptedness to use — ^ Strength of hand may be cul- tivated — relation of hand to occupation — If Why two hands? — superiority of man. Learning to debate. ^ Purpose in joining the society — ^ First experience, the ques- tion, what I intended to say, diffidence, lack of words, forgetting pre-arranged plan, long and involved sentences, confused thought, led astray by objections, desperation and dissatisfaction with my effort — ^ Resolutions for future debates — If Second experience, the question, more careful preparation, first sentences memorized, plan stated, greater ease while speaking, less haste to get to new points, shorter sentences, refusal to be led off by objections, sticking to original plan — result, less dissatisfaction — •[f Later experiences, what I have learned from former efforts, as to need of previous preparation, having a plan, stating the plan, danger of haste in beginning, treatment of objections, efforts at copiousness of expres- sion, attempts at eloquence, seriousness of method, ridicule of oppoiients, hurry and nervousness, talking over-time. Reasons for the Success of the American Revolution. If Righteousness of the American cause — practical unanimity of the colonists — common grievances — resulting zeal — If English support of the war against the colonies not unanimous — parlia- mentary opposition to the war — classes of the English people favorable to the colonies — ^ Circumstances fortunate for the colonies — distance of England — England's troubles with other foreign nations at the time — ^f French aid of the colonies — If Superiority of American leaders and generals — American meth- ods of war — knowledge of the country — If Faith and endurance of the colonists — the spirit of the times. External Form of the Paragraph, 23 Advantages of the Columbian Exposition. ^ General educational value — every one could learn from it — what the farmer, tradesman, mechanic, teacher, etc., could learn of his own work — of the work of others — *|[ Knowledge of foreign nations — result of this — ^ What oUher countries could learn of us — 1[ Meetings of men working in the same departments of life in different countries — scientific meetings — Parliament of Re- ligions — result — 1[ Effect on patriotism and upon regard for humanity. Intelligence of Dogs. ^ Decidedly greater than in other domestic animals — contrast briefly with the others — If Know their masters, and ready to protect them against assault — to bring assistance if needed — ^ Protect property — run errands — watch-dogs — shepherd dogs — % Save life — Newfoundlands — St. Bernards — •f Exceptional instances of intelligence in dogs. The Last Story I read. ^ Author, and something about him — If Short summary of the story — Tf Hero — admirable? natural? like any one you know? — ^ Other characters — do they act and talk like real people? instances of this quoted — ^ Purpose of the story, if any, besides entertain- ment — any direct influence felt after reading it ? The Electric Telegraph. ^ Inventor, date — first trials — ^ Principle of the telegraph and parts explained — the battery, sounder, key, line, relay, accessories — ^ Effect of its extensive use upon commerce and civilization. A Country Village. If General view from the railway station — apparent size — evidences of activity or of dulness — the general store and post- office, near by — impression of the inhabitants waiting for the 24 Composition-Rhetoinc, mail — ^ A closer view of the village, gained by strolling through it — quiet, shady streets — neat cottages — old-fashioned flower- gardens — adjoining vegetable gardens — If The village commons — grazing cows — stray chickens — group of boys — T[ The weather- beaten meeting-house — the village school-house — the village inn ' — blacksmith shop — mill — \ Appearance from the bridge, near by, of surrounding country, fields, woods, hills — the neglected burying-ground upon the hillside — \ The cleanliness, freshness, quiet, of the village as contrasted with the city. A Fire. If The alarm — hurrying people — engines rushing by — I run after them — ^f First view of it from a distance — what and where it proved to be — its appearance on my arrival — "[f Rapid spread of the flames — imminent danger of surrounding buildings — work of the firemen begins to tell — Tf Bravery of firemen — an accident — gradual extinguishment of the fire — If The loss — insurance — inquiry as to the cause — the probable explanation. Washington and Lincoln compared as Statesmen. If The two greatest Americans — each appeared at a great crisis; Washington at the birth of the nation, Lincoln at its time of greatest need — each was the one indispensable man of his time — Washington's great work in establishing independence and administering the new government, briefly summarized — Lincoln's great work in suppressing rebellion, abolishing slavery, and restoring union, briefly summarized — ^ Their preparation for their work as statesmen compared and contrasted — scanty yet practical edu- cation of both — knowledge of men, how gained by Washington, and how by Lincoln, before election to the Presidency? — knowl- edge of statecraft and contact with political life before election to the Presidency, compared — ^ The country's estimate of each at the time of inauguration, contrasted — problems of state confront- ing each at the time of inauguration, likenesses and diiferences in kind — ^ How Washington solved his problems and showed his statesmanship, in choice of cabinet officers — in choice of Supreme Court judges favorable to the Constitution — in supporting Hamil- External Form of the Paragraph. 25 ton's financial measures — in suppressing rebellion — in managing foreign relations — in repressing party strife — ^ How Lincoln solved his problems and showed his statesmanship, in his attitude towards the South at the beginning of the war — in his choice of cabinet officers and generals — in delaying emancipation until it was clearly a war necessity — in avoiding foreign complications — in repressing party fury — in plans for easy reconstruction of states — ^Political methods compared — attitude towards the common people — personality of Washington and Lincoln compared as bearing on their political influence — ^ Results of their work com- pared — the judgment of history on both as statesmen. LESSOIST 6 . Other Uses of Indention, The indention that marks the beginning of a paragraph should be distinguished from indentions made for other purposes. 1. In conversational passages, the speeches of different ^persons are separated by indention. "Did you ever hear a tom-tom, sir?" sternly inquired the captain, who lost no opportunity of showing oif his travels, real or pretended. " A what?" asked Hardy, rather taken aback. " A tom-tom." " Never ! " " I^or a gum-gum ? " " Never ! " '^ What is a gum-gum? " eagerly inquired several young ladies. Explanatory matter coming between the speeches is some- times combined with the speech to which it is most nearly related, as in the following example : — '^ How is this privileged person ? " Mrs. Blunt asked, "You shall see," said Edith. "I am glad you came, for I 26 Composition-Rhetoric, wanted very much to consult you. I was going to send for you." " Well, here I am. But I didn't come about the baby. I wanted to consult you. We miss you, dear, every day." A nd then Mrs. Blunt began to speak about some social and charitable arrange- ments, but stopped suddenly. " I'll see the baby first. Good-morn- ing, Mrs. Henderson." And she left the room. But often such explanatory matter is allowed to stand by itself, as in the following : — "Mebbe ye would be better in yer bed," suggested Hendry. No one spoke. " When I had the headache," said Hendry, " I was better in my bed." 2. Quotations, especially if they are of some length and begin a new sentence, are often treated as separate para- graphs and distinguished by indention. If the quotation is short, it is usually distinguished only by quotation marks, and is not set off by itself; but if it is long, it may be set off by itself (without indention) even though it does not begin a new sentence. The following example illustrates (1) A short quotation distinguished only by quotation marks and not set off by itself, (2) A longer quotation beginning a new sentence, set off by indention and quotation, (3) A part of a sentence following quoted matter and not indented, (4) A quotation not beginning a new sentence but set off by itself (without indention) on account of its length, (5) A sentence following, not indented. We must not forget the celebrated work that had so great an influence upon the literature of that [the Elizabethan] and the following age, the Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney. That quaint yet poetic, pastoral romance was, in prose, like Spenser's Faerie Queene in verse, a treasury of intellectual beauties. It should be remembered in judging the work of Sir Philip Sidney, that he thought very meanly of it himself, and that he never intended it External Form of the Paragraph. 2T for publication. Dedicating the book to his " Dear lady and fair sister the Countess of Pembroke," he says : — "You desired me to do it, and your desire, to my heart, is an absolute commandment. Now it is done only for you, only to you." Aubrey tells us that Sidney " was wont to take his table- book out of his pocket and write down his notions as they came into his head, as he was hunting on Sarum's pleasant plains." It was in 1580 that Sidney began the composition of his romance. — Saunders : The Story of Some Famous Books. If the qyaotation occurs in the middle of a paragraph, the sentence which follows should not b^mdentedT"^" ' Nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating spars and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and a solemn silence, broken only by the cry ** Of some strong swimmer in his agony." And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a dream, half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it alongside in triumph. The good old times I Where and when were those good old times V " All times when old are good," says Byron. " And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death," says the great master of morals and humanity. But neither fools nor sages, neither individuals nor nations, have any other light to guide them along the track which all must tread, save that long, glimmering vista of yesterdays which grows so swiftly fainter and fainter as the present fades into the past. And I believe it pos- sible to discover a law out of all this apparently chaotic whirl and bustle, this tangled skein of human affairs, as it spins itself through the centuries. That law is Progress, — slow, confused, contradictory, but ceaseless development, intellectual and moral, 28 Composition-Rhetoric, of the human race. — Motley: Historic Progress and American Democracy. 3. In letters, indentions are nsed to distingiiish the vari- ous parts. If the letter begins with the name and address of the correspondent, the address is usually indented. The salutation is more deeply indented than the address, and the body of the letter more deeply still. Various grades of indention also distinguish the parts of the conclusion. The following will illustrate : — Headquarters Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1862. RuFus King, Esq., President School Board, Cincinnati, Ohio: Sir : In reply to your note of this date I am instructed to say that the public schools of this city will not be required to close at 4 o'clock P.M. daily. The company of teachers can assemble for drill after the dismissal of school. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, N. H. McLean. Mr. Strahan, — You are a member of Parliament, and one of that major- ity which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands, they are stained with the blood of your relations ! You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am Yours, I B. Franklin. Gloucester Place, London, July 15, 1833. My darling May, — How do you do, and how do you like the sea? I re- member that when I saw the sea, it used sometimes to be very fussy and fidgety. And what a rattle the waves made with the stones, when they were rough 1 External Form of the Paragraph, 29 Have you been bathing yet in the sea, and were you afraid? I was, the first time. Oh, how I kicked and screamed ! or at least meant to scream ; but the sea, ships and all, began to run into my mouth, so I shut up/ Well, how happy you must be ! Childhood is such a joyous, merry time. I often wish I was a child again. PJease give my love to your mamma, and remember me as your affectionate friend, rp_^ , . „ tt^^ ' iHOMAs Hood. 4. Sometimes indentions are made merely for the purpose of attracting the reader^s attention to something important. This device should be used with great caution. ' Beginners will do well to avoid it altogether. One idiotic habit of the people is to attribute to the king what they do themselves. They fight : whose is the glory ? The king's. They pay : whose is the generosity ? The king's. The king receives a crown from the poor, and returns them a farthing. How generous he is 1 — Victor Hugo. CHAPTER II. PARAGRAPH-STRUCTURE. LESSOR 7. Thought- Divisions. 1. In the season of hot weather in the central part of the Mis- sissippi Valley, there often come successions of days when the atmosphere is not stirred by the winds, but remains as still as the air of a cave. 2. Despite the steady gain in the heat, the sky stays cloudless, or at most is flecked by those light clouds that lie five miles or more above the surface of the earth. 3. All nature seems cowed beneath the fervent heat, yet there is nothing of distinct portent in earth or air. 4. At last, towards evening, there may be seen a sudden curdling of the western sky ; in a few minutes the clouds gather, coming from nowhere, growing at once in the lurid air. 5. In less than half an hour the forces of the storm are organ- ized, and its dreadful advance begins. 6. If we were just beneath the gathering clouds we would find that the air over a space a mile or so in diameter was spinning around in a great whirlpool, and while the revolving mass slowly advanced, the central part moved rapidly upwards. 7. Beginning slowly, all the movements of the storm, the whirling action, the vertical streaming of the air, its onward movement, all gain speed of motion with astonishing rapidity. 8. In a minute or two some cubic miles of air are in a state of intense gyratory movement, mounting upwards as vio- lently as the gases over a volcano. 9. To replace this strong whirling uprush, there is an indraught from every side towards the centre of the whirlwind; and as this centre moves quickly forward, the rush of air is strongest from behind towards the 30 Paragraph' Structure, 31 advancing hurricane. 10. The rate at which the storm goes for- ward is very variable, though it is generally as much as forty to one hundred miles an hour; but this is not the measure of its destructive power. 11. The rending effect of the storm is much greater than would be given by a simple blast of air moving at this speed. 12. Much of this peculiar capacity for destruction may perhaps be due to the gyratory motion of the wind in the storm centre, which on one side of the whirlwind adds the speed arising from its circular movement to the translatory velocity of the whirlwind itself. 13. Some of the records tell us that houses with closed w^indows have been known to burst apart, as if from an explosion of gunpowder, while others, that had their doors and windows wide open, remained essentially unharmed. 14. It has been conjectured that this action may be due to a sadden rarefac- tion of the air on the outside of the building ; but this cause cannot be sufficient to produce such effects, and if such explosions occur the cause must be looked for elsewhere. 15. After the storm is once developed, it seems very quickly to acquire its maximum of destructive power and its speed of translation. 16. At the outset and during the period of most efficient action, the strip of country affected is generally very narrow, not often exceeding a mile in width ; as the storm advances the path seems gradually to grow wider, and the gyratory movement as well as the translatory mo- tion of the meteor less considerable, until at last it fades into an ordinary thunder-storm, or dies into a calm. 17. Through the whole course of the hurricane, and especially during its closing stages, there is generally more or less rain and hail. — Atlantic^ 49 : 331. The sentences in this paragraph, belong together, for all treat of one topic — the tornado. But they not only belong together, they belong together in a peculiar way, in a particular order. Sentence 1 belongs at the beginning. It cannot be placed anywhere else in the paragraph. Sen- tence 11 must come after sentence 10 ; sentence 15 must come before sentence 16 ; to put these sentences in any other order would throw the paragraph into confusion. Again, the sentences of this paragraph fall into groups, each group 32 Composition-Rhetoric, treating of some specific part of the topic. Thus sentences 1-3 tell of what happens before the storm ; sentences 4-6 tell of its beginning ; sentences 7-9 tell of its onward move- ment; sentences 10-14 tell of its destructive power; sen- tences 15-17 of its culmination and subsidence. We may even make an outline of the paragraph, showing just what . is said of the subject in each part. A. Before the storm (1-3). a. The air is still. h. The sky is cloudless. B. Beginning of the storm (4-6). a. The clouds gather. h. The storm is organized. C. The advance of the storm (7-9). - a. The speed of motion increases. h. The whirling movement and the vertical stream- ing grow violent. c. The rush of air is strongest from behind. D. The destructive power of the storm (10-14). a. Its capacity for destruction is due both to the for- ward movement and to the whirling motion. h. The storm bursts open houses with closed windows. E. The culmination and subsidence of the storm (15-17). a. The maximum is quickly reached. h. The storm increases in width and decreases in speed, c. The closing stages are accompanied by rain and hail. 1. In my school-house, ... I seem to see the square most readily in the Scotch mist which so often filled it, loosening the stones and choking the drains. 2. There was then no rattle of rain against my window sill, nor dancing of diamond drops on the roofs, but blobs of ^ater grew on the panes of glass to reel heavily Paragraph-StruGture, 33 down them. 3. Then the sodden square would have shed abun- dant tears if you could have taken it in your hands and wrung it like a dripping cloth. 4. At such a time the square would be empty but for one vegetable-cart left in the care of a lean colly, which, tied to the wheel, whined and shivered underneath. 5. Pools of water gather in the coarse sacks that have been spread over the potatoes and bundles of greens, which turn to manure in their lidless barrels. 6. The eyes of the whimpering dog never leave a black close over which hangs the sign of the Bull, probably the refuge of the hawker. 7. At long intervals a farmer's gig rumbles over the bumpy, ill-paved square, or a native, with his head buried in his coat, peeps out-of-doors, skurries across the way, and vanishes. 8. Most of the leading shops are here, and the decorous draper ventures a few yards from the pavement to scan the sky, or note the effect of his new arrangement in scarfs. 9. Planted against his door is the butcher, Renders Todd, white- aproned, and with a knife in his hand, gazing interestedly at the draper, for a mere man may look at an elder. 10. The tinsmith brings out his steps, and^ mounting them, stealthily removes the sauce-pans and pepper-pots that dangle on a wire above his sign- board. 11. Pulling to his door he shuts out the foggy light that showed in his solder-strewn w^orkshop. 12. The square is deserted again. 13. A bundle of sloppy parsley slips from the hawker's cart and topples over the wheel in driblets. 14. The puddles in the sacks overflow and run together. 15. The dog has twisted his chain round a barrel, and yelps sharply. 16. As if in response comes a rush of other dogs. 17. A terrified fox terrier tears across the square with half a score of mongrels, the butcher's mastiff and some collies at his heels ; he is doubtless a stranger who has in- sulted them by his glossy coat. 18. For two seconds the square shakes to an invasion of dogs, and then, again, there is only one dog in sight. — Barrie : Auld Liclit Idylls^ chap. I. The selection given above may be outlined as follows : — A, The sodden square (1-3). a. Seen most readily in the Scotcli mist. h. The mist on the window, c. The mist in the square. 34 Composition- Rhetoric, B. What is to be seen in the square (4-11). a. The vegetable cart and the colly. h. Passers-by. c. Shopkeepers. C. What happens in the square (12-18). a. To the cart. b. To the colly. c. The invasion of dogs. EXERCISE 7. Bead carefully the following paragraphs and v^^rite out- lines showing the divisions of the thought: — The cavaliers found Alvarado unhorsed, and defending himself with a poor handful of followers against an overwhelming tide of the enemy. His good steed, which had borne him through many a hard fight, had fallen under him. He was himself wounded in several places, and was striving in vain to rally his scattered column, which was driven to the verge of the canal by the fury of the enemy, then in possession of the whole rear of the causeway, where they w^ere reinforced every hour by fresh combatants from the city. The artillery in the earlier part of the engagement had not been idle, and its iron shower, sw'eeping along the dike, had mowed down the assailants by hundreds. But nothing could resist their impetuosity. The front ranks, pushed on by those behind, were at length forced up to the pieces, and, pouring over them like a torrent, overthrew men and guns in one general ruin. The resolute charge of the Spanish cavaliers, who had now ar- rived, created a temporary check, and gave time for their country- men to make a feeble rally. But they were speedily borne down by the returning flood. Cortes and his companions were compelled to plunge again into the lake, — though all did not escape. Al- varado stood on the brink for a moment, hesitating what to do. Unhorsed, as he was, to throw himself into the water, in the face of the hostile canoes that now swarmed around the opening, af- forded but a desperate chance of safety. He had but a second for thought. He was a man of powerful frame, and despair gave him Paragraph- Structure, 85 unnatural energy. Setting his long lance firmly on the wreck which strewed the bottom of the lake, he sprang forward with all his might, and cleared the wide gap at a leap ! Aztecs and Tlascalans gazed in stupid amazement, exclaiming, as they beheld the incredi- ble feat, " This is truly the Tonatiuh, — the child of the Sun ! " The breadth of the opening is not given. But it was so great that the valorous Captain Diaz, who well remembered tfce place, says the leap was impossible to any man. Other contemporaries, how- ever, do not discredit the story. It was, beyond doubt, matter of popular belief at the time; it is to this day familiarly known to every inhabitant of the capital; and the name of the Salto de AlvaradOy "Alvarado's Leap," given to the spot, still commemo- rates an exploit which rivalled those of the demi-gods of Grecian fable. — Prescott : Conquest of Mexico. 'There is a general impression in England, that the people of the United States are inimical to the parent country. It is one of the errors which have been diligently propagated by designing writers. There is, doubtless, considerable political hostility, and a general soreness at the illiberality of the English press ; but, generally speaking, the prepossessions of the people are strongly in favor of England. Indeed, at one time, they amounted, in many parts of the Union, to an absurd degree of bigotry^ The bare name of Englishman was a passport to the confidence and hos- pitality of every family, and too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and the ungrateful. Throughout the country there was something of enthusiasm connected with the idea of England. We looked to it with a hallowed feeling of tenderness and venera- tion, as the land of our forefathers — the august repository of the monuments and antiquities of our race — the birthplace and mau- soleum of the sages and heroes of our paternal history. After our own country, there was none in whose glory we more delighted — none whose good opinion we were more anxious to possess — none towards which our hearts yearned with such throbbings of warm consanguinity. Even du/ring the late war, whenever there was the least opportunity for kind feelings to spring forth, it was the delight of the generous spirits of our country to show that, in the midst of hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks of future friend- ship. — Irving : Sketch Book. , 36 Composition- Rhetoric, The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect democracy, the oli- garchs leading in the popular movement — a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core — a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age. The new South is enamoured of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and prosperity. As she stands upright, full-statured and equal among the people of the earth, breathing the keen air, and looking out upon the expanding horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because in the inscrutable wisdom of God her honest purpose was crossed and her brave armies were beaten. — Henry W. Grady : Speeches. It is the general testimony of Americans who have lived much in England that appearances are deceptive, and that the greater share of flesh and color possessed by our transatlantic cousins is not always the indication of better health or greater strength. Even these outward attributes are not always the result of English residence. The late Rev. William Henry Channing, a very slender man, used to lament, on his occasional visits to this, his native land, that long years of English life had not given him an added pound of flesh, while all his early comrades had grown stouter in America. But even where these externals are possessed, they do not necessarily indicate any other physical advantage. Cer- tainly there are many parallels that might be drawn, in Plutarch's fashion, between conspicuous English and American examples. Mr. Gladstone hardly affords a more striking instance of prolonged intellectual activity than did, up to the same period of life, the late Mr. Bancroft ; and certainly the dyspeptic old age of Carlyle and the perturbed intellect of Ruskin have been painfully unlike the serene and wholesome declining years of Whittier and Holmes. Among younger English intellectual workers, it is understood that Hamerton must live in France for his health's sake, and Symonds in Italy, and Stevenson in Samoa, while Henley is mainly known from his poems written in a hospital, and Kipling is mentioned as Paragraph- Structure. 37 already broken down in health. Among all our younger Ameri- can men of letters there is no such group of invalids. Among women, we hear of Florence Nightingale as wholly invalided for many years, while our own Clara Barton, after all her ordeal in our Civil War, — an ordeal which, if less intense and concentrated than that of Florence Nightingale, was far more prolonged, — is still in active vigor, and always ready, on a click of the telegraphic wire, to repair to any scene of war or pestilence or inundation where she and her Red Cross are needed. Dorothea Dix also continued her active and unceasing labors until well into the eighties. Such comparisons, if they do not give conclusive evi- dence, yet certainly appeal to the imagination, and set one think- ing. — HiGGiNSON : Concerning All of Us. \Never since literature became a calling in England had it been a less gainful calling than at the time when Johnson took up his residence in London. In the preceding generation a writer of eminent merit was sure to be munificently rewarded by the government. The least that he could expect was a pension or a sinecure place ; and, if he showed any aptitude for politics, he might hope to be a member of parliament, a lord of the treasury, an ambassador, a secretary of state. It would be easy, on the other hand, to name several writers of the nineteenth century of whom the least successful has received forty thousand pounds from the booksellers. But Johnson entered on his vocation in the most dreary part of the dreary interval which separated two ages of prosperity. Literature had ceased to flourish under the patronage of the great, and had not begun to flourish under the patronage of the public. One man of letters, indeed. Pope, had acquired by his pen what was then considered as a handsome fortune, and lived on a footing of equality with nobles and ministers of state. But this was a solitary exception. Even an author whose reputation was established, and whose works were popular — such an author as Thomson, whose "Seasons" w^ere in every library ; such an author as Fielding, whose "• Pasquin " had had a greater run than any drama since the "Beggar's Opera" — was sometimes glad to obtain, by pawning his best coat, the means of dining on tripe at a cook-shop underground, where he could wipe his hands, after his greasy meal, on the back of a Newfound- 38 Composition- Rhetoric, land dog. It is easy, therefore, to imagine what humiliations and privations must have awaited the novice who had still to earn a name. One of the publishers to whom Johnson applied for employment measured with a scornful eye that athletic though uncouth frame, and exclaimed, "You had better get a porter's knot, and carry trunks." Nor was the advice bad, for a porter was as likely to be as plentifully fed and as comfortably lodged as a poet. — Macaulay : Johnson?) Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what democ- racy really is. Yet this would be a great help, for it is our lawless and uncertain thoughts, it is the indefiniteness of our impressions, that fill darkness, whether mental or physical, with spectres and hobgoblins. Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics. President Lincoln defined democracy to be " the government of the people by the people for the people." This is a sufficiently compact statement of it as a political arrangement. Theodore Parker said that " Democracy meant not ' I'm as good as you are,' but ' You're as good as I am.' " And this is the ethical conception of it, necessary as a complement of the other; a conception which, could it be made actual and practical, would easily solve all the riddles that the old sphinx of political and social economy who sits by the roadside has been proposing to mankind from the beginning, and which mankind have shown such a singular talent for answering wrongly. In this sense Christ was the first true democrat that ever breathed, as the old dramatist Dekker said he was the first true gentleman. The characters may be easily doubled, so strong is the likeness between them. A beautiful and profound parable of the Persian poet Jellaladeen tells us that " One knocked at the Beloved's door, and a voice asked from within, ^Who is there?' and he answered, * It is I.' Then the voice said, * This house will not hold me and thee'; and the door was not opehed. Then went the lover into the desert, and fasted and prayed in solitude, and after a year he returned and knocked again at the door; and again the voice asked, * Who is there ? ' and he said, * It is thyself ' ; Paragraph- Structure, 39 and the door was opened to him." But that is idealism, you will say, and this is an only too practical world. I grant it ; but I am one of those who believe that the real will never find an irremov- able basis till it rests on the ideal. — Lowell : Democracy. \_You would think it strange if I called Burns the most gifted British soul we had in all that century of his : and yet I believe the day is coming when there will be little danger in saying so. His writings, all that he did under such obstructions, are only a poor fragment of him. Professor Stewart remarked very justly, what, indeed, is true of all Poets good for much, that his poetry was not any particular faculty, but the general result of a naturally vigorous original mind expressing itself in that way. Burns's gifts, expressed in conversation, are the theme of all that ever heard him. All kinds of gifts : from the gracefulest utterances of courtesy, to the highest fire of passionate speech; loud floods of mirth, soft wailings of affection, laconic emphasis, clear, piercing insight ; all was in him. Witty duchesses celebrate him as a man whose speech " led them off their feet." This is beautiful; but still more beautiful that which Mr. Lockhart has recorded, which I have more than once alluded to. How the waiters and ostlers at inns would get out of bed, and come crowding to hear this man speak! Waiters and ostlers ; — they too were men, and here was a man ! I have heard much about his speech ; but one of the best things I ever heard of it was, last year, from a venerable gentleman long familiar with him. That it was speech distinguished by always having something in it. "He spoke rather little than much," this old man told me; ^' sat rather silent in those early days, as in the company of persons above him; and always when he did speak, it was to throw new light on the matter." I know not why anyone should ever speak otherwise! — But if we look at his general force of soul, his healthy robustness every way, the rugged downrightness, penetration, gener- ous valour and manfulness that w^as in him, — when shall we readily find a better-gifted man ? — Carlyle : Heroes and Hero-Worship'/^ The paragraphs in Exercises 4 and 18 may be employed for further practice if needed. It is recommended that some time be spent upon this useful exercise, enough at any rate to convince the pupil that paragraphs, whatever they may be, are not mere wayward concatenations of sentences. 40 Composition- Rhetoric. SUMMARY. In outward form the paragraph is a group of sentences set off from other similar groups by an indention of the first word. In internal structure the paragraph is a group of sentence-ideas bear- ing upon one subject and arranged in an orderly way. In writing a single paragraph, or a composition made up of several paragraphs, the pupil needs first to know what ideas to select and what means to employ in developing them. Then he needs to know how to choose from the great variety of sentence-forms, and from the infinite vari- ety of words and expressions, the sentence-forms and the words best adapted to express his ideas. He needs also to learn what order and method to choose in presenting his ideas. Fourthly, he needs to learn how to proportion the parts of w^hat he writes, according to their relative import- ance. And fifthly, he needs to learn how to keep out of his composition everything that does not belong there ; how to make his composition represent his thought in its unity. In otlier words, the pupil must learn I. What to say. II. How to say it. III. In what order to say it. ly. How much to say. V. What not to say. CHAPTER III. ^WHAT TO SAY. / LESSON^ 8. Selecting a Subject. To discover a subject on which to write, the pupil may put to himself these two questions : " In what am I especially interested ? " and, " In what are the persons who will read or hear what I write, especially interested?'^ If he can find anything in the world that will stand as answer to both these questions, he has a good subject, whether it be Base- ball, Roman History, Bicycles, Stars, or Stamp-collecting. Anything that answers but one of these questions may still be a good subject, for he may be able to interest somebody else in what interests him, or he may himself become inter- ested in what interests other people. But a subject which is interesting neither to him nor, as far as he can ascertain, to those about him, would better be let alone. Fortunately the world is full of interesting things. In selecting a subject for composition, choose what is interesting both to you and to those for whom you write. EXERCISE 8. Write in a column ten subjects that are of interest to you. Underline those which in your opinion are of interest 41 42 Composition- Rhetoric. to others as well, and opposite each of these subjects set down the person or class of persons to whom you think it is of interest. EXERCISE 9. Write a list of ten subjects that interest others but do not interest you. EXERCISE 10. Write ten subjects that are uninteresting both to you and to others. LESSON 9. The Paragraph-Theme, Everything that is of interest both to the pupil and to his reader is a good subject to write on, but not every such sub- ject can be treated in a single paragraph. Indeed, most of the subjects which the pupil selects at first, cannot be so treated. They are subjects like "Originality," "Genius," "The Future of Our Country." To treat adequately one of these would be to write a long essay or even a large volume. The subject of a paragraph must be smaller. Thus it happens that after the student has selected an inter- esting subject his next step is usually to narrow it until it is just the right size for a paragraph. Instead of consid- ering the subject in its whole extent, he considers a single side or phase of it. Instead of considering it as it is at all times and in all places and under all conditions, he con- siders it as it is at a certain time, in a certain place, under certain conditions. To illustrate, we may suppose that a pupil selects as his subject "Amusements." This is of general interest but much too large for a single paragraph. To bring it within What to Say, 43 proper bounds the pupil may begin by limiting it in time to the present. It thus becomes " Amusements of the Pres- ent Day." If a limitation of place be made, the subject may become, "Amusements in the United States," or "Amusements in the Place where I Live," or "Amuse- ments at Our School." If the subject is still too large, a particular kind of amusement may be chosen, as " Games of Physical Strength at Our School," or " Baseball at Our School." While these are subjects not too broad to be treated in a single paragraph, the narrowing process may easily be carried farther. Por example, by treating baseball in a particular way the pupil may derive such subjects as " How the Last Game of Baseball was won," " The Last Game of Baseball from a Girl's Point of View," " Catching a Swift Ball," " Making First Base," " Batting an In-curve," and so on. This process not only brings the subject within the com- pass of a paragraph, but has the advantage of substituting a definite for an indefinite subject of thought. Thus the sub- ject, "Amusements," is extremely vague and unsuggestive. There are so many amusements and so many ways in which they may be treated that the writer does not know where to begin nor what to say about them. On the other hand;, subjects like "How I learned to Skate," "Why I like to Play Tennis," are definite and pointed, and to those who are proficient in these sports suggest almost immediately something interesting to say. A properly worded theme will generally reveal not only the scope of the writer's treatment, but also his method, not only what he is going to say, but how he is going to say it. Thus, the theme "How the Game was won" suggests a story ; " A View of the Ball-ground from Above " suggests a description ; " Tennis vs. Football " prepares us for argu- ment ; and " Advantages of Bicycling for Girls " points to an expository treatment. 44 Composition-Rhetoric, A general subject narrowed to the point where it expresses just what the paragraph is to contain is called the theme or topic of the paragraph. The theme is to the paragraph what the seed is to the plant : it is the paragraph in embryo. EXERCISE 11. [In making approaches to a theme by narrowing a general subject, beware of limitations that are meaningless or mechanical. See to it that each successive modification brings the subject nearer — nearer to you personally, and nearer to your readers. Select a time in which you are interested, a place with which you are acquainted, a method of treatment that exactly suits your purpose.] Narrow three of the following subjects to a theme by limiting first in time, second in place. Make successive limitations until the subject is so reduced that it may be treated in a single para- graph. 1. Houses. 2. Birds. 3. Trees. 4. Firearms. 5. Trav- elling. 6. Books. 7. Queens. 8. Lamps. 9. Skating. 10. Money. 11. Dogs. 12. War. 13. Churches. 14. Elvers. EXERCISE 12. Narrow three of the following subjects to a paragraph theme by limiting first in time, second in place, third in kind or class : — 1. Boats. 2. Schools. 3. Poetry. 4. Panics. 5. Pish- ing. 6. Inventions. 7. Music. 8. Animals. 9. Arts. 10. Studies. 11. Trades. 12. Winds. 13. Plowers. 14. Governments. EXERCISE 13. Narrow three of the following subjects to a theme by limiting first in time, second in place, third in kind, fourth in method of treatment : — What to Say. 45 I. Athletic Sports. 2. Advertising. 3. Wealth. 4. In- dolence. 5. Character. 6. Manners at Table. 7. Slavery. 8. Ambition. 9. Humor. 10. Work. 11. Newspapers. 12. Wars. 13. Eeligions. 14. Novels. EXERCISE 14. Narrow three of the following subjects in such a way as to make them interesting to a particular reader or set of readers : — 1. Hunting — to a girl. 2. Sewing — to a boy. 3. The Moon — to a child five years old. 4. This Town — to a country boy. 5. This Town — to a manufacturer seeking a location. 6. This Town — to a retired merchant. 7. Sunday School — to a newsboy. 8. High School — to grammar school pupils. 9. Reading — to a busy man. 10. History — to a reader of novels. II. Early Eising — to a lazy person. 12. Latin — to one opposed to studying it. 13. School Work — to a physician. 14. The Beaver — to a carpenter. 15. Foreign Missions — to business men. 16. Algebra — to a friend who has never studied it. 17. Farm Life — to a city boy. 18. Housekeeping — to a boy. 19. Politics — to a girl. EXERCISE 15. From any one of the following subjects, by making such limita tions as occur to you, draw out six good themes : — \JL; Storms. 2. Electricity. 3. Pictures. 4. Vacation. 5. The War with Mexico. 6. The English Language. 46 Composition- Rhetoric. 7. Longfellow. 8. Lowell. 9. Whittier. 10. Irving. 11. Tennyson. 12. Manufacturing. 13. Coal-mining. 14. Sports. 15. Music. 16. Dancing. 17. Foreigners. 18. Voting. 19. Bees. 20. Pets. EXERCISE 16. The teacher assigns to the class a general subject to be narrowed in as many ways as possible. At the close of the allotted time — perhaps five minutes — the themes are read and criticised. In such exercises, it is profitable to note, first, which member of the class has the longest list ; second, which member of the class has hit upon the topic of greatest interest. LESSON 10. The Title. Nearly related to the theme is the title or heading. Placed at the beginning of the paragraph, though separate from it, the title is a brief announcement of the paragraph-theme. It may be looked upon as an advertisement of the contents of the paragraph. Like other advertisements, it serves its purpose best when it is short and suggestive. A good title will excite the curiosity of the reader and allure him to read, but it will not promise more information or enjoyment than the paragraph can supply. Effective titles are often drawn from a chance word or phrase in the paragraph, but this practice is not to be com- mended ; the best titles are those which are drawn from the paragraph-theme. Thus if the theme of a paragraph is " Baseball at Our School," the title might be, " Our Nine " ; if the theme is " Incident of a Fishing Excursion in North- ern Michigan Last July," the title might be "My Eirst Trout." A concisely worded theme, if not too long, may generally be made to do duty as a title. " Baseball at Our What to Say. 47 School 'Ms a good title, but " Incident of a Fishing Excur- sion in Northern Michigan Last July" is longer than a title should be. The title of the paragraph should he a brief and suggestive advertisement of the theme. It should not promise more than the paragraph can fulfil. EXERCISE vj. Re-state the following themes briefly as titles : — 1. The use of balloons in time of war for spying the enemy's movements. 2. Industry is the lesson to be learned of the ant. 3. The life of the colored iield-hands in the South before the war. 4. A diploma from a city high school should admit the holder to college. 5. A free public library sustained by general taxation should be maintained in every community. 6. The treatment of the Indian by the government has been unjust. 7. A description of a two-weeks visit to the World's Fair at Chicago. 8. A description of the process by which a city news- paper is made. 9. A narrative of the early years of General Grant. 10. A narrative of the journey made by Lieutenant Peary's expedition to the North. EXERCISERS. Find suitable titles for the following selections : — TsiSydney Smith once alluded, if I remember rightly, to a pe^'son wlio allowed himself to speak disrespectfully of the equator. I 48 Composition-Rhetoric. have a strong objection to be suspected of flattering the equator. Yet were it not for that little angle of 23° 27' 26", which it is good enough to make with the plane of the ecliptic, the history of this earth and of " all which it inherit " would have been essen- tially modified, even if it had not been altogether a blank. Out of the obliquity of the equator has come forth our civilization. It was long ago observed by one of the most thoughtful writers that ever dealt with human history, John von Herder, that it was to the gradual shading away of zones and alternation of seasons that the vigor and variety of man were attributable. — Motley: Historic Progress and American Democracy. There is, perhaps, no part of the world, certainly none familiar to science, where the early geological periods can be studied with so much ease and precision as in the United States. Along their northern borders, between Canada and the United States, there runs the low line of hills known as the Laurentian Hills. Insig- nificant in height, nowhere rising more than fifteen hundred or two thousand feet above the level of the sea, these are nevertheless the first mountains that broke the uniform level of the earth's Surface, and lifted themselves above the waters. Their low stat- ure, as compared with that of other more lofty mountain-ranges, is in accordance with an invariable rule, by which the relative age of mountains may be estimated. The oldest mountains are the lowest, while the younger and more recent ones tower above their elders, and are usually more torn and dislocated also. This is easily understood when we remember that all mountains and mountain-chains are the result of upheavals, and that the violence bf the outbreak must have been in proportion to the strength of the resistance. When the crust of the earth was so thin that the heated masses within easily bi^oke through it, they were not thrown to so great a height, and formed comparatively low ele- vations, such as the Canadian hills, or the mountains of Bretagne and Wales. But in later times, when young, vigorous giants, such as the Alps, the Himalayas, or, later still, the Bocky Mountains, forced their way out from their fiery prison-house, the crust of the earth was much thicker, and fearful indeed must have been the convulsions which attended their exit. — Agassiz : Geological Sketches. What to Say, 49 Aristides at first was loved and respected for his surname of the Just, and afterwards envied as much; the latter chiefly by the management of Themistocles, who gave it out among the people that Aristides had abolished the courts of judicature, by drawing the arbitration of all causes to himself, and so was insensibly gaining sovereign power, though without guards and the other ensigns of it. The people, elevated with the late victory at Mara- thon, thought themselves capable of everything, and the highest respect little enough for them. Uneasy, therefore, at finding any one citizen rose to such extraordinary honor and distinction, they assembled at Athens from all the towns in Attica, and banished Aristides by the ostracism; disguising their envy of his character under the specious pretence of guarding against tyranny. . . . The Ostracism (to give a summary account of it) was conducted in the following manner. Every citizen took a piece of a broken pot, or a shell, on which he wrote the name of the person he wanted to have banished, and carried it to a part of the market- place that was enclosed with wooden rails. The magistrates then counted the number of the shells; and if it amounted not to six thousand, the ostracism stood for nothing : if it did, they sorted the shells, and the person whose name was found on the greatest number, was declared an exile for ten years, but with permission to enjoy his estate. At the time that Aristides was banished, when the people were inscribing the names on the shells, it is reported that an illiterate burgher came to Aristides, whom he took for some ordinary person, and, giving him his shell, desired him to write Aristides upon it. The good man, surprised at the adventure, asked him "whether Aristides had ever injured him ? " " No," said he, " nor do I even know him; but it vexes me to hear him everywhere called the Just." Aristides made no answer, but took the shell, and having written his own name upon it, returned it to the man. When he quitted Athens, he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and, agreeably to his character, made a prayer, very different from that of Achilles ; namely, " That the people of Athens might never see the day which should force them to remember Aristides." — Plutarch : Lives. A Said Tom, " If I can't be at Rugby, I want to be at workju tnje world, and not dawdling away three years at Oxford." 50 Oompositioyi-Rhetoric. "What do you mean by 'at work in the world'?'* said the master, pausing, with his lips close to his saucerful of tea, and peering at Tom over it. "Well, I mean real work; one's profession, whatever one will have really to do, and make one's living by. I want to be doing some real good, feeling that 1 am not only at play in the world," answered Tom, rather puzzled to find out himself what he really did mean. "You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I think, Brow^n," said the master, putting down the empty saucer, " and you ought to get clear about them. You talk of ' woiking to get your living ' and * doing some real good in the world,' in the same breath. ^N'ow, you may be getting a very good living in a profession, and yet doing no good at all in the world, but quite the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter before you as your one object, and you will be right, whether you make a living or not; but if you dwell on the other, you'll very likely drop into mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself, for good or evil. Don't be in a hurry about finding your w^ork in the world for yourself ; you are not old enough to judge for yourself yet, but just look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try to make things a little better and honester there. You'll find plenty to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And don't be led away to think this part of the world important and that unimportant. Every corner of the world is important. No man knows whether this part or that is most so, but every man may do some honest work hi his own corner." And then the good man went on to talk wisely to Tom of the sort of work which he might take up as an undergTaduate ; and warned him of the prevalent university sins, and explained to him the many and great differences between university and school life ; till the twilight changed into darkness, and they heard the truant servants stealing in by the back entrance. — Hughes : Tom Brown's School Days. About six o'clock, on a fine morning in the summer, I set out from Philadelphia, on a visit to a friend, at the distance of fifteen miles; and, passing a brook where a gentleman was angling, T inquired if he had caught anything. " No, sir," said he, " I have not been here long; only two hours." I wished him a good morn- What to Say. 51 ing, and pursued my journey. On my return in the evening, I found him fixed to the identical spot where I had left him, and again inquired if he had had any sport. "Very good, sir," said he. "Caught a great many fish?" "None at all." " Had a great many bites, though, I suppose?" "Not one, but I had a most glorious nibble." — Frankun. i The question has been much discussed, whether there was any statesmanship, any good sense, in making the war of 1812 at all. It is true that it was resolved upon without preparation, and that it was wretchedly managed. But if war is ever justified, there was ample provocation for it. The legitimate interests of the United States had been trampled upon by the belligerent powers, as if entitled to no respect. The American flag had been treated with a contempt scarcely conceivable now. The question was whether the American people should permit themselves not only to be robbed, and maltreated, and insulted, but also to be de- spised, — all this for the privilege of picking up the poor crumbs of trade which the great powers of Europe w^ould still let them have. When a nation knowingly and willingly accepts the con- tempt of others, it is in danger of losing also its respect for itself. Against this the national pride of Young America rose in revolt. When insulted too grievously, it felt an irresistible impulse to strike. It struck wildly, to be sure, and received ugly blows in return. But it proved; after all, that this young democracy could not be trampled upon with impunity, that it felt an insult as keenly as older nations, and that it was capable of risking a fight with the most formidable power on earth in resenting it. It proved, too, that this most formidable power might find in the young democracy a very uncomfortable antagonist. — Schurz : Henry Clay, I, 119. The paragraphs in Exercises 4, 7, and 19 may be employed for further practice if needed. 52 CompositiorirRhetoric, LESSOR 11. The Topic- Sentence, Writing a letter to a friend upon some topic of which he as yet knows nothing, we naturally begin by telling him what it is we are going to write about. For this purpose we generally use the opening sentence of the letter. Thus, an account of a fishing excursion might begin, " I am going to tell you about how I went fishing Saturday/' or, "Last Saturday I went fishing." The writer of a paragraph often makes use of a similar device. Somewhere in the para- graph, usually at the beginning, he writes a sentence announcing his theme. Such a sentence is called a topic- sentence. In the following selections the topic-sentences are in italics : — On the southern hank of the Danube, about sixteen miles above Vienna, stands the ancient castle of Greifenstein, where — if the tale be true, though many doubt, and some deny it — Richard the Lion-heart of England was imprisoned, when returning from the third crusade. It is built upon the summit of a steep and rocky hill, that rises just far enough from the river's brink to leave a foothold for the highway. At the base of the hill stands the village of Greifen- stein, from which a winding pathway leads you to the old castle. You pass through an arched gate into a narrow courtyard, and thence onward to a large, square tower. Near the doorway, and deeply cut into the solid rock, upon which the castle stands, is the form of a human hand, so perfect that your own lies in it as in a mould. And hence the name of Greifenstein. In the square tower is Richard's prison, completely isolated from the rest of the castle. A wooden staircase leads up on the outside to a light balcony, running entirely round the tower, not far below its turrets. From this balcony you enter the prison, — a small, square chamber, lighted by two Gothic windows. The walls of the tower are some five feet thick; and in the pavement is a trap-door, opening into a dismal vault, — a vast dungeon, which occupies all What to Say, 53 the lower part of the tower, quite down to its rocky foundations, and which formerly had no entrance but the trap-door above. In one corner of the chamber stands a large cage of oaken timber, in vvhich the royal prisoner is said to have been shut up — the grossest lie that ever cheated the gaping curiosity of a traveller. — Longfellow : Outre-mer, 272. / made a laughable mistake this morning in giving alms. A man stood on the shady side of the street with his hat in his hand, and as I passed he gave me a piteous look, though he said nothing. He had such a woe-begone face, and such a threadbare coat, that I at once took him for one of those mendicants who bear the title oi poveri vergognosi, — bashful beggars; persons whom pinching want compels to receive the stranger's charity, though pride restrains them from asking it. Moved with compassion, I threw into the hat the little I had to give ; when, instead of thanking me with a blessing, my man with the threadbare coat showered upon me the most sonorous maledictions of his native tongue, and, emptying his greasy hat upon the pavement, drew it down over his ears with both hands, and stalked away with all the dignity of a Roman senator in the best days of the republic, — to the infinite amusement of a green-grocer, who stood at his shop-door bursting with laughter. 'No time was given me for an apology ; but I re- solved to be for the future more discriminating in my charities, and not to take for a beggar every poor gentleman who chose to stand in the shade with his hat in his hand on a hot summer's day. — Longfellow : Outre-mer, 248. Although the topic-sentence is most often found at the very beginning of the paragraph, as in the foregoing illus- trations, cases not infrequently occur in which a not indis- pensable phrase, clause, or even sentence of introduction precedes the statement of the topic. A phrase of intro- duction (in italics) is seen in each of the following : — After all, Germany must be a pretty good country. The latest statistics, giving the percentage of illiteracy, show that out of every thousand there are found only sixteen who are unable 54 Composition'Rhetoric. to read satisfactorily or write their names intelligently. -^ The Lutheran World. On the whole, his youth was sad enough. An exemplary son, he saw his beloved parents grow old in poverty on his account, and from a sense of duty he abstained from all pleasures and dis- tractions; sometimes even asked himself, shudderingly, whether he had not missed his career, and what was to become of him. — COPPEE : I'he Christmas Betrothal. In the face of tendencies apparently becoming dominant in this country and which, if not checked, ivill in the end subordinate the in- telligence, honesty, and industry of the many to the self-interest of a few, it is w^holesome to pause and recur to the fundamental prin- ciples of Jefferson, adherence to which will keep government and the social order in the control of the judgment of the many, which in the last analysis is always disinterested, safe, and sound. — Letter of Judge Gaynor, quoted in The Literary Digest, 10 : 753. A clause of introduction (in italics) is seen in the follow- ing : — Though his materials are often exotic, in style Southey aimed at the simplicity and strength of undefiled English. If to these melody was added, he had attained all he desired. To conversa- tions wuth William Taylor about German poetry — certainly not to Taylor's example — he ascribes his faith in the power of plain words to express in poetry the highest thoughts and strongest feelings. He perceived, in his own day, the rise of the ornate style, which has since been perfected by Tennyson, and he re- garded it as a vice in art. — Dowden : Robert Southey. Whatever may have been the origin of the new King, he was evi- dently not of the ruling class, the Populus Romanus, and for this reason his sympathies were naturally with the Plebeians, or, as they would now be called, the commons. The long reign of Ser- vius was marked by the victories of peace, etc. — Oilman : The Story of Rome. A somewhat longer introduction, of satirical character, is seen in the following : — What to Say, 55 It may seem almost incredible to modern ears^ hut the evidence of antiquity seems to point to the fact that football was once played sim- ply for amusement. Innocent individuals, as soon as their day's work was ended, met together to find exercise and relaxation in kicking about a ball. The pastime was a vigorous and healthy one, and no doubt many energetic young townspeople looked for- ward annually with delight to their Shrovetide football match. — Fortnightly Review^ 55 : 25. In the following a whole sentence of introduction pre- cedes the topic-sentence : — The Puritans espoused the cause of civil liberty mainly because it was the cause of religion. There was another party, by no means numerous, but distinguished by learning and ability, which co-oper- ated with them on very different principles. We speak of those whom Cromwell was accustomed to call the Heathens, men who were, in the phraseology of that time, doubting Thomases or careless Gallios with regard to religious subjects, but passionate worship- pers of freedom. Heated by the study of ancient literature, they set up their country as their idol, and proposed to themselves the heroes of Plutarch as their examples. They seem to have borne some resemblance to the Brissotines of the French Revolution. But it is not very easy to draw the line of distinction between them and their devout associates, whose tone and manner they sometimes found it convenient to affect, and sometimes, it is prob- able, imperceptibly adopted. — Macaulay : Essay on Milton. In the following, the topic-sentence is preceded by two introductory sentences : — You of the North have had drawn for you with a master's hand the picture of your returning armies. You have heard how, in the pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eyes ! Will you bear with me while I tell you of an- other army that sought its home at the close of the late war — an army that marched home in defeat and not in victory, in pathos and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts 56 Composition-Rhetoric, as loving as ever welcomed heroes home ? Let me picture to you the foot-sore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his chil- dren of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox, in April, 1865. Think of him as, ragged, half -starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his com- rades in silence, and lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What does he find — let me ask you, who went to your homes eager to find in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice — what does he find when, having fol- lowed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dread- ing death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful ? He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless ; his social system, feu- dal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions are gone ; without money, credit, employment, material, or training; and beside all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence — the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves. — Grady : Speeches. Sometimes, though rarely, the introduction is so long that the topic-sentence is delayed until the middle of the para- graph. The following will illustrate; the topic-sentence being here italicized : — It has been justly observed that Shakespeare shows much judgment in the naming of his plays. From this observation, however, several critics, as Gildon and Schlegel, have excepted the play in hand, pronouncing the title a misnomer, on the ground that Brutus and not Csesar, is the hero of it. It is indeed true that Brutus is the hero ; nevertheless I must insist upon it that the play is rightly named, inasmuch as Caesar is not only the subject but also the governing power of it throughout. He is the centre What to Say. 5T and spring-head of the entire action, giving law and shape to everything that is said and done. This is manifestly true in what occurs before his death ; and it is true in a still deeper sense after- wards, since his genius then becomes the Keniesis or retributive Providence presiding over the whole course of the drama. — Hud- son : Introduction to school edition of Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar. Notice that the phrase, clause, or sentence of introduction is fre- quently in contrast with the idea of the topic-sentence, or states a preliminary concession. Point out instances of this in the nine pre- ceding selections. It now and then happens that the topic-sentence does not appear until the very end of the paragraph is reached. This case arises when the writer wishes to keep ns in sus- pense ; or when, wishing to prove that something is true, he first states his proofs and then draws a conclusion from them — the conclusion being the topic. When the supply of anything exceeds the demand for it, each person who wishes to sell the particular thing will be afraid that his stock of it will be the portion of the supply which the demand will not reach. He will, therefore, put down his prices in order to induce buyers to take his wares instead of those of his neighbor. Each seller will do this, consequently general prices will fall. If there is a demand for nine brooms, and a supply of ten, each broom-seller will fear that one of his brooms will be left on his hands. To prevent this, he will mark down his prices ; therefore, brooms will be cheaper. Hence, greater production and greater cheapness go hand in hand. — Laloh and Mason : A Primer of Polit- ical Economy. In the following paragraph the topic-sentence, if stated first, would be resented by the reader, as it runs counter to our feelings and prej- udices. It is therefore placed last, is delayed until our prejudices are set at rest by hearing full justice done to Washington. We are more easily persuaded by reason of the delay. We are accustomed to call Washington the " Father of his country." It would be useless, if one desired to do so, to dispute 68 Composition-Rhetoric. his right to the title. He and no other will bear it through the ages. He established our country's freedom with the sword, then guided its course during the first critical years of its independent existence. No one can know the figure without feeling how real is its greatness. It is impossible to see how, without Washington, the nation could have ever been. His name is and should be greatest. But after all is " Father of America " the best title for Washington? Where and what was Washington during those long preliminary years while the nation was taking form . . . ? A quiet planter, who in youth as a surveyor had come to know the woods; who in his young manhood had led bodies of provincials with some efficiency in certain unsuccessful military expeditions ; who in maturity had sat, for the most part in silence, among his talking colleagues in the House of Burgesses, with scarcely a sug- gestion to make in all the sharp debate, while the new nation was shaping. There is another character in our history to whom was once given the title, " Father of America," — a man to a large extent forgotten, his reputation overlaid by that of those who followed him, — no other than this man of the town-meeting, Samuel Adams. As far as the genesis of America is concerned, Samuel Adams can more properly he called the '^Father of America" than Washington. — Hosmer : Samuel Adams. In many paragraphs the topic is not only stated at the beginning of the paragraph, but is re-stated, in a different form, at the close. This is as if one telling a story should begin, " I am going to relate a story of a soldier who saved an army,'' and should close, " Such was the act of this brave soldier." To illustrate : — The English have a motive for pride which is unknown to their French neighbors. They are the leading nation in a family of nations.'^ They feel superior to the Americans of the United States by antiquity and by priority of civilization, and they believe them- selves to be their superiors in culture and in manners. Besides these differences, which may be more or less imaginary, it is obvi- 1 Two sentences are used to announce the topic. They might be com- bined in one by substituting a colon for the full-stop. What to Say. 69 ous that aristocratic Englishmen must look down upon American democracy, since they look down, impartially, upon all democracies. The English living in England have a superiority of position over their own colonies, and are surprised to learn from Mr. Fronde that a high degree of civilization is to be found at the Antipodes. There are two opposite ways of thinking about the colonies that give equal aliment to the pride of an Englishman. He may have something like Mrs. Jameson's first impression of Canadian society, as " a small community of fourth-rate half-educated or uneducated people, where local politics of the meanest kind engross the men, and petty gossip and household cares the women,'' and in that case the superiority of England must be incontestable ; or he may adopt the views of Mr. Froude, and then reflect what a great thing it is for England to be the first among the highly-civilized English- speaking communities. He is, besides, under no necessity to cross the ocean for subjects of comparison. He feels himself easily superior to the Scotch and Irish, and until recent agitations he had almost forgotten the very existence of the Welsh. All Scotch people know that the English, though they visit Scotland to admire the lochs and enjoy Highland sports, are as ignorant about what is essentially national in that country as if it were a foreign land. Ireland is at least equally foreign to them, or was so before the burning question of Home Kule directed attention to Irish affairs. This ignorance is not attributable to dulness. It has but one cause, the pride of national pre-eminence^ the pride of being the first amongst the English-speaking nations of the world. — Hamerton : French and English, 80. The topic-sentence is sometimes missing. When this is the case, we are expected to supply it from the paragraph for ourselves as we read. In the following selections topic- sentences have been inserted enclosed in brackets. Note that the substance of these sentences could easily be sup- plied from the paragraph itself at a single reading. [None of the excesses of the French Revolution was experienced in the American Revolution.] The great wheel of political revo- lution began to move in America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular and safe. Transferi-ed to the other continent, from un- 60 Composition-Rhetoric. fortunate but natural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse; it whirled along with a fearfal celerity; till at length, like the chariot wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, spreading conflagration and terror around. — Webster: First Bunker Hill Oration. [Dirt improves oil paintings.] I once knew an artist whose pictures at first were very raw, but they were neglected and allowed to get dirty for several years, and then, in order to revive them, some person gave them a coat of varnish. Later on they had to be cleaned, but the dirt, in this process, got so ingrained in the handling — that is to say, in the texture of the brush marks — that a beautiful mellowness was developed ; and they were after- ward, not unreasonably, admired, and compared to the works of Velasquez. — John Brett: Fortnightly Review, April, 1895. [The interest of young people in Christian work is great and widespread.] N'early a thousand of the choicest and most intellect- ual young men in the whole land go annually to ]N"orthfield and spend two weeks in Bible study under Mr. Moody, and thousands of others attend the various summer schools for Bible instruction. The Y.M.C.A., the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and similar organizations, the Christian Endeavor societies. Young People's Unions, and Epworth Leagues number in their ranks other thou- sands of young men who are loyal to Christ. Large numbers are every year being added to this goodly company. — Cumberland Presbyterian, You are about, sir, to send your son to a public school : Eton or Westminster ; Winchester or Harrow ; Rugby or the Charter House, no matter which. He may come from either an accom- plished scholar to the utmost extent that school education can make him so ; he may be the better both for its discipline and its want of discipline ; it may serve him excellently well as a prepara- tory school for the world into which he is about to enter. But also he may come away an empty coxcomb or a hardened brute — a spendthrift — a profligate — a blackguard or a sot. [Whether school-life away from home will prove to be morally good or bad for a boy, cannot be foretold.] — Southey : The Doctor^ chap. IX. ^V. jf^ What to Say. 61 A good way to begin a paragraph is to announce the theme on which you are going to write. The sentence making the announce- ment is called a topic-sentence. EXERCISE 19. Find the topic-sentence of each of the following paragraphs : — Lin the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and precious gif tTj That strong and patient beast of burden can per- form, withduteating or drinking, a journey of several days ; and a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stom- ach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of servitude ; the larger breed is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand pounds; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man ; her milk is plentiful and nutritious : the young and tender flesh has the taste of veal ; and the long hair, which falls each year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the furniture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. — Gibbon. r i 1^ While other illustrious men have been reputed great for their excellence in some one department of human genius, it was de- clared by the concurrent voice of antiquity, thai Csesar was excel- lent in all .3 He had genius, understanding, memory, taste, reflection, industry, and exactness. " He was great," repeats a modern writer, " in everything he undertook ; as a captain, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, an historian, a grammarian, a mathematician, and an architect." The secret of his manifold excellence was discovered by Pliny in the unpar- alleled energy of his intellectual powers, which he could devote without distraction to several objects at once, or rush at any moment from one occupation to another with the abruptness and rapidity of lightning. Caesar could be writing and reading, dic- tating and listening, all at the same time ; he was wont to occupy four amanuenses at once; and had been known, on occasion, to employ as many as seven together. And, as if to complete the picture of the most perfect specimen of human ability, we are 62 Composition-Rhetoric. assured that in all the exercises of the camp his vigor and skill were not less conspicuous. He fought at the most perilous mo- ments in the ranks of the soldiers ; he could manage his charger without the use of reins; and he saved his life at Alexandria by his address in the art of swimming. — Merivale : History of the Romans under the Empire. ^ L When men strike, the side which can afford to be idle the longest will winjj The masters are usually rich enough to live on their accumulated property for some time. The men often have no savings, and rarely, if ever, have large ones. They may belong to a trade-union which will supply them with means of subsistence for some time, but the small funds of such a society, divided among a number of men, cannot go far. The masters must have the men work in order to have their capital yield them anything, but the men must work in order to live. It is plain that the mas- ters can, as a rule, stay idle the longest. — Lalor and Mason: A Primer of Political Economy. r . + LThe last six years of Lamb's life, though the most remarkable in his literary annals, had not been fruitful in incident^J The death of his elder brother . . . was the one event that nearly touched his heart and spirits. Its effect had been, with the loss of some other friends about the same time, to produce, he said, " a certain dead- ness to everything." It had brought home to him his loneliness, and moreover served to increase a long-felt weariness of the mo- notony of office life. Already, in the beginning of 1822, he was telling Wordsworth, " I grow ominously tired of official confine- ment. Thirty years have I served the Philistines, and my neck is not subdued to the yoke. You don't know how wearisome it is to breathe the air of four pent walls, without relief, day after day, all the golden hours of the day between ten and four, without ease or interposition." — Aingejht : Charles Lamb. b Are the men of to-day better than their fathers were? The question is not a conundrum, nor does it refer to the virtues and graces which adorn life in general, but is, in fact, merely an in- quiry whether our young men can run faster, jump farther, and row better than those of former generations. Possibly, after all, it doesn't matter very much whether we can or not, yet it would What to Say. 63 be some satisfaction to know. If the young men of the day do not excel in these things, it will not be for want of opportunity, nor will the failure arise from the absence of inducements to practise them. The very latest of these promises to be the most ambitious. (_Next year is to see the revival in a Nineteenth- Century dress of the Olympic games of classic antiquity, and it is intended thus to inaugurate the international athletic carnival to be celebrated every fourth year, beginning with 1896/3 There is already an international committee, an international program, and doubtless there will shortly be an international subscription list sent round to provide for the worthy celebration of the event. Athens, indeed, and not the classic Elis, is to furnish the first place of meeting, Paris the next, with London, Berlin, and pos- sibly New York to supply the stadium, and swell the entrance and grand-stand receipts. Could the shades of Pindar and other Grecian worthies be consulted it is more than probable that they might object to some of the arrangements : but, after all, a revival is always a revival with a difference. The Greece of twenty-three centuries ago is dead — more dead, if possible, than Julius Caesar — and the attempt to resurrect it entire, even if successful, would probably not be worth the trouble. — Harper's TTeeAr/y, March, 1895. To the student of political history, and to the English student above all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a military empire commands a peculiar interest. L Notwithstanding many differences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble one another^ The early Romans possessed the faculty of self- government beyond any people of whom we have historical knowl- edge, with the one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, they became the most powerful nation in the known world ; and their liberties perished only when Rome became the mistress of the conquered races to whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her privileges. If England was similarly supreme, if all rival powers were eclipsed by her or laid under her feet, the Imperial tendencies, which are as strongly marked in us as our love of liberty, might lead us over the same course to the same end. — Froude : Ccesar ; A Sketch. 7 " I wish the good old tino^es would come again," she said, *' when we were not quite so rich. ; I do not mean that I want to be poor, 64 CompositiorirRTietoric. but there was a middle state," so she was pleased to ramble on, " in which I am sure we were a great deal happierT) A purchase is but a purchase, now that you have money enough and to spare. Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap luxury (and O ! how much ado I had to get you to consent in those days !) we were used to have a debate two or three days before, and to weigh the /or and against, and think what we might spare it out of, and what saving we could hit upon that should be an equivalent. A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money that we paid for it." — Lamb : Essay on Old China. For further practice the paragraphs in Lesson 4, and in Exercises 4, 7, and 18, may be used. EXERCISE 20. These paragraphs as originally written had topic-sentences. Sup- ply the omission at the place indicated by dots. Division of Labor. • 1. It would be a waste of labor and time for the farmer, after having harvested his wheat, to carry it to the mill, grind it him- self into flour, take the flour to the city, then bake it into bread, and then carry the loaf around in search of a buyer for it. The farmer knows how to farm and has the needed tools. He does not know how to run a mill, or a railroad, or a bakery, and he hag none of the necessary machinery ^ ' -^'^ -i '^^J-S: V^ (_ L, Jf 'Y[q - •'-' can earn ^5 by w^orking five days, one as a miller, one as a carrier, one as a baker, and one as a peddler, his labor during the same five days on the farm would probably be worth two or three times that sum. 2. Moreover, if he confines himself to farming, he has to buy only one set of tools and can keep them almost constantly in use, so that his capital does not lie idle. If he pursued five trades, he would have to have five different sets of toi)ls, and four setSi would have to lie idle all the while. Therefore VdL-QJ^^/^^^^''^"^^ Thanjisgiving Day. 3. --------. It is not a day of ecclesiastical saints. It is not a national anniversary. It is not a day celebrating What to Say, 65 a religious event. It is a day of nature. It is a day of thanksgiving for the year's history. And it must pivot on the household. It is the one great festival of our American life that pivots on the household. Like a true Jev^rish festival it spreads a bounteous table ; for the Jews knew how near to the stomach lay all the moral virtues. - -^ . 4. (k^ix>JT^}JSi\J^ JJ^J^X^^ not a riotous feast. It is a' table piled high, among the group of rollicking young and the sober joy of the old, with the treasures of the growing year, accepted with rejoicings and interchange of many festivities as a token of gratitude to Almighty God. The True Gentleman. XhJJ^ 5. Il:^ it:^AJUAr<'fS Is it to have lofty aims; to lead a pure life ; to keep your honor virgin ; to have the esteem of your fellow-citizens and the love of your fireside; to bear good fortune meekly; to suifer evil with constancy; and through evil or good to maintain truth always? Show me the happy man whose life exhibits these qualities, and him we will salute as gentleman, whatever his rank may be. Whang, the Miller. 6. Whang, the miller, was naturally avaricious ; nobody loved money better than he, *"/X^' -C^* -^' -.v^L> L _ -^ When people would talk of a rich man in company. Whang w^ould say, " I know him very well ; he and I are intimate ; he stood for a child of mine." But if ever a poor man was mentioned, he had not the least knowledge of the man ; he might be very well for aught he knew; but he was not fond of many acquaintances, and loved to choose, his company. 7. - •- -- -^ - - - -; he had nothing but the profits of his mill to support liim ; but though these were small, they were certain ; while his mill stood and went, he was sure of eating ; and his frugality was such that he every day laid some money by, which he would at intervals count and contemplate with much satisfaction. Yet still his acquisitions were not equal to his desires ; he only found himself above want, whereas he desired to be possessed of affluence. 66 Composition-Rhetoric, ^ As Others saw Him. \ (^ ^^L (A^ 8. \k>Wa> 3aX^JIMI:?^ -For nearly nineteen centuries all Christendom has lamented the bigotry, blindness, and cruelty of those who caused or consented to his death. Would it not be exceedingly interesting to know just how he seemed to a learned, thoughtful, patriotic, devout Jew of his day? A writer, whose name is withheld, has attempted to reproduce for us the attitude and views of such a man, in a small book with the above title. It purports to be written' by a Scribe at Alexandria, about twenty- five years after the Crucifixion. He was in Jerusalem during the public life of Jesus, and was a member of the Sanhedrim which delivered him to death. He endeavors to represent how the Jews, of different classes, were impressed when Jesus drove the money- changers from the Temple, taught in the synagogue at Jerusalem, tested the rich young man, forgave the woman taken in adultery, baffled his questioners, made his triumphal entry into the city, alienated the people by his refusal to lead a revolt against the Roman power, was examined by the Sanhedrim, condemned by Pilate, and crucified. The book is profoundly reverent, is written with great clearness and literary charm, and cannot fail to interest many thoughtful readers. Restriction of Immigration. 9. If a servant girl applies for employment in a family we demand, first of all, a recommendation from her former mistress. If a clerk is searching for work he carries with him, as the sine qua non of success, certain letters which vouch for his honesty and ability. If a skilled workman becomes discontented and throws up his job he has a right to ask of his employer an indorsement, and armed with that he feels secure. --------. Why should we allow the whole riffraff of creation to come here, either to become a burden on our charitable institutions, or to lower the wages of our own laborers by a cutthroat competition ? We have already had too much of that sort of thing. If a foreigner has notified the nearest United States consul of his intention to emigrate, and the consul, after due examination, has pronounced him a proper person, let him come, by all means. We have room What to Say. 67 enough for such persons. But for immigrants who have neither capital nor skill, who never earned a living in their own country and will never earn one here, we have no room wliatever. Popular opinion throughout the country is running in this direction and Congress will do well to take heed. , Candle-light and Sociability.^ ^vji ^/^^^^ 10. - L-VA^lty? Ipa a^^-^^^ it, what savage, unso- cial nights must our ancestors have spent, wintering in caves and unillumined fastnesses. They must have lain about and grumbled at one another in the dark. What repartees could have passed, when you must have felt about for a smile, and handled a neigh- bor's cheek to be sure that he understood it? This accounts for the seriousness of the elder poetry. Jokes came in with candles. «'Y\\;«"V^>^^^ \ EXERCISE 21. These paragraphs are as they were originally written. They have no topic-sentence, and, strictly speaking, do not need one. After reading them carefully, frame for each a topic-sentence that will unite well with the paragraph and that might be printed as part of the paragraph. Pyrrhus had a counsellor named Cineas, who asked him how he would use his victory if he should be so fortunate ^ to overcome the Komans, who were reputed great w^arriors and conquerors of many peoples. The Romans overcome, replied the king, no city, Greek nor barbarian, would dare to oppose me, and I should be master of all Italy. AVell, Italy conquered, what next? Sicily next would hold out its arms to receive me, Pyrrhus replied. And, what next? These would be but forerunners of greater victories. There are Libya and Carthage, said the king. Then ? Then, con- tinued Pyrrhus, I should be able to master all Greece. And then ? continued Cineas. Then I would live at ease, eat and drink all day, and enjoy pleasant conversation. And what hinders you from taking now the ease that you are planning to take after such hazards and so much blood-shedding? Here the conversation closed, for Pyrrhus could not answer this question. — Gilman: The Story of Rome. 68 Composition-Rhetoric, The Caesars have perished, and their palaces are in ruins. The empire of Charlemagne has risen, like one of those gorgeous clouds we often admire, brilliant with the radiance of the setting sun ; and, like that cloud, it has vanished forever. Charles V. has marshalled the armies of Europe around his throne, and has almost rivalled the Csesars in the majesty of his sway; and, like a dream, the vision of his universal empire has fled. — J. S. C. Abbott: History of Christianity, 14. Is there a penny-post, do you think, in the world to come ? Do people there write for autographs to those who have gained a little notoriety ? Do women there send letters asking for money ? Do boys persecute literary men with requests for a course of reading ? , Are there offices in that sphere which are coveted, and to obtain which men are pestered to write letters of recommendation ? — Letter of William Cullen Bryant. Do you remember the brown suit which you made to hang upon you, till all your friends cried shame upon you, it grew so thread- bare, and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which you dragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent Garden? Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to the purchase, and had not come to a determina- tion till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday night, when you set off from Islington fearing you should be too late — and when the old bookseller, with some grumbling, opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper (for he was setting bedwards), lighted out the relic from his dusty treasures, and when you lugged it home, wish- ing it were twice- as cumbersome, and when you presented it to me, and when we were exploring the perfectness of it (collafinfj, you called it), and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till daybreak — was there no pleasure in being a poor man ? or can those neat black clothes which you wear now, and are so careful to keep brushed, since we have become rich and finical, give you half the honest vanity with which you flaunted it about in that over-worn suit — your old corbeau — for four or five weeks longer than you should have done, to pacify your conscience for the mighty sum of fifteen or sixteen shillings, was it? — a great aifair you thought it then — which you had lavished on the old folio? What to Say, 69 Now you can afford to buy any book that pleases you, but I do not see that you ever bring me home any nice old purchases now. — Lamb : Essay on Old China, The first paragraph in Lesson 3 and the paragraphs in Exercise 2 will furnish further practice if needed. , EXERCISE 22. On one of the following themes write a single, complete paragraph of about 120 words. The topic-sentence and some of the points about which you might speak are suggested by questions in connection with each theme. Useful Books. Topic^ntence : Are all books useful ? Is there need of dis- crimination ? Books to avoid, and books to choose. What is the chief use of biography? books of travel? history? speeches? sto- ries ? poems ? Before reading a book, one should ask the advice of those who know what is best to read. Bryant's To a Water-fowl. Topic-sentence : Bryant a poet of Nature ; in this poem he re- flects on a water-fowl flying high in the heavens. What time of day is it? What question does the poet ask of the bird? Is it lost and uncared for? Where is the water-fowl probably going ? What joys await it? What lesson does the poet learn? Setting the Table. Topic-sentence: Is this an easy or unimportant task? What most is required? What is done first? In what order are the things put on? In what condition should they be? How ar- ranged? Finishing touches. Does the appearance of the table affect the enjoyment of the meal? Longfellow's Pegasus in Pound, Topic-sentence : On what legend has Longfellow based this poem? Give the story as Longfellow gives it. Does the treat- 70 Composition-Rhetoric, ment given Pegasus suggest the treatment wliich the world has accorded to its highest poets ? Name an example or two. Has ill-treatment repressed genius? How was it with Pegasus? What returns did he make? Washing the Children. Topic-sentence : Care of a mother-cat for her kittens. What does she do first when setting about washing them? Does she have any particular time or place for it ? How does she do it ? Does she finish one before beginning another ? What if one runs away while the others are being washed? What if a mischievous kitten tries to interfere with the work? Does the mother-cat seem to work intelligently ? Watching Street Musicians. Topic-sentence : Pleasure and interest in watching street mu- sicians. When do they begin to appear? Usually of what nation- ality? Describe a small group of them. How do the members of the group differ from one another, in age, responsibility, inter- est ? Apparent returns for their eiforts. What has probably been their past history ? What stories have you heard about them ? The Dandelion. Topic-sentence : A common yet beautiful flower. When does it appear? Speed of maturing. Appearance when matured. Pleasure to children. Use as food. Is it rightfully regarded as a nuisance in lawns ? An Old Bridge. Topic-sentence : Always picturesque ; a favorite subject with painters. The particular bridge in mind is where located ? About how old ? Covered ? Color ? How does it appear to one looking through ? A refuge in storms ? Cracks in the floor ? Any windows ? Is it used now ? Compare with a modern bridge. Arbor Day. Topic-sentence : A new holiday. Its purposes, practical, senti- mental, educational. When and where first established in this What to Say, country? Usual exercises. What trees were planted by the school last Arbor Day? How have they thrived? Interest in them. Their future usefulness. The Use of Slang. Topic-sentence : Very common, very convenient sometimes, but harmful to the user's language resources. The habitual user of a slang phrase employs it in many meanings. Illustrate by taking one slang phrase and enumerating all its different meanings and applications. Instead of using these numerous expressions and thus adding to his vocabulary, the user of this slang phrase has but one expression for all of them. His language growth stops. Slang is fatal to acquiring a large stock of words. EXERCISE 23. On one of the following themes write a single, complete para- graph of about 120 words. Begin with a topic-sentence in which you announce your theme. After writing, shorten the theme into a title, more attractive, if possible, than the one here given. 1. The value of learning to swim. 2. Lawn-tennis as a sport of skill. '""' 3. One cause of tbe Mexican War. 4. The trials of a newsboy. 5. The wedding in Longfellow's Miles Standish. 6. The relation of forests to rainfall. 7. A field of corn compared to an army with banners. 8. The Happy Valley in Johnson's Easselas. 9. Courtesy in the school-room. 10. The best tree to plant for shade. 11. Impressions from a visit to a lawyer's office. 12. The most admirable trait of General Grant's char- acter. 13. The principal reason why strikes are inexpedient. 14. The story of Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. 15. The most interesting of the monthly magazines. 72 Composition- Rhetoric. 16. One use of studying science explained. 17. Where do all the pins go ? 18. The literary society as a school of parliamentary law. 19. The obstinacy of a fountain pen. 20. The extent of Bayard Taylor's travels. LESSOR 12. How Paragraphs Grow — Repetition, The theme has been likened to a seed from which, by a natural process of growth, the paragraph develops. We shall now consider the various ways in which this develop- ment may take place. For convenience we shall confine our study for the present to the type of paragraph in which the theme is announced in a topic-sentence. 1. A tree is an underground creature, with its tail in the air. 2. All its intelligence is in its roots. 3. All the senses it has are in its roots. 4. Think what sagacity it shows in its search after food and drink! 5. Somehow or other, the rootlets, which are its tentacles, find out that there is a brook at a moderate distance from the trunk of the tree, and they make for it with all their might. 6. They find every crack in the rocks where there are a few grains of the nourishing substance they care for, and insinuate themselves into its deepest recesses. 7. When spring and summer come, they let their tails grow, and delight in whisking them about in the wind, or letting them be whisked about by it ; for these tails are poor passive things, with very little will of their own, and bend in whatever direction the wind chooses to make them. 8. The leaves make a deal of noise whispering. 9. I have sometimes thought I could understand them, as they talk with each other, and that they seemed to think they made the wind as they wagged forward and back. 10. llemember what I say. 11. The next time you see a tree waving in the wind, recollect that it is the tail of a great underground, many-armed, polypus-like What to Say. 73 creature, which is as proud of its caudal appendage, especially in summer-time, as a peacock of his gorgeous expanse of plumage. — Holmes : Over the Teacups, 212. In the foregoing paragraph the theme is announced in the first two sentences : " A tree is an underground creat- ure with its tail in the air and all its intelligence in its roots." Notice how this idea is developed. In sentence 3, the writer says over again, in slightly different words, what he has said in sentence 2 : " All the senses it has (that is, all its intelligence) are in its roots.'' In like manner in sentence 4 he says over again what he has said in sentences 2 and 3 : " Think what sagacity (that is, what intelligence, what sense) it shows in its search after food and drink" (that is, in its roots). Just so sentences 7-9 are a kind of repetition of the idea, " An underground creature with its tail in the air," and sentence 11 repeats in expanded form the ideas of sentences 1 and 2. 1. "Disorders of intellect," answered Imlac, "happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. 2. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. 3. There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command. 4. Xo man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability. 5. All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity ; but while this power is such as we can con- trol and repress, it is not visible to others, nor considered as any depravation of the mental faculties : it is not pronounced madness, but when it becomes ungovernable and apparently influences speech or action." — Johnson : Rasselas, chap. XLIV. In the preceding paragraph the theme-idea of sentence 1 is repeated in sentence 2 in the bolder and more emphatic words, " no human mind," etc. Sentence 3 retains this em- 74 Composition-Rhetoric, pliatic repetition in the words, " no man," and repeats the idea of "disorders of intellect" in the three phases of mental disorder mentioned in the three clauses of the sen- tence. Sentence 4 again repeats " no man/' and repeats the idea of " disorders of intellect " in the words " airy notions," etc., "beyond the limits," etc. In sentence 5 the first assertion is again a repetition of sentence 1 ; and the re- mainder of the paragraph is occupied with a necessary explanation. 1. The bicycle is, in fact, the agent of health and of a wider civilization. 2. It will give stronger bodies to the rising genera- tion than their fathers have had, and it will bring the city and the country into closer relations than have existed since the days of the stage-coach. 3. What the summer boarder has been doing for the abandoned farms and deserted villages of New England, the wheelman is doing for the regions surrounding our great cities. 4. He is distributing through them modern ideas and modern ways of living, and is fructifying them with gentle distillations of city wealth. 5. Above all, he is teaching their people that a sure way to prosperity lies before them in the beautifying of the country in which they live, and in the preservation of all its attractive natural features. — Century Magazine, 50 : 475. In the foregoing paragraph, the idea that the bicycle is the agent of health is repeated in the first half of the sec- ond sentence. The idea that the bicycle is the agent of a wider civilization is repeated in the second half of the sec- ond sentence and in each succeeding sentence. Show by what groups of words. These illustrations will serve to show that one method of building up a paragraph is to repeat some of the ideas of the topic- sentence, at each repetition giving some new turn to the thought. EXERCISE 24. In the following paragraphs find the sentences or parts of sentences which repeat in whole or in part the thought What to Say, 75 of the topic-sentence. In each case determine whether the repetition is or is not of a kind to make the thought grow. If it is, point out the new element of thought which the repetition adds to the thought of the topic-sentence. Does the thought thus repeated grow broader, or more definite, or more emphatic ? Not all of the sentences of these paragraphs are sentences of repetition ; it is seldom that a topic-sentence is developed by repetitions alone. The uses of the other sentences will appear in subsequent lessons. [Topic] 1 . Nihilism, so far as one can find out, expresses rather a method, or a means, than an end. 2. It is diffic ult to say just what Nihilism does imply. 3. So much appears reasonably cer- t ain^ ^hat the primary object of the Nihilists is destruction ; that the abolition of the existing order, not the construction of a new order, is in their view; that, whatever their ulterior designs, or whether or no they have any ultimate purpose in which they are all or generally agreed, the one object which now draws and holds them together, in spite of all the terrors of arbitrary power, is the abolition, not only of all existing governments, but of all political estates, all institutions, all privileges, all forms of authority^ land that to this is postponed whatever plans, purposes, or wishes the confederation, or its members individually, may cherish concerning the reorganization of society. — Francis A. Walker : Socialism. [Topic] 1. From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. 2. Pleased with the Pilgr im's Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works, in separate little volumes. 3. I afterwards sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's Historical Collections; they were small chapmen's books, and cheap, forty or fifty in all. 4. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I should not be a clergyman. 5. Plutarch's Lives there was, in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. 6. There was also a book of De Foe's, called An Essay on Projects, 76 Compositioii'Rhetoric. and another of Dr. Mather's, called Essays to do Good, which peN haps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life. — Franklin: Autobiog- raphy. 1. All the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power, in every country and in every age, have been the triumphs of Athens. 2. Wherever a few great minds have made a stand against violence and fraud in the cause of liberty and reason, there has been her spirit in the midst of them : inspiring, encouraging, consoling; — by the lonely lamp of Erasmus; by the restless bed of Pascal ; in the tribune of Mirabeau ; in the cell of Galileo ; on the scaffold of Sidney. [Topic] 3. But who shall estimate her influence on private happiness? 4. Who shall say how many thou- sands have been made wiser, happier, and better, by those pursuits in which she has taught mankind to engage; to how many the studies that took their rise from her have been wealth in poverty, — liberty in bondage, — health in sickness, — society in solitude? 5. Her power is indeed manifested at the bar, in the senate, in the field of battle, in the schools of philosophy. 6. But these are not her glory. 7. Wherever literature consoles sorrow, or assuages pain — wherever it brings gladness to eyes w^hich fail with wake- fulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep, — there is exhibited in its noblest f ®rm the immortal influence of Athens. — Macaulay: Athenian Orators. [Topic] 1. The honorable member complained that I had slept n his speech. 2. I must have slept on it, or not slept at all. 3> I'he moment the honorable member sat down, his friend from Missouri rose, and, with much honeyed commendation of the speech, suggested that the impressions which it had produced were too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments, or other sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn. 4. Would it have been quite amiable in me. Sir, to interrupt this excellent good feeling? 5. Must I not have been absolutely malicious, if I could have thrust myself forward to destroy sensa- tions thus pleasing? 6. Was it not much better and kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others also the pleasure of sleeping upoiTthem ? 7. But if it be meant, by sleeping upon his speech, that I took time tx) prepare a reply to it^i^ is quite a What to Say, 77 mistake. 8. Owing to other engagements, I could not employ- even the interval between the adjournment of the Senate and its meeting the next morning in attention to the subject of this debate. 9. Nevertheless, Sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubt- edly true. 10. I d id sleep on the gentleman's speech, and slept soundly. 11. And I slept equally well on his speech of yesterday, to which I am now replying. 12. It is quite possible that in this respect, also, I possess some advantage over the honorable member, attributable, doubtless, to a cooler temperament on my part ; for, in truth, I slept upon his speeches remarkably well. — Webster: Reply to Hayne. [Topic] 1. But the gentleman inquires why he was made the Ibject of such a reply? 2. Why was he singled out? 3. If an attack has been made on the East, he, he assures us, did not begin It; it was made by the gentleman from Missouri. 4. Sir, I an- swered the gentleman's speech because I happened to hear it; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech, which, if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce injurious impres- sions. 5. I did not stop to inquire who w^as the original drawer of the bill. 6. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just responsibility without delay. — Webster : Reply to Hayne. [Topic] 1. Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth what violent muscular action is to the body of man. 2. The muscles and tendons of its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with fierce and convulsive energy, full of expression, passion, and strength; the plains and the lowxr hills are the repose and the effortless motion of the frame, when its muscles lie dormant and concealed beneath the lines of its beauty, yet ruling those lines in their every undulation. 3. This, then, is the first grand principle of the truth of the earth. 4. The spirit of the hills is action ; that of the lowlands, repose ; and between these there is to be found every variety of motion and of rest; from the inac- tive plain, sleeping like the firmament, with cities for stars, to the fiery peaks, which, with heaving bosoms and exulting limbs, with the clouds drifting like hair from their bright foreheads, lift up their Titan hands to Heaven, saying, ^'I live forever ! " — Ruskin : Modern Painters^ Vol. I, pt. ii, sec. iv, chap. i. 7^_ Jv^^ Composition-Rhetoric. [Topic] 1. Nor must I forget the suddenly changing seasons of the Northern clime. 2. There is no long and lingering spring, unfolding leaf and blossom one by one; n o long and lingering. _y autumn, pompous with many-colored leaves and the glow ocf^ Indian summers. 3. But winter and summer are wonderful, and pass into each other. 4. The quail has hardly ceased piping in the corn, when winter from the folds of trailing clouds sows broadcast over the land snow, icicles, and rattling hail. 5. The days waneOAXU apace. 6. Erelong the sun hardly rises above the horizon, or does not rise at all. 7. The moon and the stars shine through the day; only, at noon, they are pale and wan, and in the southern sky a red, fiery glow as of sunset burns along the horizon and then goes i out. 8. And pleasantly under the silver moon, and under the /VvjU silent, solemn stars, ring the steel shoes of the skaters on the frozen sea, and voices, and the sound of bells. — Longfellow^: Note to The Children of the LonTs Supper. 1. The troops were now to be disbanded. 2. Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown on the world ; and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that the disr charged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or would be driven by hunger to pillage. [Topic] 3. But no such result followed. 4. In a few months there remained not a trace indicat- ing that the most form idable army in the world had j ust be en absorbed into the mass of^^the communityl 5. The Royalists themselves"confessed"that in every department of honest industry, the dis carded warriors prosper ed beyond other men; that none was charged with any theft or robbery ; that none was heard to ask an alms; and that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner at- tracted notice by his diligence and sobriety, ke was_in^ proba- bility one of Oliver's old soldiers. — Macaulay: History of Eng- land, I, chap. ii. Further practice, if needed, may be given on the paragraphs quoted in Exercises 7, 18, a£id 19. EXERCISE 25. Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a brief para- graph by repetition of the idea. Remember that in the repetition What to Say. 79 it is not enough to put one word in place of another. There must be not only a change of words but a growth of ideas. With each sentence the thought should become larger, or more definite, or more emphatic. If the repetition does not immediately suggest itself, the use of such phrases as " in other words," " to speak more plainly," " to put the matter more briefly (precisely, definitely, concretely, specifically, forcibly)," will sometimes start the train of thought. 1. It requires sustained effort to make a good writer. 2. In stating his reasons, he never jumped at concla- sions. 3. Fashions in dress are forever changing. 4. The play As You Like It has no hero. 5. City governments in America need reforming. 6. There are books and books. 7. Emerson says, "The boy is a Greek; the youth, romantic; the adult, reflective." 8. Physical training should be compulsory in schools. 9. There will always be need of charity in the world. 10. A good partisan is not always a good citizen. 11. The " good old times " were not all that some people think. 12. The world does not " owe every one a living." -M^y^' LESSON 13. How Paragraphs Grow — Particulars and Details. When at the beginning of a paragraph we find a topic- sentence like this, "Every traveller going south from St. Louis can recall the average Arkansas village in winter," we can readily guess what the writer will say next. We know, at any rate, what we want him to say. We want more information about the Arkansas village. We want to know something about its houses, its streets, its surround- 80 Composition-Rhetoric, ings, its inhabitants. We want and we expect the particu- lars and details of the scene which will enable us to see it as the writer saw it, or as the traveller is supposed to recall it. One way, then, in which a paragraph-theme may grow into a paragraph is by the addition of particulars. The following will illustrate this method of growth : — [Topic] Every traveller going south from St. Louis can recall the fbverage Arkansas village in winter. [Particulars] Little strings of houses spread raggedly on both sides of the rails. A few wee shops, that are likely to have a mock rectangle of fagade stuck against a triangle of roof, in the manner of chil- dren's card houses, parade a draggled stock of haberdashery and groceries. To right or left a mill buzzes, its newness attested by the raw tints of the weather boarding. There is no horizon ; there seldom is a horizon in Arkansas, — it is cut off by the forest. Pools of water reflect the straight black lines of tree trunks and the crooked lines of bare boughs, while a muddy road winds through the vista. Generally there are a few lean cattle to stare in a dejected fashion at the train, and some fat black swine to root among the sodden grasses. Bales of cotton are piled on the railway platform, and serve as seats for half a dozen listless men in high boots and soft hats. Occasionally a woman, who has not had the time to brush her hair, calls shrilly to some child who is trying to have pneumonia by sitting on the ground. No one seems to have anything to do, yet everyone looks tired, and the passenger in the Pullman wonders how people live in " such a hole." — Octave Thanet. To develop the idea "average Arkansas village in winter,'' the writer has selected the particulars that strike the eye of the traveller, — the houses, the shops, the mill, the surrounding country, the men and women. In the following selection the writer gives full details concerning his imaginary possessions in Spain. The paragraphs after the first are made up solely of particulars. [Topic] It is not easy for me to say how I know so much, as I certainly do, about my castles in Spain. [Details] The sun What to Say. 81 always shines upon them. They stand lofty and fair in a lumi- nous, golden atmosphere, a little hazy and dreamy, perhaps, like the Indian summer, but in which no gales blow and there are no tempests. All the sublime mountains, and beautiful valleys, and soft landscape, that I have not yet seen, are to be found in the grounds. They command a noble view of the Alps; so fine, indeed, that I should be quite content with the prospect of them from the highest tower of my castle, and not care to go to Switzerland. The neighboring ruins, too, are as picturesque as those of Italy, and my desire of standing in the Coliseum, and of seeing the shattered arches of the Aqueducts stretching along the Cam- pagna and melting into the Alban Mount, is entirely quenched. The rich gloom of my orange groves is gilded by fruit as brilliant of complexion and exquisite of flavor as any that ever dark-eyed Sorrento girls, looking over the high plastered walls of southern Italy, hand to the youthful travellers, climbing on donkeys up the narrow lane beneath. The Nile flows through my grounds. The desert lies upon their edge, and Damascus stands in my garden. I am given to under- stand, also, that the Parthenon has been removed to my Spanish possessions. The Golden-Horn is my fish-preserve ; my flocks of golden sheep are pastured on the plains of Marathon, and the honey of Hymettus is distilled from the flowers that grow in the vale of Enna — all in my Spanish domains. From the windows of those castles look beautiful women whom I have never seen, whose portraits the poets have painted. They wait for me there, and chiefly the fair-haired child, lost to my eyes so long ago, now bloomed into an impossible beauty. The lights that never shone, glance at evening in the vaulted halls, upon ban- quets that were never spread. The bands I have never collected, play all night long, and enchant the brilliant company, that was never assembled, into silence. — Curtis : Frue and /, 36, 37. In the following paragraph from Irving, the idea to be developed is found in the third sentence : "It was one of those rich morsels of quaint antiquity which give such a peculiar charm to English land- scape." Then follow the details of the church, — the ancient monu- ments, the stained windows, the tombs. 82 Composition-Rhetoric, There are few places more favorable to the study of character than an English country church. I was once passing a few weeks at the seat of a friend, who resided in the vicinity of one, the appearance of which particularly struck my fancy. [Topic] It was one of those rich morsels of quaint antiquity which give such a peculiar charm to English landscape. [Details] It stood in the midst of a country filled with ancient families, and contained, within its cold and silent aisles, the congregated dust of many noble generations. The interior walls were incrusted with monu- ments of every age and style. The light streamed through windows dimmed with armorial bearings, richly emblazoned in stained glass. In various parts of the church were tombs of knights, and high-born dames, of gorgeous workmanship, with their effigies in colored marble. On every side the eye was struck with some instance of aspiring mortality ; some haughty memorial, which human pride had erected over its kindred dust, in this temple of the most humble of all religions. — Irving : Sketch Book. The particulars called for by the topic-sentence may be side by side in space or may follow one another in time. In the examples given above the particulars are side by side in space : the houses of the Arkansas village are side by side with the shops, the Parthenon is beside the Nile, the tombs are beside monuments. In the following selection the particulars are arranged in the order of time : — [Topic] I shall never forget a proof I myself got twenty years ago, how serious a thing it is to be a doctor, and how terribly in earnest people are when they want him. [Details] It was when cholera first came here in 1832. I was in England at Chatham, which you all know is a great place for ships and sailors. This fell disease comes on generally in the night; as the Bible says, " it walks in darkness," and many a morning was I roused at two o'clock to go and see its sudden victims, for then is its hour and power. One morning a sailor came to say I must go three miles down the river to a village where it had broken out with great fury. Off I set. We rowed in silence down the dark river, pass- ing the huge hulks, and hearing the restless convicts turning in their beds in their chains. The men rowed with all their might : they had too many dying or dead at home to have the heart to What to Say, 83 speak to me. We got near the place ; it was very dark, but I saw a crowd of men and women on the shore, at the landing-place. They were all shouting for the Doctor; the shrill cries of the women, and the deep voices of the men coming across the water to me. We were near the shore, when I saw a big old man, his hat off, his hair grey, his head bald; he said nothing, but turning them all off with his arm, he plunged into the sea, and before I knew where I was, he had me in his arms. I was helpless as an infant. He waded out with me, carrying me high up in his left arm, and with his right levelling every man or woman who stood in his way. It was Big Joe carrying me to see his grandson, little Joe; and he bore me off to the poor convulsed boy, and dared me to leave him till he was better. He did get better, but Big Joe was dead that night. He had the disease on him when he carried me away from the boat, but his heart was set upon his boy. I never can forget that night, and how important a thing it was to be able to relieve suffering, and how much Old Joe was in earnest about having the doctor. — John Brown: Horce Subsecivce, I, 393. In the following, some of the particulars are side by side, some are in the order of time : — [Topic] The great globe we had left was rolling beneath us. No eye of one in the flesh could see it as I saw or seemed to see it. No ear of any mortal being could hear the sounds that came from it as T heard or seemed to hear them. [Particulars] The broad oceans unrolled themselves before me. I could recognize the calm Pacific and the stormy Atlantic, — the ships that dotted them, the white lines where the waves broke on the shore, — frills on the robes of the continent, — so they looked to my woman's percep- tion ; the vast South American forests; the glittering icebergs about the poles; the snowy mountain ranges, here and there a summit sending up fire and smoke; mighty rivers, dividing prov- inces within sight of each other, and making neighbors of realms thousands of miles apart ; cities ; light-houses to insure the safety of sea-going vessels, and war-ships to knock them to pieces and sink them. All this, and infinitely more, showed itself to me during a single revolution of the sphere : twenty-four hours it would have been, if reckoned by earthly measurements of time. 84 Composition-Rhetoric , I have not spoken of the sounds I heard while the earth was revolving under us. The howl of storms, the roar and clash of waves, the crack and crash of the falling thunder-bolt, — these of course made themselves heard as they do to mortal ears. But there were other sounds which enchained my attention more than these voices of nature. As the skilled leader of an orchestra hears every single sound from each member of the mob of stringed and wind instruments, and above all the screech of the straining soprano, so my sharpened perceptions made what would have been for common mortals a confused murmur audible to me as compounded of innumerable easily distinguished sounds. Above them all arose one continued, unbroken, agonizing cry. It was the voice of suffering womanhood, — a sound that goes up day and night, one long chorus of tortured victims. — O. W. Holm^.s : Over the Teacups. [Topic] It is amusing to know how small were the pecuniary rewards of Bryant's literary labors, whatever may have been the fame they brought him. [Particulars] Two dollars a poem was the price that he named, and he seemed to be abundantly satisfied with the terms. A gentleman met him in New York many years after, and said to him, " I have just bought the earliest edition of your poems, and gave twenty dollars for it." " More, by a long shot," replied the poet, "than I received for writing the whole work." — Century, 50 : 374. [Topic] That was a pretty drive through Annandale. [Par- ticulars] As you leave Moffat the road gradually ascends into the region of the hills ; and down below you lies the great valley, with the river Annan running through it, and the town of Moffat itself getting smaller in the distance. ' You catch a glimmer of the blue peaks of Westmoreland lying far away in the blue south, half hid amidst silver haze. The hills around you increase in size, and yet you would not recognize the bulk of the great round slopes but for those minute dots that you can make out to be sheep, and for an occasional wasp-like creature that you can sup- pose to be a horse. The evening draws on. The yellow light on the slopes becomes warmer. You arrive at a great circular chasm which is called by the country folks the Devil's Beef-tub — a mighty hollow, the What to Say, 85 western sides of which are steeped in a soft purple shadow, while the eastern slopes burn yellow in the sunlight. Far away, down in that misty purple, you can see tents of gray, and these are masses of slate uncovered by grass. The descent seems too abrupt for cattle, and yet there are faint specks which may be sheep. There is no house, not even a farm house, near ; and all traces of Moffat and its neighborhood have long been left out of sight. But what is the solitude of this place to that of the wild and lofty region yon enter when you reach the summit of the hill? Far away on every side of you stretch miles of lonely moorland, with the shoulders of the more distant hills reaching down in end- less succession into the western sky. There is no sign of life in this wild place. The stony road over which you drive was once a mail-coach road; now it is overgrown with grass. A few old stakes, rotten and tumbling, show where it was necessary at one time to place a protection against the sudden descents on the side of the road ; but now the road itself seems lapsing back into moorland. It is up in this wilderness of heather and wet moss that the Tweed takes its rise; but we could hear no trickling of any stream to break the profound and melancholy silence. There was not even a shepherd's hut visible ; and we drove on in silence, scarcely daring to break the charm of the utter loneliness of the place. The road twists round to the right. Before us a long valley is seen, and we guess that it receives the waters of the Tweed. Al- most immediately afterward we come upon a tiny rivulet some two feet in width — either the young Tweed itself or one of its various sources ; and as w^e drive on in the gathering twilight, towards the valley, it seems as though we were accompanied by in- numerable streamlets trickling down to the river. The fire of sun- set goes out in the west, but over there in the clear green-white of the east a range of hills still glows with a strange roseate purple. We hear the low murmuring of the Tweed in the silence of the valley. We get down among the lower-lying hills, and the neigh- borhood of the river seems to have drawn to it thousands of wild creatures. There are plover calling and whirling over the marshy levels. There are black-cock and gray-hen dusting themselves in the road before us, and waiting until we are quite near them be- fore they wing their straight flight up to the heaths above. Fai 86 Composition-Rhetoric. over us in the clear green of the sky, a brace of wild-ducks go swiftly past. A weasel glides out and over the gray stones by the roadside; and farther along the bank there are young rabbits watching, and trotting, and watching again, as the phaeton gets nearer to them. And then as the deep rose-purple of the eastern hills fades away, and all the dark-green valley of the Tweed lies under the cold silver-gray of the twilight, we reach a small and solitary inn, and are almost surprised to liear once more the sound of a human voice. — Black : Adventures of a Phaeton. A second method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph is to add sentences containing particulars and details. The par- ticulars should be such as are naturally called for by the topic- sentence. They may be particulars which stand side by side in space, or particulars which follow one after another in order of time. EXERCISE 26. The following topic-sentences are to be developed by giving particulars. Determine in each case whether the particulars called for are side by side in space, or succeed one another in time. The employment of such phrases as " to go into particulars," " to men- tion details," will sometimes be found useful in starting the train of thought, (j^^^^^^^^^ 1. The village presented a lively appearance the morn- ing of the election. 2. I shall never forget my first day at school. 3. The court-room was a dingy place. 4. The last game of ball was the best of the season. 5. I once saw or thought I saw a ghost. 6. Have you ever watched the effects of moonlight upon clouds ? 7. A new boy has' come into our school. 8.*^ ' WhatT beautiful character Longfellow has created for us in Evangeline ! What to Say. 8T 9. The morning paper brings the news of a terrible accident. 10. Washington's journey to his first inauguration was a triumph. 11. There is an old deserted mill a few miles up the river. 12. The portrait of Daniel Webster shows that he was a man of great firmness and determination. LESSON 14. How Paragraphs Grow — Specific Instances or Examples, Suppose a Avriter to have begun a paragraph with a gen- eral statement like the following : " The sounds which the ocean makes must be very significant and interesting to those who live near it." He may now proceed to develop this idea by the method of the preceding lesson : he may give particulars about the various sounds, he may state what the sounds are and give their significance in detail. But there is another way by which he may amplify his theme. Instead of telling us about all the sounds, he may, if be chooses, tell about a single one ; that is, he may give an example or specific instance of a sound. Upon this instance he may dwell throughout the course of the para- graph. The following will illustrate this mode of de- velopment : — [Topic] The sounds which the ocean makes must be very sig- nificant and interesting to those who live near it. [Specific in- stance] When I was leaving the shore at this place the next summer, and had got a quarter of a mile distant, ascending a hill, I was startled by a sudden, loud sound from the sea, as if a large steamer were letting off steam by the shore, so that I caught my breath and felt my blood run cold for an instant, and I turned about, expecting to see one of the Atlantic steamers thus far out of her course ; but there was nothing unusual to be seen. There 88 Composition- Rhetoric, was a low bank at the entrance of the Hollow, between me and the ocean, and suspecting that I might have risen into another stratum of air in ascending the hill, — w^hich had wafted to me only the ordinary roar of the sea, — I immediately descended again, to see if I lost hearing of it; but, without regard to my ascending or descending, it died away in a minute or two, and yet there was scarcely any wind all the while. The old man said that this was what they called the "rut," a peculiar roar of the sea before the wind changes, which, however, he could not account for. He thought that he could tell all about the weather from the sounds which the sea made. — Thoreau: Cape Cod, [Topic] Dr. Watts's statement that "birds in their little nests agree," like too many others intended to form the infant mind, is very far from being true. On the contrary, the most peaceful relation of the different species to each other is that of armed neutrality. They are very jealous of neighbors. [Specific in- stance] A few years ago, I was much interested in the house- building of a pair of summer yellows-birds. They had chosen a very pretty site near the top of a white lilac, within easy eye- shot of a chamber windows A very pleasant thing it was to see their little home growing with mutual help, to watch their indus- trious skill interrupted only by little flirts and snatches of en- dearment, frugally cut short by the common-sense of the tiny housewife. They had brought their work nearly to an end, and had already begun to line it with fern-down, the gathering of which demanded more distant journeys and longer absences. But, alas! the syringa, immemorial manor of the catbirds, was not more than twenty feet away, and these " giddy neighbors " had, as it appeared, been all along jealously watchful, though silent, witnesses of what they deemed an intrusion of squatters. No sooner were the pretty mates fairly gone for a new load of lining, than ** To their unguarded nest these weasel Scots Came stealing." Silently they flew back and forth, each giving a vengeful dab at the nest in passing. They did not fall-to and deliberately destroy it, for they might have been caught at their mischief. As it was, whenever the yellow-birds came back, their enemies were hidden What to Say. 8» in their own sight-proof bush. Several times their unconscious victims repaired damages, but at length, after counsel taken to- gether, they gave it up. Perhaps, like other unlettered folk, they came to the conclusion that the Devil was in it, and yielded to the invisible persecutions of witchcraft. — Lowell : My Garden Acquaintance. [Topic] There has been a capital illustration lately how help- less many English gentlemen are when called together on a sudden. The Government, rightly or wrongly, thought fit to entrust the quarter-sessions of each county with the duty of combating its cattle plague ; but the scene in most " shire halls " was unsatis- factory. There was the greatest difficulty in getting, not only a right decision, but any decision. [Specific instance] I saw one myself which went thus. The chairman proposed a very complex resolution, in which there was much which every one liked, and much which every one disliked, though, of course, the favorite parts of some were the objectionable parts to others. This resolu- tion got, so to say, wedged in the meeting; everybody suggested amendments ; one amendment was carried which none were satis- fied with, and so the matter stood over. It is a saying in England, *' a big meeting never does anything *' ; and yet we are governed by the House of Commons, — by *'a big meeting." — Bagehot : The English Constitution, 207. Sometimes the writer will choose to give a number of instances, as in the three selections following : — [Topic] All history is full of revolutions, produced by causes similar to those which are now [March 2, 1831] operating in Eng- land. A portion of the community which had been of no account, expands and becomes strong. It demands a place in the system, suited, not to its former weakness, but to its present power. If this is granted, all is well. If this is refiised, then comes the struggle between the young energy of one class and the ancient privileges of another. [Instances] Such was the struggle be- tween the Plebeians and the Patricians of Rome. Such was the struggle of the Italian allies for admission to the full rights of Roman citizens. Such was the struggle of our IN^orth American colonies against the mother country. Such was the struggle 90 Composition-Rhetoric, which the Third Estate of France maintained against the aris- tocracy of birth. Such was the struggle which the Roman Cath- olics of Ireland maintained against the aristocracy of creed. Such is the struggle which the free people of color in Jamaica are now maintaining against the aristocracy of skin. Such, finally, is the struggle which the middle classes in England are maintaining against an aristocracy of mere locality, against an aristocracy, the principle of which is to invest a hundred drunken potwallopers in one place, or the owner of a ruined hovel in another, with powers which are withheld from cities renowned to the furthest ends of the earth for the marvels of their wealth and of their industry. — Macaulay : Speech on the Reform Bill of 1832. [Topic] The circle of human nature is not complete without the arc of feeling and emotion. [Instances] The lilies of the field have a value for us beyond their botanical ones, — a certain lightening of the heart accompanies the declaration that *' Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The sound of the village bell which comes mellowed from the valley to the trav- eller upon the hill has a value beyond its acoustical one. The setting sun when it mantles with the bloom of roses the alpine snows has a value beyond its optical one. The starry heavens, as you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond their as- tronomical one. Round about the intellect sweeps the horizon of emotions from which all our noblest impulses are derived. I think it very desirable to keep this horizon open ; not to permit either priest or philosopher to draw down his shutters between you and it. And here the dead languages, which are sure to be beaten by science in the purely intellectual fight, have an irre- sistible claim. They supplement the work of science by exalting and refining the aesthetic faculty, and must on this account be cherished by all who desire to see human culture complete. There must be a reason for the fascination which these languages have so long exercised upon the most powerful and elevated minds, — a fascination which will probably continue for men of Greek and Roman mold to the end of time. — Tyndall: Addresses. [Topic] Many distinguished Englishmen have had some favor- ite physical amusement that we associate with their names. It is almost a part of an Englishman's nature to select a physical pur- What to Say, 91 suit and make it especially his own. His countrymen like him the better for having a taste of this kind. [Instances] Mr. Glad- stone's practised skill in tree-felling is a help to his popularity. The readers of Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron all remember that the first was a pedestrian, the second a keen sportsman, and the third the best swimmer of his time. The readers of Keats are sorry for the ill health that spoiled the latter years of his short life, but they remember with satisfaction that the ethereal poet was once muscular enough to administer " a severe drubbing to a butcher whom he caught beating a little boy, to the enthusiastic admiration of a crowd of bystanders." Shelley's name is associ- ated forever with his love of boating, and its disastrous ending. In our own day, when we learn something about the private life of our celebrated contemporaries, we have a satisfaction in know- ing that they enjoyed some physical recreation, as, for example, that Tyndall is a mountaineer, Millais a grouse-shooter, John Bright a salmon-fisher ; and it is characteristic of the inveteracy of Eng- lish physical habits that Mr. Fawcett should have gone on riding and skating after he was blind, and that Anthony Trollope was still passionately fond of fox-hunting when he was old and heavy and could hardly see. The English have such a respect for physi- cal energy that they still remember with pleasure how Palmerston hunted in his old age, and how, almost to the last, he would go down to Epsom on horseback. There was a little difficulty about getting him into the saddle, but, once there, he was safe till the end of his journey. — Hamerton : French and English^ 2. A third method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph is to add specific instances or examples. LyV.*-V^-X EXERCISE 27. \ , *.„ , \t The following topic-sentences are to be developed by -speeifitf^ instances or examples. The expressions ^' to mention a case in point," " for instance," " a remarkable example of this," will often make clear just what is wanted. 1. One is frequently surprised by the intelligence which the lower animals show. 92 Composition- Rhetoric. 2. Even very great and very good men usually have some failing. 3. It is often the minor characters in Dickens's novels that are remembered longest. 4. A bad beginning does not necessarily imply a bad ending. 5. A man of great determination will succeed in spite of the most discouraging opposition. 6. Men of great wealth are not all selfish. 7. The demands of labor organizations are frequently received in the wrong spirit. 8. People are too apt to decide that a person accused of crime is guilty before his case is tried. 9. Sometimes the best statesmen do not know what law is needed. 10. Some queer expressions are used by foreigners learn- ing our language. 11. The abolitionist agitators were frequently placed in perilous positions. LESSON 15. JIow Paragraphs Grow — Comparisons and Analogies. Suppose a writer wishes to develop the idea, " Effect of historical reading upon the student's mind." If he uses the method of particulars, he will very likely single out the most striking ways in Which the reading of history operates on the mind; he will say that history makes us acquainted with men and institutions, gives us new ideas, teaches us morals, laws, and manners. If, on the other hand, he uses the method of specific instances, he will select individuals upon whom history exerted a peculiar influence; he will perhaps refer to Carlyle, or Tennyson, or Gibbon, or Webster, as examples of persons whose mindy What to Say, 93 were broadened or narrowed by historical reading. But if, for any reason, these methods do not suit his purpose, he may develop this theme by still another method. Instead of saying that the effect of historical reading is so-and-so, he may say that it is like so-and-so. He may compare the effect of reading history to the effect of viewing a collection of paintings, or listening to a play, or looking at the stars with a telescope, or watching a Fourth-of-July procession, to each one of which it bears some resemblance. Upon this resemblance of his theme to something else that is familiar to his reader, he may dwell throughout the course of the paragraph. Thus Macaulay, in his essay on history, in order to develop the above-mentioned theme, compares the effect of historical reading to the effect of travel in foreign countries : — The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects, to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, is transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. He hears new modes of expression. His mind is enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, and of man- ners. But men may travel far, and return with minds as con- tracted as if they had never stirred from their own market-town. In the same manner, men may know the dates of many battles and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no wiser. Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign countries. More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the King, has hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the Guards reviewed, and a Knight of the Garter installed, has cantered along Regent Street, has visited St. Paul's, and noted down its dimensions ; and has then departed, thinking that he has seen England. He has, in fact, seen a few public buildings, public men, and public cere- monies. But of the vast and complex system of society, of the fine shades of national character, of the practical operation of gov- ernment and laws, he knows nothing. He who would understand these things rightly nmst not confine his observations to palaces 94 ^^Si£2^iii2P'^Ii^Zi£' and solemn days. He must see ordinary men as they appear in their ordinary business and in their ordinary pleasures. He must mingle in the crowds of the exchange and the coffee-house. He must obtain admittance to the convivial table and the domestic hearth. He must bear with vulgar expressions. He must not shrink from exploring even the retreats of misery. He who wishes to understand the condition of mankind in former ages must proceed on the same principle. If he attends only to public transactions, to wars, congresses, and debates, his studies will be as unprofitable as the travels of those imperial, royal, and serene sovereigns who form their judgment of our island from having gone in state to a few fine sights and from having held formal conferences with a few great officers. Professor Langley wishing to develop the idea, " The signs of age are on the moon," compares the surface of the moon to a cinder and to a shrivelled face or hand : — The signs of age are on the moon. It seems pitted, torn, and rent by. the past action of long-dead fires, till its surface is like a piece of porous cinder under the magnifying glass, — a burnt- out cinder of a planet, which rolls through the void like a ruin of what has been ; and, more significant still, this surface is wrinkled everywhere, till the analogy with an old and shrivelled face or hand or fruit, where the puckered skin is folded about a shrunken centre, forces itself on our attention, and suggests a common cause, — a something underlying the analogy, and making it more than a mere resemblance. — Langley: The New Astronomy, Mr. Lowell wishing to picture Cardinal Newman in old age com- pares the cardinal to a ruined abbey and his features to a mini- ature : — The most interesting part of my visit to Birmingham was a call I made by appointment on Cardinal Newman. He was benignly courteous, and we excellencied and eminenced each other by turns. A more gracious senescence I never saw. There was no " monu- mental pomp," but a serene decay, like that of some ruined abbey in a woodland dell, consolingly forlorn. I was surprised to find his head and features smaller than I expected — modelled on lines of What to Sat/, 95 great vigor, but reduced and softened by a certain weakness, as if a powerfully masculine face had been painted in miniature by Malbone. Other examples of development by comparison and analogy may be detected by the pupil in the following ; — Of ghosts I have seldom dreamed, so far as I can remember ; in fact I have never dreamed of the kind of ghosts that we ^re all more or less afraid of, though I have dreamed rather often of the spirits of departed friends. But I once dreamed of dying, and the reader, who has never died yet, may be interested to know what it is like. According to this experience of mine, which I do not claim is typical, it is like a fire kindling in an air-tight stove with paper and shavings ; the gathering smoke and gases sud- denly burst into flame, and puff the door out, and all is over. — W. D. HowELLS : Harper's Magazine, 90 : 810. The vast results obtained by science are won by no mystical faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised by every one of us in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which CuvierrevStored the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones. Nor does that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a stain of a particular kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has upset the inkstand thereon, differ in any way from that by which Adams and Leverrier dis- covered a new planet. The man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness the methods which we all habitually and at every moment use carelessly. — Huxley : Lay Sermons, 78. Men who have to do with men, rather than with things, fre- quently take a profound and seemingly cruel delight in playing upon the feelings and petty vanities of their fellow-creatures. The habit is as strong with them as the constant practice of conjuring becomes with a juggler ; even when he is not performing, he will for hours pass coins, perform little tricks of sleight-of-hand with cards, or toss balls in the air in marvellously rapid succession, unable to lay aside his profession even for a day, because it has 96 Composition- Rhetoric, grown to be the only natural expression of his faculties. With men whose business it is to understand other men, it is the same. They cannot be in a man's company for a quarter of an hour without attempting to discover the peculiar weaknesses of his character — his vanities, his tastes, his vices, his curiosity, his love of money or of reputation ; so that the operation of such men's minds may be compared to the process of auscultation — for their ears are always upon their neighbors' hearts — and their conversa- tion, to the percutations of a physician to ascertain the seat of disease in a pair of consumptive lungs. — F. M. Crawford: Saracinesca, 125. The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his com- petitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them. Eclipse is first, the rest nowhere. — Macaulay: BosweWs Life of Johnson, A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities. The reason is obvious. When we speak of a free government, we mean a government in which the sovereign power is divided, in which a single decision is not absolute, where argument has an office. The essence of the ^* gouvernement des avocats," as the Emperor Nicholas called it, is that you must persuade so many persons. The appeal is not to the solitary decision of a single statesman; not to Richelieu or Nesselrode alone in his closet; but to the jangled mass of men with a thousand pursuits, a thousand interests, a thousand various habits. Public opinion, as it is said, rules; and public opinion is the opinion of the average man. Fox used to say of Burke : "Burke is a wise man; but he is wise too soon." The average man will not bear this. He is a cool, common person, with a con- siderate air, with figures in his mind, with his own business to attend to, with a set of ordinary opinions arising from and suited to ordinary life. He can't bear novelty or originalities. He says : " Sir, I never heard such a thing before in my life " ; and he thinks this a reductio ad absurdum. You may see his taste by the reading What to Say. 97 of which he approves. Is there a more splendid monument of talent and industry than the T'imes f No wonder that the average man — that any one — believes in it. As Carlyle observes : " Let the high- est intellect able to write epics try to write such a leader for the morning newspapers, it cannot do it; the highest intellect will fail." But did you ever see anything there you had never seen before ? Out of the million articles that everybody has read, can any one person trace a single marked idea to a single article? Where are the deep theories, and the wise axioms, and the ever- lasting sentiments which the writers of the most influential publi- cation in the world have been the first to communicate to an igno- rant species? Such writers are far too shrewd. The two million, or whatever number of copies it may be, they publish, are not purchased because the buyers wish to know new truth. The pur- chaser desires an article which he can appreciate at sight ; which he can lay down and say : " An excellent article, very excellent ; exactly my own sentiments." Original theories give trouble; be- sides, a grave man on the Coal Exchange does not desire to be an apostle of novelties among the contemporaneous dealers in fuel ; — he wants to be provided with remarks he can make on the topics of the day which will not be known not to be his ; which are not too profound ; which he can fancy the paper only reminded him of. And just in the same way, precisely as the most popular political paper is not that which is abstractedly the best or most instructive, but that which most exactly takes up the minds of men where it finds them, catches the floating sentiment of society, puts it in such a form as society can fancy would convince another society which did not believe, — so the most influential of consti- tutional statesmen is the one who most felicitously expresses the creed of the moment, who administers it, who embodies it in laws and institutions, who gives it the highest life it is capable of, who induces the average man to think : " I could not have done it any better, if I had had time myself." — Bagehot : The English Con- stitutiony 421. When the example in our Latin Grammar tells us that Mors communis est omnibus, it states a truism of considerable interest, indeed, to the person in whose particular case it is to be illus- trated, but neither new nor startling. No one would think of 98 Composition- Rhetoric. citing it, whether to produce conviction or to heighten discourse. Yet mankind are agreed in finding something more poignant in the same reflection when Horace tells us that the palace as well as the hovel shudders at the indiscriminating foot of Death. Here is something more than the dry statement of a truism. The dif- ference between the two is that between a lower and a higher ; it is, in short, the difference between prose and poetry. The oyster has begun, at least, to secrete its pearl, something identical with its shell in substance, but in sentiment and association how un- like ! Malherbe takes the same image and makes it a little more picturesque, though, at the same time, I fear, a little more Parisian, too, when he says that the sentinel pacing before the gate of the Louvre cannot forbid Death an entrance to the King. And how long had not that comparison between the rose's life and that of the maiden dying untimely been a commonplace when the same Malherbe made it irreclaimably his own by mere felicity of phrase. We do not ask where people got their hints, but what they made out of them. The commonplace is unhappily within reach of us all, and unhappily, too, they are rare who can give it novelty and even invest it with a kind of grandeur as Gray knew how to do. — Lowell : Essay on Gray, A fourth method of expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph is to point out a resemblance or analogy between the subject of thought and some well-known object or objects. EXERCISE 28. The following topic-sentences are to be developed by comparison or analogy. The expressions, " it seems as if," " it is like," will sometimes help one find a suitable comparison or analogy. 1. Along the sides of the road are two long rows of tall poplars. 2. The orator held his vast audience spellbound. 3. There are some books towards which we feel a per- sonal friendship. What to Say, 99 4. Flocks of blackbirds were holding their noisy ses- sions in the bare trees. 5. Calnmnious reports are sometimes circulated about those whose lives are pure. 6. Our powers gradually weaken with age. 7. Sheridan's troopers dashed through the Shenandoah valley leaving the country bare of subsistence. 8. The officers of government are simply some of us acting in certain capacities for all of us. 9. Hamilton had the ability to foresee the remote results of his financial policy. 10. Every good deed will bring its reward. 11. A bad habit is a constant tyrant. 12. Eeading affords many pleasures. LESSON^ 16. How Paragraphs Grow — T elling What a Thi ng is_ Note in the following selections how the idea of the topic- sentence is developed. The words to which special atten- tion is to be directed are printed in italics. We will try to make some small piece of English ground beauti- ful, peaceful, and fruitful. We will have no steam-engines upon it, and no railroads ; we will have no untended or unthought-of creatures on it; none wretched, but the sick; none idle, but the dead. We will have no liberty upon it ; but instant obedience to known law, and appointed persons ; no equality upon it ; but recognition of every betterness that we can find, and reprobation of every worse- ness. When we want to go anywhere, we will go there quietly and safely, not at forty miles an hour in the risk of our lives ; when we want to carry anything anywhere, we will carry it either on the backs of beasts, or on our own, or in carts, or in boats ; we will have plenty of flowers and vegetables in our gardens, plenty of corn and grass in our fields, — and few bricks. We will have 100 Composition-Rhetoric, some music and poetry; the children shall learn to dance to it, . and sing it; perhaps some of the old people, in time, may also. We will have some art, moreover ; we will at least try if, like the Greeks, we can't make some pots. — Ruskin: Fors Clavigera, Letter Y. Ruskin, desiring to tell us what a piece of English ground should have in order to be beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful, begins by telling us what it should not have. It should not have, he says, steam- engines, railroads, neglected creatures, wretched and idle men, liberty, or equality. To complete the picture, he then tells us what it should have. The scene around was desolate ; as far as the eye could reach it was desolate : the bare rocks faced each other, and left a long and wide interval of thin white sand. You might wander on and look round and round, and peep into the crevices of the rocks and dis- cover nothing that acknowledged the influence of the seasons. There was no spring^ no summer, no autumn: and the winter's snow, that would have been lovely, fell not on these hot rocks and scorching sands. Never morning lark had poised himself over this desert ; but the huge serpent often hissed there beneath the talons of the vulture, and the vulture screamed, his wings imprisoned within the coils of the serpent. — Coleridge : The Wanderings of Cain, To make us see the desolation of the place, Coleridge tells us what could not be seen there. In the year 1865 Rome was still in a great measure its old self. It had not then acquired that modern air which is now beginning to pervade it. The Corso had not been widened and whitewashed ; the Villa Aldobrandini had not been cut through to make the Via Nazionale; the south wing of the Palazzo Colonna still looked upon a narrow lane through which men hesitated to pass after dark ; the Tiber's course had not then been corrected below the Farnesina; the Farnesina itself was but just under repair; the iron bridge at the Ripetta was not dreamed of; and the Prati di Castello were still, as their name implies, a series of waste meadows. — F. M. Crawford: Saracinesca, 1, What to Say. 101 The author tells us what Rome was in 1865 — ** its old self"" — by telling us what changes had not yet taken place. . Practically, then, at present, " advancement in life " means becoming conspicuous in life, — obtaining a position which shall be acknowledged by others to be respectable or honorable. We do not understand by this advancement, in general, the mere making of money, but the being known to have made it; not the accom- plishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accom- plished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of our thirst for applause. That thirst, if the last infirmity of noble minds, is also the first infirmity of weak ones, and on the whole, the strongest impulsive influence of average humanity. The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure. — Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies^ 42. In the foregoing we get a better idea of what is meant by advance- ment in life by being also told what is not meant by it. When I first came to Venice I accepted the fate appointed to young men on the Continent. I took lodgings, and I began dining drearily at the restaurants. Worse prandial fortunes may befall one, but it is hard to conceive of the calamity as enduring else- where ; while the restaurant life is an established and permanent thing in Italy, for every celihe and for many wretched families. It is not because the restaurants are very dirty — if you wipe your plate and glass carefully before using them, they need not stomach you ; it is not because the rooms are cold — if you sit near the great vase of smouldering coals in the centre of each room you may suffocate in comparative comfort ; it is not because the prices are great, for they are really very reasonable ; it is not for any very tangible fault that I object to life at the restaurants, — and yet I cannot think of its hopeless homelessness without rebellion against the whole system of existence it implies, as something unnatural and insufferable. — Howells : Venetian Life, 76. The "hopeless homelessness" of restaurant life is made more sig- nificant by the enumeration of other reasons in negative form. 102 Composition-Rhetoric, A fitljh wa^ .af expanding a topic-sentence into a paragraph is to add parA?oiilars telling what the subject is not, or is not like. Such •' ■&tateT.ients.are usually followed by statements telling what the subject is, or is like. < -, *' ^^ ^^Jf"^' EXERCISE 29. fhe following topic-sentences are to be developed by telling what the subject is not, or is not like : — 1. Niagara made upon me an impression quite different from what I had expected. " 2. I visited to-day an ideal school-house. 3. The Socialist sees in the future a most desirable state of human society. 4. I will describe to you the kind of picnic that I should like to attend. J 5. When city governments shall be perfected we shall h(ad*dly recognize them. \/^. The woods that day were remarkable for an unusual stillness. 7. I shall never forget my sensations when I was told that my friend had proved false. 8. When to use will and when to use sliall is a mystery to many students. 9. The meaning of the word "success" is frequently misunderstood. 10. What is the best method for the government to adopt in its treatment of the Indian ? / / 11.. The newsboy gathers a large fund bf^useful informa- tion, y 12. This city presented an entirej^different appearance only a few years ago. ^ <^ 13. It is a good thing to keep a careful account of your expenditures. 14. Keep your temper under control. ^yvur"^^^ What to Say. 103 How Paragraphs Grow — Contrasts, Sometimes a paragraph-theme can be most easily devel- oped by presenting in the paragraph two ideas in contrast. Let us suppose, for example, that the writer has been upon a day's fishing excursion. As he recalls the incidents of the day, he reflects that he was the only member of the party who failed to enter into the spirit of the occasion. The others throughout the whole time made patient efforts to catch some fish, but he soon wearied of the sport and gave himself up to reading. He now attempts to write an account of the day's adventures. Noting that what he did was different from what the others did, he begins by tell- ing of his own lack of skill and lack of interest, and then, by way of contrast, tells of the patience and enthusiasm of his companions. Thus he brings out the idea of his theme by presenting the two contrasted ideas contained within it. This is the method pursued by Washington Irving in the following paragraph from the Sketch Book : — For my part, I was always a bungler at all kinds of sport that required either patience or adroitness, and had not angled above half an hour before I had completely " satisfied the sentiment," and convinced myself of the truth of Izaak Walton's opinion, that angling is something like poetry — a man must be born to it. I hooked myself instead of the fish; tangled my line in every tree; lost my bait; broke my rod; until I gave up the attempt in despair, and passed the day under the trees, reading old Izaak, satisfied that it was his fascinating vein of honest simplicity and rural feeling that had bewitched me, and not the passion for angling. My companions, however, were more persevering in their delusion. I have them at this moment before my eyes, stealing along the border of the brook, where it lay open to the day, or was merely fringed by shrubs and bushes. I see the bittern rising 104 Composition-Rhetoric. with hollow scream as they break in upon his rarely invaded haunt ; the kingfisher watching them suspiciously from his dry tree that overhangs the deep black mill-pond, in the gorge of the hills ; the tortoise letting himself slip sideways from off the stone or log on which he is sunning himself; and the panic-struck frog plumping in headlong as they approach, and spreading an alarm throughout the watery world around. The following paragraph draws a contrast between the spoils system and the merit system ; — Professor Lounsbury, in his delightful Life of Cooper, speaks feelingly of the " infinite capacity of the human mind to withstand the introduction of knowledge." I doubt whether even a college professor becomes more sadly and profoundly impressed with the truth of this statement than does a civil service commissioner. The spoils system of making appointments to and removairf from office is so wholly and unmixedly evil, is so emphatically un- American and un-democratic, and is so potent a force for deg- radation in our 'public life, that it is difficult to believe that any intelligent man of ordinary decency who has looked into the subject can be its advocate. On the other hand the merit system, which we are striving to put in its place, has been proved by actual trial to work so well that it is difficult to understand how there can be any serious opposition thereto, or, indeed, how it can fail to receive the zealous support of every citizen who has sense enough to see what is best for the country, and patriotism enough to wish to see that best adopted. — T. Roosevelt : The Merit System, Cosmopolitan, May, 1892. The first member of the contrast may be very brief, as in the fol- lowing paragraph : — He could describe with great vividness, brevity, and force what had happened in the past, what actually existed, or what the future promised. But his fancy never ran away with him or carried him captive into the regions of poetry. Imagination of this sort is readily curbed and controlled, and, if less brilliant, is safer than that defined by Shakespeare. For this reason, Mr. Webster rarely indulged in long, descriptive passages, and while he showed the highest power in treating anything with a touch of humanity about What to Say, 105 it, he was sparing of images drawn wholly from nature, and was not peculiarly successful in depicting in words natural scenery or phenomena. The result is, that in his highest flights, while he is often grand and affecting, full of life and power, he never shows the creative imagination. But if he falls short on the poetic side, there is the counterbalancing advantage that there is never a false note nor an overwrought description which offends our taste and jars upon our sensibilities. — H. C. Lodge: Daniel Webster, 188. Contrasts are often introduced by words of connection. Of these the most common are hut and Jwwever. However means almost the same as hut; if there is any difference between them it is that hut indicates a contrast stronger and more abrupt than the contrast indicated by however. Yet gives the impression that the writer has checked his thought suddenly, as a horseman might throw his steed on its haunches by a jerk of the bridle. Still also checks the course* of the thought, but does so more quietly and deliber- ately than yet. Other words and expressions used to intro- duce a contrast are, nevertheless, notwithstanding^ on the other hand, on the contrary. With the exception of hut, these connectives do not need to stand always at the beginning of the sentence or clause ; a smoother connection is sometimes secured by placing them after an opening word or phrase, as in the selection from Irving : " My companions, however, etc." A sixth method of expanding a paragraph-theme into a para- graph is to present a contrast between two things or ideas. ' EXERCISE 30. Point out the contrasted ideas in the following para- graphs : — The modern type-writing machine has the advantage of making all words equally legible, but the receiver of the printed letter i^ 106 Composition-Rhetoric, likely to feel on opening it a slight perceptible shock of the kind always caused by a want of consideration. The letter so printed is undoubtedly easier to read than all but the very clearest manu- script, and so far it may be considered a politeness to use the instru- ment ; ibut unluckily it is impersonal, so that the performer on the instrument seems far removed from the receiver of the letter and not in that direct communication with him which would be apparent in an autograph. The effect on the mind is almost like that of a printed circular, or at least of a letter w^hich has been dictated to a shorthand writer. — Hamerton : Human Intercourse. Mr. Beecher went on to show how the North could not help fighting when it was attacked, and to give the reasons that made it necessary to fight, reasons which none but a consistent Friend, or avowed non-resistant, can pretend to dispute. His ordinary style in speaking is pointed, staccatoed, as is that of most success- ful extemporaneous speakers ; he is " short-gaited " ; the movement of his thoughts is that of the chopping sea, rather than the long, rolling, rhythmical v^ave-procession of phrase-balancing rhetori- cians. But when the lance has pricked him deep enougk, when the red flag has flashed in his face often enough, when the fire- works have hissed and sputtered around him long enough, when the cheers have warmed him so that all his life is roused, then his intellectual sparkle becomes a steady glow, and his nimble sen- tences change their form and become long-drawn, stately peri- ods. — O. W. Holmes: Atlantic Monthly, January, 1864. Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest corre- spondence, and the most unreserved communication wdth his con- stituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him ; their opinion high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judg- ment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not de- rive from your pleasure ; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you not his industry What to Say. 107 only, but his judgment; which he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to to be superior r\ But government and legislatign are matters of reason and juclgment, and not of inclination ; and what sort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments? To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of constit- uents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative ought always to rejoice to hear ; and which he ought always most seriously to consider. But authoritative instructions, mandates is- sued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience, — these are things utterly un- known to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundar mental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. — Burke : Speech to the Electors of Bristol, Madison spoke in the same strain. He saw no danger in a title. He did not believe that a President, clothed with all the powers of the Constitution and loaded down with all the titles of Europe and Asia, would be a dangerous person to American liberty. He objected to the principle. If, said he, we give titles, we must either borrow or invent them. If we invent and deck out an airy being of our creation, it is a great chance but its fantastic proper- ties render the empty phantom ridiculous and absurd. If we borrow, our servile imitation will be odious. We must copy from the pompous mjonarchs of the East, or we must follow the inferior monarchs of Europe. In either case the splendid tinsel and the gorgeous robe will disgrace the manly shoulders of our chief. — McMaster : History of the People of the United States, I, 542. Unlike as Whittier and Franklin were in many respects, they were alike in others. Both had the sympathy with the lowly which comes of early similar experience. Both learned a handi- craft, for Franklin set type and worked a printing-press, and 108 CompoBition-Rhetoric, Whittier made slippers. To both of them literature was a means, rather than an end in itself. Yerse to Whittier, and prose to Franklin, was a weapon to be used in the good fight. In Whit- tier's verse, as in Franklin's prose, there was the same pithy direct- ness which made their words go home to the hearts of the plain people whom they both understood and represented. To Franklin was given the larger life and the greater range of usefulness ; but Whittier always did with all his might the duty that lay before him. While Franklin gained polish by travel and by association with citizens of the world, Whittier was the only one of the greater American authors who never went to Europe, and he kept to the end not a little of his rustic simplicity. While Whittier was practical, as becomes a New Englander, he had not the excessive common sense which characterizes Franklin, and he lacked also Franklin's abundant humor. But the poet w^as not content, as Franklin w^as, with showing that honesty is the best policy, and that in the long run vice leads to ruin ; he scourged evil with the wrath of a Hebrew prophet. Except one or another of his ballads, none of his poems was written for its own sake ; they were nearly all intended to further a cause he held dear, or to teach a lesson he thought needful. — Brander Matthews: Sl Nicholas, 22 : 773. These paragraphs as originally written contained two ideas in contrast. Supply the omitted portion. Some persons are very reluctant to admit that any race of men is marked by a fixed and permanent characteristic of inferiority to the others, for fear that this will be made an excuse by un- just and wicked men for treating them oppressively and cruelly. But ------- -. There is one thing very curious about this class of animals that get their living in a great measure underwater, and are consequently obliged to be often submerged, even in the coldest winter weather, and that is, that their fur becomes very little wet by such immer- sion. A dog, after plunging into a river, comes out wet to the skin, but the fur of a beaver or a mink --------. What to Say. 109 I We all know how beautiful and noble modesty is; how we all admire it ; how it raises a man in our eyes to see him afraid of boasting; never showing off; never pushing himself forward --------. Whenever, on the other hand --------. A Venetian who enters or leaves any place of public resort touches his hat to the company, and one day at the restaurant some ladies, who had been dining there, said '^Complhnenti !" on going out with a grace that went near to make the beef-steak tender. It is this uncostly gentleness of bearing which gives a winning impression of the whole Venetian people, v/hatever selfish- ness or real discourtesy lie beneath it. At home [in the United States] it sometimes seems --------. Whittier was a born poet. He was not an artist in verse as Longfellow was; and he was often as careless in rhyme and as rugged in rhythm as was Emerson. Yet to some of his stanzas --------. There are four different kinds of running: sprinting, which includes all distances up to the quarter mile; middle-distance running — from the quarter to the mile; and long-distance run- ning, which includes the mile and all distances beyond. Besides these there is cross-country running. This last is best of all for growing boys. The first three are track races, and it is monotonous work trotting round and round a cinder path. But - - - -. I have sometimes been puzzled in Venice to know why churches should keep cats, church-mice being proverbially so poor, and so little capable of sustaining a cat in good condition ; yet - - -. There is a common notion that animals are better meteorologists than men, and I have little doubt that in immediate weather-wisdom they have the advantage of our sophisticated senses (though I sus- pect a sailor or shepherd would be their match), but _ - _ _. Any slave of the mine may find the rough gem ; but - - -. If Gray cull his words and phrases here, there, and everywhere, it is he who charges them with the imagination or picturesque touch which only he could give and which makes them magnetic. 110 Composition-Rhetoric, The universal dead-level of jDlainness and homeliness, the lack of all beauty and distinction in form and feature, the slowness and clumsiness of the language, the eternal beer, sausages, and bad tobacco, the blank commonness everywhere, pressing at last like a weight on the spirits of the traveller in Northern Germany, and making him impatient to be gone, — this is the weak side; -------, — this is the strong side ; and through this side of her genius, Germany has already obtained excellent results. EXERCISE 32. :_ vO Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a paragraph by presenting contrasting ideas : — 1. It is seldom that a pupil succeeds equally well in all his studies. 2. Lincoln's early advantages were extremely limited. 3. Kovel reading seems to be on the increase. 4. The world is growing more humane. 5. The good will triumph over wrong. 6. Slavery was an unmixed evil. 7. The war against Mexico was not begun with unselfish motives. 8. There have been temporary evils connected with the introduction of labor-saving machinery. 9. Lynching should be suppressed. 10. Jackson and Lincoln present points of similarity. 11. There are books that may be dismissed with a single reading. A 12. Examinations are a fair test of ability;. LESSON 18, . i-AxMi How Paragraphs Grow — Cause and Effect. When the topic-sentence is a statement of something that may be regarded as a cause, the remaining sentences are apt >Vj . ,^ ,.,. ^^What to^^^ ^^ 111 to be statements of an effect of this cause. Thus a writer who begins a paragraph with the sentence, " When the Eo- mans conquered Greece and the East, they saw a great many things which they had never seen before/^ is very likely in the following sentence to tell us how the Eomans took to these new things, that is, how Eoman habits and character were affected by them. So he passes naturally from contact with new things as a cause, to changes in Eo- man character as an effect. Again, he may have occasion to say on the same topic that ^^the Greeks were much cleverer than the Eomans," after which we may expect the consequences to the Eomans of contact with this cleverness, — it surprised them or excited their envy, or gave them new ideas. This method of growth is illustrated in the fol- lowing : — When the Romans conquered Greece and the East, they saw a great many things which they had never seen before: and they began to care more about eating and drinking and building fine houses. The Greeks were much cleverer than the Romans, or indeed than any people of the time, for all the best books and statues and pictures of the old world had been made by the Greek writers and artists. So the Romans not only learned many new things from the Greeks, but gave up a^ great many of their own early beliefs. They thought less of their own Roman gods, and altogether they were not so simple or so good as they had been before. — M. Creighton: History of Rome {History Primers) ^ 52. The way in which the idea of the paragraph grows may be indicated as follows : — 1. Cause: The Eomans saw many new things; effect: The Eomans began to care more about eating and drinking and building fine houses. 2. Cause : The Greeks with whom they came in contact were cleverer than the Eomans in literature and art ; effect : The Eomans adopted Greek ideas and gave up their old be- liefs. 112 Composition-Rhetoric. In the following paragraph describiDg the charge of the Light Brigade, Mr. Kinglake tells lis first of the fire of the enemy, then of the effect of this fire upon the ranks of the Brigade: — Pressing always deeper and deeper into this pen of fire, the de- voted brigade, with Lord Cardigan still at its head, continued to move down the valley. The fire the brigade was incurring had not come to be of that crushing sort which mows down half a troop in one instant, and for some time a steady pace was main- tained. As often as a horse was killed, or disabled, or deprived of the rider, his fall, or his plunge, or his ungoverned pressure had commonly the effect of enforcing upon the neighboring chargers more or less of lateral movement, and in this way there was occasioned a slight distention of the rank in which the casu- alty had occurred ; but, in the next instant, when the troopers had ridden clear of the disturbing cause, they closed up, and rode on in a line as even as before, though reduced by the loss just sus- tained. The movement occasioned by each casualty was so con- stantly recurring, and so constantly followed by the same process, — the process of reclosing the ranks, that, to distant observers, the alternate distention and contraction of the line seemed to have the precision and sameness which belong to mechanic contrivance. Of these distant observers there was one — and that too a soldier — who so felt to the heart the true import of what he saw that, in a paroxysm of admiration and grief, he burst into tears. In well-maintained order, but growing less every instant, our squadron still moved down the valley. — Invasion of the Crimea, ir, 517. In the foregoing may be seen a second example of an effect follow- ing a cause — the tears of the soldier are caused by the movement of the line which he is observing. It will be observed that this relation of cause to effect is usually indicated by means of conjunctions and connecting phrases. Such expressions as hence, so, so that, therefore, for, thus, accordingly, consequently, in consequence, as a result, are employed for this purpose. What to Say. 113 A seventh metliod of expanding a paragraph-theme into a para- graph consists in stating something that is regarded as a cause, and following it by a statement of the effects or consequences of the cause. In the following paragraphs, point out ideas which are vrelated to one another as cause to effect : — //^ ^he friction in the minute arteries and capillaries presents a considerable resistance to the flow of blood through them into the small veins. ] In consequence of this resistance, the force of the heart's beat is spent in maintaining the whole of the arterial system in a state of great distention ; the arterial walls are put greatly on the stretch by the pressure of the blood thrust into them by the repeated strokes of the heart; ;4ihis is the pressure which we spoke of above as blood-pressure. — Foster : Physiology, chap. lY. There was a salt marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high-water, we used to stand to fish for minnows.')-. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. 3, My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones which were intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. - Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows, and working with them diligently, like so many emmets, some- times two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. ^^ Inquiry was made after the removers ; we were discovered, and complained of ; several of us were corrected by our fathers ; and though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest. — Franklin : Autobiography. At court, and in the castles of the great nobles, where the pomp and state of a court were emulated, Norman-French was the only language employed ; in courts of law the pleadings and judgments 114 Composition- Rhetoric. were delivered in the same tongue. Q[n short, French was the language of honor, of chivalry, and eveii~6TyusfTce^ while the far more manly and expressive Anglo-Saxon was abandoned to the use of rustics and hinds, who knew no other. _Still, however, the necessary intercourse between the lords of the soil and those oppressed inferior beings by whom that soil was cultivated occa- sioned the gradual formation of a dialect compounded betwixt the French and the Anglo-Saxon, in which they could render them- selves mutually intelligible to each other ; and from this necessity arose by degrees the structure of our present English language, in which the speech of the victors and the vanquished have been so happily blended together, and which has since been so richly improved by importations from the classical languages, and from those spoken by the southern nations of Europe. — Scott : Ivanhoe, chap. I. The insular form of Great Britain gave it a certain advantage over the continent during the age when the northern tribes were plundering Rome and devastating the countries of southern Europe. As their invasions of England could only be by sea, they were necessarily on a comparatively small scale. They could not at once overrun the whole land, as they did in France, and hence the strife was long maintained by hope of successful resistance ; and thus courage and the virtues that depend on courage were kept alive and transmitted. — Montgomery : The Leading Facts of English History^ 7. A warm and moist wind, the south-west of the Atlantic, for example, setting from the tropics, comes in contact with the colder air of the temperate regions^ its temperature is lowered ; it can no longer contain as great a quantity of vapor. A por- tion of its humidity is immediately condensed into clouds, then falls in rain. Or the opposite; a wind charged with clouds arrives in a warmer and dryer air; comes, for example, from the Mediter- ranean to the Sahara, as is the case during three-fourths of the year ; the burning air of the desert, having a much greater capacity for vapor, dissipates instantly all these clouds, that break up, vanish, and disappoint the excited expectation of the traveller, who hoped for refreshing rains. — Guyot : Earth and Man, 152. What to Say. 115 EXERCISE 34. These paragraphs as originally written contained a state- ment of a cause followed by a statement of a result of that cause. Supply the omitted portion. Some tribes, especially those that lived in the neighborhood of the great lakes, made certain tools and implements of copper, which metal, it is said, they had some means of hardening, so that it would cut wood tolerably well. But they had no iron. Accord- ingly -_----_-.; The coming of the Europeans to this country brought new races not only of men, but also of plants and animals, into con- tact and connection with those previously .existing here. The result was JtJM^ A iH,UJ=: (XaiOU,. ,. M-Mrn OH^Jua AJ^p Every American boy should learn to run. The English boy is encouraged to run. In fact, at some of the great English public schools, boys of thirteen and fourteen years of age, like Tom Brown and East at Rugby, can cover six and eight miles cross- country in the great hare-and-hounds runs. Every boy is turned out twice a week, out of doors, and made to run, and fill himself full of pure fresh air and sunshine, and gain more strength and life than any amount of weight-pulling or dumb-bell work in stuffy gymnasiums would give him. See the result . By the ArticlesyOf Confederation the General Government had no power to levy taxes, and yet it had power to incur debts. The result was - - - - - - - -. The relation of trades unions to civilization is much misunder- stood, and this misunderstanding has resulted in - - - - -. Organized labor has for some time been limiting the number of apprentices that may be admitted at any one time to a shop or a factory in order to learn a trade. In some lines of work one boy to four journeymen is the rule ; in others, where the union influ- ence is strong, not more than one boy for every eight, or ten, or a dozen, mechanics is permitted. The consequence is - - - -. That the laws and regulations of the Spartan constitution were admirably adapted to the end in view, — the rearing of a nation 116 Composition-Rhetoric . of skilful and resolute warriors, — the long military supremacy ol Sparta among the states of Greece abundantly attests. But when we consider the aim and object of the Spartan institutions, we must pronounce them low and unworthy. The true order of things was just reversed among the Lacedaemonians. Govern- ment exists for the individual : at Sparta the individual lived for the state. The body is intended to be the instrument of the mind : the Spartans reversed this, and attended to the education of the mind only so far as its development enhanced the effectiveness of the body as a weapon in warfare. [Results] --_-__. Sparta, in significant contrast to Athens, bequeathed nothing to posterity. During the last fifty years the continents have been covered with a perfect network of railroads, constructed at an enormous cost of labor and capital. The aggregate length of the world's steam railways in 1883 was about 275,000 miles, sufficient, to use Mulhall's illustration, to girdle the earth eleven times at the equator, or more than sufficient to reach from the earth to the moon. The continental lines of railways are made virtually con- tinuous round the world by connecting lines of ocean steamers. Telegraph wires traverse the continents in all directions, and cables run beneath all the oceans of the globe. By these inven- tions --------. Jefferson's interest in public affairs had become a part of his nature, and could not suddenly cease. Accordingly in his retire- ment _-------. The people saw, in Washington, the hero of the war for inde- pendence, the austere champion of their liberties, the devoted leader of ill-fed, ill-clad armies fighting against fearful odds. They knew that his life had been pure, that under an exterior seemingly cold there beat a warm and hospitable heart. What wonder then that --------. EXERCISE 35. ~t«4£? Develop each of the following topic-sentences into a paragraph by presenting the result which seems naturally to flow from each : — ^' What to Say. 117 1. The use of narcotics is injurious to the nerves, and tunts the growing body. 2. The school-room was forbidding in appearance : the windows were dirty, the walls were bare and cheerless, and the switch occupied the most prominent place in the room. 3. The framers of the Constitution thought that slavery would die out after a time. 4. Poe believed that every literary production should be short enough to be read at one sitting. 5. Washington knew, better than Braddock, the methods of Indian warfare. 6. Peoj)le in our crowded cities have at last learned that good sanitary arrangements are absolutely necessary to pub- lic health. 7. The colonists, as English subjects, felt themselves entitled to all the rights guaranteed by the British Consti- tution. 8. No two men differed more widely than Hamilton and Jefferson in their ideas of government and finance. ^ 9. Whittier felt keenly the national disgrace of slavery. 10. Our forefathers thought that only the wisest men in the nation should choose the President. 11. School -authorities have come to see the importance of physical culture. 12. The people of the North refused to believe that the South was serious in its preparations for war and in its threats of secession. U^" LESSON 19. How Paragraphs Grow — Proofs. If a writer should begin a paragraph with the topic-sen- tence, " The Greeks did not understand athletics at all so well as the English do,'' many readers would question the 118 Composition-Rhetoric, truth of the statement. They would say that the Greeks both understood athletics and practised athletics better than any other people in the history of the world, and they would want to know on what ground so preposterous a notion was advanced. It would then be the business of the writer, if he wanted his readers to agree with him, to bring forward the grounds or proofs of his assertion. By pointing out defects in the Greek system of training or manner of con- ducting athletic contests, or, perhaps, by quoting from the opinions of the Greeks themselves, he would endeavor to make his opening sentence seem probable or true. Such is the method employed in the following paragraph : — Though extraordinary feats were sometimes recorded, I believe that the Greeks did not understand athletics at all so well as the English do. Two facts may be mentioned in proof of this. The runners are said to have started shouting. The boxers, who had their fists weighted with loaded leather gloves, swung round at one another's ears, instead of striking straight home. What we hear about their training seems equally stupid ; their trained men are described as generally sleepy, they fed on enormous quantities of meat, and were obliged to swear that they had spent ten months in training before the games. Good generals, such as Alexander and Philopoemen, discountenanced athletics as producing bad soldiers. But, nevertheless, the combination of art contests with athletics made the Greek meetings finer and more imposing than ours. — J. P. Mahaffy: Old Greek Life^ 77. By this method Professor Jebb develops the thought that the Greeks were the first people to make reason the guide of social life: — The Greeks were not the first people who found out how to till the earth well, or to fashion metals, or to grow rich by war or commerce, or to build splendid houses and temples. But they were the first people who tried to make reason the guide of their social life. One proof of this is found in the very existence of the Greek cities. While other men were living in tribes or under What to Say. 119 despotic kings, the Greeks had already gathered themselves together in cities, — societies ruled, not by force, but by the per- suasions of equal law. Another proof of it is found in the Greek books. There we find writers of all sorts, poets and historians and philosophers, habitually striving to get at the reasons of things. On this side, Greek literature has an interest such as belongs to no other literature. It shows us how some questions which have been solved since, and others which are being discussed still, appeared to the people who first seriously tried to answer them. — R. C. Jebb : Primer of Greek Literature^ 6. An eighth way of developing a paragraph-theme consists in add- ing to the topic-sentence sentences containing proofs. EXERCISE 36. ^^^ bj In each of the following paragraphs, what is tlie exact idea to be proved? Point out the sentences which prove this idea. / The death of Caesar was an irreparable loss, not only to the Roman people, but to the whole civilized world ;|for the Republic was utterly ruined, and no earthly power could restore it. ■ Caesar's death involved the State in fresh struggles and civil wars for many a year, until in the end it fell again (and this was the best that, under the circumstances, could have happened to it) under the supremacy of Augustus, who had neither the talent, nor the will, nor the power, to carry out all the beneficent plans which his great-uncle had formed.r3lt has been truly said, that the murder of Caesar was the most senseless act the Romans ever committed. Had it been possible at all to restore the Republic, it would una- voidably have fallen into the hands of a most profligate aristocracy; who would have sought nothing but their own aggrandizement; would have demoralized the people still more; and would have established their own greatness upon the ruins of their country. It is only necessary to recollect the latter years of the Republic, the depravity and corruption of the ruling classes, the scenes of violence and blood-shed which constantly occurred in the streets of Rome, to render it evident to every one that peace and security 120 Oomposition-Rhetoric, could not be restored, except by the strong hand of a sovereign ; and the Roman world would have been fortunate indeed, if it had submitted to the mild and beneficent sway of Csesar. — Schmitz: History of Rome. ' An abuse like our spoils system does not remain stationary. Either it will be reformed, or it will increase by its own momen- tum, till we shall see, at first cautiously^and under specious pre- tenses, and finally as a matter of courseiall the best offices in the army and navy appropriated at every cEange of administration on the theory " To the victors belong the spoils."3^ And why not? It would be as reasonable and just to make changes in military and naval offices on party grounds as it is in the civil service 3 H / ; ^ such changes are good for the civil service, they ought to be good, '1^' for other branches of the service. L,This is the way the advocates^ of rotation would argue ; and although such a development of the. spoils system would be deprecated by all friends of good adminis- tration, we must not be too confident it will not occur. — Andrews : Administrative Reform, 28. Competition is the best security for cheapness, but by no meant a security for quality. In former times, when producers and consumers were less numerous, it was a security for both. : The niarket was not large enough nor the means of publicity sufficient to enable a dealer to make a fortune by continually attracting new , ^customers: his success depended on his retaining those that he [.Aj had; and when a dealer furnished good articles, or when he did ' , not, the fact was soon known to those whom it concerned, and he acquired a character for honest or dishonest dealing of more im- portance to him than the gain that would be made by cheating a casual purchasers. l^But on the great scale of modern transactions, ^ JL with the great multiplication of competition and the immense v. increase in the quantity of business competed for, dealers are so little dependent on permanent customers that character is much less essential to them, while there is also^ar less certainty of their obtaining the character they deserve. h> The low prices which a tradesman advertises are known to a thousand, for one who has discovered for himself or learned from others that the bad quality of the goods is more than an equivalent for their cheapness. — Mill : Chapters on Socialism. What to Say. 121 It does not appear that Shakespeare thought his works worthy of posterity, that he levied any ideal tribute upon future times, or had any further prospect than of present popularity and present profit. When his plays had been acted, his hope was at an end ; he solicited no addition of honor from the reader. He therefore made no scruple to repeat the same jests in many dialogues, or to entangle different plots by the same knot of perplexity; which may be at least forgiven him by those who recollect that of Con- greve's four comedies, two are concluded by a marriage in a mask, by a deception which perhaps never happened, and which, whether likely or not, he did not invent. So careless was this great poet of future fame that, though he retired to ease and plenty while he was yet little " declined into the vale of years," before he could be disgusted with fatigue, or disabled by infirmity, he made no collection of his works, nor desired to rescue those that had been already published from the depravations that obscured them, or secure to the rest a better destiny, by giving them to the world in their genuine state. Of the plays which bear the name of Shakespeare in the late editions, the greater part were not published till about seven years after his death ; and the few which appeared in his life are appar- ently thrust into the world without the care of the author, and therefore probably without his knowledge. — Johnson : Preface to Shakespeare. In rural occupation there is nothing mean and debasing. It leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and beauty ; it leaves him to the workings of his own mind, operated upon by the purest and most elevating of external influences. Such a man may be simple and rough, but he cannot be vulgar. The man of refinement, therefore, finds nothing revolting in an intercourse with the lower orders of rural life, as he does when he casually mingles with the lower orders of cities. He lays aside his distance and reserve, and is glad to waive the distinctions of rank, and to enter into the honest, heartfelt enjoyments of common life. Indeed, the very amuiiements of the country bring men more and more together, and the sound of hound and horn blend all feelings into harmony. I believe this is one great reason why the nobility and gentry are more popular among the inferior orders in England 122 Composition-Rhetoric, than they are in any other country; and why the latter have endured so many excessive pressures and extremities, without repining more generally at the unequal distribution of fortune and privilege. — Irving : Sketch Book : Rural Life in England. It is too soon as yet to attempt to estimate the effect of the Reform Act of 1867. The people enfranchised under it do not yet know their own power : a single election, so far from teaching us how they will use that power, has not been even enough to explain to them that they have such power. The Reform Act of 1832 did not for niany years disclose its real consequences ; a writer in 1836, whether he approved or disapproved of them, whether he thought too little of, or whether he exaggerated them, would have been sure to be mistaken in them. — Bagehot : Eng- lish Constitution, 3. I \ ^y^ EXERCISE 37. ^ ZZ^ Supply proofs for each of the following topic-sentences, or of their opposites : — 1. Shorter political campaigns are desirable. 2. Shy lock's treatment was unjust. 3. The United States should have a larger standing army. 4. Local elections should be free from partisanship. 5. The primary object of the Civil War was not to free the slaves. 6. One may read too much even in good books. 7. Statesmanship in Congress is not declining. 8. A general European war would be a good thing for American farmers. 9. The acquisition of Cuba by the United States is not desirable. 10. Labor-saving machinery benefits labor. 11. It is a bad policy to strike. 12. The advantages of travel are over-estimated. What to Say, 123 LESSON 20. How Paragraphs Grow — Combination of Two or More Methods. Two or more of the foregoing methods of development are frequently illustrated in a single paragraph. 1. In few things is the great advance made in this country during the past one hundred years more strikingly apparent than in the change which has taken place in the social and intellectual condition of the school-master. 2. The education of the young has now become a lucrative profession by itself and numbers among its followers many of the choicest minds of the age. 3. The school-master is specially prepared for his work, and is in receipt of a &um sufficient to maintain him in comfort, to enable him to procure books, and, if he be so inclined, to travel. 4. Book- sellers and publishers make a liberal discount in his behalf. 5. The government allows him to import the text-books and apparatus used in his work duty free. 6. He is everywhere regarded as an eminently useful member of society. 7. But the lot of the school- master who taught in the district school-house three generations since fell in a very different time and among a very different people. 8. School was then held in the little red school-house for two months in the winter by a man, and for two months in the summer by a woman. 9. The boys went in the winter, the girls in the summer. 10. The master was generally a divinity student who had graduated at one of the academies, who had scarcely passed out of his teens, and who sought by the scanty profits de- rived from a winter's teaching to defray the expenses of his study at Harvard or at Yale. 11. His pay was small, yet he was never called upon to lay out any portion of it for his keep. 12. If the district were populous and wealthy a little sum was annually set apart for his board, and he was placed with a farmer who would, for that amount, board and lodge him the longest time. 13. But this was far too expensive a method for many of the districts, and the master was, therefore, expected to live with the parents of his pupils, regulating the length of his stay by the number of the boys 124 Composition-Rhetoi'ic, in the family attending his school. 14. Thus it happened that in the course of his teaching he became an inmate of all the houses of the district, and was not seldom forced to walk five miles, in the worst of weather over the w^orst of roads, to his school. 15. Yet, mendicant though he was, it would be a great mistake to suppose that he was not always a welcome guest. 16. He slept in the best room, sat in the warmest nook by the fire, and had the best food set before him at the table. 17. In the long winter evenings he helped the boys with their lessons, held yarn for the daughters, or escorted them to spinning matches or quiltings. 18. In return for his miserable pittance and his board the young student taught what would now be considered as the rudiments of an education. 19. His daily labors were confined to teaching his scholars to read with a moderate degree of fluency, to write legibly, to speU with some regard for the rules of orthography, and to know as much of the rules of arithmetic as would enable them to calculate the interest on a debt, to keep the family accounts, and to make change in a shop. — McMaster : History of the People of the United States, Taken as a whole the foregoing paragraph illustrates the method of contrast, the condition of the ancient school- master (sentences 7-19) being contrasted with the condition of the modern (sentences 2-6). But in the development of the contrasted ideas several other methods are exemplified. Thus it is hardly necessary to point out that the contrasted ideas are themselves developed by the method of particu- lars. Again, the ideas in sentences 13 and 14 are related to each other respectively as cause and effect, and the idea of sentence 15, that the school-master was a welcome guest, is developed in sentences 16 and 17 by means of illustrative particulars. A minor contrast appears in sentence-groups 10-14 and 15-17. Note in this paragraph the words used to show the con- nection of ideas : in sentence 7, but; in sentence 11, yet; in sentence 13, but^ therefore; in sentence 14, thus; in sentence 15, yet. What to Say, 125 EXERCISE ^ 38. Distinguish the methods of development used in the following paragraphs: — Women as Household Decorators. [From Women and Men^ by permission. Copyright, 1887, by Harper and ' It once hajipened to me to spend a day or two in a country-house where the different rooms gave unconscious object-lessons to show the gradual change of taste in household decoration..; One room — the sitting-room of an elderly invalid — represented what might be called the iron age of furnishing ; everything was dark mahogany and hair-cloth ; there was not a chair or a sofa on which you could retain youo* seat without a struggle, so polished and so slippery were they all. " The walls were hung with dark portraits in dark frames, or smaller daguerreotypes in circles of black walnut ; the only spots of color were found in one faded sampler, and in the gilded circu- lar frame of^^^very small mirror hung too high for use. -t^. It was cuHbttsHa^^Ss from this sombre abode into the bedroom I occupied, which had been fitted up by an elder sister, long since married, and whose girlhood fell in what might be called the glacial period of thirty years ago.,;. Here everything was white instead of dark — white Parian statuettes, white fluffy embroideries, a white cross cut in complicated fashion out of paper, surrounded with white flowers and hung in a white frame against a white wall. On the mantel-piece stood a pair of cut-glass vases, bearing great clus- ters of dried grasses, bleached almost colorless by time. The furni- ture was of straw, and the counterpane was of white damask. If the room of the iron age was depressing, this was even more so ; it was ^ like passing from an underground cave into a chilly world of ice. yTy^^ But a third experience was offered on proceeding to the parlor, ^ which had been given over to the charge of the youngest daughter, fresh from an art school. From this room every article of pure white or jet black had been banished ; the eye wandered from one half tint to another, or if any bit of positive color arrested the gaze, it was some unexpected stroke of bold yellow or regal red. " ^o two chairs were alike ; nothing was paired ; the carved marble mantel- 126 Composition- Rhetoric, ^ piece was concealed by a lambrequin ; there were screens, fans, a knot of some Oriental stuff at the back of every chair, three vari- ous vases of bulrushes, and seven seltzer-water jars painted by the young lady herself. This room did not belong to the iron age, nor yet to the glacial, but to the recent or Japanese formation.' Con- sidered as a step forward from the earlier stages represented in that house, it indicated a great advance ; regarded as a finality, it ,was something to appall the human heart. X Now all these successive transformations were the work of women, and they suggest the question. If woman is thus the born and appointed decorator of the home, why should she not be trained to do it artistically and professionally? -It is not truly artistic to plunge at once into the most exclusive extreme of the present fashion, whether it lead to black, or white, or a multiplicity of hue, but to take what is truly the best of each period and adapt it gracefully to modern use and to the needs of each separate family. In many houses this is now exquisitely done ; no one can deny the great improvement in our "interiors" within twenty years. But if it is to be done systematically for the community, it is impossi- ble to leave it wholly to amateurs. • The modern decoration implies architects, designers, and artificers of its own. In the foreman of an art-blacksmith's shop I found the other day one whom I had previously known as a working jeweller ; he had simply transferred his energy and skill from gold and silver to brass and iron, and was laboring with hands harder than before, yet no less cunning, upon graceful gas-fixtures and indoor ornamentations of his own design- ing. ' It must be the same with women ; they must undergo profes- sional training to do their best. Here is this whole continent waiting to be made graceful and beautiful in its indoor homes. It is said by dealers that, outside of a few large cities, there is absolutely no arrangement to suppl}'^ this demand, — no one who can give to a young couple setting up their house-keeping more than that amount of information possessed by the average furniture dealer, which is very little. For want of this many a young pair, as their wedding- day approaches, sit down and ponder helplessly over some book on "The House Beautiful," or "Indoor Decoration," until their souls are filled with despair. ) Where are they to find these charming portieres^ these aesthetic wall-papers, these delightful Russian wash- bowls that are lighter and prettier and cheaper and more durable What to Say, 127 than any china? And the dealers receive unavailing letters from a thousand miles away, asking for the wrong things or under the wrong names, and ending in failure. What is the remedy? The remedy is for a few women first, and then a good many women, after training themselves properly, to take up decoration as a profession. Let any two bright and capable girls w^ho have j^'l,^' wearied themselves in painting water-colors that people do not want, or Christmas cards for which the market is waning, try another experiment. Let them, after studying in the art schools of I^ew York or Boston or Cincinnati, make also a careful study of the markets and workshops of those cities, so far as they relate to decoration; and then go, armed with circulars, price-lists, plans, and patterns, to establish themselves as household decorators in some interior city, where the wave of modern improvement has thus far come only as a matter of intelligent interest, not of syste- matic supply. They will have to wait awhile, no doubt, to com- mand public confidence, or even to make their mission understood ; but they will not have to wait so long as their brothers will wait for clients or for patients. They will need to be very practical, very accurate, very efiicient, and very patient. The great dealers in the larger cities will gladly make them their agents, give them letters of introduction, and pay them a commission on sales. With a little tact they can learn to co-operate with the local dealers, to whom they will naturally leave the coarser supplies, devoting them- selves to the finer touches. If they succeed at all, their circle of clients or correspondents may extend through whole states, and they will help to refine the life and thought of the nation. By all means let us see women take up household decoration as an edu- cated profession. — T. W. HiGGINSON. Before closing this chapter let me say something about the reading of business letters as well as the writing of them. It is, perhaps, a harder duty to read such letters with the necessary- degree of attention than to compose them, for the author has his head charged with the subject, and writing the letter is a relief to him, but to the receiver the matter is new, and however lucid may be the exposition it always requires some degree of real attention on his part. How are you, being at a distance, to get an indolent man to bestow that necessary attention ? He feels secure from a has 3te- Q ^ 128 Composition-Rhetoric. personal visit, and indulges his indolence by neglecting your con- cerns, even when they are also his own. Long ago I heard an English Archdeacon tell the following story about his Bishop. The prelate was one of that numerous class of men who loathe the sight of a business letter, and he had indulged his indolence in that respect to such a degree that, little by little, he had arrived at the fatal stage where one leaves letters unopened for days or weeks. At one particular time the Archdeacon was aware of a great arrear of unopened letters, and impressed his lordship with the necessity of taking some note of their contents. Yielding to a stronger will, the Bishop began to read, and one of the first com- munications was from a wealthy man who offered a large sum for church purposes (I think for building), but if the offer was not accepted within a certain lapse of time he declared his intention of making it to that which a Bishop loveth not — a dissenting community. The prelate had opened the letter too late, and he lost the money. I believe that the Archdeacon's vexation at the loss was more than counterbalanced by gratification that his hie- rarchical superior had received such a lesson for his neglect. Yet he did but imitate Napoleon, of whom Emerson says, "■ He directed Bourrienne to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed wdth satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had disposed of itself and no longer required an answer." This is a very unsafe system to adopt, as the case of the Bishop proves. Things may "dispose of themselves" in the wrong way, like wine in a leaky cask, which, instead of putting itself carefully into a sound cask, goes trickling into the earth. — Hamerton: Human Intercourse. False ideals of dignity are very inimical to effective bodily exer- cise. A foolish notion that it is more dignified to be seen in a carriage than on horseback has deprived all French ecclesiastics of the use of the saddle. Their modes of locomotion are settled by a fixed rule; they may walk (generally with the breviary in their hands, which they read whilst walking), and the poor cure may now keep a small pony carriage. A bishop must alw^ays ride in a close carriage drawn by a pair of horses. A cure may drive himself ; a bishop may not drive. In England these rules are not so strict, as the clergy are not so widely different from the laity. What to Say, 129 The English clergyman may ride on horseback and be active in other ways; still there is a prejudice even in England against too much healthy activity in clergymen. Being on a visit to a vicar in the north of England, I found that he possessed a com- plete apparatus for archery. " That is a good thing for you/' I said; but he looked melancholy, and answered, "It would be if my parishioners permitted the use of it, but they talked so much that I was forced to give up archery. They considered it unbe- coming in a clergyman, who ought to be attending to his parish. Had I spent the same time over a decanter of port wine in my dining-room they would have raised no objection." The same clergyman was fond of leaping, but indulged that passion in secret as if it had been a sin. Still, these prejudices are stronger in France. I never saw a French priest shoot, or hunt, or row in a boat. It cannot be the cruelty of shooting and hunting which prevents him, as he is allowed to fish with hooks; it is simply the activity of the manlier sports that excites disapprobation. All Frenchmen who care for their dignity avoid velocipedes of all kinds, which are used only by young men, who are generally in the middle class, such as clerks and shopkeepers' assistants. In England, where the prejudice against activity is not so strong, velocipedes are often used by rather elderly gentlemen, who are not ashamed of being active. — Hamertojs^ : French and English, 7. It was quite three weeks before I began to keep any record of impressions, and I cannot therefore fix the date at which I pushed my search for them beyond the limits of the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where we were lodged. It is better to own up at once to any sin which one is likely to be found out in, for then one gains at least the credit of candor and courage ; and I will confess here that I had come to Florence with the intention of writing about it. But I rather wonder now w^hy I should have thought of writ- ing of the whole city, when one piazza in it was interesting enough to make a book about. It was in itself not one of the most inter- esting piazzas of Florence in the ordinary way. I do not know that anything very historical ever happened there ; but that is by no means saying that there did not. There used, under the early Medici and the late grand dukes, to be chariot-races in it, the goals of which are the two obelisks by John of Bologna, set upon the 130 Oomposition-Rhetoric, backs of the bronze turtles, which the sympathetic observer will fancy gasping under their weight at either end of the irregular space ; and its wide floor is still unpaved, so that it is a sop of mud in rainy weather, and a whirl of dust in dry. At the end opposite the church is the terminus of the steam tramway running to Prato, and the small engine that drew the trains of two or three horse-cars linked together was perpetually fretting and snufiling about the base of the obelisk there, as if that were a stump, and the engine were a boy's dog with intolerable conviction of a wood- chuck under it. From time to time the conductor blew a small horn of a feeble, reedy note, like that of the horns which children find in their stockings on Christmas morning ; and then the poor little engine hitched itself to the train, and with an air of hopeless affliction snuffled awaj^ toward Prato, and left the w^oodchuck under the obelisk to escape. The impression of a woodchuck was confirmed by the digging around the obelisk, which a gang of workmen kept up all winter ; they laid down water-pipes, and then dug them up again. But when the engine was gone we could give our minds to other sights in the piazza. One of these was the passage of troops, infantry or cavalry, who were always going to or from the great railway station behind the church, and who entered it with a gay blare of bugles, extinguished midway of the square, letting the measured tramp of feet or the irregular clack of hoofs make itself heard. This w^as always thrill- ing, and we could not get enough of the brave spectacle. We rejoiced in the parade of Italian military force with even more than native ardor, for w^e were not taxed to pay for it, and person- ally the men were beautiful ; not large or strong, but regular and refined of face, rank and file alike, in that democracy of good looks which one sees in no other land. They marched with a lounging, swinging step, under a heavy burden of equipment, and with the sort of quiet patience to which the whole nation has been schooled in its advance out of slavish subjection to the van of civilization. — HowELLS : Tuscan Cities, 4, 5. ff EXERCISE 39. Develop the following outlines into paragraphs by supplying the missing sentences : — iffi^ What to Say, 131 Kh The discovery of the American continent was made by a native of Italy, but Ttopic-senteiice 'snowing Spain's interest ^'^^^^^^^Bp^cffi^ Thus it came about [result, devel- .. The Monroe Doctrine is a warning to European powers to -v^j^ keep their hands off territory in North and South America.^ In other words . . . [repetition] , . .- This is as if . . . f^ To-day one may be . . . \f'{He?bntrast] . . . Twenty -four hours may ::•. . [repetitWii^ Emphasizing rapidity of events] . . 3^» It was so with . . . [example from history] . . . when he . . . [particulars] . . . From such sudden changes one . may come forth much stronger in character, and XUViJLJW. [result]. »ffoujdj^ ^ra>u oWbiiu \j^o>c fcW Uuuuly \^<-^ ?-^^ During the annual meeting of the Westinghouse Electric ^^^^^ Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh recently, a test was made of a new railway electric motor. This motor easily drew several loaded freight cars at a rapid rate and with a low supply of electricity, and the opinion was general that in this invention there has been found an economical sub- stitute for steam-power on long-distance railways. If this should prove to be the case . . . [results] . . . These ^ changes are sure to come in time, because .'-. . [proofs *^^I ^^>*^^^hx)^ing their desirability] , . . The only thing that can "^ AiMdelay the subsft?iifeon of electric for steam power is the iV^ question of expense .. . rparticiilarsl . « . But PrV [con-;. \, trasF sjiowmg tnat tms^ ODjectioii wlQ oe o^rcomej . . . ^^^^'ne pfesent situation is somewhat similar to that whicgh , existed when-V^V^/ [comparison showing that expense did' ^> ^" not prevent the adoption o:^ "an earliCT invention] ... It will be so with this latest invention. The extraordinary demand for the new motor will enable the manufacturers to furnish it at rates very much lower than now appear pos- Vji sible; and we may, therefore, expect AJt . J^^iCyl^e^mtJ ."^ ^'k\-M % How differently tenants treat rented property entrusted , U ;o their care! One class seem utterly careless of appear- ^ i . ancesOA^."^ [particulars] . . . On the other hand, some ^ tenants take pride in keeping the property in repair o. . * i^ [other particulal'sj' . . . Landlords are fortunate in secur- ing tenants of this class, but they do not expect such to stay long, for such industrious and careful persons usually man- A . age, after a time to ^. .- [particular result of industry]. \ ^^^^^ Every boy has soineAvliere stored away in his mind the^* memory of some thrilling personal adventure or delightful personal experience. As often as he thinks of it jX -i^^^ V^ ^^pSSte] . . . It is as if .' . . [comparison to bring oiirtSr*^^^ Ok/ir<>^Vidness of the recollection] . . . Such was. the experience which came to me ^.|jO . [x-)articulars, time, place, circum- /^ ooA ^Ti^!^^i^1^^^^ of the wiiole matter was ^^V*^^ w^^ It is probable that the southern states would not have begun the Civil War had the southern people realized the ''^ great wealth and resources of the populous North. Had ^ they known of the . . . [particulars specifying resources] ►■'^^Kis^^. *they would not so hastily . . . ^f result] .' . . Tlic leaders of the secession movement doubtless did not under- estimate the strength of the North, though they did misun- derstand its temper. But the plain people of the South who filled the southern a rmies and bore t he heaviest bur- dens of the conflict IANT^^B'^^ were misled What to Say, 133 by appeals to their state pride, while the real facts as to the power and spirit of the Korth were concealed from them. That thej maintained a brave and stubborn contest so long was due'-}'. . [cause and cfrc/ct] • . . ; their uniform suc- cess at the beginning of. the war was nuiiiily owiu^^ , _^ . |>J*^a&^e and effect] ■. ^?^*C)iice the Xorth was'^fully arousVa ^^1^,^^ .•^result] . . . They were clearly over-matclied. EXERCISE 40. a I ' Develop the following topic-sentences, using at least two of the methods of development described in the foregoing lessons : — /I. The dangers of athletic contests are over-estimated. 2. Longfellow and Whittier were different types of men. 3. Elvers seem to have lost much of their importance with the geographers. ' 4. There is much to be learned from a visit to a machine shop. 5. Burr's whole career was marked by insincerity. 6. At the dead of night, every sound seems to be full of a fearful significance. 7. The winter at Valley Porge was full of suft'ering for Washington's army. 8. Fishing excursions, I have noticed, are seldom re- peated by the same people during the same season. 9. American states have not yet learned how to deal effectively with the tramp. 10. Rapid street-railway transit is making healthier homes possible for laboring men. 11. There are very few of the old proverbs that prove true in all cases. 12. There is a vital distinction between "liberty" and " doing what you please." 13. Loss of hearing deprives one of more pleasures than loss of sight. CHAPTER IV. HOVv^ TO SAY IT. * * LESSON 21. Short Sentences and Their Uses. In the preceding chapter we have seen that a writer may build up a paragraph from a topic-sentence by adding other sentences containing one or more of the following : repeti- tions of some of the ideas of the topic-sentence, particulars and details, specific instances or examples, comparisons and analogies, statements telling what a thing is not or is not like, contrasts, causes or effects, and proofs. Having built up the paragraph from the topic-sentence by one or more of these methods, the question still remains for the writer whether he has properly divided his thought into sentences. One important part of this question is concerned with the length of the different sentences. Shall the sentences be all of about the same length, or of different lengths ? and why ? Are there special uses for long sentences in a paragraph and special uses for short sentences ? We will answer the last question first. Observe in the following paragraphs how sharply the attention is arrested by the short sentences (here printed in italics). It is because short sentences attract attention that the topic-sentence of a paragraph is often found expressed in a short sentence. (See Lesson 11.) 134 Eow to Say IL 135 Age brings other obvious changes besides the loss of active power. The sensibilities are less keen, the intelligence is less lively, as we might expect under the influence of that narcotic w^hich Nature administers. But there is another effect of her "black drop" which is not so commonly recognized. Old age is like an opiu7n-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal. 1 am sure that the pictures painted by the imagination, — the faded frescoes on the walls of memory, — come out in clearer and brighter colors than belonged to them many years earlier. Nature has her special favors for her children of every age, and this is one which she reserves for our second childhood. — O. W. Holmes : Over the Teacups, 39. The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. To pre- serve that liberty inviolate, seems the particular duty and proper trust of a member of the house of commons. But the liberty, the only liberty I mean, is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. — Burke: Speech on Ameri- can Taxation. Observe in the following paragraphs that the short sen- tences (here in italics) mark a transition from one part of the subject to another : — To write history respectably — that is, to abbreviate despatches, and make extracts from speeches, to intersperse in due proportion epithets of praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical char- acters of great men, setting forth how many contradictory virtues and vices they united, and abounding in withs and withouts — all this is very easy. But to be a really great historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions. Many scientific works are, in their kind, absolutely perfect. There are poems which we should be inclined to designate as faultless, or as disfigured only by blemishes which pass unnoticed in the general blaze of excel- lence. There are speeches, some speeches of Demosthenes particu- larly, in which it would be impossible to alter a word without altering it for the worse. But we are acquainted with no history 136 Composition-Rhetoric, which approaches to our notion of what a history ought to be — with no history which does not widely depart, either on the right hand or on the left, from the exact line. Tlie cause may easily he assigned. This province of literature is a debatable land. It lies on the confines of two distinct terri- tories. It is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; and like other districts similarly situated, it is ill-defined, ill-cultivated, and ill-regulated. Instead of being equally shared between its two rulers, the Reason and the Imagination, it falls alternately under the sole and absolute dominion of each. It is sometimes fiction. It is sometimes theory. History, it has heen said, is philosophy teaching by examples. Un- happily, what the philosophy gains in soundness and depth the examples generally lose in vividness. A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque. Yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner. Yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis. Those who can justly estimate these almost insuperable difficulties will not think it strange that every writer should have failed, either in the narrative or in the specu- lative department of history. — M AC aulay : Essay on History. I am not going to write the history of La Pucelle : to do this, or even circumstantially to report the history of her persecution and bitter death, of her struggle with false witnesses and with ensnaring judges, it would be necessary to have before us all the documents, and therefore the collection only now forthcoming in Paris. But my purpose is narrower. There have been great thinkers, disdaining the careless judgments of contemporaries, who have thrown themselves boldly on the judgment of a far posterity, that should have had time to review, to ponder, to compare. There have been great actors on the stage of tragic humanity that might, with the same depth of confidence, have appealed from the levity of compatriot friends — too heartless for the sublime interest of their story, and too impatient for the labor of sifting its perplexi- ties — to the magnanimity and justice of enemies. To this class How to Say It. 137 belongs the Maid of Arc. The ancient Romans were too faithful to the ideal of grandeur in themselves not to relent, after a gen- eration or two, before the grandeur of Hannibal. Mithridates, a more doubtful person, yet merely for the magic perseverance of his indomitable malice, w^on from the same Romans the only real honor that ever he received on earth. And we English have ever shown the same homage to stubborn enmity. To work vmflinchingly for the ruin of England ; to say through life, by word and by deed, Delenda est Anglia Victrix ! — that one purpose of malice, faithfully pursued, has quartered some people upon our national funds of homage as by a perpetual annuity . . . On the same principle, La Pucelle d'Orleans, the victorious enemy of England, has been destined to receive her deepest commemoration from the mag- nanimous justice of Englishmen. — De Quincey: Joan of Arc. In the following paragraph, note that the short sentences (here in italics) announce ideas that are developed or ex- plained in the longer sentences which follow : — We will leave to a separate chapter our sketch of the literary society of Edinburgh as then flourishing. The attitude of Burns in respect to it is very curious and interesting. Here was a young peasant, without education, without knowledge of the world, full of Scotch reserve and that farouche pride of the rustic which reaches the height of a passion. The pride which is supposed to accompany blue blood and great descent has justifications outside of the indi- vidual possessed by it ; and in most cases it imposes a certain re- straint upon that individual, and demands of him some qualities, or at least some graces, in accordance with it. But the pride of a peasant is wildly personal, and independent of every consideration. The more he is conscious of his deficiencies even, the more w^ildly bent he will be upon attentions and observances due in society only to high social qualifications. From the moment when Burns steps into the light in Edinburgh, this mixture of shyness, inordinate self- opinion, and an almost polemical determination to prove himself the equal, if not the superior of everybody round hinij appears both in his behavior and in the private records of his opinions. It was no doubt a very difficult position. Uncultured, unaccustomed to the ways of society, knowing nobody, feeling himself a kind of vague 138 Composition-Rhetoric, representative, not only of genius but of man, among a curious crowd of superiors, all more or less disposed to infringe these rights, to patronize him, and lessen his own sense of dignity, he appears on the defensive, always watchful lest some affront should be intended ; beguiled indeed, into better moods in the warmth of social intercourse, but ever ready to take fire again, and to resent not only imaginary slights to himself, but even the civilities offered to others whom he thinks less worthy. — Oliphant : Literary His- tory of the Nineteenth Century, I, 112, 113. ]!^ote, in the following paragraphs, that the short sentences (printed in italics) are summaries of the thought expressed at greater length in preceding sentences. The short sen- tences here put the whole truth in a brief and striking form, abrupt, emphatic, and easily remembered. It is be- cause a short sentence, when used in connection with longer sentences, is emphatic by contrast, that writers often put the most important thought of a paragraph into a short sen- tence, and when they repeat for emphasis, repeat in a short sentence. A brief quotation, an epigram, or a proverb often serves admirably the purpose of a summary. Sir, whilst we held this happy course, we drew more from the Colonies than all the impotent violence of despotism ever could extort from them. We did this abundantly in the last war. It has never been once denied ; and what reason have we to imagine that the Colonies would not have proceeded in supplying government as liberally, if you had not stepped in and hindered them from contributing, by interrupting the channel in which their liberality flowed with so strong a course ; by attempting to take, instead of being satisfied to receive? Sir William Temple says that Holland has loaded itself with ten times the impositions, which it revolted from Spain, rather than submit to. He says true. Tyranny is a poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor how to extract. — Burke: American Taxation. Samuel Adams was the true king in Boston at that time. He was a man in middle life, of cultivated mind and stainless repu- tation — a powerful speaker and writer — a man in whose sagacity How to Say It. 139 and moderation all men trusted. He resembled the old Puritans in his stern love of liberty — his reverence for the Sabbath, his sincere, if somewhat formal, observance of all religious ordinances. He was among the first to see that there was no resting-place in this struggle short of independence. " We are free,'* he said, '^ and want no king.'' The men of Boston felt the power of his resolute spu'it, and manfully followed where Samuel Adams led. — Mackenzie: America. On the day of his death, this simple Western attorney, who according to one party was a vulgar joker, and whom the doctri- naires among his own supporters accused of wanting every element of statesmanship, was the most absolute ruler in Christendom, and this solely by the hold his good-humored sagacity had laid on the hearts and understandings of his countrymen. Nor was this all, for it appeared that he had drawn the great majority, not only of his fellow-citizens, but of mankind also, to his side. So strong and so persuasive is honest manliness without a single quality of romance or unreal sentiment to help it ! A civilian during times of the most captivating military achievement, awkward, with no skill in the lower technicalities of manners, he left behind him a fame beyond tjiat of any conqueror, the memory of a grace higher than that of outward person, and of a gentlemanliness deeper than mere breeding. Never before that startled April morning did such multitudes of men shed tears for the death of one they had never seen, as if with him a friendly presence had been taken away from their lives, leaving them colder and darker. Never was funeral panegyric so eloquent as the silent look of sympathy which stran- gers exchanged when they met on that day. Their common manhood had lost a kinsman. — Lowell : Abraham Lincoln. In the following paragraphs the short sentences secure directness and vigor of statement. The reader feels that his attention is wanted at every step, and that every step is important. Each detail gains distinction by being stated in a separate sentence. Meantime the guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself ; or rather it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to 140 Composition-Rhetoric, be true to itself. It labors under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with it. The human heart was not made for the residence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment which it dares not acknowledge to God or man. A vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance, either from heaven or earth. The secret which the murderer pos- sesses soon comes to possess him; and, like the evil spirits of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him whithersoever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his thoughts. It has become his master. It betrays his discretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his prudence. When suspicions from without begin to embarrass him, and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession. — Webster : Murder of White. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this ; but in a larger sense we can- not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conse- crated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us — the living — rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure . of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this Eow to Say It. 141 nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Lincoln : Gettysburg Address, In the following paragraphs, observe that the succession of short sentences produces the effect of hurry, gives a quickness of movement needed by the thought itself: — Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke. Dead men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid flat ; dead men and dying : but no man upon his feet. The last volley had swept the deck clear ; one by one had dropped below to escape that fiery shower : and alone at the helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his raustachios curling up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain. N'ow was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for the boarders, and in two minutes more he was over the side, and clutching at the Spaniard's mizzen rigging. What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's \3ide was widening. Was she sheering off? Yes — and rising too, growing bodily higher every moment, as if by magic. Amyas looked up in astonishment and saw what it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast over to leeward away from him. Her masts were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter — the end was come, then ! ^'Back! in God's name, back, men! She is sinking by the liead ! " And with much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back — all but old Michael Heard. With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure, like some weird old Indian fakir, still clim^ cd on stead- fastly up the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand. " Come back, Michael ! Leap while you may ! " shouted a dozen voices. Michael turned — " And what should I come back for, then, to go heme where no one knoweth me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the reason why ! " and turning, he sprang in over the bul- warks, as the huge ship rolled up more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all her long black hulk almost down to her keel ; and one of her lower-deck guns, as if in defiance, exploded upright into the air, hurling the ball to the very heavens. 142 Composition-Rhetoric, In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke, and the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the defenceless Spaniard. " Who fired ? Shame to fire on a sinking ship ! " "Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice up from the main-deck. " He's like a madman down here." " Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my own brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see how she drags us over ? Cut away, or we shall sink with her." They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men held their breaths. Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as if in noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her bows were deep in the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted : but only for a moment, long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly up on deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his left hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his right. " Back, men ! " they heard him cry, " and die like valiant mariners." Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted " Mercy ! We surrender ! " and the English broke into a cheer, and called to them to run her alongside. — Kingsley : Westward Ho ! In the paragraphs just preceding, the short sentences with their quick and hurried effect correspond very well to the character of the thought or the action portrayed. When the thought does not itself require this effect of hurry, it is a mistake to use a succession of short sentences. In the following there is a broken, scrappy, and jerky effect which the thought does not call for : — At an unknown hour he was aroused by a creaking of boards. Lifting himself upon his elbow, he saw a sergeant prowling among the sleeping forms. The sergeant carried a candle in an old brass candlestick. He w^ould have resembled some old farmer on an unusual midnight tour if it were not for the significance of his gleaming buttons and striped sleeves. — Stephen Crane : The Lit- tle Regiment How to Say It, 143 The repeal of the Stamp Act delayed only for a little the fast- coming crisis. A new ministry was formed, with the Earl of Chatham at its head. But soon the great Earl lay sick and help- less, and the burden of government rested on incapable shoulders. Charles Townshend, a clever, captivating, but most indiscreet man, became the virtual Prime Minister. The feeling in the pub- lic mind had now become more unfavorable to America. Town- shend proposed to levy a variety of taxes from the Americans. The most famous of his taxes was one of threepence per pound on tea. All his proposals became law. This time the more thoughtful Americans began to despair of justice. The boldest scarcely ventured yet to suggest revolt against England, so powerful and so loved. But the grand final refuge of independence w^as silently brooded over by many. The mob fell back on their customary solution. Great riots occurred. To quell these disorders English troops encamped on Boston Common. The town swarmed with red-coated men, every one of whom was a humiliation. Their drums beat on Sunday, and troubled the or- derly men of Boston, even in church. At intervals fresh transports dropped in, bearing additional soldiers, till a great force occupied the town. The galled citizens could ill brook to be thus bridled. The ministers prayed to Heaven for deliverance from the presence of the soldiers. The General Court of Massachusetts called vehe- mently on the Governor to remove them. The Governor had no powers in that matter. He called upon the court to make suitable provision for the King's troops, — a request which it gave the court infinite pleasure to refuse. — Mackenzie: America. Sometimes a series of short sentences will result in a lack of clearness in the paragraph, as a whole. Sentences are not necessarily clear in meaning because they are short. Longer sentences of explanation are needed for a difficult thought. In the following paragraphs the thought remains obscure in spite of the succession of short sentences. In the second paragraph the short statements separated by semicolons are really to be classed as short sentences. Many facts concur to show that we must look deeper for our sal- vation than to steam, photographs, balloons, or astronomy. These 144 Composition-Rhetoric . tools have some questionable properties. They are reagents. Ma- chinery is aggressive. The weaver becomes a web, the machinist a machine. If you do not use the tools, they use you. All tools are in one sense edge-tools, and dangerous. A man builds a fine house ; and now he has a master and a task for life : he is to fur- nish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days. A man has a reputation, and is no longer free, but must respect that. A man makes a picture or a book, and, if it succeeds, 'tis often the worse for him. I saw a brave man the other day, hith- erto as free as the hawk or the fox of the wilderness, constructing his cabinet of drawers for shells, eggs, minerals, and mounted birds. It was easy to see that he was amusing himself with mak- ing pretty links for his own limbs. — Emerson : Works and Days. We are just so frivolous and sceptical. Men hold themselves cheap and vile ; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All the elements pour through his system ; he is the flood of the flood, and fire of the fire ; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops of his blood : they are the extension of his personality. His du- ties are measured by that instrument he is ; and a right and per- fect man would be felt to the centre of the Coper nican system. 'Tis curious that we only believe as deep as we live. We do not think heroes can exert any more awful power than that surface- play which amuses us. A deep man believes in miracles, waits for them, believes in magic, believes that the orator will decompose his adversary; believes that the evil eye can wither; that the heart's blessing can heal ; that love can exalt talent ; can overcome all odds. From a great heart secret magnetisms flow incessantly to draw great events. But we prize very humble utilities, a pru- dent husband, a good son, a voter, a citizen, and deprecate any romance of character; and perhaps reckon only his money value, — his intellect, his affection, as a sort of bill of exchange, easily convertible into fine chambers, pictures, music, and wine. — Emerson: Essay on Beauty. The short sentence, used in connection with longer sentences, arrests the attention sharply, and hence is useful for marking a transition, for announcing an idea to he explained further, and for summarizing the thought in abrupt, emphatic form. A succession ^ rjjv^ How to Say It, 145 of short sentences may be used to indicate rapidity of movement, if fclie thought requires this. Short sentences impart directness and vigor to thought. EXERCISE 41. Account for the use of the short sentences of the para- graphs quoted in Lessons 12 to 20. EXERCISE 42. Convert the long topic-sentence of the following para- graphs into a short sentence : — » . -^ ^. V A Kepresentative Barrett has introSucea hito jhe House a joint ^e^fljfnno^ ameiidrfient' to the Constitution to the effect that Congress may have power to limit uniformly the hours of labor in manufactories of textile fabrics and other industries. This is aimed at the supposed advantage which the South, with its long hour system, has over I^ew England manufacturers ; but it would not, however, prevent the eventual transference of the cotton industry to the former section. It is a fair question whether under the '' implied powers" doctrine developed by Hamilton, Congress has not already the power to legislate on this question without any amendment. The main point is to get the legislation. The short hour movement is steadily progressing, and as the South develops it will make itself manifest there. But there is not much hope that Congress can be brought to act upon the subject until it takes the form of a national agitation. ^ , ^ v*-*^. " yV. Ill order to, remove a not uiiconimon but erroneous impression trraffe^tte Alaska boundary line is now, and kas been for some time, in a state of adjudication, it may be well to say that thus far noth- ing has been done except to execute such surveys as have been thought desirable and necessary for the construction of maps, by which the whole subject could be properly presented to a joint boundary-line commission, whenever such should be appointed, and on which the location of the line could be definitely laid down if a mutual agreement should be reached. Such a survey was first {\ t^Yr>.Vi tsJi «>% A t . ■ \ X /T Wit n^M 146 OompositioU'Rhetoric, brought to the attention of Congress in a message of President Grant in 1872. It was not until 1889, however, that the work was begun by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which sent two parties to the valley of the Yukon, in the vast interior of the territory, with instructions to establish camps, one on that river, and the other on its branch, the Porcupine, both to be as near to the one hundred and forty-first meridian as possible. These parties were to carry on a series of astronomical observations for the purpose of determining the location of the meridian, to execute such triangulation and topographical surveys as were necessary for its identification, and to establish permanent monuments as nearly as might be upon the meridian line. ' The mass df societyQook with eiVvy upon the epicure, who, day by day, for four hours of luxurious eating, suffers twenty hours of sharp aching ; who pays a full price for a hot supper, and is so pleased with the bargain, that he throws in a sleepless and tem- pestuous night as a gratuity. English factory children have re- ceived the commiseration of the world, because they were scourged to work eighteen hours out of the twenty-four ; but there is many a theoretic republican who is a harsher Pharaoh to his stomach than this; — who allows it no more resting-time than he does his ■watch ; who gives it no Sunday, no holiday, no vacation in any sense. Our pious ancestors enacted a law" that suicides should be buried where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should be thrown upon the body. Yet when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide, not by cord or steel, but by turtle-soup or lobster-salad, they may be buried in consecrated ground, and under the auspices of the church, and the public are not ashamed to read an epitaph upon their tombstones false enough to make the marble blush. Were the barbarous old law now in force that punished the body of the suicide for the offence which his soul had committed, we should find many a cemetery at the cross-roads. ^r^>^. EXERCISE 43. Convert the •material of each of the following long- sentence paragraphs into a paragraph of shorter sentences of different lengths : — ^ Rojv to Say It. 147 The United States Senate m^^ be looked upon^a^ the best j^ • ^^-^^ 'trainihg'-sdiool in skit'^sinaiisliip wo ]i;iAh liad, ---not,' of coarse, so '^' ' ^"^ "cdnspicuouslj in administrative funclion, Ixib in the consideration ^ y ^^^'^^^^b^^reat "T^.tional problems; and if nvc look tl^B? li man o^*^^^^ '^^'^^^^b^ -^req^t Thi.^Onal problems I^CTM^^ntiiltio'ti^ Experience, 'of' prominence in the conduct of business, a representative of the Mississippi valley, and in the prime of mature life, we shall find bim iivthe Senator from Iowa, William Boyd •^j^^-^llison . It is %fei'tn^?dnl6%6 "consider tlie stand he has taken j^ii' , V*^'^ great pul)lic questioiis, and >thecoMribtition -which his temper¥^ ^ '. mcnt, aljility, and character make toward his fitness for the highest^'vX^ J^' ollice ill the gift of the nation. ■ Z\\v. Allison has just been honoreci^*^'^ ^tmt&S" State of Iowa with a fifth election to the Senate oi 'th^^ . ^V!^^^->'X)fiS^'^ and this circu'tn stance, rare in the history of ouf^ -M^A ^-^9~^Mnnt^, has --an added significance in the fact that every election by his party associates has been unanimous. On the last occasion no other name was even mentioned for the office, and the election was followed by a scene memorable for its enthusiasm, in which the representatives of both parties in the legislature joined. Thirty years' continuous congressional service on the part of a citizen of a State, confessedly high in intelligence, is in itself an evidence of f^t liiay n6i seem that the few minutes which are given each day to physicahpulture in our schools will affect materially, for better or worse^^Jtfe chfCvacter and bearing of the children who are sub- jected to it ; Jij^ \)Orien it is remembered that this sort of thing goes on day after day for eight or nine years, its influence will be more ^^ readily appreciated, and its hygienic importance more fully real- ized. If the present mental strain is to continue in our schools, '^ then we must strive to overcome the nervousness which it induces through the efficient culture of the body. We must not have as f our ideal of the work of physical training the development of great muscular strength and dexteritviso much as the promotion of health, and rendering the body an unconscious and ready ^ instrument of the mind in the expression of its most gracious qualities. Nor can we hope, under the conditions which exist in our schools, to make the bodies of all our children symmetrical and harmonious by physical training ;*1^ we have to deal there with children in the great average, and it is only by dealing with & •4 Composition- Rhetoric, (!ividual tendencies that we can secure perfect symmetry and harmony. But after all, this is not such a serious question ; 3(Tr if we can foster and promote the health of children, and induce in them the right attitude of spirit, the tendency of nature toward symmetry and harmony will produce gratifying results. In the morning, very early, we heard the enemy's trumpets sound to horse; IJiis roused us to look abroad; and sending out a scout, he brought us word a party of the enemy was at hand. We were vexed to be so disappointed, but finding their party small enough to be dealt with. Sir Marmaduke ordered me to cKaj-ge them with three hundred horse and two hundred dragoons, ^i^Wjf he at the same time entered the town. Accordingly I lay stm till they came to the very skirt of the wood where I was postedj^^en I saluted them with a volley from my dragoons out of the wood, and immediately showedi myself with my horse on their front, ready to charge them ,>Jiey appeared not toA^p surprised, and received our charge with great resolution; a^d^bQing above four / hundred men, they pushed me vigorously in their turn, putting my '^J^ men into some disorder. In this extremity, I sent to order my ^ dragoons to charge them in the flank, which they did with great bravery, and the other still maintained the fight with desperate resolution. There was no want of courage in/our men on both sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and at last routed them, and drove them back to the village. Here Sir Marmaduke Langdale had his hands full too ; for my firing had alarmed the towns adjacent, that when he came into the town, he found them all in arms ; and contrary to liis expectations, two regiments of foot with about three hundred horse more. As Sir Marmaduke had no foot, only horse and dragoons, this was a surprise to him ; but he caused his dragoons to enter the town, and charge the foot, while his horse secured the avenues of the town. The dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and Sir Marmaduke falling in with his horse, the fight was obstinate and very bloody, when the horse that I had routed came flying into the street of the village, and my men at their heels. Immediately I left the pur- suit, and fell in with all my force to the assistance of my friends,|l I -SMfd^i^er an obstinate resistance, we routed the whole party ^ ^^Jl^^ killed about seven hundred men, took three hundred and fifty, How to Say It, 149 twenty-seven officers, onje hundred arms, all their baggage, and two hundred horses,^ aWp^iDntinueTl our march to Harborough, where we halted to refresh ourselves. ^ EXERCm :^ 44. \\\jn^}j}M ' Introduce at the point indicated in each of the following paragraphs a brief sentence as striking and emphatic as you can make it : — 1. Mr. Adams carried with him into Congress all hjs jorevious ^ ^% liabotsof industry and close application to business. 2. '^ I^otI"^^**^ sentence^lmouncing the idea developed in sentences 3 and 4.] 3. Few men spent more hours in the twenty-four in assiduous labor. 4. He would take no active part in any matter, would engage in the discussion of no topic, and would not commit him- self on any question, until he had sounded it to its nether depths, and explored all its ramifications, all its bearings and irj^uenpes, and had thoroughly become master of the subject. 5. ^^^ snort ^'^"'sem^nife W^v transition. J V 6. It was in this manner that he w^as enabled to overwhelm with surprise his cotemporaries in Congress, by the profundity of his knowledge. 7. No subject could be started, no question discussed, on which he was not perfectly at home. 8. Without hesitation or mistake, he could pour forth a stream of facts, dates, names, places, accompanied with narra- tions, anecdotes, reflections, and arguments, until the matter was thoroughly sifted and laid bare in all its parts and properties, to the understanding . of the most casual pbserver. 9. [A 'Sworr ^iSl^^^yiWiiM^ ti?^-^'!fed-of>k^teftbfes 10, 11, and 12.] 10. Alas for the man who questioned the correctness of his statements, his facts, or dates. 11. Sure discomfiture awaited him. 12. His mind was a perfect calendar, a storehouse, a mine of knowledge, in relation to all past events connected wdth the history of his country and his age. 1. In connection with his other exemplary virtues, Mr. Adams was prompt, faithful, unwearied, in the discharge of all his public duties. 2. The oldest member of the House, he was at the same time the most punctual — the first at his post ; the last to retire from the labors of the day. 3. [A short sentence of transition.] 150 Oomposition- Rhetoric, 4. While many others might be negligent in their attendance, sauntering in idleness, engaged in frivolous amusements, or even in dissipation, he v^as always at his post. 5. No call of the House was necessary, no sergeant-at-arms need be despatched, to bring him within the Hall of Representatives. 6. He was the last to move an adjournment, or to adopt any device to consume time or neglect the public business for personal convenience or c'lrttifica- a tion. 7. [A sftort sentence summarizing all' the preceding sen-^-^^ tences.] 8. His example can be most profitably imitated by those ^^^ who would arise to eminence in the councils of the nation. (] 1. A great orator must have fervor. 2. In the physical world, force can be resolved into heat. 3. It is the same in the spiritual world. 4. The whole truths which the orator contemplates stir all the faculties of his soul into intense action, and this intense action takes the form of heat — of fervor. 5. His tone may be high or low, his enunciation may be rapid or slow, his language may be plain or figurative, but in any case the fervor is apparent. 6. His face glows, his eyes sparkle, his words burn, and his very sentences are poured f ortK. in anjBasy^d continuous^ flow as i^ — . they were molten. 7. [AwS^t SftM-OT^g'^SftMACp^^'^^lr^^ figurative.] (£. j^UL^Ui^ 1. An earnest student i^prone to ruin his health. 2. Hope cheats him with the belief that if he can study now without cessation, he can do so always. 3. Because he does not see the end of his strength, he foolishly concludes there is no end. 4. A spendthrift of health is one of the most reprehensible of spend- thrifts. 5. I am certain I could have performed twice the labor, both better and with greater ease to myself, had I known so much of the laws of health and life at twenty-one, as I do now. 6. In college I was taught all about the motions of the planets, as care- fully as though they would have been in danger of getting off the track if I had not known how to trace their orbits ; but about my own organization, and the conditions indispensable to the health- ^nd ignorance, tfave begun at home, and taken the stars when it should come their turn. 9. The consequence was, I broke down at the beginning of my second college year, and have never had a well day since. 10. Whatever ful fu?^ctk)ns of my own body, I^was l(i?ft in Drafound 7. lk^hh.\S^uSe*Ui-m^im^ ^? I tSfeiet^Wi'a \n}A\J'^ ^ ^UA^' How to Say It, 151 labor I have been since able to do, I have done it all on credit instead of capital, — a most ruinous way, either in regard to health or money. 11. For the last twenty-five years, so far as it regards health, I have been put from day to day on my good behavior; and during the whole of this period, as an Hibernian would say, if I had lived as other folks do for a month, I should have died in a fortnight. LESSON 22. Long Sentences and Their Uses. We have seen (Lesson 13) that a paragraph may be made up of a topic-sentence followed by the particulars and details which the topic-sentence calls for. When each detail is brief and the details taken together resemble an inventory or a catalogue, they are best grouped in long sentences, as in the following paragraph : — There is scarcely a scene or object familiar to the Galilee of that day, which Jesus did not use as a moral illustration of some glorious promise or moral law. [Details] He spoke of green fields and springing flowers, and the budding of the vernal trees ; of the red or lowering sky; of sunrise and sunset; of wind and rain; of night and storm; of clouds and lightning; of stream and river; of stars and lamps; of honey and salt; of quivering bulrushes and burning weeds; of rent garments and bursting wine-skins; of eggs and serpents; of pearls and pieces of money; of nets and fish. Wine and wheat, corn and oil, stewards and gardeners, laborers and employers, kings and shepherds, travellers and fathers of families, courtiers in soft clothing and brides in nuptial robes — all these are found in His discourses. — Farrar : Life of Christ, 1:211. The material after the first sentence in the preceding paragraph is organized into tw^o long sentences rather than one, in order to vary the method a little and to prevent ^ 152 Composition- Rhetoric, the discourse from becoming wearisome. This is a good reason for not making a sentence too long. A better reason for the grouping of details into several long sentences appears in the following paragraph.! Here the grouping of particulars into long sentences shows plainly the differ- ent stages of the calamity in the order of time. In the second sentence are grouped all the details that belong to the first stage ; in the third, all the details that make up the second stage; in the fourth and fifth we are told the effect upon the minds of the people. The fourth and fifth would probably have been united into one sentence but for the fact that this would have made the sentence needlessly long^ 1. In the second year of the reign of Yalentinian and Valens, on the morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earth- quake. 2. The impression was communicated to the waters ; the shores of the Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea ; great quantities of fish were caught by the hand ; large vessels were stranded on the mud ; and a curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appear- ance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the forma- tion of the globe, been exposed to the sun. 3. But the tide soon returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt : large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore ; the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the waters ; and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the inundation. 4. This calamity, the report of which was magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome ; and their affrighted imagination. enlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. 5. They recollected the preceding earth- quakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia : they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed How to Say It, 153 to confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking world. — Gibbon : History of the Decline and Fall of th^ Roman Empire, III, 1, 2. In the following paragraphs, notice that the longer sen- tences are used to explain or illustrate what is said in the shorter sentences ; the long sentences show the relation of the principal idea (expressed in a short sentence) to several subordinate ideas (grouped in a long sentence). Our arts are happy hits. We are like the musician on the lake, whose melody is sweeter than he knows, or like a traveller, sur- prised by a mountain echo, whose trivial word returns to him in romantic thunders. — Emerson : Essay on Art. A man in pursuit of greatness feels no little wants. How can you mind diet, bed, dress, or salutes or compliments, or the figure you make in company, or wealth, or even the bringing things to pass, when you think how paltry are the machinery and the workers ? Wordsworth was praised to me, in Westmoreland, for having afforded to his country neighbors an example of a modest household where comfort and culture were secured without dis- play. And a tender boy who wears his rusty cap and outgrown coat, that he may secure the coveted place in college, and the right in the library, is educated to some purpose. There is a great deal of self-denial and manliness in poor and middle-class houses, in town and country, that has not got into literature, and never will, but that keeps the earth sweet ; that saves on superfluities, and spends on essentials; that goes rusty, and educates the boy; that sells the horse, but builds the school ; works early and late, takes two looms in the factory, three looms, six looms, but pays off the mortgage on the paternal farm, and then goes back cheer- fully to work again. — Emerson : Essay on Culture. The very mode in which a crowd is formed is highly favorable to its hypnotization, and hence to its becoming a mob. At first a crowd is formed by some strange object or occurrence suddenly arresting the attention of men. Other men coming up are attracted by curiosity : they wish to learn the reason of the gathering ; they fix their attention on the object that fascinates the crowd, 154 Compositio7i'Rhetoric, are fascinated in their turn, and thus the crowd keeps on growing. With the increase of numbers grows the strength of fascination; the hypnotization increases in intensity, until, when a certain critical point is reached, the crowd becomes completely hypno- tized, and is ready to obey blindly the commands of its hero ; it is now a mob. Thus a mob is a hypnotized crowd. — Atlantic, 75 : 190. In comparing or contrasting two things or ideas, long sen- tences are frequently needed. In the following paragraph the first part of the contrast is seen in the second sen- tence, the second part in t he th ird and fourth sentences : - '• Whenever the arts and labors of life\are fulfilled in this spirit of striving against misrule, and doing Whatever we have to do, honorably and perfectly, they invariably \br in g happiness, as much as seems possible to the nature of man. 2^, In all other paths, by which that happiness is pursued, there is disappointment, or de- struction : for ambition and for passion there is no rest — no fruition ; the fairest pleasures of youth perish in a darkness greater than their past light ; and the loftiest and purest love too often does but inflame the cloud of life with endless fire of pain.i .But, ascending from lowest to highest, through every scale of human industry, that industry worthily followed gives peace j^ Ask the laborer in the field, at the forge, or in the mine ; ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or the strong-armed, fiery-hearted worker ^ -'U in bronze, and in marble, and with the colors of light; and none.U-^ of these, who are true workmen, will ever tell you that they have found the law of heaven an unkind one — that in the sweat of their face they should eat bread, till they return to the ground ; nor that they ever found it an unrewarded obedience, if, indeed, it was rendered faithfully to the command — "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." — Ruskin : The Mys- tery of Life, sec. 128. Men sometimes go dowm into tombs, with painful longings to behold once more the faces of their departed friends ; and as they gaze upon them, lying there so peacefully with the semblance that they wore on earth, the sweet breath of heaven touches them, How to Say It, 155 and the features crumble and fall together, and are but dust. So did his soul then descend for the last time into the great tomb of the Past, with painful longings to behold once more the dear faces of those he had loved ; and the sweet breath of heaven touched them, and they would not stay, but crumbled away and perished as he gazed. They, too, were dust. And thus, far-sounding, he heard the great gate of the past shut behind him, as the divine poet did the gate of Paradise, when the angel pointed him the way up the Holy Mountain ; and to him likewise was it forbidden to look back. — Longfellow: Hyperion, chap. YIII. In some paragraphs the sentences grow longer as the thought becomes more important and forcible. This re- sults in climax. Notice this in the following paragraphs : — The people always conquer. They always must conquer. Ar- mies may be defeated, kings may be overthrown, and new dynas- ties imposed, by foreign arms, on an ignorant and slavish race, that care not in what language the covenant of their subjection runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made out. But the people never invade ; and, when they rise against the invader, are never subdued. If they are driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting hills are their castles ; the tangled, pathless thicket their palisado, and nature, God, is their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of their enemies beneath his drifting mountains of sand; now he buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows ; he lets loose his tempests on their fleets ; he puts a folly into their coun- sels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders ; and never gave, and never will give, a final triumph over a virtuous and gallant people, resolved to be free. — Everett: First Battles of the Revo- lution. We are, on the whole, inclined to regret that Dryden did not accomplish his purpose of writing an epic poem. It certainly would not have been a work of the highest rank. It would not have rivalled the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Paradise Lost ; but it would have been superior to the productions of Apollonius, Lucan, or Statins, and not inferior to the Jerusalem Delivered. It would 156 Composition-Rhetoric. probably have been a vigorous narrative, animated with some- thing of the spirit of the old romances, enriched with much splendid description, and interspersed with fine declamations and disquisitions. The danger of Dryden would have been from aiming too high; from dwelling too much, for example, on his angels of kingdoms, and attempting a competition with that great writer w^ho in his own time had so incomparably succeeded in representing to us the sights and sounds of another world. To Milton, and to Milton alone, belonged the secrets of the great deep, the beach of sulphur, the ocean of fire, the palaces of the fallen dominations, glimmering through the everlasting shade, the silent wilderness of verdure and fragrance where armed angels kept watch over the sleep of the first lovers, the portico of dia- mond, the sea of jasper, the sapphire pavement empurpled with celestial roses, the infinite ranks of the Cherubim, blazing with adamant and gold. The council, the tournament, the procession, the crowded cathedral, the camp, the guard-room, the chase, were the proper scenes for Dryden. — Macaul ay : Essay on Dryden. When long sentences appear frequently in a paragraph, they produce an impression of dignity, grace, and rhyth- mical movement. This is seen in the following : — The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the Republic ; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulation of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs ; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms ; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and eifectually convinced him that, by the prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure How to Say It. 157 every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus. — Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. I. A succession of sentences, all of about the same length, may easily result in tediousness. Such sentences, when read aloud, require the voice to fall at about the same inter- vals and strike the ear with monotonous regularity. Variety in length of sentences is desirable. Excepting in the first and last sentences, the following paragraph shows a monoto- nous regularity when read aloud : — I » One has known men, great and small, more commonly small, who went through life steadily depreciating and vilipending all human beings who could be regarded as in the running with them- selves. But among such. Bethel was facile princeps. He despised his predecessor as chancellor, and spoke with contempt of his judgments. One day, under the im.pression that a judgment quoted was Lord Campbell's, he hastened to contemn it. But the laugh was turned when it was at once stated that the contemned judgment was his own. He was indeed beyond comparison, in his own sphere, greater and brighter than most of those around him. But he showed far too plainly that he knew it. Modesty would have been a glory, being combined with that magnificent ability. And his tongue was incredibly sharp : and absolutely unbridled. It looks as though he never kept back any keen saying which oc- curred to him. And the serene, deliberate, and seemingly affected manner in which he spoke, gave tenfold bitterness. It did not look like the outburst of a hasty temper at all. They did not seem obiter dicta, those vitriolic sayings. No mortal can afford thus to indulge his idiosyncrasy. He made enemies on every side : enemies who hated him with an incredible malignity. Each of them had a poisoned dart rankling in his soul .j^, And the day came when this great lawyer, though holding his place in magnificent competence, was surrounded and assailed by a crowd of foes who were able to force him to descend from the highest place in the law. 158 Composition-Rhetoric, Long sentences are nseful for grouping sabordinate details, for explanations and contrasts, for climax, and for dignity and rhyth- mical movement. EXERCISE 45. Account for the use of the long sentences of the para- graphs quoted in Lessons 12 to 20. EXERcis^e. VXML^^^';;^ Convert the following short=sHHtShce paragraphs into paragraphs of longer sentences of different lengths. The winter put a stop to military o^erations^ All gone well. But the real tug of war was still to comeJr'^R^was easy to foresee that the year 1757 would be a memorable era in the his- tory of Europe. The scheme for the campaign was simple, bold, and judicious*^:^ tCiV^^'^^he Duke of Cumberland with an English and Hanoverian army was in Western Germany, and might be able to prevent the French troops from attacking Prussia. The Russians, confined by their snows, would probably not tstir till the spring was far advanced. Saxony was prostratedP-^l^wdden could do nothing very important.. During a Aw iiionths. Frederick would have to deal with Austria alone^^^en rmiSf thS bddl <^ere against him. But ability and courage have often triumphed against odds still more formidable. Early in 1757 the Prussian army in Saxony began to move.QdS^ Through four defiles in the mountains thoy oamft pouring into Bohemia. Prague was his first TCidi,x\yws^ the ulterior object was probably Vienna. At Prague lay Marshal Brown with one great armyr^)aun, the most cautious and fortunate of the Aus- trian capt^ns, was advancing with another. Frederick deter- mined to overwhelm Brown before Daun should arrive. On the sixth of May was fought, under those walls which a hundred and thirty years before had witnessed the victory of the Catholic league and the flight of the unhappy Palatine, a battle more bloody than any which Europe saw during the long interval between Malplaquet and Eylau. The king and Prince Ferdi- How to Say It, 159 nand of Brunswick were distinguished on that day by their \A^j]S valor and exertions. But the chief glory was with Schwerin^ \3fi^) When the Prussian infantry wavered, tj i p stout old marah al ^^"^ snatched the colors from an ensign, and, waving them in the air, OnAA/*^ led back his regiment to the charge. Thus at seventy-two years V^i of age he fell in the thickest of the battle, still grasping the standard which bears the black ea^le pn the field argent. The victory remained with the king^ -^®iwf it had been dearly pun chased. Whole columns of his bravest warriors had fallenS^ ne admitted that he had lost eighteen thousand men. Of the enemyrr twenty-four thousand had been killed, wounded, or taken., \ OLA/J"^^^^ Part of the defeated army was shut up in Pragaer^Tart fled to join the troops which, under the command of Daun, were now close at hand. Frederick determined to play over the same game which had succeeded at Lowositz. He left a large force to besiege Prague, and at the head of thirty thousand men he marched against Daun. The cautious marshal, though he had great superiority in numbers, would risk nothing:- He occupied at Kolin a position almost impregnable, and awaited the attack of the king. 5f EXERCISE 48. On one of the following topic-sentences write a paragraph of about two hundred and fifty words. After writing, examine the paragraph with these two questions in mind : (1) Does the divi- sion of the paragraph into sentences correspond to the natural division of the thought? (2) Is there variety of sentence-lengths? Revise the paragraph so that these two questions may be answered affirmatively. 1. It was an old tumble-down house. 2. Lincoln's journey to Washington was fraught with secret perils. 3. " Study what you like " has an attractive sound, but is it good advice ? 4. It is not true charity to give money to every beggar one meets. 5. Not what a man earns, but what he saves, makes him rich. ---^-"Mow to Say It.\ 161 I should like a newspaper without advertisements. Fashions in dress are less extreme than formerly. We are willing to admit that the English sparrows have some very admirable traits. 9. A Chinese school-room is a noisy place. 10. It is hard to explain the actions of some people. ■-^>" J LESSON 23. Uses of the Loose Sentence. ^ Whether long or short, every sentence is also, in the arrangement of its parts, loose or periodic or balanced. A sefTEenceTs sai3. to be loose if, without destroyingTJs mean- ing, it can be ended at a point earlier than the close. Notice the structure of the sentences in the following par- agraph. In every one of them there is at least one point, before the close, at which the sentence might end, without violence to the sense. 1. One afternoon we visited a cave, some two miles down the streamjwhich had recently been discovered. 2. We squeezed and wriggled through a big crack or cleft in the side of the mountain for about one hundred feeg\when we emerged into a large, dome- shaped passage/Jihe abode, during certain seasons of the year, of in- numerable bats, and at all times of primeval darkness. 3. There were various other crannies and pit-holes opening into it] some of which we explored. 4. The voice of running water wAs every- where heard, betraying the proximity of ^ii^ little streamlby whose ceaseless corroding the cave and its entrance had been worn. 5. This streamlet flowed out of the mouth of the cave, and came from a lakej)n the top of the mountain ; this accounted for its warmth to the handjwhich surprised us all. — Burroughs : Wake Robin; Adirondack. The paragraph of loose sentences resembles good conver- sation. It is easy and natural and entirely without pom- 162 OompositioU'Rhetoric, pousness ; there is no waiting for the full meaning. In each loose sentence the main statement (subject and verb) is given at once and is followed by an added clause or phrase. Loose sentences are such as one finds in great numbers in letters, stories, news-articles, and familiar dis- course of all kinds. Broadway is miles upon miles long, a rush of life such as I never have seeiiJ)not so full as the Strand, but so rapid. The houses are always being torn down and built up again, the rail- road cars drive slap into the midst of the city. There are barri- cades and scaffoldings banging everywhere. I have not been into a house, except the fat country one, but something new is being done to it, and the hammerings are clattering in the passageior a wall or steps are down, or the family is going to move. Nobody is quiet herejno more am I. The rush and restlessness plea,ses me, and I like, for a little, the dash of the stream. I am not re- ceived as a god, which I like too. Th^e is one paper which goes on every morning saying I am a snob^nd I don't say no. Six people were reading it at breakfast this morning, and the man opposite me popped it under the table cloth. But the other papers roar with approbation. — Letters of Thackeray, 159. It is not often that a paragraph is made up exclusively of loose sen- tences. In the great majority of paragraphs it is desirable to employ sentences of various types and of various lengths. The following selec- tion contains four loose sentences (2, 3, 5, 7) out of a total of seven sentences : — 1. If the art of writing had been unknown till now, and if the invention of it were suddenly to burst upon the world as did that of the telephone, one of the things most generally said in praise of it would be this/^2. It would be said:-r" What a gain to frie^id- ship now that friends can communicat^in spite of separation by the very widest distances ! " '"^ — '^ • * /^ 3. Yet we have possessed this means of communicatiouj^-the fullest and best of all, ifrom remote antiquiC^and we scarcely make any use of it^- certainly not any use responding to its capa- bilities ;f and as time goes on, instead of developing those capabili- W IL 163 ties by practice in the art of friendly correspondence, we allow them to diminish by disuse. 4. The lowering of cost for the transport of letters, instead of making friendly correspondents numerous, has made them few. 5. The cheap postage-stamp has increased business correspondence prodigiouslvjbut it has had a very different effect on that of friend- ship. 6. Great numbers of men whose business correspondence is heavy scarcely write letters of friendship at all,/^. Their minds produce the business letter by a second nature^and are otherwise sterile. — P. G. Hameuton: Human Intercourse. The following paragraph contains three loose sentences (2, 3, 5) out of a total of six sentences : — 1. Our forefathers had an idea with regard to the opinions of their children that in these days we must be content to give up. 2. They thought that all opinions were by nature hereditary;^ and it was considered an act of disloyalty to ancestors if a descend- ant ventured to differ from them.""^^ The profession of any but the family opinions was so rare as to be almost inconceivablej and if in some great crisis the head of a family took a new departure in religion or politics, the new faith substituted itself for the old one as the hereditary faith of the family. 4. I remember hearing an old gentleman (who represented old English feeling in great perfection) say that it was totally unintelligible to him that a certain member of parliament could sit on the liberal side of the House of Commons. yr^^^I cannot understand it," he said; "I knew his father intimately^Jand he was always a good Tory." 6. The idea that the son might have opinions of his ow^n was unthinkable. — P. G. Hamerton : Human Intercourse. Well-constructed loose sentences show considerable variety in the way in which their parts are put together. Thus in the paragraph of loose sentences, quoted first in this lesson, the phrases and clauses following the main statement of each sentence come in a variety of orders and employ a variety of introductory words in the different sentences. Notice in sentence 2 how skilfully a large number of details are managed by means of the different phrases, and how / ^ 164 Composition-Rhetoric, the employment of the words " the abode," in apposition with the word " passage/' enables the writer to hold the sentence open for two other details. Notice that sentence 4 is pro- longed by means of the participle " betraying." Notice how much new material the use of the words " by whose " enables the writer to bring into sentence 4. In the following paragraph notice especially (sentence 2) how the expression " to make money " stands related to the main statement preceding. Notice also the great variety of prepositions employed in this paragraph and the parti- cipial construction, " resulting," in sentence 5. 1. The New York Herald, founded in 1835 by James Gordon Bennett, father of the present proprietor, may be called the pioneer of the pressjconducted upon a strictly business basis^ without sub- serviency to party or devotion to principle.^^. Mr. Bennett had only one ideaj^ — to make money by publishm^ the news. 3. He adhered to that idea with the utmost tenacityJ and he built an immense fortune for himself upon that idea as a foundation. 4. No man was ever less solicitous for reformation than he, yet he proved to be a radical reformer, for his conspicuous success pro- duced a profound change in the notions of newspaper men, all over the country.-^. The luxury of being free from bondage to the politicians and the prospect of increased profits hurried on the movement for an independent press which culminated in 1872 in a sharp rebellion by the newspapers against party dictation, result- ing in the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency. Unless it is kept well in hand a loose sentence may be- come slovenly, a mere string of clauses and phrases, with no firmness or direction. There are three special dangers to be guarded against in using loose sentences in succes- sion: first, there is the danger that all will begin in the same way (with the word " he," for instance) ; second, that the words " and," " and," " and," will be used too much ; third, that the sentences will all close in the same way (all with a phrase, or all with a relative clause). ^ How to Say It 165 Use the loose sentence frequently, for its easy conversational effect. Guard against over-looseness, and make a succession of loose sentences show variety of structure. EXERCISE 49. Find, by counting, the proportion of loose to the total number of sentences in three pages of your school-history, or in a half-column news-article. EXERCISER /KxMAyI fl>(j. Turn sentence number 3 of the following paragraph into one or more loose sentences, and note the effect. Do the same with sentence 5. Do the"refiS6d seiit'ences fit as closely what precedes and follows tKem ? Is anything lost by the revision ? Ee-write the second quotation in several loose sentences. 1. It is admirable to know that those things which, in skill, in art, and in learning, the world has been unwilling to let die, have not only been the conceptions of genius, but the products of toil. 2. The masterpieces of antiquity, as well in literature as in art, are known to have received their extreme finish from an almost incredible continuance of labor upon them. 3. I do not remember a book in all the departments of learning, nor a scrap in literature, nor a work in all the schools of art, from which its author has derived a permanent renown, that is not known to have been long and patiently elaborated. 4. Genius needs industry, as much as industry needs genius. 5. If only Milton's imagination could have conceived his visions,[pis consummate industry only could have carved the immortal nnes which enshrine them. 6. If only New- ton's mind could reach out to the secrets of nature, even his could only do it by the homeliest toil. 7. The works of Bacon are not midsummer-night dreams, but, like coral islands, they have risen from the depths of truth, and formed their broad surfaces above the ocean by the minutest accretions of persevering labor. 8. The conceptions of Michael Angelo would have perished like a night's phantasy, had not his industry given them permanence. 166 Composition-Rhetoric. One evening f^ihe people were coming out from the ffreat church of the Trinity of the Pilgrims hard by my fountaiiiJ"a33r Jihere was a smell of incense on the air, and a sound of chanting everywh^xejbecause it was in^the days of Lent, and mirthful King Carnival had gone to his graye^ and Pasquino back to his solitude, ~^i — one evening ^ I sat stitching, communj^ng with my own thoughts, and not liking themJ because j^pf latis' they had got con- fused and cloudy, and I had a sense of impending woe.wi%l 4:^ corresponding sense of how to meet aud to prevent itflGicj^ came to me asfNher habit had used to b^ tiioue'h of late she had changed jt^ arfttTj tiouching me gently, ^ai'd to me, — ^ " Let us go for one of our old walks. Will you not take me ? The sun is setting.*" • EXERCISE 51, .^Vxi^<...^^^ Do any of the sentences of the following paragraphs strike you as pompous and over-important, considering the subject? Make them loose and note the effect. 1. I consider this mighty structure [the Great Pyramid] as a monument of the insufficiency of human enjoyments. 2. A king whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands laboring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. 3. Whoever thou art that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that command of riches can feed the appetite of novelty with perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, and confess thy folly ! 1 1. And the love of our own language, w^hat is it in fact but the //^ love of our country expressing itself in one particular direction ? 2. If the great acts of that nation to which we belong are precious to us, if we feel ourselves made greater by their greatness, sum- moned to a nobler life by the nobleness of Englishmen who have already lived and died, and bequeathed to us a name which must kM^L Row to Say It 167 not by us be made less, w^j^ exploits of theirs can well be nobler, what can more clearly point out their native land and ours as having fulfilled a glorious past, as being destined for a glorious future, than that they should have acquired for themselves and for those who come after them a clear, a strong, an harmonious, a noble language? 3. For all this bears witness to corresponding merits in those that speak it, to clearness of mental vision, to strength, to harmony, to nobleness in them that have gradually formed and shaped it to be the utterance of their inmost life and being. 4. To know of this language the stages which it has gone through, Uhe quarters from which its riches have been derived, the gains which it is npw making, the perils which have threatened or are threatening it,; the losses which it has sustained^the latent capacities which may yet be in it waiting to be evoked,' the points in which it is superior to, in which it colnes short of, other tongues, all this may well be the object of worthy ambition to every one of us. 5. So may we hope to be ourselves guardians of its purity and not corrupters of it ; to introduce, it may be, others into an intelligent knowledge of that with which we shall have our- selves more than a merely superficial acquaintance ; to bequeath it to those who come after us not worse than we received it ourselves. E XERCISE 52. -:^ Discover the sentence in the first selection following^ and the two sentences in the second selection, that are nnduly loose. Ee-write the three sentences. The lettuce is to me a most interesting study. Lettuce is like conversation: it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you can scarcely notice the bitter in it. Lettuce, like most talkers, is, however, apt to run rapidly to seed. Blessed is that sort which comes to a head, and so remains, like aTew people I know; growing more solid, and satisfactory, and tender at the same time, and whiter at the centre, and crisp in their maturity. \ Lettuce, like conversation, requires a good deal of oil, to avoid friction and keep the company smooth : a pinch of Attic salt, a dash of pepper, 168 Composition-JRhetoric, a quantity of mustard and vinegar, by all means, but so mixed that you will notice no sharp contrasts, and a trifle of sugar. You can put anything, and the more things the better, into salad, as into a conversation, but everything depends upon the skill of mixing. I feel that I am in the best society when I am with lettuce. It is the select circle of vegetables. About this time I met with an odd volume of The Spectator. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished if possible to imitate it. With that view I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without look- ing at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should occur to me. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. ' But T found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recolle'cting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time, if I had gone on making verses ; since the continual search for words of the same import, but of different length to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tgiided to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. 'Therefore I took some of the tales in The Spectator, and turned them into verse ; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order before I began to form the full sentences and complete the subject. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of the thoughts. By comparing my work with the original, I dis- covered many faults, and corrected them; but I sometimes had the pleasure to fancy that, in certain particulars of small conse- quence, I had been fortunate enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think that I might in time come to be a ^olerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious. U How to Say It. 169 EXERCISE 53. V^^fli^ In the first selection following, fifteen sentences out of a total of twenty-six show the same plan, consisting of two principal statements joined by the word "and." By what changes in punctuation or construction could some of these " ands " be dispensed with ? Eevise and re-write the second selection so as to avoid the frequent use of the word " but/' and break up the same- ness of structure. The apartment assigned to Cardinal Chigi was subdivided into • three smaller ones, the largest of which was appropriated to the bedchamber of the Cardinal, the two others to his attendants. These apartments communicated with each other, and only one opened upon the centre corridor running down the Hall. The Cardinal retired early to his own chamber, and most of the other Cardinals did the same. A profound silence reigned in the Con- clave ; if any of the attendants still stirred they were velvet-shod, and the floors and walls, lined with velvet, prevented the least sound from being heard. Ingiesant remained alone in the outermost of the three apart- ments, and determined to keep his faculties on the alert. For some reason, however, either the fatigue of the long confinement or the deathlike stillness of the night, a profound drowsiness overpowered him, and he continually sank into a doze. He tried to read, but the page floated before his eyes, and it was only by continually rising and pacing the small chamber that he kept himself from sinking into a deep sleep. Ingiesant had sat down again, and had fallen once more into a slight doze, when suddenly, from no apparent cause, his drowsiness left him, and he became intensely and almost painfully awake. The silence around him was the same as before, but a violent agitation and excitement disturbed his mind, and an overpowering apprehension of some approaching existence, inimical to himself, 170 Composition- Rhetoric, aroused his faculties to an acute perception, and braced his nerves to a supreme effort. In another moment, this apprehension, at first merely mental, became perceptible to the sense, and he could hear a sound. It was, as it were, the echo of a low faint creeping movement, the very ghost of a sound. Whence it came, Inglesant could not determine, but it was from without the apartment in which he sat. Ko longer able to remain passive, he rose, drew back the velvet curtain that screened the entrance from the corri- dor, opened the door silently, and went out. The corridor was lighted here and there along its great length by oil lamps suspended before every third door of the Cardinals' rooms; but the dark and massive hangings, the loftiness of the hall overhead, and the dimness of the lamps themselves, caused the light to be misty and uncertain, as in a confused and troubled dream. One of these lamps was suspended immediately above the door at which Inglesant had appeared, and he stood in its full light, being himself much more distinctly seen than he w^as himself able to see anything. He was richly dressed in dark velvet, after the French fashion, and in the uncertain light his resemblance to his murdered brother was, in this dress, very great. He held a slight and jewelled dagger in his hand. As he paused under the suspended lamp the sound he had heard before developed itself into low stealthy footsteps approaching down the corridor, apparently on the opposite side, and the next moment a figure, more like a phantom thrown on the opposite wall than a substantial being, glided into sight. It was shrouded in flowing drapery, and kept so close to the heavy hangings that it seemed almost the waving of their folds stirred by some un- known breeze. Though it passed down the opposite side, it kept its attention turned in Inglesant's direction, and almost at the same moment at which he appeared through the opening door it saw him and instantly stopped. It lost its stealthy motion and assumed an attitude of intense and speechless terror, such as In- glesant had never seen depicted in a human being, and by this attitude revealed itself more completely to his gaze. The hood which shaded its face fell partly back and displayed features pale as death, and lustrous eyes dilated with horror; and Inglesant could see that it held some nameless weapon in its hand. As it stood, arrested in its purpose, breathless and uncertain, it seemed How to Say It. 171 to Iiiglesaiit a phantom murderer, or rather the phantom of murder itself, as though nothing short of the murderous principle sufficed any longer to dog his steps. This strange figure confronted Inglesant for some seconds, during which neither stirred, each with his eyes riveted upon the other, each with his weapon in his hand. Then the phantom murmured in an inarticulate and broken voice, that faltered upon the air as though tremulous with horror, " It is himself ! He has taken the dagger from his bleeding wound ! " Then, as it had come, it glided backwards along the heavy drapery, becoming more and more lost in its folds, till, at first apparently but the shadow of a shade, it faded more and more into the hanging darkness, and vanished out of sight. The agreeable man is always courteous and considerate. He keeps out of disputes and contentions, and seeks to give utterance only to pleasant things, Jiit if driven to contradict, does so in an amiable manner. He may or may not be as good and faithful at heart as the gruff disputant, who is apt to be boastful of his frank- ness, ^ut the quality that makes him agreeable is his cultivated manner. Some people go so far as to deprecate politeness as a concession to hypocrisy, J}nt it is really a manifestation of con- sideration for others. It is, of course, cultivated by hypocrites, and those who are excessively polite may be suspected of insin- cerity; ^lii that is not a good reason why sincere people should not use it to make themselves agreeable. EXERCISE 64. Ee-construct the following paragraph so as to avoid begin- ning so many of the sentences with " he " : — 1. He was an old bachelor, of a small independent income, which, by careful management, was sufficient for all his wants. 2.-Jft revolvWNmrough the family system like a vagrant comet in its orbit ; sanaepimes visiti^gj&ne branch, and sometimes another quite remote ; ^^^k^ls^often the case with gentlemen of extensive connections and small fortunes in England^ 3. He^md a chirping, buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present moment; and 172 Composition-Rhetoric. his frequent change of scene and company prevented his acquiring those rusty, unaccommodating habits with which old bachelors are so uncharitably charged. 4. j^^^as a complete family chroni- cle, being versed in the genealogy, history, and intermarriages of the whole house of Bracebridge, which made him a great favorite with the old folks; he was the beau of all the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters, among whom he was habitually considered rather a young fellow; and he was master of the revels among the children ; so that there was not a more popular being in the sphere in which he moved than Mr. Simon Bracebridge. 5. Of late years he had resided almost entirely with the squire, to whom he had become a factotum, and whom he particularly delighted by jumping with his humor in respect of old times, and by having a scrap of song to suit every occasion. 6. We had presently- a specimen of his last-mentioned talent, for no sooner was supper removed, and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the season introduced, than Master Simon was called on for a good old Christmas song. 7. He bethought himself for a hiomerit,"atri^^' then, with a sparkle of the eye, and a voice that was by no means bad, except that it ran occasionally into a falsetto, like the notes of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old ditty. EXERCISE 55. "What sameness of structure do you notice at the close of the sentences of each of the following paragraphs ? Eevise in the interest of variety. It might reasonably be supposed that good people would be agreeable and bad people disagreeable, but this is^ by no mean^ ^a, fixed rule. There are many notable exceptionsAfc«d people b"4l{^ often delightful companions. They study to pease, thereby cfcy- ^^$gMff^ up their faults of character. There is no reason, however, \ why good people should not follow their example in this respect, ^/V^ adding attractive manners to their other virtues. When they act naturally, they are agreeable* but some good men with warm sym- pathies and great kindness of heart put on a gruif, repellent man- "^^) s^iJ^i^e ^ ^^^'^ that it is necessary for their own protection^, There are others who at heart are good friends, yet make them- How to Say It. ,- 173 selves disagreeable to those they love, hsam% a bad Kabit bf positive contradiction. All of us have a great deal of self-love, and we cannot regard as agreeable one who continually differs with and contradicts us, especially if he does so in an offensive way. A Chicago newspaper publishes an account of a novel experi- ment which is about to be tried in that city. InNnj;ief, it is the m application to street-railway traffic of the Hungarian zon§**systerrf'*^^^^ py wm cn passengers may travel for one cent a mile. A street- railway company has obtained a charter which gives it the right to build lines over certain streets of Chicago. The passenger may pay cas"h or provide himself with the coupon tickets which are issued by the company. The first mile from the downtown ter- minus costs one cent, and one cent extra is charged for each addi- tional mile or fraction thereof which the passenger may travel. In case a passenger boards a car at a distance from the terminus, and alights before it reaches its destination, he is charged one cent a mile for the space over which he rides. The advocates of this plan argue that a rate is thus established which is equitable and fair to all concerned. It is maintained that such payment will bring in proper revenue to the companies and that the down- town passenger is not continually paying for the long rides which the suburban resident takes. The plan is one which has been thoroughly worked out in European cities, and it is ready for adoption in America. The boy who chafes under rules and discipline, longing to be free, should be reminded of the obligations of the social state, and admonished to prolong as much as possible the freedom and enjoy- ments of youth ; for that which is regarded as a measure of inde- pendence must be paid for in a way which he does not now suspect. The youth who is wilful and determines to break from authority soon learns that he has broken with a supporter as well as a ruler; for if he would have his own way he must support himself, and in doing so he puts himself under the rule of new task-masters. The wisest thing w^e can do is cheerfully to make the best of our situation, for, struggle as we may, we cannot achieve complete independence. By curbing our appetites and desires so that we shall want only those things that may be attainable through reason- able effort, and by respecting authority as a necessary exercise of Composition-Rhetoric , power, we should cheerfully make our share of the mutual sacri- fices which social conditions require to be made. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their time to be employed in its service ; but idleness taxes many of us much more: sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. " Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears; while the used key is always bright," as Poor Kichard says. "But dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of," as Poor Richard says. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep! forgetting that "the sleeping fox catches no poultry," and that " there will be sleeping enough in the grave," as Poor Richard says. EXERCISE 56.1aA^* Write about 300 wor^ on one of the following topics. Criti- cise your work carefully by asking the following questions: (1) Is there variety of sentence-beginnings? (2) Is there variety of structure? (3) Is there variety of sentence-endings? Bring both your original and amended work to class, prepared to give reasons for the changes you have made. 1. The story of Paul Eevere's ride. 2. A description ^^ ^ ^^MTltry RtOTP — ■ 3. 'Ae ninth inning. 4. A ride on a raft. 5. The best route to the Arctic regions. 6. How our reading circle is conducted. 7. The story of Evangeline. 8. Arrangements for a camping party. 9. How shall railway cars be heated ? ^ 10. Advantages of learning a trade. 11. How the fashions originate. 12. The most important discovery of the last quarter- century. ' ^ x?? 13. Scientific kite-flying. V; 14. Artificial flies. - '^^ ■ 'S, i 3 How to Say I t. 175 LESSON 24. Uses of Periodic Sentences, A sentence is periodic in which the thought is suspended or kept incomplete until the end is reached. The following paragraph is made up of periodic sentences : in none of them can a period be inserted without destroying the meaning of the part that precedes and the part that follows the inter- ruption : — ( l| Never, perhaps, was the change which the progress of civili- zation has produced in the art of war more strikingly illustrated than on that day. 2. Ajax beatin g down the Trojan leader with a rock which two ordinary men could scarcely lift, Horatius de- fending the bridge against an army, Richard the Lion-hearted s purrin g along the whole Saracen line without finding an enemy to withstand his assault, Robert Bruce crushing with one blow the helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun in sight of the whole array of England and Scotland, — such are thtf heroes of a dark age. 3. Li such an age, bodily vigor JsJihe most indispensable qualifi- cation of a warrior. 4^ At Landen, two poor sickly beings who, m a rude state of society, would have been regarded as too puny to bear any part in combats, were the souls of two great armies. 5. In some heathen countries they would have been exposed while infants. ^^ In Christendom they would, six hundred years earlier, have been sent to some quiet cloister. 7. But their lot had fallen oi:ua-time when men had discovere d t hfl^- ^-^^^ strength of the mus- cles is far inferior in value to the strength of the mind. 8. Jt is p robable that, among the hundred and twenty thousand soldiers who were marshalled round Neerwinden under all the standards of Western Europe, the two feeblest in body were the hunch- backed dwarf who urged forward the fiery onset of France, and the asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat of England. — Macaulay: History of England, chap. XX. The paragraph of periodic sentences is, in effect, more like oratory, or declamation, than like ordinary con versa- 176 Composition- Rhetoric , tion. The manner of statement, especially if the sentences are somewhat long, is dignified and impressive. The reader feels, as he reads, that the subject is weighty and important ; that the parts of each sentence have been purposely arranged as he finds them. He is compelled to pay close attention, for he finds that the principal verb of each sentence is with- held until the modifying phrases and clauses are brought in. He must wait for the full meaning until the end of .the sentence ; thus his interest is stimulated. When the impor- tant word, or element, that has been reserved to the latter part, is reached, the force and the satisfying completeness of the whole sentence are appreciated. If the poetical prediction, uttered a few years before his birth, be true ; if indeed it be designed by Providence that the grandest exhibition of human character and human affairs shall be made on this theatre of the western world ; if it be true that ** The first four acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; Time's noblest offspring is the last ; " how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be appropriately opened, how could its intense interest be adequately sustained, but by the introduction of just such a character as our Wash- ington ? — Webster : Character of Washington. And now, gentlemen, standing as I do in this relation for the last time in your presence and that of my fellow-citizens, about to surrender forever a station full of difficulty, of labor, and tempta- tion, in which I have been called to very arduous duties, affecting the rights, property, and at times the liberty of others; concerning which the perfect line of rectitude, though desired, was not always to be clearly discerned ; in which great interests have been placed within my control, under circumstances in which it would have been easy to advance private ends and sinister projects; — under these circumstances, I inquire, as I have a right to inquire, — for in the recent contest insinuations have been cast against my integ- rity, — in this long management of your affairs, whatever errors have been committed, — and doubtless there have been many, — How to Say It, 177 have you found in nie anything selfish, anything personal, any- thing mercenary? In the simple language of an ancient seer, I say, " Behold, here I am ; witness against me. Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? At whose hands have I received any bribe?" — Josiah Quincy: Address on laying down the Mayoralty of Boston. Periodic sentences are sometimes found one after another through a whole paragraph of a highly wrought discourse. More often, however, they alternate at more or less regular intervals with sentences of other kinds. The following selection contains nine sentences of which three (^3, 5, 8) are periodic : — 1. Great actions and striking occurrences, having excited a tem- porary admiration, often pass away and are forgotten, because they leave no lasting results aifecting the prosperity and happiness of communities. 2. Such is freg[uently the fortune of the most brill- iant military achievements. 3.; Of the ten thousand battles which have been fought ; of all the fields fertilized with carnage ; of the banners which have been bathed in blood; of the warriors who have hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few that continue long to interest mankind ! 4. The victory of yesterday is reversed by the defeat of to-day ; the star of military glory, rising like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen ; disgrace and disaster hang on the heels of conquest and renown ; victor and vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, and the world goes on in its course, with thaloss only of so many lives and so much treasure. (5/) But if this be frequently or generally the fortune of military achievements, it is not always so. 6. There are enterprises, mili- tary as well as civil, which sometimes check the current of events, give a new turn to human affairs, and transmit their consequences through ages. 7. We see their importance intheir results, and call them great, because great things follow. ^JThere have been battles which have fixed the fate of nations. 9. These come down to us in history with a solid and permanent interest, not created by a display of glittering armor, the rush of adverse battalions, the sinking and rising of pennons, the flight, the pursuit, and the 178 Composition- Rhetoric. victory ; but by their effect in advancing or retarding human knowledge, in overthrowing or establishing despotism, in extend- ing or destroying human happiness. — Webster. Periodic sentences show a more regular and formal struct- ure than loose sentences. The periodic sentence is arranged to secure suspense ; accordingly the structure of a periodic sentence will show devices for withholding the full meaning and for arousing expectation. Thus in the paragraph of periodic sentences quoted at the beginning of this lesson, suspense is secured in sentence 1 by the use of compara- tive words (never — more — than) ; in 2, by the use of a summarizing word (such) after particulars have been accu- mulated by means of the participles (heating — defending, etc.) ; in 3, by putting a phrase first and bringing in the logi- cal subject {qualification) after the copula {is) ; in 4, 5, and 6 by putting a phrase first. In 7, the demonstrative article (a) anticipates the clause {when), the transitive verb {dis- covered) needs an object (here the ^/ia^clause), and the object clause is prolonged by the use of a comparative {inferior) ; in 8, the word it anticipates all that follows the word probable; and the part of sentence 8 after the word probable is suspended by the device used in sentence 3. Other devices for securing suspense will be seen in the following sentences : in sentence 2, suspense is secured by putting the concessive clause {though) first; in 4, by the as-clause, and, later, by the words no longer — but; in 6, by the position of the loAeTvclauses ; in 7, by the use of words that require something to follow {avow, in preference to) ; in 8, by the four /or-phrases coming first ; in 11, by the introductory tZ-clause ; in the two parts of 13, by plac- ing the participles first ; in 16, by the use and position of the correlatives {whether — or). 1. The American Declaration of Independente was the begin- ning of new ages. 2. Though it had been invited, expected, and How to Say It, 179 prepared for, its adoption suddenly changed the contest from a war for the redress of grievances to an effort at the creation of a self-governing commonwealth. 3. It disembarrassed the people of the United States from the legal fiction of owning a king against whom they were in arms, brushed away forever the dreamy illusion of their reconcilement to the dominion of Britain, and for the first time set before them a well-defined, single, and inspiring purpose. 4^-^s ^^^ youthful nation took its seat among the powers of the earth, its desire was no loug er for the restoration of the past , but turned with prophetic promise towards the boundless future. 5. Hope whispered the assurance of unheard-of success in the pur- suit of public happiness through faith in natural equality and the rights of man. — Bancroft. 6. When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. 7. I must declare and avow that, in the master states of the world, I know not the people, nor the senate who, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, can stand in prefer- enc^JjUthe delegates of America in General Congress at Philadel- phia. 8. _For genuine sagacity,.jQX^singular moderation, igr^solid wisdom, manly spirit, sublime sentiments, and simplicity of lan- guage, for everything respectable and honorable, they stand un- rivalled. — Chatham. 9. A great deal must be allowed to Pope for the age in which he lived, and not a little, I think, for the influence of Swift. 10. In his own province he still stands unapproachably alone. 11. !;£.. to be the greatest satirist of individual men, rather than of human nature, if to be the highest expression which the life of the court and the ball-room has ever found in verse, if to have added more phrases to our language than any other but Shakespeare, if to have charmed four generations make a man a great poet — then he is one. 12. He was the chief founder of an artificial style of writing, which in his hands was living and powerful, because he used it to express artificial modes of thinking and an artificial state of society. 13. Measured by any high standard of imagina- tion, he will be /ound wanting; tri ed b y any test of wit he is unrivalled. — Lowell: My Study Windows, ^ZZ, 180 Composition-Rhetoric, 14. At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House. 15. Bowing under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early impression, I have continued ever since, without the least deviation, in my original sentiments. 16. Wheth er this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. — Burke: Conciliation with the Colonies. The pupil should notice carefully the methods of suspense employed in the periodic sentences quoted above with a view to using these methods in his own writing. One of the chief advantages in composing periodic sentences arises from the fact that one learns how to place phrases and clauses prop- erly, and how to manage a considerable number of them in the same sentence when this is necessary. Use the periodic sentence for its dignity, complateness, and structural compactness. Guard against the over-importance (bom- \ bast) which a series of periodic sentences may produce when the j subject on which you are writing is simple and familiar, V EXERCISE 57. ^M y* Find, by counting, the proportion of periodic to the total '^ X number of sentences in three pages of your school history. 8.>5hJJ^ EXERCISE 58. Turn sentence number 1 in the following to periodic form, and note the effect. In the second selection turn sentences 5, 6, and 7 to periodic form. Is the paragraph improved thereby ? 1. Our principal intellectual ancestors are, no doubt, the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Saxons, and we, here in Europe, should not call a man educated or enlightened who was ignorant How to Say It, 181 of the debt which he owes to his intellectual ancestors in Palestine, Greece, Rome, and Germany. 2. The whole past history of the world would be darkness to him, and not knowing what those who came before him had done for him, he would probably care little to do anything for those who are to come after him. 3. Life would be to him a chain of sand, while it ought to be a kind of electric chain that makes our hearts tremble and vibrate with the most ancient thoughts of the past as well as with the most distant hopes of the future. 1. Look now at the accomplished man of letters. He sits in his quiet study with clear head, sympathetic heart, and lively fancy. 2. The walls around him are lined with books on every subject, and in almost every tongue. 3. He is indeed a man of magical powers, and these books are his magical volumes full of wonder- working spells. 4. When he opens one of these, and reads with eye and soul intent, in a few minutes the objects around him fade from his senses, and his soul is rapt away into distant regions, or into by-gone times. 5. It may be a book descriptive of other lands ; and then he feels himself, perhaps, amid the biting frost a^nd snowy ice-hills of the polar winter, or in the fierce heat and luxuriant vegetation of the equator, panting up the steeps of the Alps with the holiday tourist, or exploring the mazes of the Nile with Livingstone or Baker. 6. Or, perchance, it may be a history of England; and then the tide of time runs back, and he finds himself among our stout-hearted ancestors ; he enters heartily into all their toils and struggles ; he passes amid the fires of Smithfield at the Reformation ; he shares in all the wrangling, and dangers, and suspense of the Revolution ; he watches with eager gaze the steady progress of the nation, until he sees British freedom become the envy of Europe, and British enterprise secure a foothold in every quarter of the globe. 7. Or perhaps the book may be one of our great English classics — Shakespeare, Bacon, or Carlyle — and immediately he is in the closest contact with a spirit far larger than his own : his mind grasps its grand ideas, his heart imbibes its glowing sentiments, until he finds himself dilated, refined, inspired, — a greater and a nobler being. 8. Thus does this scholar's soul grow and extend itself until it lives in every region of the earth and in every by-gone age, and holds the most intimate 182 Composition-Rhetoric, intercourse with the spirits of the mighty dead ; and thus, though originally a frail mortal creature, he rises toward the godlike attributes of omnipresence and omniscience. EXERCISE 59. sLui^' Point out the means of suspense employed in the fol- lowing : — I know many have been taught to think, that moderation, in a case lik g.JJiis, is a sort of treason ; and that all arguments for it are sufficiently answered by railing at rebels and rebellion, and by chargin g all the present, or future miseries, which we may suffer, on the resistance of our brethren. But I would wish them, in this grave matter, and if peace is not wholly removed from their hearts, to consider seriously, first, that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the road to reconciliation, in any dif- ference amongst men. In the n ext place, it would be right to reflect, that the American English (whom they may abuse, if they think it honorable to revile the absent) can, as things now stand, neither be provoked at our railing, nor bettered by our instruction. All communication is cut off between us, but this we know with certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must begin somewhere ; and a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive that we suffer anything by thus regulating our own minds. We are not disarmed by being disencumbered of our passions. De claiming on rebellion never added a bayonet, or a charge of powder, to your military force ; but I am afraid that it has been the means of taking up many muskets against you. — Burke: Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. AU this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians, who have no place among us; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material ; and who t herefore , far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master princi- How to Say It, 183 pies, which, in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have no substantial existence, ^re in truth everything, and all in all. Magnanimity in politics i^ not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on America, with the old warning of the church, Sursum corda ! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By ajdverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire : and have made the most extensive, and the only honorable conquests, not by desti:eyiftg, but byj)TOmoting the wealth, the number, the happi^ ness of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is ; English privileges alone will make it all it can be. — Burke : Conciliation with the Colonies. The proposition is peace. JJiiL^eace through the medium of war; not p eace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations ; not peace to arise out of universal dis- cord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace; sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace ; and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose by;^ removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in tlTe mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people ; and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to British government. — Burke : Conciliation with the Colonies. EXERCISE 60. Make a list of all the methods you have learned by which suspense is secured, and illustrate each method by an origi- nal sentence. 184 Composition-Rhetoric, \ \ EXERCISE Jl. \J^J-^* Introduce as great variety of suspense as you can into the following paragraphs : — 1. Douglass was essentially a great man. 2. Escaping from slavery when he was twenty-one years old, in three years he had begun, in a Massachusetts seaport town, to be a lead^ of hi^ race, v and an orator for the abolition of slavery. 3. G(»rag^'^figranaJ^5^?^ he stirred the moral sense of the English people which so often ^^''^ compels the alleg^^iice of its politiciaDS and statesmen in behalf ^ of moral causes. '4.' Becoijiiug" an editor as well as an orator, he was a considerable force in awakening the (hill consoience of the? Northern States. 5. He has left his mark upon the lii'story of the abolition of slavery in America. 3iH hXXt 1. That astonishing incident in human affairs, the Revolution of America, as seen on the day of its portentous, or rather, let me say, of its auspicious commencement, is the theme of our present consideration. 2. On the one hand, we behold a connection of events, — the time and circumstances of the original discovery; the settlements of the Pilgrims, and their peculiar principles and character ; their singular political relations with the mother-coun- try; their long and doubtful struggles with the savage tribes; their collisions with the royal governors ; their cooperation in > the British wars, — with all the influences of their geographical and physical condition, uniting to constitute what I may call the national edijj^atiQn of America. 3. Wh^ElTWfe^lte ^'ttis survey we feel, as far as Massachusetts is concerned, that we 9ught to divide the honors of the Revolution with the great men of the colony in every generation; with the Winslows and the Pepperells, the Cookes, the Duinmers and the INIathers, the Winthrops and the Bradfords, and all w^ho labored and acted in the cabinet, the desk, or the field, for the one great cause. 4. On the other hand, when we dwell upon the day itself, everything else seems lost in the comparison. 5.-^^d our fathers failed on that day of trial which we now celebrate; J»«$ th^ir , Vjr votes and their resolves (as was taunlSfigly predicted (m'bom sidee of the Atlantic) ended in the breath in which they began ; iiife How to Say It, 185 t the rebels laid down their arms, as they were commanded; and 'J the militaiy stores, whiclihad ld©en frugally treasured up for this crisis, been, without resistance,^destroyea, — then the Revolution would have been at an end, or rather never had been begun ; the heads of Hancock and Adams and their brave colleagues would have been exposed in ghastly triumph on Temple Bar ; a military despotism would have been firmly fixed in the colonies; the patriots o| JV^ssachusetts would have been^ doubly despised — the scorn^f Tneir enemies, tl^ scorn" q^ their ' deluded countrymen; and the heart of this great people, then beating and almost burst- ing for freedom, would have been struck cold and dead, perhaps forever. . . EX ERCISE 6 2. /^^ Ee-write the following for the most part in periodic sen- tences and compare your version with the original. There are ten thousand ways of telling a lie. A man's entire life may be a falsehood, while with his lips he may not once directly falsify. There are those who state what is positively untrue, but afterward say "may be" softly. These departures fi-om the truth are called white lies, but there is really no such thing as a white lie. The whitest lie that was ever told was as black as perdition. There are men high in church and state, actually useful, self-denying, and honest in many things, who, upon certain subjects and in certain spheres, are not at all to be depended upon for veracity. Indeed, ^her^e ^f^ multitudes of men who have their notion of truthfulness so thoroughly perverted that they do not know w^hen they are lying. With many it is a culti- vated sin ; with some it seems a natural infirmity. I have known people who seemed to have been born liars. The falsehoods of their lives extended from cradle to grave. Prevarication, misrep- resentation, and dishonesty of speech, appeared in their first utter- ances, and were as natural to them as any of their infantile diseases, and were a sort of moral croup or spiritual scarlatina. But many have been placed in circumstances where this tendency has day by day and hour by hour been called to larger develop- ment. They have gone from attainment to attainment, and from class to class, until they have become regularly graduated liars. 186 Composition-Rhetoric. The air of the city is filled with falsehoods. They hang pen- dent from the chandeliers of our finest residences. They crowd the shelves of some of our merchant princes. They fill the side- walk from curb-stone to brown-stone facing. They cluster round the mechanic's hammer, and blossom from the end of the mer- chant's yardstick, and sit in the doors of churches. Some call them " fiction." Some style them " fabrications." You might say that they were subterfuge, disguise, illusion, romance, evasion, pretence, fable, deception, misrepresentation ; but, as I am igno- rant of anything to be gained by the hiding of a God-defying outrage under a lexicographer's blanket, I shall chiefly call them in plainest vernacular — lies. Let us all strive to be what we appear to be, and banish from our lives everything that looks like deception, remembering that God will yet reveal to the universe what we really are. EXERCISE 63. ^^^W\M<^ — - ' What sameness of structure do you notice in the sen- tences of the following paragraphs ? Re-write, and re-com- bine, introducing variety of beginnings and variety of sus- pense. There is no doubt that the Christian powers of Europe, or Rus- sia and England alone, could, by main force, put a stop to the persecution of the Armenian Christians by the Turks. One of the reasons for their exceeding caution in the case is their knowledge and experience of the fighting ability of the Turks. Drive the Turk to the wall, and he will fight against any odds. Inflame his religious zeal, and he will rush upon the combined armies of Christendom. Threaten his sanctuaries, and the most arrant cow- ard will become a hero. Lead him to believe that he is called upon to engage in a holy war for Islam, and death in battle becomes the highest joy for him. He has supreme faith in Allah and the Prophet. He believes in kismet, "to him the vision of paradise is a perpetual inspiration. The Turk has fought all the races in the world. He has been held in check only by over- whelming forces. His history from the times of old has been chiefly that of warfare. How to Say It. 187 I remember an old scholastic aphorism, which says, that " the man who lives wholly detached from others must be either an angel or a devil." When I see in any of these detached gentlemen of our times the augelic purity, power, and beneficence, I shall admit them to be angels. In the meantime we are born only to be men. We shall do enough if we form ourselves to be good ones. It is therefore our business carefull}^ to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigor and maturity, every sort of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature. To bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the ser- vice of the commonwealth ; so to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen. To cultivate friendships, and to incur enmities. To have both strong, but both selected : in the one, to be placable ; in the other immovable. To model our principles to our duties and our situation. To be fully persuaded that all virtue which is impracticable is spurious ; and rather to run the risk of falling to faults in a course which leads us to act with effect and energy, an to loiter out our days without blame, and without use. Public life is a situation of power and energy ; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy. EXERCISE 64. Write about 300 words on' one of the following topics, making many of the sentences periodic in form, and trying the various devices for suspense : — 1. Americans should not hate the English. ^'^^J^ t 2. Thoughts on Independence Day. 3. Accuracy in writing and speaking is a moral attain- ment. 4. It makes a difference for what purposes we spend money. 5. Advantages of a public library. 6. Admirable traits in Abraham Lincoln's character. 7. A heroic deed. 8. The character of Miles Standish. 9. The dignity of Dr. Samuel Johnson. 188 Composition-Rhetoric, 10. Needed street improvements. 11. Early life of George Eliot. 12. Was Bassanio a proper husband for Portia ? "^/W/r^. LESso:^r 25. Uses of the Balanced Sentence. A balanced sentence is one in which corresponding parts are made similar in form in order to bring out parallelism in meaning. The following paragraph, after the first sen- tence, shows similarity of form in five sentences, the scheme of structure being if — it shows in each sentence : — The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm. If he easily pardons and remits offences, i t show s that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot. I f he be thank- ful for small benefits, it shg^s that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash. But, above all, if he have St. PauPs perfection, that he would wish to be anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it show s much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ liimself. — Bacon : Of Goodness. In the following paragraph the second sentence divides at but; the scheme of structure in the first part being not to — or, not to — nor to, not to — or, and of the last part but to, to, etc., corresponding expressions being similar in form of statement and of about the same number of words. In sentence 4, the repetitions (voyage of discovery, circumnavi- gation of charity) correspond precisely in form. In sentence 6, the contrasting words (not by detail but in gross) are simi- larly placed. How to Say It, 189 1. I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labors and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. 2. He has visited all Europe, not to. survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples ; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art ; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts : h ^t ^ (^ dive into the depths of dungeons ; to plunge into the infection of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; Jo^ take the gauge and dimen- sions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the for- gotten, ia attend to the neglected, ta visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. 3. His plan is original ; and it is as full of genius as it is of hu- manity. 4. It was a voyage of discove ry ; a circumnavigation of charity. 5. Already the benefit of his labor is felt moreor iess*" in every country ; I hope he will anticipate his final reward, by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. 6. He will receive, not by deta il but in gross, the reward of those who visit the pris- oner ; and he has so torestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter. — Burke : Speech at Bristol. The habit of clothing similar thoughts in clauses^ or phrases, or sentences, of about equal length and of similar structure, may easily become a mannerism. A series of balances grows speedily wearisome and becomes offensively regular. The reader suspects, sometimes, that the facts are not so accurately balanced as the words would indicate. Use the balanced sentence only when p arallelism o f the thought requires. EXERCISE 65. Point out all the contrasting words, phrases, and clauses that are balanced in the following paragraphs : — I believe we can nowhere find a better type of a perfectly free creature than in the common house fly. ^ or fl^e^^il y. but brave ; and irreverent to a degree which I think no human republican 190 Composition- Rhetoric, could by any philosophy exalt himself to. There is no courtesy in him ; he does not care whether it is kin g or clown whom he teases ; and in every step of his swift mechanical march, and in every pause of Ins^esolute observation, there is gig" and the saipe expres- sionjodT perfect egotism, perfect independence and self-confidence, and conviction oFThe world's having been made for flies. Strike at him with your hand; and to him, the mechanical fact and external aspect of the matter is, wliat to you it would be, if an acre of red clay, ten feet thick, tore itself up from the ground in one massive field, hovered over you in the air for a second, and came crashing down with an aim. That is the external aspect of it ; the inner aspe ct, to his fly's mind, is of quite natural and unim- portanfoccurrence — one of the momentary conditions of his active life. He steps c^^\ of i^^ -^^y nf yf^i^y hnnd^ and alights on th^ back of it. You cannot terrify him, n or govern h im, nor persuade liim, nor convince h im. He has his own positive opinion on all matters ; not an unwise one, usually, for his own ends ; and will ask no advice of yours. He has no work to do — no^^tyrannical instinct to obey. The earth wornT has Iirs"°3 l$ging ; t he bee , her gathering and building ; the spider, her cunning net-work ; the ant, her treasury and accounts. All these are comparative slaves, or people of vulgar business. But your fly, free in the air, free in Jlie chamber — a black incarnatiou of caprice — wandering, investi- gating, flitting, flirting, feasting at his will, with rich variety of choice in feast, from the heaped sweets in the grocer's window to those of the butcher's back-jard, and from the galled place on your caB^hofse'snback to the brown spot in th e road, from which as ihe hoof disturbs him, he rises with angry republican buzz — what freedom is like his? — Ruskin : Queen of the Air, Pictorial composition may be defined as the proportionate arranging and unifying of the different features and objects of a picture. It is not th e huddling together of miscellaneous studio properties — a dummy, a vase, a rug here, and a sofa, a fireplace, a table there ; it isnot the lugging in by the ears of unimportant people to fill up the background of the canvas, as in the spectacu- lar play; it i s not ta king a real group from nature and transplant- ing it upon canvas. There must be an exercise of judgment on the part of the artist as to fitness and position, as to harmony of How to Say It. 191 relation, proportion, color, light; and there must be a skilful uniting of all the parts into one perfect whole. — J. C. Van Dyke : How to Judge of a Picture, 95. The clergyman of fashion was pale and fragile ; he of the people was florid and muscular. He had no attendant to remove his hat and cloak. He had no comfortable study in the church building where he smoothed his hair and arranged his cuffs. He declaimed beforejio-jull-length mirror, and never w ore a pair of patent leathers in his life. When he ascended tFe platform, threading v his way through the men and women on its steps, and patting the j'^U' Ui curly hair of boys perched on the ledge, he slung his soft felt hat Amiij under a little table, put one leg over the other while he removed . his rubbers, threw back his cloak, settled himself in his chair, and' gave a sigh of relief as he drew a restful breath after his quick walk from home. In other words, he was a man bent on man's duty. If the air seemed close he said s o, called an usher and had the windows lowered. I f he desired a special tune sung to the hymn he gave out, he turne d to the director and told him so. If he forgot a date or a name, he asked one of the people near him wiiat it was. If strangers sitting close to the platform were miprovided with hymn-book s, Jie lean ed forward and handed them several from his desk. As he said, " I am at home ; they are our guests. What is proper in my house is eminently proper in the house of the Lord ! " — Jos. Howard : Life of Beecher, 158. EXERCISE 66. In what parts of the following paragraph does the bal- ance seem forced and unnecessary ? E-e-state the thought in looser form and in simpler sentences. In perusing the works of this race of authors, the mind is exer- cised either by rec ollection or inqui ry ; either something already learned is to be retrieved, or someth ing new is to be examined. I f ^^ t heir gre atness seldom elevates, their acuteness often surprise s ; if_ the imagination is not often gratified, at leas t the powers of reflec- tion and comparison are employed ; and m the mass of materials which ingenious absurdity has thrown together, genuine wit and AJtrmdJkuvv^ (VKSjji, (M-Ur )di\XM OiAMt Oi^A^^N^Jij-iA 192 Oomposition-Rhetoric, ^^"^ ^ useful knowledge may be sometimes found buried perhaps in grossness of expression, ^but useful to those who know their value; and such as w^hen they are expanded to perspicuity, and polished to elegance, may give lustre to works which have more propriety though less copiousness of sentiment. \(y\/r^ ,^^pRCISE 67. Ee-write the material of ihe following selection intro- ducing balanced words, phrases, clauses, and sentences as often as you can. Compare your version with the original. Another form of genteel ignorance consists in being so com- pletely blinded by conventionalism as not to be able to perceive the essential identity of two modes of life or habits of action when one of them happens to be in what is called " good form," whilst the other is not accepted by polite society. My own tastes and pursuits have often led me to do things, for the sake of study or pleasure, which in reality differ but very slightly from what gen- teel people often do ; yet, at the same time, this slight difference is sufficient to prevent them from seeing any resemblance whatever between my practice and theirs. When a young man I found a wooden hut extremely convenient for painting from nature, and when at a distance from other lodging I slept in it. This was unfashionable, and genteel people expressed much wonder at it, being especially surprised that I could be so imprudent as to risk health by sleeping in a little wooden house. Conventionalism made them perfectly ignorant of the fact that they occasionally slept in little wooden houses themselves. A railway carriage is simply a wooden hut on wheels, generally very ill-ventilated, and presenting the alternative of foul air or a strong draught, with vibration that makes sleep difficult to some and to others abso- lutely impossible. I have passed many nights in those public huts on wheels, but have never slept in them so pleasantly as in my own private one. Genteel people also use wooden dwellings that float on water. A yacht's cabin is nothing but a hut of a peculiar shape, with its own peculiar inconveniences. On land a hut will remain steady ; at sea it inclines in every direction, and is tossed about like Gulliver's large box. An Italian nobleman Hoy, to Sayht. (Vr^j^^ ^ who liked travel, but had no taste for dirty southern inns, had four vans that formed a square at night, with a little courtyard in the middle, that was covered with canvas, and served as a spacious dining-room. The arrangement was excellent, but he was considered hopelessly eccentric j yet how slight was the dif- ference between his vans and a train of saloon carriages foj the railway ? He simply had saloon carriages that were adapted for common roads. EXE RCISE 68 . '^'^^' ' ^ \ Write a paragraph mainly of balanced sentences on one of tl\e following topics : — 1. Immigrants that we want and immigrants that we do not want. 2. Poverty distinguished from pauperism. 3. Novels that help and novels that hinder. 4. Caesar compared with Brutus. 5. Which is the greater villain, Shylock or lago ? 6. Compare two public speakers whom you have heard. 7. Contrast Evangeline and Priscilla, or John Alden and Miles Standish. 8. Contrast Grand Pre (in Evangeline) and Plymouth (in Miles Standish). 9. Washington and Lincoln; or, Hamilton and Jeffer- son ; or, Longfellow and Whittier ; or, George Eliot and Mrs. Mary Ward. 10. The distinction between socialism and nihilism ; or, law and public opinion ; or, charity and alms-giving. 11. Compare and contrast two synonyms, two trees, two books, two characters, two dramatic situations, two historical scenes, or two courses of conduct. 194 Composition-Rhetoric. LESSOl^ 26. Combinations of Sentence-Types, In the preceding lessons we have noticed that the best paragraphs show more than one kind of sentence. Long and short, periodic and loose sentences, with an occasional balanced structure, appear in different forms in the same paragraph, and thus a pleasing variety is secured. Fur- ther variety is added and force is gained by the appropri- ate use of the exclamation and interrogation, and of mixed or composite sentences. These we shall now consider. The following paragraph shows four exclamatory sen- tences and five questions. In the declarative form the first sentence would read, " A university presents a strange pict- ure to the imagination '' ; the ninth would close, " and you would blot out with them very much of her glory ^'; the tenth would close in the same way. The fifteenth would close: "The time or people should not be called wholly barbarous; for the human mind could achieve this much, even then and there." As to the questions, sentence 4, if reduced to the declarative form, would read, "Otherwise, the undying lamp of thought would not be fed '^ ; sentence 11, " The history of Spain would look sadly mutilated if," etc. Sentences 12, 13, and 14, like sentence 11, could be reduced to the declarative form by supplying a word in answer to the question asked in each. Making the changes indicated above, compare the result with the original, and note the loss in enthusiasm, force, and variety when all the sentences are declarative in form. 1. What a strange picture a university presents to the imagina- tion ! 2. The lives of scholars in their cloistered stillness, — liter- ary men of retired habits, and professors who study sixteen hours a day, and never see the world but on a Sunday. 3. Nature has, no doubt for some wise purpose, placed in their hearts this love of Eow to Say It, 195 literary labor and seclusion. 4. Otherwise, who would feed the undying lamp of thought? 5. But for such men as these, a blast of wind through the chinks and crannies of this old world, or the flapping of a conqueror's banner, would blow it out forever. 6. The light of the soul is easily extinguished. 7. And whenever I reflect upon these things, I become aware of the great importance, in a nation's history, of the individual fame of scholars and literary men. 8. I fear that it is far greater than the world is willing to ac- knowledge ; or, perhaps I should say, than the world has thought of acknowledging. 9. Blot out from England's history the names of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton only and how much of her glory would you blot out with them ! 10. Take from Italy such names as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, and how much would be wanting to the completeness of her glory! 11. How would the history of Spain look if the leaves were torn out on which are written the names of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Calderon ? 12. What would be the fame of Portu- gal, without her Camoens; of France, without her Racine, and Rabelais, and Voltaire, or Germany, without her Martin Luther, her Goethe, and her Schiller ? 13. Nay, what were the nations of old without their philosophers, poets, and historians? 14. Tell me, do not these men, in all ages and in all places, emblazon with bright colors the armorial bearings of their country? 15. Yes, and far more than this ; for in all ages and all places they give human- ity assurance of its greatness, and say, " Call not the time or people wholly barbarous ; for this much, even then and there, could the human mind achieve ! " — Longfellow. Many good sentences, perhaps the majority of good writ- ten sentences, are mixed or composite in structure, neither entirely periodic nor entirely loose, but partly one and partly the other. A sentence will sometimes begin as a periodic sentence, continue periodic for half or three-fourths of its entire extent, sometimes even up to the very last clause, and will then become loose. Or a sentence will begin as a loose sentence, and will close as a periodic. A sentence w^holly loose may contain a clause which is periodic. In both loose and periodic sentences, a series of clauses of 196 Composit ton-Rhetoric, about the same length and of similar structure are fre- quently found, or minor details, contrasting in thought, are balanced against one another. In the following paragraph the third sentence begins as a periodic sentence, the ?!/-clause coming first, and continues periodic down to the appended phrase, ^^ drowning all other sounds " ; then, after the semicolon, another periodic sen- tence begins, continuing down to the appended clause " and you are scanned," etc. In general structure this sentence is also balanced part for part. I hardly know whether I am more pleased or annoyed with the cat-bird. Perhaps she is a little too common, and her part in the general chorus a little too conspicuous. If you are listening for the note of another bird, she is sure to be prompted to the most loud and protracted singing, drowning all other sounds; if you sit quietly down to observe a favorite or study a new-comer, her curi- osity knows''no bounds, and you are scanned and ridiculed from every point of observation. Yet I would not miss her ; I would only subordinate her a little, make her less conspicuous. — Bur- roughs : Wake Robin. In the following selection, sentence 4 begins as a periodic sentence, and continues periodic to the first semicolon ; then two lines are in balanced form; then the periodic structure is resumed by means of the construction so — so — so — that, the sentence closing with a balanced clause which grows out of the words so soon. Sentences 5 and 6 are made up of parts constructed on one plan in each sentence. Sentence 7 is, in general structure, loose, but contains a part that is sus- pended by the word while. Sentence 9 is loose to the semi- colon, and then becomes periodic to the close. Sentence 10 is periodic throughout. 1. We live in a most extraordinary age. 2. Events so various and so important, that they might crowd and distinguish centuries, are, in our times, compressed within the compass of a single life. How to Say It, 197 3. When has it happened that history has had so much to record, in the same term of years, as since the 17th of June, 1775? 4. Our own Revolution, which, under other circumstances, might itself have been expected to occasion a war of half a century, has been achieved; twenty-four sovereign and independent states erected; and a general government established over them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment should have been accomplished so soon, were it not far the greater wonder that it should have been established at all. 5. Two or three millions of people have been augmented to twelve, the great forests of the West prostrated beneath the arm of successful industry, and the dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi become the fellow-citizens and neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of New England. 6. We have a commerce that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies w^hich take no law from superior force ; revenues adequate to all the exigencies of govern- ment, almost without taxation; and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and mutual respect. 7. Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the individual condition and happiness of almost every man, has shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed against one another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. 8. On this, our continent, our own example has been followed, and colonies have sprung up to be nations. 9. Unaccustomed sounds of liberty and free gov- ernment have reached us from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this moment the dominion of European power in this conti- nent, from the place where we stand to the south pole, is anni- hilated forever. 10. In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has been the general progress of knowledge, such the improvements in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and above all in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, that the whole world seems changed. — Webster : First Bunker Hill Oration, • It is because periodic sentences show a more closely knit construction and require, while they are being written, careful attention to the structure and to the best placement 198 Composition-Rhetoric . of phrases and clauses, that the pupil should make most of his sentences approach the periodic type. When the phrases, clauses, and modifiers generally are numerous, it is a good plan to place some of them first and some of them last, thus making the sentences partly periodic and partly loose. The first sentence in the following selection indicates such a distribution of phrases : — Poems and noble extracts, whether of verse or prose, once reduced into possession, and rendered truly our own, may be to us a daily pleasure ; — better far than a whole library unused. They come to us in our dull moments, to refresh us as with spring flowers ; in our selfish musings, to win us by pure delight from the tyranny of foolish castle-building, self-congratulations, and mean anxieties. They may be with us in the workshop, in the crowded streets, by the fireside ; sometimes, perhaps, on pleasant hill-sides, or by sounding shores; — noble friends and companions — our own ! never intrusive, ever at hand, coming at our call ! Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, — the words of such men do not stale upon us, they do not grow old or cold. Use the exclamation or the question occasionally when the emo- tion will justify its use. In general, make most of your sentences rather periodic than loose in their main structure, varying their beginnings and endings. EXERCISE 69. In the following paragraphs notice the variety of sentence- structure. In the sentences which are partly or wholly peri- odic, point out the words by means, of which suspense is secured. It is now past midnight. The moon is full and bright, andv the shadows lie so dark and massive in the street that they seem a part of the walls that cast them. I have just returned from the Coliseum, whose ruins are so marvellously beautiful by moofilight. No stranger at Rome omits this midnight visit ; for though there How to Say It. 199 is something unpleasant in having one's admiration forestalled, and being as it were romantic aforethought, yet the charm is so powerful, the scene so surpassingly beautiful and sublime, — the hour, the silence, and the colossal ruin have such a mastery over the soul, — that you are disarmed when most upon your guard, and betrayed into an enthusiasm which perhaps you had silently resolved you would not feel. On my way to the Coliseum I crossed the Capitoline Hill, and descended into the Roman Forum by the broad staircase that leads to the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus. Close upon my right hand stood the three remaining columns of the Temple of the Thunderer, and the beautiful Ionic portico of the Temple of Concord, — their base in shadow, and the bright moonbeam strik- ing aslant upon the broken entablature above. Before me rose the Phocian Column, an isolated shaft, like a thin vapor hanging in the air, scarce visible; and far to the left, the ruins of the Temple of Antonio and Faustina, and the three colossal arches of the Temple of Peace, — dim, shadowy, indistinct — seemed to melt away and mingle with the sky. I crossed the Forum at the foot of the Palatine, and ascending the Via Sacra, passed beneath the Arch of Titus. From this point I saw below me the gigantic outline of the Coliseum, like a cloud resting upon the earth. As 1 descended the hillside, 'it grew more broad and high, — more definite in its form, and yet more grand in its dimensions, — till, from the vale in which it stands encompassed by three of the seven hills of Rome, — the Palatine, the Coelian, and the Esqui- line, — the majestic ruin in all its solitary grandeur '' swelled vast to heaven." A single sentinel was pacing to and fro beneath the arched gateway which leads to the interior, and his measured footsteps were the only sound that broke the breathless silence of the night. What a contrast with the scene which that same midnight hour presented, when, in Domitian's time, the eager populace began to gather at the gates, impatient for the morning sports ! Xor was the contrast within less striking. Silence, and the quiet moon- beams, and the broad, deep shadows of the ruined wall ! Where were the senators of Rome, her matrons, and her virgins ? where the ferocious populace that rent the air with shouts, when, in the hundred holidays that marked the dedication of this imperial 200 Composition-Rhetoric, slaughter-house, five thousand wild beasts from the Libyan deserts and the forests of Anatolia made the arena thick with blood? Where were the Christian martyrs, that died wdth prayers upon their lips, amid the jeers and imprecations of their fellow-men ? where the barbarian gladiators, brought lorth to the festival of blood, and "butchered to make a Roman holiday"? The awful silence answered, " They are mine ! " The dust beneath me answered, " They are mine ! " I crossed to the opposite extremity of the amphitheatre. A lamp was burning in the little chapel, which has been formed from what was once a den for the wild beasts of the Roman festivals. Upon the steps sat the old beadsman, the only tenant of the Coliseum, who guides the stranger by night through the long galleries of this vast pile of ruins. I followed him up a narrow wooden staircase, and entered one of the long and majestic corridors, which in ancient times ran entirely round the amphi- theatre. Huge columns of solid mason-work, that seem the labor of Titans, support the flattened arches above ; and though the iron clamps are gone, which once fastened the hewn stones to- gether, yet the columns stand majestic and unbroken, amid the ruin around them, and seem to defy "the iron tooth of time." Through the arches at the right, I could faintly discern the ruins of the baths of Titus on the Esquiline ; and from the left, through every chink and cranny of the wall, poured in the brilliant light of the full moon, casting gigantic shadows around me, and dif- fusing a soft, silvery twilight through the long arcades. At length I came to an open space, where the arches above had crumbled away, leaving the pavement an unroofed terrace high in air. From this point I could see the whole interior of the amphi- theatre spread out beneath me, with such a soft and indefinite outline that it seemed less an earthly reality than a reflection i^ the bosom of a lake. The figures of several persons below were just perceptible, mingling grotesquely with their foreshortened shadows. The sound of their voices reached me in a whisper, and the cross that stands in the centre of the arena looked like a dagger thrust into the sand. I did not conjure up the past, for the past had already become identified with the present. It was before me in one of its most majestic and visible forms. The arbitrary distinctions of time, years, ages, centuries, were annihi- How to Say It. 201 lated. I was a citizen of Kome ! This was the amphitheatre of Flavius Vespasian ! Mighty is the spirit of the past, amid the ruins of the Eternal City I — Longfellow : Outre-mer. EXERCISE 70. The following paragraph is composed entirely of affirm- ative statements. Change one or more of them to a question or an exclamation, and note the effect. An astronomical observatory may seem to have no relation to the welfare of a community. Eclipses and planetary transits may seem to have nothing to do with human life. When the invisible paths of all stars are traced by mathematical faith, parallaxes and multitudinous calculations may seem to have little to do with men's ordinary business. But experience will, in a generation, show that those who first feel the fruits and the elevation of such pursuits will be few; but they will become broader, deeper, and better. Through them, but diluted and not recognized, the next class below will be influenced — not by astronomy, but by the moral power of men who have been elevated by astronomy. Every part of society is affected when men are built up. They impart their own growth to whatever they touch. Enlarge men and you enlarge everything. EXERCISE 71. In the following paragraph change two of the exclama- tions to the declarative form. Select the two that can be so changed, without injury to what precedes and follows them. AVhen we are well, we perhaps think little about the Doctor, or we have our small joke at him and his drugs ; but let anything go wrong with our body, that wonderful tabernacle in which our soul dwells, let any of its wheels go wrong, then off we fly to him. If the mother thinks her husband or her child dying, how she runs to him, and urges him with her tears ! how she watches his face, and follows his searching eye, as he examines the dear sufferer ; how 202 Composition-Rhetoric, she wonders what he thinks — what would she give to know what he knows ! how she wearies for his visit ! how a cheerful word from him makes her heart leap with joy, and gives her spirit and strength to watch over the bed of distress ! Her whole soul goes out to him in unspeakable gratitude when he brings back to her from the power of the grave her husband or darling child. The Doctor knows many of our secrets, of our sorrows, which no one else knows — some of our sins, perhaps, which the great God alone else knows ; how many cases and secrets, how many lives, he carries in his heart and in his hands! So you see he is a very important person, the Doctor, and we should do our best to make the most of him, and to do our duty to him and to ourselves. — John Brown : Horce Suhsecivce^ I, 391. EXERCISE 72. Change one or more of the following questions to other forms of statement in such a way as not to injure the paragraph as a whole : — A Noble Lord, who spoke some time ago, is full of the fire of ingenuous youth ; and when he has modelled the ideas of a lively imagination by further experience, he will be an ornament to his country in either House. He has said, that the Americans are our children, and how can they revolt against their parents ? He says, that if they are not free in their present state, England is not free ; because Manchester and other considerable places are not repre- sented. So then, because some towns in England are not repre- sented, America is to have no representative at all. They are our children: but when children ask for bread, we are not to give a stone. Is it because the natural resistance of things, and the various mutations of time, hinders our government, or any scheme of government, from being any more than a sort of approximation to the right, is it therefore that the Colonies are to recede from it infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its parent, and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the beauteous countenance of British liberty, are we to turn to them the shame- ful parts of our Constitution ? are we to give them our weakness IroXi^'^^^- Mow to Say It. 203 for their strength? our opprobrtum for their glory? and the slough of slavery, which we are not able to work off, to serve them for their freedom ? I EXERCISE 73. /^ 111 the following selection combine in a single declarative ''sentence the three exclamations at the close of the first paragraph, and re-write the first three sentences of the second paragraph, breaking up the balance and doing away with the exclamations : — The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other male- factors against w^hom overwhelming evidence is produced, gener- ally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling testimony to character. He had so many private virtues ! And had James the Second no private virtues ? Was Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being judges, destitute of private virtues ? And what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles ? A religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones in Eng- land claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father ! A good husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood ! We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow ! We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the defence is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him ! We censure him for having violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning ! It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation. For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the common phrase, a good man, but a bad king. We can as easily conceive Composition'RJietoric, a good man and an unnatural father, or a good man and a treacherous friend. We cannot, in estimating the character of an individual, leave out of consideration his conduct in the most im- portant of all human relations ; and if in that relation w^e find him to have been selfish, cruel, and deceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a bad man, in spite of all his temperance at table, and all his regularity at chapel. — M ac aulay. EXERCISE 74. What sameness of structure do you notice in the be- ginnings of the sentences of the following paragraphs ? Revise, re-combine, and re- write to introduce variety of sentence-beginnings. England showed no relenting in her treatment of the Americans. The King gave no reply to the address of Congress. The Houses of Lords and of Commons refused even to allow that address to be read in their hearing. The King announced his firm purpose to reduce the refractory colonists to obedience. Parliament gave loyal assurances of support to the blinded monarch. AH trade with the colonies was forbidden. All American ships and cargoes might be seized by those who were strong enough to do so. The alternative presented to the American choice was without disguise — the Americans had to fight for their liberty, or forego it. The people of England had, in those days, no control over the govern- ment of their country. All this was managed for them by a few great families. Their allotted part was to toil hard, pay their taxes, and be silent. If they had been permitted to speak, their voice would have vindicated the men who asserted their right of self-government — a right which Englishmen themselves were not to enjoy for many a long year. John Stuart Blackie has been for the greater part of the century an engaging figure in scholarship and literature. Born in the year 1809, and educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, he spent many years in Germany and Italy, a devotee of what was then a new science, comparative philology. A profuse writer throughout his entire life, his place is in the overlapping field in which pedagogics How to Say It. 205 and poetry commingle. One of a group in which Wolf and Max MUller are foremost of the Germans, Blackie, like them an etymol- ogist, pursuing investigations to which the chief emphasis was given by the Grimm brothers, has been, far more than any of his co-workers i n the scien cg, oiLlaagiitag^, an appreciator of the isp* of literal ris quite natural that the proposition to pay members of Par- liament should be regarded by Americans as a sensible one. It is our custom to pay our Senators and Congressmen, and we instinc- tively assume that any system in vogue here ought to be in vogue everywhere. But it is interesting to observe that the British Government have dropped their bill embodying this proposi- tion. The fact is that the old method has worked so well in England that until it can be shown to have resulted in serious injustice, there will be no general disposition to change it. The theory is that legislators should give their services to the nation, and that if they are paid, undesirable candidates, who care only for the money, will be elected. It is possible that such a theory may be false, but it is likely that its supporters would have little difficulty in collecting statistics enough in this country to indicate that paying legislators does not always conduce to getting the ablest men into office. EXERCISE 75^ V^/T^ , Write about 300 words on one of the topics in Exercises b^, 64, and Q>^, not already used. After writing, notice how many types of sentences you have employed. Revise your work for variety of sentence-structure. LES SOR 22 . tWAXO^ I Choice of Expression. The English language has a much larger stock of words than any other language ever used by man. Often a given idea will be represented quite accurately in English by either of two words, sometimes by any one of three. Thus we 206 Coynposition-Rhetoric, speak of a certain class of our population as the poor, the needy, the indigent, meaning the same thing no matter which one of the three words we use ; we speak of a laboring man's pay, wages, earnings; of the meaning, sense, signification of a passage of scripture; of 2b fitting, proper, appropriate exer- cise ; something hinders, delays, retards us ; we become tired, weary, fatigued. One needs a stock of* equivalent words of this kind for the sake of variety. Other sets of words in English represent the same idea, but with different degrees of intensity. Thus empty, vain, futile hopes; sameness, uniformity, monotony; an univise, inconsiderate, silly, foolish, absurd, ridiculous statement ; to like, admire, love; wealth, riches, opulence; to discountenance, deprecate, deplore, lament, bewail an act; vexed, provoked, indignant, angry; it is not impossible, it is j^ossible, it is not unlikely, it is likely, it is not improbable, it is probable, it is certain. One needs to learn to distinguish degrees of meaning in words so as not to over-state or under-state one's self. When a familiar word does not quite satisfy us, does not adequately or exactly express our meaning, we may be sure that there is another more fitting ; and here a book of synonyms, or the dictionary will help us. Other sets of words represent the same idea in different applications. Thus while the words forgive, j^ardon, con- done, excuse, acquit, absolve, remit, overlook, pass over, repre- sent the same idea, each has its particular application, as will be seen by consulting the dictionary. So with house, residence, habitation, mayision; wages,' salary, fee, stipend; fright, scare, panic; dread, dismay, consternation; guess, think, suppose; meeting, assembly, audience, congregation; choose, prefer, select; hanged, hung ; allude, refer; healthy, healthful, wholesome; less, feiDcr ; two, a couple, a pair ; com- pany, gathering, crew, gang, band, party ; avoiv, acknowledge, confess; only, alone. One may enlarge one's stock of words by looking up V How to Say It. 207 the new words one reads, by trying to think of equivalent expressions for them, and by recalling and using them as they may be needed in one's own writing and speaking. We should try to make use of all of our language resources ; but it should be with a knowledge of the meanings, applica- tions, and implications of the words we use. Some words have formed close associations with other words. Thus, take steps, contract habits, pursue a course, turn to account, bear malice, pass over in silence, win prizes. This is especially true of words used in connection with prepositions : agree with a person, agree to a proposition, differ from, comply with, confide in a friend, confide a secret to a friend, call on, dissent from, free from, adapted to a thing, adapted for a purpose, die of a disease, die by one's own hand, regard for a person, in regard to this, reconcile to. Some words call imperatively for others : as — so, either — or, neither — nor, hardly — when, the same that I saw, the same as before, such — as, I do not know that I will, different from, other than. Sometimes the choice lies between an idiomatic and a bookish, or between a simple and a pretentious expression ; here the idiomatic or simple expression is preferable. Get used to, by all odds, get rid of, hard up, get out of the way of, get up, go to bed, make money, — these expressions are not to be avoided. Again the choice may lie between a slang expression which rises to the lips only too readily, and a standard expression which requires some effort to recall. Here the choice should fall upon the standard expression ; the effort is well spent in calling it to mind. Besides being, in many cases, vulgar in meaning or in implication, slang begets general carelessness in the use of language. It encourages laziness in the user by saving him the trouble of finding exact words for his meaning. It prevents him from increas- ing his stock of good words. __—- ■ — X""^ 208 Composition-Rhetoric, Especial care is needed in the choice of the words will and shall, would and should, who, which, and that. iv^ WTTT. AND SHAT.y: . In the simple future, shall is used in the first person, and will in the second and third persons ; thus, " I, or we, shall enjoy reading the book," and " You, he, or they will enjoy reading the book.'' In sentences expressing deter- mination, will is used in the first person, and shall in the second and third persons ; thus, " I, or we, will obey " and " You, he, or they shall obey." In questions, the same distinction between shall and ivill as expressing simple futurity or determination is seen in the following : " Shall I, or we ? " (simple future, or equiva- lent to " do you wish me or us to ? ") ; " Will I ? " (ironical) ; " Shall you subscribe ? " (mere information desired) ; " Will you subscribe ? " (I want you to) ; " Shall he or they ? " (Do you wish him or them to ?) ; " Will he or they ? " (mere information desired). In secondary clauses the reporter uses will, if the speaker used or would have used tvill; shall if the speaker used or would have used shall Thus: Speaker, — "I shall enjoy reading the book"; Reporter, — "He says he shall enjoy reading the book"; Speaker, — "I will not allow it" ; Reporter, — " He says he will not allow it " ; Speaker, — "You (or they) shall seek in vain for it"; Reporter, — "He says you (or they) shall seek," etc. Should corresponds to shall, and ivould to will, following corresponding rules. Thus, in reporting the sentences just given, the correct form would be, " He said he should enjoy reading the book," "He said he would not allow it," "He said you (or they) should seek in vain for it." In con- ditional clauses exceptional care is needed, though the same distinctions are maintained. How to Say It. 209 WHO, WHICH, THAT. The relative pronoun that is restrictive, and introduces a clause that closely defines, limits, or qualifies the antecedent. A ^/ia^clause affects the antecedent as an adjective would affect the antecedent. Who and which are co-ordinating relatives, and introduce, not a modifying thought, but an additional thought of equal or greater importance. Who is equivalent to a conjunction plus a personal pronoun, and may be translated by the words and he, and they, though he, though they, for he, since they, etc., which words may often be used, with a gain to clearness, instead of loho. Which is equivalent to a conjunction plus the word it, this, these, those, and may be translated by the words and this, and it, and these, a fact that, a circumstance that, etc., which words may often be used, with a gain to clearness, instead of which. Who and which are sometimes used restrictively, without loss of clearness, instead of the strictly correct that when the use of that would make a harsh combination, when the word that has already been used in another function in the same sentence, and when the use of that would throw a ^^.^ui^^sition tqjbhojefi^of the sentanc "'f The aid of punctuation may be called in to distinguish restrictive from co-ordinative who or which. Since a comma is usually inserted before a co-ordinate relative, the omission of punctuation before who or ivhicJi will give to the clause a restrictive force. —,_ Choose words that fit your meaning with exactness. Distinguish j j degrees of intensity in words. Use idiomatic expressions. Avoid ^ EXERCISE 76. In the following choose the word in parenthesis that best fits the context. Be ready to give reasons. Consult the dictionary or book of synonyms. 210 Composition-Rhetoric. Caleb would have {remarked upon, said something of, made a statement about, spoken of, deprecated'\ the disrepair of the chamber, but was silenced by the [irritation, irritable look, irritated look, impatience, discontent'] which was [seen, expressed, shown, apparent] in~Ris master's countenance; he lighted the way trembling and in silence^ placed the lamp on the table of the [deserted, abandoned, vacant, empty] room, and was about to [try, attempt] some arrange- ment of the bed, when his master bid him [go, begone, withdraw] in a tone that admitted of no [delaji^ hesitation]. The old man [luent, retired, ivithdrew], not to rest but to prayer; and [fi'om time to time, ever and anon, now and then] crept to the door of the apartment [in order to find out, to find out] whether Ravenswood had [gone to repose, become quiet, retired]. His measured heavy step [upon, on, across] the floor was only interrupted by deep groans ; and the [repeated, reiterated, frequent] stamps of the heel of his heavy boot, [indicated, intimated, proved, showed] too clearly, that the wretched [occujjant, inmate, tenant] was abandoning himself at such moments to paroxysms of uncontrolled agony. The old man [thought, guessed, believed, was sure] that the morning for which he longed would never [cdhe, dawn, have daivned] ; but time, whose course rolls on with equal current, however it may seem more rapid or more slow to mortal [inind, apprehension], brought the [daion, day] at last, and spread a ruddy light on the broad [margin, vercje, shore, edge] of the glistening ocean. 5^ As I live in a place where even the ordinary tattle of the town arrives not till it is stale, and which produces no events of its own, you [will, shall] not desire any excuse from me for writing so sel- dom, especially as of all people living I know you are the least a friend to letters spun out of one's own brains, with all the toil and constraint that accompanies sentimental productions. I have been here at Stoke a few days (where I [will, shall] continue good part of the summer) ; and having put an end to a thing whose begin- ning you have seen long ago, I immediately send it to you. You [will, shall] , T hope, look upon it in the light of a thing with an end to it : a merit that most of my writings have wanted and are like to want, but which this epistle, I am determined [loill, shall] not want, when it tells you that I am ever yours, T. Gray. "A How to Say It, 211 Sir Thomas Payton came to me and told me my lord [would, should'] fight with me on horseback with single sword ; and, said he, "I [willf shalV] be his second; where is yours?" I replied that neither his lordship nor myself brought over any great horses with us; that I knew he might much better borrow one than myself; howbeit, as soon as he showed me the place, he \_wouldy should'] find me there on horseback or on foot; whereupon both of us riding together upon two geldings to the side of a wood, Pay- ton said he chose that place, and the time, break of day the next morning. I told him I \_would, should] fail neither place nor time, though I knew not where to get a better nag than the horse I rode on ; " and as for a second, I [will, shaJU] trust to your nobleness, Who, I know [will, shall] see fair play betwixt us, though you come on his side." f^ . The lieutenant, though he did not know me, suspected I had some private quarrel, and that I desired this horse to fight on, and thereupon told me, " Sir, whosoever you are, you seem to be a person of worth, and you [will, shall] have the best horse in the stable ; and if you have a quarrel and want a second, I offer myself to serve you upon another horse, and if you [will, shall] let me go along with you upon these terms, I [ivill, shall] ask no pawn of you for the horse." I told him I [luoidd, should] use no second, and I desired him to accept one hundred pieces, which I had then about me, in pawn for the horse, and he [would, should] hear from me shortly again ; and that though I did not take his noble offer of coming along with me, I [would, should] evermore rest much obliged to him : whereupon giving him my purse with the money in it, I got upon his horse, and left my nag besides with him. The Castello di San Giorgio, or, as it [ should , might, could, would] more properly have been [designated, called, named], the " Casa, " or Villa di San Giorgio, was [built, erected, constructed] upon the sum- mit of a small conical hill, amid the sloping bases of the Apen- nines, at a [jmrt^ portion, poin f\ of their long range where the [tops, summits] were low and green. In that delightful [place, spot, country, neighborhood, regio n, district] the cultivation and rich- ness of the plain is united to the wildness and [prettiness, sublim- ity, b eauty , attractiveness] of the hills. The heat is tempered in the 212 Composition-Rhetoric. shady valleys and under the \ dense ^ thick, solid, impenetrable^ woods. A delicious [humidity, wetness, dampness, moisture'] and soft haze hangs about these dewy, grassy places, which the sun has power to [ warm , heat] and gladden, but not to parch. Flowers of every hue cover the ground beneath the oaks and elms. Nightingales sing in the thickets of wild rose and clematis, and the groves of laurel and of the long-leaved olives are [full of, swarming wi^f crowded loith] small creatures in the full enjoyment of life and warmth. Little brooks and rippling streams, half [hidden, con- cealed, obscured] by the tangled thickets, and turned from their courses by the mossy rocks, flow down from the hill ravines, as joyful and clear as in that old time when each was the care of some [defending, protecting, shielding] nymph or rural god. In the waters of the placid lake are reflected the shadows of the hills, and the tremulous shimmer of waving woods. - - A J 'i,/-^ EXERCISE 77. Kead the following paragraphs until you have complete possession of the thought. Then re-write, substituting other expressions of equivalent meaning for those italicized. The change in phraseology may compel a change in gram- matical structure. r \The national character, in some of its most important elements, must be formed, elevated, and strengthened from the materials which history presents. Are we to be eternally ringing the changes upon Marathon and Thermopylae, and going back to find in obscure texts of Greek and Latin the great exemplars of patriotic virtue ? / rejoice that we can find them nearer home, in our own country, on our own soil; that strains of the noblest feeling that ever swelled in the breast of man are breathing to us, out of every page of our country's history, in the native eloquence of our mother-tongue ; that the colonial and the provincial councils of America exhibit to us models of the spirit and character which gave Greece and Rome their name and their praise among the nations. Here we ought to go for our instruction; the lesson is plain and easily applied. \ How to Say It, 213 & J do not mean that these examples are to destroy the interest with which we read the history of ancient times ; they possibly increase that interest, by the singular contrasts they exhibit. We ought to seek our great practical lessons of patriotism at home ; out of the exploits and sacrifices, of which our own country is the theatre ; out of the characters of our own fathers. Them we know, the natural^ unaffected, — the citizen heroes. We know what happy firesides they left for the cheerless camp. We know with what pacific habits they dared the perils of the field. There is no mystery, no romance, no madness, under the name of chivalry, about them. It is all resolute, manly resistance, — for the sake of conscience and principle, — not merely of an overwhelming power, but of all the force of long-rooted habits, and the native love of order and peace. — Everett : First Battles of the Revolution. f^^T r . . 4W»ii*'^" \^ The Constitution of the United States is so^ncise and sb gen- eral in its terms, that even ,had America been as Momyl^'ovinQ a country as China, many quMtictfi's must have xtrisdn on ^Jbhe inter- '^'yrda'fidK^^i the fundamental law which would have mdaij^ed its aspect. But America has been the most swiftly expanding of all countries. Hence the questions that have presented themselves have often related to matters which the framers of the Constitution could not have contemplated. Wiser than Justinian before them, or Napoleon after them, they foresaw that their work would need to be elucidated by judicial commentary. But they were far from conjecturing the enormous strain to which some of their expres- sions would be subjected in the effort to apply them to new facts. — Bryce : American Commonwealth, I, chap. XXIII. [ Nothing was ever " born anew " in Celia Thaxter which she did not strive to share Imih others. She could keep nothing but secrets \ to herself. Joys, experiences of every kind, sorrows and misfort- unes, except when they could darken the lives of others, were all brought, open-handed and open-hearted, to those she loved. Her generosity knew no limits. — Atlantic, 75 : 263. In the Netherlands a man of small capacity, with bits of wood and leather, will, in a few moments^ construct a toy that, with the pressure of the finger and thumb, will cry *' cuckoo ! cuckoo ! " With less of ingenuity and inferior materials the people of Ohio 214 Compositiorir Rhetoric. have made a toy that will, without much pressure, cry " Previous question, Mr. Speaker! Previous question, Mr. Speaker!" — John Randolph. EXERCISE 78. Fill the blanks with wlio, whom, which, or that, and select the fitting words from the brackets : — A babe was born to Danae, a smiling boy she named Perseus. For four years she kept him hidden, and not even the women brought food to the hiding-place knew about him. But one day the king, Danae's father, chanced to pass and heard the child's prattle. When he learned the truth, he was very much alarmed ; for it had been foretold that " the son of his own daughter " should kill him. The only way to save himself he could think of, was to put the child to death. So he bade the servants were with him to make a large water-tight chest. Into this he put Danae and Perseus and cruelly set them adrift on a stormy sea, hoping that they would be drowned, or carried far away. But they were not drowned. After three days they drifted toward some islands and finally landed on one was inhabited by a kind people took care of them. Perseus grew to manhood, and became a leader of the people had saved him and his mother. He was exceedingly strong, and performed many astounding athletic feats gained him great renown. Hearing at one time that the king of a far-away country had announced a great athletic contest, Perseus took ship and went thither to try his skill against the other contestants were present from all parts of the world. No one in that country knew this noble young stranger might be, but all wondered at the skill -^ he displayed in the games and contests. He easily won all of the prizes. In the last contest, was between Perseus and another quoit thrower, Perseus threw a heavy quoit a great deal Ifarlher, fitrih^'] than any had been thrown before. It fell in the crowd of on-lookers and struck a stranger was standing there with the others. The stranger sank to the ground, dead. Perseus \jvas sJiocked, felt bad, was horrified^ was pained, was grieved'} at having killed How to Say It, 215 the stranger, Perseus thought an innocent spectator like the others. What was his sorrow when he discovered that the stranger was none other \tliany htt] his grandfather, Danae's father, had come to the contests unattended and in disguise. So the prophecy had been spoken many years before was fulfilled. Danae's father, the king, had been killed by " the son of his own daughter." EXERC ISE 7 9. piAjL^ *- Substitute adjectives for the italicized phrases, in the following : — LOf all the amusements which can possibly be imagined for a man of the laboring class, after his daily toil, or, in its intervals, there is nothing like reading a book of an enteriaining character, supposing him to have a taste for it, and supposing him to have the book to read. It calls for no exertion ojtiieoody;oi. which he has had enough or too much. It relieves his home of its dulness and sameness, which, in nine cases out of ten, is what drives him to the ale-house, to his jwi ruin and his family's. It transports him into a scene of (DWmierf gayer, mort diversified and interesting na^wr^, and while he enjoys himself there, he may forget the evils of the present fully as much as if he were in an ever so [disgraceful state of intoxication, with the great advantage of finding himself the next day with his money in his pocket, or at least laid out in real necessaries and comforts for himself and his family, —.and without a headache. N^ay, it accompanies him to his work next day, and if the bopk he has been reading be anything ahh^ the very idlest and iigJitest, gives him something to think of besides the mere mechanical drudgery of his, every-day occupation, — something he can enjoy while frofn Homey and look forward with pleasure to return to 7] EXERCISE 80. Use each of the sets of words (given in the second para- graph of Lesson 27) in a brief paragraph, having especial regard to exact statement. In case of doubt consult the dictionary or a book of synonyms. 216 Composition-Rhetoric, EXERCISE 81. Use the sets of words (given in tlie third paragraph of Lesson 27) so as to show that you understand the particular application of each word. In case of doubt consult the dictionary or a book of synonyms. EXERCISE 82. Examine a recent number of a magazine for examples of " disagree with/' " different from/' and other expressions in the fifth paragraph of Lesson 27. Afj^^ Write brief paragraphs on the following themes, showing "the accurate use of (1) may, might ; (2) can, could ; (3) raise, raised, has raised, ris6, rose, has risen ; (4) sit, sat, has sat, set ; (5) lie, lay, has lain, lay, laid, has laid : — 1. A lost opportunity. My choice of a profession. The next presidential nominee. 2. My friend's accomplishments. Feats of strength. The opportunities of an educated man or woman. 3. What makes the prices of commodities go up and down ? Taking an early train. , Bicycling for girls. 4. An obstinate old hen. A hot day's fishing. Setting the table for dinner. 5. How bread is made. After the tornado. How a mason builds a brick wall. Sow to Say It. 217 EXERCISE 84. 1. Write a brief account of a tiresome journey or walk, using in different sentences the words s ameness ^ uniformity^ monotony, each in a sense that would preclude the use of the other two. 2. A brief paragraph on manners in the school-room, in which you mention some particular thing to be discoun- tenanced, another to be deprecated, another to be deplored. 3. Write out the following : Arrived at school ; found I had forgotten book ; was [angry, provoked, vexed'] with my- self for there was not time to go back for it and I needed it; went to class without it; asked a classmate to [loan, lend'] me her book ; she [refused, declined] ; this made me [angry, indignant] as she [could, might] have [accommo- dated, favored] me in this ; was called on to translate as I had [expected, anticipated] that I [would, should] he, and failed for [lack, want, need] of a book. I [will, shall] be obliged to make up the lesson. EXERCISE 85. w*4r^^ Two drafts of portions of Lincoln's first Inaugural Ad- dress are printed below in parallel columns.^ After com- paring them, give reasons for the changes so far as you are able. It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally nothing; and that acts It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of 1 From Abraham Lincoln : A History, by John G. Nicolay and John Hay (The Century Co., N.Y. : 1890), Vol. Ill, pp. 237-344, by permission of the authors. 218 Composition- Rhetoric. of violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrec- tionary or trc^^ ^^ nable. accord- ing to circumstaAces. I therefore consider that the Union is unbroken ; and, tb the extent of my ability, I shall take care^that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requi- site means, or in s orue tangible way direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will have its own and defend itself. . . . I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fel- low-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not be broken. The mys- tic chords which, proceeding from so many battle-fields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all hearths in this broad continent violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrec- tionary or revolutionary, accord- ing to circumstances. I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Consti- tution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requi- site means, or in some authorita- tive manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. . . . I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again How to Say It. 219 of ours, will yet again harmo- nize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation.^ touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. LESSON 28. Imaginative Expressions, There are two principal ways in which the mind may do its thinking. One wayjsj)yjnean^qfj_^ linage^ We think in images, when we call up in mind pictures of things that we have seen, or revive impressions of sounds, touches, tastes, or smells. When we read the words "full moon," if we see in mind a big yellow disk rising over the tree- tops, or when we read the word "thunder-clap," if we hear in mind a startling crash, followed by hollow reverbera- tions, — in either case we think by means of images. Another way of thinking is by means of what are called " general ideas." When we think in this way, we seem to think about the meaning of things rather than about the things themselves. It is true we always have some sort of image in the mind, but we are less interested in the image itself than in what the image signifies or stands for. Thus when we read the sentence, " Several of the planets have moons," if an image of a moon rises in the mind, what we are interested in is not the size or shape or color of the image ; these particulars do not now concern us ; we are 1 This suggestion for a closing paragraph was written by Mr. Seward. The original draft by Lincoln ran as follows : " My dissatisfied fellow- countrymen: You can forbear the assault upon it [the Government], I cannot shrink from the defence of it. With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of Shall it be peace or a sword." To this Mr. Seward objected on the ground that " something besides or in addition to argument is needful — to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South and despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection — some of calm and cheerful confidence." 220 Composition-Rhetoric, interested rather in the meaning of the image, or, to use a common expression, in " the idea of moon in general.'^ Certain words and expressions have the power to make us think in images ; certain other words and expressions have the power to make us think in general ideas. The difference between these two kinds of expressions is illus- trated in the following. The paragraph in the left-hand column aims to make us think in images. The version of this paragraph in the right-hand column aims to make us think in general ideas. 1. The very gnarlies t and hardest of hearts has some music al strings in it. 2. But they are tuned differently in every one of us, so that the self-same strain, which wakens a thrill of sympathetic melody in one, may leave another quite silent and untouched. 3. For whatever I love, my delight amounts to an extravagance. 4. There are vei'ses which I cannot read without tears of exultation which to others are merely indiiferent. 5. Those simple touches scattered here and there, by all great writers, which make me feel that T, and every most despised and out- cast child of God that breathes, have a common humanity with those glorious spirits, overpower me. 6. Poetry has a key which unlocks some more inward cabi- net of my nature than is acces- n. 1. Even the most irresponsive person is in some degree sus- ceptible to the influence of poet- ry. 2. But our susceptibilities are of different kinds, so that a poem which affects one person a good deal may affect another not at all. 3. For whatever I love, my delight amounts to an ex- travagance. 4. There are verses which I cannot read without a strong feeling of exultation which to others are merely in- different. 5. Those simple pas- sages occurring in various places in the poems of great writers, which make me feel that I and every other person, however humble, have a common human- ity with those superior minds, make me have very strong emo- tions. 6. Poetry causes feelings which are not caused by any- thing else. 7. I cannot explain it or account for it, or say How to Say It, 221 sible to any other power. 7. I cannot explain it or account for it, or say what faculty it appeals to. 8. The chord which vi- brates strongly becomes blurred and invisible in proportion to the intensity of its impulse. 9. Often the mere rhyme, the cadence and sound of the words, awaken this strange feeling in me. 10. Not only do all the happy associations of my early life, that before lay scattered, take beautiful shapes, like iron dust at the approach of the ma^- jiet, but something dim and vague beyond these, moves it- self in me with the uncertain sound of a far-off sea. — Low- ell : Conversations on some of the Old Poets. what faculty it affects. 8. The stronger the feeling, the harder it is to say what it is or whence it comes. 9. Often the mere rhyme, the cadence and sound of the words, cause this strange feeling in me. 10. Not only do all the happy associations of my early life, that were before sep- arated in my mind, now come together in beautiful and sym- metrical order, but I am con- scious of something undefined and difficult of apprehension in addition to these. Note how differently the two versions affect you as you read them. In reading I., the word ^' gnarliest " calls up an image of a knotty piece of oak ; " musical strings " an image of an instrument of music, a harp or a violin ; at the word " tears/' in sentence 4, we picture a man with stream- ing eyes; "the chord which vibrates strongly becomes blurred " revives the familiar sight of the vibrating string and its accompanying sound ; " like iron dust at the ap- proach of the magnet " makes us picture iron filings arrang- ing themselves in concentric curves. None of these images is called up in reading II. Expressions which make us think in images may be called, for convenience, imaginative expressions. They go by a variety of names, the most important of which are the following : — 222 Composition-Rhetoric, 1. The word partiGular or specific is sometimes applied to these expressions to direct atTentit>tr to the definiteness of the aroused images. Pa rticular terms are contrasted with ge^erckLterms. In the illustration given above the expres- sion "tears of exultation" arouses a particular, definite image. " A strong feeling of exultation '" is more general. 2. Sometimes the term concrete is applied to these ex- pressions. It means that the images they arouse are images of things that appeal to the senses, that is, of things that can be seen, heard, touched, smelt, or tasted. Concrete ex- pressions are contrasted with abstract expressions. "Tears of exultation" is more concrete than "a strong feeling of exultation," because tears appeal to the sense of sight while feelings do not. 3. To a large number of imaginative expressions may be applied the term figurative. A figurative expression is one which makes us think of something under the image of something else. In a figure an object is represented either as being something else or as being (or acting) like some- thing else. A heart is represented as being a musical in- strument; scattered recollections of childhood are repre- sented as acting like iron filings. Figurative expressions are contrasted with literal expressions or plain statements. Although many different kinds of figures are mentioned by rhetoricians, we shall speak of but two, — similes and metaphorical expressions. The difference between them is that in the simile the image of " something else " is kept apart from the thing or idea it illustrates, the separation being marked usually by such words as like, as, just so; whereas in metaphorical expressions the thing and the image blend together, and we speak of the thing as if it actually were the image. "Poetry has a key which un- locks some more inward cabinet of my nature " is metaphor, because we speak of the mind as if it were actually a set of cabinets one within another, and of poetry as if it were How to Say It. 223 actually a person who could unlock one of these cabinets. But such a sentence as "the happy associations of my early life, that before lay scattered, take beautiful shapes, like iron dust at the approach of the magnet," is a simile, the idea of the union of happy associations being separated from the image which illustrates it. Thinking in images is easier, more vivid, and, for most persons, more interesting than thinking in general ideas. Consequently, if in our writing we can use particular terms instead of general, concrete expressions instead of abstract, figurative language instead of plain or literal, our composi- tions are likely to be more forcible, vivacious, and attrac- tive. General ideas, on the other hand, are necessary to exactness. So that if we think exactly, and desire to say just what we think, we must be abl5 to use expressions that are general, abstract, and literal. With regard to figurative language, the following observa- tions may be made : — 1. Figures — striking figures at any rate — are not essen- tial to a good prose style. Many eminent writers dispense with them almost entirely. 2. The only recipe for producing good figures is for the pupil to become deeply interested in his subject. If his mind is given to producing figurative images, the images will come unsolicited. If such images do not come of them- selves, it is better to get along without them. 3. In revising his written work, the pupil should take care that figurative expressions meet the following require- ments : — a. Figures should be fresh and unhackneyed. If an image occurs that has been used a great many times before, con- sider whether the reader is likely to get any pleasure from it when he comes upon it again. h. Figures should grow naturally out of the subject and be appropriate to the purpose for which one is writing. 224 Composition-Rhetoric, The image of ^^ something else " should differ from and yet curiously and significantly resemble the thing or idea that it pictures. The following passage from Macaulay contains an example of a metaphor that is good and a metaphor that is bad in this respect : — The works of Milton cannot be comprehended or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader co-operate with that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes the key-note and expects his hearer to make out the melody. The image of a painter sketching a picture and leaving us to fill up the outline is natural and appropriate. We see at once its resemblance to the mode of writing employed by Milton. But the ima^ of a musician striking a key-note and expecting his hearers to make out the melody is highly absurd. No musician would do such a thing, and even if he should, his act would have no resemblance to Milton's poetry. c. Images of things that are familiar are easier to appre- hend than images of things that are unfamiliar. "His voice had an odd note in it like the cry of a whaup " does not mean very much to persons brought up in America, because few of them have heard a whaup cry. The follow- ing, however, appeals to every one : " Innumerable tawny and yellow leaves skimmed along the pavement, and stole through people's doorways into their passages, with a hesi- tating scratch on the floor, like the skirts of timid visitors." d. In the heat of composition two or more images are sometimes jumbled together in a metaphor in such a way as to be ridiculous. " The strong arm of the law is march- ing through the land breathing fire and sword" is an example of such a jumble. A similar effect is produced when the reader passes too suddenly from metaphor to literal statement, as in " Appearing above the horizon like How to Say It, 225 a new and resplendent luminary, lie entered Parliament the following year." If the pupil is given to these faults, he should, in his revision, scan each metaphor closely, asking himself such questions as these: "Is there any confusion of images here ? '' " Will this metaphor make my readers laugh when I do not want them to laugh ? " e. Beware of drawing figures out to tedious length, as in the following: "With the rope of his genius he let the bucket of imagination down into the well of human nature and drew it up brimming over with wit and humor." Use particular and concrete expressions to give vigor and interest. Never strive after figures or use them merely for purposes of orna- ment. In revision, be on the watch for figures that are hackneyed, unnatural, ridiculous, or long drawn out.* EXERCISE 86. Point out p articula r, concrete, and figurative expressions in the following selection, and account for the use of them : — f.Q ^ Society i s a strong solution o f books. -^ It draws the virtue out A of what is best worth reading, as hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves. If I were a prince, I would hire or buy a prjxate literaryteapot, in which I would steep all the leaves of new books ]^JUk(^ U^ <5 Mere acquired knowledge belongs to us only like a wooden leg or a wax nose. Knowledge obtained by means of thinking ve^ »aj» bles oiii ' natuial lliii bs, au^ is the only kind that really belongs to us. Hepce the difference between the thinker and the a pedant. The, intSleWial possession of ttie independent thinker is jLk '!ike a beautiful picture which stands before us, a living thing with [), fitting light and shadow, sustained tones, perfect harmony of co\6r. „ Tpat of tiie merely learned man ^y be compared to a palette ^dl9>Af^U^ith bright colors, perhaps" even arrahged with^ sbWe^ system, but wanting in harmony, coherence, and meaning. It was the new-fashioned agricultural implement known as the horse-drill, till then unknown, in its modern shape, in this part of the country, where the venerable seed-lip was still used for sow- ing as in the days of the Heptarchy. Its arrival created about as much sensation in the corn-market as a flying machine would How .to San It. ^ j ' 227 In'Oharing Cross. The farmers crow^led rouiid i^, women \ lar^, children crept under it and infc, \\. The 'machine^ J^ W ftiRedHHMWignt'hiie^fcf'^gi'eBn; ^ and it re- sembled as a whole a compound of hornet, grasshopper, and shrimp, magnified enormously. Or it might have been likened to an upright musical instrument with the front gone. That was how it struck Lucetta. " Why, it is a sort of an agricult- ural piano/ysll^gffilk — Hardy : The Mayor of Casterbridge. EXERCISE 88. l.;j * Re-wnte the following, changing the hackneyed figures to plain statements. If any good rftw images occur to you while writing, substitute them for the old. j a ^ . i In the fields of literary culture and classic resAirch he was indeed superb, for his speeches, while containing golden nuggets ^k of ripest wisdom, sparkled with gems of richest humor and fvj^-glistened with the auroral lights of the finest poetic fancy. Qir Thousands have been charmed and enchanted with the richly ^X blooming flowers of his poetic gardens, and lulled and soothed . \( by the rhythmic flow of his gracefully winding current of mellif- r ^i**®^^^ rhetoric. All of his speeches were forceful in their pres- 5>E entation of truth and facts, noble in their ethical teachings of duty to country, luscious with the mellowest fruitage of lofty patriotism, opulent with the gems of successfully garnered wisdom, kingly in the imperial sweep of their royal eloquence, and regal in the magnificent drapery of the most ornate diction. They will prove monuments to his fame more lasting than marble, for on the adamantine and invulnerable surface of their imperishable worth, unequalled merit, superb splendor, and magnificent beauty, the corroding and devastating moth of decay will never fix a fang. — Congressional Record, Feb. 24, 1895, p. 2665. Scarcely a year ago, among the, rugged hills of Northern Italy, the last faint spark of a disappointed life went out. A voice once heard across the Atlantic,.tlirilling with rapture two conti- nents, was hushed in death. A soul wji ose vivid M ow had warmed and cheered the hearts of those who travelled duty's uneven path- 228 Composition-Rhetoric. way, had returned to the God who gave it. An old man, weighed down by sorrow and years, whose only hope had been the freedom of his beloved country, had seen that hope turned into the dark- ness of despair. The last lingering champion of a lost cause, with his faith in humanity shattered, alone, in the solitude of Nature's ruins, had gone down to death a cheerless, hopeless exile. This man was T,^nnis Kns.snth. EXERCISE 89 . In a series of short paragraphs de^ibe the pictures which rise in your mind^ as you read the following : — And then at once and most gladly, and, let us hope, for many a century, you laid the sword aside. " The sword, after all," as Victor Hugo says, " is but a hideous flash in the darkness," while ^' Right is an eternal ray." . . . The war of the Secession estab- lished your national position. Just as, during the fighting, many a boy, learning to look death in the face, sprang into manhood at the touch of noble responsibility, so the war strengthened and sobered you, and gave to your thoughts, your politics, your bear- ing as a people, a grander and manlier tone. The nation waved her hand, and her army of more than a million sank back instantly into peaceful civil life, as the soldiers of Roderic Dhu sank back into the heather. — Farrar : Thoughts on America. Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions. See how it lies then in you ; and if there is no counsel offer none. What we want is, not your activity or interference with your mind, but your content to be a vehicle of the simple truth. The way to have large occasional views, as in a political or social crisis, is to have large habitual views. When men consult you, it is not that they wish you to stand tiptoe, and pump your brains, but to apply your habitual view, your wisdom, to the pres- ent question, forbearing all pedantries, and the very name of argument; for in good conversation parties don't speak to the words, but to the meaning of each other. — Emerson : Social Aims. How to Say It. 229 In a short paragraph, de^cribe^as accurately as you can what you see in mind upon reading one of the following sentences : — Refreshed and replenished by the silver stream of inspiration, the pulpit has steadily marched through the succeeding periods of the world's history, tearing down the bulwarks of bigotry, error, and superstition. Know God and Nature only are the same ; In man the judgment shoots at flying game, A bird of passage, gone as soon as found, Now in the moon, perhaps, now under ground. — Pope : Moral Essays. Carlo received severe injuries at the hands of a bull-dog.^ The competition of the railways is cutting the ground from under the steamers' feet.^ Our American fathers, spurned from the bosom of their mother- country and rocked by the convulsions of a revolution, tried the great experiment of erecting an independent government. n EXERCISE^91. y/Ly">L^ ^ Write an essay of about 250 words upon one of the following subjects. Justify your use of imaginative expressions. 1. The full moon as it appears through a telescope. 2. What our ancestors would think of a railroad if they should come to life. 3. Dangers of Alpine climbing. 4. A cloud-burst. 1 Quoted by A. S. Hill, Foundations of Rhetoric, p. 194. 2 Longmans' School Composition, p. 270. 230 Composition-Rhetoric. 5. How bad money drives out good. 6. The distances of the fixed stars. 7. A brilliant sunset. 8. The battle of Waterloo. EXERCISE 92. Find three paragraphs among those quoted in this book, in which no figures are employed. CHAPTER V. IN ^WHAT ORDER TO SAY IT. LESSON 29. Antithesis and Climax. In our study of balanced sentences the fact was discov- ered that contrasting ideas in the same sentence show similarity in form and length of statement, corresponding words, phrases, or clauses answering to one another in such a way as to make the contrasting ideas conspicuous. This order is called antithesis. It should be used only when there is a real contrast between the ideas to be presented. Antithesis also appears in a wider application when a whole sentence is in contrast with another. Here, too, similarity of form and structure is usually preserved. There is often antithesis of thought, however, without marked antithesis of form. Two paragraphs may show contrasting thoughts without showing any conspicuous simi- larity in construction. The plan of a whole discourse may be antithetical in thought and form, or in thought alone. Let us examine the following speech by Edmund Burke. It was delivered to his constituents after the election of 1774, and discusses a very important question, — in cases when a representative's judgment differs from the known or supposed opinion of his constituents, should he vote as his constituents would have him vote, or should he vote as his own best judgment of what is right tells him to vote? 231 232 Composition-Rhetoric, We see at once that here is an antithesis in thought, and it comes out in the first two paragraphs, which state the question and begin the argument. The first paragraph tells how far a representative should go, — he should weigh the opinions of his constituents, should respect their wishes, and should prefer their interests to his own personal inter- est. The second paragraph tells what the representative should not yield, — he should not yield his convictions, he should vote as his judgment and conscience dictate, even when he knows that his vote is contrary to public opinion among his constituents. The antithesis of thought is continued in the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs. Antithesis is the basis of the structure also in these paragraphs, but only the basis ; for the details are not strictly held to similarity of form, length, and position. Paragraph three divides at sentence 11 ; paragraph four, at sentence 13. In paragraph five, sentences 14, 15, 18, and 20 show marked likeness of form in the contrasting parts. 1. Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest corre- spondence, and the most unreserved communication with his con- stituents. 2. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinions high respect ; their business unremitted attention ; 3. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfac- tions to theirs, — and, above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. 4. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlight- ened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. 5. These he does not derive from your pleasure, — no, nor from the law and the Constitution. 6. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. 7. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. 8. My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient In What Order to Say It. 233 to yours. 9. If that be all, the thing is innocent. 10. If govern- ment were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. 11. But government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination ; and what sort of reason is that in which the determination precedes the discussion, in which one set of men deliberate and another decide, and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments ? 12. To deliver an opinion is the right of all men ; that of con- stituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representa- tive ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought always most seriously to consider. 13. But autJioritadve instructions, mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience, — these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our Constitution. 14. Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates ; but Par- liament is a deliberative assembly of o?ie nation, with one interest, that of the whole, — where not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. 15. You choose a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament. 16. If the local constituent should have an interest or should form an hasty opinion evidently opposite to the real good of the rest of the community, the member from that place ought to be as far as any other from any endeavor to give it effect. 17. I beg pardon for saying so much on this subject ; I have been unwillingly drawn into it ; but I shall ever use a re- spectful frankness of communication with you. 18. Your faith- ful friend, your devoted servant, I shall be to the end of my life : a flatterer you do not wish for. 19. On this point of instructions, however, I think it scarcely possible we ever can have any sort of difference. 20. Perhaps I may give you too much, rather than too little trouble. 21. From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favor, 234 Composition-RTietoric, to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you any- thing but humble and persevering endeavors to do my duty. 22. The weight of that duty, I confess, makes me tremble; and whoever well considers what it is, of all things in the world, will fly from what has the least likeness to a positive and precipitate engagement. 23. To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy task, — especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of servile compliance or wild popularity. 24. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary, but it is extremely difficult. 25. We are now members for a rich commercial city ; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial nation, the interests of which are various, multiform, and intricate. 26. We are members for that great nation, which, however, is itself but part of a great empire, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest limits of the East and of the West. 27. All these wide-spread interests must be considered, — must be compared, — must be rec- onciled, if possible. 28. We are members for a/ree country; and surely we all know that the machine of a free constitution is no simple thing, but as intricate and as delicate as it is valuable. 29. AVe are members of a great and ancient monarchy ; and we must preserve religiously the true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the keystone that binds together the noble and well- constructed arch of our empire and our constitution. 30. A con- stitution made up of balanced powers must ever be a critical thing. 31. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes within my reach. 32. I know my inability, and I wish for sup- port from every quarter. 33. In particular I shall aim at the friendship, and shall cultivate the best correspondence, of the worthy colleague you have given me. Another order (sometimes combined with antithesis) is the climax, by which a series of words, phrases, or clauses is so arranged that each, in turn surpasses the preceding one in intensity of expression or importance of meaning. In the speech just quoted sentence 4 puts the words "un- biassed opinions," "mature judgment," "enlightened con- science," in a climax, the second expression surpassing the In What Order to Say It, 235 first, and the tliird the second in intensity and importance. The phrases " to you," " to any man/' " to any set of men/' in sentence 4, and the three clauses after the semicolon in sentence 11, illustrate the climax of phrases and the climax of clauses respectively. Climax of whole sentences is well illustrated by sentences 2h to 29, in which the growth in importance and intensity is marked by the words " a rich commercial city,'' " a rich commercial nation," " a great empire," " a free country," " a great and ancient monarchy." The repetition of the words " we are members," at the beginning of these sentences, fore- tells in each case that something more important is coming. The order of climax also appears in a wider application when the paragraphs of an essay, or argument, or story grow in importance and interest until they culminate in the strongest and most essential thought of all. In the speech quoted in this lesson, there is a distinct increase in power and intensity from the first paragraph to the middle of the fifth paragraph, the first culmination being reached in the words at the beginning of sentence 6, "they are a trust from Providence," the second culmination in sentence 11, the third in sentence 13, the fourth in sentence 16. From sentence 16 to sentence 25 we are given personal explanations which were very important at the time and in the circumstances under which they were made. Their function in the climax is not felt by the reader of to-day. However, it can be seen that they prepare for the final climax beginning with sentence 2h, The following brief story illustrates the principle of climax in a narrative. The deepest impression is made at the last, and nothing is added at the close to take away from the impression produced by the calm words of the dying general. The interest of the reader grows from the first impression produced by what we read at the close of the first sentence (his fortitude in pain) to the second im- 236 Composition-Rhetoric, pression (his self-forgetfulness and continued interest in the conflict), and culminates in the incident of the sword, showing his soldierly pride even at the moment of death. General Sir John Moore, while earnestly watching the result of the fight about the village of Elvira, was struck on the left breast by a cannon-shot ; the shock threw him from his horse with vio- lence; yet he rose again in a sitting posture, his countenance unchanged, and his steadfast eye still fixed upon the regiments engaged in his front, no sigh betraying a sensation of pain. In a few moments, when he saw the troops were gaining ground, his countenance brightened, and he suffered himself to be taken to the rear. Then was seen the nature of his hurt. As the soldiers placed him in a blanket, his sword got entangled, and the hilt entered the wound; Captain Hardinge, a staff officer, attempted to take it off, but the dying man stopped him, saying : " It is as well as it is. I had rather it should go out of the field with me ; " and in that manner, so becoming to a soldier, Moore was borne from the fight. — INTapier. When opposing thoughts are to he presented in a sentence, para- graph, or essay, arrange them in the order of antithesis. In general, arrange the thoughts of a paragraph or essay in the order of climax. A l^ E^RCISE 93. Make a list of the thoughts expressed in the following. Do they come in the order of increasing importance ? Democrac^_jias not only taught the Americans how to use liberty without abusing it, and how to secure equality : it has also, tan^ht them frateri^itv. That word has gone out of fashion in the Old World, and no wonder, considering what was done in its name in 1793, considering also that it still figures in the pr o- g;Ta mme of assassin s. N'evertheless, there is in the United States a sort of kindliness, a sense of human fellowship, a re cognition of the duty of Tnntnal )ip1p nw^r^ V>y pan to man, stronger than any- where in the Old World, and certainly stronger than in the upper or middle classes of England, France, or Germany. The natural In What Order to Say It. b i( J/ 237 impulse of every citizen in America is to respect every other citi- zen, and to fe el that citizenship cons tilutes _a certain ground, of respec t^ The idea of each man's equal rights is so fully realized that the rich or powerful man feels it no indignity to take his turn among the crowd, and does not expect any deference from the poorest. An individual employer of labor (for one cannot say ' the same of corporations) has, I think, a. keener sense of his duty to those whom he employs than employers have in continental Europe. He has certainly a greater sense of responsibility for the use of his wealth. The number of gifts for benevolent and other public purposes, the number of educational, artistic, literary, and scientific foundations, is larger than even in Britain, the wealthiest and most liberal of European countries. Wealth is generally felt to be a irust, and exclusiveness condemned not merely as indica- tive of selfishness, but a sort of oifence against the public. !N'o ne, for instance, thinks of shutting up his pleasure-grounds ; he seldom even builds a wall round them, but puts up low railings or palisade, so that the sight of his trees and shrubs is enjoyed by ^vj)assers-by. That any one should be permitted either by opinion or by law to seal up many square miles of beautiful mountain country against tourists or artists is to the ordinary American almost incredible. Such things are to him the marks of a land still g roaning under feudal tyran ny. ""^ It may seem strange to those who know how difficult European states have generally found it to conduct negotiations with the government of the United States, and who are accustomed to read in European newspapers the defiant utterances which American politicians address from Congress to the effete monarchies of the Old World, to be told that this spirit of fraternity has its influ- ence on international relations also. Nevertheless if we look not at the irresponsible orators, who play to the lower feelings of a section of the people, but at the general sentiment of the whole people, we shall recognize that democracy makes both for peace and for justice as between nations. Despite the admiration for military exploits which the Americans have sometimes shown, no country is at bottom more pervaded by a hatred of war, and a se nse that nat JQliaLixQnQr stands rooted in national fair dealing. The nation is often misrepresented by its statesmen, but although it allows them to say irritating things and advance unreasonable 238 Composition-Rhetoric. claims, it has not for more than forty years permitted them to abuse its enormous strength, as most European nations possessed of similar strength have in time past abused theirs. — Bryce. EXERCISE 94. 34u>r!^ Do you discover anything corresponding to the order of climax in the following selections ? Mark the stages. It was after the Revolution. Manufactu res, tradSa ^U business was flat on its back. A silver dollar was worth seventy-five; corn was seventy-five dollars a bushel, board five hundred dollars a week. Landed property was worthless, and the taxes were some- thing awful. So the general dissatisfaction turned on the courts and was going to prevent collections. Grandfather Cobb was a judge of the probate court ; and when he heard that a mob was howling in front of the court-house, he put on his old Continen- tal reginifiiitals, the old. buff and blue, and marched out alone. " Away with your whining ! " says he. " If I can't hold this court in^peace, I will hold it in blood ; if I c an't sit as a judg e, I will die^ as a general ! " Though he was one man to hundreds, he drew a lin6 in the green, and told the mob that he would shoot with his own hand the first man that crossed. He was too many for the crowd, standing there in his old uniform in which they knew he had fought for them ; and they only muttered, and after a while dispersed. They came again the next term of court ; but he had his militia and his cannon all ready for them, then ; and this time when they got their answer they took it, went off, and never came back. — Octave Thanet: A Son of the Revolution. Thackeray announced to me by letter in the early autumn of 1852 that he had determined to visit America, and would sail for Boston by the Canada on the 30th of October. All the necessary arrangements for his lecturing tour had been made without troub- ling him with any of the details. He arrived on a frosty Novem- ber evening, and went directly to the Tremont House, where rooms had been engaged for him. I remember^is delight in getting off the sea, and the enthusiaaiiL^ith_jvlnch_^^^^ hailed the announcement that dinnerwould be ready shortly. A few friends Jn/What Order to Say It, 239 were ready to sit down with him, and hQ seemed greatly to enjoy the novelty of an American repast. In London he had been very curious in his inquiries about American oysters, as marvellous stories, which he did not believe, had been told him of their great size. We apologized — although we had taken care that the largest specimens to be procured should startle his unwonted vision when he came to the table — for what we called the extreme smallness of the oysters, promising we would do better next time. Six bloated Falstaffian bivalves lay before him in their shells. I noticed that he gazed at them anxiously with fork upraised ; then he whispered to me, with a look of anguish', *' How shall I do it ? " I described to him the simple process by which the free-born citizens of America were accustomed to accomplish such a task. He seemed satisfied that the thing was feasible, selected the smallest one in the half-dozen (rejecting a large one, "because," he said, " it resembled the High Priest's servant's ear that Peter cut off"), and then bowed his head as if he were saying grace. All eyes were upon him to watch the eifect of a new sensation in the person of a great British author. Opening his mouth very wide, he struggled for a moment, and then all was over. I shall never forget the comic look of despair he cast upon the other five over-occupied shells. I broke the perfect stillness by asking him how he felt. " Profoundly grateful," he gasped, *' and as if I had swallowed a little baby." — Fields. ._«----«— --——^^...^ EXERCISE 95. v '" •. - • Re-arrange the propositions of the following outlines so that they shall come in the order of their importance, the most im- portant last. Why Good Manners should be Cultivated. ^ 1. They react upon the character of the person. 5 2. They are based upon the idea of consideration for others. c^ 3. They avoid needless friction in social gatherings. 1 . 4. They are beautiful to see, in themselves. 240 Composition-Rhetoric, •^ 5. They make friends for us. %, -6. They put salutary restraints upon us at times. Getting Along with People. ^ 1. One should not be ready to take offence. % * 2. Conversation may be managed so as to avoid disputa- tion on long-standing differences. '5% 3. There is not often need of a direct attack upon the beliefs and opinions of others. \\^ 4. To refer to the weakness of a friend is ungenerous. (9, 5. The golden rule is the only safe guide. C 6. To betray a secret at the expense or discomfort of a friend is reprehensible. EXERCISE 96. Write an essay on one of the foregoing outlines after revision. EXERCISE 97. Make two antithetical statements under each of the headings of the following outline, contrasting Bryant's Thanatopsis and Long- fellow's Psalm of Life. 1. Subject-matter. 2. Kind of emotion appealed to. 3. Depth of emotion shown. 4. Faith revealed. EXERCISE 98. Expand the points of the preceding outline into four paragraphs. EXERCISE 99. /l^*t/f ^ . Read Bacon's essay on " Beauty " and his essay on " Deformity," (or Milton's U Allegro and II Penseroso) and combine the contrast- ing thoughts and sentiments of the two in a single antithetical essay. EXERCISE 100. Read Lowell's poem. The Heritage , and combine the contrasting thoughts and sentiments of the poem in a brief antithetical essay. In What Order to Say It. 241 LESSOR 3Q. /M^ ii ^The Logical Order. In Lessons 18 and 19 we found that the order of present- ing thoughts in a paragraph is sometimes the statement of a cause and the statement of the effect of that cause ; or is the statement of a proposition and the statement of proofs of that proposition. The same methods may be effectively applied in planning a longer essay consisting of several paragraphs. Thus in the following outline the arrangement is by cause and effect. Foreign Immigration should be Restricted. I. Fact as cause : (1) Many immigrants are paupers. (A para- graph of proofs involving statistics or statements of authorities on this point.) XL Fact as effect: (2) They fill our almshouses and become a public charge. (A paragraph of proofs involving statistics or statements of au- thorities.) III. Fact as cause : (3) Some of them are criminals. (A para- graph of proofs.) IV. Fact as effect : (4) They reinforce the criminal classes. (A paragraph of proofs.) Y. Fact as cause : (5) Many of them know nothing of the duties of free citizenship. (A paragraph of proofs.) VI. Fact as effect : (6) Such immigrants recruit the worst element in our politics. (A paragraph of proofs.) The order indicated above may be followed, or all of the facts as causes (I., III., Y.) maybe stated and proved first in successive paragraphs, and then all of the facts as effects (IL, lY., YI.) may be stated and proved in successive para- graphs. 242 Composition-Iihetoric. A third order that might be followed with the same mate- rial puts the effects first and the causes afterward j thus : — I. Fact as e:ffect : (1) Our almshouses are crowded with people who have become a public charge. 11. Fact as cause: (2) Pauper immigrants make up a large per- centage of the almshouse population. III. Fact as effect : (3) The criminal classes continue to grow in spite of efforts at repression. lY. Fact as cause : (4) Immigrants in large numbers recruit the criminal classes. V. Fact as effect : (5) The worst elements in politics are with diffi- culty kept from securing control of affairs. VI. Fact as cause: (6) Immigration feeds the ranks of ignorant voters. Conclusion : Foreign immigration should be restricted. A fourth order would put the effects (I., III., Y.) first in successive paragraphs, and would follow these by the causes (II., lY., YI.) in successive paragraphs. Compare the following outlines of the same proposition : The study of English should be encouraged in the schools. I. The study of English 1. Promotes power of expres- sion. 2. Gives a student some knowledge of the best thoughts of his race. 3. Cultivates the taste for the better things of life. 4. Adds fresh interest in the world about us. 5. Supplants an interest in less worthy things. Hence the study of English should be encouraged in the schools. II. The schools should 1. Have a practical end in their teaching. 2. Give their pupils an inter- est in the best thinking. 3. Improve the taste for the better things of life. 4. Interest pupils in the world about them. 5. Offset an inclination for less worthy things. These purposes of school work (as effects) may be fulfilled by the study of English as an effi- cient cause. Hence, etc. In What Order to Say It, 243 In the first of these outlines we begin with the subject, " The study of English/' and show its effects one after an- other. In the second we begin with the predicate, "The schools," and present its effects as they should be; these effects we find may be produced by the study of English. In both outlines what we say is made to bear upon the whole proposition, "The study of English should be encour- aged in the schools," that is, we have the whole proposition in mind, no matter which method we employ. What is said in one outline is implied in the other. Taken together, they make the plan complete ; thus ; — The Study of English should be Encouraged in the Schools. 1. Because the study has a practical end; namely, power of expression. 2. Because the schools should give pupils some knowledge of the best thinking. 3. Because this study cultivates the taste for better things, which is the great object of education. 4. Because this study adds interest in the world, which is another great object of education. 5. Because education should direct inclination from less worthy to more worthy things, and this can be done by the study of English. wfore writing, armiQeyOTirifthpuglits on some definite plan. EXERCISE 101. Make an outline on one of the following subjects, by one of the methods illustrated in this lesson. 1. The value of cheerfulness. 2. The advantages of public libraries. 3. Why conversation should be practised. 244 Composition-Rhetoric. 4. Why the work of the Salvation Army is deserving. 5. Reasons for making an early choice of one's life-work. 6. The real causes of the war for the Union. 7. The need of good roads. 8. Why bicycles should not be ridden on the sidewalk. EXERCISE 102. Analyze the following selection for the purpose of dis- covering the order adopted by the writer in presenting his thoughts. Pennsylvania is the second state in the Union. But those who are familiar with her vast resources of iron, petroleum, coal, and lumber, her temperate climate, her fertile soil, and the skill of her people in the mechanic arts and manufacturing, often wonder why she is not easily the first. The difficulty seems to be a lack of unity and homogeneousness among her people. In colonial times her population was split up into distinct divisions of nationalities and religions. The English Quakers controlled Philadelphia and its neighborhood, and also dominated the Legislature. The Welsh settled on a tract west of the city, under an agreement with William Penn that they should have it for a little colony of their own. For a time they succeeded in governing it iu their own way and at the first very few of them could speak English. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians went out on the frontier, became a law unto themselves, and were bitterly op- posed to the Quakers, who, they said, refused them all share in the political government of the province and failed to protect them from the Indians. The Church of England people were not very numerous in colonial times ; but when the sons of William Penn joined their faith they were given the executive offices of the gov- ernment, which were all in the control of the proprietors. Thus the political administration of the province was split into two parts, the executive controlled by the Church of England people and the Legislature controlled by the Quakers. The northern half of the province was claimed by Connecticut, and her people by force of arms succeeded in settling and holding In What Order to Say It. 246 part of it. They lived by themselves, and their descendants still retain much of their local sentiment and pride. But the most im- portant and distinct division was that of the Germans, who num- bered at least a third of the population. They retained their language and customs, and lived by themselves. There are still many of them who, though their ancestors have been in the state for a hundred and fifty years, cannot yet speak English, and a still larger number who, though they understand English, usually speak the dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Each of these divisions had a distinct religion of its own, which in colonial times increased the desire for isolation, and the effect of these old controversies and feelings has by no means worn away. -^^^^ EXERCISE 103. Ee-state and re-combine the following, so as to bring out the relationship of causes and effects. Give heed also to the principle of climax. High Schools should be Generously Supported. ^ 1. The morals of a community are improved when there is a body of well-educated people in it. i^ 2. The high schools afford a training in industry. --— ' 3. Intelligent voting demands higher qualifications in the voter than ever before. "^ 4. The high schools afford a training in morality. f^ 5. Every community is cursed by numbers of people who have never been taught to do anything useful. I 6. The high schools open the way to a still higher education for many of their pupils. -"• 7. The high schools teach civics and politics. \ 8. A town without a high school to connect with the grades below and with college or university above, is not doing its duty by the boys and girls. EXERCISE 104. Expand your thoughts on the re-arranged outline of the preceding exercise, into an essay. 246 Composition-Rhetoric, 4y^ EXERCISE 105. Supply the missing cause or effect which is needed with each of the following statements in order to complete the outline. Physiology and Hygiene should be More Generally Taught. 1. The proportion of unhealthy and weak people about us is unnecessarily great. 2. Many people do not know how to take care of their health. 3. The efficiency of boards of health in controlling epidemic and contagious diseases is seriously impaired by the ignorance of people. 4. Ill-health and lack of vigor in a person hinders the discharge of duties. EXERCISE 106. With the material that you have added to the preceding outline, re-arrange the whole and write an essay on the subject. ^t^ LESSON" 31. The Time Order and the Space Order. In Lesson 13 the fact was noted that in a paragraph made up of narrative details, the details come one after another in the order of time, whereas in a descriptive paragraph they stand side by side in the order in which they occur in space. The details, whether in time or space, are arranged accord- ing to their nearness to one another. Thus in a story we have three natural divisions in the order of time, (1) pre- paratory material (which should be made as brief as pos- sible) leading up to the main incident, (2) the centre or culmination of interest, and (3) the outcome, conclusion, or explanation, stated as briefly as possible. In the following In What Order to Say It. . 247 the pre paratory materia l occupies the ^xat-teo paragraphs; the cenjice or cuhnination of interest occupies th e thirds foujih, and the firs t half of the fif th jR.vaKra.ph ; and_the_ explanation, the l asThaTI oT"the fifth para.g^raph . In other words, the preparatory material shows why Lincoln should have taken up the case, — as a debt of gratitude ; the main incident shows how Lincoln paid the debt of gratitude ; and the conclusion puts in plain words the real motive for telling the story, — to illustrate one phase of Lincoln's character. The following outline shows the order of events : — 1. Preparatory material in the time order. a. Lincoln's friendship for the Armstrongs. h. Mrs. Armstrong's kindness to Lincoln. c. Mrs. Armstrong's dependence on her sons. d. Young Armstrong charged with murder. 2. The centre or culmination, time order. a. Lincoln undertakes to defend Armstrong. h. Procures postponement and change of place. c. The trial : (1) Analysis of the evidence. Discomfiture of the principal witness. (2) Lincoln's plea before the jury. d. The verdict of the jury. 3. The conclusion. a. Effect upon the widow and her son. h. Eeflection of the writer of the story. 1. Mr. Lincoln's early athletic struggle with Jack Armstrong, the representative man of the " Clary's Grove Boys," will be remembered. From the moment of this struggle, which Jack agreed to call '' a drawn battle," in consequence of his own foul play, they became strong friends. Jack would fight for Mr. Lincoln at any time, and would never hear him spoken against. Indeed, there were times when young Lincoln made Jack's cabin his home, and here Mrs. Armstrong, a most womanly person, learned to respect the rising man. 248 Composition-Rhetoric, 2. There was no service to which she did not make her guest abundantly welcome, and he never ceased to feel the tenderest gratitude for her kindness. At length her husband died, and she became dependent upon her sons. The oldest of these, while in attendance upon a camp-meeting, found himself involved in a melee which resulted in the death of a young man, and young Armstrong was charged by one of his associates with striking the fatal blow. He was arrested, examined, and imprisoned to await his trial. The public mind was in a blaze of excitement, and interested parties fed the flame. 3. Mr. Lincohi knew nothing of the merits of this case; that is certain. He only knew that his old friend Mrs. Armstrong was in sore trouble ; and he sat down at once and volunteered by letter to defend her son. His first act was to procure the postponement and a change of the place of the trial. There was too much fever in the minds of the immediate public to permit of fair treatment. When the trial came on, the case looked very hopeless to all but Mr. Lin- coln, who had assured himself that the young man was not guilty. 4. The evidence on behalf of the State being all in, and looking like a solid and consistent mass of testimony against the prisoner, Mr. Lincoln undertook the task of analyzing and destroying it, which he did in a manner that surprised every one. The principal witness testified that by the aid of the brightly shining moon he saw the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr. Lincoln proved by the almanac that there was no moon shining at the time. The mass of testimony against the prisoner melted away, until " Not guilty " was the verdict of every man present in the crowded court-room. 5. There is, of course, no record of the plea made on this occasion, but it is remembered as one in which Mr. Lincoln made an appeal to the sympathies of the jury which quite surpassed his usual efforts of the kind, and melted all to tears. The jury were out but half an hour, when they returned with the verdict of " Not guilty." The widow fainted in the arms of her son, who divided his attention between his services to her and his thanks to his deliverer. And thus the kind woman who cared for the poor young man, and showed herself a mother to him in his need, received as her reward, from the hand of her grateful beneficiary, the life of a son, saved from a cruel conspiracy. — J. G. Holland. ^AJL pjiiUjd^>^^^^^ ' ^ Y^^ ^ In What Order to Say It. 249 In description^ the strict order of nearness is not so help- ful to the reader. The writer cannot tell all : if he tries to do so, he will confuse his readers with a mass of details. In describing a building for one who has never seen it, what is the most essential thing for him to know ? This question is best answered by asking what one notices first upon seeing the building. Evidently, the size, general shape, color, material, and any striking architectural char- acteristic. If the reader is given these facts at the outset, the remainder of the descriptive details fall in place natu- rally in the order of their- nearness to each other. In describing a picture, the first thing to attract the attention . j, ^ \ is the central figure, then the foreground, and finally the'^'^X^ background. In describing the appearance of a person, the :- '^ peculiarities of dress, walk, behavior, are noticed first. In vV^^ all of these the prominent features come first, and the j^ ^ details follow in the order of their nearness to one another. j The Taj^is built on the banks of the Jumna rather more than a kjjV^ mile to the eastward of the Fort of Agra. It is approached by a --. v handsome road, cut through the mounds left by the ruins of vw ancient palaces. Like the tomb of Akbar, it stands in a large "^ garden, enclosed by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with arched \\^^ galleries around the interior. The entrance is a superb gateway of sandstone, inlaid with ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran, in white marble. Outside of this grand portal, however, is a spacious quadrangle of solid masonry with an elegant structure intended as a caravanserai, on the opposite side. Whatever may be the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to notice the fine proportions ol these structures, and the rich and massive style of their architecture?^ The gate to the garden of the Taj is not so large as that of Ak^ar's tomb, but quite as beautiful in design. Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs high above you, an avenue of dark Italian cypresses appears before you. Down its centre sparkles a long row of fountains, each casting up a single slender jet. On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and the feathery bamboo mingle their foliage ; the song of birds meets 250 Composition'Rhetoric, your ear, and the odor of roses and lemon-flowers sweetens the air. Dowiisuch a vista, and over such a foreground, rises the Taj. ■^jA^^^ It is an octagonal building, or rather a square with the corners truncated, and each side precisely similar. It stands upon a lofty ^^ platform or pedestal, with a minaret at each corner, and this, 'XJb^tJL again, is lifted on a vast terrace of solid masonry. An Oriental ^fl / ^dome, swelling out boldly from the base into nearly two-thirds of a sphere, and tapering at the top into a crescent-tipped spire, c-rowns the edifice, rising from its centre, with four similar, though much smaller, domes at the corners. On each side there is a grand entrance formed by a single pointed arch, rising nearly to the cornice, and two smaller arches (one placed above the other) on either hand. The height of the building from its base to the top of the dome is 262 feet, and of the minaret about 200 feet. But no words can convey an idea of the exquisite harmony of the different parts, and the grand and glorious effect of the whole structure with its attendant minarets. — Bayard Taylor : India, China, and Japan, chap. X. The man was elderly, yet seemed bent more by sorrow and in- firmity than by the weight of years. He wore a mourning cloak, over a dress of the sanie melancholy color, cut in that picturesque form which Vandyck hh;S rendered immortal. But although the dress was handsome it wKs put on and worn with a carelessness which show^ed the mind ol the wearer ill at ease. His aged, yet still handsome, countenance., had the same air of consequence which distinguished his dress ^d his gait. A striking part of his appearance was a long white beard, which descended far over the breast of his slashed doublet, and looked singular from its contrast in color with his habit. — Scott : Woodstock, chap. II. Ill narratives follow the time order. In descriptions give first the general characteristics or the most prominent features of the object described, then the lesser details in the order of nearness. EXERCISE 107. Make a list of the details of the following description. Account for the order in which the details are given. b< y->^ • In What Order to Say It, 251 In the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is intersected by sharp and naked mountains ; and the face of the desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes, the winds , particularly from tlie southwest, diffuse a noxious and even deadly vapor; the hillocks of sand which they alternately raise and scatter are compared to the billows of the ocean, and whole caravans, w^hole armies, have been lost and buried in the whirlwind. The common benefits of water are an object of desire and contest; and such is the scarcity of wood, that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the soil and convey its produce to the adjacent regions ; the torrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth ; the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of the night : a scanty supply of rain is collected in cisterns and aque- ducts : the wells and springs are the secret treasure of the desert ; and the pilgrim of Mecca, after many a dry and sultry march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters, which have rolled over a bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partial enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to ^attract a" colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spots which can afford food and refresh- ment to themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their industry in the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The high lands that border on the Indian Ocean are distinguished by their superior plenty of wood and water: the air is more tem- perate, the fruits are more delicious, the animals and the human race more numerous : the fertility of the soil invites and rewards the toil of the husbandman ; and peculiar gifts of frankincense and coffee have attracted in different ages the merchants of the world. Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country^ of the horse ; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English 252 Composition-Rhetoric, breed, is derived from a mixture of Arabian blood ; the Bedoweens preserve, with superstitious care, the honors and the memory of the purest race : the males are sold at a high price, but the females are seldom alienated : and the birth of a noble foal is esteemed, among the tribes, as a subject of joy and mutual con- gratulation. These horses are educated in tents, among the chil- dren of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity which trains them in the habits of gentleness and attachment. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop : their sensations are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and the whip : their powers are reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit ; but no sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stkrup, than they dart away with the swiftness of the wind : and if their friend be dis- mounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till he has recov- ered his seat. In the sands of Africa and Arabia th e camel is a sacred and precious gift. That strong and patient beast of burden can per- form, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days ; and a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of servitude : the larger breed is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand pounds ; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man : her milk is plentiful and nutritious ; the young and tender flesh has the taste of veal ; and the long hair, which falls each year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the furni- ture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. The perpetual independence of the^Arabs has beeii-fclifi theme of praise among strangers and natives ; and the arts of contro- versy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favor of the posterity of Ishmael. Some exceptions, that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous. Yet these exceptions are tempo- rary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies; the armies of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia ; the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of i\ In What Order to Say It, 253 people whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the charac- ter and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, their intrepid valor had been severely felt by their neighbors, in offen- sive and defensive war. The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline \oi a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe ; but the martial youth, under the banner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scymetar. The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, and succeeding generations are animated to prove their descent, and to maintain their inheritance. In the more simple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of her sons disdains a base submission to the wdll of a master. His breast is fortified with the austere virtues of courage, patience, and sobriety; the love of independence prompts him to exercise the habits of self-command ; and the fear of dishonor guards him from the meaner apprehension of pain, of danger, and of death. The gravity and firmness of the mind is conspicuous in his out- ward demeanor: his speech is slow, weighty, and concise; he is seldom provoked to laughter ; his only gesture is that of stroking his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood ; and the sense of his own importance teaches him to accost his equals without levity, and his superiors without awe. EXERCISE 108. Make a complete analysis of the following, arranging the time elements in their order as main headings, with the descriptive details in their order as sub-headings. Yarious portions of our country have at different periods suf- fered severely from the influence of violent storms of wind, some of which have been known to traverse nearly the whole extent of the United States, and to leave such deep impressions in their wake as will not easily be forgotten. Having witnessed one of these awful phenomena, in all its grandeur, I will attempt to describe it. The recollection of that astonishing revolution of ^^^^vuru/iA^owtW ^sf^^^^ 4 ^**0^54 Composition-Rhetoric, N ^he ethereal element even now brings with it so disagreeable a •^ ^Sensation, that I feel as if about to be affected by a sudden stop- page of the circulation of my blood. I had left the village of Shawaney, situated on the banks of s^,^tiie Ohio, on my return from Henderson, which is also situated on 'S^wle banks of the same beautiful stream. The weather was pleas- ^^ant, and I thought not warmer than usual at that season. My ^ horse was jogging quietly along, and my thoughts were, for once '^ at least in the course of my life, entirely engaged in commercial speculations. I had forded Highland Creek, and was on the eve of entering a tract of bottom land or valley that lay between it and Canoe Creek, when on a sudden I remarked a great difference in the aspect of the heavens. A hazy thickness had overspread the country, and I for some time expected an earthquake, but my horse exhibited no propensity to stop and prepare for such an occLirrer^ce. I had nearly arrived at the verge of the valley, when r thought fit to stop near a brook, and dismounted to quench the thirst which had come upon me. I was leaning on my knees, with my lips about to touch the water, when, from my proximity to the earth, I heard a distant murmuring sound of an extraordinary nature. I drank, however, and as I rose on my feet, looked toward the south-west, where I observed a yellowish oval spot, the appearance of which was quite new to me. Little time was left me for consideration, as the next moment a smart breeze began to agitate the taller trees. It in- creased to an unexpected height, and already the smaller branches and twigs were seen falling in a slanting direction towards the ground.. Two minutes had scarcely elapsed, when the whole forest before me was in fearful motion. Here and there, where one tree pressed against another, a creaking noise was produced, simi- lar to that occasioned by the violent gusts which sometimes sweep over the country. Turning instinctively toward the direction •om which the wind blew, I saw, to my great astonishment, that ►noblest trees of the forest bent their lofty heads for a while, unable to stand against the blast, were falling into pieces. First, the branches were broken off with a crackling noise ; then went the upper part of the massy trunks ; and in many places lole trees of gigantic size were falling entire to the ground. So rapid was the progress of the storm, that before I could think of In What Order to Say It, 255 taking measures to insure my safety, the hurricane was passing opposite the place where I stood. Never can I forget the scene which at that moment presented itself. The tops of the trees were seen moving in the strangest manner, in the central current of the tempest, which carried along with it a mingled mass of twigs and foliage, that completely obscured the view. Some of the largest trees were seen bending and writhing under the gale ; others suddenly snapped across ; and many, after a momen- tary resistance, fell uprooted to the earth. The mass of branches, twigs, foliage, and dust that moved through the air, was whirled onwards like a cloud of feathers, and on passing, disclosed a wide space filled with fallen trees, naked stumps, and heaps of shapeless ruins, which marked the path of the tempest. This space was about a fourth of a mile in breadth, and to my imagination re- sembled the dried-up bed of the Mississippi, with its thousands of planters and sawyers, strewed in the sand, and inclined in various degrees. The horrible noise resembled that of the great <^ ataracts of N iagara, and as it howled along in the track of the desolating tempest, produced a feeling in,- my mind which it is 4 — impossible to describe, ^^p^ 6H\JjL ihuOVMJt4J^ , ^^^ The principal force of the hi^ricane was now over, although /'.i^ millions of twigs and small branches, that had been brought from ^(^ a great distance, were seen following the blast, as if drawn onwards QjbuU by some mysterious power. They even floated in the air for some ' hours after, as if supported by the thick mass of dust that rose high above the ground. The sky had now a greenish lurid hue, and an extremely sulphureous odor was diffused in the atmos- phere. I waited in amazement, having sustained no material injury, until nature at length resumed her wonted aspect. For some moments, I felt undetermined whether I should return to ]M organ town, or attempt to force my way through the wrecks of the tempest. My business, however, being of an urgent nature, I ventured into the path of the storm, and after encountering in- numerable difficulties, succeeded in crossing it. I was obliged to (ead my horse by the bridle, to enable him to leap over the fallen trees, whilst I scrambled over or under them in the best way I could, at times so hemmed in by the broken tops and tangled branches, as almost to become desperate. On arriving at my house, I gave an account of what I had seen, when, to my sur- 266 Composition'Rhetoric, prise, I was told that there had been very little wind in the neigh- borhood, although in the streets and gardens many branches and twigs had fallen in a manner which excited great surprise. Many wondrous accounts of the devastating effect of this hurri- cane were circulated in the country, after its occurrence. Some log houses, w^e were told, had been overturned and their inmates destroyed. One person informed me that a wire sifter had been conveyed by the gust to a distance of many miles. Another had found a cow lodged in the fork of a half -broken tree. But, as I am disposed to relate only what I have myself seen, I will not lead you into the region of romance, but shall content myself with say- ing that much damage was done by this awful visitation. The valley is yet a desolate place, overgrown with briars and bushes, thickly entangled amidst the tops and trunks of the fallen trees, and is the resort of ravenous animals, to which they betake them- selves when pursued by man, or after they have committed their depredations on the farms of the surrounding district. I have crossed the path of the storm, at a distance of a hundred miles from the spot where I w^itnessed its fury, and, again, four hundred miles farther off in the State of Ohio. Lastly, I observed traces of its ravages on the summits of the mountains connected with the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, three hundred miles beyond the place last mentioned. In all these different parts, it appeared to me not tb^^aie^ e^eeded a quarter of a mile in breadth. — Audubon. ^ t y^ ^ 7 EXERCISE 109. Make a list of the points you would mention if asked to write on one of the following topics. In what order would you treat of the points in your list ? i 1. A public building in your town. 2. An historical incident. ,3. A scene on the playground. 4. The most remarkable person you ever met. 5. An interesting picture. 6. A personal adventure. 7. The picture of a battle. In What Order to Say It. 257 8. The coming of the storm. 9. A shower during a picnic. 10. A race — waiting for the signal. EXERCISE 110. Write an essay on one of the outlines made in the last exercise. LESSON 32, :1*^- Sentence- Order for Clearness and Empliasis. In the English sentence, the proper placing of words is all-important. Carelessness in this respect is almost sure to result in ambiguity, for (excepting in the case of pro- nouns and nouns in the possessive) there is nothing in the form of English words to indicate their office. We rely almost entirely upon the position of a word, phrase, or clause in the sentence for determining to what element it is to be joined. The rule for arranging words, phrases, and clauses is to place them so that they cannot fail to refer to the one element which they modify. In the following selection (fourth sentence) the words " at first " were introduced at one of the points indicated by the caret (y^). If these words were introduced at the first caret, the meaning would be clearly that after a time she continued to feed them, but at irregular intervals. Sentences 5 to 9 show, however, that this is probably not the meaning intended by the writer. If the words " at first " were introduced at the third caret, the meaning would be clear, that she continued to feed them regularly and did not seem at first to notice the fact that they were captives. Sentences 5 to 9 show that this is probably the meaning intended by the writer. But the writer placed the words " at first '' at the second caret, and the meaning 258 Composition-Rhetoric. was consequently not clear. One could not tell at a glance whether the writer meant " regularly at first " or " at first not seeming to notice." When a sentence-element is thus faultily placed, it is said to squint. The squinting con- struction should be avoided. 1. About a week ago, we captured a nest of young orioles. 2. We put them in a cage and hung them in a tree, intending to release them after studying their development a few days. 3. Their mother was seen about, calling them, and after a little while, she brought them some worms. 4. ^ She continued regu- larly to feed them /\ not seeming ^ to notice the fact that they were captives. 5. But Sunday there came a tragedy. 6. She brought them a sprig of green and disappeared, not returning any more. 7. In less than an hour after picking at the sprig, the captives were dead. 8. We found it to be the deadly larkspur, a weed that will kill full-grown cattle. 9. Evidently the mother had sternly resolved that her offspring should die by her own act rather than live in captivity. 10. The theory /^ that some of the feathered tribe will murder their captive young ^ is now accepted /^ with confidence ^. In the tenth sentence the writer inserted at the second caret the words " long held by observers of birds." In that position it was not clear whether the word " held " refers to "young" or to "theory." If "held" refers to "theory" (as is probable), the words "long held by observers of birds " should be inserted at the first caret. In the same sentence the writer added at the last caret the words " in the scien- tific world." Doubtless the writer meant, not "with con- fidence in the scientific world," but " accepted in the scien- tific world with confidence," or better still "accepted by scientists with confidence." In the following the writer used the words " with regret " at the second caret in the second sentence. From the con- text it seems probable that " looked back with regret " is the meaning intended, not " wandering with regret." In What Order to Say It, \259 He felt that he had gained nothing in yielding himself to his great sorrow without a struggle. He now looked back ^ upon those years which he had si)ent in aimless wandering ^. Work, — he now saw plainly, — steady, unremitting work, is the only effective remedy for sorrow. /' Related words, phrases, and clauses should be brought as close as possible to the elements which they modify. The expressions most likely to be misplaced are only^ (which is least ambiguous when it stands immediately before the expression it modifies) ; not only — hut also (the two parts of which should stand before the same parts of speech); indeed, never, even, always; the prepositions to, for, of, by (which are often left stranded at the end of a sentence, separated too far from the words to which they belong) ; at least, at any rate, at all events, in truth, to be sure, in fact. Constant watchfulness is needed in placing these expressions. The following sentences show the correct use of some of the expressions just named. The carets show the points in the sentence at which the italicized expression is liable to be inserted by a careless writer. The condition of the poor is only ameliorated f^ by the philan- thropy of the rich (i.e. no lasting reform is brought about). The condition of the poor is /y^ ameliorated only by the philan- thropy of the rich (i.e. there is no other ameliorating agency). Sir Walter Scott's works were y\ exceedingly popular not only with his countrymen, hut also with the educated classes in every other civilized country. They ^ intend /^ to pass not only ajiother high tariff bill, hut also a reciprocity bill. He j(' ought at least to ^ apologize /^^ for his conduct. He was now compelled to defer to men for whose opinions he had never entertained much respect ^. , 1 For a discussion of this troublesome adverb the teacher may consult Modern Language Notes for November, 1895: "The Misplacement of Only.'^ 260 Ooraposition- Rhetoric. When the sentence is long and the clauses are numerous, great skill is needed in placing the parts so that the mean- ing shall be clear at once. The following sentence secures clearness at the close by placing the predicate, " was to be decided," before the subject, "the question." If the predi- cate were placed in its usual position (indicated by the caret), there would be too wide a separation from its subject. In primeval times the plain of Latium must have been the scene of the grandest conflicts of nature ; on the one side, the slowly for- mative agency of water was depositing, and on the other side the eruptive force of mighty volcanoes was upheaving the successive strata of that soil whereon was to he decided the question to what people should belong the sovereignty of the world ^. The English sentence changes the natural order of its ele- ments when one of these is to be made especially emphatic. Compare the following : — I. 1 . Kn o wledge is the indispen- sable condition of expansion of mind, and the instrument of attaining to it. 2. A narrow mind is thought to be that which contains little knowledge; and an enlarged mind, that which holds a great deal ; and the fact of the great number of studies which are pursued in a Univer- sity, by its very profession, seems to put the matter beyond dis- pute. II. 1. The indispensable condi- tion of expansion of mind, and the instrument of attaining to it, is knowledge. 2. A narrow mind is thought to be that which contains little knowledge ; and an enlarged mind, that which holds a great deal; and what seems to put the matter beyond dispute is the fact of the great number of studies which are pursued in a University, by its very profession. The change of the word " knowledge " from the beginning to the end of the first sentence makes it more emphatic. In the second sentence, first column, "seems to put the matter beyond dispute " occupies the place of emphasis, at the end. Notice that the word "what" is used, in the second column, In What Order to Say It, 261 as a sort of temporary subject, with two purposes in view, (1) to bring " seems to put the matter beyond dispute " in an unemphatic position, and (2) to defer the emphasis until the word " is " has been passed. These illustrations show that the subject gains emphasis by being changed to a posi- tion at or near the end of the sentence. The converse of this statement is true of the predicate, but, in prose, the ])redicate cannot usually stand first as it does in the poetical line, "jS'ow fades the glimmering landscape on the sight." In the folloAving the predicate *Ms not and cannot be" is brought emphatically before the subject by means of the introductory word "there." The gentleman speaks fluently of a community of interests be- tween the two sections. There is not and cannot be a community of interests so long as the union is part slave and part free. Emphasis is gained for a modifying word by placing it after the word it modifies. Such a change may also avoid awkwardness of expression, as in the first sentence below. 1 . He speaks on too deep topics to be readily understood by the common people. 2. ]N'o government can carry on a war without strongly feeling tlie impulse to aggrandize its own powers and to put its oppo- nents and its critics down with a strong hand. 3. The framers of the con- stitution had to give to the government a permanent and conservative form. 4. I cannot express the regret and sorrow with which I con- template the heavy loss I have n. 1. He speaks on topics too deep to be readily understood by the common people. 2. No government can carry on a war without /eeZm^ strongly the impulse to aggrandize its own powers and to put its oppo- nents and its critics down with a strong hand. 3. The framers of the consti- tution had to give to the gov- ernment a form permanent and conservative. 4. I cannot express the regret and sorrow with which I con- template the heavy loss I have 262 Composition-Rhetoric, sustained. Believe me, nothing except a lost battle is so terrible as a won battle. The glory aris- ing from such actions is no con- solation to me, and I cannot suggest that it has any consola- tion to you. sustained. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost is so terrible as a battle won. The glory aris- ing from such actions is no con- solation to me, and I cannot suggest that it has any consola- tion to you. — Wellington : Letter written on the Eve of Waterloo. The following sentences illustrate how emphasis is gained, by change of position, for phrases and clauses : — I. II. 1. Though he was an invet- erate smoker himself, he would preach to his congregation on the evils of smoking. 2. If his acts did not belie his words, he would exert greater influence. 3. When the time for action has come, the people always rise to the occasion. 4. Wherever you put him, he proves himself competent. 5. Provided you have plenty of good ideas, it is not very hard to write. 6. The hand of death was upon him ; he knew it ; and the only wish which he uttered was that sword in hand he might die. 7. It is always difficult to separate the literary character of a man who lives in our own time from his personal char- acter. It is peculiarly difficult in the case of Lord Byron to make this separation. 1. He would preach to his congregation on the evils of smoking, though he was an in- veterate smoker himself. 2. He would exert greater influence, if his acts did not belie his words. 3. The people always rise to the occasion, when the time for action has come. 4. He proves himself compe- tent, wherever you put him. 5. It is not very hard to write, provided you have plenty of good ideas. 6. The hand of death was upon him ; he knew it ; and the only wish which he uttered was that he might die sivord in hand. 7. It is always difficult to separate the literary character of a man who lives in our own time from his personal char- acter. It is peculiarly difficult to make this separation in the case of Lord Byron. In What Order to Say It. 263 Arrange tlie parts of sentences so ttat the bearing of one part on another will be clearly understood. To emphasize any part, put it out of its usual position. . ^ EXERCISE 111. Insert the bracketed expression so as to bring out the meaning intended. Try it in different places, and note the different meanings that result. 1. In this grate, all the heat goes up the chimney instead of coming into the room [as usual]. 2. It requires a great deal of reading, or a wide range of infor- mation, to warrant us in putting forth our opinions on any serious subject ; and, without such learning, the most original mind may be able to dazzle, to amuse, to refute, to perplex, but not to come to any useful result or any trustworthy conclusion [indeed]. There are persons who profess a different view of the matter, and even act on it [indeed]. 3. One would be inclined to think that the picture is without any meaning; but the full meaning gradually comes to the be- holder [after repeated inspections]. 4. The speech of Lord Strafford, upon his trial, is one of the most simple, touching, and noble in our language [in my opinion]. EXERCISE 112. At which of the points indicated by carets should the bracketed clauses be inserted ? What is the relative gain in each case ? 1. Our ancestors came from England with the appetite for news already developed. After permanent settlements had been made, and they were ready to enjoy some of the comforts of life, the desire y\ increased /^ [that they might know w^hat their neighbors were doing, and what was going on in the Old World]. 2. All news items, except those of a strictly personal character, were set down by the postmaster, and were repeated by him to the people. Often j^ he would make written circulars containing the 264 Composition- Rhetoric, news, and /^ would vend them to callers at the postoffice /^ [iu order to save time, and, perhaps, to make a trifle of money]. 3. The postmaster at Boston had so many of these news circu- lars to write that he determined to print them. This was in 1704, when Boston had a population of 8000. But /^ he ^ had /^ to get permission from the colonial legislature ^, for that body had ah*eady asserted its determination to regulate printed publica- tions [before he dared to carry his plan into effect]. 4. /^ In the midst of much curiosity and enthusiasm, y\ the first issue of The Boston News-Letter made its appearance, April 24, 1704, y\ with Postmaster Campbell as editor ^ [after the legislat- ure had duly granted the necessary permission]. 5. The first sheet was taken damp from the press, by Chief Justice Sewell ^ as a wonderful cariosity ^ [in order that he might show it to President Willard of Harvard College]. 6. The News-Letter /^ continued publication through seventy- two years y\ [a complete file of which is in possession of the New York Historical Association] . 7. /\ It was printed, sometimes on a single sheet of foolscap, and /\ often on a half-sheet, two columns on each side ^ [because paper was very expensive]. -AJ-^ exercise 113. Eead the following selection carefully, and perform the work prescribed at the close : — l.l The habitual prejudice, the humor of the moment,\»^ the turnihg-point which leads us to read a defence in a good sense or a badya^ 2. We interpret the defence by our antecedent impres- sions. \. The very same sentiments,[according as our jealousy is or is not awake, or our aversion stimulated^are tokens of truth or of dissimulation and pretence. 4. There is a story of a sane person hrin^ by mistftlir^ shut up in the wards of a lunatic asy- lunif^V^^'tlm^^fe^he pleaded his cause to some strangers visiting the 'establishment, the only remark he elicited, in answer, was, " How naturally he talks ! you would think he was in his senses." 5. Controversies should be decided by the reason ; is iLipgitimRit^ w.a*faf6^ appeal to the misgivings of the public mind, and to its f) ^ ^. In What Order to Say It, 265 disliking^'? 6. Anyhow, if ni^ accuser is able tlufe to practise /JWAJ upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less wt^^jiSSe my success. ^;(jj"^jlj^ 7. If I am natural, he will tell them "Ars est celare artem "; if I am convincing, he will suggest that I am an able logician ; if I show warmth, I am acting the indignant innocent ; if I am calm, I am t hereby detected as a smooth hypocrite ; if I clear up difficul- ties, I am too plausible and perfect to be true. 8. The more triumphant are my statements, the more certain will be my defeat. 9. So will it be if my accuser succeeds in his manoeuvre; but I^ do not for an instant believe that he will. 10. AVhatever jaog- ment my readers may eventually form of me from these pages, I am confident that they will .believe me in what I shall say in the course of them.A 11. I have no misgiving at all that they will be ungenerous or harsh towards a man who has been so lon g before the eyes of. the ^orld ; who has so many to speak of him from MT^^' ^persoh al knowledge ; Vhose iiatural impulse it has ever been to speak out'; who has ever spoken too much rather than too little ; who would have saved himself uiany a scrape, if he had been wise enough to hold his tongue ; w^ho has ever been fair to the doctrines and arguments of his opponents ; who has never slurred over facts and reasonings which told against himself; who has never given his name or authority to proofs which he thought unsound, or to testimony which he did not think at least plausible ; who has never shrunk from confessing a fault when he felt that he had committed one ; who has ever consulted for others more than for himself ; who has given up much that he loved and prized and could have retained, but that he loved honesty better than name, and truth better than dear friends. 1. Put the first eight words in a more emphatic position. 2. Re-write this sentence on the following plan: "It is by . . . that we . . . " and explain the change in emphasis. 3. Bring the first four words close to the predicate. What re- adjustment of emphasis results ? 4. "There is a story of . . . and that . . . '^ — make these cor- responding parts parallel in form. Put "by mistake 'Mn a more em- phatic position. What is the emphasis of the when-clause ? 5. Can you re-write the question-part of this sentence so as to make "legitimate warfare" come at the end of the question? How is the emphasis thereby changed ? 266 Composition- Rhetoric. 6. Emphasize " thus " and "will be.'' 7. What is the relative emphasis of the if-clauses as compared with that of the principal clauses? Compare sentence 11, "who would have saved himself," etc. Emphasize " thereby." 8. Change so as to make " are " and " will be " most prominent. 9. Explain the emphasis of the first four words ; of the if-clause. Make "for an instant" more emphatic. 10. Give " they will believe me " a more emphatic position. 11. Give " so long " a still more emphatic position. Change " per- sonal knowledge" to *' knowledge that is personal," and note the change of emphasis. Explain the emphasis of "whose natural im- pulse," etc. What does "at least" modify? What degree of em- phasis has " when he felt that," etc. ? d AJ thoughts in an essay or in a single paragraph. Where, in an essay, sub-divisions are numerous and minute, a number of less important sub-topics may be grouped in one paragraph, while a relatively more important sub-topic may occupy a paragraph by itself^ EXERCISE_J22. Divide each of the following paragraphs into its two or three parts. Show how the length at which each part is treated indicates its relative importance. It is well known that the Australian megapod is a bird that is accustomed not to sit on its own eggs. In certain parts of Aus- tralia are found numerous mounds of considerable size and height, which the first explorers took to be burial mounds. These were made by the Megapodius tumulus, which uses them for hatching its eggs. They have sometimes considerable dimensions : a nest that is 14 feet high and 55 feet in circumference may be regarded as large. Each megapod builds its own nest with materials which it gathers from all sides, and these are exactly what the gardener uses in the month of March to make his forcing-beds; namely, leaves and decomposing vegetable matter, which, by their fermen- tation, give off an appreciable amount of heat. In the forcing- beds, this heat hastens the sprouting of the seeds ; in the nest it Eow Much to Say. 287 suffices for the development and hatching of the young Mrds, and the mother can go where she likes and occupy herself as she wishes, -without being troubled by the duties of settin^^^ In the small island of Mnafou, in the Pacific, another bird has a somewhat similar habit, in so far as it also abandons its eggs ; but in place of obtaining the necessary heat from fermentation, it gets it from warm sand. The Leipoa or native pheasant of Australia acts like the megapod, and watches the temperature of its mound very closely, covering and uncovering the eggs several times a day to cool them or heat them, as becomes necessary. After hatching, the young bird remains in the mound several hours ; it leaves on the second day, but returns for the night, and not until the third day is it able to quit the paternal abode. The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die de- cently, but to live manfully. This, when by God's grace it has been given, lies deep in the soul ; like genial heat, fosters all other virtues and gifts ; without it they could not liveT^ In spite of our innumerable Waterloos and Peterloos, and such campaigning as there has been, this courage we allude to, and call the only true one, is perhaps rarer in these last ages than it has been in any other since the Saxon Invasion under HengistT^ Altogether ex- tinct it can never be among men ; otherwise the species man were no longer for this world : here and there, in all times, under vari- ous guises, men are sent hither not only to demonstrate but exhibit it, and testify, as from heart to heart, that it is still possible, still practicable. — Carlyle: BosiuelVs Life of Johnson. In whatsoever light we examine the characteristics of the Laure- ate's genius, the complete and even balance of his poetry is from first to last conspicuous. It exhibits that just combination of lyri- cal elements which makes a symphony, wherein it is difficult to say what quality predominates. Reviewing minor poets, we think this one attractive for the wald flavor of his unstudied verse ; another, for the gush and music of his songs; a third, for idyllic sweetness or tragic power | but in Tennyson we have the strong repose of art, whereof — as*of the perfection of nature — the world is slow to tire. It has become conventional, but remember that nothing endures to the point of conventionalism which is not based 288 Composition-Rhetoric, upon lasting rules; that it once was new and refreshing, and is sure, in future days, to regain the early charm. — Stedman : Vic- torian Poets, 182. 3E 123. ylMg^lfii^ EXERCISE Make one paragrapK"of"eililier of the following. Give to each point a length of treatment corresponding to what you consider to be its relative importance. Slang should be avoided because (a) some of it is vulgar and brings up bad suggestions, (^5'|pst5me of it while not offensive in that way is without meaning to other people to whom it may be addressed, -<^ all of it is needless : there are words of good stand*- ing for all of our ideas, and \c^ the continued use of a pet slang phrase in many meanings prevents the user from making due dis- tinctions in the use of language, from searching for the fitting word to use in every case, and thus from acquiring and increasing his vocabulary of reputable words, (e) besides, a slang expression is likely to slip out before he thinks, on an occasion when it leads to his discomfort and embarrassment. A certain amount of daily exercise is of advantage to every man who works with his brain, because (a) it enables him to do more and better work, (6) it promotes a spirit of cheerfulness and soci- ability, (c) it diminishes liability to disease and break-down, (ri) it gives him extra strength for times of great mental labor or anxiety, (e) it tends to prolong his life. «i^' EXERCISE 124, Account for the relative proportions of the following con- nected paragraphs : — The laboratory method in natural science is vastly superior to the now obsolete exclusive text-book method, which was used in some places a generation ago. The study of natural science loses its value as a means of cultivating the faculties, when the method employed fails to lead to the observation of, and experimenting with, the objects of nature. The tools which Providence has How Much to Say. 289 given to man for his life in nature are his senses and his hands. Instruction in science becomes unprofitable when it is not based on the pupil's own observation and activity. Yet, while progressive high-school teachers agree on laboratory work in natural science, another element should receive equal consideration. Just as necessary as an acquaintance with the archetypal forms of nature by direct inspection, and of the obser- vational facts by direct experiment, is the unifying, reasoning- process, which sits enthroned above the myriads of facts and is as important a condition of observation as the activity of the senses and the hands. Reason, with its generalizing powers, is the com- pass which alone prevents the student from becoming bewildered in the maze of details. Not only the typical fabts, but the leading lines of the whole field of the study should be surveyed by the pupil. These leading lines, however, cannot always be taught by experiments performed by the pupil himself, but he must receive some truths at second-hand through experiments which he wit- nesses but does not perform, and by literary communication through text-book and lecture. The total elimination of text- book study by laboratory work would be an extreme that does not commend itself. The individual scientist who does not know a hundred-fold more of nature than he has learned from his own personal experimenting would be comparatively ignorant. Thor- oughness in a limited field is not at all opposed to a certain com- prehensiveness of information. It is in fact aided by a general acquaintance with the leading lines of the subject. What reader of Gibbon's Rome, when opening a new volume, would not fee] aided by a preliminary comprehensive survey of the period in an encyclopaedia or brief text-book ? The old method of the literary study of natural science, which sacrificed thoroughness to comprehensiveness, and depth to breadth, was vicious ; but the opposite course would be as great an error. Generally speaking, thoroughness may become, and at times has become, a fetish to which hecatombs of vital educational interest have been slaughtered. For instance, to keep a child in the elementary school on one topic for the purpose of attaining ideal perfection until living interest and ambition are killed, and instruction becomes irksome, would be paying too high a price for thoroughness. 290 Composition-Rhetoric, EXERCISE 125. 1. Make an analysis of the essay by Higginson in Exer- cise 38, with headings and sub-headings. Is any sub-topic given a whole paragraph by itself ? What groupings of sub-topics into a single paragraph do you notice ? Test the relative importance of paragraphs by their relative length. 2. Make a similar analysis of an essay in one of the current magazines.^ EXERCISE 126. Make three paragraphs of the following material, showing, by grouping of sub-topics and length of treatment, what you consider to be their relative importance. Advantages of a Free Public Library. 1. Advantages to the community in general : — a. It elevates the tone of life in the community, (1) By creating an intellectual interest, (2) By supplanting less worthy interests, (3) By affording a centre of culture. h. Out of it usually grow other worthy institutions : (1) Literary clubs and societies of various sorts, (2) Lecture courses. c It helps the work of schools and churches. 2. Advantages to individuals in the community. a. To the teacher it affords a wider range of reference books. h. To the pupil a chance for further reading in the line of his school studies. c. To the general reader a wider selection. d. To non-readers a stimulus to begin. 1 A list of essays for practice of this kind will be found in Appendix C. How Much to Say. 291 ^^ LESSON 35. n/J^^;^^ Subordination of Farts. Besides length of treatment and grouping of sub-topics, other devices are employed at times to show the relative importance of topics. Sometimes bold expressions are used, such as "The main point is this," "Less important but still worthy of mention is the following,'^ "After all, the great fact remains that," "A more important reason is." These and similar expressions tell the reader plainly, though some- what bluntly, what relative degree of importance to attach to the paragraph or part of the paragraph concerned. The following paragraph contains an expression of this kind, here printed in italics : — The present inspection of immigrants at American ports before they are permitted to land seems to be about as effective a way as can be devised to exclude the prohibited classes. The inspection system now in force lays down rigidly who are excli^ded from land- ing under the laws. Inspectors are appointed to enforce the regu- lations. And more important than all else, the steamship companies are required to carry back the excluded immigrants at their own cost. This makes them very careful in taking immigrant passen- gers. It imposes on them the preliminary inspection in Europe. The rest is done by American inspectors, whose work, if necessary, can be supplemented by agents stationed at European ports. The weeding out of undesirable immigrants from the flood of Italians now pouring into ISTew York is evidence of the good work pos- sible under the existing system. The carrying back of a few hundred immigrants amounts to a heavy fine on the steamship companies for bringing them over. In the following the subordination is less blunt and more skilfully managed. ISTotice especially the latter part of the fourth sentence beginning with the word " but." 292 Composition-Rhetoric. 1. 1 pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great a cost. 2. These things, if they are curious in them, they can get for a dollar at any village. 3. But let this stranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent and behavior, read your heart and earnestness, your thought and will, — which he cannot buy at any price in any village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles, and dine sparely and sleep hard, m order to behold. 4. Certainly let the board be spread, and let the bed be dressed for the traveller, ^ut. let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. 5. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the law of the universe, the soul worships truth and love, honor and courtesy flow into all deeds. — Emerson: Domestic Life. Statements introduced by ^^and," "likewise/' "but," "therefore," "accordingly," are recognized at once as of at least equal importance with preceding statements. There is no enlargement, unless there be a comparison of ideas one with another, as they come before the mind, and a systema- tizing of them. We feel our minds to be growing and expanding then, when we not only learn, but refer what we learn to what we know already. ... And therefore a truly great intellect is one which takes a connected view of old and new, past and present, far and near, and which has an insight into the influence of all these, one on another ; without which there is no whole, and no centre. It possesses the knowledge, not only of things, but also of their mutual and true relations ; knowledge, not merely con- sidered as an acquirement, but as philosophy. Accordingly, when this analytical, distributive, harmonizing process is away, the mind experiences no enlargement, and is not reckoned as enlightened or comprehensive, whatever it may add to its knowledge. For instance, a great memory, as I have already said, does not make a philosopher, any more than a dictionary can be called a grammar. There are men who embrace in their minds a vast multitude of ideas, but with little sensibility about their real relations towards each other. ... If they are nothing more How Much to Say, 293 than Avell-read men, or men of information, tliey have not what specially deserves the name of culture of mind, or fulfils the type of Liberal Education. In like manner, we sometimes fall in with persons who have seen milch' of the world, and of the men who, in their day, have played a conspicuous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and have no observation, in the true sense of the word. They abound in information in detail, curious and entertaining, about men and things ; and, having lived under the influence of no very clear or settled principles, they speak of every one and every thing, only as so many phenomena, which are complete in themselves, and lead to nothing, not discussing them, or teaching any truth, or in- structing the hearer, but simply talking. The reader recognizes that such expressions as " it is true/' ^' to be sure/' " indeed/' " I admit that/' introduce conces- sions which the writer wishes him to regard as of less impor- tance than the sentences introduced by " still/' " yet/' " but/' "nevertheless/' or "however/' which are almost sure to follow. There are virtues, indeed, which the world is not fitted to judge of or to uphold, such as faith, hope, and charity ; but it can judge about truthfulness ; it can judge about the natural virtues, and truthfulness is one of them. Natural virtues may also become supernatural ; truthfulness is such, but that does not withdraw it from the jurisdiction of mankind at large. At the main divisions of a long discourse there are some- times found whole sentences, more often parts of sentences, whose business it is to indicate the relative importance of the divisions in the scheme of the whole discourse. Thus in Webster's eulogy of Adams and Jefferson the second division of the discourse begins as follows : " The occasion, fellow- citizens, requires some account of the lives and services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This duty must necessarily be performed with great brevity, and in the discharge of it I shall be 294 Composition-Rhetoric , obliged to confine myself, principally, to those parts of their history and character which belonged to them as public men." By this announcement the reader is prepared for the short biographies which form the second and third divisions (para- graphs 12-24). The fourth division begins as follows: "And now, fellow-citizens, without pursuing the biography of these illustrious men further, for the present, let us turn our attention to the most prominent act of their lives, their participation in the Declaration of Independence." Since this suggests a fuller treat- ment, the reader is not surprised to find that the fourth division contains twenty-five paragraphs. The fifth division is but a single paragraph, and is appropriately introduced by the following sentence, "It would be unjust, fellow-citizens, on this occasion, while we express our veneration for him who is the immediate subject of these remarks, were we to ornit a most respectful, affec- tionate, and grateful mention of those other great men, his col- leagues, who stood with him, and with the same spirit, the same devotion, took part in the interesting transaction." Canon Farrar in his lecture on Dante, after dwelling at some length upon the Inferno^ opens the briefer second division of the lecture with the words, " Time does not permit me to give you even an outline of Purgatory" and the still briefer third division with " I shall say scarcely anything of the Paradise.'" The length of the conclusion is indicated by the words, " I hasten to con- clude " and " I will end with two remarks." It is easy to fall into the habit of using more of these subordinating expressions than are necessary. Few of them are needed when the thoughts are clear and well arranged. Use expressions of subordination, when necessary, to indicate the relative importance of thoughts. EXERCISE 127. Point out subordinating expressions in the following. Classify these expressions and show that each indicates properly the relative importance of the sentences or parts of sentences which it seems to subordinate. How Much to Say, 295 Pitiful is the case of the blind, who cannot read the face; pitiful that of the deaf, who cannot follow the changes of the voice. And there are others j,lso to be pitied; for there are some of an inert, uneloquent nature, who have been denied all the sym- bols of communication, who have neither a lively play of facial expression, nor speaking gestures, nor a responsive voice, nor yet the girt of frank, explanatory speech : people truly made of clay, people tied for life into a bag which no one can undo. They are poorer than the gipsy, for their heart can speak no language under heaven. Such people we must learn slowly by the tenor of their acts, or through " yea " and " nay " communications ; or, we take them on trust on the strength of a general air, and now and again, when we see the spirit breaking through in a flash, correct or change our estimate. But these will be uphill intimacies, without charm or freedom, to the end ; and freedom is the chief ingredient in confidence. Some minds, romantically dull, despise physical endowments. That is a doctrine for a misanthrope ; to those who like their fellow-creatures, it must always be meaningless ; .. and^ for my part, I can see few things more desirable, after the posses- sion of such radical qualities as honor, and humor, and pathos, than to have a lively, and not a stolid, countenance ; to have looks to correspond with every feeling ; to be elegant and delightful in person, so that we shall please even in the intervals of active pleasing, and may never discredit speech with uncouth manners, or become unconsciously our own burlesques. But of all unfortu- nates, there is one creature (for I will not call him man) conspicu- ous in misfortune. This is he who has forfeited his birthright of expression ; who has cultivated artful intonations ; who has taught his face tricks, like a pet monkey, and, on every side, perverted or cut off his means of communication with his fellowmen. The body is a house of many windows : there we all sit showing our- selves, and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. But this 'ellow has filled his windows with opaque glass elegantly colored, is house may be admired for its design, the crowd may pause fore the stained windows, but meanwhile the poor proprietor (list lie within, uncomf orted, unchangeably alone. — Stevenson : 296 )[ Composition-Rhetoric, EXERCISE 128. Insert proper words of subordination in the following at places indicated by carets : — In reading the Russian papers, the Czar noticed that they were^ not so outspoken as the papers of other countries. He noticed (^^^.t^ that, in their guarded utterances, he never found any reference to official abuses which, he knew, must exist in Russia as in other countries. He knew y{^mat there is a censorship of the press in his realm, but he had not the slightest idea of the extent to w^hich the censors puppre^s' independent expressions in the papers. He determined'^^ that at least one paper should be perfectly free to criticise the government. /^ ' he summoned the editor of The St. Petersburg Viedomosti, a paper that has been published for 170 years, and announced his intention of relieving him of cen- sure. ^^ When the high officials learned of, the Czar's purpose, they ^ advisied strongly against it. The Czar^^Ji^'^mtiinSS firm. Then the officials had recourse to an old and well-tried method of cir- cumventing their imperial master, and of saving themselves from exposure. They provided the editor with a position in the Russo- Chinese Bank at a princely salary, and subscribed for many thoi^-^^ ^ ■ sands of copies of the paper. The prosperity of the Viedomosti is /(^ assured. It is ''/\^" a 'prosperity that depends, on continued official favor. The paper is free to criticise ; -y^ Strange to say, it shows less disposition to find fault with the official classes than befpre it was relieved of censorship. /^ its freedom is an illusion. /^ the Czar is puzzled. • \ EXERCISE 129. Examine, with your teacher, one of the following for expressions which indicate the relative importance of the parts : — 1. De Quincey's Joan of Arc. 2. One of Macaulay's Essays, 3. An article in The Forum magazine. 4. An article in The North American Review. 5. An article in The New York Independent. 6. Any chapter of a book which your teacher may assign to you. How Much to Say, 297 / LESSON 36. Expayision. In order to make an important topic show for what it is worth, it must be developed into its particular phases or considered from several points of view. One or more of the general methods described in Lessons 12 to 19 may be employed for this purpose, but in some cases a particular application of one of these general methods will be more convenient. For instance, an apt anecdote or incident is a very frequent method of expanding an important point. Thus in the following : — The Admirals are typical in the full force of the word. They are splendid examples of virtue, indeed, but of a virtue in which most Englishmen can claim a moderate share; and what we admire in their lives is a sort of apotheosis of ourselves. . . . Duncan, lying off the Texel with his own flagship, the Venera- ble, and only one other vessel, heard that the whole Dutch fleet was putting to sea. He told Captain Hotham to anchor along- side of him in the narrowest part of the channel, and fight his vessel till she sank. "I have taken the depth of the water," added he, "and when the Venerable goes down, my flag will still fly." And you observe this is no naked Viking in a prehistoric period; but a Scotch member of Parliament, with a smattering of the classics, a telescope, a cocked hat of great size, and flannel underclothing. — Stevenson : Virginihus Puerisque. An apt quotation of considerable length is another method of expansion. In the following, Stevenson having asked- what motive inspired the hero Douglas to burn up with his ship, the Eoyal Oak, when he might have left it and saved his life, continues : " Many will tell you it was the desire of fame." In opposition to this view, Stevenson quotes from Montaigne's essay on " Glory " as follows : — 298 Oomposition-Rhetoric. To what do Caesar and Alexander owe the infinite grandeur of their renown but to fortune? How many men has she extin- guished in the beginning of their progress, of whom we have no knowledge; who brought as much courage to the work as they, if their adverse hap had not cut them off in the first sally of their arms ? Amongst so many and so great dangers, I do not remem- ber to have anywhere read that Caesar was ever wounded ; a thou- sand have fallen in less dangers than the least of those he went through. A great many brave actions must be expected to be per- formed without witness, for one that comes to some notice. A man is not always at the top of a breach, or at the head of an army, in the sight of his general, as upon a platform. He is often surprised between the hedge and the ditch ; he must run the hazard of his life against a hen-roost ; he must dislodge four rascally musketeers out of a barn ; he must prick out single from his party, as neces- sity arises, and meet adventures alone. Sometimes an important thought is merely stated in one paragraph in connection with other thoughts, and is ex- panded in the next paragraph. This is illustrated by the preceding quotation. When it is desired to expand one part of a narrative or description, more details and particulars are added to that part. Thus in Tom Brown at Oxford, Chapters XIII and XI Y, the author expands in one description the incidents which he treats briefly in the other. The following extracts will exemplify his method : — CHAPTER XIII. It is an awful moment. But the coxswain, though almost dragged backwards ofE his seat, is equal to the occasion. He holds his watch in his right hand with the tiller rope. *' Eight seconds more only. Look out for the flash. Re- member, all eyes in the boat." CHAPTER XIV. After a few moments of breathless hush on the bank, the last gun is fired and they are off. Hoiv Much to Say. 299 There it comes at last — the flash of the starting-gim. Long- before the sound of the report can roll up the river, the whole pent-up life and energy which has been held in leash, as it were, for the last six minutes, is let loose and breaks away with a bound and a dash which he who has felt it will remem- ber for his life, but the like of which, will he ever feel again? The starting-ropes drop from the coxswains' hands, the oars flash into the water, and gleam on the feather, the spray flies from them, and the boats leap forward. In a single sentence to which the greater distinction of greater length is to be given, single adjectives are changed to phrases, phrases to clauses, andrmew phTrases^ and clauses, going more into detail, are added. These changes are illus- trated By the parallel passages below. Those in the left- hand column are from Green's Short History of the English People; those in the right-hand column are from the same author's longer History. 1. His enjoyment of the gay- ety of life stands in bright con- trast with the gloom and stern- ness of the later Puritanism. 2. Hooker urged that a Di- vine order exists, not in writ- ten revelation only, but in the moral relations, and the social 1. Milton's enjoyment of the gayety of life stands in bright contrast with the gloom and sternness which strife and per- secution fostered in Puritanism at a later time. 2. Hooker urged that a Di- vine order exists, not in written revelation only, but in the moral relations, the historical devel- 300 Composition-Rhetoric. and political institutions of men. 3. He now offered to sail to the Orinoco, and discover a gold mine which he believed to exist on its banks. opment, and the social and polit- ical institutions of men. 3. As years went by, the new world, where he had founded Virginia and where he had gleaned news of a Golden City, threw more and more a spell over his imagination ; and at this moment he disclosed to James his knowledge of a gold mine on the Orinoco, and prayed that he might sail thither and work its treasures for the king. The latter part of a sentence is sometimes expanded for the sake of giving fulness of sound at the close. The words after " region " at the close of the following are in point. As surely as the wolf retires before cities, does the fairy seques- ter herself from the haunts of the licensed victualler. A village is too much for her nervous delicacy : at most, she can tolerate a distant view of a hamlet. We may judge, therefore, by the un- easiness and extra trouble which they gave to the parson, in what strength the fairies mustered at Domremy ; and, by a satisfactory consequence, how thinly sown with n^en and women must have been that region even in its inhabited spots. — De Quincey : Joan of Arc. Additions made for this purpose should combine fulness of sound with fulness of thought. Whatever is added should grow naturally from the main idea and so become a vital member of the sentence. The need of expansion appears when one is trying to in- terpret and explain a difficult or obscure passage which he finds in the writings of some author whom he is studying. In order to bring out the full meaning of such a passage, it becomes necessary to re-state it at greater length, to ex- amine it from more than one point of view, to use simpler Hotv Much to Say. 801 words, perhaps, and more of them, to provide illustrations, and to call attention to hidden meanings. There is danger in this work of putting in something that the author did not mean, and of cheapening the thought, but in spite of that danger, the work is necessary. Notice in the following how the rather enigmatic statement quoted in the first sen- tence is cleared up and filled with meaning by the comments which follow : — "It takes," says Thoreau, in the noblest and most useful passage I remember to have read in any modern author, " two to speak truth — one to speak and another to hear." He must be very little experienced, or have no great zeal for truth, who does not recog- nize the fact. A grain of anger or a grain of suspicion produces strange acoustical effects, and makes the ear greedy to remark offence. Hence we find those who have once quarrelled carry them- selves distantly, and are ever ready to break the truce. To speak truth there must be moral equality or else no respect ; and hence between parent and child intercourse is apt to degenerate into a verbal fencing-bout, and misapprehension to become ingrained . . . and wherever a person fancies himself unjustly judged, he at once and finally gives up the effort to speak truth. With our chosen friends, on the other hand, and still more between lovers (for mutual understanding is love's essence), the truth is easily indicated by the one and aptly comprehended by the other. A hint taken, a look understood, conveys the gist of long and delicate explanations ; and where the life is known even yea and nay be- come luminous. In the closest of all relations — that of a love well founded and equally shared — speech is half discarded, like a roundabout, infantile process, or a ceremony of formal etiquette ; and the two communicate directly by their presences, and with few looks and fewer words contrive to share their good and evil and uphold each other's hearts in joy. — Stevenson: Virginihus Puerisque. In expanding an idea, bear in mind the uses of anecdote, quota- tion, and details. Beware of additions which do not grow naturally from the thought. 302 Composition- Rhetoric. EXERCISE 130. Expand the following by changing the word or words in italics to a phrase or clause of equivalent meaning. Take care that the added words shall be genuine additions to the thought. 1. Macaulay's essays are as good as a library: they make an incomparable vade-mecum for the busy man. 2. If your little boy came to you for fire-cracker money, you would give it to him hesitatingly ; and seeing it fly off, though harmlessly, in fireworks, you would have some idea that it was wasted. 3. Earnestness characterizes the manner of the speaker, and truthfulness his language. 4. His delight in nature was deep, continuous^ sometimes rapturous. EXERCISE 131. Add relevant words to the close of each of the following sentences for the sake of fulness of sound : — 1. Clara, upon heaving the thunder-clap, which sounded like the crack of doom, jumped. 2. For three days after regaining a latitude which admitted of plain sailing we had boisterous weather and a wild sea, but an un- clouded sky. At such times the ocean, in its ever-varying forms of beauty and changing shades of prismatic light in the sunshine, attracts. 3. The momentary waves raised by the passing breeze, appar- ently born to die on the spot which saw their birth, leave behind them an endless progeny, which, reviving with diminished energy in other seas, visiting a thousand shores, reflected from each, and perhaps again partially concentrated, go on. 4. How they were attacked, how they resisted, how they struck, how they were encompassed, how they thrust back those who were hurled on them in the black night, with the north sea-wind like ice upon their faces, and the loose African soil drifting up in clouds around them, they told. How Much to Say. 308 EXERCISE 132. Fill in details at the places indicated in the following : — There has been no period of time in which wealth has been more sensible of its duties than now. It builds hospitals. [Tell other things that it does.] One of the advantages of accumulated wealth and of the leisure it renders possible, is that people have time to think of the wants and sorrows of their fellows. Thinking on the needs of the poor will lead the rich to greater benevolence th^ft-the v^orld has yet known. [Other results.] "iJWhen we see what a wonderful instrument the hand is, I think we are great fools for not learning to use it better. A parrot can make a use of his beak and feet, which are also hands, in a way that puts us to shame. [Tell what a dog can do with his mouth and fore paws.] Some people can do little more than dress and undress themselves and bring food and drink to the mouth, which does the rest. Boys, without being taught except by other boys, learn to use feet and hands in many ways, and they amuse them- selves and learn at the same time. [Tell how the hands, eyes, and feet are educated by games played according to rules.] I hope I shall be excused if I say that boys' play is sometimes the best thing that they do at school. ■^W EXERCISE 133. Interpret one of the "following quotations, and comment on the thought, bringing out fully all that it means or sug- gests to you. 1. If youth is not right in its conclusions about this life, there is a strong probability that age is not much more so. . It takes two to make a quarrel. 3. Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. 4. The eye is the great instrument of acquiring knowledge. 5. Writing is a part of drawing. 6. In the savage state, robbery stands in the place of taxation. 7. Parting is a kind of death. 8. Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change. — Tennyson : Locksley Hall. ^. ^^^'^^^ CompositioU'RhetoriG. J^ ;one walls do not a prison make, Nor imji^ars a cage. ^ jj Lovelace: To AUhea from Prison. V " ^ ^ Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. W-*" > ^ Milton : Paradise Lost, I, 648. W^'^ ^H^: EXERCISE 134. " Expand the following according to the directions printed within the brackets : — , j , . , oo^Trve. \HHM /Jua^iXslmJIu 1. I do not believe in violent changes. [Expand " violent "^to a . ■ ■ . clause.] Kor do T expect^i&fei^'^Ha^mt^^ MM ir^^^^ '^^ other vfords at greater length.] Things in pol^s^ori [rfe|)e^tln^H ^acft^ "^^iSn^tory clfi!usq 'dr ' two "things which," etc.] have a very firm grip. [Inserf 4 sentence, beginning " ^riiey hold socVij^ r<^Wi-^^-^it;f^'*^6lft] One of the strongest cements of society [substitute y^ for "society" another expression of greater length] is the convic- tion of mankind that the state of things into wl^ich they are bor n j^ is a part of the order of the universe., f'liad 'a comparison Y" as Aa>^ natural as," etc.]' iiih a conviction that they will not surrender J ^except on compulsion; and a wise society^further charaet^/nze^ )j^ O^JWllSfeMy," "a society which,"^ etc.] should look to it that th^ W^ pulsion be noti put upon them." [Add " should guard against; etclj "■■^^^"^^^^^"^r*iy5r& Bro many others think that dreaming occurs \)iorily between sleeping and waking, —the stepping of the soul into or out of the land of f orgetf ulness, — and that it is momentary in its essence and action, though ranging over a lifetime or more. [A poetical quotation illustrating the brevity of the dream-period.] There is much in favor of this. One hopes the soul [a brief quo- tation expressing the nimble, ethereal character of the soul] may sometimes sleep the dreamless sleep of health, ^s, well as its tired drudge. 'W C^. , ,Vl... ov. -^^- ^'* • , .. ; a_c)jMKUM 3. Jt is a beautiiul morning in June, — so beautiful that I almost , CX)I fancy myself in Spain. The tessellated shadow of the honeys uckle*rv\l lies motionless upon the floor, as if it were a figure in the carpet j^jj^tAX and through the open window comes the fragrance of the wild- ^Aq. brier and the mock-orange, reminding one of that soft, sunny clime ft/yT^'^' How Much to Say. 305 ^' where the very air is laden, like the bee, with sweetness, and the south wind [a poetical quotation descriptive of the south wind]. The birds are carolling in the trees, and their shadows flit across the window as they dart to and fro in the sunshine, while the mur- mur of the bee, the cooing of doves from the eaves, and the whir- ring of a little humming-bird that has its nest in the honeysuckle, send up a sound of joy to meet the rising sun. \^j^^\ n ^ EXERCISE 135. Study the following closely and write fully what it sug- gests to you. Give all that it implies as well as all that it expresses. On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold. And many goodly states and kingdoms seen : Round many westernjslands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne : \ Yet did I never breathe its puyre^serene \ Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken ; Or like stout Cortez when wdth eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific — and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise — Silent, upon a peak in Darien . — Keats. [The following questions will be found suggestive : What were the " realms of gold " in which Keats feigned to have travelled? What is meant by " western islands," and in what sense are they held by bards in fealty to Apollo ? Over what realm can Homer be said to rule ? What reason for calling him " deep-browed " ? What is suggested to you by '^ pure serene," and how^ is it appro- priate as applied to Homer's poetry ? Tn what sense do the verses in Chapman's Homer "speak out loud and bold"? Read the following from Robertson's History of A merica, which was one of 306 Composition-Rhetoric, Keats's school-books, and consider how the "wild surmise" of Balboa's men could properly be compared to the poet's feelings on first seeing Chapman's translation of Homer : " At length the Indians assured them that from the top of the next mountain they should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, Balboa [not Cortez : Keats's memory played him false] commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the South Sea stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and, lifting up his hands to heaven, returned thanks to God, who had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country, and so honorable to himself. His followers, observing his transports of joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and grati- tude^!^ r^ / LESSON 37. vJLUaJ* Condensation. A process the direct opposite of expansion is necessary when writing on the less important points of a paragraph or an essay. These need to be compressed into briefer com- pass than the important points. One way of condensing is seen in the following paragraph, in which the writer has reduced a sentence to a participial construction attached to the next sentence. In the same way a sentence is re- duced to a clause or phrase and attached to another related sentence. Never did poet have a truer companion, a sincerer spiritual helpmate, than Mr. Bryant in his wife. Refined in taste^ and ele- vated in thought, she was characterized alike by goodness and gentle- ness. Modest in her ways, she lived wholly for him ; his welfare, his happiness, his fame, were the chief objects of her ambition. To smooth his pathway, to cheer his spirit, to harmonize every discordant element of life, were purposes for the accomplishment of which no sacrifice on her part could be too great. How Much to Say, 307 Sometimes an apt quotation, an allusion, or a proverb may take the place of a large amount of explanatory matter. An eloquent scholar has said, that ancient literature was the ark ill which all the civilization of the world was preserved during the deluge of barbarism. We confess it. But we do not read that Noah thought himself bound to live in the ark after the del- uge had subsided. When our ancestors first began to consider the study of the classics as the principal part of education, little or nothing worth reading was to be found in any modern language. Circumstances have confessedly changed. Is it not possible that a change of system may be desirable? — Macaulay: The London University. Condensation in a paragraph or essay may be furthered by cutting out the parts that merely explain, or connect, or qualify the main idea. Such parts can often be spared with- out harm to the intelligibility of the whole. The value of condensation appears when we wish to re- port for the benefit of one who has not read it the principal ideas of a book, a speech, or a magazine article. In this work the problem is to find the important thoughts and to report them with the same relative importance which they have in the original. The danger is that the latter part will be more condensed than the beginning. All parts should be condensed on the same scale. The following shows a condensation of a portion of a magazine article : — ORIGINAL. After two whole generations it seems as if some increase of genuine reason- ableness of thought and action in all classes of the population ought to be discernible. Many persons, however, fail to see in the actual conduct of the various classes of society the evidence of increas- ing rationality. These sceptical observ- ers complain that people in general, taken CONDENSATION. While it ought seem- ingly to be one of the effects of education to make people think and act more reasonably, there is no evidence of increasing rationality among the great mass of the people. They 308 Composition-Rhetoric, in masses with proper exclusion of excep- tional individuals, are hardly more reason- able in the conduct of life than they were before free schools, popular colleges, and the cheap printing-press existed. . . . They complain that in spite of every effort to enlighten the whole body of the people, all sorts of quacks and impostors thrive, and that one popular delusion or sophism succeeds another, the best educated classes contributing their full proportion of the deluded. Thus the astrologer in the Middle Ages was a rare personage and usually a dependent of princes ; but now he advertises in the popular newspapers and flourishes as never before. Men and women of all classes, no matter what their education, seek advice on grave matters from clair- voyants, seers. Christian scientists, mind- cure practitioners, bone-setters, Indian doc- tors, and fortune-tellers. — C. W. Eliot: Wherein Popular Education has Failed, Forum, 14: 412. act from impulse, pas- sion, prejudice, rather than upon sober reflec- tion, very much as people did before free schools were invented. They fall a prey to de- lusions, sophistry, clap- trap, and humbug, as easily as ever, and the best educated classes contribute a large por- tion of the deluded. Quacks and impostors of every kind flourish as luxuriantly as in the Middle Ages, and have the advantage of being able to advertise in cheap newspapers. — Calvin Thomas : Citizenship and the Schools, The Alumnus, 2: 50. Professor Jowett, in his translations of Plato and Thucydi- des, re-states the principal ideas of the text in brief marginal notes. The following selection from his translation of Thu- cydides will show the skilfulness of his condensation : — TEXT. The whole army now fell into utter disorder, and the perplexity was so great that from neither side could the particulars of the conflict be exactly ascertained. In the daytime the combatants see more clearly ; though even then only what is going on immediately around them, and that imperfectly — nothing of the battle as a whole. But in a MARGIN. All now becomes confusion. Those be- hind press on those before, who are al- Hotv Much to Say. 309 nightly engagement, like this in which two great ready turn- armies fought — the only one of the kind which ing back, occurred during the war — who could be certain of The moon- anything? The moon was bright, and they saw light, the before them, as men naturally would in the moon- dense light, the figures of one another, but were unable masses, the to distinguish with certainty who was friend or narrow foe. Large bodies of heavy-armed troops, both space, the Athenian and Syracusan, were moving about in watchword, a narrow space ; of the Athenians, some were the Psean, already worsted, while others, still unconquered, contribute to were carrying on the original movement. A great the rout, part of their army had not yet engaged, but either Friends at- had just mounted the heights, or were making the tack friends, ascent ; and no one knew which way to go. For Many throw in front they were defeated already; there was themselves nothing but confusion, and all distinction between from the the two armies was lost by reason of the noise. cliffs, leaving The victorious Syracusans and their allies, who their arms had no other means of communication in the dark- behind ; ness, cheered on their comrades with loud cries as others miss they received the onset of their assailants. The their way in Athenians were looking about for each other ; and the dark and every one who met them, though he might be a are cut off. friend who had turned and fled, they imagined to be an enemy. They kept constantly asking the watchword (for there was no other mode of know- ing one another) and thus they not only caused great confusion among themselves by all asking at once, but revealed the word to the enemy. The watchword of the Syracusans was not so liable to be discovered, because, being victorious, they kept together, and were more easily recognized. So that when they were encountered by a superior number of the enemy they, knowing the Athenian watchword, escaped; but the Athenians in a like casj^, failing to answer the challenge, were killed. Most disastrous of all were the mistakes caused by the sound of the Fsean, which, the same being 310 Composition- Rhetoric, heard in both armies, was a great source of per- plexity. For there were in the battle Argives, Corcyrseans, and other Dorian allies of the Athe- nians, and when they raised the Paean they in- spired as much alarm as the enemy themselves; so that in many parts of the army, when the con- fusion had once begun, not only did friends terrify friends and citizens their fellow-citizens, but they attacked one another, and were with difficulty dis- entangled. The greater number of those who were pursued and killed perished by throwing themselves from the cliffs ; for the descent from Epipolse is by a narrow path. The fugitives who reached the level ground, especially those who had served in the former army and knew the neighbor- hood, mostly escaped to the camp. But of the newly arrived many missed their way, and, wan- dering about until daybreak, were then cut off by the Syracusan cavalry who were scouring the coun- try. -IyII, 44. To condense, omit such subordinate ideas as can be spared, and express others in briefer constructions. Bear in mind the uses of quotation, allusion, and proverb. In condensing a long article, be careful to preserve the relative importance of the ideas. EXERCISE 136. Cut out of the following as many of the words as can be spared : — You and I ae'^tt are teaching injin^aded schools ofTTo^small attendance. We therefore need some time-saving device, and also^^ some source of ready help. For we have burdened ourselves aft«— ' our successors atsr^^l with \^^ useless and avoidable duties. For example, we have been in the habit of forming new classes to suit the-coHditiror-o^ our irregular pupils, instead of adapting the irregular pupils to classes already in operation. We are conse- How Much to Say, 311 quently over-burdened with labor and gain nothing by it. We J^Hfiiave our time consmngdjto noimofit, while at-ibe- ofttne tim e we despair over the 0Gm\{k^iaiJ4(u\\{\\m ul afCtJlr^iTT'ornrrfeigses. Now, thefl^* I see no remedy so long as we continue uUo rty to ignore the necessity of an established and well-ordered course of study which shall IjlroviHs^ be permanent from year to year, and uniform Jj^in all of the ungraded schools throughout the state. What would such a course of study ensure ? First of all aud-ioro* - most~of^ ait, it would introduce regularity of classes in schools which do not have regularity now. In the second place, it would furnish the teacher with a plan of work that would be easy to fol- low. Again, it would tend to prevent the teacher from favoring certain studies at the expense of other studies, and this too, let me - t But this hmita- tion of the interest grew, no doubt, from the constraint inseparably attached to the laws of epic unity. ) Joanna's history bisects into two opposite hemispheres, and both could not have been presented to the eye in one poem, unless by sacrificing all unity of theme, or else by involving the earlier half, as a narrative episode, in the latter ; which, however, might have been done, for it might have been communicated to a fellow-prisoner, or a confessor, by Joanna herse lf. | bt is sufficient, as concerns this section of Joanna's life, to'^ay thait she fulfilled, to the height of her promises, the restora- tion of the prostrate throne. ~/ France had become a province of England ; and for the ruin of both, if such a yoke could be main- tained^ Dreadful pecuniary exhaustion caused the English energy to droop ; and that critical opening La Pucelle used with a corre- sponding felicity of audacity and suddenness (that were in them- selves portentous) for introducing the wedge of French native resources, for rekindling the national pride, and for planting the il 320 Composition- Rhetoric, (Jauphin once "^iriore upon his >feet. (When Joanna appeared, he had been on the point of giving up the struggle with the Eng- lish, distressed as they were, and of flying to the south of France. She taught him to blush for such abject counsels.]': She liberated Orleans, that great city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of the war, and then beleaguered by the English with an elaborate appli- cation of engineering skill unprecedented in EuropeVVEntering the city after sunset, on the 29th of April, she sang a mass on Sunday, May 8, for the entire disappearance of the besieging force.^c; On the 29th of June, she fought and gained over the English the decisive battle of Patay ; on the 9th of July, she took Troyes by a coup- de-main from a mixed garrison of English and Burgundians ; on the 15th of that month, she carried the dauphin into Rheims; on Sunday the 17th, she crowned him ; and there she rested from her labor of triumph.' ,> All that was to be done she had now accom- plished : what remained was — to suffer, EXERCISE 140. In the following, two unrelated paragraphs are wrongfully united. Where does the second begin ? An amusing story is told in Gibraltar of an English soldier who lost his heart to an officer's daughter on the voyage hither from England. Impatient to behold his sweetheart again, he set out for her house the very evening of the landing, but unluckily entered the outer gate just as the sunset gun closed the inner one, so the importunate loveig«ent the night miserably pacing the pavement between the m1!#Xlibr altar has fared strangely in the hands of fortune. Dedicated by the colonizing Moors with an inscription in the castle mosque to the " God of Peace, the great Pacificator," it has become the stronghold of war, and even the quiet Franciscan convent has evolved into the governor's palace, where balls and functions make it gay and festive. — Cosmopolitan, ]l9:624) EXERCISE 141. Make of the following a careful analysis by the method suggested at the beginning of this lesson. Ee-write with -) ^ What Not to Say, 321 due regard for unity, making as many paragraphs as you think necessary. ! If the happy invention of printing had been known from the beginning, we might have had the experience of men of olden times, who lived ten times as long as I have lived, recorded in folios without end or octavos endless, for it matters little, when a book has no end, in what shape the volumes are. J^^And it may be , i supposed that the experience of these aged men would have beeni ten times as great as mine, and their books ten times as wise; bui^^ this I take the liberty of saying would be a very unsafe conclusion. ^ For I ain pretty nmch of the mind of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who says that a man who has lived forty years has seen everything that is to be seen in the world.J^ I think indeed that he was only forty years old when he wrote this, and that if he had SJ^k, written it in the last years of his life, he would have allowed a (j little longer time for seeing everything-T^ My own judgment is that I have lived long enough to see all that a man can see in the world, and partly for this reason that men after my age see very little ; certainly I have lived long enough to hear all that is said and a great deal more than is worth listening to.fo This mention of Marcus Aurelius leads me to make a remark which the reader ought to bear in mind all through this book, and I make it now without considering whether it comes in the right place or not, maintaining, as I do most stoutly, that a good remark is always , good, contrary to the opinion of those interested persons who speak of a wise saying being spoiled by being put in the wrong place ; which piece of criticism is bred of mere envy, such persons knowing very well that they have nothing to say that is worth the trouble of remembering."! On the, contrary, as I have a good many good things to say, and as they come into my head quicker than they can run off at the end of my pen, I am compelled to let them come as they list, and it is better that they should jostle one an- other a little and come in no order at all than that the world should lose any of them.« For I verily believe, and I say it in seri- ous sadness, that big books are written nowadays, in which a man shall not find from beginning to end one single clear idea, one remark worth pocketing and keeping, or one single fact that he did not know before, but a great many false facts, and a great 322 Composition-Rhetoric, many true facts put in a false light .^ I might go on to mention various books of this kind, and I might even tell their names, if I were spiteful enough and if I did not think more of doing good myself than exposing those who do harm.KBut to cut this matter short and not to do like so many who run away from their subject as if they had forgotten it or were ashamed of it, I was speaking of Marcus Aurelius, and of what he said about experience J' I now say that this good emperor actually says what I say that he says ; and so all through this book, when I tell the reader that any wise man has said anything he may believe that I tell him the truth ! jV And I ask him to believe me because I tell him so, and not to doubt because he does not see an exact reference to each passage with book and chapter named, and sometimes Greek and Latin and other languages printed with occasional mistakes; and how ^^. much trouble this has caused the printer, and whether it has not sometimes almost brought an oath even out of a pious printer, I rU^ will not say.'S But one thing I will say — and this is the way of ^ ^i saying a thing forcibly — one thing I will say, which is this: I .^/^ know from my own experience, and my own experience is the best part of my knowledge, that these learned references are as often wrong as right in the books of all the second-hand dealers in learn- ing; and I say it with great grief, that these poachers on other men's lands are not near so useful as old clothesmen, for these fel- lows carry at least a genuine article in their bags and have paid for it, be it ever so tattered and worn ; and they are very much on the increase, I mean the poachers ; and I know nothing short of an act of Parliament that is likely to stop them, unless people should give over buying their books, which I am disposed to think would come to the same thing as not allowing them to be printed, y ^* I have another thing to say and then I have done with this matter/- and it is this, — that the learned authors to whom these learned writers of our days refer often contradict them, from which comes the conclusion, that our fine scholar either never looked at the passage to which he refers or that he could not understand it. •^ Nothing of this kind will be found hereJ^I shall not quote any learned man without looking into his book ; and as to my under- standing what the book says, I trust that no reader will have got so far in this address without placing full confidence in me. ' I have already told the reader that I am a learned man, and I am What Not to Say, 823 not ashamed of it, and I will not deny it; and before he has read through this book, I hope that I shall have convinced him that I am a man of sense, which is rather better than being a learned man ; or at any rate if it is not better, I will say this, that learning without sense, if the thing is possible, is not worth half as much as learning and sense together; and lastly I earnestly wish the reader to believe, and I shall try to convince him of that too, that I am an honest man, and I think this is worth more than learning and sense together, though I think that an honest man should have some sense, and for my part I would not trust his honesty if I could not trust his sense. i LESSOlsr 39. Incoherence, Closely connected with the question of unity, how to stick to the text, is the question of coherence, how to make the parts of a composition hang together. Incoherence in a composition results most often from a lack of careful plan- ning at the outset. Successive paragraphs in an incoherent composition do not show logical relationship to one another, and the same may be true of successive sentences within a paragraph. When a sentence is unduly prolonged, it is quite likely to lack coherence ; the parts do not hang to- gether well. Upon the return from Cales without success, though all the ships, and, upon the matter, all the men were seen, (for though some had so surfeited in the vineyards, and with the wines, that they had been left behind, the generosity of the Spaniards had sent them all home again ;) and though by that fleet's putting in at Plymouth, near two hundred miles from London, there could be but very imperfect relations, and the news of yesterday was contradicted by the morrow ; besides that the expedition had been undertaken by the advice of the parliament, and with an universal approbation of the people, so that nobody could reasonably speak loudly against it ; yet, notwithstanding all this, the ill success wasi 324 Composition-Ithetoric. heavily borne, and imputed to ill conduct; the principal officers of the fleet and army divided amongst themselves, and all united in their murmurs against the general, the Lord Viscount Wimble- don; who, though an old officer in Holland, was never thought equal to the enterprise. — Clarendon: History of the Rebellion, 1,70. The same danger which besets the paragraph, of forget- ting the exact topic and putting in something irrelevant, besets the sentence also. In the United States every male child that is born has a chance, though not an equal chance, for some are naturally more gifted than their fellows with a genius for success, though our Constitution says they are not, of becoming the foremost person in his city, in his state, or in the community at large. There is also the danger of over-crowding a sentence with details which, though perhaps relevant, are so numerous as to make the thought hard to follow. The third sentence below is over-crowded with details about Dryden, which would better have been omitted or taken out and organized into a sentence by themselves. 1. Davies is remembered for his philosophical poem, the earliest of the kind in the language. 2. It is written in rhyme, in the common heroic ten-syllable verse, but disposed in quatrains. 3. No other writer has managed this difficult stanza so successfully as Davies : it has the disadvantage of requiring the sense to be in general closed at certain regularly and quickly recurring turns, which yet are very ill adapted for an effective pause ; and even all the skill of Dryden has been unable to force it from a certain air of monotony and languor, — a circumstance of which that poet may be supposed to have been himself sensible, since he wholly abandoned it after one or two early attempts. 4. Davies, how- ever, has conquered its difficulties; and, as has been observed, " perhaps no language can produce a poem, extending to so great a length, of more condensation of thought, or in which fewer lan- guid verses will be found." What Not to Say, 825 The attempt to have a sentence say too much frequently leads to confusion^ making the main idea hard to lind^ Of the French town, properly so-called, in which the product of successive ages, not without lively touches of the present, are blended together harmoniously with a beauty specific — a beauty cisalpine and northern, yet at the same time quite distinct from the massive German picturesque of Ulm, or Freiburg, or Augsburg, and of which Turner has found the ideal in certain of his studies of the rivers of France, a perfectly happy conjunction of river and town being of the essence of its physiognomy — the town of Auxerre is perhaps the most complete realization to be found by the actual wanderer. This confusion not infrequently shows itself in involved clauses, — wheels within wheels, — which are to be avoided. 7 In the crowd near the door there was found upon the ground a V hat, in the Jiiside whereof there was sewed upon the crown a papeiv Am) i^ ^hi<^h was wr it four or five lines of that declaration made by i" the house of commons in whic h they had styled the duke an \ enemy to the kingdom, and under it a short ejaculation or two ^ towards a prayer. — Clarendon : History of the Rebellion, I, 51. The involution of clauses in the foregoing sentence may be indicated thus : — (a) There was found a hat (&) in the inside whereof there was a paper. (c) in which was w^rit four or five lines of that decla- ration made by the house of commons (d) in which they had styled the duke an enemy to the kingdom. There may be so many things mentioned in a sentence that the reader cannot tell just what the seatence-topic is. Such a sentence is said t o be heterogeneous . His [King Charles's] inclination to his new cup-bearer [Villiers] disposed him to administer frequent occasion of discoursing of the tesi