ON TEACHING ENGLISH. THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. ON TEACHING ENGLISH WITH DETAILED EXAMPLES, AND AN ENQUIRY INTO THE DEFINITION OF POETRY. BY 'ALEXANDER BAIN, LL.D., EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF LOGIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN, LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 1887. PREFACE. THE present volume is auxiliary to the enlarged; edition of the author's Rhetoric and English Composition, the first part of which is published at the same time. It embraces principally the three following topics : First, a review of the prevailing opinions as to the proper mode of teaching English, together with a critical estimate of their respective merits. The hand- ling of this part is of necessity controversial. Second, a brief sketch of the Rhetorical method, followed by a series of Select Lessons on the leading Qualities of Style Intellectual and Emotional. These are intended to be, as far as possible, intelligible by themselves ; but they also serve as overflow examples to the course of Rhetoric in the expanded text-book. Third, an enquiry into the Definition of Poetry, being one added to the many attempts to deal with this in tractable question. The discussion is not meant to remain isolated, but to fall in with the treatment of rhetorical principles, both in theory and in practice. The pretensions of the work, more especially as VI PREFACE. regards the Lessons in the analysis and criticism of passages from our greatest authors, are necessarily ambitious ; and need no little amount of justification and apology on the part of the author. All this, how- ever, will find a more suitable place in the two rhetorical text-books themselves. ABERDEEN, January, 1887. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EXERCISES IN GRAMMAR. THE USE OF SAXON WORDS. PAGE Recommendation to prefer Saxon words to Classical, ... I Many Norman-French words equally popular with the Saxon, ... 2 Our literature shows no exclusive preference of Saxon, ... ... ib. Characteristic qualities of Saxon and Classical words respectively, ... 3 LESSONS ON ORDER OF WORDS. The Analysis of Sentences has the disadvantage of overlooking the right order of the Sentence, 4 Examination of the Sentence with a view to the placing of qualifying words, ... ... ... ... 5 CHAPTER II. HIGHER ENGLISH TEACHING. PLURALITY OF THREADS. Mistake in supposing Narrative an easy effort of composition, ... 8 Few Narratives confined to a single thread, ... ... ... ... ib. The same with Description and Exposition, ... ... 9 Sentence and Paragraph Structure with reference to plurality, ... 1 1 History made up of many strands, ... ... 13 Reason of foot-notes and parentheses, 14 Vlii CONTENTS. CHOICE OF WRITERS. PAGE The older writers have a diminishing interest from the wide propaga- tion and adoption of their best passages, ... ... 15 Their defects as regards the teaching of style, ... ... ... ... 16 Perennial arts of composition exemplified by every great writer, ... 17 Alternation in teaching of correct with careless writers, ... ... 18 Examples from Shakespeare, ... ... ... ... ib. Defects of annotated editions of our classical authors, ... ... 19 WHAT THINGS TO OMIT. What is left to the teacher in giving us a knowledge of the mother- tongue? ... ... ... ... ... 20 CHAPTER III. HIGHER TEACHING. CONTINUED. In Composition, a double course is necessary, ... ... ... ... 23 ESSAY- WRITING. Advantages of Essay- writing, ... ... 24 Serious objections counteracting the advantages, ... ... ... 25 Essentially an exercise in thought or knowledge, ... ... ... ib. The teacher not to exact what he has not led up to, ... ... ... 27 Situations wherein Essay-writing is valuable, ... ... ... ... 28 Obedience to a few simple rules, ... ... ... ... ... 29 PARAPHRASING. Disadvantages of the prose paraphrase ; has no connection with direct teaching, ... ... ... ... ... ... 31 CONVERSION OF POETRY INTO PROSE. Use and abuse of prose equivalents for poetry, ... ... ... 33 CHAPTER IV. HOW NOT TO DO IT. BACON'S ESSAYS. The Essays viewed as regards the matter or thought, ... ... ... 38 Disadvantage of want of order and coherence, ... ib. CONTENTS. IX PAGE Incoherence of treatment in the same Essay, ... ... 39 Re-grouping barred by the requirements of the Civil Service exami- nation, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 40 The Essays as employed for instruction in style, ... ... ... 41 Critical examination of individual Essays, ... ... ... ... 42 CHAPTER V. INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. SELECT LESSONS. Requirement of a complete system of Rhetoric, or the higher Com- position, ... ... ... ... ... ... 48 Co-operating lesson through the criticism of passages from authors promiscuously arising, ... ... ... .. ... ... 49 Intellectual qualities enumerated, ... ... ... ... ... ib. Lesson I. Example from Macaulay's Settlement of Kenmare: detailed elucida- tion of Sentence and Paragraph structure, ... ... ... 50 Lesson II. Example from Samuel Bailey : Sentence and Paragraph structure continued, ... ... ... ... ... 61 Example from Professor Ferrier : Management of a double subject by Antithesis and Balance, ... 70 Lesson III. Example from Carlyle : The rhetorical arts of Description, ... 74 Example with a view to show the arrangement of a Paragraph on the principle of greatest proximity of related topics, 79 CHAPTER VI. EMOTIONAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. SELECT LESSONS. Current modes of poetical teaching by annotated texts of the poets, 85. Too much mere memory work, ... ... 87 X CONTENTS. PAGE Exercise in pointing out singularity in the use of words, ... ... 88 Shakespeare compared with himself. Illustrations of his emotional effects, ... ... ... ... ... 91 The Emotional Qualities of Style comprehensively stated, ... ... 96 The Scale of Emotions from the two extremes of the Malignant and the Amicable group, ... ... ... ... ... 99 Poetic Qualities generally, ... ... ... ... ... ... 101 Lesson I. Fourth Canto of Childe Harold: Examination for Figures of Speech, and Poetic arts generally, ... ... 102 Passage on the " Ocean " : The poetry of our malevolent emotions, 105 Campbell's Ode to the Rainbow: Detailed examination for poetic qualities, ... ... ... 107 Lesson II. Art emotions include the higher senses Sight and Hearing, with numerous associated effects, .. ... ... ... 115 Shelley's Ode to a Skylark: Minute illustration of the author's characteristics, ... ... ... ... ... 117 Comparison with Wordsworth's Odes on the Lark and the Cuckoo, 125 Logan's Ode on the Cuckoo, 120 Parallel between Shelley's Lark and Keats's Nightingale, ... ... 131 Gray's Ode on the Pleasures arising from Vicissitude, ... ... ... ib. Poetic inversions illustrated. Use of co-ordinating adjectives. Choice and Harmony of Language. Employment of contrasts. Handling of the thought, 132 Lesson III. Sublime of natural scenery, ... ... ... ... 145 Workings of our sense of Personality in regard to Nature- interest, ... 146 Coleridge's "Mont Blanc," 147 Employment of bold figures, ... ... . . ... ib. Selection of Picturesque circumstances, ... ... ... ... 149 The perfect arrangement of words, .. ... ... ... ... ib. Diction suited for sublimity, ... ... ... 150 Comparison with Shelley's " Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni," 151 CONTENTS. XI PAGE Byron's Stanza on the Alps, ... 153 Personification operates under great departures from the literal human form, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ib. Examination of passage from Paradise Lost Satan rallying his fallen host 154 Lesson IV. The Quality of Pathos, '. 15? Pleasure derivable from the poetic handling of pain, ... ... ... 158 Tragical incident from "The Seasons," ... ... 159 Question as lo the redemption of the horror, ... 161 Survey of the Elegy of Gray, with reference to the pathetic treat- ment of Death, 162 Lesson V. Interest of Character, 167 Two different modes of representing character in poetry : Descrip- tive Epithets and Action, ... ... 169 Examples from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, ... ... ib. Description of tlie Clerke, 170 Milton's Mammon, ... ... ... ... 174 The Homeric Epithets ... 175 Tennyson's description in " A dream of Fair Women," ... ... 177 Chaucer's Miller and Prioress 178 Lesson VI. Poetical treatment of the power of Music, ... ... 179 Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day : Detailed examination, 180 Dryden's second Ode known as " Alexander's Feast," ... ... 189 Pope's Ode for the same festival compared, ... ... ... ... 190 Musical allusions in Milton, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth, ... 192 Lesson VII. Examples of Pathos, ... ... ... ... 193 The Death of the Princess Charlotte : Byron's episode in Childe Harold, ... ... ... 194 Robert Hall's sermon on the same event, 200 Xli CONTENTS. PAGE Thomas Chalmers's sermon, ... ... ... ... 202 Comparison of the three, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 > Miscarriages of Pathos Chalmers on Cruelty to animals, ... ... 204 Domestic Pathos in Cowper, ... ... ... ... 205 Pathos of Campbell's "Lord Ullin's Daughter," and the "Dying Gladiator," 206 CHAPTER VII. THE DEFINITION OF POETRY. Recognised methods of arriving at the definition of general names, 207 Difficulties in the case of Poetry, 208 Employment of the method of Contrast, ... ... 209 Importance of arriving at a definition, ... ... ... ... ... ib. Review of different definitions, 210 Aristotle and Bacon ; Wordsworth, ib. Interpretation of Nature, 211 Spiritualizing of Nature, 212 Criticism of Life Matthew Arnold, 213 Imaginative heightening of matter of fact Alfred Austin, ... ... ib. The definition of poetry preceded by that of Fine Art in general ; the specifying circumstance being language, ... ... ... 215 FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE. Art emotion without language is not poetry, ... ... ... ... 216 Ways that language operates in order to the poetical transformation, 2 1 7 CONTRASTS TO POETRY. Contrast with SCIENCE, 219 ORATORY permits the use of pain, ... 221 Contrast with MORALITY and with RELIGION, 224 CHOICE OF SUBJECTS. Complications arising from the dependence of poetry on a subject. Inadmissible subjects, ... ... ... ... 225 NARRATIVE subjects the most frequent of any, ... ... ... 226 Intrinsic interest of many narratives, ... ... ... ... ... 227 Poetic treatment must be superadded, ... ... ... ... ... 228 CONTENTS. XI 11 PAGE DESCRIPTIVE subjects, 231 TRUTH as a subject, 232 Incompatibilities of Science and Poetry, 233 The poetic handling of MORALITY. Wordsworth's delineation of his aims as a poet, 236 RELIGION as a subject for poetry has various aspects ; Paradise Lost, 240 POETRY AS IDEAL. Ideality contrasted with Reality, ... 243 Poets in all ages permitted to construct Ideals ; the Love passion, ... 244 The Realistic school still subject to laws of Art, ... 246 Condition of HARMONY, 248 VERSE. Poetry supposes an elevation in the mental tone to which metre is suitable, 249 Verse does not make poetry without poetic figures and language, ... 251 Our literature has given birth to a species of elevated prose com- parable to poetry, ib. THE PROSE ROMANCE. Question as to the placing of The Prose Romance, or Novel, ... 253 Reasons for regarding it as included under poetry, ... 254 SUMMARY of the Chapter, 255 ON TEACHING ENGLISH. ON TEACHING ENGLISH. CHAPTER I. EXERCISES IN GRAMMAR. THE USE OF SAXON WORDS. TT is still a frequent recommendation given to learners in composition to prefer, on all occasions, Saxon words to Classical. Now, to write continuously in anything like pure Saxon is plainly impossible. Moreover, none of our standard English authors, whether in prose or in poetry, have thought it a merit to be studiously Saxon in their vocabulary. Our greatest example is, of course, the Translation of the Bible, where Saxon is used very largely, but not, apparently, from any set purpose. This, however, is a matter that we may count upon seeing thoroughly sifted before we are done with the criticisms of the Revised Version. I confine myself to a few remarks that lie on the surface, and yet suggest a con- clusion at variance with the opinion that has been long in circulation. After the Conquest, when Norman-French words entered our literature so extensively, a very great number got into use even i 2 GRAMMAR USE OF SAXON WORDS. among the unlettered population, and were adopted as universal household words ; being, in fact, incorporated with the old vocabulary. Nobody thought of avoiding them in the name of Saxon purity. This can be said, with the utmost confidence, of the state of the language in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There was a mixed vocabulary of Saxon and French, the common property of the whole nation; to be intelligible and popular, it was not necessary for any speaker or writer to affect Saxon words exclusively ; and I doubt if any one did so. A few examples will suffice. The words face, sense, motion, change, voice, distance, reason, sum, difference, count, race, peace, secret, command, action, respect, temper, humility, virtue, vice, were understood in every cottage and every artisan's shop, say in the year 1600. There were no very apt Saxon equivalents, and the words were appropriated as part and parcel of the dialect of the people. It may be said this was all very natural and proper, but the French brought in many duplicates of existing terms, which, being superfluous, would be avoided by the simple, and foisted in by the affectation of the learned. There is, no doubt, some truth here, yet there is little evidence of those terms being steadily avoided by any of the writers, although some indulged them more freely than others. It will be enough if I illustrate the point from the Translation of the Bible. While it would be easy to indicate numerous passages of very nearly pure Saxon, extending over several consecutive verses, there is no appearance of this being designed. What is aimed at (for the most part, but not without exceptions) was to use the intelligible and diffused vocabulary, whether Saxon or French. I do not think that there was even a very clear per- ception of the superior force of the Saxon, in cases where we should now reckon it superior. In the first verse of the book of Genesis, the translators might have written : " In the beginning God made out of nothing the heavens and the earth ". BUN VAN. SHAKESPEARE. 3 And, next verse, they might have said : " And the earth was shapeless and empty (for " without form and void "). But there is no evidence that they sought out pure Saxon words, when easy and well-known classical terms were at hand. Again, a reference to Bunyan would show that, although the style is simple, there is no express aim at keeping to pure Saxon. It was enough for him that the words were felt and known to be household words. " Giant Despair's Castle " is a combination that never strikes him as being too learned. His " delectable mountains " could not be rendered into Saxon without loss. In common with the Bible he uses freely all the classical terms for religious doctrines, without considering whether they are simple or not. The Shakesperian vocabulary includes all the resources of the language without bias or preference. The more elevated passages draw freely upon the classical stock ; and a part of the humour of the clowns consists in their using terms too high for them. We certainly should not learn from Shakespeare's example to ape the old Saxon, or to avoid the newer source of our vocabulary. What was to hinder him from saying " Shortness is the soul of wit ". A very easy induction soon teaches us that the Saxon is plain, homely, and expressive : it is suited to the qualities of pathos and humour. On the other hand, the Classical element gives us delicacy of discrimination, the power of compression, dignity, and oratorical flow, also a great extension of the vocabulary both of laudation and of vituperation. Our choice, therefore, is simply to be regulated by the occasion, and not by a determination to be Saxon at all hazards. Who would wish to change Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" into " Old Sailor " ? What could we do without the word "Paradise"? It seems to me doubtful whether enough has been made of the Saxon in purely pathetic style. Certainly, our poets do not 4 GRAMMAR USE OF SAXON WORDS. show much anxiety to secure it for that purpose. Take, for example, Pope's "Dying Christian". Vital spark of heavenly flame, might be Living spark of heavenly fire, without one classical word to disturb the harmony. All through the poem, classical words preponderate far beyond the necessities of the diction. But when we once admit one or two prominent classical terms, it is not worth while to Saxonize the rest. "Vital scintillation of celestial flame" would not be ridiculous in high oratory. These few remarks are almost too obvious ; yet, so pre- valent is the superstition about keeping to Saxon, that I do not deem it superfluous to qualify that prescription by setting forth the discriminating circumstances. As to writing in pure Saxon style, or anything near it, we should first sink the science and civilization of centuries, revoke the Conquest, and restore the Heptarchy. LESSONS ON ORDER OF WORDS. My second topic comes home more closely to the practical work of the school. It relates to the change made in Grammar by the introduction of the Analysis of Sentences. Teachers are in the habit of making the pupils tabulate the constituents of a sentence, according to the analysis ; and this is so far well. There is, however, one disadvantage attending the practice it takes the parts of the sentence out of their place, and withdraws the attention of the pupils from the order or arrangement of the words, which is a most vital circumstance in good English composition. What I propose is, that we should parse the sentence as it stands, taking notice, however, of the very same parts as we should put into the table ; that is, combining the words into the phrases and clauses that are EXPERIMENTS ON SENTENCE ARRANGEMENT. 5 taken up in the regular analysis. In doing this, we are to remark the position of all qualifying adjuncts, and to say whether they are placed in the best possible way. In fact, we should ring the changes on sentence-arrangements, and try to come at the best. An example is necessary here, and a very easy one will answer the purpose. " In the conduct of life, the great matter is, to know beforehand what will please us, and what pleasure will hold out." This would be a very easy analysis on the tabulated plan. Without tabulation, take it to pieces thus : First, we have the adverbial phrase, " In the conduct of life ". This qualifies the whole assertion. It is placed at the beginning, but I mean to raise the question whether, for better or for worse, it could be placed elsewhere. Then comes the subject of the sentence " the great matter " ; a noun qualified by the article, and an adjective. We shall leave it as it stands. Finally, we have the predicate of the sentence " is to know beforehand what will please us, and what pleasure will hold out " the verb " is," with two completing circumstances, expressed by an infinitive " to know," a qualifying adverb, " beforehand," and a double object, " what will please us, and what pleasure will hold out ". Now, let us ring the changes of order, and try the effect. The clause, " In the conduct of life," could be placed in two other positions. "The great matter, in the conduct of life, is to know beforehand," &c. This is one variation. The other is to put it at the end of the sentence. "The great matter is, to know beforehand what will please us, and what pleasure will hold out, in the conduct of life" It will be felt at once that this last is an extremely awkward arrangement. The pupils, if appealed to, would at once reject it, whether or not they could embody their disapproval in reasons. The other variation would not strike them as bad; there might be a division of opinion, although a very little explanation, or a 6 GRAMMAR ORDER OF WORDS. little experience in the ordering of sentences, would probably decide the youngest in favour of the original form. You have only to familiarize them with one great principle of order, namely, that qualifying words should always be kept as close as possible to the words meant to be qualified. Now the subject is, so to speak, qualified by its predicate, and the two should not be separated further than is absolutely unavoidable. To interpose an adverbial phrase is to violate this rule ; and when the phrase can precede the subject, it is better. So much for the choice of position for the adverbial phrase. The next choice is as to the order of subject and predicate. With the copula verb " is," you are frequently at liberty to in- vert the order. In point of fact, it is inverted here ; " the great matter " is really the predicate. And the regular order would be, "To know beforehand, &c., is the greater matter". This is certainly not bad in itself, but is it as good as the present arrangement ? I think not ; but I do not trouble you with the reasons. I am merely arguing that you should submit to the judgment of your pupils various schemes of possible arrangement, and gradually make them feel the superiority of some to others, while there may be occasions where the reasons are equally balanced. I do not know any exercise, within the compass of grammar, more profitable than this. It no doubt rises beyond grammar, into considerations commonly included in rhetoric. But that does not signify ; there is no- thing abstruse even in the rhetorical reasons, and sooner or later we should bring them forward. The rule of minimum separation of qualifying words from words qualified, covers half of all that belongs to the arrange- ment of sentences, and is singularly easy to apply. You may often have competing claims. Thus in the clause of the sentence quoted, "to know beforehand what will please us," the verb is separated from its object by the adverb " beforehand ". Say, then, "to know what will please us beforehand". The remedy PLACING OF QUALIFYING WORDS. 7 here is worse than the evil : " beforehand " also qualifies " to know," and it is removed by the distance of a whole clause ; whereas the object-clause was removed only by one word. Great as is the importance of grammatical order in the placing of qualifying words, it is but a case of a much higher and more commanding necessity, which I will take as my first topic in the next chapter, and explain with all the emphasis I can give to it. CHAPTER II. HIGHER ENGLISH TEACHING. PLURALITY OF THREADS. TT is very^common to talk of Narrative as one of the easiest efforts of composition. The elementary manuals usually dis- pose of it in a few pages. The whole art, it is commonly said, consists in following the order of events. In this, there are several oversights of enormous magnitude. The first oversight is the fact, that very few narratives are confined to a single thread of events. The usual case is to have several trains of actions proceeding simultaneously. In a history, 'for example, there may be no less than ten or twelve different concurring streams. The second oversight is, that, in a narrative, events are not only stated, but explained. The Prussians came up at Waterloo at a particular moment, and the fact may be brought forward in its order ; but then the narrator introduces an explanatory narrative to show why they did not come sooner. But such explanations carry the narrative backward, or up the stream of time, instead of down. Moreover, all explanations and reasons break the narrative and distract the attention, and so interfere with the reader's conception of the events. Take, again, Description. If we are giving the impressions that occur to us in marching through a town or a country, we may be said to be following a single thread ; but if we attempt, PLURALITY IN DESCRIPTION AND EXPOSITION. 9 as we often do, to give a coup (Tail, we have to state a great many simultaneous impressions. But, for this, language is seemingly incompetent ; we cannot express more than one thing at a time. A similar difficulty occurs in Exposition. A general law cannot be understood without the particular cases, and the par- ticular cases are but particular facts until they are embraced in the law. Indeed, it would be convenient if the particulars and the generality could be made simultaneously present to the mind ; but this is not in the power of language. We must take one first, and hold that in unmeaning suspense till we are supplied with the other. Again, there are many laws, doc- trines, or principles where the subject has a plurality of predi- cates. Thus the law of gravity has for its subject " matter," " all matter," " all material bodies " ; and for its predicate these circumstances namely, (i) attraction, (2) variation ac- cording to distance, (3) the law of the inverse square. Now, we cannot embrace all the three circumstances in one exempli- fication ; we must take them in succession, the mind retaining a hold of the first and second respectively, until the third is presented. Go back again now, for an instant, to the grammatical illus- trations under the last head the proper placing of qualifying words. In strictness, we should be able to take in a thing with all its qualifications at once ; we have not the desired impres- sion until we do so. In viewing an object of the outside world, we are simultaneously impressed with all its attributes; we take in size, form, colour, and any synchronous impressions of the other senses sound, touch, odour, taste. To put us in the same position by verbal description, we ought to have an equally synchronous presentation of the names for all the qualities. " Her mouth was small, and, thereto, soft and red." What I am now driving at may be shortly given thus. 10 HIGHER TEACHING PLURALITY OF THREADS. Language is a single file ; the subject matter may be double, triple, or any number of files. Or, to put it pedantically, so as to impress the memory, language is unilinear ; matter may be bilinear, trilinear, or poly 'linear. How different would be the whole art of composition if we could write and read in parallel columns, like a polyglot bible ! Our difficulties in placing our facts and statements would then not exist. In a great battle like Waterloo, if the writer could give a column of his page to every distinct movement going on at the same time, and if the reader could comprehend at one glance eight or ten columns of writing, the understanding of the battle would be an easy affair. So, the descent of our Queen from the Conqueror, the affluents of a great river, the blood-vessels and nerves of the animal body, would be child's play to a polylinear writer addressing a polylinear reader. It is in the impossibility of saying more than one thing at a time that four-fifths of all the difficulties of writing have their source ; at least, after we have become fairly acquainted with the vocables and idioms of the language. From the first of our attempts to write an easy letter, to the last and most ela- borate of our compositions, we are haunted by the difficulty of placing every fact in the best possible connection. A teacher that would smooth our way should be alive to this circumstance above all others. Although it is the least explicitly adverted to in rules regarding style, it presses harder upon us, in actual practice, than all other difficulties put together. Whether on the small scale of sentences and paragraphs, or on the great scale of an entire discourse, the getting of the ideas into good arrange- ment is our greatest anxiety. Indeed, it is a thing that can never be done to perfection ; it is an affair of compromise and the fewest evils ; and the man that is most successful in it is usually the most humble. Of course, we have got into a conventional way of meeting the difficulty up to a certain point, and of being satisfied with PLURALITY IN THE SENTENCE AND THE PARAGRAPH. II what seems possible and reasonable. We cannot get everything into the best conceivable place, and are content with the second, third, or tenth best nobody being asked to do the impossible. It is worth our while to extend the illustration in this mat- ter, so as to see how often it constitutes our main obstacle in the act of composition. In the making of a sentence, the point is pretty obvious, and has already been more than once hinted at. To bring the qualifying words as close as possible to their principals, to keep down the number of qualifying circumstances, to express them in as few words as possible when they are numerous are well- known devices that would be superfluous to a polylinear mind. If you could spread out a long sentence into three columns abreast, and take these all in by a simultaneous glance, you could afford to introduce a very great number of circumstances, such as would overwhelm the strongest mind, constituted as we are. Limiting conditions, clauses of expla- nation, when in great number, render our sentences prolix and overloaded ; and, consequently, make bad style. The English teacher is of use in showing how the evil is to be met without sacrificing essential particulars. In doing so, he will have to point out that we are at last stopped by well-marked barriers ; that there are certain things not to be undertaken at all. He will show you sentences in Bishop Butler, for example, that the human mind, for various reasons, is not made to grapple with. The paragraph structure repeats and intensifies all the diffi- culties now mentioned. The paragraph, indeed, is the micro- cosm of the discourse, and admits and demands a very ex- tended study in any scheme of instruction in English. Of course, you can make a very simple paragraph, if you are not tied down to a subject, or to a mode of treatment. You may leave out everything that gives any trouble in the 12 HIGHER TEACHING PLURALITY OF THREADS. placing, or, if you cannot find room in one paragraph for what- ever appears to belong to it, you may give an extra paragraph to embody the omissions. All this, however, is clumsy and embarrassing, and deprives you of the power of constructing a symmetrical and exhaustive discourse. The paragraph of arrears is an encumbrance to your forward march ; besides which, it detaches topics from their proper bearings, whereby these lose their effect, or else burden the mind with the effort to connect them. One of the commonest cases of paragraph complication is the case of a double subject ; as in expounding a contrasting couple, say, plants and animals, savages and civilized men, youth and age, despotism and free government The essential thing being close comparison, we cannot put the two members of the comparison into distinct paragraphs ; at least, we lose very much in clearness by doing so. It would be a case for writing in two columns ; and, indeed, the tabular form is often convenient, notwithstanding that we have not the power of reading two columns of a table at once, but must leap from one to the other in order to take in both. Now, the conduct of a double subject is one of the strongest tests of a writer's power of exposition. Success does not de- pend on any single prescription ; it requires the embodiment of a great number of arts some of sentence structure and others of paragraph structure, which I do not even attempt to enumerate. This one insta'nce is enough to show the occasions when the single file is put to its utmost strain in paragraph writing. The greater number of cases, however, would fall under some one or other of the styles of composition narration, descrip- tion, exposition. And, under these several styles, the difficul- ties due to plurality of subject could be exhibited at any length. A very few additional illustrations will suffice. I have already adverted to some of the oversights com- CONCURRING STREAMS IN HISTORY. 13 mitted in urging us to follow the order of events in narrative. I will now mention another limitation to the rule; namely this, that history is made up of many strands, and as each of these works according to laws of its own, we must, for the sake of connection of subject, follow out one and leave the others behind, to be brought up in their turn. Take the History of the Commonwealth. There is a political history in the fight of parties in the Legislature ; there is a military history, while the war is going on ; an ecclesiastical history, in the battles of sects and churches ; a literary and scientific history, and many minor trains of incidents. Now, ever since history-writing was reduced to method, it has been the usage of historians to take each strand by itself for a certain length, and to keep exclusively to that, neglecting all contemporaneous events, except by expla- natory allusion. The order of events would involve snatches of everything ; a debate in the House of Commons, a march of the King's army or the Parliament army, a decision of the West- minster Assembly in an article of the Confession, the publica- tion of one of Milton's controversial pamphlets, a diplomatic communication with a foreign Court ; every one being thus detached from its antecedents in the same department. For, although all those things are going on together, there is a certain independence in the course of each. To give the history of the Westminster Assembly, you need not, except by passing allusion, refer to any of the political, military, and other incidents of the eventful seven years during which the Assembly sat. The motives that determined the settlement of religious doctrines lay in a sphere of their own ; they followed laws of their own ; and no principle of composition is more paramount than to discuss together things that are of a kindred nature, and to follow an unbroken thread of causation. It has been pronounced impossible to write an adequate History of the Jesuits, because of the complicated relationships of the Order with so many different countries. 14 HIGHER TEACHING PLURALITY OF THREADS. Thus it is that no large history can be written upon the strict rule of the order of events. It would be a very valuable appendage to every considerable history, to provide a skeleton chronology, where each important fact finds its place in the order of time, irrespective of the mixing of departments. It is not too late to edit some of our classical historians such as Gibbon and supply them with such a chronology. It would be a great help to the reader, who is apt to be perplexed by the numerous goings backward and forward in time, which the composition makes necessary. There is an independent in- terest in seeing what events were abreast of each other; and also an occasional aid to the understanding, from the fact, that things going on together may, and often must, influence one another more or less. One other illustration from narrative may be adduced, namely, the use of foot-notes in writing. Cobbett, in his haste, denounced these as the mark of an incapable writer. Why are they necessary ? Because you cannot find room for them in the text without breaking the thread inconveniently. They are what a bilinear writer would put in a second parallel column. You must of course pause to read them, but then, you understand that you must go back to the text, and view it in close continuity, just as if the notes did not exist That is the only advantage of the separate printing. Again, parentheses are an objection in good writing. They have exactly the same justification as notes. They are some- thing that you would place outside your text if you could ; something that the reader needs to take along with him, with the least possible break in the composition. Once more. All readers of Carlyle are aware of his habit, in narrative especially, of making very abrupt exclamations. Now, if you will take the trouble to look at these closely, you will find that many of them are references backward or for- ward, with a view to explain some passing event ; the abrupt- DIMINISHING VALUE OF THE OLDER WRITERS. 15 ness and brevity is meant to have a parenthetic effect, and to give the smallest possible interruption to the current of the narrative. These, too, would be placed outside if there were a second column in the composition. (See Chap. V., Lesson III.) CHOICE OF WRITERS. A very difficult topic. It relates to the use to be made of our classical English writers in teaching English. This raises two distinct questions one relating to the older writers, another to the newer. The natural and proper veneration of the country for the great names of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, not to mention the host of their illustrious successors, is apt to disturb our judgment in fixing their place in early education ; and I think we are under some fallacious impressions respecting them. When an author is at once great and popular, when he is widely read by the nation, and closely studied by succeeding men of letters, his influence becomes detached from his own writings ; it flows through so many channels as to be felt with- out reading him. There is an anecdote very much in point. A certain old lady, ignorant of Shakespeare's own works, but not unread in miscellaneous literature, went to see one of the great Shakespearian dramas acted. At the end, she de- clared that // was made up of quotations. In fact, the great passages of Macbeth and Richard III. come across us all so often, that the interest of the original is reduced to the general plot, and to the second-rate and less hackneyed passages. The original is, to a great degree, though not entirely, superseded by the reproduction of the best passages in our most familiar reading. I do not say that it is superfluous to go back to a complete text, but I do say that the impress of the author's genius is not dependent on that exclusive source.* * Even the Bible itself is not an exception to the remark, if we may judge from a work recently published, under the title " Gems from the Bible : Being Selections Convenient for Reading to the Sick and Aged ". 1 6 HIGHER TEACHING CHOICE OF WRITERS. Irrespective, then, of any question as to the superiority of Shakespeare and Milton, it cannot but be, that the greatest amount of unexhausted interest should attach to the more recent classics the writings of those that have studied the greatest works of the past, that have reproduced many of their effects, as well as adding new strokes of genius; and our reading is naturally directed to them by preference. A canto of Childe Harold has not the genius of Macbeth, or of the second book of Paradise Lost, but it has more freshness of interest. This is as regards the reader of mature years, but it must be taken into account in the case of the youthful reader also. It is the same with the older prose. The Essays of Bacon, which I shall have occasion again to refer to more particularly, do not interest this generation, in any proportion to the author's transcendent genius. They have passed into subsequent litera- ture until their interest is exhausted, except from the occasional quaint felicity of the phrases. Bacon's maxims on the conduct of business are completely superseded by Sir Arthur Helps's Essay on the subject, simply because Sir Arthur absorbed all that was in Bacon, and augmented it by subsequent wisdom and experience. To make Bacon's original a text-book of the present day, whether for thought or for style, is to abolish the three intervening centuries. So much as regards the decay of interest in the old classics. Next, as to their use in teaching style, or in exercising pupils in the practice of good composition. Here, too, I think, they labour under incurable defects. Their language is not our language ; their best expressions are valuable as having the stamp of genius, and are quotable to all time, but we cannot work them into the tissue of our own familiar discourse. What, then, is to be gained by dwelling upon them, say, in an English lesson ? The kind of criticism usually expended on plays of Shake- speare, and portions of Milton, edited for the purpose of PERENNIAL DEVICES OF COMPOSITION. 17 English teaching, is not, I think, of the most profitable kind. Discussions of antiquarian grammar, idiom, and vocabulary ; changes in the use of particular words ; explanation of figura- tive allusions ; interpretations of doubtful passages are of course not devoid of interest, but they cannot do much to assist the pupil in mastering the living English tongue. Very little attention is usually given to the author's merits and defects, which are equally conspicuous and equally instructive. The comparison of sixteenth-century forms and idioms with nineteenth would, no doubt, be useful as impressing the language that we ourselves have to employ ; but it is not the most effec- tive way of going to work. To learn present usage, we do not need to refer to old usages, except as furnishing an incidental explanation of some anomaly. There are, however, perennial arts and devices of composi- tion that are exemplified by every great writer in every language. The ordering and the structure of sentences and successions of sentences; the numerous strokes of poetic effect ; the conditions of lucidity in narrative, description, or exposition these are found everywhere. Examples of their successful application, and examples of corresponding failures, occur through the whole field of human literature. To study these is to go at once to the root of the matter; and the only question is Where shall we get them in greatest number and most apposite form ? Shakespeare abounds in great poetic strokes ; so far good. Many of them, however, are flashes of genius, which may be learned so as to quote them at second-hand, but cannot be imitated. How far does he provide us with a re- pertory of exemplifications of the arts that anyone can make use of? Is he richer in instances of all the variety of literary situations than anybody else ? I am not clear that he is. Count- ing the disadvantage of his antiquated style and mannerism, which is unsuited to ourselves, I do not think that a play of Shakespeare is, for its quantity of matter, the richest field of l8 HIGHER TEACHING CHOICE OF WRITERS. useful literary criticism. I maintain that, in the greatest of the plays, there are long portions that do not yield any very marked illustrations of either grammar or rhetoric. I believe that a text-book of literary and rhetorical analysis should con- tain many passages from Shakespeare, but not one of great length. The Mark Antony oration is, perhaps, about the longest continuous example ; while there should be a great many little pickings of two or three lines. For literary teaching, a great but careless genius can be best turned to account after the study of a careful and correct one. Pope, Cowper, and Gray would be preludes to Shake- speare. Care and correctness we may all learn, and our longest schooling should be with such as exemplify these communicable virtues. When we come to Shakespeare and the Elizabethans, we may find a useful exercise in noting their careless passages ; in comparing them with themselves ; in observing when and how they fall below their usual level. We mark some of their grander effects ; we pass to occasions when these might have been realized, but are not. We judge their composition, not by a puny standard of our own, but by the standard that they themselves have taught us. An original genius does not always act up to his own teaching. Euclid nods as well as Homer. Newton occasionally fails, when com- pared with himself. These are our opportunities for showing how well we have imbibed their highest lessons. To take an easy example of Shakespeare's Grammar Duncan comes here to-night. Here shall we sleep to-night. Now. we ask, which of these forms is right ? or are they both right? In either case, can we give any reason? The first would seem to be wrong, because futurity is expressed in a present tense. If, however, we hold that the present is the universal tense, and is capable of signifying futurity by means of an ad- verb of futurity, then there is a compliance with the law of THE IDEAL ENGLISH TEXT-BOOK. 1 9 parsimony (which is often the rule of elegance in language) to attain the end by the simplest means, and to avoid needless duplication. All this may be wrong, but it is an exercise of judgment, and that is what the pupil needs to be put through. I repeat that more good is to be gained by scattered examples than by going through an entire play of Shakespeare, two or three books of Milton, or a complete work of Pope, say the Essay on Man. Large portions illustrate nothing in particular, or nothing in want of illustration at the stage reached by our pupils. The author's peculiar effects and manner are found recurring, and the discussing of them be- comes superfluous. I by no means regard as useless the many excellent annotated editions of portions of our classic authors Shake- sperian plays, and so forth. I think, however, that their value is not in the schoolroom, but in the stage immediately follow- ing the beginning of self-culture. In fact, they are most use- ful to readers of mature age. I have seldom had a greater treat than in perusing the annotations in Pattison's "Pope," including the Essay on Man, and the Epistles. But I do not regard either of these as schoolroom works. They are not exclusively addressed to the pupils of the English class, and I cannot point to any other class in our school system where they could come in suitably. They are a mixture of literary criticism, philosophy, ethics, and religion, which I do not object to in my miscellaneous reading, but should decidedly object to in the instruction of a class. Holding, as I do, strong views on the division of labour in teaching, I should disapprove of expounding so many diverse themes in that random fashion. The beau-ideal English text-book, as I conceive it, is a selection from the great writers, determined by capability of illustrating points in style, such as we need to be indoctrinated into, before we commence reading on our own account. It lies between the old Reading book and the new Classical 2O HIGHER TEACHING CHOICE OF WRITERS. Series ; the one being too limited, the other too voluminous. The Series is for the advanced pupil's private library, and for occasional reference by the teacher ; but it cannot as a whole be overtaken in a reasonable time, and a representative selection is not obtainable by its means. WHAT THINGS TO OMIT. It is in connection with English, that the question chiefly arises What things may teachers pass over, as being eventually learned without being specially taught ? Obviously, an ac- quaintance with the mother tongue is something that we cannot escape from. If it is our lot to pass through a tolerably wide education in general knowledge, we must be at the same time, for this reason alone, well versed in expression ; seeing that knowledge is conveyed to us in our own language, and, for the most part, by men able to convey their informa- tion in good English forms. Also, the same acquisition goes along with our incessant intercourse with our fellows, in all the relations of life ; every situation where language is employed contributing to our language stores. If the language of intercourse, of business, of the communi- cation of knowledge, were in every respect good ; if it answered all the ends of language as well as need be, then I conceive an English teacher, as such, would be a superfluity. He would be justified only on the supposition that there was some inapti- tude in the human mind to acquire and combine vocables in particular that, although language was a thing that we had incessantly to practise, yet we did not take to it readily, and required, like the awkward squad of a regiment, to have times allotted for extra drill. This, however, is not our position as regards facility for learning language. We are, no doubt, very unequally constituted in this respect, and some of us would be none the worse for extra drill, merely to work up to the prevail- ing standard of verbal fluency. But, on the whole, I am WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD MOSTLY AIM AT. 21 disposed to think that, if the language in use all around us were invariably of the choicest kind, always good and sufficient for its ends, our education in it need not be a separate discipline. Individuals making language a special business or profession would be educated under the auspices of those that followed the same profession ; preachers would be taught by preachers, pleaders by pleaders, poets by poets, and so on. All this, however, supposes that by English scholarship is meant principally the power of expressing ourselves adequately on every occasion requiring us to employ our native tongue. This, although denied by many, is the position that I have uniformly occupied in connection with English teaching. The history and antiquities of the language I regard as of secondary and incidental importance. Occasionally, past history helps to account for present usage; but we may speak and write correctly without being able to account for the origin of the received diction. Historical philology is a topic of general interest ; but circumstances must determine whether we can make room for it in a school curriculum ; it should be among optional subjects, while the power of English composition, if attainable by tuition, should rank among imperative subjects. The question then is What, as teachers, should we endeavour to aim at? If we are not wholly superseded by the pupils' own abundant opportunities of learning the use of their mother-tongue, what is left for us to do ? What is there that would not be done at all, that would not be so well done or so quickly done, supposing our assistance withheld ? I can only repeat my conviction, already recorded, that the most effective part of the teacher's work, the thing that the pupils are least able to do for themselves, that they may pass their whole lives without doing is to discriminate the good and the less good in composition, throughout all the gram- matical and other circumstances that operate in style. Any one that is a copious reader, and has a good memory, will 22 HIGHER TEACHING WHAT THINGS TO OMIT. gradually acquire wealth of diction ; but this must be a work of time, little of it can be given in the school. The state of the case, however, is that copious reading gives distracting usages ; to decide among these is a separate study. Our didactic litera- ture does not contain all the ready helps that, perhaps, will one day exist for this end ; and, at the present moment, a good teacher is the best help of all. The pupils need to be pro- gressively exercised in the work; their judgment is sharpened by repeated acts of discrimination ; what might never occur to their spontaneous observation of style, is brought before them at an early stage, and governs their practice through life. CHAPTER III. HIGHER TEACHING- -Continued. TN Composition, as in Grammar, we need two courses of * instruction, running side by side. The first is, a syste- matic course of principles, with appropriate examples ; the second, a critical examination of texts, passages, or writings, as they occur in some of the good English authors. The two methods support and confirm each other, while either by itself is unsatisfactory. If there are principles of Composition, they ought to be set forth in systematic array, and not left to irregular and random presentation. On the other hand, unless we grapple with some continuous text, we can neither find adequate exemplification, nor give any assurance of the com pleteness of our theories. I shall not directly raise any questions as to the completeness of this or that course of Rhetoric. Indirectly, the sufficiency or insufficiency of rhetorical theories will have to be adverted to. I mean to dwell chiefly on the merits of the various exercises that accompany the teaching of the Higher English. I shall have to consider, with some degree of minuteness, Essay Writing, Paraphrasing, and turning Poetry into Prose. ESSAY WRITING. In Composition manuals, Essay Writing usually occupies a very large space. Examples of Essay themes are given in great profusion. Under some of the most celebrated and 24 HIGHER TEACHING ESSAY WRITING. successful teachers, as Jardine, of Glasgow, the pupils were kept incessantly at work in Composition ; and, of course, to make pupils work somehow is an essential of good teaching. Let us then view the matter on all sides. In favour of Essay Writing we can say that it makes the pupils develop their own powers, such as they are at the time It turns their resources to account, and often surprises them- selves with the results. They feel that they can do something, and are encouraged to go on exerting their capabilities. Writ- ing is notoriously more prolific, more inventive, than mere dis- course. The remark is often made, that a man does not know what he can do till he has a pen in his hand. Again, to make a good essay, the pupils have often to extend their knowledge by special study or research ; the benefit of which is apparent. Still farther, the essay puts in practice what has been already taught, and in such a form as to show the effect of the teaching. It does, however, much more and this is a weak side as well as a strong: it tests the pupil's mental quality and resources over a wide compass. For which reason, it is one of the appropriate exercises in competitive examinations, when education is finished, and the struggle of professional life is to commence. But here, too, there are disadvantages, when we have to make a close com- parison among a large number of candidates. Every one that has had to examine essays for competitive appoint- ments, knows the exceeding difficulty of assigning marks to an exercise whose merits and demerits take so many directions at once. Lastly, I must not neglect to add, that the prescription of essays can be made a very easy task to the teacher. He can easily prescribe a topic for an essay, and let the pupils do the best they can ; troubling himself very little about how they do it. Like indiscriminate committing to memory, it ranks among the crude devices of the infancy of the education art. Even MISTAKE OF TEACHING TWO THINGS TOGETHER. 25 when costing almost nothing to the teacher, it is not without effect on the learner. Against the practice, there are, I conceive, very powerful con- siderations, some of them arising out of these very advantages. The comprehensive objection is, that it passes beyond the true province of the English teacher. To write an essay may be an exercise of style, but it is some- thing more ; it is an exercise in knowledge or in thought. The pupils have not merely to express something in language, they have also, on certain hints supplied, to find the matter to be expressed. It may happen that this is easy; something so very familiar may be suggested as a topic, that no one can have any difficulty in finding what to say. On the other hand, the topic may be, and often is, far beyond the ability of the pupils at the time; hence the work is often very ill done. But, whether it be the one or the other, the lesson is a mixed exercise, partly of thought and partly of style ; and mixed exercises are to be avoided in teaching. If there is any principle in education more sacred than another, it is to do one definite thing at a time. The advantages of such a course ought to be above the need of proof. The reason is not simply that the mind should be concentrated on one single subject of study ; it is, farther, that you cannot carry on two subjects abreast, and make them both consecutive, or observe the natural course from elementary to difficult. If you follow the proper order for the one, you cannot be sure that the other will bend to that order. I have always maintained that you can hardly ever make the same text-book a convenient basis for both language and thought : in like manner, you cannot frame a series of essays that will be consecutive, both as regards subject, and as regards language or expression. Besides, if there is any division of labour in teaching at all, the English master is not expected to do every- thing, or at least at the same time. Other masters are pro- 2 6 HIGHER TEACHING ESSAY WRITING. bably at work, teaching History, Geography, Science, and so on; or, if the same master teaches both English and some of these, he does so at different times, in different classes. He has an appointed hour for what he calls English Composition, and others for knowledge studies. I contend that Essay or Theme Writing is far more appropriate as an exercise of a knowledge class than as an exercise of a language class. The first use of such themes is to test knowledge and thought, to show whether the teaching of a given subject has been effectual ; the expres- sion is, for the most part, a secondary use. Consider well this fact : If a teacher prescribes an essay with a view to style, he gives the subject, but he cannot give even the general treatment, far less the modes of expression. The pupils must choose their own treatment, according to the state of their knowledge at the time ; they must, in like manner, choose their own expression, which necessarily depends upon what they have to express. And when a whole class is set to work to write a theme, although the subject may be one, the handling must be as various as the individuals. How, then, is the teacher to deal with the results ? Not only must he take the essays individually, if he overhauls them any- how ; he must, in his criticizing, be led into a wide range of points of style, these being brought up out of all order and connection, and without reference to the fitness of the pupils to comprehend them. It will be allowed, I suppose, that, in teaching a foreign lan- guage, essays on themes could not be tolerated, or take the place of the system of prescribing passages to be translated from, and into, the language. I do not think that the case is much altered with our own language, unless it be that we can find so little to do in expression proper, that we need to add to the work by throwing in a lesson of knowledge or of thought I assume, therefore, that the great desideratum is to provide the teacher with some profitable occupation in dealing with the THE TEACHER TO EXERCISE PUPILS ON HIS OWN WORK. 27 expression, properly so called ; and this has been one main object that I have striven after in my own teaching. I must dwell a little longer upon that great principle of teaching that the Essay system violates the principle of con- centrating attention upon a single purpose, which purpose may thereby be followed out methodically and definitely, without being trammelled with any extraneous pursuit. I hold to this principle, in a still severer view of it namely, that the teacher should not ask the pupil to do anything that he himself has not led up to, has not clearly paved the way for. The pupils should not be called upon for any species of work that may not have been fully explained beforehand that their own faculties, co-operating with each one's known attainments, are not perfectly competent to execute. A learner should not be asked even to show off what he can do, outside the teaching of the class. What would a mathematical teacher say, if a pupil gave in a versified demonstration of a geometrical theorem, or accompanied it by an exhortation to follow truth at all hazards ? If you depart ever so little from the principle of testing pupils on your own teaching, and on nothing beyond, you open the door for any amount of abuse. Now, it is plain that the English teacher can give no preparation for essay themes, such as are usually exemplified in the books. How is he to lead a class up to the point requisite for discussing the relative benefits of Solitude and Society, the dependence of the Mind on the Body, the Choice of a Profession, the Virtue of Fru- gality, the Pleasures of Imagination, the Influence of Climate on National Character, Humanity to the Lower Animals ? If any effect at all is produced by such attempts, it is to in- spire the young with a precocious conceit of their own powers. An essay on " Wisdom for a Man's Self," or on the proportion that should hold between a man's regard for self and his regard for others, may be very well in the hands of Bacon ; but 28 HIGHER TEACHING ESSAY WRITING. what is it in the hands of a boy or girl of fifteen, who must either follow some one authority, or parrot the commonplaces, believing that by their own intellectual force they have solved the mightiest problem in the conduct of life ? It would be a great mistake in any master to put forward themes for Composition in the very miscellaneous order of our Composition books. The art of education has surely gone beyond the point when such a system, either of imparting knowledge or of disciplining the mind, can be justified in any way. As a special education in the power of writing English, it is still less justifiable. There are various situations, easy to be assigned, wherein Essay Writing is a valuable adjunct to study. After the pupils have gone through a considerable range of instruction and training, they should certainly try their hand at original com- position. Should they have the advantage of a private tutor, or some elder adviser, to look over the work and point out its defects, they will be in the right way to mental improvement. Writing essays to be read at a society, or by friends of one's own standing, is also a great means of culture. But, obviously, this is a quite different situation from being in a class of twenty to forty, all subjected to a common drill, where the teacher must prescribe some definite and very limited task, and con- fine his attention to the performance of that task, allowing no digressions whatever. Some of our Manual writers begin their Essay course by supplying ample details, so as to leave nothing to the pupils but the expression. In the end, however, they think that the pupils can dispense with these details, as if, in the course of fifty or a hundred theme exercises, the pupil had amassed all knowledge ; as if the knowing of one piece of biography, of art, or of science, involved the knowing of any other. A few simple rules of Essay Writing might be supplied, such as might serve to curb the lawlessness so often exem- VICIOUS METHODS OF COMPOSING ESSAYS. 29 plified in the Essays of young pupils. If the subject is " Good Temper," precautions ought to be taken against such a piece of work as the following : Good temper is one of the choicest gifts given to man. It acts as the sunshine of life, and its effects, both on the possessor and his surroundings, are patent. Trials and cares and crosses are the constant attendants of life, but the man of good temper meets them all calmly enough. He is disposed to look at the fair side of everything. A man in good temper usually has a kindly word for others, a thing which materially lightens and assists in the performance of daily business. A man out of temper is to be avoided ; he is as testy and disagreeable as he can well be. Everybody coming in contact with him is made to feel miserable, and derives no benefit from intercourse with him. Good temper is an inward feeling which has the power to make one content with his lot, and silence all grumblings and complaints (which would otherwise arise) against the much-abused " fate ". A person possessed of a good temper is usually one who has a sympathetic ear and can listen to the trials of others, and offer them consolation without thinking too much of the doing of it. Good temper is a gift of which all may be proud patricians and plebeians alike. It acts somewhat like the philosopher's famous stone, turning all it comes in con- tact with into a like condition with itself. Good temper, like contentment, has the power of placing the humblest born, in some respects, in conditions superior to those of kings. This is in several respects a very unsuitable theme for young pupils. It is a subject that has two different lines of treatment, the one scientific, or expository, the other ethical or hortatory. The writer should be tied down to one or other : or, if both are to be allowed, the scientific should come first, as the basis of the ethical. But without going so deep into the laws of method, we should insist upon at least one propriety of an Essay of this class, namely, to begin by defining the subject This alone would prevent some of the worst faults of Essay-writing : it would assist invention, and be some security for arrangement. By separating Essay Themes into the several classes Descriptive, Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, certain broad lines might be drawn under each, and it would be enough if pupils were disciplined to follow those lines, whatever might jO HIGHER TEACHING ESSAY WRITING. be the compass of their ideas and language at the time. Form and Method can be taught by a direct operation : ideas and language are the indirect and gradual outcome of all the collective influences at work on the individual PARAPHRASING. Paraphrasing may mean simply the changing of a passage from one form of words to another, but it usually implies some degree of expansion in the statement This must be admitted to be purely an exercise in language or expression, and therefore suitable to the English teacher as such. It may, however, be conducted more or less successfully. The abuse of the practice in former days (chiefly with the Scripture commentators) is permanently shown by the ill odour attaching to the word " paraphrastic ". Our Inspectors of Schools prescribe it largely, but the result is not always satis- factory, if we may judge from what we find in the reports. Thus : "One Inspector states that in his district Paraphrasing is partly a verbatim copy of the originals and partly a mass of absurdities ; another, that the attempts at paraphrase are almost impossible to pass; a third, that very few of the candidates have a clear idea of what is meant by a paraphrase." Exercises in Paraphrasing usually include turning poetry into prose ; but, as I mean to handle this topic apart, I speak at present of Prose Paraphrasing the conversion of one prose passage into an equivalent one, with or without expansion. Of structural equivalents, such as inversion of order, grammatical changes, and transpositions of parts, I have the highest opinion as an exercise eminently appropriate to the English class. I shall state, before I am done, what I consider the precautions and requisites to be observed in conducting it This, however, is not the chief thing in Paraphrasing, as usually set forth. It implies that the pupils shall express the PARAPHRASING AN IRREGULAR MODE OF INSTRUCTION. 31 idea of the passage in different words, of their own choosing, so as to test their mastery of the English vocabulary. Now, while the Paraphrase is free from the objections to the Essay, and is much more germane to the English teacher's province, it is still liable to come into conflict with the great principle of teaching already invoked; it does not call the pupils to account for the matters actually imparted in teaching. This remark applies to it, without qualification, when it is purely an exercise of varying the phraseology of the passage prescribed ; in short, when it is an affair of providing synonyms for a given thought. To illustrate the point. I may first refer to the position of the teacher of a foreign language. Under him, the pupil has to learn everything ; his mind is supposed to be a tabula rasa as regards both grammar and vocables. Accordingly, the teacher is aware at any moment how many vocables his class may have learnt ; he can put an exercise that shall involve these and no others. In reading a sentence in Cassar, the Latin master can ask for a different rendering of the meaning, and he knows what to expect ; if he asks for any equivalents that have not come up in the previous class work, he is dis- tinctly at fault reaping where he has not sown. The case is totally different with the English master. He is nowise responsible for his pupil's vocabulary ; he has done very little to furnish it, he has had no consecutive exer- cises with that view. He imparts a command of words only in an incidental way, and in fact is doing much less than the knowledge teachers, who, in communicating information are also communicating words or diction for expressing that infor- mation. I say, therefore, that when, in an English lesson, you ask a thought to be expressed in a variety of phraseology, you are prescribing an operation that is not in the proper course of teaching. You have not yourself imparted the requisite varia- tions of language ; you have not arranged, and cannot arrange 2 HIGHER TEACHING PARAPHRASING. a series of instructions, such that the demand for a free para- phrase in a changed vocabulary is their legitimate following up. Suppose you yourself lead off with a number of examples of paraphrasing. After twenty, or fifty, or a hundred instances, the pupil may be as much at fault with your new case as if you had done nothing. The making up of one paraphrase is not any help to the next. You ask a class to paraphrase, " Life is short, art is long ". Their efforts and their success have noth- ing to do with your teaching, but with the whole series of in- structions that have contributed to their vocabulary, from their first imitation of their mothers' talk to the present hour ; you are calling them to account for other people's work, and not for your own ; by which, in my judgment, you are placed in an utterly wrong position. Nevertheless, let us suppose that they make some attempts to paraphrase the theme prescribed : you listen to these attempts, and then, probably, you would supply your own version, which I shall assume to be something very much to the purpose ; and that they will remember this for a future occasion. Well, then, if ever they want to ring changes on the expression of the same theme, what you have done will be of service to them. But it will not be of avail for any other subject. You give them next an apophthegm from Bacon, " Reading makes a full man," and so on. They have here to begin de novo. They are thrown upon an entirely dif- ferent department of their accumulated vocabulary ; and it is equally a matter of chance, or rather a matter depending on the general compass of that vocabulary as a whole, whether they can ring any good changes upon these words. In fact, you plunge yourself into a quagmire ; each step is a new and distinct effort ; there is no such thing as clearing a path for further progress. You are off the rails of consecutive teaching, and no conceivable management can put you right. The downward paraphrase, the degradation of a piece of writing for the sake of an exercise of change, is, I take it, the FREE PARAPHRASING OF POETRY. 33 precise opposite of what the teacher should aim at all through. He should be occupied in rising from worse to better his motto is Excelsior. When he cannot improve a passage, he should leave it untouched, merely calling attention to the fact. If he can produce an equivalent of the same merit, so far well, If he can only degrade, he should do nothing. CONVERSION OF POETRY INTO PROSE. This is a mode of paraphrasing that has some specialities now to be noticed. It has the advantage of being more limited in scope than the Prose Paraphrase. The intention is to make no more change than is necessary for sober prose. A strong metaphor is reduced to its more homely equivalent ; an in- version is restored, everything being left that would pass muster in ordinary prose. The amount of change thus varies with the poetic elevation of the style. Many passages need little more than to be altered from the typography of verse, while the higher poetry needs an entirely new rendering. The following example is given in Dalgleish's Composi- tion : I envy not in any mood, The captive void of noble rage, The linnet born within a cage That never knew the summer woods. Here is the paraphrase : I can only despise the indifference of those who, never having enjoyed the sweets of freedom, cannot sorrow for its loss. This is what we may call a very free paraphrase, involving an entire change of diction, and assuming that the pupil has such a command of our general vocabulary as cannot belong to a pupil in the most advanced English class. But, further, it is thoroughly prosaic. Now, our language allows prose to be written in a style of elevation approaching the purest poetry. 3 34 HIGHER TEACHING POETRY INTO PROSE. Why might not the transformation descend to this, and no further ? For example In no mood do I envy the captive that does not resent imprisonment the linnet that ne%'er knew the summer woods, and is happy in the cage where it was bom. There is something repugnant in an operation that degrades and destroys a piece of composition, merely for the sake of an exercise in transforming it into other words. The passage is supposed to be conceived and executed for poetry alone ; if so, it has no adequate prose equivalent nothing but a coarse, disintegrated version, where the main idea is divorced from the form that is most appropriate for expressing it Two of the stanzas of Campbell's Hohenlinden have been paraphrased as follows : The soldiers, roused by the sound of the bugle, were arranged by the light of torches, and unsheathing their swords, stood ready for the fray, while the war-horse gave signs of eagerness to enjoy the terrible sport of battle. Then while the surrounding heights re-echoed the pealing thunder, the cavalry charged ; and, as the sound of cannon drowned the thunders of nature, the flash of the guns vied with the lightning. I doubt whether an ordinary pupil could make as unex- ceptionable a paraphrase as this ; and yet it is wholly aimless. It has stripped the passage of its poetical beauty, and has not made a good piece of prose. It is an operation without assignable result. Pope's famous line on Bacon The wisest, brightest, meanest, of mankind could be made into allowable prose, by the use of conjunctions : " The wisest and the brightest, and withal the meanest, of mankind " : " Of mankind, the wisest and the brightest, and yet the meanest ". As a theme for an Essay or Paraphrase, nothing could be more appropriate than the lines 52-6 in Pope's Essay on Criticism, beginning Nature to all things fix'd the limits fit, And wisely curb'd proud man's pretending wit. UNEXCEPTIONABLE PROSE EQUIVALENTS. 35 It would not be difficult to convert this passage into readable prose ; still it would be a considerable stretch of one's powers of style to make the conversion in the best form. Very few pupils in an English class could do it. They could only make an approximation, to be improved upon by the master. Now, my contention is that the plan of operating upon a prose passage is far preferable as a composition exercise. The poets should be imbibed in their own dress and character; and criticism upon them should principally have reference to the standard of poetry. There is an exercise that may be made to fall under this head, namely, to take the poet's theme, and write a prose essay upon it, choosing entirely new language as well as new illustra- tions. This, however, is not either a paraphrase or the con- version of poetry into prose. Almost the only useful mode of giving prose equivalents for poetry, is to point out changes of language and of order that would have to be made to suit the prose form ; including a revocation of all licences that may have been caused by the necessities of metre and the elevation of the strain. This would test the reality of the poetic form in the special case. Much of Shakespeare would turn to a stately prose, with the very smallest change. The fall of Wolsey scarcely differs from prose. In the first and second lines, the order is not the best for emphasis. It might have been "To all my greatness, farewell, a long farewell ". In line second, we should say " The state of man z's this ". The next is pure prose. Take Campbell's couplet Without the smile from partial beauty won, Oh, what were man ? a world without a sun. There is a licence here in the word " partial " placed as a co-ordinating adjective before beauty, for the sake of compact- ness. It is ambiguous, if not misleading : it is apt to suggest some one not wholly but in part beautiful, and would not be 36 HIGHER TEACHING POETRY INTO PROSE. good in prose. Surrendering the effects of the versification, and seeking the full propriety of the language, we should have to say " But for the smile of beauty's favours ". In the second line, we could but drop the figure of interrogation, and say " man were a world without a sun ". We might indeed go farther and dispense with the bold similitude, " man would be a wretched creature," but this is merely an exercise in synonymous expressions. I shall have to illustrate fully what I consider the best of all exercises upon poetry, namely, the examination of the structure, with a view to mark poetic excellences and defects ; under which will be included the contrast with prose forms, whenever anything hinges upon that contrast. CHAPTER IV. HOW NOT TO DO IT. BACON'S ESSAYS. A MONG the questionable modes of endeavouring to teach ^^ English, I would include the use of a work of some great English author, which the pupil is made to go through steadily, being exercised at once on the thoughts and on the style. Much depends on the author chosen ; yet, in any case, I hold there is a violation of the principle of division of labour in teaching. As we should not comprise in the same lesson Greek and Euclid, Singing and French, so we ought to keep separate what strictly concerns English Composition from History, Politics, Ethics, or Theology. We cannot, of course, inculcate good English diction without referring to English writers, and every writer must treat of a subject ; still, while we are engaged upon the diction, it is our duty to leave the subject out of account. I am speaking at present of prose writers ; the remark would have to be modified for poetry. As the method that I now impugn has a strong hold on our present teaching practice, I shall consider it at some length by taking up a distinguished example of the works usually prescribed I mean " Bacon's Essays ". The handling of this example will carry us a little beyond 38 HOW NOT TO DO IT BACON'S ESSAYS. our proper subject; for I shall have to call in question the suitability of the work as an instrument of teaching, both in thought and in language. Nothing but the habit of working upon venerated texts could explain the selection of " Bacon's Essays " as a medium of instruction in the very varied themes that they embrace. Great as the work is in many ways, its greatness does not seem to me to adapt it for this special function. Let us look at it in detail first as regards the matter, and next as regards the style. Sixty themes, or thereby, are handled in these Essays. The subjects are so miscellaneous as to admit neither of classification nor of orderly sequence. A good many could be embraced under the prudential part of Ethics ; as many, or more, are con- nected with Politics, Administration, and Business ; many are on purely isolated topics, as Truth, Death, Studies, Health, etc. In only one instance that I can discover, are three related topics placed in sequence, viz., Praise, Vain-glory, Honour and Reputation (53, 54, 55) ; not often are two connected sub- jects taken together, as Beauty (43), Deformity (44). The handling in all of them is suggestive rather than exhaustive ; they exemplify, as Whately remarks, the original meaning of the essay, viz., a slight sketch, brief hints, loose thoughts with- out order. The quantity of strong sense compressed into a narrow compass, the pith and brilliancy of the language, and the fame of the author, have made these Essays an English classic of the first rank. But the question before us is How far is the work fitted to be a text-book in the instruction of youth ? Let us consider the Essays, then, as regards the matter or the thought. In this aspect, they labour under one great and obvious disadvantage, namely, the want of order and co- herence. If a teacher were to put before a class the various subjects treated of, according to the printed arrangement of the ABSENCE OF ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT OF TOPICS. 39 Essays, surely the teaching would be considered very strange. One day he invites the pupils to go over certain matters connected with Truth ; the next day they are to meditate on Death ; the day following an hour is to be given to Unity in Religion ; after which would come up Revenge. If con- secutiveness in teaching has any merit at all, such merit is entirely wanting here. It would, however, be possible to improve upon this order by a judicious selection, in fact, by making an entirely new arrangement. " Truth " might be coupled with " Simulation and Dissimulation " and " Cunning ". This might have been done once for all in an edition prepared for schools. Yet it is apparent that the author himself did not aim at any con- nection between one essay and another, even when they were in the same circle of ideas. This single circumstance seems to me to disqualify the work for being a text-book in teaching youth. It is my opinion that such desultory handling is radically opposed to the first principles of good teaching. If you bring forward so vital a subject as " Truth," you should dwell upon it long enough to make some clear and definite impression. For this end it should fall into some larger scheme or programme ; it should be in juxtaposition with allied themes. Another disqualification is the incoherence of the treatment in the same essay. The essay on " Truth " takes in at once the search after truth in science, and truthfulness or veracity in conduct. The one belongs to logic, the other to ethics. The treatment in both cases has been superseded many times over. Taking the Essays for what they profess to be hints, suggestions, starting-points for thought, the teacher might follow out each theme in his own way, and give a more com- plete handling of the several topics. Whately wrote a large volume of such comments. In so far as you do this, however, 4O HOW NOT TO DO IT BACON'S ESSAYS. you make yourself the real instructor, and would do still better by taking a much greater licence by discussing the several subjects in the very best manner, with the assistance of every light, instead of tying yourself to Bacon in particular. While the skilful teacher might do something to remedy the defects now mentioned, his good intentions are likely to be frustrated by the tyranny of examinations. When, as in the India Civil Service paper for this year (1882), under English Literature there is presented Bacon's Essays, 1-30, the teacher's course is chalked out for him. He cannot group the Essays on related subjects, combining, for example, the zyth (" Friend- ship") with the 48th ("Followers and Friends"), because that would lead him out of the prescription. He cannot make up for the deficiencies of treatment by additions of his own, because the examiner would not recognize such ; he can do nothing but grind up Bacon's thoughts exactly as put by himself, with all their crudity and incoherence. The examiner himself is necessarily under restraint : he must keep closely to the text, in justice to the candidates generally; so that, neither by him, nor by the teacher, can any consideration be entertained as to the best way of making Bacon's thoughts really useful to a student. If the Civil Service Commissioners had prescribed a selection from the Essays, embracing those that bear upon Politics, Administration, and Business, the path of the pupil would have lain through a more fertile region for their purpose. But this would have led them still further namely, to supersede the Essays altogether by more modern and better connected treatises. The judicious teacher would skip the topics that were wholly unsuited to youths of fifteen or sixteen, as those of " Parents and Children," of " Marriage and Single Life," of " Youth and Age " ; he would also pass over subjects that ought not to be introduced at all, unless with ample oppor- tunity for doing them justice ; but he is not allowed such dis- IMPERFECT DISCUSSION OF THE SUBJECTS. 41 cretion. The pupil must go up prepared to give a scrappy answer to a scrappy question on Atheism, on Seditions and Troubles, on Wisdom for a Man's Self, and so on. Where Bacon shifts his ground, and brings in, under the same title, topics belonging to different departments, as in " Truth," it might be an exercise in discrimination to point out the incoherence ; but this cannot be done by pupils ignorant of the subjects ; and if the master were to point it out in one case, they would be no better prepared for the next. In Dr. Abbot's admirable edition of the Essays there is a very good analysis of each, which would greatly assist the pupil in the prospect of an examination, but only makes more glaring the jumble in the sequence of ideas. Surely if the subject of Anger is to be made a topic of instruction, there may be found in a score of treatises something far more to the purpose than Bacon's fifty-seventh Essay. These are some of the objections to the use of the Essays as a means of instruction in knowledge or thought. It is a clear principle of good teaching that a subject should be methodically laid out, and brought consecutively before the minds of the pupils, occupying their exclusive attention for a series of lessons. Also, when a text-book is used, that book should be full and complete, not scrappy and suggestive; it should not leave everything at the mercy of the teacher, he himself being at the mercy of the examiner. Let us next consider how far the Essays can be employed for instruction in English style. From the notes to Dr. Abbot's edition we can see the lines that he would lay down for the teacher. These notes are chiefly verbal. They take notice of the peculiarities of Bacon's phraseology, explain his archaic usages, and elucidate his verbal obscurities. There is no consideration of the merits or demerits of his style, con- sidered as a model for imitation, or a source of expression to 42 HOW NOT TO DO IT BACON'S ESSAYS. the student of our own day. The profuse and accurate learn- ing thus displayed may have a value as philology or as history, but it adds nothing to the power "of speaking one's own language well, and being a master of it"; of which Locke says, " Let a man's calling be what it will, it cannot but be worth our taking some pains in it ". Very few of Dr. Abbot's criticisms appear to have any bearing on the present use of the English language, which I take to be the first requirement of any instruction coming under the title of " English com- position". The value attached to the past history of the language must be estimated under some other head ; and its claims to a place in our school curriculum decided on separate grounds. I will now point out what I should consider the mode of handling the Essays, as an exercise of English style. Take first the Essay on " Truth ". The first sentence" ' What is truth ? ' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer " might be cited as an interesting way of announcing the topic of an Essay, while the phraseology would be open to improvement. For " said " he ought to have used the word " asked " ; but the remark is superfluous, because no one would now commit the impropriety. The " and " should clearly be " but ". " ' What is truth ? ' asked jesting Pilate, but would not stay for an answer." The second sentence is a very long one, admitting of many emendations ; but the same re- mark applies over and over again to Bacon's composition. Its defects are not the defects even of a beginner in the present day, and there is seldom anything gained by dwelling upon them. What I think this Essay might be turned to account for, in modern teaching, is the use of figurative language, which Bacon employs so largely, and often so happily. The present Essay contains examples of the use and abuse of similes, and might be examined with that view, leaving the question still open whether other and better examples might not be laid hold THE STYLE UNSUITABLE FOR COMPOSITION EXERCISES. 43 of. Thus, " This same truth is a naked and open daylight [mixture of metaphors] that doth not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candle-light ". The merit of a simile for exposi- tion is its appropriateness ; but whether the contrast of truth and error is well illustrated by the difference between daylight and candlelight is very problematical. So in the next sentence : " Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day ; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights ". So uncertain is the bearing of such comparisons, that I would rather not distract the minds of young pupils by trying to explain it. I would have them understand the difference between similes for exposition and similes for ornament, and would wish to pro- duce unequivocal instances of each sort ; but with Bacon, as with the Elizabethans generally, perhaps the greater number of similes do not serve either purpose. In the present Essay, in particular, there is not, as I conceive, any very successful example. This is barely passable : " The enquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it ; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it is the sovereign good of human nature ". It is well enough to represent the search for truth as "wooing or love-making"; the original meaning of "philo- sophy " is love of knowledge ; but to make different figures for knowledge and belief, which ought to be one, is mere con- fusion. Still less satisfactory is the higher flight in the next sentence : " The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense ; the last was the light of reason ; and his Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of His Spirit ". This is either good poetry or nothing. If judged as poetry we have to consider whether the occasion is proper for it, and whether it ought not to have been still more sustained and elaborated. I pass over the next sentence, 44 HOW NOT TO DO IT BACON'S ESSAYS. which is a questionable following out of the creation idea. Then comes the beautiful adaptation of the well-known passage in Lucretius : " Suave mari magno " whose applica- tion, however, is self-contradictory. And, finally, the sentence, " Certainly it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth," which is little better than high-sounding nonsense. This shows the use that one Essay may serve in connection with genuine English teaching as I understand it. But such an application would be best made, not by going through the Essays seriatim, but by a judicious selection of examples, to be taken with other examples gathered elsewhere. It would not pay to examine the separate Essays thoroughly for this, or for any other quality of style. To vary the illustration, let me advert to the Essay on " Studies ". There are some good examples of sentence structure, and some of a vicious tendency, not confined to the Elizabethans. It is one of Bacon's most antithetical Essays. The sentences are ebaborately balanced. Thus : " Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability ". To follow up a triple predication well is not easy ; and Bacon is so far success- ful. The point where he trips is seen in the succeeding sen- tence, but is more briefly shown in a sentence later on : "Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them : for they teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation ". The portion given in italics is the weak point of the sentence. It is bad form to make a prominent balance, and then destroy it by a dangling addition to one of the members. This Bacon often does, and a warning against the error is never super- fluous. When there is a necessity for expanding one member of a balance, the way of doing it can be easily pointed out. The obverse couple Beauty and Deformity (43, 44) should have made one Essay, and it would be a good lesson in THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SUBJECTS EXEMPLIFIED. 45 exposition to fuse them. But the handling does not lend itself to such an operation ; there is no parallelism in the selection of topics. Thus, the one on Beauty begins : " Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set ". The other commences: "Deformed persons are commonly even with nature. For as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature ". Now the curious thing is that the Essay preceding is "Youth and Age," also an obverse couple, which is handled throughout by the method of contrast. If anything could justify the employment of the Essays as a text-book of instruc- tion in style, it would be to profit by the author's incon- sistencies. The Essay on "Nobility" may be next cited. As a snatch of political philosophy, it has lost all its value. As an exercise in style, it might be turned to some account, but only in an ad- vanced stage of a pupil's progress in the expository art. It begins thus : " We will speak of nobility, first as a portion of an estate, then as a condition of particular persons ". The paragraph introduced by this sentence discusses the uses of nobility in the political system ; and, although the thoughts are clearly stated, and the author's meaning intelligible throughout, the paragraph is a jumble, and would not pass for good writing in the present day. The rectification of it would be a useful enough lesson if it could be done upon principle. The second sentence lays down and illustrates, in very bad arrangement, the principle that nobility tempers monarchy, and prevents it from being too absolute ; and includes, as an obverse, that it is not needed by democracy. The two succeeding sentences give examples of this obverse from the Swiss and the Low Countries. In the next sentence the original proposition is varied thus : "A great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth power ". It takes some considera- tion to make this fit in with the former statement. Then comes a remark as to the proper position of nobles ; not too great for 46 HOW NOT TO DO IT BACON'S ESSAYS. sovereignty, nor for justice. Finally, nobles should not be too numerous. The incoherence of the paragraph is not past remedy ; and if pupils could be taught to bring it into good order, they might be profitably employed. The second paragraph discusses the second head nobility as a condition of particular persons. In this, too, there are some good thoughts expressed in Bacon's way, including his characteristic maxim " There is rarely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts " (which need not be too early brought under the notice of youth) ; but the paragraph ends with a sentence that would, in any reconstruction, have to find a place in the first paragraph. I give this as a favourable case for imparting a lesson in Style from the Essays, while I still believe that the same lesson could be much better given from more modern writers. To my mind, one of the happiest in the collection is that entitled "Judicature" the demeanour proper to the judge on the bench. So well does Bacon hit the situation in all its varying aspects that, excepting a more diffuse il- lustration, I cannot conceive any improvement upon it. His style is at its very best. Here, then, is a case for teaching by example what is good in style. But the best of all ways of pointing out a merit is to place it side by side with the corresponding demerit. This is still more satisfactory when the same writer furnishes us with both. Take now the following sentence : " The parts of a judge in hearing are four : to direct the evidence ; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech ; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been said ; and to give the rule or sentence ". For its purpose this is a perfectly formed sentence. Compare, then, the following : " A man's nature is best perceived in privateness, for there is no affectation : in passion, for that putteth a man out of his precepts ; and in a new case or experiment, for there custom BACON AT HIS BEST. 47 leaveth him ". The defect in this sentence is very apparent after reading the other. As it stands, when we read " A man's nature is best perceived in privateness," we assume at once that this is the single mode of perceiving a man's nature, and we are taken aback when we come to find that there are other ways. The sentence from Judicature teaches us the remedy : " A man's nature is best perceived in three situa- tions : in privateness," etc. This sentence exemplifies an error that is always recurring ; it is not connected either with Bacon's mannerism or with Elizabethan usages. And such are the examples that should be mainly singled out. We do not decry Bacon when we attempt to define his place in our education. The condensed wisdom and the felicity of his best Essays possess a charm for those that have had some experience of life, but are thrown away upon the young. The free-will reader fastens upon the good and skips the indifferent ; the learner working for examinations fastens upon all alike. CHAPTER V. INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. SELECT LESSONS. '""PHE previous chapter was mainly negative. Its chief * purpose was to prepare the way for making English style a subject of teaching, without involving the subject-matter under discussion in the passages chosen for reference. A few words of explanation will introduce the lesson now to be given. Any thorough scheme of teaching English must fall into a course, the complete development of which would demand at least a hundred such lessons as I mean to exemplify. To select three or four of these lessons is necessarily to work at a disadvantage, but may yet serve to convey our idea of the plan to be followed. The plan itself is the plan of a complete system of Rhetoric, or the higher Composition. This may be variously given ; but it cannot omit the figures of speech, the qualities of style, and the different kinds of composition. It may be more or less complete. Our teaching seldom, so far as I know, corresponds to such an exhaustive view of the subject. But whenever it is systematically given, each topic is explained and exemplified. The whole of the instruction in higher English might be overtaken in such a course, in which case an exemplary lesson would con- sist in the statement and illustration of some rhetorical point or rule of style say, the figure of hyperbole, the quality of INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES ENUMERATED. 49 simplicity, or the art of expounding by example. This, how- ever, I deem a superfluous lesson ; it would be little better than making an extract from a rhetorical treatise. There is another kind of lesson, which does not exclude the methodical teaching of Rhetoric, but co-operates with that in the most effectual way. It is the criticism of authors, or passages from authors, with a view to the exhibition of rhetorical merits and defects as they turn up casually. An outline of Rhetoric is almost essential to the efficiency of this kind of lesson ; yet with only an outline it may be successfully carried out. It suffices to raise the questions most proper to be con- sidered in English teaching. In the following selection, which will comprise both the Intellectual and the Emotional Qualities of Style, there will be some examples suitable to a systematic course of Rhetoric, and others embracing promiscuous criticism of passages from leading authors. My first group of lessons will deal exclusively with the Intellectual Qualities of Style. Here we are on definite ground. We can usually tell when a good result is arrived at, and we may show wherein the goodness consists. The intellectual qualities are mainly three Simplicity, Clearness, and Energy or Impressiveness. The two first explain themselves. The third is a little more vague, Energy, in certain aspects, is an emotional quality a source of pleasur- able excitement; but it is also an intellectual quality in the sense of adding to the mental impression of a statement apart from other influences. The means of producing these three qualities are fully explained in a course of Rhetoric. They come up under various divisions : the figures of speech, the order of words, the sentence and the paragraph, the intellectual styles descrip- tive, narrative, and expository. Their elucidation can be 4 50 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. carried out by well-chosen passages in the course of reading. Two or three select lessons will show the manner of proceeding. I have often discussed with English teachers the question as to the writers most suitable on the whole for their special work. As regards the moderns, I think the one that has the widest support is Macaulay. It is my own decided opinion that he is available, in a pre-eminent degree, for lessons in good prose composition. His vocabulary is copious and choice ; in the structural part of composition he excels. Though he has faults, or, it might be better to say, mannerisms, yet these do not detract from his value, but rather the contrary. One use of the English teacher is to show what is not to be copied even in the best models. The exhibition of weak points in a great writer strengthens the perception of his strong points. LESSON I. The cheap volume of Macaulay's Miscellaneous Essays and Speeches should be in the hands of every student in the higher composition classes. The master would find endless references for exemplifying his instructions. For narrative, for expository style, for oratory of a very high kind, illustrative material exists in superabundance. I will take for my present lesson an ex- tract, not from the volume of miscellaneous writings, but from the History of England. It would be an advantage to the reader to see the passage entire, prior to its being given out sentence by sentence. The space, however, may be saved and the purpose answered, by reading continuously the portions in inverted commas. The subject is the settlement of Kenmare, an Irish town founded by Sir William Petty, in 1670. " A minute account of what passed in one district at this " time has come down to us, and well illustrates the general " state of the kingdom." In itself this is an excellent sentence. It admits, however, of a useful variation of order, which better suits its connection in the paragraph : " The general state of EXAMPLE FROM MACAULAY. 51 the kingdom at this time is well illustrated by a minute account that has come down to us of what passed in one district ". The subject of the paragraph is the general state of the king- dom, and although this may be given with advantage, and even with emphasis, at the end of the opening sentence, yet the beginning of the sentence is an appropriate position, and the close is thus reserved for what connects the sentence with the one following. " The south-western part of Kerry is now well known as "the most beautiful tract in the British Isles." A perfect sentence, and a proper following up of the preceding. The inversion of the order also represents an important sentence type, where the subject of the sentence gains emphasis by being put at the end : " The most beautiful tract in the British Isles is now well known to be the south-western part of Kerry ". " The mountains, the glens, the capes stretching far into " the Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, the rivulets " brawling down rocky passes, the lakes overhung by groves in " which the wild deer find covert, attract every summer crowds " of wanderers sated with the business and pleasures of great " cities." A fine example of Macaulay's manner of description, which consists usually in a striking enumeration of vivid and picturesque particulars without any attempt to arrange them in their places in the scene. This should be compared with other instances of the art of scenic description, as exemplified in in- numerable forms in historians, geographers, writers of romance, and poets. The putting of every object in its place in a plan is more thorough, but not so easy reading. Compare more especially the descriptions in Kinglake's " History of the Crimean War ". " The beauties of that country are indeed too often hidden " in the mist and rain which the west wind brings up from a " [boundless ocean. But on the rare days,] when the sun " shines out in all his glory, the landscape has a freshness and 52 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " a warmth of colouring seldom found in our latitude." The two sentences are given together, because such is the closeness of the connection, that they ought to be made one. The words in brackets will show where the fusion should take place " boundless ocean : yet, on the rare days ". There is no one point where Macaulay so frequently calls for remark as in the excessive breaking up of his composition into short sentences. He is in this respect an instructive study ; for he obliges us to inquire into the circumstances determining the proper limits of the sentence. The union of the two sentences just quoted will be no surprise to any one. So also with the three following : "The myrtle loves the soil. The arbutus thrives better " than even on the sunny shores of Calabria. The turf is of " livelier hue than elsewhere : the hills glow with richer purple ; " the varnish of the holly and ivy is more glossy ; and berries -'of a brighter red peep through foliage of a brighter green." The series of particulars here mentioned make one continuous group, illustrative of the general remark as to the beauty of the landscape. There is no reason for putting a full-stop after the first and second, while the others are separated by the colon or semicolon. The whole should be in one sentence, with semi- colon breaks. " But during the greater part of the seventeenth century, "this paradise was as little known to the civilized world as " Spitzbergen or Greenland. If ever it was mentioned, it was " mentioned as a horrible desert, a chaos of bogs, thickets, and " precipices, where the she-wolf still littered, and where some " half-naked savages, who could not speak a word of English, " made themselves burrows in the mud, and lived on roots and " sour milk." These two sentences need no comment except to emphasize their excellence of construction. A grammatical analysis would be well adapted for that end. Mark, in the second especially, how well the clauses follow one another, each paving the way for the next. The next sentence begins a fresh paragraph : PETTY'S SETTLEMENT OF KENMARE. 53 "At length in the year 1670, the benevolent and en- " lightened Sir William Petty determined to form an English " settlement in this wild district." For greater emphasis to the main circumstance, we might change the conclusion thus : " determined to form, in this wild district, an English settle- ment ". " There he possessed a large domain." "He possessed (a "large domain there) 'there a large domain,' which has de- " scended to a posterity worthy of such an ancestor. On the " improvement of that domain he expended, it was said, not " less than ten thousand pounds." These two sentences are so close in meaning that they may advantageously be made into one, with merely a semicolon break, and the words " of that domain," replaced by " of which ''. We may experiment a little upon the order of the particulars in the second : " And he expended, it was said, not less than ten thousand pounds in the improvement of that domain ". It is a nice point whether the place of emphasis (the close) should be given to the fact of improvement or to the extent of it, as shown by the expenditure. " The little town which he founded, named from the bay " of Kenmare, stood at the head of that bay, under a mountain " ridge, on the summit of which travellers now stop to gaze " upon the loveliest of the three lakes of Killarney." One of Macaulay's exquisite sentences ; perfect in its own way. Not a word could be displaced, except for the worse. The only exercise possible would be to try some change, and compare the effect with the original. " He founded a little town, and named it Kenmare, from the bay of that name, at whose head it stood ; it lay under a mountain ridge," etc. No improve- ment, certainly. " Scarcely any village, built by an enterprising band of New " Englanders, far from the dwellings of their countrymen, in " the midst of the hunting grounds of the Red Indians, was 54 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " more completely out of the pale of civilization than Ken- " mare." Difficult to improve upon this. Perhaps the two last words, "than Kenmare," could be omitted. The only effect would be to give a somewhat greater prominence to the important phrase, "out of the pale of civilization". The expression, " far from the dwellings of their countrymen," is of use to help out the idea of isolation of the supposed village, but there would be a little gain if it were omitted, so as to give full scope to the more energetic circumstance " in the midst of the hunting grounds of the Red Indians ". " Between Petty's settlement and the nearest English habi- " tation, the journey by land was of two days through a wild " and dangerous country." We are not yet familiarized to such separations of substantive and related phrase as we have here. Other ways of meeting the case might be tried. " The journey by land land journey occupied two days." " The journey by land was through a wild and dangerous country, and took two days." " Yet the place prospered. Forty-two houses were erected. " The population amounted to a hundred and eighty. The " land round the town was well cultivated. The cattle were " numerous. Two small barks were employed in fishing and " trading along the coast." This is all very intelligible ; but it offers room for a study of the best mode of dividing sentences in a detailed enumeration of particulars. The first short sentence " Yet the place prospered " is as it should be ; it is a comprehensive view of what follows, and should stand aloof from the subsequent detail. The case is different with the remaining sentences. The houses and the population might well be taken in one sentence " Forty-two houses were erected, there being a population of one hundred and eighty ". Or transpose the clauses : " The population amounted to one hundred and eighty, and forty-two houses were erected ". This would be the best order, if there be any HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT. 55 implication of cause and consequent in the matter. So with the two following : " The land round the town was well cultivated, and the cattle were numerous ". Some importance attaches to the next sentence the last quoted relating to the fishing ; it is one of a group of three devoted to this single item. I must quote in order the two others to consider the effect of the whole. " The supply of herrings, pilchards, mackerel, and salmon " was plentiful, and would have been still more plentiful, had " not the beach been, in the finest part of the year, covered by " multitudes of seals, which preyed on the fish of the bay. " Yet the seal was not an unwelcome visitor : his fur was valu- " able ; and his oil supplied light through the long nights of " winter." The last sentence has a natural connection with the latter half of the 'preceding, namely, what refers to the seal ; while the first half of that sentence might be taken along with the previous one. Thus : " Two small barks were employed in fishing, as well as in trading, along the coast ; the supply of herrings, pilchards, mackerel, and salmon being plentiful. This supply would have been still more plentiful, had not the beach been, in the finest part of the year, covered by multitudes of seals, which preyed on the fish in the bay : nevertheless, the seal was not an unwelcome visitor," etc. It is desirable not to multiply sentences upon one single topic of a series all comprehended in the same paragraph. We cannot well dispose of the fishing in less than two sentences, but we do not need three. " An attempt was made, with great success, to set up iron " works. It was not yet the practice to employ coal for the " purpose of smelting ; and the manufacturers of Kent and " Sussex had much difficulty in procuring timber at a reason- "able price. The neighbourhood of Kenmare was then " richly wooded ; and Petty found it a gainful speculation to " send ore thither. The lovers of the picturesque still regret 56 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " the woods of oak and arbutus which were cut down to feed "his furnaces." Here we have another particular of the in- dustry of Kenmare, occupying four sentences, and admitting of some compression. In any reconstruction, we must be guided by the same principle as before, namely, keeping each sentence to a distinct subject. Mark, however, that the first sentence is so worded as to let us know distinctly that we have entered on a new topic iron-smelting. What remains is relative to the fact, that the manufacture was based not on the presence of ore in the district, but on the supply of wood for the furnaces, at a time when coal had not been introduced for smelting. The operation of fusing sentences may still be applied ; while the reference to the manufactures of Kent and Sussex, in par- ticular, seems unnecessary, and may therefore be misleading. On first reading the passage, one would suppose that the ore had been procured in those particular countries, and sent to Kenmare for the sake of the plentiful supply of wood ; but this is by no means certain. We might then contract the whole somewhat as follows : " As yet it was not the practice to use coal for smelting ; and timber was costly. The neighbour- hood of Kenmare being then richly wooded, Petty found it a gainful speculation to obtain ore and send it thither to be smelted; and the lovers of the picturesque still regret the woods of oak and arbutus cut down to feed his furnaces." " Another scheme had occurred to his active and intelligent " mind. Some of the neighbouring islands abounded with " variegated marble, red and white, purple and green. Petty " well knew at what cost the ancient Romans had decorated " their baths and temples with many-coloured columns hewn " from Laconian and African quarries ; and he seems to have " indulged the hope that the rocks of his wild domain in " Kerry might furnish embellishments to the mansions of Saint " James's Square, and to the choir of Saint Paul's Cathedral." Silent approbation seems the only criticism applicable here. MODEL PARAGRAPHS. 57 We could vary the form, but not for the better ; and it is never desirable to vary for the worse. In order to have something to compare with, the following may be given : " A further project was hit upon. Variegated marbles, some red and white, others purple and green, abounded in the neighbour- ing islands." The concluding sentence may well be left un- touched. We here close an admirably-arranged paragraph. The next opens an entirely new subject, and is also a model of skilful handling : " From the first, the settlers had found that they must be " prepared to exercise the right of self-defence to an extent " which would have been unnecessary and unjustifiable in a " well-governed country." The opening sentence of a paragraph is properly the key to the whole, and is to be appraised accord- ingly. We must, therefore, glance through the paragraph before pronouncing. Three distinct topics are brought forward in the following order : The first is the insufficiency of the law for protection in the part of Ireland where Kenmare was situated ; the second is the plundering raid of natives upon the village ; the third the measures taken by the villagers for self-defence. In order to forecast these particulars, the sen- tence might run thus : " So defective was the public adminis- tration of the country, that the settlers, when exposed to the rapine of the natives, had, from the first, to exercise for them- selves the right of self-defence ". This variation will not vie with the original in elegance, and is justified only by the motive assigned. Three short sentences follow, all bearing on the first topic, and admitting of consolidation. "The law was altogether without force in the highlands " which lie on the south of the vale of Tralee. No officer of " justice willingly ventured into those parts. One pursuivant " who in 1680 attempted to execute a warrant there was mur- " dered." In fusing these we can make some experimental changes of order. " In the highlands south of the vale of 58 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. Tralee the law was altogether without force ; into these parts no officer of justice willingly ventured ; one pursuivant who in 1680 attempted to execute a warrant there was murdered." It is allowable to include, in one sentence, a principle and its example ; and these three clauses are not too much, nor too widely separated in meaning, to be taken in the same sentence. The topic is thus exhausted, and the next sentence, although related, is a new start. " The people of Kenmare seem, however, to have been 11 sufficiently secured by their union, their intelligence, and "their spirit, till the close of the year 1688." This is the in- troduction to the second branch of the paragraph, which narrates the aggression of the resident Irish. Its structure has to be viewed in connection with what comes next, and seems to be perfect. The sentences following are preparatory explanations, leading up to the main action. " Then at length the effects of the policy of Tyrconnel " began to be felt in that remote corner of Ireland." Or, by an admissible inversion, we may gain in emphasis : " Then at length, in that remote corner of Ireland, began to be felt the policy of Tyrconnel ". " In the eyes of the peasantry of Munster the colonists "were aliens and heretics. The buildings, the boats, the " machines, the granaries, the dairies, the furnaces, were doubt- " less contemplated by the native race with that mingled envy " and contempt with which the ignorant naturally regard the "triumphs of knowledge. Nor is it at all improbable that " the emigrants had been guilty of those faults from which " civilized men who settle among uncivilized people are rarely " free. The power derived from superior intelligence had, we " may easily believe, been sometimes displayed with insolence, " and sometimes exerted with injustice." These four sentences are closely related in meaning, but not so closely as to call for consolidation. The two last are most nearly connected, the DIVISION AND ARRANGEMENT OF SENTENCES. 59 second being an explanation of the first : and it is permissible to include a fact and its explanation in one sentence. There are in all three things stated as explanatory of the rising of the Irish. If a little more formality were resorted to, the distinct- ness of the facts could be better preserved : " In the first place [To begin with] in the eyes of the peasantry of Munster, the colonists were aliens and heretics ''. This is an example of that perfection of arrangement for emphasis, which is the motive for so many of the transpositions above suggested. Try another arrangement by way of contrast : " The colonists were aliens and heretics, in the eyes of the peasantry of Munster". The inferiority of impressiveness will be felt at once. "In the next place, the buildings, the boats, the machinery," etc. No change would improve this sentence. "Lastly, it is but too probable [this is to avoid concurring negatives] that the emigrants had been guilty of the faults rarely absent from civilized men settled among an uncivilized people ; we may easily believe that the power derived from superior intelligence had been sometimes displayed with insolence, and sometimes exerted with injustice." This completes the particulars of explanation. We next pass to the result. " Now, therefore, when the news spread from altar to altar, " and from cabin to cabin, that the strangers were to be driven " out, and that their houses and lands were to be given as a " booty to the children of the soil, a predatory war commenced. "Plunderers, thirty, forty, seventy in a troop, prowled round " the town, some with firearms, some with pikes. The barns "were robbed. The horses were stolen. In one foray a "hundred and forty cattle were swept away and driven off " through the ravines of Glengariff. In one night six dwellings " were broken open and pillaged." Here, as before, we may consolidate with advantage : any other changes being merely experimental to awaken attention. " Now, therefore, when the 60 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. news spread, . . . there commenced a predatory war." Here we properly close a sentence : the rest might be taken in another sentence ; no further change appears desirable. Then follow the operations of the colonists, which conclude the paragraph, and respond to the final clause of the introductory sentence. "At last the colonists, driven to extremity (resolved to "die like men, rather than be murdered in their beds) " rather than be murdered in their beds, resolved to die like men". This is the comprehensive sentence, and, although short, must not be added to. The process of consolidating may be carried out with the details. " The house built by Petty for his agent was the largest in " the place. It stood on a rocky peninsula round which the " waves of the bay broke." Try this variation : " The largest house in the place was the house built by Petty for his agent ; it stood on a rocky peninsula round which broke the waves of the bay." Not often does Macaulay end a sentence so un- melodiously as "the bay broke". " Here (the whole population assembled) assembled the "whole population, seventy-five fighting men, with about a "hundred women and children." (They had among them) " Among them they had sixty firelocks, and as many pikes and " swords." These two facts could be in one sentence. " Round the agent's house they threw up with great speed " a wall of turf fourteen feet in height and twelve in thickness. "The space enclosed was about half an acre." Might be simplified and consolidated. " With utmost speed they threw up a rampart of turf, enclosing half an acre." The repetition of the agent's house appears unnecessary. "Within this rampart all the arms, the ammunition, and " the provisions of the settlement were collected, and several " huts of thin plank built." Or, " Within this rampart they built several huts of thin plank, and collected all the arms," etc. POINTS OF STYLE ILLUSTRATED. 6 1 " When these preparations were completed, the men of "Kenmare began to make vigorous reprisals on their Irish "neighbours, seized robbers, recovered stolen property, and "continued, during some weeks, to act in all things as an " independent commonwealth. The government was carried " on by elective officers to whom every member of the society "swore fidelity on the Holy Gospels." These two sentences might be divided at a different point, thus : " Their prepara- tions completed, they began to make vigorous reprisals on their Irish neighbours, seized robbers and recovered stolen property. For some weeks they acted as an independent commonwealth : the government by elective officers," etc. The sequence of events might perhaps be more strictly attended to by inverting the order : " They formed them- selves into an independent commonwealth, the government being carried on," etc. ; " and began to make vigorous reprisals," etc. The points illustrated in the foregoing examination are of considerable importance in the art of composition. They relate partly to the structure of the sentence, and partly to the sequence of sentences in a good paragraph ; all being essen- tial to a lucid style. LESSON II. For the present lesson, examples are chosen such as will vary still farther the points brought into prominent illustration. Macaulay is so great a master of sentence structure that he does not sufficiently exhibit the defects that are most usual in beginners. And although we may operate upon a model sentence and endeavour to exhibit its beauties, yet our most effective lessons are those that first show the imperfect form and then improve upon it. The following is an extract from a good writer (Samuel 62 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. Bailey). The sentences are all fairly passable. Nevertheless, we can find a profitable exercise in considering the ways and means of raising them to our best ideal in each case. "There are one or two objections which have been brought " against the study of political economy which it may be useful " to notice." This is perfectly intelligible for its purpose, but we may make useful experiments upon it by way of varying the order. "Against the study of political economy, there have been brought one or two objections ; and these it may be useful to notice." The change has the recommendation of getting rid of two ' whiches '. It is not_merely that ' which ' is a relative very liable to excess, but that the second of the present two is of doubtful application. Every one must feel that a relative is best employed when it introduces a meaning closely connected with the main clause ; and that it is least advan- tageous when there is a broad transition of subject. Now the stating of objections is one thing, and the point whether it is useful or not to answer them, is another thing : what is termed the co-ordinating relative is employed in such cases of transi- tion : but even this may make the connection too close ; and we do still better to resolve the relative into its equivalent "and these," with a comma or semicolon break, as the case may be. The change of arrangement suggested has a farther advantage in placing closer together the related phrases of the sentence. " The first is, that it treats of an unworthy object of pursuit, " confines itself to one, and that not a very ennobling topic " wealth ; in a word, that it is a mean, degrading, sordid inquiry, " and tends to fix men's affections on what they are already too "prone to survey with exclusive devotion." This sentence fairly explains itself ; but we must be hypercritical in order to find matter for our instruction. I begin by remarking upon the pronoun references. The word "first" has here the effect of a pronoun, and points back to the word "objections"; the pronoun " it " refers to " political economy ". There is always EXAMPLE FROM SAMUEL BAILEY. 63 some risk in picking out, by the help of pronouns solely, two different subjects from the same sentence. There is a still more frequent danger in the employment of the pronoun " it" ; perhaps no single point in teaching grammar is more in need of iteration. One of Macaulay's commendable peculiarities is his preferring repetition of a word to ambiguity ; and I can imagine him filling in both references thus : " The first objection is, that the science treats," etc. Here there is not only no possibility of misapprehension ; but, what is equally im- portant, there is no delay in calling to mind, from the previous sentence, the things intended to be brought into view. The remainder of the sentence is free from all ambiguity, and exemplifies a special type of sentence, namely, where a meaning is made clearer by variation of wording. In dis- cussing at large the arts of expository style, we should have to introduce certain cautions in the employment of this device; but I prefer to confine the present lesson to humbler applica- tions. I will, therefore, merely give the variations of form that serve to make the emphatic words more prominent, by placing them last in their respective clauses : " The first objection is, that the science treats of an object of pursuit itself unworthy ; is confined to one not very ennobling topic wealth ; (in a word) " in other words " that the enquiry is mean, degrading, sordid (and tends) ' tending ' to fix men's affections where their devotion is already too exclusive." In the point of view of energy, which is what is mainly sought by these variations, we may also remark a slight anti-climax, in following up the strong word "unworthy" by the weaker phrase "not ennobling". The difference in the degrees of energy of epithets and expressions may be soon appreciated by pupils at the stage supposed in these lessons, and is a very suitable topic for engaging their attention. " This objection appears to me to owe any plausibility 64 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " which it may have to the common use of the term wealth in " its comparative or intensive sense." Shorten and vary thus: " The plausibility of the objection is owing to our frequently using the term ' wealth ' in the meaning of excess or supera- bundance of this world's goods ". It is a small change to say "the" for "this objection"; but experience will make every one aware of the uncomfortable liability to repeat the word "this"; and I take the opportunity of hinting that, on many such occasions, the definite article is enough. The other changes made in the sentence are in view of lightening it by the omission of unnecessary qualifications 'appears to me' and of bringing allied words closer together; the verb "owe" being unreasonably separated from its connective " to the common use ". The closing phrase is an attempt to make the meaning more expressive than is done by "comparative or intensive sense". " It is usual to employ the term as denoting the possession "of an extraordinary measure of the good things of this life." By a more explicit phrase, such as was suggested at the close of the former sentence, this might be dispensed with. If admitted, it would have been not improperly coupled with the preceding, by a semicolon break : " The term being usually employed as denoting the possession of the good things of (this) life in an extraordinary measure". This alteration is made on purpose to leave out ' it,' as being referable to wealth, and also to place the emphatic circumstance at the close. "Substitute for this word the phrase ' economical condition " of the community,' and ' where is the objection ' ? " There would be no harm in repeating thus : " Substitute for wealth the economical condition ." " Is that a mean or sordid enquiry which examines the " causes of national plenty or national destitution ? " This being a perfectly sufficient expression of the author's meaning, rendered energetic by the form of interrogation, the only SENTENCE STRUCTURE EXAMINED. 65 exercise upon it consists in making variations that would be at least equally good. " Is there anything mean or sordid in an enquiry into what causes national plenty or destitution ? " " Is the examination of the causes of national plenty a mean or sordid enquiry ? " "And what is it, in fact, that occupies, and must necessarily " occupy, the greater part of the time and attention of mankind, "which prompts their most strenuous efforts, and a failure in " which leads to the most exquisite wretchedness ? " A slight verbal alteration is enough here. Begin thus : "And, in point of fact, what is that which occupies ". The parallelism of the successive clauses is improved by the change. " Is it not, apart from hollow pretence, and in plain homely " English, to get a living, to obtain a sufficiency of food, shelter, " and clothing, and, in other cases, to maintain themselves and " families in the rank which habit has made almost essential " to their existence ? " The phrase " in other cases " needs a prior phrase to correspond ; such as " some cases," " one class of cases ". The contrast, however, would not be properly given by " some " and " others " ; it is a contrast of the many and the few. We might say : " Is it not, in the majority of instances [or, with the mass of mankind] to get a living and, in a few, or in the minority, to maintain themselves ". "And is a science which examines the general causes that " aid or baffle their efforts, which aims at saving them from the " evils of ignorant policy, and at opening the freest and most " fertile fields for their industry is such a science to be stig- " matised as unworthy in its purpose ? " Some very delicate criticism is applicable here. There is a rather incongruous conjunction of two clauses of vague but impressive generality with a third clause of pure matter of fact " opening fields for industry ". This last might have been omitted ; or, if brought in, it should have been coupled with some circumstances strictly homogeneous, such as " doing away with needless 5 66 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. restrictions of trade ". The sentence might be made use of to exemplify the prevailing uncertainty as to the employment of the relatives "that" and "which" ; there being apparently no guide but the offence to the ear from repeating one too often. The "that" in "causes //foz/aid or baffle their efforts" is evi- dently chosen for no other reason than to avoid the cloying effect of three ' whiches ' in close succession : " science that " instead of " science which " would have been equally proper. There is seldom any difficulty in avoiding excess of relatives ; the participial construction is only one of several substitutes. "And is a science that examines the aids and the obstructions of their efforts, that aims at saving them ." In the clause " that aid or baffle," the relative should be repeated " that aid or that baffle " ; the case, however, is better met by the copulative " and " than by the alternative " or ". The figure of interrogation here lends energy to the whole passage. It should not, however, be too long sustained. The author's example is very good in this respect ; after two or three impressive interrogations, a sentence of the plain affirmatory character possesses emphasis. The sentence following is of this character. "That, surely, would be a blessed system of knowledge "which should contribute to place human beings above "starvation, and elevate even the lowest of society to " comparative plenty ; nay, it would be a blessed science if "it did nothing more than mitigate the hardships which it "could not convert into comfort and happiness." Only minute criticism is applicable here. Even that might be omitted, were it not our purpose to make the most of every- thing. A nice point would arise if the pupil were asked to parse " elevate " ; whether is its parallel word, in the previous clause, "contribute" or "place"? In the first case, fill in " should " ; in the second " to ". The words, " it would be a blessed science," give emphasis by repetition. If omitted, the ILLUSTRATIVE VARIATIONS OF ORDER. 6^ second clause would be abbreviated to some advantage ; "or even which did nothing more than mitigate the hardships that could not be removed, still less converted into comfort and happiness ". I do not give this as an improvement upon the original. " It must force itself, too, on every mind, that those who "take this apparently high moral ground, although really false " position, can hardly be aware of the close connection between " the economical, the intellectual, and the moral condition of "the community." Some suggestions may be made on the present sentence. To get rid of the commencing " It " is desirable, seeing that the more obvious reference namely, to what went before is not the real reference, which is pro- spective. The contrast " apparently high moral ground, although really false position " is not a very pointed one ; still, such contrasts must often pass. A somewhat hypercritical, but not unimportant, remark applies to the last clause. The point of the remark is, that the economical condition of the com- munity is closely allied with both the intellectual and the moral condition ; and this is the form that should have been given to the statement of the connection. On looking forward, how- ever, we find that the author puts the chief stress upon the " moral " condition exclusively ; so that he might have worded the clause thus : " can hardly be aware of the closeness of the connection between the economical condition of the com- munity and its moral condition". "Nature herself, says a modern writer, forbids that you "should make a wise and virtuous people out of a starving " one." A very energetic utterance ; it may be varied but can scarcely be improved. The double personification" Nature herself," and "you" is favourable to the simplicity and direct- ness of the sentence. "A starving people cannot, in the nature of things, be wise and virtuous." " From the very nature of things, a starving people cannot be wise and virtuous." 68 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " Men must be happy themselves before they rejoice in the " happiness of others ; they must have a certain vigour of mind " before they can, in the midst of habitual suffering, resist a "presented pleasure; their own lives, and means of well-being, "must be worth something before they can value so as to " respect the life and well-being of any other person." Three well-balanced and emphatically ordered clauses. The only criticism called for is to remark on the order of the clauses, as regards connection in the subject The first and third contain the same idea repeated in a variety of phrase. The second is a somewhat different idea, and connects itself with the next sentence ; it should therefore have been last. Pupils already versed in the balance or parallel construction of sentences, would find a good example here. " This or that individual may be an extraordinary individual, " and exhibit mental excellence in the midst of wretchedness ; " but a wretched and excellent people never yet has been on " the face of the earth." The balance, so well carried out in the previous sentence, may be continued here, by a little adjustment. "An extraordinary individual here and there [this is not given as superior to the original], in the midst of wretchedness, may exhibit mental excellence ; but (nowhere on the face of the earth) never has there yet appeared a whole people at once wretched and excellent." "Another objection to the science under review is, that it "has been found to contain (a great number of) numerous "errors." The phrase "under review" might be dispensed with, although its employment for explicit reference is a fault on virtue's side. There is hardly any possibility of mistaking the science intended. "Now this charge may be admitted without conceding " what is meant to be inferred from it, that political economy " should on that account be set aside." Try a variation in the way of brevity and compactness. "Now, admitting the charge, EXAMPLES OF PERFECT ARRANGEMENT. 69 we deny the inference, that political economy is to be set aside on that account." " Where is the science concerned with events, material or "mental, that has not had to struggle through errors of the "grossest character? Is it chemistry? look to the doctrine "of absolute levity. Is it natural philosophy? look to nature's " horror of a vacuum." This cannot be improved. The position of every word and phrase in the first sentence is what it should be, to bring related words into the closest proximity, and to lay the emphasis on the proper things. Any variation that could be suggested would be useful only in stimulating the attention to the essentials of the sentence. " What science, whether material or mental, has not had to struggle ." " No ! the human understanding is in every subject fallible, " but in every subject capable of surmounting its errors." An admirable model of a brief sentence, such as Macaulay would delight in. " If we trace the history of any science, we shall find it a "record of mistakes and misconceptions, a narrative of mis- " directed and often fruitless efforts ; yet, if amidst all these, " the science has made progress, the struggles through which "it has passed, far from evincing that the human mind is " prone to error rather than to truth, furnish a decisive proof " of the contrary, and an illustration of the fact, that in the "actual condition of humanity mistakes are the necessary "instruments by which truth is brought to light, or at least " indispensable conditions of the process." A lucidly arranged sentence, considering its length. When so much has to be included in one sentence, the arts of condensation and balanced construction are called into play. Qualifying clauses and phrases are reduced as much as possible, and put in as few words as possible ; and every word should be put in the situation where the reader is accustomed to expect it. 70 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. The arrangement in the present case is perfect ; and the only way to simplify it, is to shorten the qualifications. " In tracing the history of any science, we find it a record of mistakes, a narrative of fruitless efforts ; nevertheless [' yet ' wants em- phasis], should the science still have made progress, the struggles it has passed through, far from evincing that the human mind is prone to error, decisively attest the contrary, and illustrate the fact that, as humanity is constituted, mis- takes, if not the necessary instruments for arriving at truth, are at least indispensable adjuncts in the process." " This is remarkably applicable to the science of political " economy. Multifarious in its facts, and requiring great close- " ness in its deductions, it must necessarily have erred in the " past, and must still be imperfect for ages to come ; but in the " meantime, it comprehends a large body of truths which " cannot be neglected without individual detriment and national "suffering." Otherwise: "The science of political economy exemplifies all this to a remarkable degree. In its facts multi- farious, and in its deductions close, it must necessarily have erred in the past, and must still be imperfect for ages to come." Another short extract will conclude this lesson. It is from a remarkably pointed writer, the late Professor Ferrier, of St. Andrews. It shows the management of a double subject, by the arts of antithesis and balance, assisting the effect of well-chosen terms. "A system of philosophy is bound by two main requisi- " tions, it ought to be true, and it ought to be reasoned. If "a system of philosophy is not true, it will scarcely be con- " vincing ; and if it is not reasoned, a man will be as little " satisfied with it as a hungry person would be by having his "meat served up to him raw. Philosophy, therefore, in its "ideal perfection, is a body of reasoned truth." The first short sentence is perfect in its kind. The meaning may be given A DOUBLE SUBJECT ANTITHESIS AND BALANCE. 71 more shortly, but not with equal emphasis. "A system of philosophy ought to be both true and reasoned." The author's form is far more suited to arouse the attention. The second sentence supplies the proof of the first, and takes both subjects together with perfect simplicity and lucidity. The balance is not fully pointed, because the second clause contains a much longer statement than the first. Yet, although we could not without mutilation condense that clause so that it may conform with " it will scarcely be convincing," we could make it less unconformable than it is : " if it is not reasoned, it will be as little satisfactory as raw meat to a hungry person ". " Of these obligations, the latter is the more stringent : it "is more proper that philosophy should be reasoned, than that " it should be true ; because, while truth may perhaps be un- " attainable by man, to reason is certainly his province, and " within his power. In a case where two objects have to be " overtaken, it is more incumbent on us to compass the one to " which our faculties are certainly competent, than the other, "to which they are perhaps inadequate." A new proposition, still exemplifying the terseness of the balanced structure. We may vary, but cannot improve it : " The second of the two requisitions is more stringent than the first " : " because while truth may be perhaps unattainable by the human powers, to reason is within their compass ". It is by a licence, often unavoidable, that the pronoun " he, " "his," is made to answer to " man " collectively. We may try our hand in modifying the concluding sentence, with a view to keep up the same order of statement as in the preceding, where the unattainable object is placed first of the two. " Where we have to undertake two objects, it is less incumbent on us to deal with that to which our faculties are perhaps inadequate, than with that to which they are certainly competent." It is an undoubted ease to the mind to find an iterated series of things kept in the same order throughout. 72 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. "This consideration determines the value of a system of " philosophy. A system is of the highest value only when it "embraces both these requisitions that is, when it is both "true and reasoned. But a system which is reasoned without " being true, is always of higher value than a system which is "true without being reasoned." With slight variations of order, we may re-model these sentences, and compare the effect. "A system of philosophy has its value determined by these considerations." "By these considerations, a system of philosophy is valued." "The highest value attaches to a system, only when it is both true and reasoned. Yet a system that is reasoned without being true has always a higher value than one that is true without being reasoned." " The latter kind of system is of no value ; because philo- " sophy is ' the attainment of truth by the way of reason '. "That is its definition. A system, therefore, which reaches " the truth, but not by the way of reason, is not philosophy at "all; and has, therefore, no scientific worth. The best that " could be said of it would be, that it was better than a system " which was neither true nor reasoned." " Indeed, a system of the latter kind has no value whatever. The very definition of philosophy is the attainment of truth by the way of reason. A system that reaches the truth, but not by the way of reason, is not philosophy at all." "Again, an unreasoned philosophy, even though true, carries " no guarantee of its truth. It may be true, but it cannot be " certain ; because all certainty depends on rigorous evidence, "on strict demonstrative proof. Therefore no certainty can "attach to the conclusions of an unreasoned philosophy." " Again, an unreasoned philosophy, even though true, has not its truth guaranteed. It cannot be certain ; for certainty reposes on demonstrative proof. To the conclusions of an unreasoned philosophy, therefore, there can attach no cer- AMENDED ORDER FO SENTENCES. 73 tainty." The motives of these changes of order have been repeatedly assigned. "Further, the truths of science, in so far as science is a " means of intellectual culture, are of no importance in " themselves, or considered apart from each other. It is only " the study and apprehension of their vital and organic con- " nection which is valuable in an educational point of view." " Further, in so far as philosophy [keeping to the same leading term] is a means of culture, its doctrines [better here than ' truths '] are of no importance individually or considered apart from each other : the study and apprehension of their organic connection is alone valuable as education." " (But) ' Now ' an unreasoned body of philosophy, however " true (and formal) it may be, has no living and essential inter- " dependency of parts on parts [this clause may be put in "other forms, needless now to exemplify], and is, therefore, " useless as a discipline (of the mind), and valueless for tuition." As amended: "Now an unreasoned body of philosophy, however true, has no inter-dependency of parts on parts, and is therefore useless as an intellectual discipline or as a means of instruction." " On the other hand, a system which is reasoned but not " true, has always some value. It creates reason by exercising " it. It is employing the proper means to reach truth, although " it may fail to reach it" These three sentences may be con- solidated. " On the other hand, a system that is reasoned, though it may not be true, has a real value ; by exercising, it creates, reason ; it may fail to reach truth, but it employs the proper means to that end." "Even though its parts may not be true, yet if each of " them be a step leading to the final catastrophe a link in an " unbroken chain on which the ultimate disclosure hinges " and if each of the parts be introduced merely because it is "such a step or link in that case it is conceived that the 74 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. "system is not without its use, as affording an invigorating "employment to the reasoning powers, and that general " satisfaction to the mind which the successful extrication " of a plot, whether in science or in romance, never fails to " communicate." The only objection to this sentence is one that goes somewhat beyond the form of the language, but is yet within the compass of the English teacher. The conclud- ing clause takes us away from the severe view of philosophy as a discipline of the mind in the search after truth, and introduces us without a break, and without warning, to a totally different class of effects, the emotional or poetic effects of discovery. There should be a slight pause in making so great a transi- tion : " Even though the parts may not be individually accurate, yet if each of them be a step leading to the final result ['catastrophe' scarcely in keeping], a link in an un- broken chain whereon hinges the ultimate disclosure, brought in solely as being such a step or link, in that case, the system has a use, as an invigorating employment of the reasoning powers. It is, moreover, calculated to impart to the mind the gratification experienced in the successful extrication of a plot, an interest belonging alike to science and to romance." LESSON III. This third and last lesson on the Intellectual Qualities of Style will include the examination of two passages, the one descriptive, and the other expository. The first is from Carlyle. It is his description of the town of Prag. Now, the Rhetorical arts of Description are neither many nor recondite : they can be very precisely stated ; they are imperative under pain of total failure in intelligibility. Carlyle is one of the greatest masters of the art ; and, as in his narratives, so here, he presses his mannerisms into the service. " Weissenberg is on the hither or western side of Prag : the " Hradschin, which is the topmost summit of the City and of CARLYLE'S DESCRIPTION OF PRAG. -75 " the Fashionable Quarter, Old Bohemian Palace, still occa- " sionally habitable as such, and in constant use as a Downing- " Street, lies on the slope or shoulder of the Weissenberg, a " good way from the top ; and has a web of streets rushing " down from it, steepest streets in the world ; till they reach " the Bridge, and broad-flowing Moldau (broad as Thames at " half-flood, but nothing like so deep) ; after which the streets " become level, and spread out in intricate plenty to right and to " left, and ahead eastward, across the River, till the Ziscaberg, " with frowning precipitous brow, suddenly puts a stop to them " in that particular direction." This long sentence embraces a very elaborate and effective description. The language has all the author's force and picturesqueness ; its merits are too obvious to need criticism, except in a very elementary stage when the pupil is studying the Figures of Speech. The arrangement is generally good ; but the goodness comes out best in an attempt to vary, if not improve, it. At the very outset, there is brought into prominent consideration a funda- mental rule of all composition addressed to the understanding : that is, to start from something already known to the reader ; failing which, to make the starting subject understood as soon as possible. In the description of a town, we must begin with site or situation. This is defined, in the present case, by reference to the sloping height of the Weissenberg. From that height Carlyle follows the mass of details downwards across the river till everything is stopped by the precipitous height on the other side, called Ziscaberg. All this is com- prised in the sentence quoted. We shall attempt some changes in the order : " On the hither or western side of Prag is the Weissenberg height ; on the slope or shoulder of this, a good way from the top, is the Hradschin, the summit of the City, and the Fashionable Quarter: here is the Old Bohemian Palace, still occasionally habitable as such, and in constant use as a Downing-Street : from this quarter there 76 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. rushes down a web of streets, the steepest in the world ; reaching the Bridge and broad-flowing Moldau (broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing like so deep) : across the River, the streets become level, and spread out in intricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward, till stopped in that direction by the frowning precipitous brow of Ziscaberg." Here we have already a general and comprehensive view of the situation ; with a graphic filling in of the leading details, by help of Carlyle's peculiar genius for similitudes. The next sentence makes the description still more precise, by assigning dimensions and form. " From Ziscaberg top to Weissenberg top may be about " five English miles ; from the Hradschin to the foot of the " Ziscaberg, north-west to south-west, will be half that distance, " the greatest length of Prag City. Which is rather rhomboidal "in shape, its longest diagonal this that we mention. The " shorter diagonal, from northmost base of Ziscaberg to south- " most of Hradschin, is perhaps a couple of miles." There is some caprice in making one enormous sentence include the previous description, while a much smaller amount of closely related particulars is spread out into three. It is one of Carlyle's mannerisms in grammar to begin a sentence with the relative : were there only a semicolon or colon break between the first and second sentences, there would be nothing singular in the construction. The statement of the particulars of size and form is as lucid as language could make it ; being based on the information already given, and adding what is necessary to complete the view of the town. Criticism is exhausted by the suggestion to make one sentence of the three. " Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains ; and is not in " itself a strong place of war : but the country round it, Moldau " ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through the piled " table-land, is difficult to manoeuvre in." The attempt to vary the minutiae of this sentence will only show how well it DESCRIPTIVE ARTS. 77 bears examination. " Prag itself stands nestled in the lap of mountains, and is not a strong place in war : yet the country round it is difficult to manoeuvre in ; Moldau ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through the piled table-land." There is no intrinsic objection to making the last clause parenthetic as Carlyle does. He makes great use of parenthe- ses, in getting successfully over the difficulties of complex delineations. Here, however, there is no need for thrusting this clause into the heart of another ; it can be appended as a clause of explanation without derogating from the lucidity of the whole : the more so, that it closes the paragraph. The next is an independent start with a view to picture the entire valley of the Moldau. " Moldau valley comes straight from the south, crosses " Prag ; and, making on its outgate at the northern end of " Prag (end of ' shortest diagonal ' just spoken of), one big " loop, or bend and counter-bend, of horse-shoe shape, which " will be notable to us anon, again proceeds straight north- " ward and Elbeward." The order of statement here is perfect. It seems as if we ourselves could not have written it otherwise ; a pleasant delusion that we often fall under in perusing the style of a master. Make this trial as a test : break it up and present it out of joint, to see whether the pupils would at once restore the original. "It is narrow everywhere, especially when once got fairly " north of Prag ; and runs along like a Quasi-Highland Strath, "amid rocks and Hills. Big Hill-ranges, not to be called "barren, yet with rock enough on each hand, and fine side " valleys opening and here there : the bottom of your Strath, " which is green and fertile, with pleasant busy villages (much "intent on water-power and cotton spinning in our time), is "generally of few furlongs in breadth." Here we may try our hand at making variations, although not necessarily improve- ments. " It runs along, like a Quasi-Highland Strath amid 78 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. rocks and Hills ; big Hill ranges, not to be called barren, yet with rock enough on each hand, and fine side valleys opening here and there. Everywhere it is narrow, especially when once got fairly north of Prag ; the bottom of your Strath is generally of few furlongs in depth, and is green and fertile, with pleasant busy villages now containing cotton-mills driven by water." The change of order is intended to bring related points some- what closer. The alteration at the close is a useful exercise upon Carlyle's mannerism, to see whether the same thing can be expressed in the more ordinary style with equal terseness and lucidity. "And so it lasts, this pleasant Moldau-Valley, mile after " mile, on the northern or Lower Moldau, generally straight " north, though with one big bend eastward just before ending ; " and not till near Melnick, or the mouth of Moldau, do we " emerge on that grand Elbe Valley, glanced at once already, " from Pascopol or other Height, in the Lobositz times," The author here indulges in some of his favourite word-play, to a length not called for by the bare necessities of the description. The sentence before the last quotation had landed us in the northern course of the valley, after the horse-shoe bend, and indicated the course to the Elbe. We now take this up, and add, that, while the course is generally northward, there is one bend eastward before entering the valley of the Elbe, near Melnick. The author, in writing the intervening sentences relative to the character of the valley, had apparently let drop from his mind the precise form of the opening sentence, and accordingly does not make the present tally with that, but, to make sure, indulges in some needless repetition. If the para- graph were to be recast, we could include with the first sentence the gist of the last, namely the connection with the valley of the Elbe, which could have been given, in a very few additional words, and would have made the picture of the lie of the valley more coherent and more easy to conceive. We BRINGING RELATED TOPICS TOGETHER. 79 could also invert the order of statement of the relationship of the two valleys ; beginning at the Elbe, and treating the Moldau as a branch. We should thus bring the direction of the valley into close union with its formation and size, without leaving any point connected with the direction to be taken up again. The general principle in describing a branch is to commence at the point where it leaves the stem. My final extract will be a very testing lesson. It proceeds in the line of the concluding remark upon the Carlyle passage, namely, the desirability of bringing together all closely related statements. The difficulties attending the operation are often very great, indeed, insuperable ; there being conflicting claims to adjudge. Still the principle is of paramount obligation with a view to clearness and impressiveness in description, narration and exposition. It involves a mental discipline that may be of all degrees of stringency ; from simple devices within the com- pass of a beginner in the art of composition, to ingenuities of construction that might tax the power of a wrangler in an English Tripos. The extract now chosen is of more than average difficulty ; and, in actual teaching, would follow, at a considerable interval, the discussion of such extracts as those already given. The passage in question might be subjected to the same kind of examination as those in the two previous lessons, for the internal arrangement of sentences and the bearing of each upon those immediately preceding or following. All this will be forborne, in the present instance, with a view to a larger purpose, namely, the arrangement of an entire paragraph, on the principle of maximum closeness of related topics. Instead of doling out the passage by sentences, I quote it entire, before commencing operations. "(i) The abolition of monarchy and the introduction of 8o INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. " plural or republican government, which had its origin in " Greece, was both a proof of the high intelligence of the " Greeks, and a powerful auxiliary in the subsequent advance- " ment of their civilization. (2) It was at first an effect, and " afterwards became a conspiring cause, of their superiority to "the Asiatic nations, to the nations which they designated as " barbarian. (3) The Greeks were the inventors of corporate " government, of the system of dividing the sovereign power " among a number of co-ordinate persons, whose combined " assent was necessary to an act of the supreme authority. " (4) For this assent of the sovereign body unanimity was not " requisite : it could be given by the majority. (5) This " system was invented by the Greeks, as much as the pendu- " lum clock was invented by Huyghens, or the steam-engine " by Watt. (6) When it was introduced by them, the world had " known nothing but monarchy. (7) It is the essence of a free " government : without the distribution of a sovereign power " among a body, free government cannot exist. (8) This im- " portant principle in the art of government the Greeks con- " ceived clearly, and after a time they applied it universally in " their small city communities. (9) The 'office of the ancient " hereditary king was either abolished, or converted into a " sacerdotal dignity ; any individual who, by cajoling or in- " timidating the people, was able to make himself a tyrant^ or " despot, was regarded as an usurper, and his rule rested on " force. (10) The Greeks detested the usurped and illegiti- " mate government of one man. but their application of the " principle of corporate government was unskilful, (n) They " either divided the entire sovereignty among a few men, " determined by birth or wealth, or they divided it among the "entire free body of citizens. (12) The former government " was called an oligarchy or aristocracy, the latter a democracy. " (13) There was no contrivance for delegating the sovereign " power, as in the modern system of Political Representation. EXAMPLE OF DISLOCATION. 8 1 "(14) In an oligarchy, the oligarchs were independent of " popular election ; in a democracy, the entire people exercised " their sovereign rights directly, and without appointing any " representatives to act for them. (15) This unskilful applica- " tion of an invaluable principle produced two ill results in the " republics of antiquity, one with respect to their internal, the "other with respect to their external relations. (16) As to " their internal relations, the ruling body in an oligarchy was " too independent of the people, while the ruling body in a " democracy was too numerous for intelligent government, and " was liable to be stimulated to passionate decisions by eloquent "demagogues. (17) As to their external relations, they were " unable to incorporate conquered territory into their own " system of government, upon fair and equal terms. (18) A " newly acquired province became a dependency, under the "ruling body of citizens in the sovereign state. (19) Never- " theless, with all their defects, the free governments of Greece " and Italy produced all that was precious in antiquity their " literature, their art, their science, their history. (20) It was "through them that the foundations of our modern [European " civilisation were laid. (21) They were a necessary condition " for the existence of a state of society and education which " could not grow up under the Oriental system of monarchy ; " the most improved method of government which the Greeks " found in being." I do not give this as a bad or unintelligible piece of com- position. The author's drift is tolerably plain, and he might well be satisfied with it as it stands. Still, the arrangement is vicious, and would be fatal if the subject were intrinsically more abstruse. There are three or four leading ideas in the paragraph, and these, instead of being each begun and ended in one continuous exposition, are mixed up together, now a sentence to one, and now a sentence to the other. Observe, 6 82 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. for example, how the one idea that the invention of corporate government was due to the Greeks is made to crop out in detached utterances. It is given by implication in sentence (i) ; it is the substance of (3) and (5), the statement being interrupted by another subject in (4) ; it is hinted at again in (8). The other topics are necessarily disjoined by this treat- ment. Along with the general fact now stated, there are two auxiliary or modifying statements, also given in the scattered fashion ; these are, the Greeks detested monarchy, and they were unskilful in their carrying out of the democratic system. The other main ideas are, the definition or essential principles of democracy, the varieties and forms set up in Greece, and the workings of these forms for good and for evil. There might be various modes of combing the paragraph straight. It would be a relief to omit all the iterations of the first-named idea, that is, that the Greeks were the sole inventors of corporate government. This, however, is evading the difficulty, and is not instructive as a lesson. Again, it is desirable, as a rule, to supply as early as possible the complete definition of the subject in hand. Now the explanation of what corporate government essentially consists in, is sporadi- cally spread in sentence (i), where it is named "plural" go- vernment, and opposed to monarchy, in (3), and in (4), (7), (II), (12). _ The merits and mistakes, the feelings and motives of the Greeks, are so intertwined with the exposition, that they cannot be easily separated and put away in a corner by them- selves ; the more so, that the author is bent on giving us the interest of personality along with his account of the contrasting forms of government. We must, therefore, be content with a compromise, after showing clearly what we consider objection- able, and what we should wish to have done. Considering that what is stated and iterated in sentences (i) and (2) namely, that democracy was both cause and effect of Grecian COMPROMISES OCCASIONALLY NECESSARY. 83 superiority is repeated at the close of the paragraph, and is suitably placed there, we have only to consider how to dispose of the first clause of (3), " the Greeks were the inventors," and (5), which contains this idea and nothing else ; we shall then have a nearly continuous exposition of the nature, the virtues, and the divisions of corporate government, as realised in Greece. Let us simply be content, in the first instance, with one intimation of the fact of the invention, and we may start the paragraph thus : " Before the Greeks, the world knew of no other Govern- ment besides monarchy ; to them exclusively was owing the in- troduction of plural or republican government ; the system of dividing the sovereign power among a number of co-ordinate persons, whose combined assent, as given by the majority, was necessary to an act of the supreme authority. This is the essence of free government ; without the distribution of the sove- reign power among a body, free government cannot exist." So far we have provided for the exposition of the main subject, and have found room for one emphatic assertion of the originality of the Greeks. We have now a little pause or break ; our next business being to point out in what forms the Greeks set up the plural government. In so doing, we may perhaps find room for iterating their merits, as the author is so anxious to do. In a preliminary statement, and once for all, this may be done again without a breach in the continuity of the exposition. " Detesting the usurped and illegitimate government of one man, and clearly conceiving the benefits of the corporate system, the Greeks, after a time, applied it universally in their small city communities. The office of the hereditary king was either abolished, or converted into a sacerdotal dignity ; and any individual, who, by cajoling or intimidating the people, was able to make himself a tyrant, or despot, was regarded as an usurper and his rule rested on force." This is so far continuous, but only preparatory. The next point is to 84 INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES SELECT LESSONS. state the positive or constructive side of the case ; which also the author accompanies with an expression relative to the merits of the Greeks. We shall make room for this on the same principle as before, and not allow it as an interruption. " There was, however, a want of skill in the carrying of the corporate principle into practice. Either the entire sovereignty was divided among a few men, determined by birth or wealth, or else it was exercised by the whole body of the free citizens ; there being nothing corresponding to our modern system of Political Representation. The first of the two modes was called an oligarchy or aristocracy, the second a democracy. Their defects were these : In an oligarchy, the oligarchs were independent of popular election ; in a democracy, the entire people exercised their sovereign rights directly ; for both these defects, representation would have been the remedy." We have now disposed of the corporate institutions, in their two forms, and, by a reference to the modern representative system, have shown at once the defects and the remedy. What follows, (15) to (18), is remarkably clear and consecutive, notwithstanding the difficulties of a double subject with double predicates. These four sentences are so well managed, that they may be left untouched. The concluding sentences indicate the great historical consequences of the Grecian system. To this conclusion we proposed to relegate the first sentence in the paragraph, if not superseded by what is there given. We may, however, for the purposes of the lesson, accept these sentences as we find them. They do not violate the principle that we have been endeavouring to enforce. They interrupt nothing, and they keep to a point, without digression or irrelevance ; a commendation not applicable to the first half of the paragraph. CHAPTER VI. EMOTIONAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. SELECT LESSONS. THE Emotional Qualities of Style, without being peculiar to Poetry, find their most sustained and perfect em- bodiment in poetical composition. By their very nature, they are vague and indefinite ; while the intellectual qualities are exact and scientific. It is, therefore, in the criticism of Poetry, that these qualities are brought fully under our notice. They are also set forth, in some methodical fashion, under every system of Rhetoric. Instruction in them, in order to be effective, needs to combine both methods of approach. Our greatest poets are, of course, our chief resort in the study of the poetic qualities. At the present moment, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, are in most request with English teachers. But devotion to any one man, even the greatest, may be over- done ; and this, I think, is more particularly the case with Shakespeare. We now possess, for use in schools, numerous annotated editions of the chief Shakespearian plays ; and every week is adding to the collection. I wish to enquire, how far the usual form of the annotations contributes to the education of the pupils in the Qualities of Style. One constant effort with the editors is to explain all ob- scure, archaic, or far-fetched words, with a view to the better 86 EMOTIONAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. understanding of the text. This of course is valuable, but it is not properly an education in English. It indirectly adds to the influence exerted upon the pupil by the reading of Shake- speare, but does nothing to analyze or explain that influence. It is not even criticism, or an aid to criticism. It has no im- mediate rhetorical bearing whatever. Another interesting stroke of editorship is to trace the sources of each play in our previous literature. This is curious in itself, and also illustrative of the transforming genius of Shakespeare ; yet it does but little to penetrate the secrets of his style. More important still is the attempt occasionally made to treat each play as a work of literary art ; to show how the action proceeds by well-considered steps to the final denoue- ment. This undoubtedly is poetical criticism : it does not exactly refer to Poetic Qualities in the acceptation of the indivi- dual effects of the noted passages; nevertheless, it is a part, and a vital part, of the art of Poetry. The thing wanting, however, is to couple with the criticism, or to connect with it in the course of the teaching, some general view of the structure of the Drama of its essentials, and its merits. The account of each play would exemplify this general view, and would be illustrated and impressed by it. To a pupil that has no con- ception whatever of the plan of a Drama, the criticism of an individual example is without effect. It is in the attempt to set forth the dramatic merits of each play, that dissertations are frequently introduced in regard to the characters of the leading dramatis personae, and the consis- tency or propriety observed in assigning their parts and sup- plying their language. As there is a tendency to find Shake- speare perfect in nearly everything, great commendations are bestowed upon the keeping, as well as the language, of the characters. Now the explanation of a character may be so superficial MODES OF ANNOTATING SHAKESPEARE. 87 that any one can understand it. Lady fylacbeth is led away by her own and her husband's ambition, and does a horrible deed. She is not, however, an utterly depraved wretch ; and, when she has time to reflect, her conscience stings her. and she dies a victim to remorse. This is tolerably intelligible to the meanest capacity, and stands on the face of the play. But critics have striven to give much deeper renderings, which are not so self-explaining, and are not fit for elementary teaching. So with Hamlet : there is a superficial, and also a deeper aspect ; but there is as yet no general agreement as to his real character. After considering the propriety of the individual characters, there is a further question as to the dramatic suitability of each. It has to be seen whether a good drama is produced by their mutual action ; whether the selection of phases is artistic, and not mere chance work. An artist must subdue the horrors of a tragic story, so that it shall be pleasing on the whole. Shakespeare does not always succeed in this, and the points where he fails come within the scope of critical explanation. A pupil cannot be made to comprehend a play as a work of Art, unless by a comparison of several, united with that general scheme of dramatic composition already adverted to. The notes that may be attached to a solitary play of Shakespeare, to which a class may have devoted so much time as to exclude the comparison with the plays of other dramatists, will cer- tainly make no impression whatever. Indeed, the theory of dramatic art cannot be given in teaching, unless by a regular course of Poetry, combining theoretical views with select re- ferences over the general field of poetical literature. One great drawback in the current mode of annotating Shakespeare for school teaching is, that nearly everything is memory work. The meanings of the archaic and obscure terms have to be taken up by memory as a matter of course. The sources of the plays, if insisted on in examinations, have 88 EMOTIONAL QUALITIES OF STYLE. to be got by rote. The attempt to set out the proprieties of the drama, and the keeping of the characters, not being con- ducted according to principles, is also so much memory. There is hardly anything contrived expressly to call the pupil's judgment into exercise. The Examination papers founded on the Shakespearian plays show memory at its maximum, judgment at its minimum. The teacher is made painfully aware, that his work consists in nearly unmitigated and uninteresting cram. To make a study of a modern writer is to increase the pupil's stock of modern ideas and modern diction. This cannot be said of Shakespeare. We cannot often appropriate his diction ; while, as to the winged words that he has cast abroad over literature, we become masters of them without going to the original ; and a large part of his composition is unsuitable to present wants. A knowledge of his grammar can only gratify learned curiosity. One valuable exercise that might bear some fruit, would be to point out his occasional singularity in the use of words, and to give the precise equivalents in good modern prose. It is a peculiarity of his genius to deviate from the current phrases, sometimes in order to his master-strokes of strength and brevity, at other times, from mere indifference to the choice of his terms, provided they come near the thing. " Sir Hugh, persuade me not," would be, in modern usage, and in the usage of a carefully correct writer of Shakespeare's own time, for example, Massin- ger, "Advise, or counsel me not " : " fate and metaphysical aid," would be supernatural aid, as in another passage, we have " supernatural soliciting ". The word " metaphysical " never had the meaning here intended. "The quality of mercy is not strained": modern equivalent, "it is the quality, or the essence, of mercy not to be under constraint ". " The play was caviare to the general " the generality, the multitude. " My thought whose murther yet is but fantastical," might be para- phrased [and this is a legitimate paraphrase], " my thought, in SHAKESPEARE'S SINGULAR USES OF WORDS. 89 which (while) murder is yet but a fantasy or an imagination". " Most of us would be (cowards) too, but for inflammation." Certainly not the proper use of the word ; but it suggests the meaning, and a single word exactly appropriate would not be easy to find. The following are additional examples : It is easy to see how the word " answer " should tend to- wards the meaning " retaliation," and yet " retaliation " and " answer " are quite different words. The two are confounded in the sentence " great the slaughter here made by the Romans ; great the answer [retaliation] the Britons must take ". " Thus far into the bowels of the land have we marched on without impediment." " Bowels of the land " means strictly the underlying rocks and geological formations of the earth : " interior " is the word here. Instead of ;< how silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, like softest music to attending ears," we should say listening or attentive ears. " Thy heart is big, get thee apart and weep. Passion, I see, is catching." Here " passion " is, obviously, used for emotion, and " catching " for infecting. If " faith " is " the eye of the soul," then it is the function of faith to look before or see into the future ; " belief" is an intellectual operation and is simply assent. Hence prospect is the wrong word applied to " belief " in the following : " and to be king stands not within the pro- spect of belief, no more than to be Cawdor". In Shakespeare, " several " (like " particular ") is frequently used for separate or different. Thus : " My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain". "All studies here I solemnly defy) save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke " : " defy " stands for renounce. Translated into modern form, " upon his place, and with full line of his authority, governs Lord Angelo," would run " in his room, and armed with his full authority, governs Lord Angelo ". In the single sentence, " Even so the 9