C k \J 
 
 P H 
 
 
PARAGRAPH-WRITING 
 
 
 T 
 BY 
 
 FRED N. SCOTT, PH.D. 
 
 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF KHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF MICHIGAN 
 
 AND 
 
 JOSEPH V. DENNEY, A.B. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 Boston 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
 1895 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1893, 
 BY FEED N. SCOTT AND JOSEPH V. DENNEY. 
 
 Nortoooli ^rrgg : 
 
 ]. S. Gushing & Co. Berwick & Smith. 
 Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE principles embodied in this work were developed 
 and put in practice by its authors at the University of 
 Michigan several years ago. When the nature of the class- 
 room work and its results became known, there were many 
 inquiries from teachers in preparatory schools and colleges 
 in regard to the methods employed. In response to these 
 inquiries a small pamphlet (now out of print) was pub- 
 lished and circulated. The present work, while in a lim- 
 ited sense a revision of that pamphlet, is virtually another 
 book. In the earlier work the aim was to suggest a useful 
 exercise in writing English. This book goes farther. Its 
 aim is to make the paragraph the basis of a method of 
 composition, to present all the important facts of rhetoric 
 in their application to the paragraph. Since the point of 
 view which is assumed is in some respects novel, a few 
 words of explanation will not be out of place. 
 
 Learning to write well in one's own language means in 
 large part learning to give unity and coherence to one's 
 ideas. It means learning to construct units of discourse 
 which have order and symmetry and coherence of parts. 
 It means learning theoretically how such units are made, 
 and practically how to put them together ; and further, if 
 they turn out badly the first time, how to take them apart 
 and put them together again in another and better order, 
 The making and re-making of such units is in genera? 
 terms the task of all who produce written discourse. 
 
 iii 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 The task of the teacher of those who produce written 
 discourse, it follows, is in great part setting students to 
 construct such units, explaining the principles upon which 
 the units are made, arousing a sense that they are units 
 and not mere heaps or nebulous masses, and (hoc opus, 
 hie labor est) correcting departures from unity, order, and 
 coherence when such departures occur. 
 
 Work of this kind on the part of writer or of teacher 
 presupposes a unit of discourse. Of these units there are 
 three, the sentence, the paragraph, and the essay or 
 whole composition. Which of these three is best adapted, 
 psychologically and pedagogically, to the end proposed? 
 The sentence may be rejected at the outset as at once too 
 simple and too fragmentary. Practice in the composing of 
 disconnected sentences is not of much service to students 
 of composition. This remark applies to the lower as well 
 as to the higher grades. 1 Moreover, as Professor Barrett 
 Wendell has pointed out (English Composition, p. 117), the 
 sentence is properly a subject of revision, not of prevision, 
 good sentences are produced by criticising them after 
 they are written rather than by planning them beforehand. 
 Putting the sentence aside, then, what shall be said of the 
 paragraph and the essay ? Of the two the essay is theo- 
 retically the more proper unit of discourse. But is it 
 always so in practice ? Is it not true that for students at 
 a certain stage of their progress the essay is too complex 
 and too cumbersome to be appreciated as a whole ? Aris- 
 totle long ago laid down the psychological principle which 
 should govern the selection of a structural unit : " As for 
 the limit fixt by the nature of the case, the greatest con- 
 
 1 A series of experiments conducted by Miss H. M. Scott, Principal of 
 the Detroit Training School for Teachers (Report of the Detroit Normal 
 Training School for 1893) , show that . children even in the lowest grades 
 comprehend a paragraph-group, or ' sequence ' of sentences, more readily 
 than sentences taken separately. They learn to read more easily and 
 rapidly by the ' paragraph method ' than by the sentence method. 
 
Preface. v 
 
 sisterit with simultaneous comprehension is always the 
 best." If students who have written essays for years have 
 with all their labor developed but a feeble sense for struct- 
 ural unity, may the reason not lie in the fact that the unit 
 of discourse employed has been so large and so complex 
 that it could not be grasped with a single effort of the 
 mind? 
 
 If there is a measure of truth in what has here been 
 urged, it would appear that for certain periods in the stu- 
 dent's development the paragraph, as an example of struct- 
 ural unity, offers peculiar advantages. The nature of these 
 advantages has already been suggested. They are, in brief, 
 as follows : The paragraph, being in its method practically 
 identical with the essay, exemplifies identical principles of 
 structure. It exemplifies these principles in small and 
 convenient compass so that they are easily appreciable by 
 the beginner. Further, while the writing of the paragraph 
 exercises the student in the same elements of structure 
 which would be brought to his attention were he drilled in 
 the writing of essays, he can write more paragraphs than 
 he can write essays in the same length of time ; hence the 
 character of the work may be made for him more varied, 
 progressive, and interesting. If the paragraph thus suits 
 the needs of the student, it has even greater advantages 
 from the point of view of the teacher. The bugbear of the 
 teacher of Rhetoric is the correcting of essays. When 
 the compositions are long and crude and errors abound, 
 the burden sometimes becomes almost intolerable. In 
 many cases it is a necessary burden and must be borne 
 with patience, but this is not always so. Since the student 
 within the limits of the paragraph makes the same errors 
 which he commits in the writing of longer compositions, 
 in the greater part of the course the written work may 
 profitably be shortened from essays to paragraphs. Para- 
 graph-writing has the further advantage that, if necessary, 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 the composition may be re-written from beginning to end, 
 and, most important of all, when completed is not too long 
 for the teacher to read and criticise in the presence of the 
 class. 
 
 Finally, the paragraph furnishes a natural introduction 
 to work of a more difficult character. When the time 
 comes for the writing of essays, the transition from the 
 smaller unit to its larger analogue is made with facility. 
 Upon this point we cannot do better than to quote the 
 words of Professor Bain : 
 
 Adapting an old homely maxim, we may say, Look to the Para- 
 graphs, and the Discourse will look to itself, for, although a discourse 
 as a whole has a method or plan suited to its nature, yet the confining 
 of each paragraph to a distinct topic avoids some of the worst faults of 
 Composition ; besides which, he that fully comprehends the method of 
 a paragraph will also comprehend the method of an entire work. 
 Bam : Composition and Rhetoric, I. 178. 
 
 This book is an attempt to embody in a manual the ideas 
 which have just been advanced, to utilize this convenient 
 element of discourse, this half-way house between the sen- 
 tence and the essay, as a basis for a method of English compo- 
 sition. In Part I., following the natural order of treatment, 
 the nature and laws of the paragraph are presented; the 
 isolated paragraph, its structure and function, are dis- 
 cussed : and finally, considerable space is devoted to related 
 paragraphs, that is, those which are combined into essays. 
 Part II. is a chapter on the theory of the paragraph in- 
 tended for teachers and advanced students. In Part III. 
 will be found copious materials for class-room work, 
 selected paragraphs, suggestions to teachers, 1 lists of sub- 
 
 1 The hints and suggestions given on the following pages will, it is 
 hoped, be found of especial interest to teachers : (in fine print) pp. 15, 16, 
 18, 24, 36, 39, 44, 58, 60, 68, 84, 85, 106 ; (in large print) pp. 119, 120, 172, 
 173, 174, 180, 182, 191, 202, 203, 212, 213, 255-259. 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 jects for compositions (about two thousand in all), and 
 helpful references of many kinds. 
 
 A general acknowledgment of the sources from which 
 assistance has been received will be found on p. 106. For 
 the ingenious and workable method of drill outlined in 
 Appendix A 12 (pp. 119, 120), the authors are indebted to 
 Dr. A. F. Lange, Associate Professor of English in the 
 University of California. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 IN completion of the general plan of the book, and in 
 deference to the wishes of many teachers who are using 
 PARAGRAPH-WRITING as an elementary rhetoric, the authors 
 have added to this revision, as Appendix H, a chapter on 
 the Rhetoric of the Paragraph, in which will be found 
 applications of the paragraph-idea to the sentence and to 
 the constituent parts of the sentence so far as these demand 
 especial notice. The new material thus provided, supplies, 
 in the form of principles and illustrations, as much additional 
 theory as the student of elementary rhetoric needs to master 
 and apply in order to improve the details of his paragraphs 
 in unity, clearness, and force. 
 
 Each of these three essentials is first presented as a 
 requisite of the paragraph as a whole. It is then applied 
 to the sentence and to the lesser articulations of thought 
 within the sentence. Principles governing such matters as 
 the choice of sentence-forms, the placement of clauses and 
 phrases, and the minutiae of composition, thus find their 
 reason and explanation in the needs of the paragraph as the 
 larger and determining unit. 
 
 The study of Elegance, or Beauty, as a distinct topic, is 
 purposely omitted. Students need first of all to learn the 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 beauty of unified thought and the beauty of clear statement. 
 Through long practice of these excellences they may come, 
 at a later stage of their study, to safe and sound ideas of 
 beauty as a definite rhetorical principle; but until they 
 reach that stage, attempts to teach them Elegance are only 
 too likely to result in 'fine writing/ exhibitions of crude 
 taste, and the misconception that rhetoric, in one of its 
 departments, deals largely in adornment and sentimentality. 
 
 Figures of speech are referred to only so far as their 
 misuse hinders the attainment of unity, clearness, and force. 
 Questions of word-usage are left to be answered by refer- 
 ence to the dictionary. 
 
 Appendix H is not an exercise in the correction of bad 
 English. The groups of quotations given are intended, with 
 the accompanying theory, to furnish sufficient material from 
 which to deduce the principles that follow each group. The 
 appendix may properly be introduced as supplementary text 
 in connection with the chapter that closes on page 47. 
 
 References to Appendix H have been inserted in Appendix 
 G 5 for the convenience of the student in revising and cor- 
 recting errors that are marked in his paragraphs and essays. 
 
 In other respects, also, the book has been revised for this 
 edition; but the changes in the text, while numerous, are 
 too minute to deserve mention in detail. For most of these 
 corrections and improvements the authors are indebted to 
 teachers who are using the work in their classes. To these, 
 and to all others who have been so kind as to offer sug- 
 gestions, the authors wish to make here a general acknowl- 
 edgment. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 1 
 
 (a) Definition of the Paragraph 1 
 
 (6) Classes of Paragraphs 2 
 
 (1) The Related Paragraph 2 
 
 (2) The Isolated Paragraph 2 
 
 (c) General Laws of the Paragraph 4 
 
 (1) Unity 4 
 
 (2) Selection 6 
 
 (3) Proportion 10 
 
 (4) Sequence 13 
 
 (5) Variety 15 
 
 (d) Application of these Laws in Choice of Paragraph Subject 17 
 THE ISOLATED PARAGRAPH 18 
 
 1. Paragraph Subject 19 
 
 (a) Where placed 19 
 
 (1) First 19 
 
 (2) First and Last 20 
 
 (3) Last 21 
 
 (6) Subject Implied 23 
 
 2. Means of Developing 24 
 
 (a) Repetition 25 
 
 (6) Definition 26 
 
 (c) Contrast 27 
 
 (d) Explanation and Illustration 28 
 
 (e) Particulars and Details 30 
 
 (/) Proofs 31 
 
 (#) Enforcement 32 
 
 (ft) Introduction and Transition 33 
 
 3. Effect on Sentence Structure 36 
 
 (a) Inversion 37 
 
 (6) Parallel Construction 38 
 
 ix 
 
x Table of Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (c) Repetition 39 
 
 (d) Subordination 40 
 
 (e) Punctuation 42 
 
 4. Types of Paragraph Structure 47 
 
 (a) Expository and Argumentative 48 
 
 1. The Logical Type 48 
 
 (1) Deductive 49 
 
 (2) Inductive 50 
 
 2. The Less Formal Types 51 
 
 (1) Paragraphs of Definition 52 
 
 (2) Paragraphs of Detail 54 
 
 (3) Other Types '. 54 
 
 (6) Descriptive and Narrative 55 
 
 (1) Portrait Sketches 56 
 
 (2) Character Sketches 58 
 
 THE RELATED PARAGRAPH 60 
 
 1. Special Form^ 60 
 
 (a) Introductory and Concluding Paragraphs 61 
 
 (6) Transitional ctnd Directive Paragraphs 63 
 
 (c) Amplifying Paragraphs 63 
 
 2. The Writing of Essays 64 
 
 (a) The Descriptive Essay 65 
 
 (1) Province and Kinds of Description 65 
 
 (2) Selection of a Subject 66 
 
 (3) Outlining the Subject 66 
 
 (4) Purpose in Description 67 
 
 (5) Point of View 67 
 
 (6) Selection of Details 68 
 
 (7) Sequence and Grouping of Details 69 
 
 (8) Helps to Description 69 
 
 (6) The Narrative Essay 70 
 
 (1) Province and Kinds of Narration 70 
 
 (2) Selection of a Subject 70 
 
 (3) Outlining the Subject 71 
 
 (4) "Unity and Selection 72 
 
 (5) Sequence and Grouping of Details 73 
 
 (6) Suspense and Movement 73 
 
 (7) Plausibility and Verisimilitude 74 
 
 (8) Helps to Narration 74 
 
 (c) The Expository Essay 75 
 
 1. Kinds and Uses of Exposition 76 
 
. 
 
 Table of Contents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 -^2. Scientific Exposition 76 
 
 (1) Analysis by Partition 77 
 
 (2) Analysis by Division 78 
 
 (3) Exposition by Definition 80 
 
 (4) Exposition by Similarity and Contrast 81 
 
 -"3. Popular Exposition 82 
 
 (1) The Didactic Essay 82 
 
 (2) The Conversational Essay 83 
 
 (3) The Critical Essay 83 
 
 4. The Paraphrase and the Abstract 85 
 
 (d) The Argumentative Essay 87 
 
 1. The Proposition 87 
 
 2. Classification and Kinds of Arguments 88 
 
 3. The Order of Arguments 91 
 
 PAKT II. 
 
 THEORY OF THE PARAGRAPH 93 
 
 PAKT in. 
 
 APPENDICES 107 
 
 A 1. Paragraphs to be criticised and re-written 107 
 
 2. General subjects to be narrowed 110 
 
 3. Topic-sentences to be developed by repetition Ill 
 
 4. Topic-sentences to be developed by definition 112 
 
 5. Topic-sentences to be developed by contrast 112 
 
 6. Topic-sentences to be developed by explanation 113 
 
 7. Topic-sentences to be developed by particulars 114 
 
 8. Topic-sentences to be developed by proofs 115 
 
 9. Topic-sentences to be developed by enforcement 116 
 
 10. Topic-sentences to be developed by any method 117 
 
 11. Table of typical paragraph structure 118 
 
 12. Outlines for paragraph- writing and specimen outlines 119 
 
 13. Paragraphs for analysis by thought divisions 137 
 
 B. A selected list of typical paragraphs for various exercises 141 
 
 <C 1 (a). Ten-minute themes in exposition and argument 172 
 
 1(6). Other sources of themes 174 
 
 1 (c). Themes for practice in outlining 175 
 
 2. Ten-minute themes in narration and description . . . 179 
 
xii Table of Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 (a). List of references to selections for short reproduc- 
 tions in class 180 
 
 3 (6). List of references to selections for paraphrases and 
 
 abstracts 182 
 
 D 1. Typical introductory and concluding paragraphs 185 
 
 2. Typical transitional and directive paragraphs 187 
 
 3. Typical amplifying paragraphs 189 
 
 E (a). A list of references to short stories for rhetorical 
 
 analysis 191 
 
 (6). A list of references to essays, speeches, and sketches 
 
 for rhetorical analysis 195 
 
 F. Suggestions of exercises in reporting, editing, and proof- 
 reading 202 
 
 G 1. A general reference list to bibliographies 212 
 
 2. A classified list of essay- subjects 213 
 
 3. A miscellaneous list of essay- subjects j 237 
 
 4. General rules for capitals and punctuation, with news- 
 
 paper variations 244 
 
 5. Abbreviations used in correcting manuscripts 255 
 
 H. The Rhetoric of the Paragraph 260 
 
 INDEXES. 
 
 I. GENERAL INDEX 289 
 
 II. INDEX TO ESSAY-SUBJECTS , 291 
 
PARAGRAPH-WRITING. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 INTKODUCTOKY. 
 (a) DEFINITION OF THE PARAGRAPH. 
 
 A paragraph is a unit of discourse developing a single 
 idea. It consists of a group or series of sentences closely 
 related to one another and to the thought expressed by the 
 whole group or series. Devoted, like the sentence, to the 
 development of one topic, a good paragraph is also, like a 
 good essay, a complete treatment in itself. 
 
 The following paragraphs illustrate this close relation of 
 sentences : 
 
 I willingly concede all that you say against fashionable society as a 
 whole. It is, as you say, frivolous, bent on amusement, incapable of 
 attention sufficiently prolonged to grasp any serious subject, and 
 liable both to confusion and inaccuracy in the ideas which it hastily 
 forms or easily receives. You do right, assuredly, not to let it waste 
 your most valuable hours, but I believe also that you do wrong in 
 keeping out of it altogether. 
 
 The society which seems so frivolous in masses contains individual 
 members who, if you knew them better, would be able and willing to 
 render you the most efficient intellectual help, and you miss this help 
 by restricting yourself exclusively to books. Nothing can replace 
 the conversation of living men and women ; not even the richest 
 literature can replace it. Hamerton : The Intellectual Life, Part IX. 
 Letter V. 
 
Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (b) CLASSES OF PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 A paragraph may be studied as constituting with other 
 paragraphs a complete essay, or, it may be regarded by 
 itself as a separate and complete composition in miniature. 
 
 (1) The Belated Paragraph. 
 
 Paragraphs of the first class we will call related para- 
 graphs since they are closely related to each other and* to 
 the essay of which they are the constituent units. Succes- 
 sive related paragraphs, as portions of a larger whole, treat 
 in turn the topics into which, according to the general plan 
 of the production, the subject naturally divides itself. If 
 the subject of the essay requires but a brief treatment and 
 the plan includes but two or three main headings, a single 
 paragraph may suffice for each. Of a more extensive produc- 
 tion, involving carefully planned divisions and subdivisions 
 in the outline, each sub-topic may require a separate para- 
 graph for its adequate treatment. 
 
 (2) The Isolated Paragraph. 
 
 A large class of subjects, however, admit of complete 
 treatment in single paragraphs. Such are simple in their 
 nature ; for example, incidents, brief descriptions of per- 
 sons and of places, terse comments upon current events, 
 and short discussions on isolated phases of political and 
 social questions. A single paragraph, which in itself gives 
 an adequate treatment of any subject or of a single phase 
 of any subject, we will call an isolated paragraph. 
 
 Both classes of paragraphs are units of discourse, though in slightly different senses. 
 An isolated paragraph, standing by itself and existing for itself is an independent unit, 
 whereas related paragraphs, existing as portions of a larger whole, are dependent or 
 subordinate units. 
 
Introductory. 3 
 
 The quotation from Hamerton, on page 1, illustrates 
 related paragraphs, treating two phases of a single idea. 
 The topic in the outline treated by the first of these para- 
 graphs is, " Society is frivolous as a whole " ; that treated 
 by the second is, " But society contains individuals who are 
 not frivolous." These paragraphs are so closely related, 
 in thought, that each is necessary to the other ; but each 
 represents a distinct phase of the thought. 
 
 The following are illustrations of isolated paragraphs. 
 In these cases the treatment is sufficiently complete and 
 adequate in a single paragraph : 
 
 Not many years ago two women in this country, one in Boston and 
 one in New York, became successful swindlers by simply promising 
 excessive rates of interest on money deposited in their hands. They 
 offered not the slightest security, and their success was due simply to 
 the desire for inordinate returns on money. Some women in the 
 island of Malta have done still better. A charwoman offered to 
 receive deposits and pay a shilling a week per pound as interest, or 
 about two hundred and sixty per cent per year. The money and 
 valuables deposited in her hands, of course, became capital from 
 which, for a time, she was able to pay her interest, and her business 
 was so immediately successful that other women started in, with the 
 result of setting in motion a mania, the Maltese of all classes seem- 
 ing to be possessed of a desire to put deposits in the hands of these 
 women, until the amount in their keeping exceeded half a million 
 dollars. For a time all went well, but presently there was a default 
 and the bubble burst, leaving not a rack behind except a few pawn- 
 tickets. The singular thing about this performance was the fact that 
 everybody knew the women to be living in poverty, and some of them 
 in squalor, and yet nobody seemed to hesitate to put valuables into 
 their keeping. Evidently the desire to make money rapidly is not 
 confined to the American genus. Christian Union, 19 Nov., 1892. 
 
 Lowell's legacy as a poet is great, but not greater than his legacy 
 as a patriot. The true patriot does not love his country, labor and 
 suffer for it, simply because he happened to be born in it, that 
 would be the infatuation of the egotist ; but because, being born in it, 
 his duty and pleasure are to help on all human progress by helping 
 on first the progress of the land to which he belongs. This is Lowell's 
 
4 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 legacy as a patriot, not the sentiment u My country, right or 
 wrong," but "My country it shall never be wrong if I can help 
 it ! " The true patriot is not the one who says it is my country, and 
 its institutions, that are sacred; but who says, with Lowell, "It is 
 Man who is sacred." The citizen who holds to this sacredness of 
 humanity will be the most useful in securing institutions and a coun- 
 try whose services to humanity will make them also sacred in his own 
 heart, and in the hearts of all good men. Century ', 43 : 150. 
 
 (c) GENERAL LAWS OF THE PARAGRAPH. 
 
 As a unit of discourse, every paragraph, whether related 
 or isolated, is subject to the general laws of unity, selection, 
 proportion, sequence, and variety, which govern all good 
 ' composition. 
 
 (1) Unity. 
 
 The most important of these is the law of unity, which 
 ('requires that the sentences composing the paragraph be 
 \ intimately connected with one another in thought and pur- 
 'pose. The fundamental idea of the paragraph is oneness 
 of aim and end in all of its parts. Unity is violated, there- 
 fore, when any sentence is admitted as a part, which does 
 not clearly contribute its share of meaning towards the 
 object for which the paragraph is written. Unity forbids 
 digressions and irrelevant matter. The most common vio- 
 lation of unity is including matter in one paragraph which 
 should either be taken out and made a separate paragraph 
 by itself or be dropped altogether. 
 
 The following paragraph from Dryden, on Translation, 
 will serve to illustrate how unity is frequently violated : 
 
 (1) Translation is a kind of drawing after the life ; where every 
 one will acknowledge there is a double sort of likeness, a good one 
 and a bad. It is one thing to draw the outlines true, the features 
 like, the proportions exact, the colouring itself perhaps tolerable ; and 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 another thing to make all these graceful, by the posture, the shadow- 
 ings, and chiefly by the spirit which animates the whole. (2) I can- 
 not, without some indignation, look on an ill copy of an excellent 
 original ; much less can I behold with patience Virgil, Homer, and 
 some others, whose beauties I have been endeavouring all my life to 
 imitate, so abused, as I may say, to their faces by a botching inter- 
 preter. What English readers, unacquainted with Greek or Latin, 
 will believe me or any other man, when we commend these authors, 
 and confess, we derive all that is pardonable in us from their foun- 
 tains, if they take those to be the same poets whom our Oglevies have 
 translated ? But I dare assure them that a good poet is no more like 
 himself in dull translation, than his carcase would be to his living 
 body. (3) There are many who understand Greek and Latin and yet 
 are ignorant of their mother tongue. The proprieties and delicacies 
 of the English are known to few ; it is impossible even for a good wit 
 to understand and practise them without the help of a liberal educa- 
 tion, long reading and digesting of those few good authors we have 
 amongst us ; the knowledge of men and manners, the freedom of 
 habitudes and conversation with the best company of both sexes; 
 and, in short, without wearing off the rust which he contracted while 
 he was laying in a stock of learning. Thus difficult it is to under- 
 stand the purity of English, and critically to discern, not only good 
 writers from bad, and a proper style from a corrupt, but also to dis- 
 tinguish that which is pure in a good author from that which is vicious 
 and corrupt in him. And for want of all these requisites, or the 
 greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young men take up some 
 cried-up English poet for their model ; adore him, and imitate him, 
 as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is 
 boyish and trifling, wherein either his thoughts are improper to his 
 subject, or his expressions unworthy of his thoughts, or the turn of 
 both is unharmonious. 
 
 The section of this paragraph marked (2) is an expression of Dryden's personal feel- 
 ings towards bad translations, and shows no connection with what precedes in the sec- 
 tion marked (1), which states the nature and difficulties of translation. Section (2) 
 should either be omitted entirely or be taken out and made into a separate paragraph, 
 prefaced, as Bain suggests (Rhetoric, Part 1. p. 113), by some such statement as this : 
 "A good original must not be judged by an ill copy." Section (3) would, in the latter 
 case, also become a separate paragraph, prefaced by some such statement as this : 
 " That good translations are few is not to be wondered at. For a good translation two 
 things are required : a knowledge of English, as well as a knowledge of the original." 
 The order of the paragraphs would then be (1), (3), (2). If section (2) were omitted 
 entirely, section (3) might be unified with section (1) by prefacing (3) with the single 
 
6 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 sentence: "For a good translation two things are required: a knowledge of English, 
 as well as a knowledge of the original." The changes suggested here in the order of 
 sentences illustrate also the law of sequence (the fourth law of the paragraph). 
 
 Good examples of paragraphs possessing unity will be 
 seen in the quotation from Hamerton, already given, and 
 in the quotations from Emerson's Essay on Art (see Pro- 
 portion), from Macaulay's Essay on the Earl of Chatham, 
 in the quotation from Dr. Johnson (see Sequence), and in 
 the descriptive paragraph quoted in illustration of the next 
 law (see Selection). 
 
 In the following from Ruskin, unity is secured by the 
 figure of speech which runs through the whole paragraph : 
 
 Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth what violent 
 muscular action is to the body of man. The muscles and tendons of 
 its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with fierce and con- 
 vulsive energy, fullv of expression, passion, and strength ; the plains 
 and the lower hills are the repose and the effortless motion of the 
 frame, when its muscles lie dormant and concealed beneath the lines 
 of its beauty, yet ruling those lines in their every undulation. This, 
 tlren, is the first grand principle of the truth of the earth. The spirit 
 of the hills is action ; that of the lowlands, repose ; and between these 
 there is to be found every variety of motion and of rest ; from the 
 inactive plain, sleeping like the firmament, with cities for stars, to the 
 fiery peaks, which, with heaving bosoms and exulting limbs, with 
 the clouds drifting like hair from their bright foreheads, lift up their 
 Titan hands to Heaven, saying, " I live forever ! " Modern Painters, 
 Vol. I. pt. ii. sec. iv. chap. i. 
 
 Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1. 
 
 (2) Selection. 
 
 The law of selection requires that of all which might be 
 said on the subject treated, only those points be chosen for 
 mention in the sentences which will best subserve the pur- 
 pose of the paragraph and will give force and distinction to 
 its main idea. In narrative or descriptive paragraphs, a 
 
Introductory. 7 
 
 few well-chosen points will usually serve better than the 
 mention of many minute and unimportant particulars. 
 What to omit is here the important question for the writer. 
 The effort to make the narrative or description complete 
 even to the smallest details frequently renders the account 
 obscure. There is less danger of this in paragraphs of an 
 expository or argumentative character. In these, violations 
 of this law more often arise from selecting remote and 
 inapplicable figures of speech and far-fetched and mislead- 
 ing contrasts. 
 
 The following quotation contains two such contrasts, so 
 far-fetched and inapplicable to the subject that their force 
 is lost, to most readers. They are here printed in italics : 
 
 Ordinary criminal justice knows nothing of set-off. The greatest 
 desert cannot be pleaded in answer to a charge of the slightest trans- 
 gression. If a man has sold beer on Sunday morning, it is no defence 
 that he has saved the life of a fellow-creature at the risk of his own. 
 If he has harnessed a Newfoundland dog to his little child's carriage, 
 it is no defense that he was wounded at Waterloo. Macaulay : Lord 
 Clive. 
 
 Some more obvious ' transgression ' than * harnessing a Newfoundland dog to his 
 little child's carriage,' (it will occur to most readers,) ought to have been cited, in order 
 to justify the extraordinary method of defense suggested that of exposing the wounds 
 the prisoner received at Waterloo. The very wideness from each other of the things 
 selected for contrast defeats the writer's purpose. This is a charge, however, that can- 
 not often be brought against Macaulay. His paragraphs are, in general, models of struc- 
 ture, unity, and force. 
 
 De Quincey, especially when he tries to be humorous, 
 often suffers from what may be called a temporary 
 paralysis of the selective faculty. In the following 
 example, if the subject of the paragraph is ' The Hebrew 
 Source of Mendelssohn's Music/ the portions in italics are 
 not happily chosen. 
 
 It strikes me that I see the source of this music. We that were 
 learning German some thirty years ago must remember the noise made 
 at that time about Mendelssohn, the Platonic philosopher. And why f 
 
8 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Was there anything particular in " Der Phcedon " on the immortality 
 of the soul ? Not at all ; it left us quite as mortal as it found us ; 
 and it has long since been found mortal itself. Its venerable remains 
 are still to be met with in many worm-eaten trunks, pasted on the lids 
 of which I have myself perused a matter of thirty pages, except for a 
 part that had been too closely perused by worms. But the key to all 
 the popularity of the Platonic Mendelssohn is to be sought in the whim- 
 sical nature of German liberality, which, in those days, forced Jews 
 into paying toll at the gates of cities, under the title of "swine," but 
 caressed their infidel philosophers. Now, in this category of Jew and 
 infidel stood the author of " Phsedon." He was certainly liable to toll 
 as a hog ; but, on the other hand, he was much admired as one who 
 despised the Pentateuch. Now, that Mendelssohn, whose learned 
 labours lined our trunks, was the father of this Mendelssohn, whose 
 Greek music afflicts our ears. Naturally, then, it strikes me that, as 
 "papa" Mendelssohn attended the synagogue to save appearances, 
 the filial Mendelssohn would also attend it. I likewise attended the 
 synagogue now and then at Liverpool and elsewhere. We all three 
 have been cruising in the same latitudes ; and, trusting to my own 
 remembrances, I should pronounce that Mendelssohn has stolen his 
 Greek music from the synagogue. There was, in the first chorus of 
 the " Antigone," one sublime ascent (and once repeated) that rang to 
 heaven : it might have entered into the music of Jubal's lyre, or have 
 glorified the timbrel of Miriam. All the rest, tried by the deep 
 standard of my own feeling, that clamours for the impassioned in 
 music, even as the daughter of the horse-leech says, " Give, give," 
 is as much without meaning as most of the Hebrew chanting that I 
 heard at the Liverpool synagogue. I advise Mr. Murray, in the event 
 of his ever reviving the "Antigone," to make the chorus sing the 
 Hundredth Psalm rather than Mendelssohn's music, or, which would 
 be better still, to import from Lancashire the Handel chorus-singers. 
 De Quincey : The Antigone of Sophocles. 
 
 What connection is there, in the following, between the 
 anecdote of Lord Nelson and the remainder of the para- 
 graph ? 
 
 During pedestrian tours in New England, in various parts of the 
 West, and in every Southern State, I have frequently stayed for the 
 night at the houses of poor farmers, laborers, fishermen, and trappers. 
 In such journeys I have invariably listened to the tales of the neigh- 
 
Introductory. 9 
 
 borhood, stimulating them by suggestion, and have found the belief 
 in witchcraft cropping out in the oldest towns in New England, some- 
 times within the very shadow of the buildings where a learned minis- 
 try has existed from the settlement of the country, and public schools 
 have furnished means of education to all classes. The horsehoes seen 
 in nearly every county, and often in every township, upon the houses 
 of persons, suggested the old horseshoe beneath which Lord Nelson, 
 who had long kept it nailed to the mast of the Victory, received his 
 death-wound at Trafalgar. J. M. Buckley : " Witchcraft," in Cen- 
 tury, 21 : 409. 
 
 In the following paragraph, no principle or purpose 
 seems to have guided the selection of the ideas ; they ?re 
 set down just as they came, by chance, into the writer's 
 head : 
 
 As for Charles Cotton, his " Virgil Travesty," is deader than Scar- 
 ron's, and deserves to be so. The famous lines which Lamb has made 
 known to every one in the essay on " New Year's Day," are the best 
 thing he did. But there are many excellent things scattered about his 
 work, despite a strong taint of the mere coarseness and nastiness 
 which have been spoken of. And though he was also much tainted 
 with the hopeless indifference to prosody which distinguished all these 
 belated cavaliers, it is noteworthy that he was one of the few English- 
 men for centuries to adopt the strict French forms and write rondeaux 
 and the like. On the whole, his poetical power has been a little under- 
 valued, while he was also dexterous in prose. Saints bury : Eliza- 
 bethan Literature, p. 385. 
 
 In the following description, notice that the points se- 
 lected for mention are few in number and are all chosen 
 with the single purpose of bringing out the idea of great 
 wealth : 
 
 Of the provinces which had been subject to the house of Tamerlane, 
 the wealthiest was Bengal. No part of India possessed such natural 
 advantages both for agriculture and for commerce. The Ganges, rush- 
 ing through a hundred channels to the sea, has formed a vast plain of 
 rich mould which, even under the tropical sky, rivals the verdure of 
 an English April. The ricefields yield an increase such as is elsewhere 
 unknown. Spices, sugar, vegetable oils, are produced with marvelous 
 exuberance. The rivers afford an inexhaustible supply of fish. The 
 
10 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 desolate islands along the sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, 
 and swarming with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated districts 
 with abundance of salt. The great stream which fertilizes the soil is, 
 at the same time, the chief highway of Eastern commerce. On its 
 banks, and on those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, 
 the most splendid capitals, and the most sacred shrines of India. The 
 tyranny of man had for ages struggled in vain against the overflowing 
 bounty of nature. In spite of the Mussulman despot and of the 
 Mahratta freebooter, Bengal was known through the East as the 
 Garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied 
 exceedingly. Distant provinces were nourished from the overflowing 
 of its granaries ; and the noble ladies of London and Paris were 
 clothed in the delicate produce of its looms. Macaulay : Lord Olive, 
 p. 51. 
 
 Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1. 
 
 (3) Proportion. 
 
 The law of proportion requires, first, that enough be said 
 to exhibit fully the purpose and idea of the paragraph. 
 Paragraphs will, therefore, differ in length according to the 
 importance and scope of the ideas they present. No arbi- 
 trary rules can be given as to the proper length of para- 
 graphs. Observing the custom of some of our best writers, 
 we may safely say that it is not well to extend a single 
 paragraph beyond three hundred words. The advantage 
 of at least one paragraph-indention on almost every page 
 of a printed book is felt by every reader. On the other 
 hand, as Professor Earle says (English Prose, p. 212), 
 "The term paragraph can hardly be applied to anything 
 short of three sentences," though skilful writers sometimes 
 make a paragraph of two sentences, or even of one. 
 
 This law requires, secondly, that the details which make 
 up the paragraph be treated and amplified in proportion to 
 their respective importance to the main idea and purpose 
 of the paragraph. Subordinate ideas and subsidiary details 
 should be kept subordinate and subsidiary. 
 
Introductory. 11 
 
 Thirdly, over-amplification and too extensive illustration 
 of a simple statement admitted by every one, are violations 
 of the law of proportion. 
 
 In illustration of the first requirement of this rule, con- 
 trast the two paragraphs that follow. In the first, the main 
 thought is found in the words, " A man is a fagot of thun- 
 derbolts," and " We only believe as deep as we live." This 
 thought is not sufficiently illustrated for the general reader, 
 and what is said by way of explanation is as indefinite in 
 character as the proposition it purports to explain. The 
 force of the last sentence in the quotation will hardly be 
 felt at the first reading, unless one happens to emphasize 
 the word "we." The second paragraph, from the same 
 writer, is quoted as an illustration of the perfect fulfil- 
 ment of the law of proportion. 
 
 We are just so frivolous and skeptical. Men hold themselves cheap 
 and vile ; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All the elements 
 pour through his system ; he is the flood of the flood, and fire of the 
 fire ; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops of his blood : they 
 are the extension of his personality. His duties are measured by that 
 instrument he is ; and a right and perfect man would be felt to the 
 centre of the Copernican system. 'Tis curious that we only believe 
 as deep as we live. We do not think heroes can exert any more 
 awful power than that surface-play which amuses us. A deep man 
 believes in miracles, waits for them, believes in magic, believes that 
 the orator will decompose his adversary ; believes that the evil eye 
 can wither, that the heart's blessing can heal ; that love can exalt 
 talent ; can overcome all odds. From a great heart secret magnet- 
 isms flow incessantly to draw great events. But we prize very hum- 
 ble utilities, a prudent husband, a good son, a voter, a citizen, and 
 deprecate any romance of character ; and perhaps reckon only his 
 money value, his intellect, his affection, as a sort of bill of exchange, 
 easily convertible into fine chambers, pictures, music, and wine. 
 Emerson : Essay on Beauty. 
 
 The artist who is to produce a work which is to be admired, not by 
 his friends or his townspeople or his contemporaries, but by all men, 
 and which is to be more beautiful to the eye in proportion to its cul- 
 ture, must disindividualize himself, and be a man of no party, and no 
 
12 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 manner, and no age, but one through whom the soul of all men circu- 
 lates, as the common air through his lungs. He must work in the 
 spirit in which we conceive a prophet to speak, or an angel of the 
 Lord to act ; that is, he is not to speak his own words, or do his own 
 works, or think his own thoughts, but he is to be an organ through 
 which the universal mind acts. Emerson : Essay on Art. 
 
 The two paragraphs cited from Emerson are of about equal difficulty in regard to 
 the thought ; the ease of comprehension in the -case of the latter and the difficulty of 
 comprehension in the case of the former are fairly attributable to the observance of the 
 law of proportion in the one and to its neglect in the other. 
 
 The following will illustrate undue prominence given to 
 a subordinate idea, at the cost of clearness : 
 
 (1) If we would study with profit the history of our ancestors, we 
 must be constantly on our guard against that delusion which the well- 
 known names of families, places, and offices naturally produce, and 
 must never forget that the country of which we read was a very differ- 
 ent country from tha,t in which we live. (2) In every experimental 
 science there is a tendency towards perfection. (3) In every human 
 being there is a wish to ameliorate his own condition. (4) These 
 two principles have often sufficed, even when counteracted by great 
 public calamities and by bad institutions, to carry civilization rapidly 
 forward. (5) No ordinary misfortune, no ordinary misgovernment, 
 will do so much to make a nation wretched, as the constant progress 
 of physical knowledge and the constant effort of every man to better 
 himself will do to make a nation prosperous. [Then follows a page 
 showing the vast increase of wealth in England during the last six 
 centuries and the reasons for it.] (12) The consequence is that a 
 change to which the history of the old world furnishes no parallel has 
 taken place in our country. (13) Could the England of 1685 be, by 
 some magical process, set before our eyes, we should not know one 
 landscape in a hundred or one building in ten thousand. [Another 
 page of details, similar to those in the last sentence, follows. ] 
 Macaulay : History of England, Vol. I. chap. iii. 
 
 The undue prominence given to the second and third sentences, stated (as they are) 
 as independent propositions apparently of equal importance with the first sentence and 
 illustrated at great length, occasions doubt in the mind of the reader as to what is the 
 main idea of the paragraph ; and it is not until sentence (12) is reached that it becomes 
 evident that sentence (1) contains, after all, the main idea, and that the ten sentences 
 intervening are subordinate and are intended to account for the fact that " the coun- 
 try of which we read was a very different country from that in which we live." The 
 
Introductory. 13 
 
 subordination might be plainly indicated, and all doubt of the reader removed, by intro- 
 ducing immediately after sentence (1) some such statement as this : "In the course of 
 centuries, vast differences are inevitably brought about in a country by the operation of 
 social principles alone." 
 
 The following paragraph, which illustrates unnecessary 
 amplification of a self-evident proposition, is termed by the 
 writer of it " a string of platitudes " : 
 
 Lucidity is one of the chief characteristics of sanity. A sane man 
 ought not to be unintelligible. Lucidity is good everywhere, for all 
 time and in all things, in a letter, in a speech, in a book, in a poem. 
 Lucidity is not simplicity. A lucid poem is not necessarily an easy 
 one. A great poet may tax our brains, but he ought not to puzzle 
 our wits. We may often have to ask in humility, What does he mean? 
 but not in despair, What can he mean ? A. Birrell : Obiter Dicta. 
 
 Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1. 
 
 (4) Sequence. 
 
 The law of sequence, or method, requires that the sen- 
 tences be presented in the order which will best bring out 
 the thought. In narrative paragraphs the order of events 
 in time is usually the best ; in descriptions, the order of 
 objects in space or according to their prominence. In ex- 
 pository or argumentative paragraphs, climax, or that order- 
 ing of sentences which proceeds steadily from the least to 
 the most forcible and important, will sometimes prove to be 
 the best method. But usually, the thought of each para- 
 graph as it develops will dictate the natural sequence of 
 the sentences. 
 
 In the following paragraph, a logical method is strictly 
 observed, the second, third, and fourth sentences particular- 
 izing the idea of "prerogative," and the fifth, sixth, and 
 seventh, the idea of "purity." 
 
 The watchwords of the new government were prerogative and 
 purity. The sovereign was no longer to be a puppet in the hands of 
 any subject, or of any combination of subjects. George the Third 
 
1 4 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 would not be forced to take ministers whom he disliked, as his 
 grandfather had been forced to take Pitt. George the Third would 
 not be forced to part with any whom he delighted to honor, as his 
 grandfather had been forced to part with Carteret. At the same time, 
 the system of bribery which had grown up during the late reigns was 
 to cease. It was ostentatiously proclaimed that, since the accession of 
 the young King, neither constituents nor representatives had been 
 bought with the secret service money. To free Britain from corrup- 
 tion and oligarchical cabals, to detach her from continental connec- 
 tions, to bring the bloody and expensive war with France and Spain 
 to a close, such were the specious objects which Bute professed to 
 procure. Macaulay : Second Essay on the Earl of Chatham, p. 40. 
 
 The following will serve to illustrate the order of climax. 
 The clauses of the last sentence grow in length, power, and 
 in volume both of sound and of idea until the end is reached 
 in the strongest words. 
 
 The great wheel of political revolution began to move in America. 
 Here its rotation was guarded, regular and safe. Transferred to the 
 other continent, from unfortunate but natural causes, it received an 
 irregular and violent impulse ; it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; 
 till at length, like the chariot wheels in the races of antiquity, it took 
 fire from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, spread- 
 ing conflagration and terror around. Webster : First Bunker Hill 
 Oration. 
 
 The first of the two paragraphs which follow illustrates 
 in the last three sentences, what may be called the alter- 
 nating method, in which the main idea (that of " sublimity") 
 occurs, under different forms of expression, in every sen- 
 tence, accompanied in each case by the statement of some 
 other characteristic of Milton's style, of lesser importance. 
 The three lesser qualities mentioned are arranged in the 
 order of climax. The second of these two paragraphs is 
 quoted for the sake of completeness. 
 
 He had considered creation in its whole extent, and his descriptions 
 are therefore learned. He had accustomed his imagination to unre- 
 strained indulgence, and his conceptions therefore were extensive. 
 

 Introductory. 15 
 
 The characteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes 
 descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occa- 
 sionally invest himself with grace ; but his natural port is gigantic 
 loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required ; but it is his pecu- 
 liar power to astonish. 
 
 He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and 
 to know what it was that nature had bestowed upon him more bounti- 
 fully than upon others ; the power of displaying the vast, illuminating 
 the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggra- 
 vating the dreadful ; he therefore chose a subject on which too much 
 could not be said, on which he might tire his fancy without the cen- 
 sure of extravagance. Johnson: Life of Milton (M. Arnold's Chief 
 Lives, p. 51). 
 
 In the last paragraph, just quoted, the logical method is (1) Milton's knowledge of 
 the character of his own genius, (2) what that character was, (3) result of this knowledge 
 on his choice of a subject. 
 
 Paragraphs for criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1. 
 
 (5) Variety. 
 
 The law of variety requires that as much diversity as is ;, 
 consistent with the purpose of the paragraph be introduced. 
 Variety will appear in length of sentences, in their struc- 
 ture, in phraseology, in the ordering of details, and in the 
 method of building different paragraphs. Variety in the 
 length of different paragraphs as well as in their structure 
 is also desirable. 
 
 To illustrate fully this important law is obviously impossible. Let the student note 
 carefully the paragraphs already quoted : 
 
 First, as to length of sentences. The use of both long and short sentences will be 
 noticed as helpful in sustaining the reader's interest. Observe the forceful but curt 
 and choppy effect of the almost exclusive use of short sentences in the first quotation 
 from Emerson ; equal length giving all of the sentences equal prominence, thus making 
 the main idea harder to find. In the other quotations, note that one use of the short 
 sentence is to state forcibly the main thought in brief, the* longer sentences being 
 devoted to explanations or details. Point out instances of this, especially in the quota- 
 tion from Dryden. Observe also the smooth effect of the long sentences. It is the 
 character of the thought of the paragraph that decides in many cases whether the 
 sentence shall be long or short. Point this out in the quotations from the Christian 
 Union, Emerson, Macaulay, and Webster. 
 
 Secondly, as to structure of sentences. Point out the various ways in which the 
 sentences of these quotations begin, Is the subject introduced first in all cases ? 
 
1 6 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Notice the relief, experienced in reading Emerson's first paragraph after several short 
 sentences constructed alike, by the slight change of structure in the seventh sentence 
 beginning, "From a great heart," etc. Find examples of sentences, in these quota- 
 tions, in which the full idea is not apparent until the close of the sentence is reached 
 (Periodic structure). Notice in the conversational paragraphs of the first quotation 
 examples of loose structure, in which the sentence might come to a full stop before 
 the close, and still make sense. Find other examples of this. Find examples of 
 balanced structure, in which the different elements of a sentence are made to answer 
 to each other and set each other off by similarity of form ; especially in the quotations 
 from Macaulay, Dryden, Johnson, and Emerson. Find examples in which whole sen- 
 tences have this similarity of form and answer to each other. Do the complex sentences 
 usually contain the main idea of these paragraphs ? Note that it is the nature of the 
 thought which makes some of the sentences interrogative and which causes other 
 departures from the usual form of sentence structure. Find examples of this. 
 
 Thirdly, as to phraseology. Notice, first, variety in the words used for expressing 
 the same idea in a paragraph. What words in the quotation from Hamerton bring out 
 the idea of " frivolous " ? What, in the quotation from the Christian Union the idea of 
 "swindling" ? What, in the second quotation from Emerson, the idea of "disindivid- 
 ualize" ? What, in the next quotation (from Macaulay), the idea of "difference and 
 change"? What, in the quotation from Dr. Johnson, the idea of "sublimity"? 
 Notice, next, the variety in the relation-words (of, by, to, from, for, etc.) which intro- 
 duce different phrases. The value to a writer of having a large stock of expedients for 
 securing variety in introducing phrases, is very great. Some writers over-work the 
 relation-word " of," when,* by a slight modification in phrase-structure, other relation- 
 words might be used instead and the sentence improved. For practice try the plan 
 of substituting adjectives for some of the phrases in the quoted paragraphs on the 
 preceding pages. Notice that such substitutions often compel remodeling the whole 
 sentence. 
 
 Fourthly, as to ordering of details and method of building different paragraphs. 
 These subjects will be considered more fully at a later stage of our study. At present, 
 notice the variety in method of presenting the various details in Macaulay 's descriptive 
 paragraph. (See Selection.) Do you find anything to criticise in the order of the 
 sentences ? Notice also the ordering of details in the paragraph from Euskin. (See 
 Unity.) 
 
 For practice in securing variety, some of the paragraphs in Appendices A and B 
 should be re-written by the student in his own words, changing the phraseology and 
 constructions, but preserving the sense. 
 
 It will be found in practice that the close observance of 
 any one of the general laws, unity, selection, proportion, 
 and sequence, will tend to give a paragraph the qualities 
 required by the other three. Eor instance, the rearrange- 
 ment of the order (method) of the sentences will often 
 secure unity to a paragraph which seemed without unity. 
 The law of unity understood in a large sense would include 
 selection, proportion, and sequence. These, however, have 
 been deemed worthy of study by themselves. A good 
 
Introductory. 17 
 
 maxim, summing up these laws, is, In writing paragraphs, 
 aim at unity of thought and variety of statement. 
 
 Paragraphs for further criticism by the student will be found in Appendix A 1. 
 
 (d) APPLICATION OF THESE LAWS IN CHOICE OF PARA- 
 GRAPH SUBJECT. 
 
 The observance of these laws will be made less difficult 
 for the writer, if, in selecting subjects for isolated para- 
 graphs and in selecting subdivisions of the essay that will 
 serve for paragraph-subjects, he is careful to see that the 
 idea chosen is sufficiently narrowed in scope. An idea may 
 be narrowed by imposing upon it successive conditions and 
 limitations of time, place, point of view, etc. 
 
 To illustrate : General subject "The Study of Latin." 
 Subject limited to a single point of view " Uses of Latin 
 study." Limited further, as to place " Uses of Latin 
 study to American students." Limited further, as to 
 time " Uses of Latin study to American students of the 
 present time" Limited further, by selection, to available 
 theme " Use of Latin study to American students of the 
 present time in widening their English vocabulary." 
 
 Looking at the illustration just given, the student will see that the general subject, 
 stated first, is too broad for treatment in a paragraph. It is, furthermore, suggestive 
 of several lines of thought, any one of which would be sufficient for a paragraph or even 
 for a whole essay. Moreover, it is indefinite, because it indicates no aim or purpose 
 on the part of the writer. It acquires definiteness, however, as soon as the first limita- 
 tion imposed upon it converts the general subject into a theme. With each subsequent 
 limitation this theme grows in concreteness, indicating each time a narrower scope, a 
 closer scrutiny, and a more definite aim on the part of the writer. 
 
 The general subject is the broad statement of a general 
 idea without limitation. The theme is the general subject 
 narrowed in scope and made definite by limitation, so as to 
 show the purpose of the writer. The full statement of the 
 theme is often long and unattractive in form, and may 
 often be re-stated in a briefer and more attractive form. 
 It is then called a title. A briefer statement of the theme 
 
18 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 in the illustration above, to be used as a paragraph-title, 
 might be, "One Reason for Studying Latin." The title 
 should be suggestive of the theme, but should not over- 
 state the theme. Most themes may be used as titles with- 
 out re-statement. 
 
 Examples of paragraph -titles may be found in the newspapers and in the marginal 
 notes of such books as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gardiner's Thirty Years 9 War, 
 Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, CreightorTs Age of Elizabeth, and Hallam's Works. 
 The shorter isolated paragraphs to be found in the editorial columns of the newspapers 
 and the related paragraphs of most books are usually printed without titles. 
 
 In Appendix A 2 will be found a list of general subjects each of which the student is 
 expected to narrow, by successive limitations, to an available working theme and then 
 provide with an appropriate title. The student may also be given practice in discov- 
 ering the working theme of some of the paragraphs in Appendix B, and in providing a 
 title for each. 
 
 THE ISOLATED PAEAGEAPH. 
 
 The isolated paragraph was denned, in the last chapter, 
 as a single paragraph which in itself gives an adequate 
 treatment of any subject or of a single phase of any sub- 
 ject. By the expression " adequate treatment " is meant, 
 not all that might be said on a given subject, but enough 
 for the purpose in hand, whatever that may chance to be. 
 Adequate treatment is therefore treatment sufficiently com- 
 plete for carrying out the writer's purpose. A paragraph, 
 however short, which, when taken by itself, is unified and 
 intelligible and produces a satisfying effect, may (for pur- 
 poses of study) be regarded as an isolated paragraph, even 
 though it form part of an essay or part of a chapter of a 
 book. The following short paragraph taken from Thomas 
 Carlyle's James Garlyle will illustrate this satisfying effect, 
 this sense of completeness : 
 
 The first impulse of man is to seek for enjoyment. He lives with 
 more or less impetuosity, more or less irregularity, to conquer for 
 himself a home and blessedness of a mere earthly kind. Not till 
 later (in how many cases never) does he ascertain that on earth there 
 is no such home : that his true home lies beyond the world of sense, 
 is a celestial home. 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 19 
 
 In the present chapter we shall disregard those special modifications of structure 
 found in related paragraphs of various kinds (which are treated in the next chapter) and 
 shall study all the paragraphs quoted in this as independent, miniature essays. Only by 
 such isolation and study of the paragraph as a complete structure in itself can the stu- 
 dent be given a sense for paragraphic unity and sequence. This is, indeed, of practical 
 value in itself, since the writing of single, unrelated paragraphs has become a recognized 
 feature of newspaper and magazine work. 
 
 1. PARAGRAPH SUBJECT. 
 
 Every paragraph should have a clearly defined idea to the 
 development of which each sentence contributes. This idea 
 is usually expressed definitely and unmistakably in* one of the 
 sentences of the paragraph, called the topic-sentence. The 
 topic-sentence is generally most effective when short and 
 striking. It is often found to be, however, not a whole sen- 
 tence in itself, but only a part of a sentence, what precedes 
 being obviously preparatory to its more forcible presenta- 
 tion. Sometimes the topic-sentence need not be expressed 
 definitely. In such a paragraph the topic is implied in all 
 that is said. The test of a good paragraph of this kind is 
 the possibility of phrasing the main idea, which it contains, 
 in a single sentence. Whether expressed or implied, there- 
 fore, the topic-sentence should exist as a working theme in 
 the mind of the writer while constructing each sentence, 
 and the bearing of each sentence on the paragraph-theme 
 should be clear and distinct. 
 
 (a) WHERE THE TOPIC-SENTENCE SHOULD BE PLACED. 
 (1) Stated First. 
 
 Many paragraphs require a formal statement of the 
 theme. This is usually true when the paragraph consists 
 of a principle that is proved by particular examples, or 
 when a general idea is expounded by argument, or when a 
 formal proposition is treated. In such cases the theme is 
 
20 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 usually announced in the first sentence. The following will 
 illustrate : 
 
 America as a nation may not be in favor of burdening itself with 
 the care of distant colonies, but [Topic-sentence] individual American 
 enterprise is penetrating to every part of the globe. [Example] 
 When Stanley was in Chicago he told a group of reporters that a 
 certain kind of cloth, used exclusively among the natives of Africa, 
 was made in New England. The English have tried to supersede this 
 trade, but have been unsuccessful. Nothing but the American brand 
 will go. [Example] The railroad through the island of Jamaica fur- 
 nishes another example of Yankee enterprise. It is owned principally 
 by two rich New Yorkers and by Mr. Eastman, a La Crosse, Wis., 
 millionaire. Chicago Herald. 
 
 In the following paragraph, the topic-sentence comes first 
 and is afterwards re-stated in the quotation given in the 
 fourth sentence, as a practical precept. 
 
 The one fatal mistake which is committed habitually by people 
 who have the scarcely desirable gift of half-genius is "waiting for 
 inspiration." They pass week after week in a state of indolence, 
 unprofitable alike to the mind and the purse, under pretext of waiting 
 for intellectual flashes like those which came to Napoleon on his battle- 
 fields. They ought to remember the advice given by one of the 
 greatest artists of the seventeenth century to a young painter of his 
 acquaintance. "Practise assiduously what you already know, and in 
 course of time other things will become clear to you." The inspira- 
 tions come only to the disciplined ; the indolent wait for them in vain. 
 Hamerton : Intellectual Life, p. 449. 
 
 Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated first. 
 
 (2) Stated First and Last. 
 
 Sometimes, to emphasize the leading idea, the topic-sen- 
 tence is stated both at the beginning and at the end of a 
 paragraph. When the thought is sufficiently important to 
 justify such emphasis, this practice is commendable, for 
 the repetition of the subject at the close completes the cir- 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 21 
 
 cuit of the thought and gives the appearance of finished 
 roundness to the whole idea. This plan is especially com- 
 mendable in spoken paragraphs, the repetition, in this case, 
 being a notification to the hearer that the discussion of the 
 point in hand is finished. The following will illustrate 
 these statements : 
 
 [Topic-sentence] The grand reason for paying debt is that we 
 want to strengthen the credit of the State as the cheapest and best of all 
 insurances. [Example] If any one doubts that, let him look at the 
 position of the United States. That grand republic has no fleet, and 
 on the water could hardly fight Spain ; but she has reduced her debt 
 by strenuous paying, and every one knows that if she wanted a fleet 
 to blow Spain out of the water, or to contest the seas with us, she 
 could buy and complete one in twelve months. [Topic repeated] 
 Her payment of her debt is an insurance, not only against defeat but 
 against attack. London [England] Spectator. 
 
 I begin with the postulate, that [Topic-sentence] it is the law of 
 our nature to desire happiness. This law is not local, but universal ; 
 not temporary, but eternal. It is not a law to be proved by excep- 
 tions, for it knows no exception. [Examples] The savage and the 
 martyr welcome fierce pains, not because they love pain ; but because 
 they love some expected remuneration of happiness so well, that they 
 are willing to purchase it at the price of the pain, at the price of 
 imprisonment, torture, or death. [Another example] The young 
 desire happiness more keenly than any others. This desire is innate, 
 spontaneous, exuberant ; and nothing but repeated and repeated over- 
 flows of the lava of disappointment can burn or bury it in the human 
 breast. On this law of our nature, then, we may stand as on an 
 immovable foundation of truth; Whatever fortune may befall our 
 argument, our premises are secure. [Topic repeated] The conscious 
 desire of happiness is active in all men. Horace Mann : Thoughts 
 for a Young Man, p. 8. 
 
 Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated first and last. 
 
 (3) Stated Last. 
 
 The details of a paragraph may, in special cases, precede 
 the statement of the subject ; the proofs may be presented 
 
22 Paragraph -Writing. 
 
 before the proposition is stated. In such cases the topic- 
 sentence may be delayed until the close of the paragraph. 
 This plan will usually be found expedient when the thought 
 is not likely to be favorably received if stated abruptly at 
 the beginning, when the topic-sentence contains an unwel- 
 come truth, or when some new idea is presented to which the 
 reader is not at once prepared to assent. For example : 
 
 We have new evidence of the treacherous character of the Sioux 
 Indians in the tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek. When their sur- 
 roundings are considered their treachery is not a subject for wonder. 
 The Sioux lad is taught that duplicity, lying, treachery, theft, and 
 bloodshed are the manly attributes. He must be very wily about 
 shedding blood, but is nothing but a " squaw " until he has a scalp at 
 his belt. Then he is fed by the Government, clothed by the Govern- 
 ment, sheltered by the Government that is, maintained in absolute 
 idleness, while he broods over real or fancied wrongs. When he gets 
 worked up to the proper pitch of frenzy he wants to kill somebody, 
 and generally does kill somebody if he is not killed himself. It has 
 been the Government policy to treat the Indian as a spoiled child 
 rather than as the dangerous brute that he is. [Topic-sentence] 
 The events of the present Indian outbreak have made it clear that 
 the policy of gentleness is disastrous both to the country and to the 
 Indian. The Press (N.Y.). 
 
 In the following paragraph the subject, while it is hinted 
 at in the second sentence, is purposely denied full and 
 definite statement until the very last sentence : 
 
 I will not ask your pardon for endeavoring to interest you in the 
 subject of Greek Mythology ; but I must ask your permission to ap- 
 proach it in a temper differing from that in which it is frequently 
 treated. We cannot justly interpret the religion of any people, unless 
 we are prepared to admit that we ourselves, as well as they, are liable 
 to error in matters of faith ; and that the convictions of others, how- 
 ever singular, may in some points have been well founded, while our 
 own, however reasonable, may in some particulars be mistaken. You 
 must forgive me, therefore, for not always distinctively calling 
 the creeds of the past "superstition," and the creeds of the present 
 day " religion " ; as well as for assuming that a faith now confessed 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 23 
 
 may sometimes be superficial, and that a faith long forgotten may 
 once have been sincere. It is the task of the Divine to condemn the 
 errors of antiquity and of the Philologist to account for them. I will 
 only pray you to read with patience, and human sympathy, the 
 thoughts of men who lived without blame in a darkness they could 
 not dispel ; and to remember that, whatever charge of folly may 
 justly attach to the saying, " There is no God," the folly is prouder, 
 deeper, and less pardonable, in saying, ct There is no God but for me." 
 Ruskin : Queen of the Air. 
 
 Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is stated last. 
 
 (b) SUBJECT IMPLIED. 
 
 In a large number of cases, however, the theme cannot 
 be stated so directly ; it is not found expressed in a topic- 
 sentence anywhere in the paragraph ; but must be grasped 
 by the reader from the effect produced upon him by the 
 paragraph as a whole. If the effect is single, is an effect of 
 oneness and of unity, the reader will be able to supply for 
 himself, in thought, the theme of the paragraph; and the 
 test of a good paragraph will always be his ability to do 
 this. But a paragraph cannot produce the effect of unity 
 upon the reader unless there was unity of idea or of feeling 
 in the mind of the writer when the paragraph was written. 
 It is of especial importance, therefore, in the case of para- 
 graphs which have no formally stated topic-sentence to hold 
 the writer to his theme, that the writer keep his theme 
 prominently in mind while constructing each sentence. 
 This is very important in writing narrative and descriptive 
 paragraphs. In these, it is seldom that the theme is ex- 
 pressed in so many words. Yet a good narrative or descrip- 
 tive writer will so marshal his details that the effect will 
 be single. 
 
 The following paragraph, of which the subject may be 
 stated as, " The Annihilation of the Army of Cabul," illus- 
 trates this unity of effect : 
 
24 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Then the march of the army, without a general, went on again. 
 Soon it became the story of a general without an army ; before very 
 long there was neither general nor army. It is idle to lengthen a tale 
 of mere horrors. The straggling remnant of an army entered the 
 Jugdulluk Pass a dark, steep, narrow, ascending path between 
 crags. The miserable toilers found that the fanatical, implacable 
 tribes had barricaded the pass. All was over. The army of Cabul 
 was finally extinguished in that barricaded pass. It was a trap ; the 
 British were taken in it. A few mere fugitives escaped from the scene 
 of actual slaughter, and were on the road to Jellalabad where Sale and 
 his little army were holding their own. When they were within six- 
 teen miles of Jellalabad the number was reduced to six. Of these six, 
 five were killed by straggling marauders on the way. One man alone 
 reached Jellalabad to tell the tale. Literally, one man, Dr. Brydon, 
 came to Jellalabad out of a moving host which had numbered in all 
 some sixteen thousand when it set out on its march. The curious eye 
 will search through history or fiction in vain for any picture more 
 thrilling with the suggestion of an awful catastrophe than that of this 
 solitary survivor, faint and reeling on his jaded horse, as he appeared 
 under the walls of Jellalabad, to bear the tidings of our Thermopylae 
 of pain and shame. McCarthy : A History of our Own Times, Vol. I. 
 p. 199. 
 
 Find paragraphs, in Appendix B, in which the topic-sentence is implied. Discover 
 the theme in each of these paragraphs and state it in a brief sentence or phrase suitable 
 for a title. 
 
 The student may also be given useful practice in locating the topic-sentences of the 
 paragraphs quoted in the introductory chapter of this book. In each case he should 
 phrase a brief and appropriate title for the paragraph. 
 
 It will also be a profitable exercise for the student to attempt giving appropriate 
 single headings to the short editorial paragraphs to be found in any of the carefully 
 edited metropolitan papers. Of the headed articles in the news-columns of the papers, 
 the first generally corresponds to the title, and the second, which is usually longer, cor- 
 responds, roughly, to the working theme. 
 
 Another useful exercise in detecting the paragraph-subject, consists in the reading 
 aloud, by the instructor, of several paragraphs, the student to give, at the conclusion of 
 each, the paragraph-subject as he has determined it from the reading. As another exer- 
 cise, mimeograph copies of paragraphs from which the topic-sentence has been omitted 
 may be distributed, the student to fill the gap as skillfully as he can. 
 
 2. MEANS OF DEVELOPING. 
 
 We shall now study some of the means by which the idea 
 or theme of a paragraph, as given formally in the topic- 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 25 
 
 sentence or held in the mind of the writer, may be system- 
 atically developed. If we regard the topic-sentence as the 
 germ-idea, it is evident that it contains, potentially, all that 
 may be said on the subject in hand. The work of the other 
 sentences is to bring out and develop clearly the thought 
 contained in the topic-sentence, or so much of the thought 
 as is necessary for the purpose which the writer has in view. 
 The means by which they do this will of course vary in 
 different cases ; and the forms in which the growing idea 
 clothes itself as the paragraph progresses will present many 
 different modifications. 
 
 All of these various forms and means of developing the 
 germ-idea may, however, be grouped, for practical purposes, 
 under the following heads : repeating the theme in other 
 words ; defining or limiting the theme j presenting its con- 
 trary ; explaining or amplifying its meaning by examples,, 
 illustrations, or quotations ; particularizing by means of 
 specific instances or details ; presenting proofs ; and apply- 
 ing or enforcing the theme. Any sentence which performs 
 one of these functions may claim a place in the paragraph : 
 any sentence (not introductory, transitional, or summariz- 
 ing) which does none of these things should be excluded. 
 
 It need hardly be said that these means of developing the 
 theme are employed in various combinations. The same 
 paragraph may use one or several of them. What one shall 
 be employed by the writer, in any case, will be decided by 
 the nature of the thought discussed, by his purpose, and by 
 the demands of the subject and occasion. Some of these 
 combinations will be designated in the quotations that 
 follow. 
 
 (a) REPETITION OF THE THEME IN OTHER WORDS. 
 
 When the subject under discussion is in any way obscure, 
 or requires special emphasis, it may be repeated in other 
 
26 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 words immediately after the topic-sentence. Sometimes 
 the repetition is delayed until a later stage of the para- 
 graph. Illustrations of repetition may be seen in the par- 
 agraph quoted from Ruskin (see Unity), and in those 
 quoted from the London Spectator and Horace Mann (see 
 Paragraph Subject). It also occurs in the following para- 
 graphs : - 
 
 [Topic-sentence] The peculiarity of ill-temper is that it is the vice 
 of the virtuous. [Repeated] It is often the one blot on an otherwise 
 noble character. [Particularized] You know men who are all but 
 perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily 
 ruffled, quick-tempered or 'touchy' disposition. Drummond : The 
 Greatest Thing in the World, p. 29. 
 
 [Topic-sentence] There are few delights in any life so high and 
 rare as the subtle and strong delight of sovereign art and poetry ; 
 there are none more pure and more sublime. [Repeated and particu- 
 larized] To have reacj the greatest work of any great poet, to have 
 beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or musician, 
 is a possession added to the best things of life. Swinburne : Essays 
 and Studies (Victor Hugo: ISAnnee Terrible). 
 
 In Appendix A 3 will be found a list of topic-sentences which require repetition in 
 other words. The student should write all of these exercises. Also find in Appendix 
 B paragraphs in which the topic-sentence is treated in this way. 
 
 DEFINITIVE STATEMENTS. 
 
 The topic-sentence is not always sufficient to give the 
 exact content of the idea to be expounded. It may mean 
 more or less than the writer intends. In this case it 
 becomes necessary for the writer to define, by restriction or 
 enlargement, the terms of the topic-sentence. Synonymous ex- 
 pressions are of the greatest value for this purpose. Their 
 felicitous use may be noticed in the quotations given below. 
 The following will illustrate the use of definitive state- 
 ments : 
 
 [Topic] Practically, then, at present, * advancement in life ' means, 
 becoming conspicuous in life ; obtaining a position which shall be 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 27 
 
 acknowledged by others to be respectable or honorable. [Defined] 
 We do not understand by this advancement, in general, the mere 
 making of money, but the being known to have made it ; not the 
 accomplishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accom- 
 plished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of d^t thirst for 
 applause. Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies, p. 5. 
 
 [Topic] Nature ... is a collective term for all facts actual ^ 
 and possible ; or (to speak more accurately) a name for the mode 
 . . . in which all things take place. [Defined] For the word 
 suggests not so much the multitudinous detail of phenomena, as the 
 conception which might be formed of their manner of existence as a 
 mental whole by a mind possessing a complete knowledge of them. 
 John Stuart Mill. 
 
 In Appendix A 4 will be found a list of topic-sentences which require treatment by 
 definition, restriction, or enlargement. The student .should write all of these exer- 
 cises. Also find paragraphs in Appendix B in which the topic-sentence is treated in 
 thi way. 
 
 (c) PRESENTING THE CONTRARY. 
 
 Often the idea can be made clearer by presenting a con- 
 trary, negative, or contrasting idea in connection with it. 
 This is illustrated by the paragraph from Ruskin, just 
 quoted. It appears also in the following : 
 
 [Topic and Details] We all know how beautiful and noble modesty 
 is ; how we all admire it ; how it raises a man in our eyes to see him 
 afraid of boasting ; never showing off ; never pushing himself forward ; 
 [Contrary] Whenever, on the other hand, we see in wise 
 and good men any vanity, boasting, pompousness of any kind, we call 
 it a weakness in them, and are sorry to see them lowering them- 
 selves by the least want of divine modesty. Kingsley : Country 
 Sermons, III. 
 
 Frequently the contrasted thought takes the form of a 
 concession, and is stated first : - 
 
 Despotism may find here and there its logicians to defend it. But 
 despotism can find no poet to chant its praises. From first to last, 
 and with increase of power from age to age, the voice of literature in 
 all its forms has been the voice of popular liberty. J. O. Murray. / 
 
28 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Such contrasting ideas naturally express themselves in 
 antitheses and in balanced sentences. These produce mo- 
 notony and weariness, if employed often. They should be 
 used sparingly, and their form of presentation varied. 
 
 In the following we have the topic-sentence treated both 
 by contrast and by example : 
 
 Mannerism is pardonable and is sometimes even agreeable, when 
 the manner, though vicious, is natural. Few readers, for example, 
 would be willing to part with the mannerism of Milton or of Burke. 
 But a mannerism which does not sit easy on the mannerist, which has 
 been adopted on principle, and which can be sustained only by con- 
 stant effort, is always offensive. And such is the mannerism of 
 Johnson. Macaulay : Life of Johnson. 
 
 In Appendix A 5 the student will find a list of topic-sentences to be treated by con- 
 trast. Also find paragraphs in Appendix B in which the topic-sentence is elucidated by 
 contrast. 
 
 \ 
 
 (d) EXPLAINING OB ILLUSTRATING. 
 
 Some thoughts require explanation and concrete illustra- 
 tion. Similar or analogous cases .and associated facts or 
 experiences (as distinguished from specific instances or 
 details) are needed to deepen the impression made by the 
 topic-sentence. An explanation or illustration, being usu- 
 ally of considerable length, detains the attention of the 
 reader upon the thought presented for a sufficient time to 
 enable him to contemplate it at greater advantage. The 
 parables of the New Testament are concrete illustrations 
 of abstract truths, and abound in explanations. The fol- 
 lowing will serve as a specimen of illustration and ex- 
 planation : 
 
 [Topic] Have you never seen men and women whom some disaster 
 drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgot, 
 but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their soul ? 
 [Illustration] So have I seen a storm in latter spring ; and all was 
 black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent. 
 The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 29 
 
 windows. What a devastation there was ! Not a spider's web that was 
 out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched 
 oak. But pre long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent 
 and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet 
 breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw 
 a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and 
 looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight. 
 But for weeks long the fields held up their hands full of ambrosial 
 flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks 
 were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because that 
 storm passed by though all the rest of earth had long ago forgot the 
 storm, its rainbows, and its rain. Theodore Parker. 
 
 In the following the whole paragraph is occupied with 
 an extended illustration of the character of truth : 
 
 When we are as yet small children there comes up to us a youthful 
 angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his left spheres 
 like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on each is written 
 in letters of gold, Truth. The spheres are veined and streaked and 
 spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above, where the light falls 
 on them, and in a certain aspect you can make out upon every one of 
 them the three letters L, I, E. The child to whom they are offered 
 very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most convenient 
 things in the world ; they roll with the least possible impulse just 
 where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at all ; 
 they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right side 
 up. But very soon the young philosopher finds that things which roll 
 so easily are very apt to roll into the wrong corner, and to get out of 
 his way when he most wants them, while he always knows where to 
 find the others, which stay where they are left. Thus he learns 
 thus we learn to drop the streaked and speckled globes of falsehood, 
 and to hold fast the white angular blocks of truth. But then comes 
 Timidity, and after her Good-nature, and last of all Polite-behavior, 
 all insisting that truth must roll, or nobody can do anything with it ; 
 and so the first with her coarse rasp, and the second with her broad 
 file, and the third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and smooth 
 and polish the snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they have got 
 a little dingy by use, it becomes hard to tell them from the rolling 
 spheres of falsehood. Holmes : TJie Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table. 
 
 [Topic] The vast results obtained by science are won by no 
 
30 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 mystical faculties, "by 110 mental processes, other than those which are 
 practiced by every one of us in the humblest and meanest affairs of 
 life. [Illustrations] A detective policeman discovers a burglar from 
 the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that 
 by which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of Montmartre from 
 fragments of their bones. Nor does that process of induction and 
 deduction by which a lady, finding a stain of a particular kind upon 
 her dress, concludes that somebody has upset. the inkstand thereon, 
 differ in any way from that by which Adams and Leverrier discovered 
 a new planet. [Topic repeated] The man of science, in fact, simply 
 uses with scrupulous exactness the methods which we all habitually 
 and at every moment use carelessly. Huxley : Lay Sermons, p. 78. 
 
 Develop by illustration and explanation the topic-sentences given in Appendix A 6. 
 Also find, in Appendix B, paragraphs which employ this method of explanation. 
 
 (e) PARTICULARS AND DETAILS. 
 
 The topic-sentence may contain an expression which 
 naturally leads the reader to expect a more detailed state- 
 ment. Particulars and specific instances are frequently 
 needed in abundance to insure the acceptance of a claim 
 which seems to assert too much. So, too, a topic-sentence 
 which is couched in general terms may require particulars 
 and details to render it luminous. The following illus- 
 trate : 
 
 [Topic] There is scarcely a scene or object familiar to the Galilee 
 of that day, which Jesus did not use as a moral illustration of some 
 glorious promise or moral law. [Details] He spoke of green fields 
 and springing flowers, and the budding of the vernal trees ; of the 
 red or lowering sky ; of sunrise and sunset ; of wind and rain ; of 
 night and storm ; of clouds and lightning ; of stream and river ; of stars 
 and lamps ; of honey and salt ; of quivering bulrushes and burning- 
 weeds ; of rent garments and bursting wine-skins ; of eggs and ser- 
 pents ; of pearls and pieces of money, of nets and fish. Wine and 
 wheat, corn and oil, stewards and gardeners, laborers and employers, 
 kings and shepherds, travelers and fathers of families, courtiers in soft 
 clothing and brides in nuptial robes all these are found in His dis- 
 courses. Farrar : Life of Christ, Vol. I. p. 271. 
 
 [Topic] The parts and signs of goodness are many. [Particulars 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 31 
 
 and specific instances] If a nian be gracious and courteous to strangers, 
 it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island 
 cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be 
 compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart 
 is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm. 
 'If he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is 
 planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot. If he be thankful 
 for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their 
 trash. But, above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would 
 wish to be anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it 
 shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ 
 himself. Bacon : Of Goodness. 
 
 Develop the list of topic-sentences given in Appendix A 7, by means of particulars, 
 specific instances, and details. Also find pai agrapks in Appendix B in which this method 
 of development is employed. 
 
 (/) PRESENTING PROOFS. 
 
 Some topic-sentences call for proofs, more or less formally 
 stated according to the character of the subject. A topic- 
 sentence which contains an affirmation likely to raise doubt 
 in the mind of the reader should always be accompanied by 
 sentences containing proofs of its truth. 
 
 [Topic] It is too soon as yet to attempt to estimate the effect of 
 the Reform Act of 1867. [Proof I] The people enfranchised under 
 it do not yet know their own power : a single election, so far from 
 teaching us how they will use that power, has not been even enough to 
 explain to them that they have such power. [Proof II] The Reform 
 Act of 1832 did not for many years disclose its real consequences ; a 
 writer in 1836, whether he approved or disapproved of them, whether 
 he thought too little of, or whether he exaggerated them, would have 
 been sure to be mistaken in them. Bagehot: English Constitution, 
 p. 3. 
 
 [Topic-sentence] This superiority of specific expressions is 
 clearly due to a saving of the effort required to translate words into 
 thoughts. [Proof] As we do not think in generals, but in par- 
 ticulars as, [Proof explained] whenever any class of things is re- 
 ferred to, we represent it to ourselves by calling to mind individual 
 members of it it follows that when an abstract word is used, the 
 
3 2 Pa rag rap h - Writing. 
 
 hearer or reader has to choose from his stock of images one or more 
 by which he may figure to himself the genus mentioned. [Result] 
 In doing this some delay must arise [Repeated] some force be ex- 
 pended ; and if, [Enforced] by employing a specific term, an appro- 
 priate image can be at once suggested, an economy is achieved, and a 
 more vivid impression produced. Spencer : Philosophy of Style. 
 
 Give proofs of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 8. Find paragraphs in Appendix B 
 which employ proofs and inferences. 
 
 (g) APPLICATION OR ENFORCEMENT. 
 
 Frequently a topic-sentence states a principle the truth 
 of which is assumed ; the application of the principle to 
 some particular case usually follows at once. Sentences 
 enforcing the application and emphasizing it in various 
 ways are also introduced. The following will illustrate 
 the statement of a principle and its application : - 
 
 [Principle] People who cannot spend ten millions to the best 
 advantage are just as incapable of the economical and business-like 
 disbursement of nine. [Application] It is an easy and a showy 
 thing for a Chancellor of the Exchequer to say bluntly that he will 
 reduce the Estimates by so much, and the departments must do what 
 they can with what remains. But that procedure no more solves the 
 economical problem than [Illustration] the well-known methods of 
 Procrustes altered the real stature of his victims. London Times. 
 
 A sentence of enforcement is indicated in the paragraph 
 quoted from Spencer, on the preceding page. Enforcement 
 is also seen in the following : - 
 
 Whoever yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement 
 from which he can never rise. . . . Every unrighteous act tells with a 
 thousand- fold more force upon the actor than upon the sufferer. The 
 false man is more false to himself than to any one else. . . . The 
 moment that any one of the glorious faculties with which God has 
 endowed us is abused or misused, that faculty loses forever a portion 
 of its delicacy and its energy. Physiology teaches us that all priva- 
 tions and all violence suffered by our physical system, before birth, 
 impairs the very stamina of our constitution,, and brings us into this 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 33 
 
 world, so far shorn of the energies, and blunted in the fineness of the 
 perceptions we should otherwise possess. ' So, every injury which we 
 inflict upon our moral nature, in this life, must dull forever and ever 
 our keen capacities of enjoyment, though in the midst of infinite bliss, 
 and weaken our power of ascension, where virtuous spirits are ever 
 ascending. . . . Every instance of violated conscience, like every 
 broken string in a harp, will limit the compass of its music and mar 
 its harmonies forever. [Enforcement of principles] Tremble, then, 
 and forbear, O man ! when thou wouldst forget the dignity of thy 
 nature and the immortal glories of thy destiny ; for if thou dost cast 
 down thine eyes to look with complacency upon the tempter, or bend 
 thine ear to listen to his seductions, thou dost doom thyself to move 
 forever and ever through inferior spheres of being ; thou dost wound 
 and dim the very organ with which alone thou canst behold the splen- 
 dors of eternity. Mann : Thoughts, p. 67. 
 
 Apply and enforce the topic-sentences in Appendix A 9 which state a principle. 
 Find paragraphs in Appendix B which use application and enforcement. 
 
 (h) INTRODUCTORY, TRANSITIONAL, AND SUMMARIZING 
 
 SENTENCES. 
 
 Besides the sentences which, in the development of a 
 iragraph, perform one or more of the functions mentioned 
 under the seven headings just preceding, there are in some 
 paragraphs other sentences whose main business is to pre- 
 pare the way for the topic-sentence, to act as a bridge be- 
 tween different parts of the paragraph, or to summarize the 
 sentences of one part before the next part is taken up. 
 
 A whole sentence may be devoted to introducing the 
 topic of the paragraph ; but, more often, a short clause pre- 
 fixed to the topic-rsentence will be sufficient; and in most 
 paragraphs no introduction is needed. When the introduc- 
 tion takes the form of a clause, this clause is frequently in 
 direct contrast to what is to be the main idea of the para- 
 graph. The following will illustrate : 
 
 [Introductory contrast] I will not ask your pardon for endeavor- 
 ing to interest you in the subject of Greek Mythology ; [Subject 
 
34 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 indicated] but I must ask your permission to approach it in a temper 
 differing from that in which it is frequently treated. Kuskin. (The 
 whole quotation is given under Paragraph Subject (c).) 
 
 [Introduction] The administration has erred in the steps to restore 
 peace ; but its error has not been in doing too little, but [Topic] in 
 betraying too great a solicitude for that event. [The paragraph is 
 devoted to the discussion of the administration's 'solicitude' for 
 peace.] Henry Clay : Speech on the War of 1812. 
 
 The effect of an introductory sentence is often to 
 pone the statement of the topic-sentence to a later stage of 
 'the paragraph. This is seen in the following : 
 
 [Introductory] The statement is made from time to time that we 
 are admitting great masses of socialists. The number is exaggerated, 
 and more importance is attached to the utterances of these than they 
 deserve. It must be admitted however that some of them know just 
 enough to be dangerous. [Indicating what the subject is to be] But 
 they are permitted to go among their fellows to inoculate them with 
 whatever doctrines they choose, and there is nothing to oppose them. 
 Nobody has furnished their hearers with arguments, or taken steps 
 to teach them that in America, where conditions are fairly equal, no 
 necessity exists for the violent agitation of these questions. [Topic- 
 sentence] But train bright young men among these immigrants to 
 know what their duties are, teach them their rights, put at their dis- 
 posal arguments with which to meet the specious assertions of self- 
 styled and talkative leaders, and the much-vaunted dangers of socialism 
 would disappear. Century. 
 
 Short summarizing sentences may be needed, at times, to 
 indicate the direction which the thought is next to take, or 
 the manner of treatment to be pursued. An explanation 
 or a reason, of considerable length, which is to be followed 
 by a resumption of the main line of thought, needs such a 
 sentence. The following paragraph illustrates this : 
 
 A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions 
 and uncommon abilities. The reason is obvious. [The next twelve 
 sentences state the reason at length, and the paragraph concludes] 
 The most influential of constitutional statesmen is the one who most 
 felicitously expresses the creed of the moment, who administers it, 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 35 
 
 who embodies it in laws and institutions, who gives it the highest life 
 it is capable of, who induces the average man to think : "I could not 
 have done it any better, if I had had time myself ." Bagehot : Sir 
 Robert Peel. 
 
 In the following, notice how the short summarizing sen- 
 tences (here placed in italics) perform the double duty of 
 acting as transitions and of furnishing a basis for the longer 
 sentences made up of details : 
 
 Without force or opposition, it (national chivalry) subdued the 
 fierceness of pride and power ; it obliged sovereigns to submit to the 
 soft collar of social esteem, compelled stern authority to submit to 
 elegance, and gave a domination vanquisher of laws, to be subdued 
 by manners. 
 
 But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions which 
 made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the 
 different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incor- 
 porated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private 
 society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light 
 and reason. All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All 
 the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imag- 
 ination, which the heart owns, and the understanding ratifies, as 
 necessary to cover the defects of our naked shivering nature, and to 
 raise it to dignity in our own estimation, are to be exploded as a ridic- 
 ulous, absurd, and antiquated fashion. Burke : Reflections on the 
 Revolution in France, p. 90, Macmillan's edition. 
 
 Such expressions as " The main point is this " ; " After all, 
 the fact remains," etc., are useful in a long paragraph for sum- 
 marizing what has gone before, and for indicating the relative 
 importance of the different ideas which make up the para- 
 graph. The following contains two expressions of this kind, 
 the first subordinating, the second giving prominence : 
 
 As a single man, I have spent a good deal of my time in noting 
 down the infirmities of married people to console myself for those 
 superior pleasures, which they tell me I have lost by remaining as I 
 am. I cannot say that the quarrels of men and their wives ever made 
 any great impression on me. . . . What oftehest offends me at the 
 houses of married persons where I visit, is an error of quite a different 
 
36 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 description ; it is that they are too loving. Not too loving neither : 
 that does not explain my meaning. Besides, why should that offend 
 me ? The very act of separating themselves from the rest of the 
 world, to have the fuller enjoyment of each other's society, implies 
 that they prefer one another to all the world. But what I complain of 
 is, that they carry this preference so undisguisedly, they perk it up in 
 the faces of us single people so shamelessly, you cannot be in their 
 company a moment without being made to feel, by some indirect hint 
 or open avowal, that you are not the object of this preference. 
 Charles Lamb : Essays of Elia, A Bachelor's Complaint. 
 
 Find introductory, transitional, and summarizing sentences in Appendix B. In 
 Appendix A 10 will be found a list of topic-sentences of a miscellaneous character. The 
 student is to develop each of these into a paragraph, using those methods of develop- 
 ment which seem most natural and suitable to each topic. Appendix A 11 should be 
 now thoroughly memorized. Some of the exercises in Appendix A 12, should be care- 
 fully worked out before proceeding further, with especial attention to the formation of 
 transitions. 
 
 3. EFFECT ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE. 
 
 The methods of development, treated and illustrated in 
 the preceding pages, must have suggested to the student 
 that the requirements of any paragraph modify considerably 
 the forms of the sentences composing it. The whole para- 
 graph being the unit of thought, it follows that the sentences 
 are influenced, both as to their structure and as to their 
 position, by the demands of the * main idea or theme of the 
 paragraph. It is the theme that reduces some sentences, 
 which would otherwise stand independent, to subordinate po- 
 sitions ; that compels the employment of connecting words ; 
 that determines whether or not a certain word shall be put 
 out of the usual order which it would occupy in an indepen- 
 dent sentence ; and that decides what words, phrases, clauses, 
 or sentences must be given the most emphatic positions. 
 Even questions of punctuation assume, many times, a very 
 important aspect for the paragraph-writer. The unity of a 
 paragraph may be destroyed by carelessness in this respect. 
 We shall examine in the following pages some of the most 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 37 
 
 important of the modifications which the paragraph imposes 
 upon the usual forms of sentences, and shall also mention 
 and illustrate some of the additional apparatus which the 
 paragraph employs. 
 
 (a) INVERSION. 
 
 The most obvious of the modifications which the para- 
 graph may impose upon one of its sentences is inversion. 
 Any sentence which, if stated in its usual order, would tend 
 to obscure the main idea or would seem for the moment to 
 introduce a new topic, may have its parts re-arranged for 
 the sake of preserving the unity and sequence of the para- 
 graph. This is illustrated in the following : 
 
 For choice and pith of language he [Emerson] belongs to a better 
 age than ours, and might rub shoulders with Fuller and Browne 
 though he does use that abominable word reliable. His eye for a fine, 
 telling phrase that will carry true is like that of a backwoodsman for 
 a rifle ; and he will dredge you up a choice word from the mud of 
 Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so rich and so homely as 
 his I know not where to match in these days of writing by the page ; 
 it is like homespun cloth- of -gold. Lowell : My Study Windows. 
 
 In this paragraph, the topic, ' Emerson's choice of lan- 
 guage/ announced in the first sentence, occurs again near 
 the close of the second. The inversion in the third sentence 
 is solely determined by the need of keeping the topic promi- 
 nent. It brings together, in close juncture, the two things 
 that are alike in the last two sentences, the words l choice 
 word ' and ' a diction/ etc. Try the effect of re-writing, in 
 the usual order, the last sentence of the quotation above. 
 In the following, it is the expression ' to do so ' which 
 required the inversion so that ' to do so ' might be brought 
 as close as possible to the words, Ho repudiate/ and 'to 
 disclaim.' 
 
 It is among the most memorable facts of Grecian history that 
 in spite of the victory of Philip at Chaeroneia . . . the Athenian 
 
38 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 people could never be persuaded either to repudiate Demosthenes, 
 or to disclaim sympathy with his political policy. [Inversion] How 
 much art and ability were employed to induce them to do so, by his 
 numerous enemies, the speech of ^Eschines is enough to teach us. 
 Grote : History of Greece, C. 95. 
 
 Account for any inversions you find in the paragraphs given in Appendix B. Often 
 the reason for the inversion will appear if the sentence is re-written in its. usual order. 
 
 PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The main idea sometimes demands for itself the same 
 place in all of a series of sentences, in order to ensure 
 prominence by repetition and by similarity of form and 
 position. This gives rise to the balancing of one part of a 
 sentence against another. Balanced structure is sometimes 
 extended to clauses, phrases, and even to single words. 
 Paragraph requirements will not often dictate this struct- 
 ure ; some writers employ it too frequently. When whole 
 sentences have this similarity of form, the result is what is 
 known as parallel construction. The following will illus- 
 trate all these varieties of balance : 
 
 Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a 
 representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, 
 and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their 
 wishes ought to have great weight with him ; their opinions high 
 respect ; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacri- 
 fice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfactions to theirs, and, above 
 all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his 
 unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, 
 he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men 
 living. These he does not derive from your pleasure, no, nor from 
 the law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for 
 the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative 
 owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment ; and he betrays, 
 instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. My worthy 
 colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to yours. If that be 
 all, the thing is innocent. If government were a matter of will on any 
 side, yours, without question ought to be superior. But government 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 39 
 
 and legislation are matters of reason and judgment and not of inclina- 
 tion ; and what sort of reason is that in which the determination pre- 
 cedes the discussion, in which one set of men deliberate and another 
 decide, and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three 
 hundred miles from those who hear the arguments ? To deliver an 
 opinion is the right of all men ; that of constituents is a weighty and 
 respectable opinion, which a representative ought always to rejoice to 
 hear, and which he ought always most seriously to consider. But 
 authoritative instructions, mandates issued, which the member is 
 bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though 
 contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience, 
 these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which 
 arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and teuour 
 of our constitution. Burke: Obedience to Instructions, Speeches, 
 p. 113. 
 
 In the foregoing quotation, note that the details in the first five sentences are stated 
 by threes ; that the balanced structure is extended even to the adjectives and the adverb- 
 ial expressions ; that the details of one sentence, while corresponding in number and 
 form to those of another, are in the order of climax ; that the inversion in sentence 
 four is made for the purpose of bringing the details of that sentence as close as possible 
 to the details with which they are in contrast, in the third sentence. Note that beginning 
 with the seventh sentence, the details occur by twos ; that the ninth sentence is a short 
 summary furnishing the basis for the sentences that follow ; that the repetition in the 
 thirteenth sentence is made for the purpose of bringing contrasting details in juxta- 
 position. Point out contrasting words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the quota- 
 tion, and all likenesses of form and arrangement. In the quotation from Bacon (Means 
 of Developing (e)) all the sentences after the first have similarity of form. Find illus- 
 trations of balanced structure and parallel constructions in Appendix B. 
 
 (c) KEPETITION. 
 
 It has already been noted that the topic-sentence is some- 
 times repeated while the paragraph is developing. The 
 theme of the paragraph will reappear in various forms of 
 expression at important points. These forms may repeat 
 the whole topic-sentence, or only its significant words ; may 
 repeat literally, or by means of equivalent synonymous ex- 
 pressions. More often, the theme is kept prominent by the 
 use of pronouns and demonstrative expressions. The fol- 
 lowing will illustrate : 
 
40 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 [Topic-sentence] The great thing for us is to feel and enjoy his 
 [the true poet's] work as deeply as ever we can, and to appreciate the 
 wide difference between it and all work which has not the same high 
 character. This is what is salutary ; -this is what is formative ; this 
 is the great benefit to be got from the study of poetry. Everything 
 which interferes with it, which hinders it, is injurious. True, we 
 must read our classic with open eyes, and not with eyes blinded with 
 superstition ; we must perceive when his work comes short, when it 
 drops out of the class of the very best, and we must rate it in such 
 cases, at its proper value. But the use of this negative criticism is 
 not in itself, it is entirely in its enabling us to have a clearer sense and 
 a deeper enjoyment of what is truly excellent. To trace the labor, the 
 attempts, the weaknesses, the failures of a genuine classic, to acquaint 
 oneself with his time and his life and his historical relationships, is mere 
 literary dillettantism unless it has that clear sense and deeper enjoyment 
 for its end. Arnold : Introduction to Ward's English Poets. 
 
 In the example just quoted there is another set of references to carry the thought 
 back to the words, 'his [the true poet's] work.' Eead the paragraph again and point 
 them out. Other examples for practice of this kind may be found in Appendix B. 
 
 The need of closely watching the pronouns and demon- 
 strative words, while a paragraph is being written, cannot 
 be emphasized too much. When a word is employed to 
 point back to some other word or statement that precedes, 
 the writer should make sure that the reference is clear and 
 explicit. The little word it requires special attention and 
 care, in order to avoid ambiguity. When used retrospec- 
 tively, the word it should be employed to refer to but one 
 thing, in the same paragraph. 
 
 Other words useful at times for keeping the theme prominent and for pointing back 
 to something already said are, this, that, these, those, the former, the latter, he, she, 
 it, here, there, hence, whence, hither, thither, thence, now, then. They are called 
 words of retrospective reference. The expressions, it is, there are, first, secondly, etc., 
 are sometimes used to point forward to something that is to follow and are called words 
 of prospective reference. Point out some of the words of reference in the paragraphs to 
 be found in Appendix B. 
 
 SUBORDINATION. 
 
 In maintaining its prominence in a paragraph the theme 
 requires the subordination of all subsidiary and modifying 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 41 
 
 statements. This subordination need not be indicated al- 
 ways by an introductory word ; for frequently the thought 
 itself is obviously subordinate. It is not often necessary, 
 for instance, to introduce a proof by the word because or 
 for; the hearer can many times supply these words for 
 himself. Still there are many cases in which the thought 
 requires that the subordination be plainly indicated. Con- 
 cessions leading up to a contrast usually require an intro- 
 ductory expression, such as, it is true, to be sure, looking 
 forward to a sentence beginning with still, but, yet, or how- 
 ever. Conditions usually need an introductory if, unless. 
 Degrees of subordination in thought are indicated by such 
 words as at least, probably, and perhaps, which require 
 skillful handling and placing. The longer expressions used 
 for this purpose have been mentioned under Means of De- 
 veloping (h). 
 
 Such words as also, likewise, too, further, therefore, conse- 
 quently, etc., may sometimes be needed for showing the 
 exact relation between the sentences which they introduce 
 and the main idea of the paragraph, and for making the con- 
 nection from sentence to sentence. It is quite easy to use 
 them in too great profusion. Far better than burdening a 
 paragraph with such words is the practice of making each 
 sentence the obvious outgrowth of the sentence that precedes 
 and the obvious preparation for the sentence that follows. 
 
 The paragraph quoted below &hows a considerable num- 
 ber of these words of reference, here printed in italics : - 
 
 Finally, it is urged that the small number of editions through which 
 Shakespeare passed in the seventeenth century, furnishes a separate 
 argument, and a conclusive one, against his popularity. We answer, 
 that considering the bulk of his plays collectively, the editions were 
 not few ; compared with any known case, the copies sold of Shakespeare 
 were quite as many as could be expected under the circumstances. 
 . . . The truth is, we have not facts enough to guide us ; for the 
 number of editions often tells nothing accurately as to the number of 
 copies. With respect to Shakespeare, it is certain that, had his master- 
 
42 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 pieces been gathered into small volumes, Shakespeare would have had 
 a most extensive sale. As it was, there can be no doubt that, from his 
 own generation, throughout the seventeenth century, and until the 
 eighteenth began to accommodate, not any greater popularity in him, 
 but a greater taste for reading in the public, his fame never ceased to 
 be viewed as a national trophy of honour. ... It is therefore a false 
 notion that the general sympathy with the merits of Shakespeare ever 
 beat with a languid or intermitting pulse. Undoubtedly, in times 
 when the functions of critical journals and of newspapers were not at 
 hand to diffuse or to strengthen the impressions which emanated from 
 the capital, all opinions must have travelled slowly into the provinces. 
 But even then, whilst the perfect organs of communication were want- 
 ing, indirect substitutes were supplied by the necessities of the times, 
 or by the instincts of political zeal. Two channels especially lay open 
 between the great central organ of the national mind and the remotest 
 provinces. Parliaments were occasionally summoned . . . the nobil- 
 ity continually resorted to the court. . . . Academic persons stationed 
 themselves as sentinels at London for the purpose of watching the 
 court and the course of public affairs. These persons wrote letters 
 . . . and thus conducted the general feelings at the centre into lesser 
 centres, from which again they were diffused into the ten thousand 
 parishes of England. . . . And by this mode of diffusion it is that we 
 can explain the strength with which Shakespeare's thoughts and 
 diction impressed themselves from a very early period upon the na- 
 tional literature, and even more generally upon the national thinking 
 and conversation. De Quincey : Biography of Shakespeare. 
 
 Point out some of the subordinating expressions in the paragraphs given in Appen- 
 dix B. 
 
 (e) PUNCTUATION. 
 
 The grammars and rhetorics, which regard the sentence 
 as the unit of discourse, give rules for punctuation applying 
 mainly to the proper pointing of the various parts of a 
 sentence. Considering the paragraph, however, as the 
 true unit of discourse, we are met by questions of punctua- 
 tion which the rules usually given do not answer. The 
 rule tells us to put a period at the close of every declarative 
 sentence ; but the important question, for the paragraph- 
 writer, often is, what is the proper place at which to bring 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 43 
 
 the sentence to a close ? In the paragraph, not every dis- 
 tinct statement is followed by a full stop. Statements 
 which standing alone would properly be independent sen- 
 tences, are frequently united into one sentence when they 
 become part of a paragraph. 
 
 The rule dictated by paragraph-unity for the division of 
 a paragraph into sentences is that the full stops should be 
 placed at the close of the larger breaks in the thought. 
 What the sentence divisions shall be will depend upon the 
 meaning in each case ; upon the need of giving prominence 
 to the chief assertion and of keeping the other assertions 
 subordinate. If every assertion were followed by a full 
 stop the style would be too broken. A sentence in a para- 
 graph may contain a number of assertions if they are more 
 closely connected in thought than the matter of two succes- 
 sive sentences. To illustrate : 
 
 (1) The Commons denied the King's right to dispense, not indeed 
 with all penal statutes but with penal statutes in matters ecclesiasti- 
 cal, and gave him plainly to understand that, unless he renounced 
 that right, they would grant no supply for the Dutch war. (2) He, 
 for a moment, showed some inclination to put everything to hazard ; 
 but he was strongly advised by Lewis to submit to necessity, and to 
 wait for better times, when the French armies, now employed in an 
 arduous struggle on the continent, might be available for the purpose 
 of suppressing discontent in England. (3) In the Cabal itself the 
 signs of disunion and treachery began to appear. (4) Shaftsbury, 
 with his proverbial sagacity, saw that a violent reaction was at hand, 
 and that all things were tending towards a crisis resembling that of 
 1640. (5) He was determined that such a crisis should not find him 
 in the situation of Strafford. (6) He therefore turned suddenly 
 round, and acknowledged, in the House of Lords, that the Declara- 
 tion was illegal. (7) The King, thus deserted by his ally and by his 
 Chancellor, yielded, cancelled the Declaration, and solemnly promised 
 that it should never be drawn into precedent. Macaulay : History of 
 England, Vol. I. chap. ii. 
 
 The first sentence of the quotation above contains two distinct assertions, which 
 might, so far as ordinary rules of punctuation go, form two distinct sentences; but 
 they are more closely connected in thought than with the sentence numbered (2) and 
 
44 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 so are properly united in one sentence. Likewise, the two assertions in sentence (2) 
 have to do with one subject, "he," the King and so are properly joined in one sen- 
 tence. Sentence (3) has a different subject and properly stands alone. Sentences (4), 
 (5), and (6) are on one subject ; and (4) and (5) might have been united without injury , 
 but (6), containing one of the most important assertions of the paragraph, required the 
 distinction which separate statement gives it. Sentence (7), being on a different subject, 
 is, of course, stated by itself. Re-write the paragraph, making each assertion a separate 
 sentence, and note the loss of unity. Combine these assertions differently and note the 
 loss of meaning which results. 
 
 A general statement containing the main idea, may be 
 followed by a specific statement, with only a colon or semi- 
 colon separating the two. The same rule is followed when 
 the second statement gives a short reason, an example, a 
 qualification, a consequence, an explanation, or a repetition. 
 To illustrate : 
 
 Now surely this ought not to be asserted, unless it can be proved ; 
 we should speak with cautious reverence upon such a subject. 
 Quoted by Bain : Rhetoric, p. 87. 
 
 Agriculture is the 'foundation of manufactures ; the productions 
 of nature are the materials of art. Ibid. 
 
 The education of this poor girl was mean, according to the present 
 standard : was ineffably, grand, according to a purer philosophic stand- 
 ard : and only not good for our age because for us it would be unat- 
 tainable. De Quincey : Joan of Arc, p. 39. 
 
 M. Michelet, indeed, says that La Pucelle was not a shepherdess. 
 I beg his pardon : she was. What he rests upon, I guess pretty well : 
 it is the evidence of a woman called Haumette. Ibid., p. 42. 
 
 With what reverence have I paced thy great bare rooms and courts 
 at eventide ! They spoke of the past : the shade of some dead ac- 
 countant, with visionary pen in ear, would flit by me, stiff as in life. 
 Lamb: Essays of Elia, The South-Sea House. 
 
 The effect of the semicolon or colon used in this way is to indicate the subordina- 
 tion of the second assertion, which has less importance and prominence when attached 
 to the main proposition than if it should stand alone in a separate sentence. 
 
 When a contrast, introduced usually by the word < but, 7 
 is brief and is not to be dwelt upon, it is attached to the 
 main assertion after a colon or semicolon. When, how- 
 ever, the assertion introduced by 'but' is especially em- 
 phatic, or is to be discussed further, it is usually given 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 45 
 
 distinction by being set off in a separate sentence. The fol- 
 lowing will illustrate these two facts : 
 
 Some modern writers have blamed Halifax for continuing in the 
 ministry while he disapproved of the manner in which both domestic 
 and foreign affairs were conducted. But this censure is unjust. 
 Macaulay : History of England, Vol. I. chap. iii. 
 
 There were undoubtedly scholars to whom the whole Greek litera- 
 ture, from Homer to Photius, was familiar : but such scholars were to 
 be found almost exclusively among the clergy resident at the Uni- 
 versities. Ibid. 
 
 Thus emboldened, the King at length ventured to overstep the 
 bounds which he had during some years observed, and to violate the 
 plain letter of the law. The law was that not more than three years 
 should pass between the dissolving of one Parliament and the con- 
 voking of another. But, when three years had elapsed after the 
 dissolution of the Parliament which sate at Oxford, no writs were 
 issued for an election. This infraction, etc. Ibid., chap. ii. 
 
 It is not very easy to explain why the nation which was so far 
 before its neighbors in science should in art have been far behind 
 them. Yet such was the fact. It is true that in architecture . . . 
 our country could boast of one truly great man, Christopher Wren ; 
 . . . But at the close of the reign of Charles the Second there was 
 not a single English painter or statuary whose name is now remem- 
 bered. This sterility, etc. Ibid., chap. iii. 
 
 He acted at different times with both the great political parties : 
 but he never shared in the passions of either. . . . His deportment 
 was remarkably grave and reserved : but his personal tastes were low 
 and frivolous. Ibid., chap. ii. 
 
 The same considerations of prominence, emphasis, and 
 length determine whether a reason introduced by 'for' 
 shall be appended to the main statement or shall be given 
 the distinction of a separate sentence. To illustrate: 
 
 The commencement of the new system was, however, hailed with 
 general delight ; for the people were in a temper to think any change 
 an improvement. They were also pleased by some of the new nomi- 
 nations. Macaulay: History of England, Vol. I. chap. ii. 
 
 France, indeed, had at that time an empire over mankind, such as 
 even the Roman Republic never attained. For, when Rome was 
 
46 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 politically dominant, she was in arts and letters the humble pupil of 
 Greece. France had, over the surrounding countries, at once the 
 ascendency which Rome had over Greece and the ascendency which 
 Greece had over Rome. Ibid., chap. iii. 
 
 A paragraph of details may group the details in a few long 
 sentences, the parts being divided by semicolons or colons ; 
 or each detail may be presented as a separate sentence. 
 The advantage of the former is that it better secures unity 
 of effect ; the advantage of the latter is that it secures a 
 more emphatic presentment of the details. A combination of 
 the two plans is advisable. They are illustrated in the 
 following : 
 
 France united at that time almost every species of ascendency. 
 Her military glory was at its height. She had vanquished mighty 
 coalitions. She had dictated treaties. She had subjugated great 
 cities and provinces. She had forced the Castilian pride to yield her 
 the precedence. She had summoned Italian princes to prostrate them- 
 selves at her footstool. Ibid. 
 
 The interest which the populace took in him whom they regarded as 
 the champion of the true religion and the rightful heir of the British 
 throne, was kept up by every artifice. When Monmouth arrived in 
 London at midnight, the watchmen were ordered by the magistrates 
 to proclaim the joyful event through the streets of the city : the peo- 
 ple left their beds : bonfires were lighted : the windows were illumi- 
 nated : the churches were opened : and a merry peal rose from all 
 the steeples. Ibid. 
 
 The following selections are cited as examples of logical 
 paragraphic division into sentences, in which the punctua- 
 tion is a decided help to clearness of presentation, and 
 assists, to a marked degree, in keeping the main subject 
 prominent and lesser details subordinate : 
 
 Lawrence Hyde was the second son of the Chancellor Clarendon, 
 and was brother of the first Duchess of York. He had excellent parts, 
 which had been improved by parliamentary and diplomatic experi- 
 ence ; but the infirmities of his temper detracted much from the 
 effective strength of his abilities. Negotiator and courtier as he was, 
 he never learned the art of governing or of concealing his emotions. 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 47 
 
 When prosperous, he was insolent and boastful : when he sustained 
 a check, his undisguised mortification doubled the triumph of his 
 enemies : very slight provocations sufficed to kindle his anger ; and 
 when he was angry he said bitter things which he forgot as soon as he 
 was pacified, but which others remembered many years. His quick- 
 ness and penetration would have made him a consummate man of 
 business but for his self-sufficiency and impatience. His writings 
 proved that he had many of the qualities of an orator : but his irrita- 
 bility prevented him from doing himself justice in debate ; for nothing 
 was easier than to goad him into a passion ; and, from the moment 
 when he went into a passion, he was at the mercy of opponents far 
 inferior to him in capacity. Ibid., chap. ii. 
 
 Whenever the arts and labors of life are fulfilled in this spirit of 
 striving against misrule, and doing whatever we have to do, honorably 
 and perfectly, they invariably bring happiness, as much as seems pos- 
 sible to the nature of man. In all other paths, by which that happi- 
 ness is pursued, there is disappointment, or destruction : for ambition 
 and for passion there is no rest no fruition ; the fairest pleasures of 
 youth perish in a darkness greater than their past light ; and the 
 loftiest and purest love too often does but inflame the cloud of life 
 with endless fire of pain. But, ascending from lowest to highest, 
 through every scale of human industry, that industry worthily fol- 
 lowed gives peace. Ask the laborer in the field, at the forge, or in 
 the mine ; ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or the strong- 
 armed, fiery-hearted worker in bronze, and in marble, and with the 
 colors of light ; and none of these, who are true workmen, will ever 
 tell you, that they have found the law of heaven an unkind one that 
 in the sweat of their face they should eat bread, till they return to the 
 ground ; nor that they ever found it an unrewarded obedience, if, 
 indeed, it was rendered faithfully to the command "Whatsoever 
 thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. " Ruskin : The Mystery 
 of Life, sec. 128. 
 
 Examine and criticise the punctuation of some of the paragraphs in Appendix B. 
 In Appendix G 4 will be found some of the rules for punctuation, etc., which are fol- 
 lowed by leading newspapers. 
 
 4. TYPES OF PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE. 
 
 The illustrative paragraphs quoted in the preceding pages 
 have been sufficient to show that there are many distinct 
 
48 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 types of paragraph structure. Under the heading, Means 
 of Developing the Paragraph, the various expedients were 
 pointed out, by which the theme may be effectively pre- 
 sented and wrought out in detail We shall now name and 
 illustrate some of the more important types of structure in 
 the isolated paragraph which result from the character of 
 the theme as Expository, Argumentative, Descriptive, or 
 Narrative. 
 
 (a) EXPOSITORY AND ARGUMENTATIVE, 
 
 This type is devoted to explaining and expounding an 
 idea or to proving a proposition. It is the type in which 
 regular structure is most obvious. It may employ one or 
 several of the means of developing, according to the nature 
 of the theme and to the method of treatment demanded. In 
 some cases a strictly logical plan is needed ; in others a less 
 formal method will be better. 
 
 1. The Logical Type. 
 
 There are two orders of progress in thought, one pro- 
 ceeding from the statement of a general principle to 
 particular applications of the principle (deductive rea- 
 soning), the other proceeding from the statement of par- 
 ticular facts to a general conclusion from those facts 
 (inductive reasoning) . In deductive reasoning, the general 
 principle (stated usually at the beginning) is applied in 
 the particulars ; in inductive reasoning the general prin- 
 ciple (stated usually at the end) is inferred from the 
 particulars, as a conclusion. In a deductive paragraph, 
 as would be expected, the sentences applying the principle 
 to the particular case in hand, usually follow the topic- 
 sentence, which states the principle. In an inductive 
 paragraph the sentences stating the particular facts 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 49 
 
 usually precede the topic-sentence, which states the general 
 conclusion. 
 
 (1) Deductive. 
 
 It is evident from the nature of deduction that the means 
 of development which it most often employs will be those 
 indicated and illustrated under the headings, Presenting 
 Proofs, Application, and Enforcement (see Means of 
 Developing, (/), (#)). For deduction has for its standard 
 of reasoning, this maxim: Whatever is affirmed or denied 
 truthfully of a whole class, may be affirmed or denied truth- 
 fully in like manner of everything comprehended under 
 that class. To illustrate : 
 
 [Statement of principle] The general principle of right arrange- 
 ment in sentences, which we have traced in its application to the lead- 
 ing divisions of them, equally determines the proper order of their 
 minor divisions. [Application to particulars] In every sentence of 
 any complexity the complement to the subject contains several clauses, 
 and that to the predicate several others ; and these may be arranged 
 in greater or less conformity to the law of easy apprehension. Of 
 course with these, as with the larger members, the succession should 
 be from the less specific to the more specific from the abstract to 
 the concrete. Spencer : Philosophy of Style. 
 
 Nihilism, so far as one can find out, expresses rather a method, or a 
 means, than an end. It is difficult to say just what Nihilism does im- 
 ply. So much appears reasonably certain [General statement] that 
 the primary object of the Nihilists is destruction ; [Particulars] that 
 the abolition of the existing order, not the construction of a new order, 
 is in their view ; that, whatever their ulterior designs, or whether or 
 no they have any ultimate purpose in which they are all or generally 
 agreed, the one object which now draws and holds them together, in 
 spite of all the terrors of arbitrary power, is the abolition, not only 
 of all existing governments, but of all political estates, all institutions, 
 all privileges, all forms of authority ; and that to this is postponed 
 whatever plans, purposes, or wishes the confederation, or its members 
 individually, may cherish concerning the reorganization of society. 
 Francis A. Walker : Socialism. 
 
50 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (2) Inductive. 
 
 From the nature of induction, it is evident that the 
 means of development which it employs most often are 
 those indicated and illustrated under the heading, Par- 
 ticulars and Details (see Means of Developing, (e)). The 
 other means of development, repetition, contrast, definition, 
 and explanation are used in paragraphs of both orders, as 
 occasion may require. The following illustrate the induc- 
 tive order : 
 
 Sir, whilst we held this happy course, [Particulars] we drew more 
 from the Colonies than all the impotent violence of despotism ever 
 could extort from them. We did this abundantly in the last war. It 
 has never been once denied ; and what reason have we to imagine that 
 the Colonies would not have proceeded in supplying government as 
 liberally, if you had not stepped in and hindered them from contribut- 
 ing, by interrupting the channel in which their liberality flowed with 
 so strong a course ; by attempting to take, instead of being satisfied to 
 receive ? Sir William Temple says, that Holland has loaded itself 
 with ten times the impositions, which it revolted from Spain, rather 
 than submit to. He says true. [General conclusion] Tyranny is a 
 poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor how to 
 extract. Burke: American Taxation, p. 158 (Payne's ed.). 
 
 Is it better to place the adjective before the substantive, or the sub- 
 stantive before the adjective ? Ought we to say with the French un 
 cheval noir ; or to say as we do a black horse ? [Particulars from 
 which conclusion is to be drawn] Probably most persons of culture 
 would decide that one order is as good as the other. Alive to the bias 
 produced by habit, they would ascribe to that the preference they feel 
 for our own form of expression. They would expect those educated 
 in the use of the opposite form to have an equal preference for that. 
 And thus they would conclude that neither of these instinctive judg- 
 ments is of any worth. There is, however, a philosophical ground 
 for deciding in favour of the English custom. If " a horse black" be 
 the arrangement, immediately on the utterance of the word " horse," 
 there arises, or tends to arise, in the mind, a picture answering to 
 that word ; and as there has been nothing to indicate what kind of 
 horse, any image of a horse suggests itself. Very likely, however, 
 the image will be that of a brown horse, brown horses being the 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 51 
 
 most familiar. The result is that when the word " black " is added, a 
 check is given to the process of thought. Either the picture of a 
 brown horse already present to the imagination has to be suppressed, 
 and the picture of a black one summoned in its place ; or else, if the 
 picture of a brown horse be yet unformed, the tendency to form it 
 has to be stopped. Whichever is the case, a certain amount of hin- 
 drance results. But if, on the other hand, "a black horse" be the 
 expression used, no such mistake can be made. The word " black," 
 indicating an abstract quality, arouses no definite idea. It simply 
 prepares the mind for conceiving some object of that colour ; and the 
 attention is kept suspended until that object is known. [Conclusion] 
 if, then, by the precedence of the adjective, the idea is conveyed with- 
 out liability to error, whereas the precedence of the substantive is apt 
 to produce a misconception, it follows that the one gives the mind 
 less trouble than the other, and is therefore more forcible. Spencer : 
 Philosophy of Style. 
 
 Examine some of the more formal paragraphs in Appendix B, and classify them as 
 deductive or inductive. Treat some of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 9 deductively. 
 Treat some of the same sentences as conclusions to be reached by the inductive process. 
 
 2. The Less Formal Types. 
 
 All paragraphs, whatever their method of construction, 
 might be classified either as deductive or as inductive, and 
 there would be room for considerable casuistry in determin- 
 ing under which head many paragraphs would fall. The 
 fact that it is extremely difficult to find examples of para- 
 graphs which are undeniably deductive or clearly inductive 
 indicates a close relationship between the two orders of 
 thought and their constant intermingling in the mind. As 
 a matter of fact, the two progressions are always combined 
 in thought. The negation of one means the negation of 
 the other also. In putting into language his mental pro- 
 cedure the writer may pursue a variety of methods. He 
 may (1) suppress the inductive operations which have gone 
 on in his mind while thinking on the subject in hand, (2) 
 suppress the deductive operations, (3) mingle the two. The 
 
52 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 tendency in good prose is always to mingle the two orders 
 of thought. Thus in a paragraph which is clearly deprived 
 of most of the deductive features, the conclusion will yet 
 be stated first. In a paragraph deprived of most of the 
 inductive features, the general principle will be stated, or 
 re-stated at the close. In other cases one progression will 
 succeed another at rapid intervals throughout the para- 
 graph. 
 
 This intermingling of deduction and induction which is 
 seen in almost all paragraphs of an expository and argu- 
 mentative character gives a less formal appearance to para- 
 graphs of this kind. For purposes of illustration, there- 
 fore, all expository and argumentative paragraphs which 
 are not exclusively deductive or exclusively inductive are 
 here brought under the title of ' less formal types.' 
 
 (1) Paragraphs of Definition. 
 
 A whole paragraph may be devoted to defining the sub- 
 ject. Some terms require a careful statement of their 
 scope. A term is defined not only by giving its etymology, 
 a history of its changes in meaning, and its current uses, but 
 by giving its applications to various departments of thought. 
 In the following quotation, Sir William Hamilton defines 
 the term Philosophy : - 
 
 There are two questions to be answered : 1st, What is the meaning 
 of the name ? and 2d, What is the meaning of the thing ? An an- 
 swer to the former question is afforded in a nominal definition of the 
 term philosophy, and in a history of its employment and application. 
 In regard to the etymological signification of the word, Philosophy is 
 a term of Greek origin. It is a.compound of <f>i\os, a lover OT friend, 
 and (ro<f>ta, wisdom speculative wisdom. Philosophy is thus, liter- 
 ally, a love of wisdom. ... It is probable, I think, that Socrates was 
 the first who adopted, or at least th'6 first who familiarized, the ex- 
 pression. It was natural that he should be anxious to contradistin- 
 guish himself from the Sophists (ol cro0oc, ol cro0rral), literally, the 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 53 
 
 wise men ; and no term could more appropriately ridicule the arro- 
 gance of these pretenders, or afford a happier contrast to their haughty 
 designation, than that of philosopher (i.e. the lover of wisdom) ; and, 
 at the same time, it is certain that the substantives 0t\o<ro0ia and 
 0iX60-o0os first appear in the writings of the Socratic school. It is 
 true, indeed, that the verb 0tXo(ro0e?j> is found in Herodotus, in the 
 address by Croesus to Solon ; and that, too, in a participial form, to 
 designate the latter as a man who had traveled abroad for the purpose 
 of acquiring knowledge. It is, therefore, not impossible that, before 
 *the time of Socrates, those who devoted themselves to the pursuit 
 of the higher branches of knowledge were occasionally designated 
 philosophers : but it is far more probable that Socrates and his school 
 first appropriated the term as a distinctive appellation ; and that the 
 word philosophy, in consequence of this appropriation, came to be 
 employed for the complement of all higher knowledge, and, more 
 especially, to denote the science conversant about the principles or 
 causes of existence. The term philosophy, I may notice, which was 
 originally assumed in modesty, soon lost its Socratic and etymological 
 signification, and returned to the meaning of o-o(f>La, or wisdom. Quin- 
 tilian calls it nomen insolentissimum ; Seneca, nomen invidiosum j 
 Epictetus counsels his scholars not to call themselves ' Philosophers ' ; 
 and proud is one of the most ordinary epithets with which philosophy 
 is now associated. 
 
 In the following, from George William Curtis, we have 
 definition and explanation combined : 
 
 By the words public duty I do not necessarily mean official duty, 
 although it may include that. I mean simply that constant and 
 active practical participation in the details of politics without which, 
 upon the part of the most intelligent citizens, the conduct of public 
 affairs falls under the control of selfish and ignorant, or crafty and 
 venal men. I mean that personal attention which, as it must be 
 incessant, is often wearisome and even repulsive, to the details of poli- 
 tics, attendance at meetings, service upon committees, care and 
 trouble, and expense of many kinds, patient endurance of rebuffs, 
 chagrins, ridicules, disappointments, defeats in a word, all those 
 duties and services which, when selfishly and meanly performed, 
 stigmatize a man as a mere politician, but whose constant, honor- 
 able, intelligent and vigilant performance is the gradual building, 
 stone by stone, and layer by layer, of that great temple of self- 
 
5 4 Paragrap h - Writing . 
 
 restrained liberty which all generous souls mean that our government 
 shall be. 
 
 (2) Paragraphs of Detail. 
 
 This is one of the most common types of paragraphs in 
 exposition, consisting simply of the inclusive topic-sentence, 
 preceded or followed by particulars, examples, and illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 We do not notice the ticking of the clock, the noise of the city 
 streets, or the roaring of the brook near the house ; and even the din 
 of a laundry or factory will not mingle with the thoughts of its 
 workers, if they have been there long enough. When we first put on 
 spectacles, especially if they be of certain curvatures, the bright reflec- 
 tions they give of the windows, etc., mixing with the field of view, 
 are very disturbing. In a few days we ignore them altogether. . . . 
 The pressure of our clothes and shoes, the beating of our hearts and 
 arteries, our breathing, certain steadfast bodily pains, habitual odors, 
 tastes in the mouth, etc., are examples from other senses of [Topic- 
 sentence] the same lapse into unconsciousness of any too unchanging 
 content a lapse which Hobbes has expressed in the well-known 
 phrase, 'Semper idem sentire ac non sentire ad idem revertunt.' 
 James's Psychology, Vol. II. p. 455. 
 
 (3) Other Types. 
 
 As the paragraph which conforms most nearly to the 
 theoretical structure is the expository or the argumentative 
 paragraph, this has been used for purposes of illustration 
 throughout the preceding part of this book. Further illus- 
 tration here is therefore unnecessary. The student is 
 referred to the chapter on Means of Developing the Para- 
 graph, where he will find the other types of expository and 
 of argumentative paragraphs sufficiently illustrated. 
 
 Develop some of the topic-sentences in Appendix A 10 by methods that seem most 
 fitting in each case. Analyze the paragraphs in Appendix A 13 according to their 
 thought-divisions as the illustrative paragraph there given is analyzed. In Appendix C 1 
 will be found an exercise in Ten-Minute Themes in Exposition and Argumentation to 
 be here introduced. ^. list of subjects is also given. 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 55 
 
 (&) DESCRIPTIVE AND NARRATIVE PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 In paragraphs of this kind the plan is not so easily seen, 
 for in these paragraphs the sequence is not determined 
 solely by the logical order of thought, but is determined in 
 a measure by the nature of the object described or the event 
 narrated. It may have to deal with seemingly unrelated 
 particulars. These, however, may be grouped so as to pro- 
 duce a single effect on the mind. A building is something 
 more than foundations, walls, roof, door, and windows. It 
 has a meaning as a whole to which these in their united 
 capacities contribute. A series of events, taken singly, are 
 without significance unless reported with their total mean- 
 ing as a group clearly in mind. 
 
 In the following descriptive paragraph from Euskin 
 (Prseterita, II. v.) notice how the comparison of the river 
 Rhone to a wave (the theme) binds all the details into a 
 unified whole : 
 
 Waves of clear sea are, indeed, lovely to watch, but they are always 
 coming or gone, never in any taken shape to be seen for a second. 
 But here was one mighty wave [The Rhone] that was always itself, 
 and every fluted swirl of it, constant as the wreathing of a shell. No 
 wasting away of the fallen foam, no pause for gathering of power, no 
 helpless ebb of discouraged recoil ; but alike through bright day and 
 lulling night, the never-pausing plunge and never-fading flash, and 
 never-hushing whisper, and, while the sun was up, the ever-answering 
 glow of unearthly aquamarine, ultramarine, violet blue, gentian blue, 
 peacock blue, river-of-paradise blue, glass of a painted window melted 
 in the sun, and the witch of the Alps flinging the spun tresses of it 
 forever from her snow. 
 
 In the following narrative paragraph notice that the nar- 
 rative details are grouped about the character description, 
 which is here placed in brackets. The particulars are all 
 colored by the writer's evident sympathy with the King : 
 
 Charles appeared before the Court only to deny its competence and 
 to refuse to plead ; but thirty-two witnesses were examined to satisfy 
 
56 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 the consciences of his judges, and it was not till the fifth day of the 
 trial that he was condemned to death as a tyrant, traitor, murderer 
 and enemy of his country. The popular excitement had vented itself 
 in cries of "Justice," or "God save your Majesty," as the trial went 
 on, but all save the loud outcries t)f the soldiers was hushed as Charles 
 passed to receive his doom. [The dignity which he had failed to pre- 
 serve in his long jangling with Bradshaw and the judges returned at 
 the call of death. Whatever had been the faults and follies of his life, 
 "he nothing common did, or mean, upon that memorable scene."] 
 Two masked executioners awaited the King as he mounted the scaf- 
 fold, which had been erected outside one of the windows of the Ban- 
 queting House at Whitehall ; the streets and roofs were thronged with 
 spectators ; and a strong body of soldiers stood drawn up beneath. 
 His head fell at the first blow, and as the executioner lifted it to the 
 sight of all, a groan of pity and horror burst from the silent crowd. 
 Green's Short History, p. 555. 
 
 In Appendix C 2 will be found a list of subjects for Ten-Minute Themes in Descrip- 
 tion and Narration, with suggestions for impromptus and reproductions. A list of 
 readings suitable for class exercises is given in Appendix C 3. 
 
 (1) Portrait Sketches. 
 
 Two varieties of descriptive paragraphs merit special 
 attention. These are portrait sketches and character de- 
 scriptions. The simplest form of portraiture gives a mere 
 catalogue of features. A higher form adds to this the men- 
 bion of accessories, as of clothes, and scraps of conversation. 
 A still higher type imputes to the subject of the sketch 
 personal qualities that put a meaning into the features 
 described makes the face tell the story of the life. The 
 various kinds run into one another, and all may be employed 
 in the same sketch. The following paragraphs will illus- 
 trate : 
 
 SNUBBIN. 
 
 Mr. Serjeant Snubbin was a lantern-faced, sallow-complexioned 
 man, of about five-and-f orty, or as the novels say he might be 
 fifty. He had that dull-looking boiled eye which is so often to be seen 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 57 
 
 in the heads of people who have applied themselves during many years 
 to a weary and laborious course of study ; and which would have been 
 sufficient, without the additional eye-glass which dangled from a broad 
 black riband round his neck, to warn a stranger that he was very 
 near-sighted. His hair was thin and weak, which was partly attribu- 
 table to his having never devoted much time to its arrangement, and 
 partly to his having worn for five-and-twenty years the forensic wig 
 which hung on a block beside him. The marks of hair-powder on his 
 coat-collar, and the ill- washed and worse-tied white neckerchief round 
 his throat, showed that he had not found leisure since he left the 
 court to make any alteration in his dress : while the slovenly style of 
 the remainder of his costume warranted the inference that his per- 
 sonal appearance would not have been very much improved if he had. 
 Books of practice, heaps of papers, and open letters were scattered 
 over the table, without any attempt at order or arrangement ; the 
 furniture of the room was old and rickety ; the doors of the book-case 
 were rotting in their hinges ; the dust flew out from the carpet in little 
 clouds at every step ; the blinds were yellow with age and dirt ; and 
 the state of everything in the room showed, with a clearness not to 
 be mistaken, that Mr. Serjeant Snubbin was far too much occupied 
 "with his professional pursuits to take any great heed or regard of his 
 personal comforts. Pickwick Papers, Vol. II. chap. iii. 
 
 DANTE. 
 
 To me it is a most touching face ; perhaps of all faces that I know, 
 the most so. Lonely there, painted as on vacancy, with the simple 
 laurel wound round it, the deathless sorrow and pain, the known vic- 
 tory which is also deathless ; significant of the whole history of Dante. 
 I think it is the mournf ulest face that ever was painted from reality ; 
 an altogether tragic, heart- affecting face. There is in it, as foundation 
 of it, the softness, tenderness, gentle affection as of a child ; but all 
 this is as if congealed into sharp contradiction, into abnegation, isola- 
 tion, proud hopeless pain. A soft ethereal soul looking-out so stern, 
 implacable, grim-trenchant, as from imprisonment of thick-ribbed ice ! 
 Withal it is a silent pain too, a silent scornful one ; the lip is curled in 
 a kind of godlike disdain of the thing that is eating out his heart, as 
 if it were withal a mean insignificant thing, as if he whom it had power 
 to torture and strangle were greater than it. The face of one wholly 
 in protest and life-long unsur render ing battle, against the world. 
 Affection all converted into indignation ; an implacable indignation ; 
 
5 8 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 slow, equable, silent, like that of a god ! The eye, too, it looks-out 
 in a kind of surprise, a kind of inquiry, why the world was of such a 
 sort ? This is Dante : so he looks, this 4 voice of ten silent centuries,' 
 and sings us ' his mystic unfathomable song.' Carlyle : On Heroes, 
 p. 80. 
 
 Other examples may be found in Ben Hur, chaps, ii. and viii. ; Bracebridge 
 Hall, p. 25; Cromwell at Huntingdon and Naseby, in Carlyle's Cromwell; Pater's 
 description of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, in his Studies in the History of the Renaissance ; 
 and Lodge's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 380. Note the advantage of epithet and 
 strong adjectives in descriptions of this kind. A few portrait sketches are included 
 among the paragraphs in Appendix B. Short sketches of persons and faces known to 
 students should be carefully written outside of class by students, for presentation in 
 class. For impromptu writing in class, portraits of well-known historical characters 
 may be exhibited in class and written descriptions made of them. 
 
 (2) Character Sketches. 
 
 Success in 'character sketches depends upon the writer's 
 power to seize upon the principal trait of character pos- 
 sessed by the subject of the sketch, the predominating 
 characteristic, and to group other traits as the natural 
 results of the leading quality, in the light of which the 
 deeds of the subject of the sketch are to be explained. 
 Every developed character has a central quality about which 
 other traits group themselves. That we speak naturally of 
 Washington's purity, Lincoln's honesty, and Queen Eliz- 
 abeth's versatility is unconscious evidence of this. This 
 central trait, once found, will furnish the paragraph theme. 
 Traits should be illustrated by deeds, events, and words. 
 Epithet, contrast, and figurative language tend to make a 
 character portrayal vivid and effective. The following 
 paragraph, from Green's History of the English People, Vol. 
 III. p. 55, will illustrate all these points : 
 
 CHARACTER OF JAMES. 
 
 [Introductory] On the sixth of May, 1603, after a stately prog- 
 ress through his new dominions, King James entered London. [Por- 
 trait] In outer appearance no sovereign could have jarred more 
 
The Isolated Paragraph. 59 
 
 utterly against the conception of an English ruler which had grown 
 up under Plantagenet or Tudor. His big head, his slobbering tongue, 
 his quilted clothes, his rickety legs, stood out in as grotesque a con- 
 trast with all that men recalled of Henry or Elizabeth as his gabble 
 and rhodomontade, his want of personal dignity, his buffoonery, his 
 coarseness of speech, his pedantry, his personal cowardice. [Charac- 
 ter contrasted with portrait] Under this ridiculous exterior indeed 
 lay no small amount of moral courage and of intellectual dignity. 
 James was a ripe scholar, with a considerable fund of shrewdness, of 
 mother wit, and ready repartee. His canny humour lights up the 
 political and theological controversies of the time with quaint incisive 
 phrases, with puns and epigrams and touches of irony which still 
 retain their savour. His reading, especially in theological matters, 
 was extensive ; and he was already a voluminous author on subjects 
 which ranged from predestination to tobacco. [Statement of the cen- 
 tral quality a confirmed pedantry] But his shrewdness and learn- 
 ing only left him, in the phrase of Henry the Fourth of France, u the 
 wisest fool in Christendom." He had, in fact, the temper of a pedant, 
 a pedant's conceit, a pedant's love of theories, and a pedant's inabil- 
 ity to bring his theories into any relation with actual facts. It was 
 this fatal defect that marred his political abilities. As a statesman he 
 had shown no little capacity in his smaller realm ; his cool humour 
 and good temper had held even Melville at bay ; he had known how 
 to wait and how to strike ; and his patience and boldness had been 
 rewarded with a fair success. He had studied foreign affairs as busily 
 as he had studied Scotch affairs ; and of the temper and plans of for- 
 eign courts he probably possessed a greater knowledge than any Eng- 
 lishman save Robert Cecil. But what he never possessed, and what 
 he never could gain, was any sort of knowledge of England or Eng- 
 lishmen. He came to his new home a Scotchman, a foreigner, strange 
 to the life, the thoughts, the traditions of the English people. And 
 he remained strange to them to the last. A younger man might have 
 insensibly imbibed the temper of the men about him. A man of 
 genius would have flung himself into the new world of thought and 
 feeling and made it his own. But James was neither young nor a 
 man of genius. He was already in middle age when he crossed the 
 Border ; and his cleverness and his conceit alike blinded him to the 
 need of any adjustment of his conclusions or his prejudices to the facts 
 which fronted him. 
 
 Point out in the above the lesser contrasts, epithets, strong adjectives, and figurative 
 language. Make an analysis of the paragraph like that given in Appendix A 13. Other 
 
60 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 illustrations of character sketches will be found in Hosmer's Samuel Adams, p. 363 ; 
 Irving's Philip of Pokanoket (last par.), in the Sketch Book, p. 409 ; Green's His- 
 tory of England, Vol. II. chap. iii. p. 316. A few character sketches are also included 
 among the paragraphs given in Appendix B. After studying and analyzing some of 
 these, the student may attempt to write a description of the character of an intimate 
 friend. 
 
 THE EELATED PARAGRAPH. 
 
 Each of the paragraphs examined thus far in our study 
 has been treated as a complete composition in itself. At- 
 tention will now be directed to those modifications of struct- 
 ure which result when a paragraph becomes a part of an 
 essay. Related paragraphs are those which, taken together, 
 form a complete essay. In most of them the structure is 
 not materially different from that which has been discov- 
 ered in one or another of the various forms of the isolated 
 paragraph. Like the isolated paragraph, most related para- 
 graphs have distinct topic-sentences which are developed in 
 one or more of the ways already pointed out ; the topic- 
 sentences, in the case of related paragraphs, introducing in 
 turn the various headings and sub-headings of the essay- 
 outline. There are a few special kinds of related para- 
 graphs, however, so different in form and function from 
 any of the isolated paragraphs studied, that they require 
 notice and illustration at the outset. What these forms 
 are will appear from a comparison of the functions of the 
 various sentences in an isolated paragraph with those of 
 the various paragraphs in an essay. 
 
 1. SPECIAL FORMS. 
 
 Regarded as sections of a whole composition, the various 
 paragraphs have different functions to perform analogous to 
 those performed by the different sentences of the paragraph. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 61 
 
 As the subject sentence of a paragraph states the paragraph 
 theme, so the introductory paragraph of an essay presents, 
 more or less distinctly, the theme of the essay. As transi- 
 tion words and sentences may be necessary, sometimes, to 
 connect the sentences of a paragraph, so transition para- 
 graphs may be needed at focal points in the essay to con- 
 nect the paragraphs of the essay. Some words like ' but/ 
 'yet,' 'still/ i however/ presenting a contrast, serve in a 
 paragraph to arrest the thought and direct it into a differ- 
 ent channel. There are paragraphs that serve the same 
 purpose in the essay. A sentence may be devoted wholly to 
 restricting, denning, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or 
 enforcing an idea set forth in a previous sentence. So in 
 an essay whole paragraphs may be employed for restricting, 
 denning, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or enforcing 
 the idea of a preceding paragraph. As there are certain 
 expressions at important points in a paragraph to carry the 
 thought back to the subject sentence, so there may be para- 
 graphs in an essay that show the bearing of the thought of 
 contiguous paragraphs upon the main idea of the essay. Of 
 course these functions vary in different kinds of composi- 
 tions, since the paragraphs are colored by the nature of the 
 piece as a whole. In a given essay some may be absent 
 entirely, not being needed for the kind of production in 
 hand, just as in a given paragraph some of the means of 
 development, indicated in the typical plan (see Appen- 
 dix A 11), are absent. A few of these functions will be 
 indicated and illustrated. 
 
 (a) INTRODUCTORY AND CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 Of these little need be said. The object of an introduc- 
 tory paragraph is to segregate the ideas of the composition 
 in hand from all other ideas. As this is nearly always 
 apparent from a mere statement of the theme, the introduc- 
 
6 2 Paragrap h -Writing. 
 
 tion usually needs to do little more than state the theme, 
 and indicate briefly the line of development to be followed. 
 In a description, the introduction frequently gives the total 
 impression produced by the object described. A narrative 
 introduction usually requires nothing more than the place 
 and time of the story. A newspaper article narrating an 
 important series of events usually employs the introductory 
 paragraph for the purpose of giving a summary of the 
 events detailed at length in the succeeding paragraphs. In 
 such an article, the introduction tells the whole story in 
 brief. 
 
 [The subject of the section from which the following paragraph is 
 taken is ''Political Institutions of Germany." The marginal note 
 gives as the subject of this paragraph, " Want of National Institutions 
 in Germany."] 
 
 It was the misfortune of Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries that, [Subject of section] with most of the conditions requisite 
 for the formation of national unity, [Subject of paragraph] she had no 
 really national institutions. There was [Subjects of sections and 
 paragraphs to follow] an Emperor, who looked something like an 
 English King, and a Diet, or General Assembly, which looked some- 
 thing like an English Parliament, but [Subject of paragraph repeated] 
 the resemblance was far greater in appearance than in reality. 
 Gardiner: Thirty Years' War, p. 1. 
 
 The concluding paragraph should gather into itself the 
 force of all the preceding paragraphs. The effort should be 
 to leave a strong impression. It is no place for digressions ; 
 but must be in line with what has been said before. 
 
 A great deal must be allowed to Pope for the age in which he lived, 
 and not a little, I think, for the influence of Swift. In his own prov- 
 ince he still stands unapproachably alone. [Enumeration of points 
 made in the essay] If to be the greatest satirist of individual men, 
 rather than of human nature, if to be the highest expression which 
 the life of the court and the ball-room has ever found in verse, if to 
 have added more phrases to our language than any other but Shake- 
 speare, if to have charmed four generations make a man a great poet 
 then he is one. He was the chief founder of an artificial style of 
 
The Related Paragraph. 63 
 
 writing, which in his hands was living and powerful, because he used 
 it to express artificial modes of thinking and an artificial state of 
 society. Measured by any high standard of imagination, he will be 
 found wanting; tried by any test of wit he is unrivalled. Lowell: 
 My Study Windows, p. 433. 
 
 Other examples of introductory and concluding paragraphs will be found in Ap- 
 pendix D 1. 
 
 TRANSITIONAL AND DIRECTIVE PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 Transitional and directive paragraphs serve to make plain 
 the logical connection between the main topics of the dis- 
 course and to direct the thought both to the subject of the 
 preceding paragraph and to that of the following paragraph. 
 Transitional paragraphs have, therefore, two offices to per- 
 form. There must be the " backward look" to the subject 
 that precedes, and the " forward look" to the subject that 
 follows. The following will serve to illustrate : 
 
 [In a preceding paragraph the author has called attention to the fact 
 that Confucius is worthy of high respect. This idea is repeated in the 
 opening sentence.] Confucius belongs to that small company of 
 select ones whose lives have been devoted to the moral elevation of 
 their fellow-men. Among them he stands high. For [Transition to 
 new subject] he sought to implant the purest principles of religion and 
 morals in the character of the whole people, and succeeded in doing 
 it. To show that this was his purpose [Subject of next paragraph 
 definitely stated] it will be necessary to give a brief sketch of his life. 
 Clarke: Ten Great Eeligions, p. 45. 
 
 Other examples of transitional and directive paragraphs will be found in Appendix D 2. 
 
 (c) AMPLIFYING PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 It is often the case that a thought which bears directly 
 on the subject, but which can be mentioned only briefly in 
 one paragraph, is of sufficient importance to deserve a more 
 extended treatment. To give it such treatment in the para- 
 graph in which it is first mentioned might destroy the unity 
 
64 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 and due proportion of that paragraph. In such a case it is 
 better to develop the thought, in detail, in the paragraph 
 immediately following. Separate treatment of this kind 
 will permit the reader to dwell upon the thought thus 
 amplified, long enough for him to appreciate its bearing and 
 importance. The amplifying paragraph is of especial value 
 in enforcing an idea in a particular way and in making it 
 contribute to the main purpose of the composition. Often 
 an amplifying paragraph consists of details which enforce 
 or illustrate the idea of the preceding paragraph as a whole. 
 The following is in point : 
 
 [The thought of the preceding paragraph is that everything has two 
 sides, a tragic and a comic.] We read Mrs. Caudle's curtain lectures, 
 and find them very funny. To poor Caudle they were not all fun. 
 We make merry over Jack Falstaff. Was there no tragedy there ? 
 Prince Hal laughed at v the comedy. King Henry saw the full force of 
 the tragedy. Who so funny as Dogberry ? His blunders and his 
 stupidity are irresistible. But suppose him to have a daughter who 
 had been to the schools, who knew that ' vagrant ' was not pronounced 
 ' vagrom,' who had been proud of her father's appointment, and had 
 hoped for a certain social elevation from it, and was proportionally 
 mortified at the exhibition he was making of himself ; or suppose a 
 reformer to have been present who was indignant that such men should 
 hold office. . . . Neither of these would see the joke. Everett : 
 Poetry ', Comedy, and Duty, p. 169. 
 
 Other examples of amplifying paragraphs will be found in Appendix D 3. The exer- 
 cises provided for by the outlines in Appendix A 12 should now be resumed, with especial 
 reference to the formation of a variety of introductory, transitional, amplifying, and con- 
 cluding paragraphs, wherever these appear to be necessary. Another useful exercise is 
 suggested in connection with the list published in Appendix E. 
 
 2. THE WRITING OF ESSAYS. 
 
 Up to this point in our study, we have concentrated our 
 attention upon the individual paragraph ; we have exam- 
 ined the laws, means of development, and types of structure 
 of isolated paragraphs, and have pointed out the special 
 forms of certain related paragraphs so far as they have 
 
The Related Paragraph. 65 
 
 required notice on account of their difference in function 
 from isolated paragraphs. The student having thus been 
 led, through exercises in the writing of single paragraphs 
 and a study of paragraph structure, to a knowledge of rhe- 
 torical forms and functions, is prepared to undertake the 
 composition of those groups or series of paragraphs which 
 we call articles or essays. In our further study, then, 
 attention will be concentrated not upon the individual 
 paragraph but upon the whole essay. This change in the 
 object of attention necessitates a corresponding change in 
 our method of presenting the subject. Beginning with the 
 usual division of discourse, we shall take up in turn the 
 descriptive essay, the narrative essay, the expository essay, 
 and the argumentative essay, pointing out, in the case of 
 each, those principles and cautions which have been found 
 most useful in actual writing. 
 
 (a) THE DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY. 
 
 In studying types of paragraph structure (see p. 55) the 
 student was given some practice in description. What was 
 said there of descriptive paragraphs applies with equal 
 force to the descriptive essay, which may be regarded as a 
 larger and more extensive form of the descriptive para- 
 graph. 
 
 (1) Province and Kinds of Description. 
 
 The descriptive essay has for its purpose the presenta- 
 tion, in language, of a picture of some material object, 
 mental state, or character. The object, state, or character 
 may be either real or imagined; but, in both cases, it is 
 presented as if real, and the same laws govern both kinds 
 of description. 
 
66 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (2) Selection of a Subject. 
 
 The value of a description depends upon clearness of 
 observation and effectiveness in reporting what is observed. 
 The advantage is evident, therefore, of selecting objects for 
 description which the writer has himself seen, mental states 
 which he has himself experienced, characters with which he 
 has himself been brought in contact. Objects and char- 
 acters close at hand afford the best materials for descrip- 
 tion. A room, a scene, a face, a picture, a building, a 
 character, well known to the describer, furnish better sub- 
 jects than similar themes taken from history or reported at 
 second hand. 
 
 A list of subjects suitable for short descriptions may be found in Appendix C 2. 
 
 (3) Outlining the Subject. 
 
 Material objects carry their own outlines with them. 
 The observer discovers the main outlines of the object he 
 wishes to describe and arranges them in the order in which 
 they appear to him. As the main features of any material 
 object are few in number, the corresponding headings in 
 the outline will be few, and distinctly stated. The lesser 
 details, so far as these require mention, will be arranged as 
 subdivisions of the main headings to which they respec- 
 tively belong. In selecting features for the main headings, 
 prominence is the rule that governs ; in selecting and 
 arranging the details for the subheadings, the order of 
 proximity is to be followed. Descriptions of character fur- 
 nish a less obvious outline. Here the two or three chief 
 characteristics, carefully distinguished, give the main head- 
 ings. These larger headings are presented usually in the 
 order of their prominence, the most prominent coming 
 
The Related Paragraph. 67 
 
 last ; lesser traits are arranged as subdivisions under these 
 in the order of similarity or of contrast. 
 
 Specimen outlines in description are given in Appendix A 12. An exercise in rhetor- 
 ical analysis, including work in discovering outlines from descriptive articles, is sug- 
 gested in Appendix E. 
 
 (4) Purpose in Description. 
 
 Every descriptive essay has a purpose, though generally 
 the purpose is not directly expressed. If expressed at all, 
 it will usually be in the conclusion of the essay. The 
 purpose may be merely to convey information; yet even 
 here it will be information to a certain end, and the whole de- 
 scription will show what the end is. A botanist and a land- 
 scape-gardener will describe a tree in different ways. The 
 purpose may be no more definite than to produce a favor- 
 able or an unfavorable impression of the object described, 
 and yet, though nowhere avowed in the essay, it will color 
 the whole description. For example, the description of a 
 school-room may all tend to show the need of improvement 
 in lighting, care, or ventilation. A scene may be described 
 so as to produce the same feeling of sympathy or abhorrence 
 that was produced in the observer. A character description 
 may excite admiration, or reverence, or awe, or detestation. 
 It is the hidden purpose which gives cohesion, unity, effec- 
 tiveness, and individuality to a descriptive essay. 
 
 (5) Point of View. 
 
 The purpose determines the point of view and gives the 
 character and coloring to the whole essay. The expression, 
 ' point of view/ is used in two senses. In one sense it is to 
 be understood literally. In describing a scene, for instance, 
 the observer takes his stand (in thought) at some point, 
 and describes the elements that make up the scene as they 
 
6 8 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 appear to him from that point. It may be necessary, in 
 describing extensive objects (as a large building or an 
 art gallery), for the describer to change his point of view, 
 but the imaginary path which he follows should be clearly 
 marked and due notice of each change should be given to 
 the reader by some such expression as, "Passing now to 
 the interior of the building, etc." But a wider meaning is 
 evident in the expression, point of view, when we say that 
 a description is written from the point of view of a careless, 
 or interested, or sympathetic observer ; or from the point 
 of view of the scientist, or the reformer, or the teacher; 
 the expression here referring to the spirit or bias of the 
 observer. 
 
 Let the student determine the point of view of any description that he has read : 
 the most advantageous position from which to view the school building ; the changes in 
 the point of view which would be required in describing a winding avenue, or the course 
 of a river, or the interior of a large manufactory. In the wider sense of the term, what 
 is the point of view of Green's description of Elizabeth (Short History of the English 
 People, chap, vii.), of Irving' s description of Wouter van T wilier (History of Neio 
 York, Book III. chap, i.), of Johnson's description of the Happy Valley (Rasselas, 
 chap, i.) ? 
 
 (6) Selection of Details. 
 
 The purpose also influences the selection of details. 
 The few details will be chosen which are most suggestive 
 and characteristic of the thing described, and while enough 
 will be said to give a unified picture, those details will be 
 especially emphasized which tend to bring out the writer's 
 purpose and to make the reader see as the writer saw. 
 Whatever the purpose may be, the points to select for 
 special mention are not those which the object to be 
 described has in common with other objects of the same 
 class, but those in which it differs and is peculiar. 
 
 Let the student make a list of the details selected for mention by the writer of any 
 description that he has read. What details, for instance, are selected in Whittier's 
 Snow-bound, in Longfellow's The Bridge, in Tennyson's Mariana, in Hawthorne's 
 The Custom House (Scarlet Letter), in Irving's Ichabod Crane (Sketch- Book), in Cole- 
 ridge's A ncient Mariner? What gives these details their significance? What other 
 details might have been mentioned and why were they purposely omitted ? 
 
The Related Paragraph. 69 
 
 (7) Sequence and Grouping. 
 
 The order in which the details are presented is deter- 
 mined largely by the character of the thing described ; but 
 this order may be modified by the purpose of the writer. 
 In describing a material object the general impression or 
 effect produced upon the observer at the first view natu- 
 rally comes first : the impression of greatness, massiveness, 
 beauty, gloom, or brightness, as the case may be; then the 
 color, as this is one of the first things noticed; next 
 the general plan, shape, and size, as these give the reader a 
 comprehensive outline into which he may fit the details as 
 they are mentioned; finally, the material, style, arrange- 
 ment, furnishings, and use. Lesser details will be mentioned 
 only so far as they are peculiar or are necessary to a unified 
 picture, and they will be presented in small groups in con- 
 nection with some of the main headings, or, if mentioned 
 by themselves, will be used to illustrate some characteristic 
 of the object described, such as convenience, adaptedness to 
 use, ornamentation, or plainness. 
 
 See, also, what is said under ' outlining the subject,' and under Portrait and Character 
 Sketches (pp. 56-60). 
 
 (8) Helps to Description. 
 
 The object of description being to make the reader see 
 mentally what the writer saw actually, description becomes 
 to a large degree a matter of conveying impressions. Com- 
 parisons, similes, contrasts, epithet, and figurative language 
 are the natural means resorted to for conveying personal 
 impressions from one to another and have a prominent part 
 in effective description. Feelings and circumstances natu- 
 rally associated with objects of the class described give 
 clearness and vividness to a description, and a final and 
 unified impression is given by stating in conclusion the 
 
70 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 effect produced upon the mind of the observer when in the 
 presence of the object. 
 
 Subjects for longer essays in description may be selected from Appendix G. Sugges- 
 tions of a useful exercise in reporting will be found in Appendix F. 
 
 THE NARRATIVE ESSAY. 
 
 A narrative is the presentation in language of successive 
 related events occurring in time. Description represents 
 an object as it appeared at a single moment of time ; narra- 
 tion represents it as undergoing changes. Every narrative 
 involves some description ; a history, for example, requires 
 much descriptive matter; but here, as in other forms of 
 narration, the descriptive matter is merely subsidiary and 
 explanatory, and is kept subordinate to the main purpose of 
 reciting events as they occur, one after another. 
 
 . 
 (1) Province and Kinds. 
 
 The field covered by narration is large, comprising biog- 
 raphy, history, fiction, and a large class of poetry. The 
 simplest kind is represented by the biography in which 
 there is but one main character, whose fortunes are followed 
 through life. Akin to biography, in treatment, are imagi- 
 native and fanciful themes, such as " Experiences in the 
 Life of a Bank-note." History and fiction deal with larger 
 themes, and the interest is -carried along several lines. 
 
 (2) Selection of a Subject. 
 
 % 
 Here, as in description, there is great opportunity for 
 
 originality in the choice of a subject. Events and experi- 
 ences in the student's own life furnish the best material 
 for first efforts. Later, the short story and the history of 
 organizations in which he has had a part may be tried. 
 
i ITJSttVERSITY 
 The Related Paragraph. S ^ AUFQ ffjfe 
 
 But it is generally unwise for him to take up complex sub- 
 jects in imaginative and historical narration until wide 
 reading and protracted thought justify it. 
 
 A list of subjects suitable for shorter articles in narration may be found in Appendix 
 02. 
 
 (3) Outlining the Subject. 
 
 In narratives of a simple form in which there is but one 
 main character, and in which the interest is confined to a 
 single line, the critical points of time furnish the basis of 
 the outline structure and the main heads of the outline. 
 The narrative of a personal adventure will serve to illus- 
 trate. If the adventure is worth recounting, it will have a 
 center of interest, a culminating point to which the whole 
 narrative looks forward. This fact suggests three distinct 
 points for a single outline of such an adventure. The first 
 main heading will include the events that lead up to this 
 center of interest ; the next will stand for all that belongs 
 to the critical point of the adventure, the climax or height 
 of interest ; and the third will include the result, conclu- 
 sion, or explanation. Naturally, these three headings are 
 placed in the order of time, and once these are determined, 
 the lesser details will arrange themselves under the main 
 headings to which they respectively belong. 
 
 Certain more abstract narratives require different treat- 
 ment and different planning. Take, for example, the class 
 of themes represented by subjects of this kind : The His- 
 tory of the Ballot Reform Movement ; The Growth of the 
 Poetic Spirit in Robert Burns. Here the distinct elements 
 of the History or of the Growth are discerned by analysis, 
 and after being arranged in the order of causes and effects, 
 they are set down as the main heads of the outline. The 
 order of causes and effects may, and often does, coincide 
 with the time order ; but, if not, it is the time order that 
 
7 2 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 must yield. In such themes, it is often best to take up one 
 line of cause and effect and arrange the selected events that 
 belong to it, in the time order as sub-heads ; then a second 
 line of cause and effect with its selected events, and so on. 
 This is the method, too, of some of our best histories and 
 of all novels. 
 
 Specimen outlines in narration are given in Appendix A 12. An exercise in rhetorical 
 analysis, including practice in discovering the outlines from narrative articles, is sug- 
 gested in Appendix E. 
 
 (4) Unity and Selection. 
 
 As in description, so in narration the writer's point of 
 view (in the larger sense of that term) will influence his 
 selection of details and his manner of presenting them. 
 The fact that a narrative is told implies that it possesses a 
 peculiar, individual, and unique interest. This indicates 
 the rule for the selection of details. Details which differ 
 from the ordinary give character to a narrative and require 
 the most important setting. There is even more opportu- 
 nity for detecting and using peculiar characteristics in nar- 
 rative than in descriptive writing : it is the unexpected that 
 often happens, and much is made of this fact by writers of 
 fiction. Ability and willingness to omit or curtail what is 
 usual and common, that the attention may be held to what 
 is unique and peculiar, are discernible in the work of every 
 good story-teller. The culminating point, which gives the 
 narrative distinction, is kept in view all the time and noth- 
 ing is admitted which does not carry the narrative forward 
 towards it. This point furnishes the center of unity to a 
 narrative. When it is reached the reason is apparent for 
 all the details and incidents that have been previously 
 mentioned in the narrative. Even the descriptive digres- 
 sions are seen to have played an important, though subor- 
 dinate, part in leading to the culmination. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 73 
 
 (5) Sequence and Grouping. 
 
 The narrative writer sees clearly (what his reader cannot 
 see) the end for which all the incidents are recounted and 
 to which they all contribute. This suggests the chief rule 
 of sequence : That sequence of events is best in which each 
 occurrence stated is necessary to the proper understanding 
 of its successor. In simple narratives, where the interest is 
 undivided, this rule is easy to follow ; but in complex narra- 
 tives, such as the novel and the history, sequence is harder 
 to secure because of the fact that several contemporaneous 
 lines of interest must be kept up. The writer will in such 
 cases show his sense for sequence by his method of group- 
 ing facts and events. One line of interest will be carried 
 forward to a point at which all the lines of interest meet ; 
 then another will be brought to the same point ; and so on. 
 A new start will then be taken to the next goal of interest, 
 and this process will be repeated until the culminating 
 point is reached. In the historical essay, these various 
 meeting-places are indicated and emphasized by summaries 
 which prepare for the new start. Thus the grouping of 
 facts is by periods of time and by lines of interest, each 
 period being fixed by the writer with reference to the cul- 
 mination. 
 
 (6) Suspense and Movement. 
 
 This topic applies mainly to a story with a complicated 
 plot, and to an extensive history. The management of a 
 narrative of either kind will involve attention to both 
 suspense and movement. Suspense retards the progress 
 of the narrative and movement accelerates it. Suspense is 
 advisable just before the culminating point of interest is 
 reached, and it is secured usually by introducing descrip- 
 tive details or explanations. Sometimes suspense is secured 
 by beginning at some point along in the story, the events 
 
74 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 leading up to the first scene being afterwards introduced as 
 an explanation, or as a part of a subsequent conversation 
 between two of the characters. Description detains the 
 attention, but it must be relevant, or its introduction is re- 
 sented by the reader. In most parts of a narrative, how- 
 ever, movement rather than suspense is desirable, and this 
 is secured by reducing or omitting descriptions, by hurry- 
 ing over details and condensing lesser actions and events as 
 much as possible. Especially is movement desirable when 
 the culmination or principal action is reached, and, in gen- 
 eral, those parts of a narrative which portray rapid action 
 should show it by a hurried manner of treatment. 
 
 (7) Plausibility and Verisimilitude. 
 
 This topic has to do mainly with imaginative narratives. 
 Here the story must bear the marks of reality and likeli- 
 hood or it fails to secure attention. This does not mean 
 that long explanations are necessary ; these too often spoil 
 a climax for which they are intended to prepare the reader ; 
 nor does it preclude < surprises/ for these are among the 
 most real and likely things of life. Rather does it involve 
 a more careful planning and outlining of details at the 
 outset and a more careful handling of the phraseology of 
 description and narration. 
 
 (8) Helps to Narration. 
 
 It has already been indicated that description is fre- 
 quently used in narratives of all kinds. Usually descrip- 
 tion forms the introduction of a scene or story, giving it a 
 time and a place and an air of reality. Character descrip- 
 tions and portrait sketches are also employed in narratives, 
 and their use is obvious both for detaining the attention 
 upon the chief characters of interest, and for aiding in the 
 
The Related Paragraph. 75 
 
 appreciation of the subsequent actions of the characters. 
 Contrasts of characters are another help to narration : two 
 unlike characters serving to set each other off and to give 
 greater distinction to both. Contrasts of scenes are also 
 helpful : scenes which are full of action alternating with 
 scenes of a comparatively quiet character. Transitions are 
 everywhere important but nowhere more so than in narra- 
 tion. When to indicate plainly a change of scene, and 
 when to leave the change to be inferred is a problem best 
 solved by noticing the practice of the standard writers of 
 narratives. Episodes afford relief to a reader when they 
 are introduced into a long narrative of intense action, but 
 are elsewhere out of place : the short story and the narra- 
 tive of adventure are hindered rather than helped by the 
 introduction of episodes. 
 
 Subjects for longer essays in narration may be selected from Appendix G. Sugges- 
 tions of a useful exercise in reporting will be found in Appendix F. 
 
 (c) THE EXPOSITORY ESSAY. 
 
 Exposition has been defined as " such an analysis of a gen- 
 eral term as will make clear to the mind the general notion 
 of which it is the sign." It takes the general term Music, 
 for instance, and seeks to explain and set forth clearly what 
 music is, what are its essential qualities, how much it in- 
 cludes, what it excludes, how it differs from other fine arts, 
 into what kinds it is divided, in short, exposition seeks 
 to discover and set forth an adequate definition of music, to 
 give a logical division into kinds, and to define and explain 
 the various kinds. Or, it takes a general proposition such 
 as " Education is beneficial in all the pursuits of life," and, 
 without assuming the truth or falsity of the proposition, 
 it seeks to answer the question, What is education ? to 
 analyze it into its elements, and to classify the pursuits of 
 life, leaving to argument the work of determining whether 
 
76 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 the proposition is true or false. Thus, education having 
 been defined as training, the various kinds of training hav- 
 ing been determined, and the pursuits of life having been 
 classified, the results of the exposition of this proposition 
 might be outlined as follows : 
 
 f the mind 1 f the languages 1 f the professions ^ 
 
 Education, or I 
 
 ' the heart ^ in J the sciences \ is beneficial in J the trades 
 
 [ the body j [ the arts j | and commerce. 
 
 1. Kinds and Uses. 
 
 It is evident that the kind of exposition illustrated above 
 is useful mainly for planning and outlining a subject. It 
 is concerned with laying the ground-work for subsequent 
 discussion, description, or narration. It analyzes, defines, 
 divides, and classifies ; it plays an important part in plan- 
 ning every essay that is written, whether in description, nar- 
 ration, or argumentation ; and for that reason it will be 
 treated under the headings that follow : Analysis by Parti- 
 tion; Analysis by Division; Exposition by Definition; 
 Exposition by Similarity and Contrast, all of these being 
 presented mainly as helps to planning and outlining themes. 
 These methods may all be included under the single desig- 
 nation of Scientific Exposition. 
 
 There is, however, another kind of exposition, of a less 
 rigidly scientific character, which we shall call Popular 
 Exposition, and under which may be included the Didactic 
 Essay, the Conversational Essay, and the Critical Essay. 
 These we shall discuss under the headings indicated, after 
 taking up the various kinds of Scientific Exposition. 
 
 2. Scientific Exposition. 
 
 It should be remembered that the chief use of scientific 
 exposition to the student is the practice which it gives him 
 
The Related Paragraph. 77 
 
 in outlining and planning subjects for composition. The 
 sense for outlining and planning is at the basis of essay 
 structure of all kinds, and the student should carefully 
 perform all of the exercises provided under the following 
 heads, with the purpose of improving his sense for logical 
 outlining. 
 
 (1) Analysis by Partition. 
 
 In partition, the theme is a whole made up of parts, and 
 the work of exposition demands that this whole be sepa- 
 rated or analyzed into its component parts. Thus, taking 
 the theme 'Tree,' partition separates it into root, trunk, 
 branches, and fruit ; or, on another principle, separates it 
 into woody fiber and sap. It takes a theme like 'The Ad- 
 vantages of Railways ' and separates it, on one principle, as 
 follows: 1. Advantages to Individuals: (a) in widening 
 their knowledge by travel, (b) in widening the field of 
 their social activity, (c) in widening and extending their 
 business and commercial field. 2. Advantages to the Pub- 
 lic as a whole : (a) in uniting remote parts of the country, 
 (b) in fostering the development of the country's material 
 resources, (c) in giving the parts of a country one political 
 life. 
 
 The work of partition stops with the plan or the outline. 
 Treatment of the various headings of the outline may be 
 by any of the processes of narration, description, and argu- 
 mentation, or by the methods of exposition to be mentioned 
 further on. The headings of the outline in partition need 
 not cover the whole subject. Much more might be said 
 on the subject outlined above than is indicated in the out- 
 line. Only so much of any topic needs to be parted off 
 as will serve to fulfill the purpose which the writer has 
 in view. 
 
 Other outlines in partition may be found in Appendix A 12. A list of topics and 
 propositions to be outlined by partition inay be found in Appendix 1. 
 
7 8 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 (2) Analysis by Division. 
 
 In division the theme is separated into similar parts. 
 Division would take the theme 'Tree 7 (which partition 
 separates into the component parts of root, trunk, branches, 
 and fruit) and would separate it into the various kinds, 
 classes, varieties of trees. It takes a theme like ' The Leg- 
 islative Government in the United States ? and separates it 
 into the ' House of Representatives, the Senate, and the 
 Veto Power of the President.' 
 
 In dividing a theme, care must be taken that the main 
 headings of the outline be selected on a single principle. 
 Thus, taking the subject ' Kinds of Sentences/ it may be 
 divided on one principle into ' simple, complex, compound ' ; 
 on another, into ' long and short J ; on another, into ' peri- 
 odic and loose.' To divide sentences into ' complex, short, 
 and periodic' would obviously lead to nothing but confu- 
 sion, as more than one principle of division would be intro- 
 duced. So, when a recent writer speaks of ' Our Duties ' 
 as i personal, religious, and political/ the same error of a 
 double principle of division is presented, though here it is 
 less obvious, on account of the character of the subject. 
 It is apparent, however, when we consider that our religious 
 and political duties are personal duties. This illustrates, 
 also, the violation of another law of division : No one of the 
 headings should of itself cover the whole subject to be 
 divided. 
 
 However, the theme may be divided on one principle for 
 the main headings of the outline, while the groups of sub- 
 headings under each of the main heads may follow entirely 
 different principles of division. This is illustrated by the 
 outline (in Appendix A 12) of the subject: History of the 
 Temporal Power of the Pope. Here the main headings are 
 chronological, while the sub-heads follow different principles 
 of division. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 79 
 
 Whatever principle of division be chosen, it is important 
 that the headings be distinct, and do not over-lap one an- 
 other. If the main headings of the outline are clearly dis- 
 tinguished from one another, the effect on the essay will be 
 to give the principal ideas their due prominence. The 
 hearer or reader will be able to discover the plan of the 
 essay and to state to himself the main points as the essay 
 is heard or read. 
 
 A single reading of Ruskin's Fors Clavigera, Letter V., in which 
 he -arraigns the accepted political economy of the time, discovers the 
 following outline : 
 
 1. The essentials which ought to be secured by a true Political Economy, 
 (a) Material things essential to life. 
 
 (1) Pure air; (2) Water; (3) Earth. (Advantages of each.) 
 (6) Immaterial things essential to life. 
 
 (1) Admiration ; (2) Hope ; (3) Love. (Each is defined and its value stated.) 
 
 2. What under modern Political Economy is done with these. 
 
 (a) With the Material things essential to life. 
 
 (1) The air is vitiated by the smoke of factories and towns. 
 
 (2) The water of rivers is made foul by sewage. 
 
 (3) The earth is made a deadly battle-ground instead of a life-giving harvest- 
 
 field. 
 
 (b) With the Immaterial things essential to life. 
 
 (1) Instead of Admiration for the past there is contempt and conceit. 
 
 (2) Instead of Hope there is lack of spirit and of patriotism. 
 
 (3) Instead of Love, the constant instinct of man is assumed by Political 
 
 Economy to be the desire to defraud his neighbor. 
 
 It is also important that the successive divisions of the 
 subject follow one another in close order, each division of 
 the outline leading naturally to the one that comes next. 
 A carefully divided outline will usually ensure unity and 
 sequence in the essay. This close order, or sequence, will 
 be secured (1) if the thoughts expressed by the headings are 
 felt to be near to one another. The outline on the Uses of 
 Novel-Reading (Appendix A 12) illustrates. Here each 
 heading suggests the next. Such arrangement is by Con- 
 tiguity. (2) A second principle of arranging outline divi- 
 sions is the principle of Cause and Effect. No tendency of 
 the mind is stronger than that which impels us to seek the 
 
80 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 cause of an existing fact or to trace the consequences of a 
 past action. Some of the best histories are constructed in 
 the main on this plan : 
 
 (a) Statement of a group of facts or events. 
 
 (b) Causes of these facts or events. 
 
 (c) Their effects 
 
 (1) Upon those immediately involved, 
 
 (2) Upon the nation as a whole. 
 
 The same plan is then applied to another group of facts or 
 events. See outline of a lecture by Dr. Washington Gladden 
 on 'The Modern Cerberus' (Appendix A 12). (3) A third 
 principle of arranging outline divisions is the principle of 
 Contrast. Two clearly contrasted notions may be placed in 
 immediate succession. This principle will be treated under 
 the heading i Exposition by Contrast/ in a succeeding 
 paragraph. (See p. 81.) 
 
 Finally, the general arrangement of the headings and sub- 
 headings of the outline should be in the order of climax, 
 proceeding from the less to the more important and im- 
 pressive. 
 
 Other outlines in division may be found in Appendix A 12. A list of topics and 
 propositions to be outlined by division may be found in Appendix C 1. 
 
 (3) Exposition by Definition. 
 
 A whole essay may be devoted to ascertaining the mean- 
 ing of a term which is not generally understood, or which, 
 is understood in different ways by different people. Thus, 
 John Stuart Mill devotes a whole exposition to finding the 
 meaning of the term ' Nature 7 (Mill: Three Essays on 
 Religion, p. 3), Sir William Hamilton to finding the mean- 
 ing of the term ' Philosophy' (see p. 52). Many ex- 
 pressions in common use, such as i Liberty/ < Equality/ 
 ' Freedom of the Press/ ' Education/ ' Civilization/ ' Cul- 
 
The Related Paragraph. 81 
 
 ture/ etc., require careful definition to test especially the 
 correctness of the application which is often given to them. 
 A proposition is defined by the definition of its principal 
 terms. The careful definition of a proposition will some- 
 times suggest a good plan of treating the subject, and will 
 furnish the basis of the essay-outline. Thus the plan of the 
 first part of Macaulay's Essay on Hallarn's History is fur- 
 nished by Macaulay's definition of history, given in the first 
 sentence of the essay. This definition of history as <a com- 
 pound of poetry and philosophy' determines the division 
 of historical writings into historical novels and critical and 
 argumentative histories. Each of these two classes is then 
 given thorough treatment. So, too, the definition of the 
 term ' Education ' in the proposition given at the beginning 
 of the present discussion (p. 75) suggests the divisions of 
 the subject there given as the outline-plan to be followed. 
 
 The student will find it profitable to attempt an adequate definition of one or more 
 of the terms mentioned above. 
 
 (4) Exposition by Similarity and Contrast. 
 
 An idea may be made clear by comparing it with similar 
 ideas. An animal may be described to one who has never 
 seen it by comparing it and contrasting it with a similar 
 animal which he has seen. It is by noticing likenesses and 
 differences that new knowledge is acquired. Many of the 
 most important ideas in religion are conveyed by this 
 method of exposition. Whenever particular examples are 
 given to show what is meant by an abstract theme, and 
 whenever comparisons are drawn, it is on the principle of 
 exposition by similarity. We gain an idea of the virtue, 
 heroism, by particular examples of heroism, and the effect 
 is made still stronger by examples of cowardice. 
 
 Themes to be outlined in this subject may be found in Appendix C 1. Outlines in 
 comparison and contrast will be found in Appendix A 12. 
 
82 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 3. Popular Exposition. 
 
 Strictly scientific exposition is possible only for a master 
 of thought. Modified and simplified forms of scientific 
 exposition may, however, be attempted with success by 
 writers of more limited powers. Indeed, most of the essays 
 written by students are forms of exposition of a less rigidly 
 scientific kind. We shall examine briefly three of the most 
 common types of popular exposition. 
 
 (1) The Didactic Essay. 
 
 This is the type most frequently attempted. It takes a 
 clearly-stated proposition as its subject and attempts to 
 establish it by one or more of the various means of develop- 
 ment already mentioned, definition, contrast, explanation, 
 illustration, particular instances, proofs, and enforcement. 
 In the structure of such essays a careful plan and outline, 
 following some one of the methods mentioned under Scien- 
 tific Exposition, is essential. Most of the essays that appear 
 in such reviews as the North American, the Forum, Popular 
 Science Monthly, the Contemporary, and the Fortnightly be- 
 long to this class. The essays of Macaulay, De Quincey, 
 and Bagehot, for the most part, belong here. Selecting a 
 subject within one's powers, stating the subject clearly and 
 accurately, careful thinking, gaining information by reading 
 and conversation, and outlining before beginning the work 
 of composition are of the greatest importance in writing 
 essays of this kind. 
 
 The following directions may be of service to the student : 
 
 (1) Select a subject in which you are likely to be interested and on 
 which you can gain information. 
 
 (2) State this subject in the form of a proposition. 
 
 (3) Surround the subject with questions. Think about these ques- 
 tions and seek the answers, when you need help, from books and by 
 conversations with well-informed persons. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 88 
 
 (4) Do not confine your investigations to one book ; read all within 
 reach that treat of the subject ; learn to use the indexes of books. 
 
 (5) Take but few notes while reading, and let those be brief and in 
 your own words. Keep a list of authorities consulted. 
 
 (6) Determine upon such a plan of treatment as your view of the 
 subject demands. If further thought and reading modify your views, 
 revise your plan accordingly. 
 
 (7) Make an outline before writing. (See Analysis by Division.) 
 
 (8) Omit formal introduction and conclusion unless they are clearly 
 necessary. 
 
 Subjects for didactic essays may be selected from Appendix G. Specimen outlines 
 are given in Appendix A 12. Subjects for outlining are given in Appendix C 1. 
 
 (2) The Conversational Essay. 
 
 The conversational essay is illustrated in the essays of 
 Charles Lamb, Steele, Addison, Holmes, and Thackeray. 
 It is generally loose in structure, and gives the personal 
 impressions, whims, and fancies of the essayist in the easy 
 confidential tone of conversation. The subjects chosen are 
 usually of a light character and a whimsical view is not 
 infrequently presented. To write good essays of this type 
 requires considerable original talent, or long training, or the 
 combination of the two; for, in spite of their seeming 
 irregularity, the best of these essays are underlaid by a 
 carefully planned framework and guided in their erratic 
 flights by a profound sense of artistic form. The beginner, 
 therefore, until he has learned to lay the solid foundations 
 of essay-structure, or has developed to some degree a natural 
 sense for structural unity, will do well to avoid the writing 
 of essays of this character. 
 
 Subjects for conversational essays will be found in Appendix G 3, at the close of 
 the list. 
 
 (3) The Critical Essay. 
 
 The aim of the critical essay is to estimate the value of 
 a work of literature or art and to judge it by the principles 
 
84 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 of the class to which it belongs, pointing out both excel- 
 lences and defects. It is evident that real criticism implies 
 wide and thorough knowledge on the part of the critic as 
 well as a nature capable of entering with sympathetic and 
 appreciative interest into the thoughts and feelings of 
 others, while at the same time preserving his own individu- 
 ality of judgment and opinion. The works of Ruskin give 
 the best-known (if not the best) art criticism; while in 
 literary criticism the names of Arnold, Dowden, Stephen, 
 Lowell, Stedman, and Pater are most familiar. 
 
 A simple form of the critical essay, and one of the most 
 useful to the student of literature, is the review of some 
 book which he has read. The following general plan sug- 
 gests some of the matters of which such an essay may treat. 
 In a single essay, it is not likely that all the points enumer- 
 ated in the plan below would need to be mentioned ; only 
 those points would require mention of which the work 
 furnishes striking and peculiar illustrations. The need of 
 condensing the description of the plot and of the characters 
 must be kept in mind : a due regard to the law of propor- 
 tion requires this. The order of the points in the following 
 plan is probably not the best arrangement for the criticism 
 of some works. Each work will require its own method 
 of treatment ; the following plan is intended to be merely 
 suggestive of points for discussion in essays of this kind: 
 
 (a) Historical: 
 
 (1) Sources of the work. 
 
 (2) Cause, Occasion, Purpose Dim or apparent? 
 
 (3) Circumstances under which the work was produced 
 
 (4) Eelation of the work to its author. 
 
 (5) Eelation to the time in which it was written. 
 
 (6) Effect of the work upon the public. 
 (6) Descriptive: 
 
 (1) Brief sketch of the subject-matter Plot. 
 
 (2) Characters Their qualities as persons, relative importance, relation to one 
 
 another, contrasting- characters, what each is intended to bring out. 
 
 (3) Art in presenting scenes and characters Illustrate. 
 
 (4) Literary Qualities Each to be illustrated by quotations or explanation. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 85 
 
 (a) External Form : 
 
 (1) Words Peculiar forms, meanings, use. Their euphony. In general, sim- 
 
 ple or generic ? 
 
 (2) Phrases Idiomatic or foreign ? If foreign, justify or criticise use. 
 
 (3) Sentences Simple or involved? Smooth or rough? Compact or loose? 
 
 Criticise order of sentence elements, if unusual. 
 
 (4) Figures Numerous ? Kinds ? Useful or ornamental ? 
 
 (5) Paragraphs Attention paid to structure and connection ? 
 
 (6) Qualities of Style Simplicity, clearness, strength, pathos, melody, harmony, 
 
 taste. 
 
 (6) Internal Structure Description, Narration, Exposition, or Argument? Are 
 the laws of unity, selection, proportion, sequence, variety, observed ? 
 Quote in illustration. 
 
 (5) Qualities of mind displayed Emotional, intellectual, moral, or spiritual? 
 (c) Critical: 
 
 (1) Is the evident object of the work attained ? 
 
 (2) Comparison of this with other works of the same author. Their rank. 
 
 (3) Rank among works of the same kind written by others. 
 
 (4) Its value and its lesson. 
 
 (5) Judge the work.by the best of its kind, by the laws of its process and by literary 
 
 laws in general. 
 
 4. The Paraphrase and the Abstract. 
 
 The paraphrase and the abstract are most naturally 
 classified as forms of exposition. Although they merely 
 reproduce an author's thought and add no new idea to the 
 original, they nevertheless require the exercise of the stu- 
 dent's powers of analyzing, dividing, defining, grouping, and 
 explaining, in the same way in which scientific exposition 
 requires the exercise of those powers. 
 
 The paraphrase is a reproduction in which the same 
 thought is expressed in equivalent words. Its object is 
 to make the thought of any selection clearer and better 
 adapted to a given class of hearers or readers, than it was 
 in its original form. Practice in paraphrasing selections of 
 prose and poetry, whose thought is already clear, will give 
 facility of expression and variety of phraseology ; but the 
 chief value of paraphrasing appears when it is applied to 
 selections whose thought is more or less obscure and diffi- 
 cult of apprehension, thought which needs explanation 
 by re-statement in simpler terms. 
 
86 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 The following rules are to be observed in paraphrasing : 
 
 1. Do not change the thought of the original. Change the form 
 only. Follow the thought closely. Reproduce the meaning of the 
 figures, in plain language. 
 
 2. Make all changes in the interest of clearness. The mere sub- 
 stitution of definitions for difficult words is not sufficient : it some- 
 times leads to ludicrous effects. The whole thought must be re-stated. 
 
 3. Try to maintain the dignity and spirit of the original. Do not 
 weaken the thought. If the original is poetry, guard against inad- 
 vertent rhymes in the paraphrase. 
 
 4. Study the use of synonyms. Sometimes changes in the whole 
 sentence are necessitated by the use of one phrase for another. In 
 some places, it may be needful to leave the original unchanged. 
 
 The abstract is a condensed statement of another's thought. 
 It presents the main ideas and follows closely the structu- 
 ral plan of the original, but omits unimportant or illustra- 
 tive details. The* abstract is an outline in which the 
 headings are stated in complete sentences and presented in 
 a connected discourse. The main problem in abstracting 
 is the problem of determining what are the main thoughts 
 and of selecting these for presentation. 
 
 The most important rules of the abstract are as follows : 
 
 1. Give nothing in the abstract that is not in the original. 
 
 2. Discover, by a careful reading of the original, the author's plan 
 or outline and follow this closely in the abstract. 
 
 3. Give only the main ideas, omitting or condensing all illustra- 
 tions, repetitions, and explanations, making the author's plan of treat- 
 ment and his conclusions stand out plainly. 
 
 4. Observe the law of proportion. Condense all parts of the 
 original on the same scale. There is a danger of reproducing too 
 many details in the early part and of condensing too much in the lat- 
 ter part. 
 
 5. The author's language may be used a little more freely than in 
 the paraphrase ; yet the author's language should be avoided when his 
 thought can be precisely expressed in other words. 
 
 6. Make complete and connected sentences and aim at clearness, 
 accuracy, force, and plainness of statement. 
 
 Titles of works and parts of works suitable for use in paraphrasing and abstracting 
 are given in Appendix C 3. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 87 
 
 (d) THE ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY. 
 
 The argumentative essay devotes itself to proving the 
 truth or falsity of a proposition. "An argument," says 
 Bain, " is a fact, principle, or set of facts or of principles 
 adduced as evidence of some other fact or principle." To 
 illustrate, the fact that a large proportion of the prisoners 
 in our penitentiaries are ignorant men is adduced as evi- 
 dence of the principle that ignorance breeds crime. It is 
 evident that to be of value as an argument the statement 
 as to the large proportion of ignorant men among the pris- 
 oners in the penitentiaries must, first, either be admitted to 
 be true or must be shown to be true by statistics ; secondly, 
 the same statement must also be admitted or shown by sta- 
 tistics to have been generally true for a long period and 
 likely to be true in the future. Both these conditions are 
 essential to a valid argument. 
 
 1. The Proposition. 
 
 The proposition to be proved should be clearly and 
 accurately stated in the affirmative form. A close analysis 
 of the terms of a proposition will sometimes indicate a line 
 of argument to be pursued and will very frequently furnish 
 a good approach to the main discussion. (See The Exposi- 
 tory Essay [p. 75], introductory paragraph and illustra- 
 tion.) 
 
 A complex proposition may be proved by dividing it into 
 its constituent propositions and proving each of these. 
 The proposition " Judges should be elected by popular 
 vote " would require such a division, since the considera- 
 tions which tend to make the proposed step desirable are 
 different for different classes of judges, and the possible 
 objections to the proposition are different for the different 
 classes also. 
 
88 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Thus the division might be 
 
 Judges < 
 
 of U. S. courts 
 of State courts 
 of County courts 
 of Police courts 
 etc. 
 
 > should be elected by popular vote. 
 
 2. Classification and Kinds of Arguments. 
 
 Proofs applied immediately to the establishment of the 
 proposition are called direct proofs. Proof is indirect 
 when it is applied to the overthrow of objections ; indirect 
 proof is called refutation. This classification is based on 
 the purpose to which proofs are applied, on the use made 
 of them. In the outline from Burke (see Appendix A 12) 
 the second group of proofs are indirect. Whether direct or 
 indirect, proofs are of three kinds : a priori, signs, and 
 examples. 
 
 (1) In a priori proofs (sometimes called proofs from 
 antecedent probability) the reasoning is from cause to 
 effect, or from a general law to the results of that law. 
 
 The prevalence of intemperance in a community is an a priori proof of the existence 
 of wretchedness in that community, because intemperance is a cause of wretchedness. 
 
 Bountiful crops throughout the country furnish an a priori proof that business will 
 be good, since we know that these are a potent cause of general prosperity. Arguments 
 in regard to future events are always a priori. 
 
 General bad character in an accuser, long-standing hatred on his part toward the 
 accused, the existence of a wicked motive in making the accusation, is a priori proof 
 that his accusation is false. 
 
 The validity of an a priori proof depends upon the cer- 
 tainty that the cause assigned is adequate and operative. 
 If it can be shown that the cause assigned is inadequate or 
 inoperative, or hindered from producing its natural result, 
 the argument is impaired to that extent. 
 
 (2) Signs are proofs from an effect to a condition so 
 connected with the effect that the existence of the effect 
 implies the existence of the condition. 
 
The Related Paragraph. 89 
 
 Widespread ignorance, pauperism, and crime in a country are signs going to show 
 the falsity of the proposition that that country is ready for self-government. 
 
 Blood-stains upon the clothing of a man accused of murder are signs of his guilt. 
 
 Signs are merely indications or circumstances, and are 
 always open to doubt. * What is known as circumstantial 
 evidence is a collection of a priori proofs and signs. The 
 most suspicious circumstances are often wholly inconclusive. 
 If, for instance, the blood-stains upon the clothing of a man 
 accused of murder are clearly accounted for in some other 
 way than by the supposition of guilt, doubt is cast upon 
 the validity of the argument. 
 
 The same signs are frequently employed for opposite 
 ends. One writer regards strikes as signs that the influence 
 of trades unions is pernicious ; another quotes the same 
 phenomena as signs that the trades unions have given the 
 working classes power to assert and, in some cases, to 
 maintain their rights. 
 
 The more numerous the signs, the greater their value as 
 arguments for the truth of a proposition. 
 
 (3) Authority, or what books and competent persons 
 have said, irrespective of particular cases, as to the truth 
 or falsity of a proposition, and testimony, or the evidence 
 of witnesses, have been classified as signs by some writers ; 
 but it is clear that authority and testimony may be a priori 
 proof, or signs, or proof by examples, according to the 
 nature of the proof given by the authority or by the wit- 
 ness testifying. When authorities are quoted to support a 
 statement, reference should be made to the edition, volume, 
 and page ; and in general only those authorities should be 
 referred to who are acknowledged to be competent to speak 
 on the subject, and whose works, if quoted, are accessible. 
 Concurrence of authorities or of witnesses as to the truth 
 of any matter gives special force to this kind of argument. 
 
 (4) Examples of the truth of a proposition are a form 
 of proof which gains its power on the principle that what 
 
90 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 has once happened under certain conditions may be expected 
 to happen again under like conditions. The use of ex- 
 amples as proof and illustration has been given (see The 
 Isolated Paragraph, p. 28) . When the number of examples 
 adduced is sufficiently large to convince us that the whole 
 class to which they belong possess the same property, the 
 proof is called Induction. If, for instance, we find that 
 several hundreds of roses have the same number of petals 
 and stamens, and conclude that all roses of the same class 
 have the same number of petals and stamens as those 
 examined, we have a case of Induction (see also The 
 Isolated Paragraph, p. 50). The number of examples 
 necessary to make the proof of a proposition conclusive 
 depends upon the nature of the proposition to be proved, 
 and must be decided in each case as it arises. One of the 
 most frequent of faults in writing is a hasty generalization 
 from too few examples. It is evidently not sufficient to 
 cite the cases of Homer and Milton in proof of the proposi- 
 tion that blindness induces the growth of the poetic spirit 
 in a man. A form of the argument by example is that 
 which asserts that, if a principle is true in an admitted 
 case, much more will it be true in the case cited when the 
 conditions are more favorable. This is known as the argu- 
 ment a fortiori. 
 
 (5) In regard to refutation, the following suggestions 
 may be useful : 
 
 (a) Often there are valid objections to a proposed 
 plan. These should be candidly admitted, but explained 
 either as necessarily incident to any plan, or as less likely 
 to be operative under the plan proposed than under any 
 other. 
 
 (6) An objection should be fairly stated before its re- 
 futation is undertaken. Understatement of an objection 
 indicates inability to answer it fairly. 
 
 (c) A weak objection should be disposed of briefly. Too 
 
The Related Paragraph. 91 
 
 much labor expended on a weak objection may secure 
 greater attention to the objection than it deserves. 
 
 (d) The force of a proof by example will be destroyed 
 if it is shown that the cause which operated to produce 
 the result in the example cited, is different from the cause 
 assigned. 
 
 (e) An argument is refuted if it is shown that it does 
 not follow from the facts on which it is based. 
 
 (/) In some cases a proposition is shown to be untrue 
 by reducing it to an alternative, and disproving each of the 
 two possible cases. Thus the proposition that "Convict 
 labor deprives free laborers of work " is answered : 
 
 These convicts, before they were imprisoned, were either workers or idlers. If idlers, 
 they had to be supported at the expense of free labor, and to make them work while in 
 prison relieves free labor of the burden of their continued support. If they were 
 workers before their imprisonment, they competed with other free laborers, and to 
 make them work while in prison does not, therefore, alter former conditions in this 
 respect ; whereas enforcing idleness upon them would throw the additional burden of 
 their support upon free labor. 
 
 (g) One presumption may be overthrown by another. 
 The presumption is in favor of established institutions and 
 against a change, but it is also in favor of what is right, 
 charitable, and likely to promote welfare. As these pre- 
 sumptions are sometimes in conflict, one may be used to 
 overthrow another.' 
 
 3. The Order of Arguments. 
 
 In general, the best order of arguments will be that indi- 
 cated in the preceding section, namely: first, a priori; 
 secondly, signs, testimony, and authority ; and thirdly, ex- 
 amples. Objections may be answered at one point in the 
 essay (either at the beginning or at the close), or they may 
 be answered separately at those points in the discussion 
 where they would naturally arise. The latter plan is usually 
 the better. It is well to begin with one of the strongest 
 
92 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 arguments, or with overthrowing the strongest objection, 
 the order, after that, being in general the order of climax, 
 indicated above, closing with the strongest argument. The 
 introduction will usually consist of nothing more than a 
 plain statement of the proposition, with an explanation of 
 the writer's interpretation of the terms of the proposition, 
 or some other obviously preparatory matter. If an appeal 
 to the feelings is to be made the place for it is the conclu- 
 sion, when, if at all, the reader is presumably aroused to 
 a sufficient degree to receive it. 
 
 Specimen outlines in Argumentation may be found in Appendix A 12. Subjects for 
 outlining are provided in Appendix C 1. Subjects for longer essays may be selected from 
 Appendix G. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THEORY OF THE PARAGRAPH. 
 
 Obviously the first question to be asked in dealing with 
 the theory of the paragraph is, Why do we paragraph at 
 all ? Why should not the essay be written (as the beginner 
 commonly does write it) in an unbroken succession of sen- 
 tences ? Why divide it into sentence-groups ? 
 
 One answer to these questions is, that a page of printed 
 or written matter looks more attractive when paragraphed 
 than when not thus diversified. The indented lines serve 
 as landmarks for the reader's eye, enabling him to find his 
 place again if he should happen to turn aside for a moment. 
 
 This reason, as far as it goes, is an excellent one and 
 should never be left out of consideration. Indeed, it is not 
 improbable that many writers have no other. But whether 
 as a practical rule of composition or as an explanation of 
 the phenomena of paragraphing, it is manifestly inadequate. 
 As the first, it leaves the place and limits of the paragraph 
 to the caprice of the writer; as the second, it makes the 
 relation of the paragraph to the essay merely accidental. 
 In either case the essay is treated as a homogeneous mass 
 of words which may be divided as properly in one place as 
 in another. We need, therefore, to look a little farther for 
 the answer to the question, Why paragraph at all ? 
 
 The proper method of inquiry, since the paragraph is 
 assumed to be a constituent element of the essay, will be 
 to determine first what is the essential principle of essay 
 structure, then to consider how, from this essential prin- 
 
 93 
 
94 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 ciple, the paragraph, or a structural feature corresponding 
 to it, may be logically derived. 
 
 The essay, with its beginning, its development, and its 
 conclusion, owes its existence to the peculiar way in which 
 writers do their thinking. If the flow of thought were a 
 uniform, unruffled stream, ever moving steadily in one direc- 
 tion, its expression in discourse would doubtless partake of 
 this uninterrupted character. Discourse would be a smooth 
 succession of verbal signs, each gliding into the next with- 
 out pause or jar. In such case a writer, once started, 
 might not find any point which, more than another, marked 
 a resting-place in the flow of words. An illustration of this 
 manner of expression is seen in the case of persons under 
 the influence of mesmerism. A subject who has been told 
 to talk, talks uninterruptedly until he is told to stop. Then 
 he breaks off abruptly. The monotonous patter of words 
 shows slight tendency to fall into the essay form. Examples 
 of minds naturally thus constituted are common in fiction. 
 Thus Justice Shallow : 
 
 Jesu, Jesu, dead ! a' drew a good bow ; and dead ! a' shot a fine 
 shoot ; John o' Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his 
 head. Dead ! a' would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score ; and 
 carried you a forehand shaft at fourteen and fourteen and a half, that 
 it would have done a man's heart good to see. How a score of ewes 
 now? 
 
 But the better kind of thinking is not at all of this type. 
 When our thoughts have a character that makes them worth 
 expressing, when we are thinking to some purpose, the 
 thought-process consists of a series of leaps and pauses. 
 The stream shoots toward some point of interest, eddies 
 about it a moment, then hurries on to another. "In all 
 our voluntary thinking," says Professor James (Psychology, 
 I. 259), "there is some topic or subject about which all the 
 members of the thought revolve. Half the time this topic 
 is a problem, a gap we cannot yet fill with a definite picture, 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 95 
 
 word, or phrase, but which influences us in an intensely 
 active and determinate psychic way. Whatever may be 
 the images and phrases that pass before us, we feel their 
 relation to this aching gap. To fill it up is our thought's 
 destiny." Toward this objective point the thought presses 
 with an imperiousness that is no inadequate test of the value 
 of the process. The feeble mind feels only in a vague way 
 the propulsion toward the central idea; the genius often 
 flies toward the goal as unerringly as the armature leaps to 
 the magnet. 
 
 This fact, that our best thinking tends to move toward 
 some conclusion felt, more or less determinately, to be 
 possible of attainment, lies at the basis of all essay struct- 
 ure. The writer may write the essay as he works his way 
 toward that end, or he may first reach the end by a process 
 purely mental, and then take up his pen to make the verbal 
 record. In either case in the work of composition he 
 traverses the same ground (though not always necessarily 
 in the same order) that he traversed in his thought. The 
 essay, therefore, is not a fortuitous concourse of ideas. It 
 is a careful record of the mind's activity when exercised in 
 a single direction. This fact it is which gives the essay 
 that striking characteristic known as organic unity. By 
 this is meant that every part of the structure derives its 
 significance from its relation to the whole. Each sentence, 
 each word is what it is and is where it is because it has a 
 certain function to perform in the service of the whole 
 organism. It contributes its share to the fulfilling of 4f the 
 thought's destiny." When the end is reached it is seen that 
 each preceding element in its appropriate place and in its 
 due relation was essential to the attainment of the end. 
 The production, therefore, taken as a whole, is a symmetri- 
 cally developed organism. 
 
 If the essay has this organic character, it follows that 
 the paragraph, as a constituent element of the essay, can be 
 
96 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 neither arbitrary nor accidental. It must be a part of the 
 essay finding a reason for existence in the peculiar func- 
 tion which it performs. It must play a definite part in 
 the structure of the whole organism. Whatever peculi- 
 arities of function or structure a paragraph possesses must 
 be explainable by its relation to the function and struct- 
 ure of the whole composition. Let us see what this rela- 
 tion is. 
 
 The essay is the result of a sustained movement of the 
 writer's thought toward a definite goal, but within this 
 large development several intermediate steps are discover- 
 able. The thought, on its way to the main conclusion, 
 passes through many stages of transition, attains many 
 minor conclusions, pauses for many retrospective glances. 
 
 The portions of the essay marked off by these resting- 
 places partake of the organic character of the essay, except 
 that each portion exists not for itself alone, but for each 
 other portion and for the whole. Further, each of these 
 subdivisions has an organic character, and therefore pos- 
 sesses unity, completeness, and sequence. Like the essay, 
 it has a theme of its own some partial aspect of the 
 essay-theme which it treats as exhaustively as the main 
 theme is treated in the essay. It is these minor subdivi- 
 sions, these articulations of the thought found in every 
 well constructed essay, which form the basis for the para- 
 graphic division. 
 
 The natural articulations form the basis of the para- 
 graphic subdivision, but do not necessarily correspond ex- 
 actly to the paragraphing. The mechanical paragraphing 
 does not always represent every joint in the structure of 
 the essay. The joints are of greater and lesser importance, 
 and hence it is frequently left to the option of the writer 
 to determine whether he shall mark the articulation (1) at 
 every joint, (2) at the larger joints, or (3) for the sake 
 of variety follow now one plan, now the other. These vari- 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 
 
 97 
 
 eties of construction may be represented diagrammatically 
 thus : 
 
 a : b : c 
 
 a : b : 
 
 c : d 
 
 a : b : 
 
 c 
 
 _ B 
 
 A, B, and C here represent the more important stadia of 
 the developing thought ; the small letters, the partial con- 
 clusions. The vincula above show the three methods of 
 paragraphing. Many variations of the third method might 
 of course be adopted, according to the kind of discourse 
 and the varying degrees of subordination of the minor 
 articulations. 
 
 These three varieties of paragraph-arrangement are made 
 to appear in the following quotation and adaptations of 
 an extract from Professor Whitney's Essentials of English 
 Grammar, pp. 3 7 4. Professor Whitney, in the original, 
 makes a paragraph of each minor division of the thought. 
 This arrangement is shown in the first extract. In the sec- 
 ond arrangement the indentations are made to occur so as 
 to indicate the large divisions only. In the third, a consid- 
 erable variety is introduced. 
 
 a 
 
 : b : c : 
 
 d e 
 
 a : b 
 
 a b 
 
 A B C 
 
 A a. When we say simply "English," we mean the language of 
 our time, such as we ourselves understand and use. 
 
 6. But there are considerable differences in the language even of 
 English speakers at the present day. 
 
 c. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in the way in 
 which its speakers use their English. 
 
98 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 d. There are, for example, the peculiarities of the English of Ire- 
 land, noticed by us in the Irish emigrant ; those of the English of 
 Scotland, seen in the poetry of Burns, the stories of Scott, and other 
 such places ; and those of the negro English of the Southern United 
 States. And, in general, an Englishman can tell an American, and 
 an American can tell an Englishman, by the way he talks. 
 
 e. When these peculiarities amount to so much that they begin to 
 interfere a little with our understanding the persons who have them, 
 we say that such persons speak a dialect of English, rather than 
 English itself. 
 
 B a. Then there is also the difference between what we call " good 
 English" and "bad English." 
 
 6. By good English we mean those words, and those meanings of 
 them, and those ways of putting them together, which are used by the 
 best speakers, the people of best education ; everything which such 
 people do not use, or use in another way, is bad English. Thus bad 
 English is simply that which is not approved and accepted by good 
 and careful speakers ; 
 
 C a. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call 
 it, has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around 
 him as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming 
 bad and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those who 
 have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits. There 
 are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak, 
 acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards. 
 
 b. It is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad 
 habits, that the good and approved usages of a language are collected 
 
 grammar. 
 
 II. 
 
 a : 
 
 b : 
 
 c 
 
 d : e 
 
 a : b 
 
 a : b 
 
 A. When we say simply " English," we mean the language of our 
 time, such as we ourselves understand and use. But there are con- 
 siderable differences in the language even of English speakers at the 
 present day. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in the 
 way in which its speakers use their English. There are, for example, 
 the peculiarities of the English of Ireland, noticed by us in the Irish 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 99 
 
 emigrant ; those of the English of Scotland, seen in the poetry of 
 Burns, the stories of Scott, and other such places ; and those of the 
 negro English of the Southern United States. And, in general, an 
 Englishman can tell an American, and an American can tell an 
 Englishman, by the way he talks. When these peculiarities amount 
 to so much that they begin to interfere a little with our understand- 
 ing the persons who have them, we say that such persons speak a 
 dialect of English, rather than English itself. 
 
 B. Then there is also the difference between what we call "good 
 English 1 ' and "bad English." By good English we mean those 
 words, and those meanings of them, and those ways of putting them 
 together, which are used by the best speakers, the people of best 
 education ; everything which such people do not use, or use in an- 
 other way, is bad English. Thus bad English is simply that which is 
 not approved and accepted by good and careful speakers. 
 
 C. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call it, 
 has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around him 
 as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming bad 
 and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those who 
 have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits. There 
 are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak, 
 acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards. It 
 is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad habits, that 
 the good and approved usages of a language are collected and set 
 forth in a book which is called a " grammar." 
 
 III. 
 
 a 
 
 b : c 
 
 d 
 
 e 
 
 a 
 
 b 
 
 a 
 
 b 
 
 A B C 
 
 A a-c. When we say simply " English," we mean the language of 
 our time, such as we ourselves understand and use. But there are 
 considerable differences in the language even of English speakers at 
 the present day. Thus, almost every region has some peculiarities in 
 the way in which its speakers use their English. 
 
 d-e. There are, for example, the peculiarities of the English of 
 Ireland, noticed by us in the Irish emigrant ; those of the English of 
 Scotland, seen in the poetry of Burns, the stories of Scott, and other 
 such places ; and those of the negro English of the Southern United 
 
100 Paragmp h - Writing. 
 
 States. And, in general, an Englishman can tell an American, and an 
 American can tell an Englishman, by the way he talks. When these 
 peculiarities amount to so much that they begin to interfere a little 
 with our understanding the persons who have them, we say that such 
 persons speak a dialect of English, rather than English itself. 
 
 B a-b. Then there is also the difference between what we call 
 "good English" and "bad English." By good English we mean 
 those words, and those meanings of them, and those ways of putting 
 them together, which are used by the best speakers, the people of 
 best education ; everything which such people do not use, or use in 
 another way, is bad English. Thus bad English is simply that which 
 is not approved and accepted by good and careful speakers. 
 
 C a. Every one who speaks any language "naturally," as we call 
 it, has really learned it from those whom he has heard speak around 
 him as he was growing up. But he is liable to learn it ill, forming 
 bad and incorrect habits of speech ; or he may learn it from those 
 who have themselves learned it ill, and may copy their bad habits. 
 There are, indeed, very few who do not, while they are learning to speak, 
 acquire some wrong ways, which they have to correct afterwards. 
 
 b. It is partly in order to help in this process of correcting bad 
 habits, that the good and approved usages of a language are collected 
 and set forth in a book which is called a " grammar." 
 
 Each of the arrangements given above is correct, and 
 each may be called for by the nature of the work in which 
 it occurs, or by the character of the readers to whom the 
 writer is addressing himself. The paragraph-arrangement 
 is faulty, however, if a paragraph is made in the middle of 
 a stadium or a main articulation is brought into the middle 
 of a paragraph, thus : 
 
 a : b : c 
 
 a b 
 
 : c 
 
 d e 
 
 a : b : 
 
 c 
 
 C 
 
 The writer " may, if he likes," says Eenton (Logic of 
 Style, p. 138), "turn a waggon-load of small paragraphs into 
 one, with a view of keeping the resources of the paragraph 
 for the grouping of the larger masses of his thought. But 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 101 
 
 in that case he ought to be the very last person who should 
 wish to distribute one section into two. It is very ungen- 
 teel to straddle back against a door-post, one leg in the 
 room, and the other in the lobby. Indefeasibly his section 
 is one and continuous, notwithstanding the mechanical divi- 
 sion. And when a French novelist writes : 
 
 4 Jacques could not collect his thoughts. 
 
 Why ? 
 
 'He was mad,' 
 
 in three parallel lines, we pass it by without remark, because 
 it is too furious an exaggeration to be harmful, or to escape 
 anybody's notice. On the other hand, when a section opens, 
 for example, with a ' therefore/ we take the first conception 
 to be a resultant of the preceding section as a whole, and not 
 of its last proposition." 
 
 The principle that determines the relation of the para- 
 graph to the essay, determines also the internal structure 
 of the paragraph. The paragraph taken by itself is, in- 
 deed, an essay in petto, the one difference being that the 
 essay is complete in itself, whereas the paragraph (except 
 in the case of the unrelated newspaper paragraph which we 
 are here purposely leaving out of the account) can be truly 
 understood only in its relation to the remainder of the 
 essay. 1 It has, therefore, its own subject, its own introduc- 
 tion, development, and conclusion, with such linking appara- 
 tus as is necessary to show its connection with what goes 
 before and what comes after. 
 
 Precisely what the character of the paragraph-structure 
 shall be in any given instance is determined by the part 
 such paragraph has to play in the building-up of the whole 
 essay. Some paragraphs will seem to be little more than 
 
 1 When we consider, however, that in order truly to understand an essay, we must 
 know what preceded and followed it, what part it played in the literary experiences of 
 the writer, even this distinction loses some of its force. 
 
102 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 enumerations of particulars, others will apparently have the 
 office only of making a graceful transition from one aspect 
 of the theme to another. In the typical paragraph, how- 
 ever, we may distinguish one main function, which remains 
 one, whatever forms it may at various times take on. It is 
 the business of the paragraph, as a section of the essay, to 
 develop a specific subject by bringing particular facts into 
 their due relation to the theme of the whole essay. This 
 may be done in two ways : either by exhibiting the particu- 
 lars as illustrations of some aspect of the main theme, or 
 by finding this aspect of the main theme exhibited in the 
 particulars. The first is called the deductive method of 
 progression ; the second, t'he inductive method. It must be 
 repeated, however, that the two are but faces of the same 
 process, and come practically to the same result. That is, 
 whichever method v is employed, the double result is to ex- 
 hibit the facts in the light of the theme, and the theme in 
 the light of the facts. Examine, for instance, the following 
 paragraph from Merivale (Conversion of the Roman Empire, 
 p. 121):- 
 
 "And here we must leave them for the present. Another and a 
 wilder scene will shortly be presented to us a scene of desolation 
 and dismay and frenzy ; of prayer hoarsening into imprecation ; of the 
 cutting away of boats, of breaking in twain of oars, of rushing madly 
 to the spirit-room. They will lash themselves into fury ; they will 
 quarrel, fight, and threaten to slay ; they will prepare to go together 
 to the bottom, with fire in their brain and defiance on their lips." 
 
 This is undoubtedly the deductive progression. The sub- 
 ject of the chapter is " The Heathen Awakened to a Sense 
 of his Spiritual Danger." The special aspect of that theme 
 treated in this paragraph is "Results of the Awakening." 
 This subject is shown as applied in certain particulars. 
 That is, the particulars, the imprecations, quarreling, fight- 
 ing, and the rest, derive their significance from the dismay 
 and frenzy announced at the outset. But it is quite as true 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 
 
 103 
 
 that the dismay and frenzy have gained new significance by 
 the enumeration of the particulars. 
 
 Again, examine the following passage by Miss Paget 
 (Belcaro, p. 59) : 
 
 "Most people can recognize a horse or a lion, while they cannot 
 be expected to recognize a person they have never seen, especially a 
 purely imaginary one ; the case is evidently one of degree ; if we had 
 never seen a cow, and did not know that cows are milked, we should 
 no more understand the meaning of a representation of cow- milking 
 than we should understand the meaning of a picture of Achilles in 
 Scyros if we knew nothing about Achilles. The comprehension of 
 the subject of a work of art would therefore seem to require certain 
 previous information ; the work of art would seem to be unable to 
 tell its story itself, unless we have the key to that story." 
 
 In this case the subject of the essay is " The Bas-relief of 
 Orpheus and Eurydice." The specific subject of the pas- 
 sage is "The Necessity of an Interpreter for Works of 
 Art," a conclusion which is drawn from the facts cited. 
 But here again it is evident that the conclusion, once 
 reached, gives new significance to the facts. The cow- 
 milking and the picture of Achilles get a new and special 
 meaning from their bearing on the interpretation of art. 
 
 The two modes of progression and their relation may be 
 represented thus : 
 
 b b 
 
104 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 In each figure the small circle a represents the specific 
 theme of the paragraph ; the large circle bb, the particulars 
 through which it is developed. The direction of the arrows 
 shows in the first that the particulars are being brought to 
 bear on the theme ; in the second, that the theme is expand- 
 ing into the particulars. In each case the content of the 
 figure is the same. 
 
 It follows that one method of progression is as "right" 
 as the other. But each has its special uses. " Some writers 
 insist/' says Lewes (Principles of JSuccess in Literature), 
 " and others practice the precept without insistence, that 
 the proposition should be stated first, and all its qualifica- 
 tions as well as its evidences be made to follow : others 
 maintain that the proposition should be made to grow up 
 step by step with all its evidences and qualifications in 
 their due order, ancl the conclusion disclose itself as crown- 
 ing the whole. Are not both methods right under different 
 circumstances ? If my object is to convince you of a gen- 
 eral truth, or to impress you with a feeling, which you are 
 not already prepared to accept, it is obvious that the most 
 effective method is the inductive, which leads your mind 
 upon a culminating wave of evidence or emotion to the very 
 point I aim at. But the deductive method is best when I 
 wish to direct the light of familiar truths and roused emo- 
 tions upon new particulars, or upon details in unsuspected 
 relation to those truths ; and when I wish the attention to 
 be absorbed by these particulars which are of interest in 
 themselves, not upon the general truths which are of no 
 present interest except in as far as they light up these 
 details. A growing thought requires the inductive exposi- 
 tion, an applied thought the deductive." 
 
 If, in accordance with these general principles, we con- 
 struct outlines for the two types of paragraph, we shall 
 find them to take some such form as the following : 
 
Theory of the Paragraph. 
 
 105 
 
 Deductive. 
 
 Inductive. 
 
 1 
 
 0> 
 
 Connection with pre- 
 ceding paragraph. 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 ^. 
 
 Statement of para- 
 graph-subject. 
 
 +J 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Application of spe- 
 cific theme. 
 
 > 
 
 $ 
 
 
 
 1 
 I 
 
 PH 
 
 Theme restated in 
 the light of the 
 particulars. 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 0) 
 
 Connection with pre- 
 ceding paragraph. 
 
 
 2 
 
 0) 
 
 [Statement of para- 
 graph-subject.] 
 
 and retrospecth 
 
 Statement of partic- 
 ulars. 
 
 a? 
 
 
 
 : : : : : 
 
 o 
 
 <D 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Subject stated as 
 conclusion from 
 particulars. 
 
 As pointed out in a preceding portion of this book, the 
 statement of the subject may sometimes be taken out of its 
 natural order : it may come at the beginning of an induc- 
 tive progression or at the end of a deductive progression. 
 In either case, an examination of the essay as a whole 
 will discover good reasons for the inversion. The unusual 
 position will be found to be demanded by the natural 
 sequence of the thought. 
 
 The various devices for securing continuity of structure 
 have already been discussed in Part I. All that needs to 
 be said here is that the apparatus of connectives, inversions, 
 parallel constructions, explicit references and the rest, is 
 but the sign of the paragraph's organic unity, the natural 
 outgrowth and expression of the relating activity of the 
 mind. These features of the paragraph are the sign-posts 
 which the thought, hurrying on to its appointed end, leaves 
 behind to mark the way whence it came and whither it is 
 going. 
 
106 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 It may be well to point out, for those who care to study the subject further, some 
 of the more important sources of information. By the earlier writers the paragraph 
 was consistently ignored. Campbell treats, in passing 1 , of the "manner of using- con- 
 nectives in combining sentences " (Philosophy of Rhetoric, III. 5, 2). Not a word 
 on the subject is to be found in the treatises of Kames, Blair, "Whately, Theremin, 
 Graham, Kerl, Day, Haven, Bardeen, and many others that might be named. Hart, 
 Quackenbos, and Boyd dismiss it with a few lines. According to Minto, Professor Bain 
 was the first to lay down rules for the construction of paragraphs. His treatment will 
 be found in his Composition and Rhetoric, Pt. I. chap. 5. Minto's own discussion of 
 the subject in the Introduction to his Manual of English Prose is brief and frag- 
 mentary, but his detailed analysis of Macaulay's paragraph-structure (pp. 89-9T) makes 
 good the omissions. Later writers who have given the subject attention are A. S. Hill 
 (Foundations of Rhetoric, pp. 305-325; Principles of Rhetoric, pp. 157-161), D. J. 
 Hill (Elements of Rhetoric, pp. 71-77 ; Science of Rhetoric, pp. 198-202), J. S. Clark 
 (Practical Rhetoric, pp. 28-32), T. W. Hunt (Principles of Written Discourse, pp. 
 82-84), G. B. Carpenter (Exercises in Rhetoric, chap, xii.), Barrett Wendell (Eng- 
 lish Composition, pp. 114-149), J. G. E. McElroy (Structure of English Prose, pp. 
 196-222). A brief account of the isolated paragraph will be found in De Mille (Ele- 
 ments of Rhetoric, pp. 264, 468-469). For an exhaustive analysis, the best that has 
 yet appeared, see Genung's Practical Elements of Rhetoric, pp. 193-213. 
 
 An elaborate study of the history of the English paragraph has recently been pub- 
 lished as a doctoral thesis bv Mr. Edwin H. Lewis. By a minute examination of the 
 paragraph-structure of seventy-three representative prosaists, the author reaches a 
 number of interesting conclusions, of which the following are the most important : 
 
 (I) The rise of the paragraph is largely owing to its economy as compared with the long 
 periodic sentence. (2) From the start there has been a distinct unit of invention larger 
 than the modern sentence. Writers " have thought roughly in long stages before they 
 have analyzed such stages into smaller steps." (3) The favorite type of paragraph has 
 been the loose type (subject stated first). (4) In the history of English prose, no writer 
 before Tyndale has any sense of paragraph-structure. (5) There has been no pro- 
 nounced increase or decrease in the average total number of words per paragraph. 
 (6) In a list of 52 authors the average word-length of the paragraph falls between 100 
 and 300 words, 25 showing an average between 200 and 300 words, and 27 an average 
 between 100 and 200 words. (7) The modern paragraph, first exemplified in Temple, is 
 the product of five influences : (a) the mediaeval tradition that a paragraph distinguishes 
 a stadium of thought, (b) the Latin tradition that a paragraph is for emphasis, (c) the 
 Anglo-Saxon structure, (d) the oral style, (e) French prose. (8) There has been during 
 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a tendency to make the topic-sentence short. 
 (9) The paragraph of the nineteenth century is, in general, better organized than that 
 of the eighteenth. (10) Single-sentence paragraphs are not uncommon in the best prose. 
 
 (II) Coherence secured by connectives was in most active force in the early period. It 
 declined until the opening of the present century, rose with Coleridge, then declined 
 again. To-day there are two tendencies : (a) in popular prose, to drop sentence-con- 
 nectives ; (b) in classical prose to use them freely but vitally. 
 
 or 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 CALIFQS- 
 
PART III. 
 APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 1. 
 
 Criticise the following paragraphs, pointing out violations 
 of the laws of unity, selection, proportion, and sequence. 
 Eewrite, varying the form of expression without changing 
 the idea. (See Introductory (c).) 
 
 If a boy who comes to town can begin by paying his way in the 
 most economical manner, he will do remarkably well. The chances 
 are against his doing as much as that, so great is the demand for 
 places. Some men even pay to have their sons taken into great mer- 
 cantile establishments, though the general experience of merchants 
 is that the boys who come from poorer homes and have been brought 
 up to hard work are more likely to push ahead. Natives and for- 
 eigners who have learned frugality and have known hardship from 
 their boyhood, are getting ahead of those brought up more tenderly. 
 
 1 Yet, as I said before, a country boy who must earn his own supj ort 
 from the very beginning should not risk his fortune in a great city 
 until he has found an actual opening there. It is better for him to 
 compel fortune where he is ; to improve the chance nearest to his 
 hand ; l this country is increasing so rapidly in population and in 
 the variety of its industries and their demands that throughout 
 its extent new opportunites for a career are constantly arising. 
 
 2 Probably the United States will contain at least 200,000,000 of 
 people by the time boys who read this paper have reached middle 
 life, and are in the prime of their manly power. New cities will 
 grow up by the hundred and new outlets for energy and enterprise 
 
 1 Unity. 2 Sequence. 
 
 107 
 
108 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 will rise. 1 The twentieth century is at hand and it will bring abun- 
 dance of work and plentiful opportunities for every boy of to-day who 
 lives to enjoy its light and participate in its progress. The chances of 
 fortune in the future will be as great as they have been in the past, 
 and the facilities which a young man can obtain will be more numer- 
 ous. 2 With very few exceptions you could count them on the 
 fingers of one hand the great fortunes of the Union have been accu- 
 mulated within the last fifty years. All the greatest of them have 
 been made within that period, and they have been made by country 
 boys. 3 But there is something more, better, and higher than a for- 
 tune to make. It is character ; and there is acquirement more valu- 
 able than the acquirement of money, and it is the knowledge which 
 enables a man to get the most out of life and to make himself of the 
 most use, whatever his circumstances, whether he lives among the 
 crowd of a great city or in the solitude of a country farm. 
 
 When in his seat in the Senate, listening to proceedings, his feet 
 were usually employed in holding down the desk, and his hands, 
 whittling a pine stick, a supply of which he engaged the sergeant-at- 
 arms to furnish him. 4 He was a regular attendant at church, and 
 during service he " improved the occasion" in whittling out little 
 articles to give children, among whom he had many friends. Some 
 of these pine souvenirs of Sam Houston are to this day treasured by 
 men and women to whom he gave them as children. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie gives it as his opinion that out of every $1000 spent 
 in charity, $950 does more harm than good, and it has come to be an 
 axiom of the charity organizations that * ' two-thirds of the efforts of 
 the wise are needed to correct the mischievous effects of the acts of 
 the benevolent." 5 These principles are growing in society and are 
 at the bottom of much of the hostile criticism which is bestowed on 
 General Booth's scheme for lighting "Darkest England." The large 
 amount of money he demands and the magnitude of the organization 
 he contemplates, lead many to overlook the fact that the real basis of 
 his scheme is work and to compel to work all whom he aids. The 
 work test, the mendicant farms, and the colonies, all mean that those 
 helped are to help themselves. 
 
 We have never changed our language, but our language itself has 
 changed greatly. This is a most important distinction. Some nations 
 have really changed their language. The people of Gaul changed their 
 
 1 Unity. 2 Sequence. 
 
 8 Unity. Kewrite in two distinct paragraphs. 
 4 Sequence. Subordinate idea made principal. 
 s What principles ? Improve the reference. 
 
Appendix A 1. 109 
 
 language when they left off speaking their natural tongues, Celtic or 
 Iberian, and took to speaking Latin instead. Since then they have 
 never changed their tongue ; but their tongue itself has greatly 
 changed. That is, there was no time when they left off speaking 
 Latin and took to speaking some other tongue. But the Latin which 
 they spoke gradually changed in so many ways that it practically 
 became another tongue ; it ceased to be Latin and became French and 
 Proven9al. So the people of Cornwall changed their language when 
 they left off speaking Welsh, and took to speaking English instead. 
 The Normans, too, changed their language when they left off speaking 
 Danish and took to speaking French instead. And it might not have 
 seemed very wonderful if we too had changed our language in the like 
 sort, if we had left off speaking English and had taken to speaking 
 French. For the French tongue was brought into England, as the 
 Latin tongue was brought into Gaul, as the tongue of a conquering 
 people. But the different circumstances of the two conquests hindered 
 the results from being the same in the two cases. Gaul was a province 
 of Rome, and was gradually absorbed into the life of Rome. England 
 never became a province of Normandy; a Norman prince became 
 King of the English, and brought many Norman followers with him : 
 and that was all. French was for a while spoken in England along- 
 side of English. But the English people never left off speaking Eng- 
 lish, and took to speaking French. 1 It was the English language itself 
 that was greatly changed through the presence of many French- 
 speaking people in the land. 2 
 
 There is some impatience with the epoch of Queen Anne. We do 
 not mean the Augustan age, as it used to be called in which, how- 
 ever, it would not be easy to point out the Virgil or the Horace but 
 the era of the Queen Anne house, the epoch of decorative art in build- 
 ing and in furnishing. 3 But, on the other hand, the epoch of Queen 
 Anne is a delightful insurrection against the monotonous era of rec- 
 tangular building and of the divorce of beauty and use. 4 The distinc- 
 tion of the present or recent dispensation is that the two are blended, 
 that neither the house nor anything in it need be clumsy or ugly. 
 There is no longer an excuse for an unsightly table or chair or utensil 
 or the least object of household convenience. There need be no more 
 
 1 Any needless repetitions ? 
 
 2 Condense the paragraph. 
 
 3 Is " but, on the other hand " the proper connecting-phrase to use here ? Point 
 out the two ideas in adversative relation. 
 
 4 Is the reference clear? 
 
110 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 waste spaces in the house. The old entry, which had degenerated 
 from a hall into a mere lobby or vacant passage, is now taken into the 
 general "treatment" of the interior, and becomes a delightful part of 
 it, as pleasant and home-like as any other. The staircase is no longer 
 a railed ladder, but has risen into a chief ornament of the house, as 
 the noble staircases in the new Capitol of New York are the most 
 imposing of its details and decorations. 
 
 A man who is in the Wisconsin penitentiary for life has appealed 
 to the Secretary of the Navy, suggesting that as it is difficult to recruit 
 men for the Navy, that the department might find a large number of 
 men in the penitentiaries who would be willing to serve in the Navy 
 rather than in prison. l This prisoner had reasons aside from his 
 desire for release, for writing his letter ; during the Civil War prison- 
 ers were taken from penitentiaries, and enlisted in both armies, North 
 and South, and many of them made good soldiers. Of course it would 
 seem to degrade the naval service to adopt such a policy, but why 
 should our thought run in that direction ? We educate convicts to be 
 shoemakers, and to o"ther trades, in prison ; why might we not set 
 apart certain war-ships to be manned by United States prisoners ? 
 They would be quite as safe in a war-ship at sea, their confinement 
 would be as close, their work as hard, and the punishment as severe 
 as when confined in any stone building that is protected with iron 
 bars and doors. 
 
 2. 
 
 Narrow each, of the following general subjects to an 
 available working theme, and then give to each an appro- 
 priate title (see p. 17) : 
 
 1. Algebra. 11. Prison Eeform. 
 
 2. Literature. 12. Commerce. 
 
 3. Law. 13. The Arts. 
 
 4. Travel. 14. Longfellow. 
 
 5. High Schools. 15. Talking Machines. 
 
 6. Athletics. 16. Public Libraries. 
 
 7. Science. 17. City Governments. 
 
 8. Manual Training. 18. English. 
 
 9. Newspapers. 19. Letter- Writing. 
 10. The Jury System. 20. Protective Tariff. 
 
 1 Unity. Is this sentence needed ? 
 
Appendix A 3. Ill 
 
 Find the working theme in each of the first ten para- 
 graphs in Appendix B, and give to each an appropriate 
 title. 
 
 3. 
 
 Develop the following topic-sentences by repetition of 
 the idea in other words (see p. 25) : 
 
 [NOTE. Mere substitution of synonyms is not sufficient. The central thought of 
 each sentence must be varied in form and must grow by addition and emphasis ; it must 
 never stand still, or ' mark time ' ; it must move ahead while repeating. It is useless 
 to repeat sentence 1 thus : "No excellence will assist the pupil so much as devotion to 
 his lessons." But if we say, "Hard study pays," we have a good repetition, for we 
 have not only repeated the thought, but varied its form, and added to its force and con- 
 creteness, making it mean more.] 
 
 1. No virtue will help the student so much as close ap- 
 plication to his books. 
 
 2. There are few that ever forget their school-days. 
 
 3. At this electiorMhey were overwhelmingly defeated. 
 
 4. Study and discipline will accomplish much. 
 
 5. Not all poets have written poems. 
 
 6. The common notion of success is fallacious. 
 
 7. In this crisis he did not hesitate. 
 
 8. A bad beginning does not always imply a bad ending. 
 
 9. Those who work should be paid. 
 
 10. There is nothing we should encourage more than 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 11. There is a kind of criticism which is in itself crea- 
 tive. 
 
 12. A good partisan is not always a good citizen. 
 
 13. A public office is a public trust. 
 
 14. The study of Latin may be for one student as practi- 
 cal as is the study of engineering for another. 
 
 15. The Prodigal Son did well to repent and return to 
 his home, but he would have done better not to have left 
 his home at all. 
 
112 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 4. 
 
 Develop the following topic-sentences by defining, limit- 
 ing, restricting, or enlarging the terms of the topic-sen- 
 tences (see p. 26): 
 
 1. No man ever tells the whole truth. 
 
 2. We must educate the hand as well as the brain. 
 
 3. When he says that the schools are anti-Christian he 
 says too much. 
 
 4. ' All men are created equal ? ; but equality here has a 
 peculiar meaning. 
 
 5. When one speaks of a natural manner of expression 
 he means . 
 
 6. I have said that Lincoln was trusted by all the friends 
 of the Union ; but the word ( trusted' is not strong enough ; 
 he was . 
 
 7. We speak of the ' right' to vote; but is voting prop- 
 erly regarded as a right ? 
 
 8. In this country there is no longer any North or 
 South ; the terms are obsolete ; there is only . 
 
 9. What do we mean when we say that one man is lib- 
 eral and another man is conservative ? What can we mean 
 but that ? 
 
 10. A true man of the world is something more than a 
 frequenter of the clubs ; he is . 
 
 11. To say that honesty is the best policy is to put 
 moral conduct on a very low plane. 
 
 12. Free trade is not the sole alternative to protection. 
 
 13. The problem of aerial navigation will still be far 
 from solution when men have learned to fly in pleasant 
 weather. 
 
 5. 
 
 Develop the following topic-sentences by presenting the 
 negative, contrary, or contrasting ideas which suggest 
 themselves in connection with each (see p. 27): 
 
Appendix A 6. 113 
 
 1. The dangers of work are not the greatest in the 
 world. 
 
 2. Though Longfellow's poetry falls short of the highest, 
 yet . 
 
 3. Poverty cannot be abolished entirely, but . 
 
 4. It may be that strong opposition will delay this re- 
 form ; still . 
 
 5. In most cases students choose their studies wisely. 
 
 6. When rhetoric is taught by practice it is one of the 
 most useful studies ; when, however, . 
 
 7. I concede that there are cases in which one may 
 safely indulge in moderate drinking. 
 
 8. When he was angry he was unendurable. 
 
 9. When young men make mistakes a remedy may be 
 found. 
 
 10. It is true that the use of chloroform is sometimes 
 attended with danger to the patient's life. 
 
 11. The good, it is said, die young. 
 
 12. Stage-coaches were fast enough for our grandfathers. 
 
 13. Natural gas is a great convenience as long as it lasts. 
 
 14. At the first sight of Niagara Falls, the visitor is 
 pretty sure to feel some disappointment. 
 
 15. Theoretically, a writer who has not lived among the 
 lower classes should be unable to represent them truthfully 
 in fiction. 
 
 16. If young men were willing to forego all the luxuries 
 of life, they might easily save up a competence for old age. 
 
 6. 
 
 Develop the following topic-sentences by concrete illus- 
 trations, and by explanation where explanation seems to be 
 needed (see p. 28): 
 
 1. Country life abounds in healthful pleasures. 
 
 2. Eeason unaided will not always lead a man to correct 
 his errors. 
 
114 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 3. There was much that is admirable in the old Boman 
 character. 
 
 4. A republic is not the best form of government for 
 every nation. 
 
 5. One's opinions are not always a sure indication of 
 one's probable conduct in a given case. 
 
 6. Mere wishing is not desire. 
 
 7. Unless a duty is performed in the right spirit, it* is 
 not done morally. 
 
 8. The greatest names in literature are those of men 
 who were not rich. 
 
 9. We can imagine cases in which the best statesman 
 might fail to see what law was needed. 
 
 10. It is a mooted question whether a lawyer is justified 
 in undertaking the defence of a man whom he knows to be 
 guilty. 
 
 11. It is within the reach of the humblest American citi- 
 zen to become President of the United States. 
 
 12. We need not go far from our own homes to find 
 examples of courage and fortitude. 
 
 13. Kailroads and telegraphs make the world smaller. 
 
 14. It is the minor characters in Dickens's novels which 
 often prove the most entertaining. 
 
 15. An examination is often a poor test of a student's 
 acquirements. 
 
 16. In times of peril the strong men come to the front. 
 
 7. 
 
 Develop the following topic-sentences by stating- the par- 
 ticulars and details which naturally seem to be called for 
 (see p. 30) : - 
 
 1. The experiences of Washington's army at Valley 
 Forge were terrible. 
 
 2. McClellan seemed to have all the qualities of a great 
 military leader. 
 
Appendix A 8. 115 
 
 3. The feudal system had many advantages. 
 
 4. The United States would gain by annexing Canada. 
 
 5. Education should mean more than training the mind. 
 
 6. The list of American writers includes the names of 
 many humorists. 
 
 7. The American citizen has other political duties be- 
 sides voting. 
 
 8. History is full of examples of heroism. 
 
 9. Elizabeth's, reign was most eventful. 
 
 10. There was disaffection in the South for years before 
 the war. 
 
 11. A young man may enter public life by any one of 
 several doors. 
 
 12. There are many things to be said in favor of a longer 
 presidential term. 
 
 13. American laborers have had what they think to be 
 good reasons for forming unions and co-operative societies. 
 
 14. The causes which produced the ( Black Friday ' panic 
 are now well known. 
 
 15. Nothing is more important than caring for the health. 
 
 16. A book, to be worth reading, should have the follow- 
 ing characteristics. 
 
 17. There is much to observe even in the most common- 
 place surroundings. 
 
 18. The shape of the elm-tree is noticeably different from 
 that of the maple. 
 
 8. 
 
 Supply proofs of the following topic-sentences (see 
 p. 31):- 
 
 1. The best educated nations are the most prosperous. 
 
 2. Essay writing is usually distasteful to students. 
 
 3. It is not surprising that Jefferson and Hamilton were 
 enemies. 
 
 4. Labor is in a state of unrest. 
 
116 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 5. A liberal education should precede the professional. 
 
 6. The labor day should be restricted to eight hours. 
 
 7. The writer has greater influence than the lecturer. 
 
 8. Caesar's reign was a benefit to Rome. 
 
 9. The Mexican war was unjustifiable. 
 
 10. The government should establish postal savings 
 banks. 
 
 11. Municipal elections ought to be non-partisan. 
 
 12. The national capital ought to be removed to a place 
 nearer the center of the country. 
 
 13. The predictions of the weather bureau are coming to 
 be more trustworthy. 
 
 14. The number of those slain in our Civil War is much 
 smaller than is generally supposed. 
 
 15. If Cicero were alive to-day, his speeches would be 
 listened to with indifference. 
 
 16. Electricity as a means of illumination will ultimately 
 supersede gas. 
 
 17. Manufacture has developed more in the nineteenth 
 century than in the thousand years preceding that century. 
 
 18. Improvement of weapons of precision tends to abol- 
 ish war. 
 
 19. Travel in the United States may be made as improv- 
 ing as travel in Europe. 
 
 20. The course of history has been shaped, to some extent, 
 by superstitions. 
 
 9. 
 
 Apply and enforce the following topic-sentences (see p. 
 32): 
 
 1. A good habit, persisted in, becomes continually easier 
 of performance. 
 
 2. A nation, like a person, is bound by the demands of 
 justice. 
 
 3. If education is to be of value, it must be systematic. 
 
v Appendix A 10. 117 
 
 4. One's better nature cannot be neglected without loss. 
 
 5. The health of a city depends largely upon cleanli- 
 ness. 
 
 6. The exercise of suffrage is a duty. 
 
 7. Monopolies are seldom beneficial to the people. 
 
 8. Education will solve the race question in the South. 
 
 9. The country owes a debt to its literary men. 
 
 10. The Bible is one of the monuments of literature. 
 
 11. No pursuit is ignoble if it is conscientiously fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 /12. A taste for books is a safeguard against evil 
 thoughts. 
 
 13. A good memory is a priceless possession. 
 
 14. When good men enter politics corruption will go out 
 of fashion. 
 
 15. Conversation is the greatest of the fine arts. 
 
 16. Do the duty that lies nearest you. 
 
 17. It is false charity to give to every stranger that asks 
 for aid. 
 
 18. The shoemaker should stick to his last. 
 
 19. Do not try to tell all you know. 
 
 20. Good workmanship always tells in the end. 
 
 21. Do not be ashamed of poor relations. 
 
 10. 
 
 Develop each of the following topic-sentences, using 
 those methods which seem most suitable in each particular 
 case. Memorize the table in Appendix A 11. 
 
 1. There are some evils unavoidably connected with 
 athletic sports. 
 
 2. Arbitration will ultimately do away with war. 
 
 3. The newsboy has his troubles. 
 
 4. A standing army is unnecessary in this country. 
 
 5. Washington and Lincoln present several contrasts in 
 character. 
 
118 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 6. Newspaper English has a few well-defined characteris- 
 tics. 
 
 7. Unanimity should not be required of a jury. 
 
 8. There should always be a motive in reading. 
 
 9. The American Indian, as represented in the old school 
 readers, was a heroic figure. 
 
 10. Novel-reading presents some dangers. 
 
 11. All have their peculiarities. 
 
 12. The lazy man has some advantages over the active 
 man, after all. 
 
 13. Lincoln's administration was most eventful. 
 
 14. Kef orms are being advocated without number. 
 
 15. Book-buying has become a fine art. 
 
 16. The world must present a queer spectacle to a man 
 seven feet tall. 
 
 17. Whittier's "poems show that he was a friend of the 
 slave. 
 
 18. Selfishness often defeats its own ends. 
 
 19. Books written by very good men are. sometimes 
 extremely tedious. 
 
 20. Races between ocean steamers are attended with 
 great danger. 
 
 21. There are persons to whom the commission of a sole- 
 cism is nothing short of a crime. 
 
 22. At the opening of the present century the map of 
 Europe was in many respects different from that with 
 which our school-children are familiar. 
 
 11. 
 
 The following scheme of typical paragraph structure is, 
 with slight changes, taken from Genung's Practical Rheto- 
 ric, p. 199. It will be found helpful to the student in 
 suggesting means of developing the paragraph in an orderly 
 way, and should be memorized. Of course, no one para- 
 
Appendix A 12. 119 
 
 graph can employ more than three or four of the means 
 suggested. The character of the thought to be expressed 
 will dictate the natural method to be selected for its devel- 
 opment. If kept in mind as a whole, the following table 
 will show the student what his resources are, in any given 
 case. The ' obverse ' mentioned below is one of the many 
 forms which a contrast may assume. 
 
 1. The subject proposed (stated in a topic-sentence usu- 
 
 ally). 
 
 2. Whatever is needed to explain the subject, 
 (a) Kepetition. 
 
 (6) Obverse (presenting the contrary), 
 (c) Definition (limitation, restriction, or enlarge- 
 ment) . 
 
 3. Whatever is needed to establish the subject. 
 
 (a) Exemplification or detail. 
 
 (b) Illustration. 
 
 (c) Proof. 
 
 4. Whatever is needed to apply the subject. 
 
 (a) Result or consequence. 
 
 (b) Enforcement. 
 
 (c) Summary or recapitulation. 
 
 12. 
 
 The following outlines (or similar ones, provided by the 
 instructor, and better adapted to the grade and attainments 
 of the class) may be employed in a profitable exercise for 
 teaching the need of paragraphic unity. Let one of the 
 numbered topics of an outline be assigned to each student. 
 He is to write a paragraph on his topic for the next recita- 
 tion, keeping in mind what ought to be said on the topics 
 preceding and following his own, and determining what 
 properly belongs to the topic assigned to himself. At the 
 appointed time, the paragraphs are read in their numbered 
 
120 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 order in class, together forming an essay on the subject. 
 Any intermingling of topics or violation of unity is criti- 
 cised, transitions between sentences and paragraphs are 
 supplied, various methods of treating the same topics are 
 compared, and the need that each student ' stick to his 
 text 7 is duly enforced. Such points as choice of words, 
 variety of expression, and construction of sentences will 
 also call for attention. It has been found profitable to 
 continue this work for several recitations and at intervals 
 throughout the course. Some of these may be studied as 
 specimens. Account for the arrangement of topics. Make 
 other outlines on the same subjects. 
 
 USES OF NOVEL-BEADING. 
 
 V 
 
 1. Introductory. Increase of novel-reading to be ex- 
 plained by its uses. 
 
 2. Affords relaxation and entertainment. 
 
 3. A valuable aid to the study of history and geography. 
 
 4. Information about various classes of society. 
 
 5. Eeforms brought about in law, education, etc. Dickens. 
 
 6. Insight into human character, making reader more 
 charitable in his judgments of others. 
 
 7. Conclusion. A summary. 
 
 PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
 Theme : Importance of Physical Culture. 
 
 1. Promotes health and prevents disease. 
 
 2. Increases strength and endurance. 
 
 3. Trains the muscles to act with accuracy, making more 
 efficient workers. 
 
 4. Influence on the mind., 
 
 5. Moral influence. 
 
Appendix A 12. 121 
 
 4 
 
 COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAWS. 
 Theme: Such laws are necessary. 
 
 1. Introductory. Eight of the State to do all that is 
 necessary for its own safety. Eesults of a contrary doc- 
 trine. 
 
 2. An educated citizenship necessary. Eeasons. 
 
 3. An educated citizenship cannot be secured if educa- 
 tion is left to parental caprice ; for some parents are neg- 
 lectful, others avaricious, others criminal. 
 
 4. Nor can it be secured by merely providing free public 
 schools, for not all will attend voluntarily. 
 
 5. Nor can it be secured through the private schools, for 
 not all of these teach what children most need to prepare 
 them for the duties of citizenship. 
 
 6. Conclusion. Attendance upon public schools or upon 
 private schools approved by state authorities should be 
 compulsory. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM. 
 
 Theme: It should be lengthened to seven years, and the 
 President made ineligible to re-election. 
 
 1. Various opinions among the framers of the Constitu- 
 tion. The four years' term is the result of a compromise. 
 
 2. Desire for re-election and its effect upon the use of 
 patronage. 
 
 3. Its effect upon the President's exercise of the veto 
 power in respect to bad partisan measures, and river and 
 harbor bills. 
 
 4. Its effect upon the President's treatment of Civil 
 Service Eeform. 
 
 5. Ineligibility to re-election would remedy these evils. 
 
122 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 6. A seven years' term would be long enough to enable 
 the President to develop a broad policy on great questions. 
 
 7. Would avoid the evil effects on business and invest- 
 ments every four years. 
 
 8. Would give greater stability to the public service at 
 home and at foreign courts. 
 
 9. Concluding summary. 
 
 THE AMERICAN SUNDAY. 
 What shall be its character? 
 
 1. Growing disregard of Sunday by large corporations. 
 
 2. Various views of individuals as to proper Sunday 
 observance. 
 
 3. The true basis is the need of rest and spiritual culture. 
 
 4. Means of securing rest : cessation of unnecessary 
 labor, reading, walking or riding, a visit to the public 
 library, art gallery. 
 
 5. Spiritual culture : the church, the lecture, the concert. 
 
 6. The ideal Sunday ; its distinguishing features. 
 
 NEWSPAPER BEADING. 
 
 1. Newspapers indispensable, but evil tendencies not to 
 be overlooked. 
 
 2. Often take time which might be spent to better advan- 
 tage. 
 
 3. Slang, careless use of language, etc. Effect on reader. 
 
 4. Readers may acquire a taste for the sensational in life. 
 
 5. An inferior quality of fiction published. 
 
 6. Too much prominence given to the dark side of life. 
 Effect. 
 
 7. Newspapers should be read judiciously and with selec- 
 tion. 
 
Appendix A 12. 123 
 
 AN INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW SHOULD BE SECURED. 
 
 (Argument.) 
 
 1. The law of property-protection a fundamental law of 
 
 society. 
 
 (a) A man has the right to protect his own property. 
 (6) He is entitled to such protection from the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 2. The products of one's thought are property. 
 
 (a) Because they are the result of labor, and therefore 
 valuable. 
 
 (5) This is recognized by every government in respect 
 
 to its own citizens. 
 
 3. Such property should receive international protection, 
 (a) Since, without it, an author's product does not 
 
 receive from foreign countries the property- 
 protection which they accord to other species 
 of property. The author is singled out to be 
 cheated of his rights. Examples : Uncle Tom's 
 Cabin, Bancroft's United States, and others. 
 
 (6) In the absence of such protection an author does 
 
 not receive equal treatment with other laborers. 
 
 4. Special application to American authors. 
 
 THE MODERN CERBERUS (POVERTY, IGNORANCE, SIN). 
 
 (Outline of a lecture by Dr. Washington Gladden.) 
 [An example in Parallel Construction.] 
 
 1. Causes of Poverty. 
 
 (a) Physical disability. 
 
 (&) Social arrangements (Land Question). 
 
 (c) Lack of efficient motive to gain a competence. 
 
 2. Causes of Ignorance, 
 (a) Mental disability. 
 
124 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (b) Faulty educational arrangements. 
 
 (1) The Negro problem. 
 
 (2) The Indian question. 
 
 (3) Education in large cities. 
 
 (c) Lack of efficient motive to education. 
 
 3. Causes of Sin. 
 
 (a) Moral disability. 
 
 (b) Bad social arrangements. 
 
 (c) Lack of efficient motive. 
 
 4. How slay Cerberus. 
 
 (a) Patience and charity for the disabled. 
 
 (6) Improved social and educational arrangements by 
 
 legislation, 
 (c) Inspire an efficient motive by example. 
 
 V 
 
 THE NlCARAUGUA EOUTE IS THE BEST FOR A SHIP- 
 CANAL FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC. 
 
 (Argument.) 
 
 Introduction : The routes proposed. 
 Discussion : 
 
 1. Nicaraugua the easiest built. 
 
 (a) No tunneling. 
 
 (b) No mountain cutting. 
 
 (c) Most favored by nature. 
 
 2. No trouble from floods. 
 
 (a) The Chagres Eiver at Panama. 
 
 (b) The San Juan at Nicaraugua. 
 (1) No tributaries. 
 
 3. The climate more favorable 
 
 (a) Than at Panama. 
 
 (b) Than on other routes. 
 
 4. It is the shortest and cheapest route. 
 
 Conclusion : Summary. 
 

 TY 
 Appendix A 12. ""^ 
 
 ANNEXATION OF CANADA. * 
 
 (Exposition.) 
 
 A. Probability of ultimate separation of Canada from 
 
 England. 
 
 1. Because of divergence of commercial interest. 
 
 2. Distance and difference in character of the people. 
 
 3. Influence of the United States. 
 
 B. Shall annexation to the United States follow ? 
 
 1. Considerations favorable to annexation. 
 
 (a) Extradition laws rendered unnecessary. 
 
 (b) The United States would acquire a vast and 
 
 valuable territory. 
 
 (c) Commercial and trade restrictions removed. 
 
 (d) 4 Manifest destiny.' The two countries natu- 
 
 rally one. 
 
 2. Considerations opposed to annexation. 
 
 (a) The financial condition of both countries. 
 
 (1) Canada's debt increasing. 
 
 (2) Debt of the United States decreasing. 
 (6) Undesirable classes of Canada's population. 
 
 (c) Vast increase of government machinery nec- 
 
 essary. 
 
 (d) All the advantages of annexation may be 
 
 acquired by better trade- and extradition- 
 treaties, with no disadvantages. 
 
 3. Estimate of weight of arguments and inference 
 
 against annexation. 
 
 DANGERS OF UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION. 
 
 (Division.) 
 Introduction : 
 
 1. Extent of immigration before the Civil War ; charac- 
 ter of immigrants. 
 
126 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 2. Numbers and general character of present immigrants. 
 Discussion : 
 
 1. Political dangers. 
 
 (a) Influence when consolidated against American 
 
 interests. 
 (6) Hostility of some to American political ideas. 
 
 (c) Dangers arising from ignorance ; from dema- 
 
 gogues. 
 
 (d) Evil results of party efforts to secure solid foreign 
 
 vote. 
 
 2. Social dangers. 
 
 (a) Tendency to clannishness in mode of life. 
 (&) The educational question. 
 (c) The religious question. 
 
 Conclusion : 
 
 1. Need of new naturalization laws. 
 
 2. Need of a restricted franchise. 
 
 3. Need of more stringent immigration laws. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF .AMERICA ON EUROPE. 
 
 (Exposition.) 
 
 1. Our democratic institutions have diffused the senti- 
 
 ment of liberty. 
 
 2. America an example of creative energy in material 
 
 development. 
 
 3. America an example of political stability. 
 
 4. America has made an original appeal to Europe on 
 
 behalf of the dignity of labor. 
 
 5. Influence of our educational systems and our litera- 
 
 ture. 
 
Appendix A 12. 127 
 
 SHOULD NEVADA BE DEPRIVED OF STATEHOOD. 
 
 (Exposition.) 
 
 1. Statement of the facts about Nevada. 
 
 2. Considerations favoring deprival of statehood. 
 
 (a) Decrease in population. 
 
 (b) Unjust representation in Congress. 
 
 (c) Wealth and population engaged solely in the 
 
 mining interest. 
 
 3. Considerations opposing deprival of statehood, 
 (a) Vast resources of the State. 
 
 (6) Likelihood of future growth. 
 
 (c) A dangerous precedent would be established. 
 
 4. Summary and estimate of points, concluding that the 
 
 plan proposed is, on the whole, unwise. 
 
 COLLEGE EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 (Method of Inquiry.) 
 
 I. Principles sought. 
 
 1. Obviously necessary to ascertain fitness for ad- 
 
 mission to 
 
 (a) The learned professions. 
 
 (b) The civil service. 
 
 (c) College. But (c) is modified by 
 
 (1) Admission by diploma from accredited 
 
 schools, 
 
 (2) Admission by certificate from teachers 
 
 of known excellence. 
 
 2. The purpose in examining in the three cases 
 
 above is 
 
 To ascertain fitness or unfitness, something 
 unknown to the examiners. 
 
128 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 II. Antithesis. But in college this cannot be the pur- 
 pose in regard to most students, since 
 
 1. The instructor learns the attainments of his 
 students from their daily work. Modifica- 
 tions of 1 : 
 
 (a) In large recitation classes, doubt about in- 
 dividual cases. 
 (6) In lecture courses, doubt may exist about all. 
 
 III. Partial conclusions : 
 
 1. For doubtful cases, examination necessary for 
 
 information of instructor. 
 
 2. For the majority of students, examination unnec- 
 
 essary for this purpose. 
 
 3. Kesultiug alternatives : either abolish for (2) or 
 
 seek further reasons. 
 
 IV. The real purposes : 
 
 1. To convince unfaithful students of their defi- 
 
 ciencies. 
 
 2. To give the others an opportunity for compre- 
 
 hensive review. 
 
 3. To show all what are regarded as the most 
 
 important points. 
 
 V. Application of principles locally. 
 
 HAMILTON AND JEFFERSON. 
 (Exposition by Comparison and Contrast.) 
 
 1. Early life and education. Results of early training. 
 
 2. Life during the Revolution, compared. 
 
 3. Their work on the Constitution, compared, 
 (a) Principles championed. 
 
 (&) Divergency of views. 
 
Appendix A 12. 129 
 
 4. Their positions in Washington's cabinet. 
 
 (a) Hamilton's financial measures. 
 
 (b) Jefferson's antagonism. 
 
 5. Subsequent life, contrasted. 
 
 6. Eesults of their work, compared. 
 
 IDEAL COMMONWEALTHS. 
 
 (Division of a Class.) 
 Introduction : 
 
 1. The longing for an ideal life and ideal government. 
 
 2. Ideal commonwealths are literary outgrowths of this 
 
 longing. 
 
 Discussion : 
 
 1. Lycurgus's State (see Plutarch's Lives). 
 
 (a) Characteristic features. 
 
 (b) Which of these are practicable ? 
 
 2. Plato's Republic (see Morley's Universal Library, 
 
 No. 23). 
 
 (a) Characteristic features. 
 
 (b) Socrates's idea of justice. 
 
 3. More's Utopia (see Morley's Universal Library, No. 23). 
 
 (a) Features in common with the preceding. 
 
 (b) Abuses in England, hinted at. 
 
 4. Campanella's City of the Sun (see Morley, as above). 
 
 5. Bacon's New Atlantis (see Morley, as above). 
 
 6. Sidney's Arcadia. 
 
 7. Bellamy's Looking Backward. 
 
 (a) Parts that are practicable. 
 
 (b) Parts that criticise existing evils. 
 
 Conclusion : 
 
 1. Common features of these ideal schemes. 
 
 2. Suggestive value. 
 
1 30 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF ALASKA. 
 
 (Exposition.) 
 Introduction : . 
 
 1. The growth of a country depends on 
 
 (a) Physical environment and resources, 
 (6) Position and accessibility. 
 
 2. These largely determine 
 
 (a) The character of the people, 
 (6) Their pursuits, 
 (c) Their culture. 
 
 Discussion : Application of these considerations to Alaska. 
 
 1. Position unfavorable. 
 
 2. Physical environments. 
 
 (a) Climate* 
 
 (b) Agricultural lands. 
 
 (c) Manufacturing. 
 
 (d) Mining. 
 
 (e) Trading. 
 (/) Fisheries. 
 
 3. Character of the people. 
 (a) The natives. 
 
 (&) The traders and miners. 
 
 (c) Eeligious questions involved. 
 
 Conclusion : Probabilities of future growth estimated. 
 GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF EAILWAYS. 
 
 (Exposition and Argument.) 
 Introduction : 
 
 1. Eapid growth, magnitude, and importance of the rail- 
 
 way system. 
 
 2. Some evils and abnormal conditions. 
 
Appendix A 12. 131 
 
 Discussion : 
 
 1. Need of some reform evinced by 
 
 (a) Disregard of public good by corporations, 
 
 (b) The failure of competition, 
 
 (c) Power of corporations over legislation. 
 
 2. Legal methods of reform, short of ownership. 
 
 (a) State and national commissions with power to 
 force fair treatment. 
 
 (6) Withdrawal of franchises in case of gross mis- 
 management. 
 
 (c) Exaction of truthful reports from the roads. 
 
 3. Dangers of government ownership. 
 
 (a) Mismanagement and loss. Examples from foreign 
 
 countries. 
 
 (b) Deterioration of roads through lack of interest. 
 
 (c) Opportunities for political rings. 
 Conclusion : 
 
 1. Government ownership not the solution. 
 
 2. Legal methods of reform, short of ownership, sufficient. 
 
 THE BOOK-EOOM OF A MODERN LIBRARY. 
 
 (Description.) 
 Introduction : 
 
 1. Purpose. 
 
 2. Necessary characteristics convenience and simplic- 
 
 ity. 
 
 Discussion : 
 
 1. General shape and approximate size. 
 
 2. Number of stories and means of communication. 
 
 3. The material iron, brick, and stone, exclusively. 
 
 4. Provision for light. 
 
 (a) Location of windows. 
 (6) Location of gas-jets. 
 
132 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 5. Bookcases. 
 
 (a) Number and accessibility. 
 
 (b) Symmetrical division and distribution. 
 
 (c) System of numbering cases, shelves, and divisions. 
 
 6. Distribution of the books. 
 
 (a) With reference to subjects. 
 
 (b) With reference to frequency of use. 
 
 (c) With reference to the parts of the library. 
 
 7. To whom accessible and by whom used. 
 
 Conclusion : The book-room answers the requirements 
 mentioned in the introduction, because its arrangement is 
 
 1. Simple, 
 
 2. Convenient, 
 
 3. Symmetrical, 
 
 4. Systematic. x 
 
 THE STORY OF RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 (Narration.) 
 
 1. Where and when he lived ; condition of his farm. 
 
 2. His family ; how they prospered. 
 
 3. His appearance, character, occupations. 
 
 4. The important expedition of his life. 
 
 (a) Why, when, where. 
 
 (b) Sights he saw ; acquaintance ; amphitheater ; the 
 
 game. 
 
 (c) The effects of the flagon of liquor. 
 
 (d) Waking up dog, gun, feelings. 
 
 5. The return homeward ; changes noticed. 
 
 (a) House, inn, people. 
 
 (b) His reception, perplexity, recognition. 
 
 (c) Daughter, wife. 
 
 6. How he passed the rest of his life. 
 
 .< 
 
Appendix A 12. 133 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF AN AUTHOR. 
 (Narration.) 
 
 1. Birth and early life. 
 
 (a) Time and place. 
 
 (b) Parentage. 
 
 (c) Surroundings. 
 
 (d) Result of early influences. 
 
 (e) Early character. 
 (/) Anecdote. 
 
 2. Education and travel. 
 
 (a) Places of education. 
 
 (b) Influences and their effect. 
 
 (c) Friends and companions. 
 
 (d) Choice of vocation. 
 
 (e) Literary attempts. 
 
 (/) Travel influence, and results. 
 
 3. Career as a writer. 
 
 (a) Publications ; their success. 
 
 (b) Share in public movements. 
 
 (c) Important events. 
 
 (d) Friendships. 
 
 (e) Character of works in brief. 
 
 4. Death time and place. Estimate of character. 
 
 5. Influence of the author and of his works. 
 
 THE COMBAT. (SCOTT'S Talisman.) 
 (Narration.) 
 
 1. Time, Third Crusade. Place, the Diamond of the 
 
 Desert. Persons, Sir Kenneth and Conrad. 
 
 2. Preparations, 
 (a) Arming.^ 
 
 (6) The herald's proclamation. 
 
134 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (c) Taking positions. 
 
 (d) The invocation. 
 
 3. The encounter. 
 
 (a) Signal. 
 
 (b) Start. 
 
 (c) Career. 
 
 (d) Meeting. 
 
 4. Eesult of the combat. Effect in settling the dispute. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE FROM 
 
 755 TO 1303. 
 
 (Narration.) 
 
 1. Origin. 
 
 (a) Pippin's v gift to Stefano III., 755 A.D. 
 (&) Agreement between Carolingians and Pontiffs, 
 800 A.D. 
 
 (1) Extent of concessions to the Pontiffs. 
 
 (2) Eesult when political unity ceased and relig- 
 
 ious unity remained. 
 
 2. Gradual increase of power up to the time of Gregory 
 
 VII. 
 (a) Heinrich III.'s gift, to the Papacy, of Benevento, 
 
 1053. 
 (&) Countess Matilda's bequest, ' Patrimony of St. 
 
 Peter,' 1073. 
 
 3. Rapid accessions of power under Gregory VII., 1073. 
 (a) Gregory's plans : 
 
 (1) To free the Papacy of German supremacy. 
 
 (2) To increase the discipline of the Church. 
 
 (3) To make the Church independent of any 
 
 monarch. 
 
 (4) To rule people and princes in the interest of 
 
 their salvation. 
 
 < 
 
Appendix A 12. 135 
 
 (b) Their realization : 
 
 (1) Humiliation of Henry IV. 
 
 (2) Quarrel over investitures. Resulting com- 
 
 promise. 
 
 4. Supremacy of the Pope's temporal power, 1073 to 1250. 
 
 (a) Evidences. 
 
 (b) Final fall of German power in Italy. 
 
 5. Decline and loss of Pope's temporal power, 1295 to 
 
 1303. 
 
 (a) Results of the quarrel with Philip the Fair. 
 
 (b) Failure under Boniface VIII. 
 
 CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 (Argument.) 
 
 Burke, urging the British Parliament to grant concessions 
 to the American colonies before it should be too late, pre- 
 sented the following arguments : 
 
 I. The condition of America demands concessions on 
 account of 
 
 1. Its large and increasing population, 
 
 2. Its valuable commerce, 
 
 3. Its advanced agriculture, 
 
 4. Its extensive fisheries. 
 
 II. If America is so valuable, it may be thought that 
 force is justifiable in retaining it. But 
 
 1. Force is temporary, war cannot be perpetual, 
 
 2. Its outcome is uncertain ; it may fail of its 
 
 object, 
 
 3. It impairs or destroys the value of its object, 
 
 4. It cannot be justified by experience. 
 
 III. The temper and character of the Americans call for 
 concessions. Love of freedom and resistance to 
 
136 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 oppression are their chief characteristics. These 
 have been 
 
 1. Inherited from English parentage, 
 
 2. Fostered by their form of government, 
 
 3. Promoted by their religion and domestic insti- 
 
 tutions, 
 
 4. Cultivated by their education, and 
 
 5. Confirmed by their remoteness from England. 
 
 THE RELATION OF FICTION TO EELIGION. 
 
 Exemplified in Ben Hur. 
 
 (Exposition by Example.) 
 Introduction : v 
 
 1. Growing favor of the religious novel. 
 
 2. Some of its requirements. 
 
 (a) A respectful tone and worthy aims. 
 
 (6) A sympathetic treatment. 
 
 (c) A strengthening effect on the reader. 
 
 Discussion : How Ben Hur fulfils these essentials ; 
 
 (a) In its aims, which are 
 
 (1) To show the intolerant Roman character, 
 
 (2) To compare and contrast Jew and Roman, 
 
 (3) To imply the need of a moral revolution, 
 
 (4) To show Christ as an historical character, 
 
 (5) To re-tell the story of his life in a novel and 
 
 attractive way, 
 
 (6) To set forth the beauty of the highest type 
 
 of character. 
 (6) In tone and treatment, 
 
 (1) It exalts the personal virtues, 
 
 (2) It presents types of heroism, 
 
Appendix A 13. 137 
 
 (3) It portrays the moral awakening of nations, 
 
 (4) It upholds the best standards, 
 (c) In effect on the reader, 
 
 (1) It strengthens faith in goodness, 
 
 (2) It adds to appreciation of what is best, 
 
 (3) It cultivates admiration for true character. 
 
 Conclusion : 
 
 1. Contrast with another type of the religious novel. 
 
 2. The popularity of Ben Hur accounted for. 
 
 13. 
 
 A close analysis and outlining of the thought of a long 
 paragraph from a careful author will always give evidence 
 of regular structure in the building of the paragraph. The 
 main thought-divisions of the following are numbered for 
 the sake of convenient reference. ' 
 
 1. The originality of form and treatment which Macaulay gave to 
 the historical essay has not, perhaps, received due recognition. With- 
 out having invented it, he so greatly improved and expanded it that he 
 deserves nearly as much credit as if he had. He did for the historical 
 essay what Haydn did for the sonata, and Watt for the steam-engine : 
 he found it rudimentary and unimportant, and left it complete, and 
 a thing of power. 2. Before his time there was the ponderous his- 
 tory, generally in quarto, and there was the antiquarian dissertation. 
 There was also the historical review, containing alternate pages of ex- 
 tract and comment, generally dull and gritty. But the historical essay, 
 as he conceived it, and with the prompt inspiration of a real discoverer 
 immediately put into practical shape, was as good as unknown before 
 him. 3. To take a bright period or personage of history, to frame it 
 in a firm outline, to conceive it at once in article size, and then to fill 
 in this limited canvas with sparkling anecdote, telling bits of color, 
 and fact's all fused together by a real genius for narrative, was the 
 sort of genre-painting which Macaulay applied to history. 4. And to 
 this day his essays remain the best of their class, not only in England, 
 but in Europe. Slight, or even trivial, in the field of historical erudi- 
 tion and critical inquiry, they are masterpieces if regarded in the light 
 
138 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 of great popular cartoons on subjects taken from modern history. 
 They are painted, indeed, with such freedom, vividness, and power, 
 that they may be said to enjoy a sort of tacit monopoly of the periods 
 and characters to which they refer, in the estimation of the general 
 public. J. Cotter Morison. 
 
 ANALYSIS BY THOUGHT-DIVISIONS. 
 
 1. Macaulay gave to the historical essay originality of form and treatment, 
 (a) He did not invent it, but 
 
 (6) He improved it greatly. (Parallel cases Haydn and Watt.) 
 (c) He found it rudimentary and left it complete. 
 
 2. Forms of historical writing, before Macaulay. 
 (a) The ponderous history. 
 
 (6) The dissertation, 
 (c) The review. 
 
 3. In what consisted Macaulay's originality of treatment. 
 
 (a) Selection of effective points and periods and telling personages. 
 (6) Framing the selected period or personage in firm outline Unity, 
 (c) A sense of due proportion. Genius for narrative. 
 
 4. His essays the best of their class. 
 
 (a) Others surpass them in erudition and critical research, but 
 
 (6) They are masterpieces if judged as specimens of broad, popular treatment. 
 
 (c) They have a monopoly of the periods and characters treated by them. 
 
 Analyze the following paragraphs according to their 
 thought-divisions : 
 
 It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this : that poetry is at 
 bottom a criticism of life ; that the greatness of a poet lies in his 
 powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life, to the question : 
 How to live. Morals are often treated in a narrow and false fashion, 
 they are bound up with systems of thought and belief which have had 
 their day, they are fallen into the hands of pedants *and professional 
 dealers, they grow tiresome to some of us. We find attraction, at 
 times, even in a poetry of revolt against them ; in a poetry which 
 might take for its motto Omar Kheyam's words: "Let us make up 
 in the tavern for the time which we have wasted in the Mosque." 
 Or we find attractions in a poetry indifferent to them, in a poetry 
 where the contents may be what they will, but where the form is 
 studied and exquisite. We delude ourselves in either case ; and the 
 best cure for our delusion is to let our minds rest upon that great and 
 inexhaustible word life, until we learn to enter into its meaning. A 
 poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life ; 
 
Appendix A 13. 139 
 
 a poetry of indifference toward moral ideas is a poetry of indifference 
 towards life. Matthew Arnold : Preface to Wordsworth's Poems. 
 
 The qualities of the great masters in art or literature, the combina- 
 tion of those qualities, the laws by which they moderate, support, 
 relieve each other, are not peculiar to them ; but most often typical 
 standards, revealing instances, of the laws by which certain aesthetic 
 effects are produced. The old masters indeed are simpler ; their 
 characteristics are written larger, and are easier to read, than their 
 analogues in all the mixed confused productions of the modern mind. 
 But when once one has succeeded in defining for oneself those char- 
 acteristics, and the law of their combination, one has acquired a 
 standard or measure which helps us to put in its right place many a 
 vagrant genius, many an unclassified talent, many precious though 
 imperfect products. It is so with the components of the true char- 
 acter of Michelangelo. That strange interfusion of sweetness and 
 strength is not to be found in those who claimed to be his followers ; 
 but it is found in many of those who worked before him, and 'in 
 many others down to our own time, in William Blake, for instance, 
 and Victor Hugo, who, though not of his school, and unaware, are his 
 true sons, and help us to understand him, as he in turn interprets and 
 justifies them. Perhaps this is the chief use in studying old masters. 
 Pater: The Renaissance, p. 88. 
 
 That no great political improvement, however plausible or attrac- 
 tive it may appear, can be productive of lasting benefit, unless it is 
 preceded by a change in public opinion, and that every change of 
 public opinion is preceded by changes in knowledge, are propositions 
 which all history verifies, but which are particularly obvious in the his- 
 tory of Spain. The Spaniards have had everything except knowledge. 
 They have had immense wealth, and fertile and well-peopled terri- 
 tories, in all parts of the globe. Their own country, washed by the 
 Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and possessed of excellent harbors, 
 is admirably situated for the purposes of trade between Europe and 
 America, being so placed as to command the commerce of both hemi- 
 spheres. They had at a very early period, ample municipal privi- 
 leges ; they had independent parliaments ; they had the right of 
 choosing their own magistrates, and managing their own cities. They 
 have had rich and flourishing towns, abundant manufactures and 
 skilful artisans, whose choice productions could secure a ready sale in 
 every market in the world. They have cultivated the fine arts with 
 eminent success. . . . They speak a beautiful, sonorous and flexible 
 language, and their literature is not unworthy of their language. 
 
140 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Their soil yields treasures of every kind. ... In short, nature has 
 been so prodigal of her bounty, that it has been observed, with hardly 
 an hyperbole, that the Spanish nation possesses within itself nearly 
 every natural production which can satisfy either the necessity or the 
 curiosity of mankind. Buckle : History of Civilization, Vol. II. 
 pp. 583-585. 
 
 The truth is, that by economy and good management by a sparing 
 use of ready money and by paying scarcely anybody people can 
 manage, for a time at least, to make a great show with very little 
 means. ... If every person is to be banished from society who 
 runs into debt and cannot pay, if we are to be peering into every- 
 body's private life, speculating upon their income, and cutting them if 
 we don't approve of their expenditure, why, what a howling wilder- 
 ness and intolerable dwelling Vanity Fair would be. Every man's 
 hand would be against his neighbor in this case, my dear sir, and 
 the benefits of civilization would be done away with. We should be 
 quarreling, abusing, avoiding one another. Our houses would become 
 caverns : and we should go in rags because we cared for nobody. 
 Rents would go down. Parties wouldn't be given any more. All 
 the tradesmen of the town would be bankrupt. Wine, wax-lights, 
 comestibles, rouge, crinoline-petticoats, diamonds, wigs, old china, 
 park hacks and splendid high-stepping carriage-horses all the de- 
 lights of life, I say, would go to the deuce, if people did but act upon 
 their silly principles, and avoid those whom they dislike and abuse. 
 Whereas, by a little charity and mutual forbearance, things are made 
 to go on pleasantly enough: we may abuse a man as much as we 
 like, and call him the greatest rascal unhung, but do we wish to 
 hang him therefor ? No ; we shake hands when we meet. If his 
 cook is good we forgive him, and go and dine with him ; and we 
 expect he will do the same by us. Thus trade flourishes civilization 
 advances ; peace is kept ; new dresses are wanted for new assemblies 
 every week ; and the last year's vintage of Lafitte will remunerate the 
 honest proprietor who reared it. Thackeray : Vanity Fair. 
 
 Equally, throughout the whole nature, may be traced the law that 
 exercised faculties are ever tending to resume their original state. Not 
 only after continued rest, do they regain their full power not only 
 do brief cessations partially reinvigorate them ; but even while they 
 are in action, the resulting exhaustion is ever being neutralized. The 
 two processes of waste and repair go on together. Hence with facul- 
 ties habitually exercised as the senses of all persons, or the muscles 
 of any one who is strong it happens that, during moderate activity, 
 
Appendix B. 141 
 
 the repair is so nearly equal to the waste, that the diminution of 
 power is scarcely appreciable ; and it is only when the activity has 
 been long continued, or has been very violent, that the repair becomes 
 so far in arrear of the waste as to produce a perceptible prostration. 
 In all cases, however, when, by the action of a faculty, waste has been 
 incurred, some lapse of time must take place before full efficiency can 
 be reacquired ; and this time must be long in proportion as the waste 
 has been great. Spencer : Philosophy of Style. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 A selected list of typical paragraphs of many kinds and 
 from many sources, to be used by the student for the vari- 
 ous exercises prescribed in the text. 
 
 In the long lists of reformers and philanthropists, like a planet 
 among lesser stars, stands out the name of John Howard, who at- 
 tacked with indefatigable ardor and industry the hideous abuses ex- 
 istent in the prisons. Each jail in the country was a festering social 
 sore, a den in which decency, cleanliness, or discipline was unknown 
 and in which every abomination was practiced. He visited them all, 
 collected evidence of the extortion, cruelty, favoritism, and vice which 
 marked their management, and startled the public conscience by the 
 terrors of his story. He did not see the results of the labors which 
 cost him his life, but his fame will always be associated with the great 
 work of social reformation in England, which began more than a hun- 
 dred years ago and can never cease until civilization itself is ended. 
 
 Eree government is self-government a government of the people 
 by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the 
 people think best. An imposed government, a government like that 
 of the English in India, may very possibly be better ; it may represent 
 the views of a higher race than the governed race ; but it is not there- 
 fore a free government. A free government is that which the people 
 subject to it voluntarily choose. In a casual collection of loose people 
 the only possible free government is a democratic government. Where 
 no one knows or cares for or respects any one else, all must rank 
 equal ; no one's opinion can be more potent than that of another. 
 But, as has been explained, a deferential nation has a structure of its 
 own. Certain persons are by common consent agreed to be wiser 
 
142 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 than others, and their opinion is, by consent, to rank for much more 
 than its numerical value. We may in these happy nations weigh 
 votes as well as count them, though in less favored countries we can 
 count only. But in free nations, the votes so weighed or so counted 
 must decide. A perfect free government is one which decides per- 
 fectly according to those votes ; an imperfect, one which so decides 
 imperfectly ; a bad, one which does not so decide at all. Public opin- 
 ion is the test of this polity ; the best opinion which, with its existing 
 habits of deference, the nation will accept : if the free government 
 goes by that opinion, it is a good government of its species ; if it con- 
 travenes that opinion, it is a bad one. Bagehot : The English Con- 
 stitution, p. 221. 
 
 There is in an English collection a portrait of Jean Jacques, which 
 was painted during his residence in this country by a provincial artist, 
 and which, singular and displeasing as it is, yet lights up for us many 
 a word and passage in Rousseau's life here and elsewhere, which the 
 ordinary engravings, and the trim self-complacency of the statue on 
 the little island at Geneva, would leave very incomprehensible. It is 
 almost as appalling in its realism as some of the dark pits that open 
 before the reader of the Confessions. Hard struggles with objective 
 difficulty and external obstacle wear deep furrows in the brow, and 
 throw into the glance a solicitude, half penetrating and defiant, half 
 dejected. When a man's hindrances have sprung up from within, 
 and the ill-fought battle of his days has been with his own passions 
 and morbid breedings and unchastened dreams, the eye and the facial 
 lines that stamp character tell the story of that profound moral de- 
 feat, which is unlighted by the memories of resolute combat with evil 
 and weakness, and leaves only external desolation and the misery 
 that is formless. Our English artist has produced a vision from that 
 prose Infer no' which is made so populous in the modern epoch by 
 impotence of will, and those who have seen the picture, may easily 
 understand how largely the character of the original, at the time when 
 it was painted, must have been pregnant with harassing confusion 
 and distress. Morley : fiousseau, Vol. II. p. 282. 
 
 The Americans of 1787 thought they were copying the English 
 Constitution, but they were contriving a contrast to it. Just as the 
 American is the type of composite governments, in which the supreme 
 power is divided between many bodies and functionaries, so the Eng- 
 lish is the type of simple constitutions, in which the ultimate power 
 upon all questions is in the hands of the same persons. Bagehot : 
 The English Constitution, p. 295. 
 
Appendix B. 143 
 
 The history of this, as of all nations (or so much of it as there is 
 occasion for any of us to know), is the history of the battles which 
 it has fought and won with evil ; not with political evil merely, or 
 spiritual evil ; but with all manifestations whatsoever of the devil's 
 power. We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good ; 
 we learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel 
 the mystery of our mortal existence ; and in the companionship of 
 the illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world, 
 we escape from the littleness which clings to the round of common 
 life, and our minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key. Froude. 
 
 In the centre of the court, under the blue Italian sky, and with the 
 hundred windows of the vast palace gazing down upon it, from four 
 sides, appears a fountain. It brims over from one stone basin to 
 another, or gushes from a Naiad's urn, or spirts its many little jets 
 from the mouths of nameless monsters, which were merely grotesque 
 and artificial when Bernini, or whoever was their unnatural father, 
 first produced them ; but now the patches of moss, the tufts of grass, 
 the trailing maiden-hair, and all sorts of verdant weeds that thrive in 
 the cracks and crevices of moist marble, tell us that Nature takes the 
 fountain back into her great heart, and cherishes it as kindly as if 
 it were a woodland spring. And, hark, the pleasant murmur, the 
 gurgle, the plash ! You might hear just those tinkling sounds from 
 any tiny waterfall in the forest, though here they gain a delicious 
 pathos from the stately echoes that reverberate their natural language. 
 So the fountain is not altogether glad, after all its three centuries of 
 play ! Hawthorne : Marble Faun, chap. v. 
 
 I know nothing in the world tenderer than the pity that a kind- 
 hearted young girl has for a young man who feels lonely. It is true that 
 these dear creatures are all compassion for every form of human woe, 
 and anxious to alleviate all human misfortunes. They will go to Sun- 
 day-schools, through storms their brothers are afraid of, to teach the 
 most unpleasant and intractable classes of little children the age of 
 Methuselah and the dimensions of Og the king of Bashan's bedstead. 
 They will stand behind a table at a fair all day until they are ready 
 to drop, dressed in their prettiest clothes and their sweetest smiles, 
 and lay hands upon you, to make you buy what you do not want, 
 at prices which you cannot afford ; all this as cheerfully as if it were 
 not martyrdom to them as well as to you. Such is their love for all 
 good objects, such their eagerness to sympathize with all their suffer- 
 ing fellow-creatures ! But there is nothing they pity as they pity a 
 lonely young man. Holmes : The Poet at the Breakfast- Table. 
 
144 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 The use of the House of Lords or, rather, of the Lords, in its 
 dignified capacity is very great. It does not attract so much rever- 
 ence as the Queen, but it attracts very much. The office of an order 
 of nobility is to impose on the common people not necessarily to im- 
 pose on them what is untrue, yet less what is hurtful ; but still to im- 
 pose on their quiescent imaginations what would not otherwise be there. 
 The fancy of the mass of men is incredibly weak ; it can see nothing 
 without a visible symbol, and there is much that it can scarcely make 
 out with a symbol. Nobility is the symbol of mind. It has the marks 
 from which the mass of men always used to infer mind, and often still 
 infer it. A common clever man who goes into a country place will 
 get no reverence ; but the " old squire " will get reverence. Even after 
 he is insolvent, when every one knows that his ruin is but a question 
 of time, he will get five times as much respect from the common peas- 
 antry as the newly-made rich man who sits beside him. The common 
 peasantry will listen to his nonsense more submissively than to the 
 new man's sense. An old lord will get infinite respect. His very ex- 
 istence is so far useful* that it awakens the sensation of obedience to a 
 sort of mind in the coarse, dull, contracted multitude, who could 
 neither appreciate or perceive any other. Bagehot : The English 
 Constitution, p. 157. 
 
 All education is, in a sense, education of will. Of course, for scien- 
 tific exactness, we distinguish will from other activities of mind, and we 
 may for convenience here assume the ordinary psychological division 
 into intelligence, emotion and will ; but it is an elementary common- 
 place of psychology, that though these activities are distinguishable 
 in thought, they are not to be treated as if they were usually sepa- 
 rated in mental life. Will is therefore not to be conceived as an 
 activity in itself, capable of being isolated from intelligence and 
 emotion. In such isolation it is unreal abstraction, it is merely the 
 abstract concept which physical science finds useful for its purposes 
 under the name of force. As a concrete reality, will is active intelli- 
 gence stimulated by emotion : or, as it may equally well be described, 
 it is active emotion directed by intelligence. J. C. Murray : Educa- 
 tional Review, June, 1891. 
 
 It is so easy to feel pride and satisfaction in one's own things, so 
 hard -to make sure that one is right in feeling it ! We have a great 
 empire. But so had Nebuchadnezzar. We extol the " unrivalled 
 happiness" of our national civilisation. But then comes a candid 
 friend, and remarks that our upper class is materialised, our middle 
 class vulgarised, and our lower class brutalised. We are proud of our 
 
Appendix B. 145 
 
 painting, our music. But we find that in the judgment of other people 
 our painting is questionable, and our music non-existent. We are 
 proud of our men of science. And here it turns out that the world is 
 with us ; we find that in the judgment of other people, too, Newton 
 among the dead, and Mr. Darwin among the living, hold as high a 
 place as they hold in our national opinion. Matthew Arnold : Preface 
 to Wordsworth's Poems. 
 
 This was the physiognomy of the drawing-room into which Lydgate 
 was shown ; and there were three ladies to receive him, who were also 
 old-fashioned, and of a faded but genuine respectability : Mrs. Fare- 
 brother, the Vicar's white-haired mother, bef rilled and kerchiefed with 
 dainty cleanliness, upright, quick-eyed, and still under seventy ; Miss 
 Noble, her sister, a tiny old lady of meeker aspect, with frills and 
 kerchief decidedly more worn and mended ; and Miss Winifred Fare- 
 brother, the Vicar's elder sister, well-looking like himself; but nipped 
 and subdued as single women are apt to be who spend their lives in 
 uninterrupted subjection to their elders. Lydgate had not expected 
 to see so quaint a group : knowing simply that Mr. Farebrother was a 
 bachelor, he had thought of being ushered into a snuggery where the 
 chief furniture would probably be books and collections of natural 
 objects. The Vicar himself seemed to wear rather a changed aspect, 
 as most men do when acquaintances made elsewhere see them for the 
 first time in their own homes. George Eliot : Middlemarch. 
 
 Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law is method, which con- 
 stitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd of 
 men go up to Faneuil Hall ; they are all pretty well acquainted with 
 the object of the meeting ; they have all read the facts m the same 
 newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers 
 have not; yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By 
 the new placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth. 
 Every fact gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become 
 important. His expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and 
 fly from mouth to mouth. His mind has some new principle of 
 order. Where he looks all things fly into their places. What will he 
 say next ? Let this man speak, and this man only. Emerson : 
 Eloquence. 
 
 Finally, Gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which is practi- 
 cally of very great importance, though a very humble one. In the 
 midst of our zeal and ardor, for such, I forsee, will rise high 
 enough, in spite of all the counsels to moderate it, I can give you, 
 remember the care of health. I have no doubt you have among you 
 
146 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 young souls ardently bent to consider life cheap, for the purpose of 
 getting forward in what they are aiming at of high ; but you are to 
 consider throughout, much more than is done at present, and what it 
 would have been a very great thing for me if I had been able to con- 
 sider, that health is a thing to be attended to continually ; that you 
 are to regard that as the very highest of all temporal things for you. 
 There is no kind of achievement you could make in the world that is 
 equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets and millions ? The 
 French financier said, " Why, is there no sleep to be sold ! " Sleep 
 was not in the market at any quotation. Carlyle. 
 
 The Caesars have perished, and their palaces are in ruins. The 
 empire of Charlemagne has risen, like one of those gorgeous clouds 
 we often admire, brilliant with the radiance of the setting sun ; and, 
 like that cloud, it has vanished forever. Charles V. has marshaled 
 the armies of Europe around his throne, and has almost rivalled the 
 Csesars in the majesty of his sway ; and, like a dream, the vision of 
 his universal empire has fled. J. S. C. Abbott : History of Christian- 
 ity, p. 14. 
 
 No body can be heathful without exercise, neither natural body 
 nor politic ; and certainly to a kingdom or estate, a just and honour- 
 able war is the true exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the heat of 
 a fever : but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to 
 keep the body in health ; for in a slothful peace both courages will 
 effeminate, and manners corrupt. But howsoever it be for happiness, 
 without all question for greatness it maketh to be still for the most 
 part in arms : and the strength of a veteran army (though it be a 
 chargeable business), always on foot, is that which commonly giveth 
 the law, or, at least, the reputation, amongst all neighbour states ; as 
 may well be seen in Spain ; which hath had, in one part or other, a 
 veteran army almost continually, now by the space of six-score years. 
 Bacon : Civil and Moral Essays, p. 207. 
 
 Home affections are the first and the last of human attachments ; 
 they begin with the first opening of the soul, and they abide when all 
 other feelings have faded away. Families are the unity of which 
 society is composed, as tissue is made of cells, and matter of mole- 
 cules. The attractions of parent and child, man and wife, brother 
 and sister, are fundamental and primary. They are the deep roots 
 from which social life is developed. According as the family is, so is 
 the State. J. F. Clarke: Self - Culture ; The Affections and Social 
 Powers, p. 225. 
 
 It has been frequently remarked, that the period of the highest 
 
Appendix B. 147 
 
 literary glory of civilized nations is generally found to follow close on 
 some remarkable or portentous achievements in commerce or in war. 
 Among the ancient Greeks, the combination of great literary names 
 in the age of Pericles follows the defeat of the Persians. The Roman 
 age of Augustus, when that mighty nation was resting from her 
 conquests, produced the same galaxy of genius. In the same way, 
 the famous literary age of Louis XIV was certainly prepared, if not 
 produced, by the religious wars of the Reformation, and after the 
 national enthusiasm had been excited by the success of the French 
 arms in Germany and Flanders. In our own case a gigantic revolu- 
 tion had been accomplished. The intellect of England had been 
 engaged in a violent struggle for religious liberty, and the nation now 
 started on its race of poetical immortality. Graham. 
 
 It must never be forgotten, in discussing the past and present of 
 Oxford or Cambridge, that the university and most of its colleges 
 were originally ecclesiastical institutions, dating from the time when 
 there was complete communion and accord between the Church of 
 England and the Papacy. The colleges were originally, like the old 
 hospitals, eleemosynary establishments, and like the monasteries, under 
 a common rule of life and intended primarily for religious purposes. 
 From the original statutes of the colleges, moreover, it is abundantly 
 clear that they were in many cases founded "ad studendum," i.e., 
 with the idea that the inmates should devote themselves to study, 
 not to teaching. Their founders desired their inmates to acquire more 
 learning themselves, but did not require them to impart more learning 
 to others. After the Reformation, the compromise between Catholi- 
 cism and Protestantism, which is the basis of the Book of Common 
 Prayer and the Church of England, was fully reflected in the university 
 and its colleges. The old statutes were retained and professedly 
 respected, but practices which those statutes enjoined were disregarded. 
 The universities remained, indeed, the nursery of the clergy and the 
 headquarters of ecclesiastical learning, but as the Anglican Church 
 now professes to be both Catholic and Protestant, and is really neither, 
 but only Anglican, so the universities then professed to be national 
 and religious, but were neither, and only academic. In 1850 their 
 position had become incompatible with the England of Free Trade ; 
 and the Royal Commission appointed that year as the Oxford Uni- 
 versity Commission, while a similar Commission was appointed for 
 Cambridge, was the recognition of the fact. Contemporary Review, 
 November, 1892, p. 694. 
 
 A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will, or 
 
148 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions 
 by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a 
 thread-ball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the throw- 
 er's bag. Or, rather, it is a harpoon hurled at the whale, unwinding, 
 as it flies, a coil of cord in the boat : and if the harpoon is not good or 
 not well thrown, it will go nigh to cut the steersman in twain, or to 
 sink the boat. Emerson : Compensation, p. 273. 
 
 Covetousness is not natural to man generosity is ; but covetous- 
 ness must be excited by a special cause, as a given disease by a given 
 miasma ; and the essential nature of a material for the excitement of 
 covetousness is, that it shall be a beautiful thing which can be retained 
 without a use. The moment we can use our possessions to any good 
 purpose ourselves, the instinct of communicating that use to others 
 rises side by side with our power. If you can read a book rightly, 
 you will want others to hear it ; if you can enjoy a picture rightly, 
 you will want others to see it : learn how to manage a horse, a plough, 
 or a ship, and you will desire to make your subordinates good horse- 
 men, ploughmen, or sailors : you will never be able to see the fine 
 instrument you are * master of, abused ; but once fix your desire on 
 anything useless, and all the purest pride and folly in your heart will 
 mix with the desire, and make you at last wholly inhuman, a mere 
 ugly lump of stomach and suckers, like a cuttle-fish. Ruskin : 
 Ethics of the Dust, Valley of Diamonds, p. 18. 
 
 The evidences of the Christian religion may be sufficient and yet not 
 so strong as inevitably to produce conviction. Our conduct in the 
 pursuit and reception of truth may be intended by our Creator to be 
 an important part of the probation to which we are subjected ; and 
 therefore the evidence of revelation is not so great as to be irresistible, 
 but is of such a kind that the sincere and diligent inquirer will be in 
 no danger of fatal mistake ; while men of pride and prejudice, who 
 prefer darkness to light, will be almost sure to err. Alexander : 
 Evidences of Christianity, p. 91. 
 
 We are now ready to compare the imagination with the faculty of 
 the mind that is most distinctly opposed to it. This antithetical fac- 
 ulty is the understanding. The understanding represents the mind 
 in its analytical activity, as the imagination represents it in its con- 
 structive activity. Practically, analysis is for the most part connected 
 to a greater or less degree with synthesis. We can, however, abstract 
 it from all connection of the sort, and consider it purely in itself. The 
 understanding, then, gives us the details of prose ; the imagination 
 gives us the fulness and unity of poetry. The understanding thus 
 
Appendix B. 149 
 
 claims to give us the actual ; the imagination gives us the ideal. The 
 understanding, tearing the world apart, analyzing it into its ultimate 
 particles, gives us the poor fragments that remain as its equivalent ; the 
 imagination rests content with nothing less than the rounded beauty 
 of the whole. C. C. Everett : Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, p. 25. 
 
 In the second year of the reign of Yalentinian and Valens, on the 
 morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the 
 Eoman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. 
 The impression was communicated to the waters ; the shores of the 
 Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea ; 
 great quantities of fish were caught by the hand ; large vessels were 
 stranded on the mud ; and a curious spectator amused his eye, or 
 rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance of valleys 
 and mountains, which had never, since the formation of the globe, 
 been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon returned, with the weight 
 of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt on the 
 coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt : large boats were 
 transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at the distance of 
 two miles from the shore ; the people, with their habitations, were 
 swept away by the waters ; and the city of Alexandria annually com- 
 memorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost 
 their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was 
 magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified the 
 subjects of Rome ; and their affrighted imagination enlarged the real 
 extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding earth- 
 quakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia: 
 they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still 
 more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to 
 confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking world. 
 Gibbon : History of the Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire, Vol. 
 III. pp. 1-2. 
 
 There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an 
 inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to 
 the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What 
 Plato has thought, he may think ; what a saint has felt, he may feel ; 
 what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who 
 hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be 
 done, for this is the only and sovereign agent. Emerson : Essay on 
 History. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at the 
 hamlet of Pallas, or Pallasmore, county of Longford, in Ireland. He 
 
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 sprang from a respectable, but by no means a thrifty stock. Some 
 families seem to inherit kindliness and incompetency, and to hand 
 down virtue and poverty from generation to generation. Such was 
 the case with the Goldsmiths. "They were always," according to 
 their own accounts, "a strange family ; they rarely acted like other 
 people ; their hearts were in the right place, but their heads seemed to 
 be doing anything but what they ought." "They were remarkable," 
 says another statement, " for their worth, but of no cleverness in the 
 ways of the world." Oliver Goldsmith will be found faithfully to in- 
 herit the virtues and weaknesses of his race. Irving : Oliver Gold- 
 smith. 
 
 Nature and religion are in the bonds of friendship ; excellency and 
 usefulness are its great endearments ; society and neighborhood, that 
 is, the possibilities and the circumstances of converse, are the deter- 
 minations and actualities of it. Now, when men either are unnatural 
 or irreligious, they will not be friends : when they are neither excel- 
 lent nor useful, they are not worthy to be friends ; when they are 
 strangers or unknown, they cannot be friends actually and practically ; 
 but yet, as any man tiath anything of the good, contrary to those evils, 
 so he can have and must have his share of friendship. J. Taylor : 
 The Measures and Offices of Friendship. 
 
 They thanked him, and, entering, were pleased with the neatness 
 and regularity of the place. The hermit set flesh and wine before them, 
 though he fed only upon fruits and water. His discourse was cheerful 
 without levity, and pious without enthusiasm. He soon gained the 
 esteem of his guests, and the princess repented of her hasty censure. 
 Johnson: Easselas, chap. xxi. 
 
 Let every one be himself, and not try to be some one else. God, 
 who looked on the world he had made, and said it was all good, made 
 each of us to be just what our own gifts and faculties fit us to be. 
 Be that and do that and so be contented. Reverence also each 
 other's gifts, do not quarrel with me because I am not you, and I will 
 do the same. God made your brother as well as yourself. He made 
 you perhaps to be bright ; he made him slow ; he made you prac- 
 tical ; he made him speculative ; he made one strong and another 
 weak, one tough and another tender ; but the same good God made 
 us all. Let us not torment each other because we are not all alike, 
 but believe that God knew best what he was doing in making us so 
 different. So will the best harmony come out of seeming discords, the 
 best affection out of difference, the best life out of struggle, and the 
 best work will be done when each does his own work, and lets every 
 
Appendix B. 151 
 
 one else do and be what God made him for. J. F. Clarke : Self- 
 Culture ; Every Man His Proper Gift, pp. 428-429. 
 
 There are two ways of considering life. One is the way of senti- 
 ment ; tEe other is the way of faith. The sentimental way is trite 
 t'li'iugh. Saint, sage, sophist, moralist and preacher have repeated, 
 in every possible image, till there is nothing new to say, that life is 
 a bubble, a dream, a delusion, a phantasm. The other is the way of 
 faith : the ancient saints felt as keenly as any moralist could feel the 
 brokenness of its promises ; they confessed that they were strangers 
 and pilgrims here ; they said that here they had no continuing city ; 
 but they did not mournfully moralize on this ; they said it cheerfully 
 and rejoiced that it was so. They felt that all was right ; they knew 
 that the promise itself had a deeper meaning ; they looked un- 
 dauntedly for "a city which hath foundations. . . ." Robertson: 
 Illusion and Delusion. 
 
 Wordsworth has been in his grave for some thirty years, and 
 certainly his lovers and admirers cannot flatter themselves that this 
 great and steady light of glory as yet shines over him. He is not 
 fully recognised at home ; he is not recognised at all abroad. Yet 
 I firmly believe that the poetical performance of Wordsworth is, after 
 that of Shakespeare and Milton, of which all the world now recognises 
 the worth, undoubtedly the most considerable in our language from 
 the Elizabethan age to the present time. Chaucer is anterior ; and 
 on other grounds, too, he cannot well be brought into the comparison. 
 But taking the roll of our chief poetical names, besides Shakespeare 
 and Milton, from the age of Elizabeth downwards, and going through 
 it, Spenser, Dryden, Pope, Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, 
 Coleridge, Scott, Campbell, Moore, Byron, Shelley, Keats (I mention 
 those only who are dead), I think it certain that Wordsworth's 
 name deserves to stand, and will finally stand, above them all. 
 Several of the poets named have gifts and excellences which Words- 
 worth has not. But taking the performance of each as a whole, I say 
 that Wordsworth seems to me to have left a body of poetical work 
 superior in power, in interest, in the qualities which give enduring 
 freshness, to that which any of the others has left. Matthew Arnold : 
 Preface to Wordsworth" 1 s Poems. 
 
 The business of the present novel, however, lies neither with priest 
 or pagan, but with Mr. Clive Newcome, and his affairs and his com- 
 panions at this period of his life. Nor, if the gracious reader expects 
 to hear of cardinals in scarlet, and noble Roman princes and princesses, 
 will he find such in this history. The only noble Roman into whose 
 
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 mansion our friend got admission was the Prince Polonia, whose 
 footmen wear the liveries of the English Royal family, who gives 
 gentlemen and even painters cash upon good letters of credit; and 
 once or twice in a season, opens his transtiberine palace and treats his 
 customers to a ball. Our friend Clive used jocularly to say, he be- 
 lieved there were no Romans. There were priests in pretentious 
 hats ; there were friars with shaven crowns ; there were the sham 
 peasantry, who dressed themselves out in masquerade costumes, with 
 bag-pipe and goat-skin, with crossed leggings and scarlet petticoats, 
 who let themselves out to artists at so many pauls per sitting ; but he 
 never passed a Roman's door except to buy a cigar or to purchase a 
 handkerchief. Thither, as elsewhere, we carry our insular habits with 
 us. We have a little England at Paris, a little England at Munich, 
 Dresden, everywhere. Our friend is an Englishman and did at Rome 
 as the English do. Thackeray : The Newcomes. 
 
 The idea that poetry is uttered emotion, though now somewhat in 
 abeyance, is on the whole modern. It was distinctive with the roman- 
 tic school, until the successors of Scott and Byron allied a new and 
 refined tenderness to beauty. The first rush had been that of splendid 
 barbarians. It is so true that strong natures recognize the force of 
 passion, that even Wordsworth, conscious of great moods, was led to 
 confess that " poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings," 
 and saved himself by adding that it takes "its origin from emotion 
 recollected in tranquillity." Poets do retain the impressions of rare 
 moments, and express them at their own time. But "the passion of 
 Wordsworth," under which title I have read an ingenious plea for it 
 by Dr. Coan, was at its best very serene, and not of a kind to hasten 
 dangerously his heart-beats. Like Goethe, he regarded human nature 
 from without ; furthermore, he studied by choice a single class of 
 people, whose sensibilities were not so acute, say what you will, as 
 those of persons wonted to varied and dramatic experiences. The 
 highest passion of his song was inspired by inanimate nature ; it was 
 a tide of exultation and worship, the yearning of a strong spirit to be 
 at one with the elements. Add to this his occasional notes of feeling : 
 the pathos of love in his thought of Lucy 
 
 But she is in her grave, and, oh, 
 The difference to me ! 
 
 the pathos of broken comradeship in the quatrain 
 
 Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits, 
 Or waves that own no curbing hand, 
 How fast has brother followed brother 
 From sunshine to the sunless land I 
 
Appendix B. 153 
 
 include also his religious and patriotic moods, and we have Words- 
 worth's none too frequent episodes of intense expression. Stedman : 
 "The Nature and Elements of Poetry," Century Magazine, October, 
 1892, p. 860. 
 
 This is the history of the world, and all that is in it. It passes 
 while we look at it. Like as when you watch the melting tints of the 
 evening sky purple, crimson, gorgeous gold, a few pulsations of 
 quivering light, and it is all gone. Robertson. 
 
 The Chinese fought very bravely in a great many instances ; and 
 they showed still more often a Spartan-like resolve not to survive 
 defeat. When one of the Chinese cities was taken by Sir Hugh 
 Gough, the Tartar general went into his house as soon as he saw that 
 all was lost, made his servants set fire to the building, and calmly sat 
 in his chair until he was burned to death. One of the English officers 
 writes of the same attack, that it was impossible to compute the loss 
 of the Chinese, 'for when they found they could stand no longer 
 against us, they cut the throats of their wives and children, or drove 
 them into wells or ponds, and then destroyed themselves. In many 
 houses there were from eight to twelve dead bodies, and I myself saw 
 a dozen women and children drowning themselves in a small pond, 
 the day after the fight.' Justin McCarthy : A History of Our Own 
 Times, Vol. I. p. 143. 
 
 Most of Mr. Kipling's characters possess the intense reality I have 
 spoken of in connection with Mulvany. We feel that they must exist, 
 though we are unfamiliar with the type. They are not in the least 
 like ordinary story-people who are introduced to us bit by bit with 
 their brains dissected and the pieces carefully labelled for identification. 
 They are presented to us as people are introduced in real life. From 
 their friends we learn something of their characters, we perceive what 
 they do and say, and that is all. We can puzzle our brains to divine 
 their thoughts and motives just as we can in the case of people we 
 meet every day ; but Mr. Kipling rarely tells us what we should think ; 
 very rarely tries to analyze the thoughts and motives of his people just 
 to save the reader trouble. Harvard Monthly. 
 
 Perhaps there never was a more moral man than Mr. Pecksniff, 
 especially in his conversation and correspondence. It was once said 
 of him by a homely admirer, that he had a Fortunatus' purse of good 
 sentiments in his inside. In this particular he was like the girl in the 
 fairy tale, except that if they were not actual diamonds which fell 
 from his lips, they were the very brightest paste that shone prodig- 
 iously. He was a most exemplary man ; fuller of virtuous precept 
 
154 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 than a copy oook. Some people likened him to a direction-post, 
 which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes there, but 
 these were his enemies, the shadows cast by his brightness ; that was 
 all. His very throat was moral. You saw a good deal of it. You 
 looked over a very low fence of white cravat (whereof no man had 
 ever beheld the tie, for he fastened it behind), and there it lay, a valley 
 between two jutting heights of collar, serene and whiskerless before 
 you. It seemed to say, on the part of Mr. Pecksniff, ' There is no de- 
 ception, ladies and gentlemen, all is peace, a holy calm pervades me.' 
 So did his hair, just grizzled with an iron-gray, which was all brushed 
 off his forehead, and stood bolt upright, or slightly drooped in kindred 
 action with his heavy eyelids. So did his person, which was sleek 
 though free from corpulency. So did his manner, which was soft and 
 oily. In a word, even his plain black suit, and state of widower, and 
 dangling double eye-glass, all tended to the same purpose, and cried 
 aloud, ' Behold the moral Pecksniff ! ' Dickens. 
 
 Language, then, is the spoken means whereby thought is communi- 
 cated, and it is only that. Language is not thought, nor is thought 
 language ; nor is there a mysterious and indissoluble connection be- 
 tween the two, as there is between soul and body, so that the one 
 cannot exist and manifest itself without the other. There can hardly 
 be a greater arid more pernicious error, in linguistics or in metaphysics, 
 than the doctrine that language and thought are identical. It is, 
 unfortunately, an error often committed, both by linguists and by 
 metaphysicians. " Man speaks because he thinks " is the dictum out 
 of which more than one scholar has proceeded to develop his system 
 of linguistic philosophy. The assertion, indeed, is not only true, but 
 a truism ; no one can presume to claim that man would speak if he 
 did not think : but no fair logical process can derive any momentous 
 conclusions from so loose a premise. So man would not wear clothes 
 if he had not a body ; he would not build spinning mules and jennies 
 if cotton did not grow on bushes, or wool on sheep's backs : yet 
 the body is more than raiment, nor do cotton bushes and sheep 
 necessitate wheels and water power. The body would be neither 
 comfortable nor comely, if not clad ; cotton and wool would be of 
 little use, but for machinery making quick and cheap their conver- 
 sion into cloth ; and, in a truly analogous way, thought would be 
 awkward, feeble, and indistinct, without the dress, the apparatus, 
 which is afforded it in language. Our denial of the identity of 
 thought with its expression does not compel us to abate one jot or 
 tittle of the exceeding value of speech to thought ; it only puts that 
 
Appendix B. 155 
 
 value upon its proper basis. Whitney : Language and the Study of 
 Language, p. 405. 
 
 It would be untrue to say of Jenny Lind that her artistic career did 
 not fully justify her fame, for that career was quite Napoleonic in its 
 splendid and unbroken success ; her conquest of Europe was no less 
 rapid and complete than that of the great world-shaker himself. Yet 
 no one can read the recently published volume of her memoirs without 
 feeling that in her too was present that reserve force of which Emer- 
 son speaks. She was not merely one of the greatest operatic artists of 
 her age, but an absolutely unique character and personality a per- 
 sonality which found its highest expression, it is true, in her art, but 
 which was always perceived, even by those who most appreciated her 
 art, to be something quite independent of it, and impressed profoundly 
 even those to whom music had nothing to say. McNeill : "Jenny 
 Lind," Century, December, 1892. 
 
 Finally, Gentlemen, there was in the breast of Washington one 
 sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper 
 occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he 
 signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent 
 out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand) to that last 
 paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union, the Union 
 was the great object of his thoughts. In that first letter he tells them 
 that, to him and his brethren of the Convention, union appears to be 
 the greatest interest of every true American ; and in that last paper 
 he conjures them to regard their unity of government which consti- 
 tutes them one people as the very palladium of their prosperity and 
 safety, and the security of liberty itself. He regarded the union of 
 these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure- 
 house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the 
 great magazine of all our means of prosperity ; here, as he thought, 
 and as every true American still thinks, are deposited all our animat- 
 ing prospects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught 
 us to maintain this union not by seeking to enlarge the powers of the 
 government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other ; 
 but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pursuing 
 objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity. 
 Daniel Webster : Works. 
 
 Truth of presentation has an inexplicable charm for us, and throws 
 a halo around even ignoble objects. A policeman idly standing at the 
 corner of the street, or a sow lazily sleeping against the sun, are not 
 in nature objects to incite a thrill of delight, but a painter may, by 
 
156 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 the cunning of his art, represent them so as to delight every spectator. 
 The same objects represented by an inferior painter will move only a 
 languid interest ; by a still more inferior painter, they may be repre- 
 sented so as to please none but the most uncultivated eye. Each 
 spectator is charmed in proportion to his recognition of a triumph 
 over difficulty, which is measured by the degree of verisimilitude. 
 The degrees are many. In the lowest the pictured object is so remote 
 from the reality that we simply recognize what the artist meant to 
 represent. In like manner we recognize in poor novels and dramas 
 what the authors mean to be characters rather than what our experi- 
 ence of life suggests as characteristic. Lewes : Principles of Success 
 in Literature, p. 123. 
 
 Is there, then, no remedy ? Are the decay of individual energy, 
 the weakening of the influence of superior minds ov.er the multitude, 
 the growth of charlatanerie, and the diminished efficacy of public 
 opinion as a restraining power, are these the price we necessarily 
 pay for the benefits of civilization ? and can they only be avoided by 
 checking the diffusion^ of knowledge, discouraging the spirit of combi- 
 nation, prohibiting the improvements in the arts of life, and repress- 
 ing the further increase of wealth and of production ? Assuredly not. 
 Those advantages which civilization cannot give which in its uncor- 
 rected influence it has even a tendency to destroy may yet co-exist 
 with civilization ; and it is only when joined to civilization that they 
 can produce their fairest fruits. All that we are in danger of losing 
 we may preserve, all that we have lost we may regain, and bring 
 to a perfection hitherto unknown ; but not by slumbering, and leav- 
 ing things to themselves, no more than by ridiculously trying our 
 strength against their irresistible tendencies : only by establishing 
 counter-tendencies, which may combine with those tendencies, and 
 modify them. Mill : Dissertations and Discussions. 
 
 There is a deeper fact in the soul than compensation, to wit, its own 
 nature. The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul is. 
 Under all this running sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb and flow 
 with perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Essence, 
 or God, is not a relation or a part, but the whole. Being is the vast 
 affirmative, excluding negation, self-balanced, and swallowing up all 
 relations, parts and times within itself. Nature, truth, virtue, are the 
 influx from thence. Vice is the absence or departure of the same. 
 Nothing, Falsehood, may indeed stand as the great Night or shade on 
 which as a back ground the living universe paints itself forth, but no 
 fact is begotten by it ; it cannot work, for it is not. It cannot work 
 
Appendix B* 157 
 
 any good ; it cannot work any harm. It is harm inasmuch as it is 
 worse not to be than to be. Emerson : Essay on Compensation ; 
 Essays, p. 116. 
 
 To the student of political history, and to the English student above 
 all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a military em- 
 pire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many differ- 
 ences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble one another. 
 The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-government beyond any 
 people of whom we have historical knowledge, with the one exception 
 of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, they became the 
 most powerful nation in the known world ; and their liberties per- 
 ished only when Rome became the mistress of the conquered races to 
 whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her privileges. If 
 England was similarly supreme, if all rival powers were eclipsed by 
 her or laid under her feet the Imperial tendencies, which are as 
 strongly marked in us as our love of liberty, might lead us over the 
 same course to the same end. Froude : Ccesar ; A Sketch. 
 
 Thackeray was a master in every sense, having, as it were, in himself 
 a double quantity of being. Robust humor and lofty sentiment alter- 
 nated so strangely in him, that sometimes he seemed like the natural 
 son of Rabelais, and at others he rose up a very twin brother of the 
 Stratford Seer. There was nothing in him amorphous and unconsid- 
 ered. Whatever he chose to do was always perfectly done. There 
 was a genuine Thackeray flavor in everything he was willing to say or 
 to write. He detected with unfailing skill the good or the vile wher- 
 ever it existed. He had an unerring eye, a firm understanding, and 
 abounding truth. " Two of his great master powers," said the chair- 
 man at a dinner given to him many years ago in Edinburgh, " are 
 satire and sympathy." George Brimley remarked, " That he could not 
 have painted Vanity Fair as he has, unless Eden had been shining in 
 his inner eye." He had, indeed, an awful insight, with a world of 
 solemn tenderness and simplicity, in his composition. Those who 
 heard the same voice that withered the memory of King George the 
 Fourth repeat ' ' The spacious firmament on high " have a recollection 
 not easily to be blotted from the mind, and I have a kind of pity for 
 all who were born so recently as not to have heard and understood 
 Thackeray's Lectures. But they can read him, and I beg of them to 
 try and appreciate the tenderer phase of his genius, as well as the sar- 
 castic one. He teaches many lessons to young men, and here is one 
 of them, which I quote " memoriter " from Barry Lyndon : " Do you 
 not, as a boy, remember waking of bright summer mornings and find- 
 
158 Paragraph Writing. 
 
 ing your mother looking over you? had not the gaze of her tender 
 eyes stolen into your senses long before you woke, and cast over your 
 slumbering spirit a sweet spell of peace, and love, and fresh -springing 
 joy ? " J. T. Fields : Yesterdays with Authors. 
 
 When this had been done it would be impossible for our rulers to 
 misunderstand the law : but, unless something more were done, it 
 was by no means improbable that they might violate it. Unhappily 
 the Church had long taught the nation that hereditary monarchy, 
 alone among our institutions, was divine and unavoidable ; that the 
 right of the House of Commons to a share in the legislative power 
 was a right merely human, but that the right of the king to the 
 obedience of his people was from above ; that the Great Charter was 
 a statute which might be repealed by those who had made it, but that 
 the rule which called the princes of the blood-royal to the throne in 
 order of succession was of celestial origin, and that any act of Parlia- 
 ment inconsistent with that rule was nullity. Macaulay : History of 
 England. 
 
 The evening of life has many compensations. Youth has its pleas- 
 ures and old age its recollections. The evening hours of life may 
 even be the most beautiful, as the finest leaves of the flower are the 
 last to disclose themselves. The fruit grows while the flower and 
 leaves wither, as the mind ripens while the body appears to decay. 
 Cornaro, at eighty- five, said: "The spirit increases in perfection as 
 the body grows older." Samuel Smiles : Life and Labor, p. 422. 
 
 There is no more interesting spectacle than to see the effects of wit 
 upon different characters of men ; than to observe it expanding cau- 
 tion, relaxing dignity, unfreezing coldness, teaching age and care and 
 pain to smile, extorting reluctant gleams of pleasure from melan- 
 choly, and charming even the pangs of grief. It is pleasant to see 
 how it penetrates through the coldness and awkwardness of society, 
 gradually bringing men nearer together, and like the combined force 
 of wine and oil, gives every man a glad heart and a shining counte- 
 nance. Genuine and innocent wit like this is surely the flavor of the 
 mind ! Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life 
 by tasteless food ; but God has given us wit and flavor and brightness 
 and laughter and perfumes to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, 
 and to charm his pained steps over the burning marl. Sidney Smith. 
 
 Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the 
 world, an hereditary monarch seems to present the fairest scope for 
 ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an indignant smile, that, on 
 the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of 
 
Appendix B. 159 
 
 oxen, descends to his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to 
 himself ; and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relin- 
 quishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with 
 bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity? Satire and 
 declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling 
 colors, but our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice, 
 that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of 
 mankind ; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which 
 deprives the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal power, of 
 giving themselves a master. Gibbon : The Decline and Fall of the 
 Roman Empire, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 196. 
 
 ""Rich as we are in biography," said Carlyle, "a well-written 
 life is almost as rare as a well-spent one." In the main, Hogarth's life 
 was well spent, so any fair-minded* critic must admit. That his life 
 has now been well written by Mr. Austin Dobson no fair-minded 
 critic would doubt for a moment. In its way, Mr. Dobson's life of 
 Hogarth is as good as Mr. Dobson's life of Fielding, of Steele, of Gold- 
 smith ; perhaps it is even richer than any of these in color and easier 
 in manner. It is not less a labor of love than the others, nor is it less 
 finely buttressed by solid knowledge. Mathews : "Two English Men 
 of Letters," Cosmopolitan, April, 1892. 
 
 " You mistake the matter completely," rejoined Westervelt. 
 
 " What, then, is your own view of it ? " I asked. 
 
 " Her mind was active, and various in its powers," said he. " Her 
 heart had a manifold adaptation ; her constitution an infinite buoy- 
 ancy, which (had she possessed only a little patience to await the 
 reflux of her troubles) would have borne her upward, triumphantly, 
 for twenty years to come. Her beauty would not have waned or 
 scarcely so, and surely not beyond the reach of art to restore it in 
 all that time. She had life's summer all before her, a hundred varie- 
 ties of brilliant success. What an actress Zenobia might have been ! 
 It was one of her least valuable capabilities. How forcibly she might 
 have wrought upon the world, either directly in her own person, or 
 by her influence upon some man, or a series of men, of controlling 
 genius! Every prize that could be worth a woman's having and 
 many prizes which other women are too timid to desire lay within 
 Zenobia's reach." 
 
 " In all this," I observed, "there would be nothing to satisfy her 
 heart." 
 
 "Her heart!" answered Westervelt, contemptuously. Haw- 
 thorne : Blithedale Romance. 
 
160 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Wheresoever the search after truth begins, there life begins ; where- 
 soever that search ceases, there life ceases. As long as a school of 
 art holds any chain of natural facts, trying to discover more of them 
 and express them better daily, it may play hither and thither as it 
 likes on this side of the chain or on that ; it may design grotesques 
 and conventionalisms, build up the simplest buildings, serve the most 
 practical utilities, yet all it does will be gloriously designed and glo- 
 riously done ; but let it once quit hold of the chain of natural fact, 
 cease to pursue that as a clew to its work ; let it purpose to itself any 
 other end than preaching this living word, and think first of showing 
 its own skill or its own fancy, and from that hour its fall is precipi- 
 tate, its destruction sure ; nothing that it does or designs will ever 
 have life or loveliness in it more ; its hour has come and there is no 
 work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither it 
 goeth. Ruskin : The Grounds of Art, p. 87, in Students' Series of 
 Classics. 
 
 I call it atheism by establishment, when any state, as such, shall 
 not acknowledge the existence of God as a moral governor of the 
 world ; when it shall abolish the Christian religion by a regular de- 
 cree ; when it shall persecute with a cold, unrelenting, steady cruelty, 
 by every mode of confiscation, imprisonment, exile, and death, all its 
 ministers ; when it shall generally shut up or pull down churches ; 
 when in the place of that religion of social benevolence, and of indi- 
 vidual self-denial, in mockery of all religion, they institute impious, 
 blasphemous, indecent, theatric rules, in honor of their vitiated, per- 
 verted reason, and erect altars to the personification of their own cor- 
 rupted and bloody republic ; when schools and seminaries are founded 
 at the public expense to poison mankind, from generation to genera- 
 tion, with the horrible maxims of this impiety ; when, wearied out 
 with this incessant martyrdom and the cries of a people hungering 
 and thirsting for religion, they permit it as a tolerated evil I call 
 this atheism by establishment. Burke. 
 
 The third function of Parliament is what I may call preserving a 
 sort of technicality, even in familiar matters, for the sake of distinct- 
 ness the teaching function. A great and open council of consider- 
 able men cannot be placed in the middle of a society without altering 
 that society. It ought to alter it for the better. It ought to teach the 
 nation what it does not know. How far the House of Commons can 
 so teach, and how far it does so teach, are matters for subsequent dis- 
 cussion. Bagehot: The English Constitution, p. 201. 
 
 Buildings which are pictorially, if not architecturally, very valuable 
 
Appendix B. 161 
 
 can here and there be found in every quarter of New York. The 
 Tombs is one of them. Jefferson Market is another. Grace Church is 
 a third, when we stand so far off to the southward that it seems to 
 finish Broadway once and for all. And still another, very different in 
 character, is the Quaker Meeting-house on Stuyvesant Square, which, 
 with its simple shape, big trees, and little plot of well-tended grass, 
 looks as though it had been bodily transported from some small Penn- 
 sylvanian town. " Picturesque New York," Century, December, 1892. 
 
 I have talked of the danger of wit. I do not mean by that to enter 
 into commonplace declamation against faculties because they are 
 dangerous ; wit is dangerous, eloquence is dangerous, a talent for 
 observation is dangerous, everything is dangerous that has efficacy 
 and vigor for its characteristics ; nothing is safe but mediocrity. The 
 business is, in conducting the understanding well, to risk something ; 
 to aim at uniting things that are commonly incompatible. The mean- 
 ing of an extraordinary man is, that he is eight men, not one man; 
 that he has as much wit as if he had no sense, and as much sense as 
 if he had no wit ; that his conduct is as judicious as if he were the 
 dullest of human beings, and his imagination as brilliant as if he were 
 irretrievably ruined. But when wit is combined with sense and infor- 
 mation ; when it is softened by benevolence, and restrained by strong 
 principles ; when it is in the hands of a man who can use it and 
 despise it, who can be witty and something much better than witty, 
 who loves honor, justice, decency, good nature, morality, and religion, 
 ten thousand times better than wit ; wit is then a beautiful and de- 
 lightful part of our nature. Sidney Smith. 
 
 I expected, upon my entrance, to find nothing but lamentations 
 and various sounds of misery ; but it was different. The prisoners 
 all seemed employed in one common design, that of forgetting thought 
 in merriment or clamour. I was apprised of the usual perquisite 
 required upon these occasions, and immediately complied with the 
 demand, though the little money I had was very near being ex- 
 hausted. This was immediately sent away for liquor and the whole 
 prison was soon filled with riot, laughter and profaneness. Gold- 
 smith : Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xxv. 
 
 What, then, are the proper encouragements of genius ? I answer, 
 subsistence and respect ; for these are rewards congenial to nature. 
 Every animal has an aliment suited to its constitution. The heavy 
 ox seeks nourishment from earth ; the light chameleon has been 
 supposed to exist on air. A sparer diet than even this satisfies the 
 man of true genius, for he makes a luxurious 
 
 Off TKJJ 
 
 "UNIVERSITY 
 
162 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 applause. It is this alone which has inspired all that ever was truly 
 great and noble among us. It is, as Cicero finely calls it, the echo of 
 virtue. Avarice is the passion of inferior natures ; money the pay 
 of the common herd. The author who draws his quill merely to take 
 a purse no more deserves success than he who presents a pistol. 
 
 Homer calls words winged ; and the epithet is peculiarly appropri- 
 ate to his, which do indeed seem to fly, so rapid and light is their 
 motion, and which have been flying ever since over the whole peopled 
 earth, and still hover and brood over many an awakened soul. Latin 
 marches, Italian struts, French hops, English walks, German rumbles 
 along. The music of Klopstock's hexameter is not unlike the tune 
 with which a broad- wheeled wagon tries to solace itself when crawling 
 down a hill. But Greek flies, especially in Homer. Hare. 
 
 But this is not enough to say. I think it certain, further, that if 
 we take the chief poetical names of the Continent since the death of 
 Moliere, and, omitting Goethe, confront the remaining names with 
 that of Wordsworth, the result is the same. Let us take Klopstock, 
 Lessing, Schiller, Uhland, Ruckert, and Heine for Germany ; Filicaia, 
 Alfieri, Manzoni, and Leopardi for Italy; Racine, Boileau, Voltaire, 
 Andre Chenier, Beranger, Lamartine, Musset, M. Victor Hugo (he 
 has been so long celebrated that although he still lives I may be per- 
 mitted to name him) for France. Several of these, again, have 
 evidently gifts and excellences to which Wordsworth can make no 
 pretension. But in real poetical achievement it seems to me indubi- 
 table that to Wordsworth, here again, belongs the palm. It seems to 
 me that Wordsworth has left behind him a body of poetical work which 
 wears, and will wear, better on the whole than the performance of any 
 one of these personages, so far more brilliant and celebrated, most of 
 them, than the homely poet of Rydal. Wordsworth's performance in 
 poetry is on the whole, in power, in interest, in the qualities which 
 give enduring freshness, superior to theirs. Matthew Arnold : Preface 
 to Wordsworth" 1 s Poems. 
 
 The personality of Rousseau has most equivocal and repulsive sides. 
 It has deservedly fared ill in the esteem of the saner and more rational 
 of those who have judged him, and there is none in the history of 
 famous men and our spiritual fathers that begat us, who make more 
 constant demands on the patience or pity of those who study his life. 
 Yet in no other instance is the common eagerness to condense all 
 predication about a character into a single unqualified proposition so 
 fatally inadequate. If it is indispensable that we should be forever 
 describing, naming, classifying, at least it is well, in speaking of such 
 
Appendix B. 163 
 
 a nature as his, to enlarge our vocabulary beyond the pedantic formulas 
 of unreal ethics, and to be as sure as we know how to make ourselves, 
 that each of the sympathies and faculties which together compose our 
 power of spiritual observation, is in a condition of free and patient 
 energy. Any less open and liberal method, which limits our senti- 
 ments to absolute approval or disapproval, and fixes the standard either 
 at the balance of common qualities which constitutes mediocrity, or at 
 the balance of uncommon qualities which is divinity as in a Shake- 
 speare, must leave in a cloud of blank incomprehensibleness those 
 singular spirits who come from time to time to quicken the germs of 
 strange thought and shake the quietness of the earth. Morley : 
 Rousseau, Vol. I. p. 5. 
 
 The number of graduates who go forth each year from our American 
 colleges must be nearly five thousand, since the number of under- 
 graduates is about twenty thousand. If we add those who are gradu- 
 ates of academies those who have, as Mr. Poore generously puts it 
 in his Congressional Record, " received an academical education " 
 the number will be greatly swelled. The majority of all these gradu- 
 ates will be called upon, at some time or other during their lives, to 
 make a speech, as will also thousands of young Americans who have 
 never seen the inside of college or academy. Perhaps a few hints on 
 speech-making may not be unavailing, when addressed to this large 
 class by a man much older one who has made so many speeches 
 that the process has almost ceased to have terror to him, whatever 
 dismay it may sometimes cause to his hearers. Certainly there are a 
 few suggestions to be made which are not to be found in the elocu- 
 tionary manuals, and which would have saved the present writer 
 much trouble and some anguish had any one thought of offering them 
 to him when he left college. T. W. Higginson : Hints on Writing 
 and Speechmaking. 
 
 It is only the views of important men upon important subjects 
 which are worth reporting, and such men are competent to express 
 their views in their own way. The larger number of interviewers are 
 not phonographers. They write out the conversation from memory, 
 and with the purpose of filling a certain space. But the reports of 
 interviews in general are merely records of the most trivial gossip or 
 unimportant opinion. As a part of our morning's news, for instance, 
 we are told at length in the newspaper that a foreign actress of doubt- 
 ful eminence as an artist and character as a woman was interviewed 
 at her hotel after arriving, and declares that she is too happy to find 
 herself in dear America, which blessed land it has been the hope of 
 
164 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 her life to see, and she is sure that she is going to like everything and 
 everybody ; or Mr. Brown having been nominated to be light- house 
 keeper, Mr. Jones and Mr. Robinson are promptly interviewed, and 
 declare that it is a very good or a very bad nomination, according to 
 their political views. Harper's Magazine, 74 : 319. 
 
 Organization, discipline, and order characterize the new undertak- 
 ings on the northern ranges. In a word, the cattle business of that 
 section is now and has from the beginning been carried on upon 
 strictly business principles. Under such proprietorships, and guided 
 by such methods, a new class of cow-boys has been introduced and 
 developed. Some have come from Texas, and have brought with 
 them a knowledge of the arts of their calling, but the number from 
 the other States and the Territories constitutes a large majority of the 
 whole. Some are graduates of American colleges, and others of col- 
 legiate institutions in Europe. Many have resorted to the occupation 
 of cow-boy temporarily and for the purpose of learning the range 
 cattle business, with the view of eventually engaging in it on their 
 own account, or in the interest of friends desirous of investing money 
 in the enterprise. Harper's Magazine, 73 : 883. 
 
 Very rough magic, as it now seems, he used in working his miracle, 
 but there is no doubt about his working it. One opens his Christmas 
 stories in this later day The Carol, The Chimes, The Haunted Man, 
 The Cricket on the Hearth, and all the rest and with "a heart 
 high-sorrowful and cloyed," asks himself for the preternatural virtue 
 that they once had. The pathos appears false and strained ; the 
 humor largely horse-play ; the characters theatrical ; the joviality 
 pumped ; the psychology commonplace ; the sociology alone funny. 
 It is a world of real clothes, earth, air, water, and the rest ; the people 
 often speak the language of life, but their motives are as dispropor- 
 tioned and improbable, and their passions and purposes as over- 
 charged, as those of the worst of Balzac's people. Yet all these 
 monstrosities, as they now appear, seem to have once had symmetry 
 and verity ; they moved the most cultivated intelligences of the time ; 
 they touched true hearts ; they made everybody laugh and cry. - 
 Harpers Magazine, 74 : 322. 
 
 At fourteen this typical New-Englander left the common schools of 
 Salem with such learning and love of it as the common schools seemed 
 to impart oftener in that day than in ours, and entered a counting- 
 room of the old town. At eighteen he went to sea, and at twenty- 
 four he was the master of a vessel. His career began in the troubled 
 times following the American Revolution, and it led him with varying 
 
Appendix B. 165 
 
 fortune through the picturesque and dramatic perils of the next 
 thirty years in nearly every sea that washes the globe. During the 
 English wars with the French republic, the English wars with Napo- 
 leon, the English wars with ourselves, the Spanish wars with their 
 revolted South American provinces, the French wars with everybody, 
 he trafficked in every port open to honest gain. Sometimes he sailed 
 under one flag, and sometimes under another ; now he was an Ameri- 
 can citizen, and now a Danish subject ; he now carried despatches 
 for the French Directory, and now he protected himself with an Eng- 
 lish register. He turned every phase of the shifting politics and hos- 
 tilities of the time to account ; he was ready for any opportunity or 
 any emergency ; he was alert, prompt, prudent ; but he kept through 
 all a conscience unsullied by baseness or dishonesty. He kept some- 
 thing more a faith in human nature unshaken by wrong, and a 
 generosity which the epithet of knightly would cheapen. On one side 
 he was a shrewd Yankee adventurer ; on the other, he was as fine 
 and high a spirit as ever dared danger in any cause. Harper's Mag- 
 azine, 74 : 158. 
 
 The following paragraphs are drawn from a variety of 
 sources, mostly from current magazines and newspapers. 
 The wording and arrangement are in some instances less 
 careful than in the preceding examples. 
 
 The patriotic citizen who applies himself to the study and practice 
 of politics must have his worldly competence already assured, or he 
 must starve, or be tempted to forget or disregard his patriotism one 
 of the essential elements of which is honesty and pursue politics as 
 a trade, from which personal and pecuniary gain is to be derived. In 
 tne first case, if the man with a competence becomes a politician, it is 
 from the patriotic motive, pure and simple, of doing good to his fel- 
 low-men, without selfish ambition of his own ; or he follows it from a 
 desire to attain station and place of power; or his ultimate motive 
 may be a blending of both of these. If he be the rare individual who 
 pursues politics from the first-mentioned motive and aspires to noth- 
 ing but to study and understand the institutions of his country and to 
 make known his knowledge and the reason of it to his fellow-citizens, 
 he is indeed a living beneficence ; and the more of such politicians a 
 country can possess, the better. They may not agree in respect to 
 the ascertainment of their historical or practical facts ; they may widely 
 diverge in their conclusions in regard to the best policies to be pursued ; 
 
166 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 yet they are none the less the most valuable part of a political commu- 
 nity. If places of authority and power are bestowed upon them by the 
 selection of their fellow-citizens rather than by their own solicitations, 
 such honors become decorations of greater value than the prizes of 
 Grecian games or the boss ships of States. 
 
 The overwhelming tendency of modern life is toward the cities. It 
 almost seems as if they would have to be walled about in order to keep 
 in the country the proportion four-fifths at least which must re- 
 main there in order to provide food for all. Everything done " to alle- 
 viate the condition of the poor in great cities ' ' works in the direction 
 of bringing more into them ; and no argument or persuasion, or more 
 solid consideration of betterment, prevails to get them out after once 
 immersed in the pleasurable excitement of gregarious existence ; they 
 would rather starve in a crowd than grow fat in quietude especially 
 if the "crowd" is sprinkled with aromatic "charity." Humanity, 
 like other semifiuids, moves in the line of least resistance and most 
 propulsion. Idleness drifts toward where commiseration and alms- 
 giving are most generous and unquestioning ; love of drink toward 
 where beer and liquor are most plentiful. The free soup kitchen is a 
 profitable neighbor for the saloon. Labor is a blessing in disguise ; 
 and a free gift is often a disguised curse. 
 
 We are not among those who believe that corruption of the ballot 
 is sensibly increasing. Elections are increasing in expensiveness, and 
 there is a legitimate way to use an immense amount of money. Never- 
 theless it is beyond all question that in both parties there is employed 
 by responsible or irresponsible persons, with or without the knowl- 
 edge of candidates to be benefited thereby, a very large amount of 
 money for the purchase of venal voters. The Australian ballot laws 
 in so many of our States tend to diminish this evil, and public senti- 
 ment also has its effect. But it is not stamped out, and the lower 
 class of politicians are not anxious to have it stamped out. There is a 
 tendency to have it increased, because where one party adopts meth- 
 ods of corruption the other party feels forced to do the same. It is 
 often easier to fight fire with fire than to fight fire with water. 
 
 What will be the state of affairs, what the dawning hope, when this 
 century shall have closed ? The law of all things human is that of ebb 
 and flow. History attests and observation shows that ideas constantly 
 react one against another. In philosophy it is from the asjies of skep- 
 ticism that spiritualism has always sprung ; a tumult of ideas politi- 
 
Appendix B. 167 
 
 cal, social, religious, has always been followed by a period of consoling 
 calm and of fruitful progress. So if the same mysterious influence is 
 still in force, the generation to follow the present one will not feel the 
 present discouragements, will scorn the indecisions and the vain agita- 
 tions of this twilight period, and will push on with burning ardor to 
 some new development or to some redevelopment. That of which we 
 are assured is, that this great nineteenth century will leave its suc- 
 cessor, besides the material and scientific results which will survive it, 
 elements of force and of life holding large possibilities and capable of 
 developing into grander attainments than any yet reached. 
 
 The crushing defeat of the Republican party amazes as much as it 
 appals many Republicans. They could understand the reverse of 
 eight years ago. It came from an objectionable candidate for the 
 Presidency, and it was won only by carrying States which had been 
 doubtful for some years previously. But this election takes in the 
 whole northern portion of the country in its revolutionary features, 
 and is as all-pervading a verdict against the Republicans as could well 
 have been rendered. Their voters were unprepared for such a result, 
 and many of them honestly fail to understand it. Yet we have never 
 known a defeat the causes of which were plainer or more obviously 
 apparent. 
 
 The relation of trades unions to civilization is much misunderstood, 
 and this misunderstanding has resulted in hostility to the unions. 
 Unions discipline, train and educate the working classes beyond all 
 other agencies. They turn them from inchoate mobs into drilled 
 bodies. They are far better than armies because they discuss impor- 
 tant questions, spread information among those who most need it, 
 set minds to thinking that otherwise would never stir, protect the 
 ignorant, the weak, and the oppressed, and tend to abolish poverty by 
 their constant push for higher wages. To join a trades union always 
 signifies in the workman a willingness to submit to discipline and 
 restraint, to hear questions discussed, to consider rights and wrongs. 
 The better workmen are more generally unionists than the inferior. 
 
 If a servant girl applies for employment in a family we demand, 
 first of all, a recommendation from her former mistress. If a clerk is 
 searching for work he carries with him, as the sine qua non of suc- 
 cess, certain letters which vouch for his honesty and ability. If a 
 skilled workman becomes discontented and throws up his job he has 
 a right to ask of his employer an indorsement, and armed with that 
 
168 Paragraph - Writing, 
 
 he feels secure. Why should we not require of every immigrant also 
 his letter of recommendation ? Why should we allow the whole riff- 
 raff of creation to come here, either to become a burden on our chari- 
 table institutions, or to lower the wages of our own laborers by a 
 cutthroat competition ? We have already had too much of that sort 
 of thing. If a foreigner has notified the nearest United States consul 
 of his intention to emigrate, and the consul, after due examination, 
 has pronounced him a proper person, let him come, by all means. We 
 have room enough for such persons. But for immigrants who have 
 neither capital nor skill, who never earned a living in their own coun- 
 try and will never earn one here, we have no room whatever. Popu- 
 lar opinion throughout the country is running in this direction and 
 Congress will do well to take heed. 
 
 The substitution of shells for solid shot marks an important epoch 
 in naval artillery. The probable effect of a shot could be predeter- 
 mined and provided for ; that of a shell was unknown. In order to 
 produce serious injury with a shot, it was necessary to perforate the 
 side of an enemy. This was not indispensable with a shell ; with the 
 latter, perforation might be dispensed with, as penetration to such a 
 depth as would give efficacy to the explosion might prove more destruc- 
 tive to the hull than would absolute perforation. With the shot, 
 damage was done to life and material in detail ; with the shell, if 
 successfully applied, destruction was threatened to the entire fabric, 
 with all it contained. Naval artillery entered a new phase ; the rough 
 appliances of the past would no longer answer all demands. The 
 founder could not alone equip the battery ; the laboratory was called 
 into use and pressed to provide from its devices. The "new arm " 
 depended upon the successful working of the fuse of the shell, without 
 which it was but a hollow substitute for a solid shot, and this detail 
 demanded the utmost care in preparation. It was the perfecting of 
 this device which, more than aught else, delayed the general adoption 
 of the new artillery for so long a time after its advantages had been 
 recognized. 
 
 Only those who know what the condition of the English working 
 classes some fifty years ago really was can properly appreciate the 
 changes which have been wrought largely by independent associative 
 work in trades unions, cooperative societies, and friendly societies. 
 The three movements have gone on hand in hand, and some day I trust 
 the link between unionists and cooperators will be tightened. Mr. 
 Burt, whose opinion is so widely respected by his fellow-unionists and 
 
Appendix B. 169 
 
 all who care for English working-men, has told us that he too looks 
 forward in hope that cooperative industry may do great things for the 
 future of the industrial class. The wastefulness of our present method 
 of supply through unnecessary middle-men, and the constant strain of 
 relations between employers and employed, are two of the problems 
 of to-day which need the thoughtful consideration of all earnest men. 
 The cooperative movement has attempted to deal with them, and in 
 so doing may fairly claim the widest sympathy. If it has not alto- 
 gether succeeded, yet the work it has accomplished in forty years has 
 surpassed the hopes of those who were most sanguine at its be- 
 ginning. 
 
 Truly, this is an age of blither, and I am not sure that, of all, 
 the most offensive is not the Wagner blither. That the Bayreuth 
 performances have many good qualities, it would be senseless to deny ; 
 that Wagner cannot be as adequately rendered elsewhere, it would be 
 equally foolish to pretend. That some of his best interpreters are to 
 be heard at Bayreuth is true; but that their singing there without 
 wage adds to their merit, when nowhere could they find a better 
 advertisement or be more royally feted, is but the sentimental fancy 
 of a fashionably sentimental public. Of all the Bayreuth fallacies, 
 however, none is greater than the belief that at the Wagner Theatre 
 the problem of artistic stage management has been most successfully 
 solved. 
 
 Mr. Harrison's announcement that he will use the veto power, if 
 he is given a chance, shows the Republican politicians in the West 
 who have been demanding free coinage that they will simply dig their 
 own graves if they keep up their shouting. Mr. Harrison is the head 
 of the Republican party. He declares that he will veto a certain bill 
 if it reaches him. The great majority of his party applaud this 
 announcement of his purpose. The minority of the party can accom- 
 plish nothing practical in the way of legislation by continuing their 
 agitation. Moreover, they cannot help their party in their own States, 
 or their own standing in the party, by keeping up the cry for free 
 coinage. They will simply array themselves against the overwhelm- 
 ing sentiment of their party, and will get nothing but abuse in 
 return. In short, so far as free coinage in the Republican party is 
 concerned, Mr. Harrison's deliverance shows that "there is nothing 
 in it" for the party as a party, or for ambitious politicians as self- 
 seekers ; and that is all that was necessary to make them ready to 
 drop it. 
 
170 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 His book is thoroughly interesting, and has a unique value as a 
 contribution to the history of American civilization. It is not possible 
 always to agree with Mr. Clay about himself, but he is a man, and it 
 is no harm that he should know it. One need not care that he is not 
 aware of his limitations, that he speaks with equal confidence on all 
 points, and that his bold ideas of art and literature are somewhat 
 grotesque. When others, who knew art and literature so very much 
 better, were cowering before that hideous idol of slavery, he rose and 
 dealt it a deadly blow in its sanctuary, among worshippers whose 
 hands were instantly lifted against his life. About a book or a statue 
 we can let him be mistaken, since he was right about humanity. 
 
 The growing dissatisfaction in Germany with the sugar-bounty laws 
 has at last led to their practical repeal. A law of May 31, regulating 
 the inspection of beet-grown sugar and its domestic taxation, provides 
 for the gradual lessening and final discontinuance of the drawback 
 and bounty heretofore paid to exporters of refined sugar. The 
 bounty is to cease altogether at the end of five years. The bounty 
 laws have undoubtedly extended the area of beet culture. The 
 sugar-producers have also been benefited at the expense of the rest of 
 the community, for while they were getting their bounty out of the 
 public treasury, the English were getting all the cheap sugar. The 
 authorities have at last grown tired of taxing Germans for the sake of 
 lowering the price of sugar in England. The curious question 
 remains, how long it will be before the other Continental countries 
 that copied German sugar legislation will admit, as Germany now 
 does, that it is all a delusion and a snare. The German precedent 
 was freely cited by our own bounty advocates in the last Congress, 
 who have nothing but contempt for the example of " abroad," except 
 when it is a bad example and they want to follow it. Now that it 
 fails them, they will doubtless disown all foreign models, and fall 
 back on their favorite thesis that the United States are privileged to 
 defy all the established canons of taxation and finance. 
 
 To Great Britain's jingoism in Venezuela the United States is sure 
 to oppose the Monroe doctrine sooner or later, no matter what party 
 may be in power in the former country. This hemisphere is destined 
 to be free from foreign shackles from the utmost North to the remot- 
 est South. And the United States will see to it that not one foot 
 more of territory is appropriated in either North or South America by 
 any European power. The boundary of British Guiana as it existed 
 under treaty cannot be exceeded by Great Britain. All the recent 
 
Appendix S. 171 
 
 encroachments and claims are illegal and void. The presence of a 
 strong squadron of United States war vessels may not imply hostility, 
 but it implies a maintenance of the Monroe doctrine. The compara- 
 tively feeble navy of the United States is not the only obstacle in Eng- 
 land's way on this occasion. All the men and all the wealth of the 
 Western Hemisphere, with slight exception, would be ready to resist 
 Great Britain in her attempt to extend her possessions from her lawful 
 boundary at the Essequibo to the Orinoco over the gold fields and one- 
 third of the entire territory of the republic of Venezuela. With such 
 a leader for the Americas as the United States, and with the United 
 States fully determined under a vigorous administration to maintain 
 American rights, the Western Hemisphere will be safe from Eastern 
 aggression. If Great Britain has any real doubt about the legal 
 boundaries here is an admirable opportunity for further strengthening 
 the principle that all international disputes between the New World 
 and the Old are to be settled by arbitration, not by force. 
 
 Necessary restraints upon judicial excesses are expressed in three 
 generally accepted maxims : that a man is considered innocent until 
 he is proven guilty, that trial must be public, and that the accused 
 cannot be compelled to criminate himself. These principles occasion 
 much inconvenience in detection and consequent conviction, and are 
 often conveniently ignored or violated. The experience of the detec- 
 tive leads him to assume that any suspected man is guilty, and to 
 treat him accordingly. It is therefore common to use the power of 
 confinement to keep away legal counsel from the accused as long as 
 possible. The excuse for this is that a shrewd attorney finds some 
 way of setting a client free before the legal process is well under 
 motion. As confession is more easily secured in private than in pub- 
 lic, the prisoner is subjected to what amounts to secret examination. 
 In this way many criminals are brought to conviction. The end is 
 understood to justify the means. It is said that in China judges 
 resort to torture as the only practicable way of eliciting truth. With 
 us, also, it is difficult to secure the needed facts. But whether it is 
 necessary that the inferior officers of the law should, at preliminary 
 stages and in secret, pursue a course that contradicts maxims of per- 
 sonal liberty acknowledged in higher courts, is a fair subject of 
 inquiry. When a young woman whose parents have been murdered 
 is subjected to repeated examinations for the purpose of eliciting tes- 
 timony which may amount to criminating herself, while any adviser 
 is rigidly excluded, we have something not wholly unlike the torture 
 chamber. 
 
172 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Although the heart and mind of Whittier were for the most part 
 absorbed in the agitation against slavery, some of the strongest proofs 
 of his purely artistic faculty were exhibited before the close of the 
 civil war ; among these may be named such ballads as Maud Mul- 
 ler, Skipper Ireson, and The Pipes at Lucknow. It is, nevertheless, 
 true that the national as distinguished from the sectional awakening 
 to the charm of Whittier 's verse dates from the publication in 1866-7 
 of Snow Sound and The Tent on the Beach. In these compositions 
 it is evident that his aspirations and endeavors are tending to turn 
 away from a homiletical or didactic purpose to the embodiment of 
 aesthetic beauty. But, although he no longer weakened the artistic 
 effect of a composition by tacking to it a moral, it must not be in- 
 ferred that Whittier was ever a conscious advocate of art for art. 
 His whole nature was steeped in a sense of duty and responsibility, 
 and it is doubtful if he could even comprehend beauty divorced 
 from goodness. His conception of the poet was rather that of the 
 vates, or bard, who elevates, than that of the pceta, or maker, whose 
 exclusive purpose is tp please. In his view the possession of artistic 
 powers implied a divine commission to lift, invigorate and purify 
 mankind. New York Sun. . 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 1. 
 (a) TEN-MINUTE THEMES IN EXPOSITION AND ARGUMENT. 
 
 The exercises provided in Appendix A 12 demand 
 deeper subjects of a character requiring time for prepara- 
 tion and reading on the part of the student. As a correc- 
 tive for the bookishness that will often appear in the 
 paragraphs written outside the class, it will be well for the 
 student to write frequently, in the class-room, paragraphs 
 on simple familiar subjects. The time for writing should 
 be limited to ten or fifteen minutes, at the expiration of 
 which, members of the class should be called upon, at 
 random, to read what they have written, the class and 
 
Appendix C 1. 173 
 
 instructor joining in the criticism. This exercise may be 
 continued advantageously throughout the course. Constant 
 practice in writing under pressure produces rapidity, facil- 
 ity, naturalness, and individuality of expression. At first 
 it will be well to allow each student to select his own sub- 
 ject and to determine what he will say about it, before 
 coining to the class. Later, the exercise should be wholly 
 impromptu. Subjects of immediate local interest about 
 which the student community is talking and thinking at 
 the time are especially valuable for this impromptu work. 
 Subjects which have come up during the week in the his- 
 tory and literature classes may also be utilized in this work. 
 The following are printed merely to show the range and 
 character of subjects that may be employed in this connec- 
 tion. They are necessarily general in character, whereas 
 the actual subjects given should be specific. The instructor 
 will be able to supplement this list with other subjects of 
 more immediate interest and better adapted to the grade 
 and attainments of his class. A choice of subjects should, 
 if possible, be offered at all times. 
 
 1. Why do many dislike the study of rhetoric ? 
 
 2. Advantages of literary societies. 
 
 3. Proper observance of Sunday by students. 
 
 4. Manners in the class-room. 
 
 5. Advantages of the work in manual training. 
 
 6. What does the school most need ? Reasons. 
 
 7. How may a student best divide his time ? 
 
 8. Some of the uses of writing frequently. 
 
 9. Why we lost the last ball-game. 
 
 10. Why I like or dislike the last book I read. 
 
 11. A defense of Shylock. 
 
 12. Arguments against long examinations. 
 
 NOTE. Other subjects for ten-minute themes may be found under ' Practice in 
 Outlining Themes ' (p. 175), the main headings of the outlines made by the class being 
 used for titles. 
 
1 74 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 (b) OTHER SOURCES OF THEMES. 
 
 The work which the class may be doing in other branches 
 of study will frequently suggest numerous themes for im- 
 promptus. Thus, if the composition class is also working 
 in English history, themes like the following may occasion- 
 ally be given : 
 
 1. Life of our ancestors in Germany. 
 
 2. How our ancestors punished crime. 
 
 3. Eoman influences in England. 
 
 4. A description of the Conqueror's reforms. 
 
 5. Wat Tyler's Kebellion. 
 
 6. The scene at Eunnymede. 
 
 7. The work of the Star-chamber. 
 
 8. The story of Mary, Queen of Scots. 
 
 9. Jack Cade's Kebellion. 
 
 10. Story of Thomas a Becket. 
 
 11. Eichard and the princes. 
 
 12. The Eoyal Oak. 
 
 13. The Spanish Armada. 
 
 Thus, too, if the composition class is also doing work in 
 reading and studying English authors or American authors, 
 themes in abundance may be chosen in the direct line of 
 their work. To illustrate, a class studying Longfellow, and 
 reading some of his poems, might properly be given themes 
 like the following : 
 
 1. Longfellow at Bowdoin and at Harvard. 
 
 2. The great sorrow of Longfellow's life. 
 
 3. How Edgar A. Poe regarded Longfellow. 
 
 4. A description of Longfellow's home. 
 
 5. The story of the children's armchair. 
 
 6. Longfellow's friends. 
 
 7. The main points of Morituri Salutamus. 
 
Appendix O 1. 175 
 
 8. Longfellow's travels. 
 
 9. The story of Evangeline. 
 
 10. The story of Miles Standish. 
 
 11. The story of one of the Tales of a Wayside Inn. 
 
 12. Longfellow's ideas of slavery. 
 
 13. A scene from Hiawatha. 
 
 (c) PRACTICE IN OUTLINING THEMES. 
 
 Set down in brief the points you would mention if writing 
 on the following topics. Re-arrange the points under a 
 few main heads, distinguishing principal from subordinate 
 points. Account for the order in which you have re-ar- 
 ranged the points. 
 
 Descriptions. 
 
 1. Abridge. 2. The human hand. 3. A landscape. 4. A 
 ball-game. 5. A portrait. 6. A room. 7. A face. 8. A 
 statue. 9. A flower. 10. A church. 11. A foot-race. 
 12. A city. 13. A busy street. 14. A building. 15. A 
 riot. 16. A field of corn. 17. A skating scene. 18. A fire. 
 19. A workshop. 20. A country village. 21. A flour mill. 
 22. A gypsy woman. 23. A book agent. 24. A wanderer. 
 25. A lawyer's office. 
 
 Narratives. 
 
 1. An eventful day. 2. A horseback ride. 3. Learning 
 to swim. 4. Sitting for a picture. 5. Earliest recollec- 
 tions. 6. A beggar's story. 7. Story of the Prisoner of 
 Chillon. 8. Story of Burns's life. 9. A visit to Bunker 
 Hill Monument. 10. Story of Goldsmith's life. 11. Story 
 of Kasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. 12. Early life of John 
 Milton. 13. Story of Joan, of Arc. 14. The Regicides. 
 15. The Charter Oak. 16. Paul Eevere's ride. 17. The 
 
176 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Fountain of Youth. 18. The Man in the Moon. 19. Story 
 of the experiences of a school-desk. 20. A lost letter. 
 
 Exposition. 
 (By Partition and Division.) 
 
 1. Clouds. 2. Winds. 3. Forms of government. 4. Fine 
 arts. 5. Educational systems. 6. Theories of the origin of 
 language. 7. Theories of electricity. 8. Duties. 9. Eights. 
 10. The human eye. 11. A steam-engine. 12. A state. 
 =3. The federal government. 14. Useful books. 15. The 
 electric telegraph. 16. Law. 17. Politeness. 18. Herbert 
 Spencer's literary work. 19. Duties of a citizen. 20. Plans 
 for private reading. 21. The great religions. 22. Habits 
 of ants. 23. Habits of climbing plants. 24. Orders of 
 architecture. 25. Classes of literature. 
 
 Exposition. 
 (By Examples.) 
 
 1. Power of inherited tendencies. 2. Persecution favor- 
 able to a cause. 3. Intelligence in dogs. 4. Power of early 
 training in literary men. 5. Literature as an aid to social 
 reforms. 6. The prodigality of Nature. 7. Caprices of 
 fashion. 8. Moral heroism. 9. Follies of our ancestors. 
 10. Intolerance in colonial New England. 11. Intelligence 
 in ants. 12. Convenience of slang. 13. Statesmanship in 
 recent Congresses. 
 
 Exposition. 
 
 (By Comparison and Contrast.) 
 
 
 
 1. Longfellow and Tennyson. 2. The two Locksley 
 Halls. 3. History and biography. 4. The drama and the 
 novel. 5. Mechanical and artistic invention. 6. Pauperism 
 
Appendix (71. 177 
 
 and poverty. 7. Talent and genius. 8. The British Parlia- 
 ment and the Congress of the United States. 9. Dickens 
 and Thackeray. 10. The Hebrew patriarch and the Scottish 
 chief. 11. Caesar and Alexander. 12. Shakespeare's Rich- 
 ard III. and the Richard III. of history. 13. Shakespeare's 
 Brutus and the Brutus of history. 14. German and Italian 
 music. 15. A Roman home and an American home. 16. A 
 Roman boy's sports and an American boy's sports. 17. A 
 Roman boy's schooling and an American boy's schooling. 
 18. Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots. 19. Napo- 
 leon and Wellington. 20. Grant and Lee. 21. Socialism 
 and individualism. 22. A Stoic and a Christian. 23. Web- 
 ster and Calhoun. 24. Jefferson and Jackson. 25. Wash- 
 ington and Lincoln. 
 
 Exposition. 
 (Popular.) 
 
 1. The uses of science studies. 2. Prospects of civil ser- 
 vice reform. 3. Results, to science, of Arctic explorations. 
 4. The principles of the Whig party. 5. The revival of 
 Know-nothingism. 6. Benefits of foreign immigration. 
 7. Influence of the theater. 8. The University Extension 
 movement. 9. The work of Chautauqua. 10. Value of 
 African explorations. 11. Significance of the People's 
 party movement. 12. Advantages of the World's Colum- 
 bian Exposition. 13. Was the purchase of Alaska wise ? 
 14. Training afforded by historical study. 15. Modern farm- 
 ing. 16. Influence of Thomas Carlyle. 17. Reasons for the 
 success of the American Revolution. 18. Causes of the Civil 
 War. 19. Influence\pf James Russell Lowell. 20. The mis- 
 takes of strikes. 21? Education value of popular lectures. 
 22. How to take notes. 23. The meaning of the Ancient 
 Mariner. 24. The problem of Elsie Venner. 25. Dickens 
 as a reformer of schools. 26. The character of the English- 
 
178 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 speaking people. 27. Advantages of the Australian ballot 
 system. 28. Power of Tammany. 29. Causes of the 
 French Ee volution. 30. How to read periodicals. 31. How 
 to read by topics and indexes. 32. The prevailing thought 
 of Shakespeare's Tempest. 33. The meaning of reciprocity. 
 
 Argument. 
 
 1. Military schools should be encouraged. 2. Thackeray 
 had no sympathy for the poor. 3. A large standing army 
 is desirable in this country. 4. Our sea-coast defenses 
 should be increased. 5. The assassination of Julius Caesar 
 was justifiable. 6. Intercollegiate athletic contests should 
 be abolished. 7. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 was justifiable. 8. There should be an educational qualifi- 
 cation for voting. 9. Church property should be taxed like 
 other property. 10. The Governor of Ohio should have the 
 veto power. 11. The treatment of Koger Williams was un- 
 justifiable. 12. Mohammedanism has been a benefit to the 
 world. 13. Foreign missions are not so important as home 
 missions. 14. The Sandwich Islands should be annexed to 
 the United States. 15. Grant's administration was a fail- 
 ure. 16. The civil service reform law should be extended 
 to apply to more classes of officials. 17. The Indian has 
 not been treated justly. 18. Protection by bounties is 
 cheaper than protection by tariff. 19. The war of the 
 United States against Mexico was unjustifiable. 20. Eng- 
 land's occupation of Egypt is right. 21. Strikes are inex- 
 pedient. 22. English is likely to become the language of 
 the world. 23. Capital punishment for murder is justifi- 
 able. 24. Party spirit is beneficial. 25. Prohibition is 
 rightfully made a national issue. 26. Trusts and trade 
 combinations are an evil. 27. Education should be compul- 
 sory. 28. Fortunes should be limited by law. 
 
Appendix O 2. 179 
 
 2. 
 TEN-MINUTE THEMES IN NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION. 
 
 Subjects for ten-minute impromptus in narration and 
 description are found in abundance. The writing of such 
 paragraphs constitutes the greater part of the work of news- 
 paper men, and, indeed, of almost all writing, and a large 
 amount of such practice should be given. The list ap- 
 pended will suggest the class of subjects suitable for this 
 work. Others of more local interest should be provided. 
 
 1. A description of a sleigh-ride. 
 
 2. A report of the last lecture I heard. 
 
 3. How I spent the holidays. 
 
 4. The coasting party. 
 
 5. A description of the ball-game. 
 
 6. Antics of a fountain-pen. 
 
 7. The new building. 
 
 8. Views from my window. 
 
 9. The room in which we recite. 
 
 10. The reading-room. 
 
 11. A day camping. 
 
 12. My experience at fishing. 
 
 13. A personal adventure. 
 
 14. Loss of a trunk. 
 
 15. A visit to an art-gallery. 
 
 16. A visit to a machine-shop. 
 
 17. Below the falls at Niagara. 
 
 18. A report of the last concert. 
 
 19. An historical incident. 
 
 20. A story from General Grant's life. 
 
 21. A letter describing my school-life. 
 
 22. A report of last Sunday's sermon. 
 
 NOTE. Other subjects for ten-minute themes may be found under 'Practice in 
 Outlining Themes,' (j>. 175), the main headings of the outlines made by the class beint; 
 used for titles. 
 
180 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 3. 
 
 (a) REPRODUCTIONS. 
 (Class-room work.) 
 
 It is advisable, in beginning this work, for the instructor, 
 after having read the selection, to develop with the class 
 an orderly outline of topics to be followed by all. This 
 will be found advantageous until the habit of detecting the 
 principal points of a selection, has been formed, when each 
 student may be left to make his own selection of topics. 
 The following directions will be helpful to the student in 
 making his outline : (1) Select but few general topics and 
 those the main ideas of the piece read, (2) Express each 
 topic briefly and clearly, (3) Do not repeat the same idea 
 in two or more places, (4) See that none of the main points 
 are omitted, (5) Ee-arrange the topics selected, so that 
 the order will be natural. 
 
 The following contain selections or are themselves of 
 suitable length for reading by the instructor, outlining, and 
 reproduction by the class within the limits of a recitation 
 hour : 
 
 1. Selections from Irving's Sketch Book. 
 
 2. Anderson's Historical Reader. 
 
 3. Swinton's Studies in English Literature. 
 
 4. Keadings from English History by J. R. Green. 
 
 5. The Student's Eeader, by Eichard Edwards. 
 
 6. Hawthorne's Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. 
 
 7. Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales. 
 
 8. Garnett's English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria. 
 
 9. Genung's Rhetorical Analysis. 
 
 10. Cathcart's Literary Eeader. 
 
 11. Andrew Lang's Letters to Dead Authors. 
 
 12. Hamerton's Intellectual Life. 
 
 13. Parton's Life of Jackson. 
 
Appendix C 3. 181 
 
 14. Dickens's Pickwick Papers, short stories in Vol. I. 
 chaps. 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, portraits in chaps. 15, 17, 21, 25, 
 others in Vol. II. 
 
 15. Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. 
 
 16. Addison's Vision of Mirza. 
 
 17. Burroughs's Birds and Bees. 
 
 18. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. 
 
 19. Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal. 
 
 20. Lowell's The Singing Leaves. 
 
 21. Matthew Arnold's The Forsaken Merman. 
 
 22. Whittier's Skipper Ireson's Eide. 
 
 23. Bryant's Ode to a Waterfowl. 
 
 24. Holmes's Chambered Nautilus. 
 
 25. Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night. 
 
 26. Burns's John Barleycorn. 
 
 27. Longfellow's Bell of Atri. 
 
 28. Leigh Hunt's Abou Ben Adhem. 
 
 29. Whittier's Voices of Freedom. 
 
 30. Whittier's Pipes at Lucknow. 
 
 31. Whittier's Ballads. 
 
 32. Longfellow's Shorter Poems. 
 
 33. The Humbler Poets. 
 
 34. Proctor's Half-hours with the Stars. 
 
 35. Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. 
 
 36. Scudder's Book of Folk Stories. 
 
 37. Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur. 
 
 38. Lanier's The Boy's Percy. 
 
 39. Knox's Boy Travelers. 
 
 40. Burke's Speeches. 
 
 41. Studies from Euripides. (Morley's Univ. Libr.) 
 
 42. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair. 
 
 43. Thompson's Green Mountain Boys. 
 
 44. Gray's How Plants Behave. 
 
 45. Lander's Imaginary Conversations. 
 
 46. Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii. 
 
182 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 47. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Eome. 
 
 48. Tennyson's Sir Galahad. 
 
 49. Whittier's Tent on the Beach and Snow Bound. 
 
 50. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. 
 
 51. Church's Story of the Iliad. 
 
 52. Church's Story of the ^neid. 
 
 53. Hanson's Stories from Vergil. 
 
 54. Church's Stories from Homer. 
 
 55. Winchell's Sketches of Creation. 
 
 56. Church's Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. 
 
 57. Bret Harte's Luck of Eoarin' Camp. 
 
 58. Selections from Plutarch's Lives. 
 
 59. Selections from Pepys's Diary. 
 
 60. Headley's Napoleon and His Marshals. 
 
 61. Thackeray's Roundabout Papers. 
 
 62. Gayley's Classic Myths in English Literature. 
 
 (6) PARAPHRASES AND ABSTRACTS. 
 
 (Outside work.) 
 
 The following list is made up of books, containing chap- 
 ters especially adapted to this work, and of articles, or 
 essays, in which the plan of construction is prominent and 
 admirable. The selections are too long for reading in class 
 and are intended for special assignment as outside work, a 
 written paraphrase, abstract, or outline to be presented in 
 class by the student. 
 
 1. Parsons. The Saloon in Society. Atlan., 59 : 86. 
 
 2. Cable. The Freedman's Case in Equity. Century, 
 7 : 409. 
 
 3. Cable. The Silent South. Century, 8 : 674. 
 
 4. Landor. Steele and Addison. Works, Vol. 5. 
 
 5. De Foe. The Fire of London. 
 
 6. Johnson. Life of Addison. 
 
Appendix O 3. 183 
 
 7. Macaulay. Essay on History. 
 
 8. Quincy. Invasion of Canada. Speeches, p. 355. 
 
 9. Suniner. Are We a Nation? Works, 12 : 191. 
 
 10. Sumner. No Property in Man. Works, 8 : 359. 
 
 11. Sumner. Duties of Massachusetts. Works, 3 : 121. 
 
 12. Everett. American Literature. Orations, 1. 
 
 13. Webster. The Constitution not a Compact. Works, 3. 
 
 14. Lowell. The Independent in Politics. Essays, 295. 
 
 15. Walker. Socialism. Scribner (N. S.), 1 : 107. 
 
 16. Lowell. Democracy, p. 3-42. 
 
 17. Macaulay. On the Athenian Orators. 
 
 18. Short. Claims to the Discovery of America. Galaxy, 
 20 : 50. 
 
 19. Fiske. The Federal Union. Harper, 70 : 407. 
 
 20. Higginson. The Era of Good Feeling. Harper, 
 68 : 936. 
 
 21. Kingsley. The Fount of Science. Nat'l Sermons, 
 108-133. 
 
 22. Geo. Eliot. Address to Working Men. Essays, 322. 
 
 23. Whately. Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon, 
 p. 11-85. 
 
 24. Dawes. An Unknown Nation. Harper, 76 : 598. 
 
 25. Warner. Comments on Canada. Harper, 78 : 520. 
 
 26. Sill. Should a College Educate? Atlan., 56 : 207. 
 
 27. White. On Reading Shakespeare. Galaxy, 22 : 518, 
 
 28. House. The Thraldom of Japan. Atlan., 60 : 721. 
 
 29. Mulford. The Object of a University. Atlan., 
 58 : 747. 
 
 30. Powell. The Failure of Protection. Eraser, 104 : 99. 
 
 31. Froude. The Book of Job. Short Studies, 1 : 228. 
 
 32. Howell. Strikes. Eraser, 101 : 118. 
 
 33. Black. The Electoral Conspiracy. No. Am., 125 : 1. 
 
 34. White. Popular Pie. Galaxy, 18 : 532. 
 
 35. White. Americanisms. Galaxy, 24 : 376. 
 
 36. Gladstone. Kin beyond Sea. Gleanings, 1 : 203. 
 
184 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 37. Gladstone. Aggressions on Egypt. Gleanings, 
 4:341. 
 
 38. Gladstone. Work of Universities. Gleanings, 7 : 1. 
 
 39. Gladstone. Wedgwood. Gleanings, 2 : 181. 
 
 40. Froude. England's War. Short Studies, 2 : 382. 
 
 41. Froude. Party Politics. Short Studies, 3 : 309. 
 
 42. Freeman. George Washington. Greater Greece, 
 etc., 62. 
 
 43. Green. ^Eneas. Studies, etc., 227. 
 
 44. Welles. History of Emancipation. Galaxy, 14 : 838. 
 
 45. Coan. The Value of Life. Galaxy, 15 : 751. 
 
 46. Spencer. Philosophy of Style. Essays, 9. 
 
 47. Sumner. Politics in America. No. Am., 122 : 47. 
 
 48. Roosevelt. Kecent Criticism of America. Murray's 
 Mag., 4 : 289. 
 
 49. Arnold. General Grant. Murray's Mag., 1 : 130. 
 
 50. Allen. Landowning and Copyright. Eraser, 102 : 343. 
 
 51. Howell. Trades Unions. Eraser, 99 : 22. 
 
 52. Arnold. Introduction to Wordsworth's Poems. 
 
 53. Arnold. Literature and Dogma. 
 
 54. Arnold. Introduction to Johnson's Chief Lives. 
 
 55. Arnold. Introduction to Ward's English Poets. 
 
 56. Taine. Introduction to History of English Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 57. De Quincey. Essay on English Language. Works, 3. 
 
 58. Eiske. Manifest Destiny. Essays. 
 
 59. Tyndall. Scientific Use of the Imagination. 
 
 60. Bagehot. Physics and Politics. 
 
 61. Bagehot. The English Constitution and Other 
 Essays. 
 
 62. Leckey. History of Eationalism. 
 
 63. Mill. Dissertations and Discussions. 
 
 64. Fiske. Darwinism and Other Essays. 
 
 65. Pater. Appreciations. 
 
Appendix D 1. 185 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 1. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY AND CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS. 
 An Introduction of Purpose. 
 
 The design of this supplemental chapter is to exhibit some of the 
 evidences on which the foregoing points are taken. Stedman : Vic- 
 torian Poets, p. 203. [The paragraph continues at some length, 
 showing the interest of the subject for students of minstrelsy.] 
 
 An Introduction giving the Writer's Point of View. 
 
 Life is not only "stranger than fiction," but frequently also more 
 tragical than any tragedy ever conceived by the most fervid imagina- 
 tion. Often in these tragedies of life there is not one drop of blood to 
 make us shudder, nor a single event to compel the tears into the eye. 
 A man endowed with an intellect far above the average, impelled by a 
 high-soaring ambition, untainted by any petty or ignoble passion, and 
 guided by a character of sterling firmness and more than common 
 purity, yet, with fatal illusion, devoting all his mental powers, all his 
 moral energy and the whole force of his iron will to the service of a 
 doomed and unholy cause, and at last sinking into the grave in the 
 very moment when, under the weight of the top-stone, the towering 
 pillars of the temple of his impure idol are rent to their very base, 
 can anything more tragical be conceived ? 
 
 That is, in a few lines, the story of the life of John C. Calhoun. 
 Von Hoist: John C. Calhoun, p. 1. 
 
 A Conclusion adding a Thought. 
 
 Whatever may be the fate of this plan for a national federation of 
 women, [The essay has advocated this plan.] one thing is certain. 
 Women have learned the omnipotence and happiness of cooperative 
 work, and the weakness and weariness of that which is isolated. And 
 this is sure to make them more fruitful of accomplishment hereafter, 
 whether their plans of work shall include themselves, their homes and 
 
186 Paragrap h - Writing . 
 
 their children, society or the nation. Mary A. Livermore, in North 
 American Review, September, 1891. 
 
 A Summarizing Conclusion. 
 
 Meanwhile let practical America recognize the truth that war is a 
 calamity that may overtake the most peaceful nation and thatr insurance 
 against war by preparation for it, is, of all methods the most business- 
 like, the most humane, and the most in accordance with the teachings 
 of the Christian religion. [Points that were argued in the essay.] 
 S. B. Luce, in North American Review, December, 1891. 
 
 A Partial Conclusion repeating the Theme which was proposed 
 
 at the Beginning. 
 
 On the whole, then, as I said at the beginning, not only is Words- 
 worth eminent by reason of the goodness of his best work, but he is 
 eminent also by reason of the great body of good work which he has 
 left to us. With the ancients I will not compare him. In many 
 respects the ancients are far above us, and yet there is something 
 that we demand which they can never give. Leaving the ancients, let 
 us come to the poets and the poetry of Christendom. Dante, Shaks- 
 peare, Moliere, Milton, Goethe, are altogether larger and more splen- 
 did luminaries in the poetical heaven than Wordsworth. But I know 
 not where else, among the moderns, we are to find his superiors. 
 Matthew Arnold : Preface to Wordsworth's Poems. 
 
 An Introduction setting forth broadly the Limits and Purpose. 
 
 Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that 
 the Emperor Francis II. had announced to the Diet his resignation of 
 the imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the 
 oldest political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it 
 was so. The Empire which a note issued by a diplomat on the banks 
 of the Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew 
 of Julius had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath 
 the cliffs of Actiuin ; and which had preserved almost unaltered, 
 through eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes 
 in extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which 
 all meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked 
 the old world to the new nothing else displayed so many strange 
 
Appendix D 2. 187 
 
 contrasts of the present and the past, and summed up in those con- 
 trasts so much of European history. From the days of Constantine 
 till far down into the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, 
 the recognized head and center of Christendom, exercising over the 
 minds of men an influence such as its material strength could never 
 have commanded. It is of this influence and of the causes that gave 
 it power, rather than the external history of the Empire, that the fol- 
 lowing pages are designed to treat. Bryce : The Holy Eoman 
 Empire^ p. 1. 
 
 Introduction by a Comparison. 
 
 Quiritus Curtius tells us that, in certain seasons, Bactria was dark- 
 ened by whirlwinds of dust, which completely covered and concealed 
 the roads. Left thus without their usual landmarks, the wanderers 
 awaited the rising of the stars, "To light them on their dim and 
 perilous way." May we not say the same of Literature ? From 
 time to time its pathways are so obscured beneath the rubbish of the 
 age, that many a footsore pilgrim seeks in vain the hidden route. In 
 such times it may be well to imitate the Bactrians : ceasing to look 
 upon the confusions of the day, and turning our gaze upon the great 
 Immortals who have gone before, we may seek guidance from their 
 light. In all ages the biographies of great men have been fruitful in 
 lessons ; in all ages they have been powerful stimulants to a noble 
 ambition ; in all ages they have been regarded as armories wherein 
 are gathered the weapons with which great battles have been won. 
 Lewes : The Story of Goethe's Life. 
 
 2. 
 
 TRANSITIONAL AND DIRECTIVE PARAGRAPHS. 
 A Paragraph of Transition. 
 
 And now permit me to add a few observations on another aspect 
 of this subject, which is not without its importance. Hamerton : 
 Intellectual Life, Part ix. Letter v. 
 
 A Directive Paragraph. 
 
 From Milton's poetry we turn to his prose ; and first it is objected 
 to his prose writings that the style is difficult and obscure, abounding 
 
188 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 in involutions, transpositions, and Latinisms ; that his protracted 
 sentences exhaust and weary the mind, and too often yield it no 
 better recompense than confused and indistinct perceptions. Chan- 
 ning: Milton. 
 
 [The thought having thus been directed from Milton's poetry to 
 the objections urged against Milton's prose, the next paragraph is 
 occupied with the consideration of these objections.] 
 
 A Paragraph of Transition. 
 
 [Shelley (Defense of Poetry) has just shown that the highest 
 pleasure is linked with pain.] 
 
 The production and assurance of pleasure in this highest sense is 
 true utility. Those who produce and preserve this pleasure are poets 
 or poetical philosophers. [In the next paragraph they are named.] 
 
 A Paragraph of Transition and Amplification. 
 
 A second reason which lends an emphasis of novelty and effective 
 power to Shakespeare's female world is a peculiar fact of contrast 
 which exists between that and his corresponding world of men. Let 
 us explain. De Quiricey : Biographies. [The remainder of the 
 paragraph is occupied with the explanation.] 
 
 A Directive Paragraph. 
 
 Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the reasons I 
 have just given, I think this new project of hedging- in population to 
 be neither prudent nor practicable. Burke : Speech on Concilia- 
 tion. [In the following paragraphs Burke shows why.] 
 
 A Directive Paragraph making an Unexpected Change of 
 
 Subject. 
 
 The very great length to which this article has already been 
 extended makes it impossible for us to discuss, as we had meant to 
 do, the characters and conduct of the leading English statesmen at 
 this crisis. But we must offer a few remarks on the spirit and 
 
Appendix D 3. 189 
 
 tendency of the Revolution of 1688. Macaulay : Sir James Mack- 
 intosh's History of the Bevolution, p. 338. 
 
 3. 
 
 AMPLIFYING PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 [Lord Bolingbroke, in his Study of History, announces, in one 
 paragraph, the fact that history widens our experience and corrects 
 our narrowness. In the next paragraph he amplifies this idea by 
 means of examples, as follows : ] 
 
 Let me explain what I mean by an example. There is scarce any 
 folly or vice more epidemical among the sons of men than that 
 ridiculous and hurtful vanity by which the people of each country are 
 apt to prefer themselves to those of every other ; and to make their 
 own. customs, and manners, and opinions, the standards of right and 
 wrong, of true and false. The Chinese mandarins were strangely 
 surprised, and almost incredulous, when the Jesuits showed them how 
 small a figure their empire made in the general map of the world. 
 The Samojedes wondered much at the Czar of Muscovy for not living 
 among them ; . . . now nothing can contribute more to prevent us 
 from being tainted with this vanity than to accustom ourselves early 
 to contemplate.the different nations of the earth in that vast map 
 which history spreads before us ... I might shew by a multitude 
 of other examples how history prepares us for experience and guides 
 us in it ... 1 might likewise bring several other instances wherein 
 history serves to purge the mind of those national partialities and prej- 
 udices that we are apt to contract in our education. Bolingbroke : 
 Of the Study of History, Letter ii. 
 
 A Paragraph of Amplification expanding a Thought 
 already hinted at. 
 
 What may we imagine his own feeling to have been in this crisis of 
 his fate ? The thought of Edinburgh society would naturally stir 
 that ambition which was strong within him, and awaken a desire to 
 meet the men who were praising him in the capital, and to try his 
 powers in that wide arena. It might be that in that new scene some- 
 thing might occur which would reverse the current of his fortunes, 
 and set him free from the crushing poverty that had hitherto kept him 
 
190 Paragraph -Writing. 
 
 down. Anyhow, he was conscious of strong powers which fitted him 
 to shine, not in poetry only, but in conversation and discussion ; and, 
 ploughman though he was, he did not shrink from encountering any 
 man or any set of men. Proud, too, we know he was, and his pride 
 showed itself in jealousy and suspicion of the classes who were socially 
 above him, until such feelings were melted by kindly intercourse with 
 some individual man belonging to the suspected orders. He felt him- 
 self to surpass in natural powers those who were his superiors in rank 
 and fortune, and he could not, for the life of him, see why they should 
 be full of this world's goods, while he had none of them. He had not 
 yet learned he never did learn that lesson, that the genius he had 
 received was his allotted portion, and that his wisdom lay in making 
 the most of this rare inward gift, even on a meagre allowance of the 
 world's external goods. But perhaps, whether he knew it or not, 
 the greatest attraction of the capital was that in that new excitement 
 he might escape from the demons of remorse and despair which had 
 for many months been dogging him. He may have fancied this, but 
 the pangs which Burns had created for himself were too deep to be 
 in this way permanently put by. Shairp : Robert Burns, p. 39. 
 
 A Paragraph amplifying the Thought stated at the Close 
 
 of the Preceding. 
 
 
 
 The secret of his settled unhappiness lay in the affections that he 
 had abused in himself and in others who had trusted him. The course 
 he had run since his Irvine sojourn was not of a kind to give peace to 
 him or to any man. A coarse man of the world might have stifled the 
 tender voices that were reproaching him, and have gone on his way 
 uncaring that his conduct 
 
 " Hardened a' within, 
 And petrified the feeling." 
 
 But Burns could not do this. The heart that had responded so feel- 
 ingly to the sufferings of lower creatures, the unhoused mouse, the 
 shivering cattle, the wounded hare, could not without shame remem- 
 ber the wrongs he had done to those human beings whose chief fault 
 was that they had trusted him not wisely but too well. And these 
 suggestions of a sensitive heart, conscience was at hand to enforce 
 a conscience wonderfully clear to discern the right, even when the will 
 was least able to fulfil it. The excitements of a great city, and the 
 loud praises of his fellow-men, might enable him momentarily to for- 
 
Appendix E. 191 
 
 get, but could not permanently stifle inward voices like these. So it 
 was with a heart but ill at ease, bearing dark secrets he could tell to 
 no one, that Burrs passed from his Ayreshire cottage into the applause 
 of the Scottish capital. Shairp : Robert Burns, p. 40. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. 
 
 1. Let each student read one of the stories, essays, or 
 speeches referred to in the list below. The essays and 
 speeches will be the best to begin the work with. 
 
 2. As he reads he should write in his note-book, (1) the 
 theme of each paragraph ; (2) the function of each para- 
 graph, whether transitional, directive, amplifying, illustra- 
 tive, etc. ; (3) he should note what bearing each paragraph 
 has upon the subject of the whole selection and how it car- 
 ries forward the plan as a whole ; (4) he should make from 
 his notes a connected synopsis of the selection. 
 
 3- At a subsequent meeting of the class, the members 
 report, the selections are reproduced orally from the synop- 
 sis, and any paragraph whose function could not be deter- 
 mined is read in full and criticised or explained by the 
 class. 
 
 4. In the case of the longer selections, report the main 
 points and make a synopsis of the whole selection; but 
 determine the rhetorical functions of only a reasonable 
 number of the paragraphs. The work may be done piece- 
 meal, the student reporting a part of his analysis from week 
 to week. Copy and bring into class for criticism and dis- 
 cussion whole paragraphs about which there is doubt when 
 read. 
 
 5. For the first exercise let all the class analyze the same 
 speech or essay. 
 
192 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 6. The list given in Appendix C 3 (&) may also be drawn 
 upon for this work. 
 
 (a) STORIES. 
 
 1. Aldrich. Marjorie Daw. Atlan., 31 : 407. 
 
 2. Hawthorne. The Gentle Boy. 
 
 3. Higginson. A Charge with Prince Eupert. Atlan., 
 3 : 725. 
 
 4. Hale. The Man Without a Country. Atlan., 12 : 665. 
 
 5. Jewett. The Shore House. Atlan., 32 : 358. 
 
 6. Eggleston. Gunpowder Plot. Scribner, 2 : 252. 
 
 7. Davis. Life in the Iron Mills. Atlan., 7 : 430. 
 
 8. Hale. My Double and how he Undid Me. Atlan., 
 4 : 356. 
 
 9. Higginson. The Puritan Minister. Atlan. Essays, 
 191. 
 
 10. Howells. A Pedestrian Tour. Atlan., 24 : 591. 
 
 11. Higginson. A Night in the Water. Atlan., 14 : 393. 
 
 12. Burroughs. Tragedies of the Nests. Century, 
 4 : 680. 
 
 13. Burroughs. Signs and Seasons. Century, 3 : 672. 
 
 14. Bishop. Braxton's New Art. Century, 6 : 871. 
 
 15. Bunner. The Red Silk Handkerchief. Century, 
 6 : 275. 
 
 16. Stockton. Wreck of the Thomas Hyke. Century, 
 6 : 587. 
 
 17. Janvier. Orpiment and Gamboge. Century, 7 : 397. 
 
 18. Foote. A Cloud on the Mountain. Century, 9 : 28. 
 
 19. Jackson. The Mystery of William Rutter. Century, 
 9 : 103. 
 
 20. Boyeson. A Child of the Age. Century, 9 : 177. 
 
 21. Clemens. The Private History of a Campaign that 
 Failed. Century, 9 : 193. 
 
 22. Matthews. Perturbed Spirits. Century, 10 : 74. 
 
Appendix E. 193 
 
 23. Page. A Soldier of the Empire. Century, 10 : 948. 
 
 24. Hart. Left out on Lone Star Mountain. Longm., 
 3 : 259. 
 
 25. Dodge. Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties. 
 Atlan., 5 : 272, 417. 
 
 26. Thanet. Day of the Cyclone. Scribner (1ST. S.), 
 3 : 350. 
 
 27. Haggard. Maiwa's Revenge. Harper, 77 : 181. 
 
 28. Harte. An Apostle of the Tules. Longm., 1885 : 67. 
 
 29. Wilson. Tale of Expiation. Recreations of Chris- 
 topher North, p. 33. 
 
 30. Aldrich. A Midnight Fantasy. Atlan., 35 : 385. 
 
 31. Phelps. In the Gray Goth. Atlan., 6 : 587. 
 
 32. Jewett. Deephaven Cronies. Atlan., 36 : 316. 
 
 33. James. The Last of the Valerii. Atlan., 33 : 169. 
 
 34. Taylor. Who was She ? Atlan., 34 : 257. 
 
 35. Stockton. Our Story. Century, 4 : 762. 
 
 36. Aldrich. A Struggle for Life. Atlan., 20 : 56. 
 
 37. A Story of Assisted Fate. Atlan., 55 : 58. 
 
 38. Taylor. A Week on Capri. Atlan., 21 : 740. 
 
 39. Howells. A Shaker Village. Atlan., 37 : 699. 
 
 40. Lowell. A Pocket Celebration of the Fourth. Atlan., 
 2 : 374. 
 
 41. Hawthorne. Ethan Brand. (In the Snow Image, etc.) 
 
 42. Cable. Don Joaquin. Harper, 52 : 281. 
 
 43. McCarthy. Wanted A Soul. Harper, 52 : 549. 
 
 44. Woolson. Miss Vedder. Harper, 58 : 590. 
 
 45. Davis. A Story of the Plague. Harper, 58 : 443. 
 
 46. Stockton. The Transferred Ghost. Century, 2 : 43. 
 
 47. McDonald. The Portent. Corah., 1 : 617, 670; 2 : 74. 
 
 48. Gray. The Silver Casket. Murray's Mag., 2 : 203. 
 
 49. Hardy. The Waiting Supper. Murray's Mag., 3 : 42, 
 199. 
 
 50. Appleton. A Half-Life and Half a Life. Atlantic 
 Stories. 
 
1 94 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 51. Whelpley. The Denslow Palace. Atlantic Stories. 
 
 52. Cooke. Miss Lucinda. Atlantic Stories. 
 
 53. Hale. The Queen of the Red Chessmen. Atlantic 
 Stories. 
 
 54. Nordhoff. Elkanah Brewster's Temptation. Atlantic 
 Stories. 
 
 55. Chesbro. Victor and Jacqueline. Atlantic Stories. 
 
 56. Arnold. Why Thomas Was Discharged. Atlantic 
 Stories. 
 
 57. Lowell. A Eaft that No Man Made. Atlantic 
 Stories. 
 
 58. O'Brien. The Diamond Lens. Atlantic Stories. 
 
 59. Jewett. Marsh Rosemary. Atlan., 57 : 590. 
 
 60. De Quincey. Joan of Arc. 
 
 61. Thackeray. The Fatal Boots. 
 
 62. Craddocls. His Day in Court. Harper, 76 : 56. 
 
 63. Matthews. A Secret of the Sea. Harper, 71 : 78. 
 
 64. Bishop. Choy Susan. Atlan., 54 : 1. 
 
 65. Hawthorne. Ken's Mystery. Harper, 67 : 925. 
 
 66. Jewett. King of Folly Island. Harper, 74 : 10. 
 
 67. Frederic. Brother Angelus. Harper, 73 : 517. 
 
 68. Craddock. Lonesome Cove. Harper, 72 : 128. 
 
 69. Reade. Tit for Tat. Harper, 66 : 251. 
 
 70. Boyeson. A Dangerous Virtue. Scribner, 21 : 745. 
 
 71. Boyeson. The Man who Lost his Name. Scribner, 
 12:808. ' 
 
 72. Clemens. A Curious Experience. Century, 1 : 35. 
 
 73. Phelps. The Tenth of January. Atlan., 21 : 345. 
 
 74. Bishop. The Brown-Stone Boy. Atlan., 55 : 330. 
 
 75. Taylor. Friend Eli's Daughter. Atlan., 10 : 99. 
 
 76. Thackeray. Bluebeard's Ghost. 
 
 77. James. The Romance of Certain Old Clothes. 
 
 78. Aldrich. A Rivermouth Romance. Atlan., 30 : 157. 
 
 79. Dickens. Wreck of the Golden Mary. 
 
 80. Dickens. George Silverman's Explanation. 
 
Appendix E. 195 
 
 81. Thackeray. Eebecca and Eowena. In "Christmas 
 Books." 
 
 82. Bishop. One of the Thirty Pieces. Atlan., 37 : 43. 
 
 83. Hale. The Modern Psyche. Harper, 51 : 885. 
 
 84. Stevenson. The Merry Men. 
 
 85. Lamb. Adventures of Ulysses. 
 
 86. Pyle. Stephen Wycherley. Harper, 75 : 56. 
 
 87. Woolson. A Flower of the Snow. Galaxy, 17 : 76. 
 
 (b) ESSAYS, SPEECHES, SKETCHES. 
 
 1. Eepresentative British Orations. 3 vols. 
 
 2. Eepresentative American Orations. 3 vols. 
 
 3. Huntington. A Plea for Eailway Consolidation. 
 No. Am., 153 : 272. * 
 
 4. Livermore. Cooperative Womanhood in the State. 
 No. Am., 153 : 283. 
 
 5. Douglass. Hayti and the United States. No. Am., 
 153 : 337. 
 
 6. Bryce. Thoughts on the Negro Problem. No. Am., 
 153:641. 
 
 7. Luce. Benefits of War. No. Am., 153 : 672. 
 
 8. Powderly. The Workingman and Free Silver. No. 
 Am., 153 : 728. 
 
 9. Hubert. The New Talking Machines. Atlan., 63 : 256. 
 
 10. Parkman. The Acadian Tragedy. Harper, 69 : 877. 
 
 11. Starbuck. Hawthorne. Andover Eeview, 7 : 31. 
 
 12. Phelps. Shylock vs. Antonio, Atlan., 57 : 463. 
 
 13. Long. Of Style. An Old Man's Thoughts. 
 
 14. Locksley Hall and Sixty Years After. Poet Lore, 
 Jan. 1893. 
 
 15. Davis. Shakespeare's Miranda and Tennyson's Elaine. 
 Poet Lore, Jan. 1893. 
 
 16. Stoddard. The English Laureates. Cosmop. Jan. 
 1893. 
 
196 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 17. Billson. The English Novel. Westminster Eev. 
 Jan. 1893. 
 
 18. Rogers. G. W. Curtis and Civil Service Eeform. 
 Atlan. Jan. 1893. 
 
 19. Johnson. The Transformation of Energy. West- 
 min. Eev. Dec. 1892. 
 
 20. White. Homes of the Poor. Chautauquan, Jan. 
 1893. 
 
 21. Bartlett. The Prison Question. Am. Jour. Politics, 
 Jan. 1893. 
 
 22. Higginson. Boston. St. Nicholas, Jan. 1893. 
 
 23. Acworth. Eailway Mismanagement. 19th Cent. Dec. 
 1892. 
 
 24. Brooke. Tennyson. Contemp. Eev. Dec. 1893. 
 
 25. Mace. Universal Suffrage in France. No. Am. Jan. 
 1893* 
 
 26. Dodge. A Bible Lesson for Herbert Spencer. No. 
 Am. Jan. 1893. 
 
 27. Williams. The Kindergarten Movement. Century, 
 Jan. 1893. 
 
 28. Flower. Are We a Prosperous People ? Arena, Jan. 
 1893. 
 
 29. Hadley. Jay Gould and Socialism. Forum, Jan. 
 1893. 
 
 30. Campbell. Women Wage Earners. Arena, Jan. 1893. 
 
 31. Hadley. Ethics as a Political Science. Yale Eev. 
 Nov. 1892. 
 
 32. Gosse. Tennyson. New Eev. Nov. 1892. 
 
 33. Kingsley. English Literature. Lit. and Gen. Essays, 
 245. 
 
 34. Eepplier. Benefits of Superstition. Books and Men, 
 33. 
 
 35. Dawkins. Settlement of Wales. Fort. Eev. Oct. 
 1892. 
 
 36. Edmunds. Politics as a Career. Forum, Dec. 1892. 
 
Appendix E. 197 
 
 37. Scudder. The Place of College Settlements. An- 
 dover Eev. Oct. 1892. 
 
 38. Adams. Municipal Government.. Forum, Nov. 1892. 
 
 39. Andrews. Are there too Many of Us ? No. Am. 
 Nov. 1892. 
 
 40. Matthews. Two Studies of the South. Cosmop. 
 Nov. 1892. 
 
 41. Cable. Education for the South. Cosrnop. Nov. 
 1892. 
 
 42. Walsh. The Ethics of Great Strikes. No. Am. Oct. 
 1892. 
 
 43. Gunsaulus. The Ideal of Culture. Chautauquan, 
 Oct. 1892. 
 
 44. Stoddard. James Russell Lowell. Lippincott's, Oct. 
 1892. 
 
 45. Garner. Monkey's Academy in Africa. New Eev. 
 Sept. 1892. 
 
 46. Lowell. Old English Dramatists. Harper's, June- 
 Sept. 1892. 
 
 47. Patmore. Three Essayettes. Fort. Eev. July 
 1892. 
 
 48. Adams. Some Eecent Novels. Fort. Eev. July 
 1892. 
 
 49. Johnson. The First University. Westmm. Eev. 
 Sept. 1892. 
 
 50. Flower. The Menace of Plutocracy. Arena, Sept. 
 1892. 
 
 51. Habberton. Social Science in Business Life. Chau- 
 tauquan, Sept. 1892. 
 
 52. Besant. Literature as a Career. Forum, Aug. 1892. 
 
 53. Farrar. Shaftesbury's Work among the London 
 Poor. Meth. Mag. Aug. 1892. 
 
 54. Woodbury. Shelley's Work. Century, Aug. 1892. 
 
 55. Eepplier. Wit and Humor. Atlan. Dec. 1892. 
 
 56. Fowler. Whittier and Tennyson. Arena, Dec. 1892. 
 
1 98 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 57. Gladden. The Problem of Poverty. Century, Dec. 
 1892. 
 
 58. Smith. Arnold of Eugby. Educ. Rev. Dec. 1892. 
 
 59. Nevinson. Goethe as a Minister of State. Contemp. 
 Rev. Nov. 1892. 
 
 60. Gladstone. Did Dante Study in Oxford? Nine- 
 teenth Cent., June 1892. 
 
 61. Schwatka. Land of the Living Cliff Dwellers. Cen- 
 tury, June 1892. 
 
 62. Bellamy. Progress of Nationalism in the United 
 States. No. Am. -June 1892. 
 
 63. Bigelow. Bismarck. Contemp. Eev. May 1892. 
 
 64. Parke. How General Gordon was Really Lost. Nine- 
 teenth Cent. May 1892. 
 
 65. Eddy. My Business Partner the Government. 
 Forum, May 1892. 
 
 66. Tyndall. Coast Protection. New Eev. April 1892. 
 
 67. Mooney, Catholic Controversy about Education. 
 Educ. Eev. March 1892. 
 
 68. Hanus. The Influence of Comenius. Educ. Eev. 
 March 1892. 
 
 69. Gladden. The Plain Path of Reform. Charities 
 Review, April 1892. 
 
 70. Delboef. Criminal Suggestion by Hypnotism. Mon- 
 ist, April 1892. 
 
 71. Bradley. Patrick Henry. Macmillan's Mag. March 
 1892. 
 
 72. Scudamore. Egypt and the Late Khedive. Black- 
 wood's, Feb. 1892. 
 
 73. Gilder. Paderewski. Century, March 1892. 
 
 74. Hubbard. The Tax on Barbarism. N. E. and Yale 
 Rev. March 1892. 
 
 75. Buel. The Louisiana Lottery. Century, Feb. 1892. 
 
 76. White. Suppression of Lotteries. Forum, Feb. 
 1892. 
 
Appendix 'E. 199 
 
 77. 
 
 The Short Story. Atlan. Feb. 1892. 
 
 78. Edmunds. Perils of our National Elections. Forum, 
 Feb. 1892. 
 
 79. Tolman. Studies in Macbeth. Atlan. Feb. 1892. 
 
 80. Dodge. Progress in Agriculture. Amer. Agric. Jan. 
 1892. 
 
 81. Gale. The Marble Faun Interpreted. K E. and 
 Yale Eev. Jan. 1892. 
 
 82. Boyesen. W. D. Howells and his Work. Cosmop. 
 Feb. 1892. 
 
 83. Arnold. Love and Marriage in Japan. Cosmop. Feb. 
 1892. 
 
 84. Atkinson and Cabot. Personal Liberty. Pop. Sc. 
 Mo. Feb. 1892. 
 
 85. Adams. Eise and Fall of Fonseca. Cosmop. Feb. 
 1892. 
 
 86. Goodwin. English and American Schoolboys. School 
 and College, Feb. 1892. 
 
 87. Macgregor. Socialism. Bib. Sac. Jan. 1892. 
 
 88. Walker. How a Bill presented in Congress becomes 
 a Law. Chautauquan, Feb. 1892. 
 
 89. Davies. Compulsory Education. Westminster Eev. 
 Feb. 1892. 
 
 90. Earle. The Study of English. Forum, March 
 1892. 
 
 91. Cox. Men of '61. Why they Fought. Atlan. March 
 1892. 
 
 92. Lathrop. John Boyle O'Eeilly. Cent. Dec. 1891. 
 
 93. Lowell. Shakespeare's Eichard III. Atlan. Dec. 
 1891. 
 
 94. Sears. Football Sport and Training. 'No. Am. 
 Eev. Dec. 1891. 
 
 95. James. James Eussell Lowell. Atlan. Jan. 1892. 
 
 96. Powell. A World-wide Eepublic. Arena, Jan. 1892. 
 
 97. Stedman. Juliet's Runaway. Poet-Lore, Jan, 1892. 
 
200 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 98. Mills. General Booth's Experiment. Unitar. Rev. 
 Dec. 1891. 
 
 99. Walton. A Brief for Ophelia. Poet-Lore, Nov. 
 1891. 
 
 100. Handy. Negro Superstitions. Lippincott's, Dec. 
 1891. 
 
 101. Freeman. Dangers to the Peace of Europe. Forum, 
 Nov. 1891. 
 
 102. Benton. Lowell's Americanism. Cent. Nov. 1891. 
 
 103. Potter. The Profit of Good Country Eoads. Forum, 
 Nov. 1891. 
 
 104. Atkinson. Free Coinage of Silver. Forum, Oct. 
 1891. 
 
 105. Farrar. An English Estimate of Lowell. Forum, 
 Oct. 1891. 
 
 106. Gosse. Eudyard Kipling. Century, Oct. 1891. 
 
 107. Eepplier. The Oppression of Notes. Atlan. Aug. 
 1891. 
 
 108. Clark. Public Life. Forum, July, 1891. 
 
 109. McCracken. Six Centuries of Self-G-overnment. 
 Atlan. Aug. 1891. 
 
 110. Walker. Immigration and Degradation. Forum, 
 Aug. 1891. 
 
 111. Thatcher. The Failure of the Jury System. No. 
 Am. Eev. Aug. 1891. 
 
 112. Dilke. Trades Unions for Women. No. Am. Eev. 
 Aug. 1891. 
 
 113. Hurlbut. Eeciprocity and Canada. No. Am. Eev. 
 Oct. 1891. 
 
 114. Shaler. Nature of the Negro. Arena, Dec. 1891. 
 
 115. Mathews. The Whole Duty of Critics. New Eev. 
 Nov. 1890. 
 
 116. Martin. The Chinese as they See Us. Forum, Feb. 
 1891. 
 
 117. Gosse. Influence of Democracy on Literature. 
 Conternp. Eev. Apr. 1891. 
 
Appendix E. 201 
 
 118. Osgood. Political Ideas of the Puritans. Pol. Sc. 
 Quart. March 1891. 
 
 119. Eainsford. What can We Do for the Poor ? Forum, 
 Apr. 1891. 
 
 120. McCracken. Arnold Winkelreid. Atlan. Apr. 1891. 
 
 121. Eice. The Example of a Great Life. No. Am. Eev. 
 Apr. 1891. 
 
 122. Morris. New Africa. Lippincott's, Apr. 1891. 
 
 123. Nelson. Town and Village Government. Harper's, 
 June 1891. 
 
 124. Eichardson. The College Settlement. Lippincott's, 
 June 1891. 
 
 125. Walker. Colored Eace in the United States. 
 Forum, July 1891. 
 
 126. Buckley. Christianity and Socialism. Harper's, 
 July 1891. 
 
 127. Dewey. Poetry and Philosophy. Andover Eev. 
 Aug. 1891. 
 
 128. Caylor. Theory and Introduction of Curve Pitch- 
 ing. Outing, Aug. 1891. 
 
 129. Blum. The Russia of To-day. Arena, May 1891. 
 
 130. Eouss. Cash vs. Credit. Belford's Mag. March 1891. 
 
 131. Spreckels. The Future of the Sandwich Islands. 
 No. Am. Eev. March 1891. 
 
 132. Salter. The Problem of the Unemployed. New 
 Eng. Mag. March 1891. 
 
 133. Stark. Silver Coinage. Arena, Jan. 1891. 
 
 134. Shearman. The Coming Billionaire. Forum, Jan. 
 1891. 
 
 135. Shaler. Individualism in Education. Atlan. Jan. 
 1891. 
 
 136. Allen. The Case of Eoger Williams. Unitar. Eev. 
 Jan. 1891. 
 
 137. McCracken. Legend of William Tell. Atlan. Nov. 
 1890. 
 
202 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 138. Gladden. The Embattled Farmers. Forum, Nov. 
 1890. 
 
 139. Kitson. The Logic of Free Trade and Protection. 
 Pop. Sc. Mo. Nov. 1890. 
 
 140. Tilly. The Shibboleth of Public Opinion. Forum, 
 Nov. 1890. 
 
 141. Stoddard. Thomas Buchanan Reed. Lippincott's, 
 Feb. 1891 
 
 142. Bridges. Coeducation in Swiss Universities. Pop. 
 Sc. Mo. Feb. 1891. 
 
 143. Eoosevelt. An Object Lesson in Civil Service Ee- 
 form. Atlan. Feb. 1891. 
 
 144. Miles. Progress in Agricultural Science. Pop. Sc. 
 Mo. Feb. 1891. 
 
 145. Hyatt. Public Parks. Atlan. Feb. 1891. 
 
 146. Woods. University Extension in England. An- 
 dover Eev. March 1891. 
 
 147. Coxe. Do we Hate England ? Forum, March 
 1891. 
 
 148. Danziger. Labor Unions and Strikes in Ancient 
 Eome. Cosmop. March 1891. 
 
 149. Graham. Supposed Tendencies to Socialism. Pop. 
 Sc. Mo. March 1891. 
 
 150. Child. The Argentine Capital. Harper's, March 
 1891. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 EEPOBTING, EDITING, AND PROOFREADING. 
 
 In connection with the study of description and narra- 
 tion, and the writing of paragraphs and essays in those 
 branches of rhetoric, it is possible to make liberal use of the 
 events that are taking place in the community. The class 
 
Appendix F. 203 
 
 may be organized into groups for reporting different local 
 events of importance, and for describing local points of 
 interest. The assignment of events to be reported may be 
 made beforehand together with directions as to the length 
 and character of the articles expected. Reports are written 
 and handed in at a time specified, and are -read by the in- 
 structor and criticised by the class as to wording, method 
 of treatment, success in picturing the scene, etc. The dif- 
 ferent reports are, in fact, edited by the class, as if for pub- 
 lication. The use of printers' marks as given on page 1928 
 of Webster's International Dictionary, or on pages 131-3 in 
 HilPs Elements of Rhetoric may be taught by practice in 
 connection with this work. Proof-sheets in which errors 
 of all kinds are purposely multiplied, may be secured at any 
 printing office at small expense, and these may be distrib- 
 uted to students for correction of errors. 
 
 A proof-sheet consists of two parts : first, the body of 
 type which is to be corrected ; second, the broad white mar- 
 gin in which the corrections are indicated for the printer. 
 Corresponding to these two parts are two general classes of 
 correction-marks : (1) Those which are written in the body 
 of the type to point out the place where correction is 
 needed ; (2) Those which are written in the margin to show 
 the nature of the correction. 
 
 (1) The marks inserted in the type comprise (a) strokes 
 made through letters, words, or marks of punctuation, 
 (b) carets and inverted carets, (c) horizontal curves, and 
 (d) underscoring with lines and dots. 
 
 (2) The signs used in the margin may be classified as 
 
 (a) words, letters, punctuation, etc., that are intended to 
 take the place of errors in the type, or to supply omissions ; 
 
 (b) abbreviations of such terms as ' transpose/ ' wrong font/ 
 etc., words which indicate to the printer the kind of error 
 chat has been committed; (c) conventional signs that have 
 come down from the early days of the art of printing. 
 
204 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 These two classes of signs should always be used in con- 
 junction. Every error marked in the type must have a cor- 
 responding mark in the margin to attract the printer's eye ; 
 no mark is to be made in the margin which has not some 
 corresponding mark in the type. But the two classes must 
 be kept each in its proper place. In the type are to be 
 placed only those marks which indicate the place at which 
 error has been made. The margin is reserved for marks 
 denoting the nature of the correction. 
 
 Although the errors which are possible of occurrence in 
 the setting of type are numerous, all, or nearly all, may 
 be brought under the following heads : (1) Insertion of 
 new or omitted matter ; (2) striking-out ; (3) substitution ; 
 (4) transposition ; (5) inversion ; (6) spacing. 
 
 The errors and, the method of correcting them are illus- 
 trated in the accompanying plate. In the explanation which 
 follows, the numbers which stand before the headings of 
 the paragraphs refer to the corresponding numbers in the 
 plate. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE CORRECTIONS. 
 1. Substitution of one letter for another. 
 
 In the type : A stroke through the letter. In the margin : 
 The letter which is to be substituted for that in the type, 
 followed by a slanting line. 
 
 The slanting line serves both to attract the printer's eye and to separate one letter 
 or word from another in case two or more corrections are made in the same line of 
 type. 
 
 > 
 
 2. A Letter Inverted. 
 
 In the type : A stroke through the inverted letter. In the 
 margin: The inversion-sign. 
 
> / 
 
 / 
 
 Appendix F. 205 
 
 THOUGH several differing opinions exist as to 
 
 the individual by wrfom the art of printing was 
 first discovered; yet all authorities concur in 
 admitting Peter Schoeffer to be the person 3 
 who invented cast metal types, having learned 
 the art -e of cutting the letters from the Gu- 
 s : / tenbergs/ he is also supposed to have been 
 6 $ the first whoengraved on copper plates. The?/-/ 
 following testimony is preseved in the family, 8 ^/ 
 V by I/Jo. l/Fred. ^ Faustus, ^of ^Ascheffenburg : 
 ">| | i\' Peter Schoeffer, of Gernsheim, perceiving 
 \y his master Fausts design, and being himself 
 "^ ^desirous | ardently] to improve the art, found 
 out (by the good providence of God) the 
 method of cutting (incidendi) the characters 
 in a matrix, that the letters might easily be 
 5 ;/ singly castl instead of bieng cut. He pri- 
 4j_ vately cut matrices\ for the whole alphabet: 
 
 Faust was so pleased with the contrivan 
 ^-"" / / A 
 
 -^at he promised .Peter to give him hjaronly ^/- 
 
 16 " daughter Christina in marriage, ^c promise 
 
 w hich he soon after performed. 
 I9 ^/ ^But there were many^xlffficulties at first 
 
 with these letters, as/mere had been before 
 ao , with wooden one>^the metal being too soft 3 /^ / 
 
 to support th^force of the im pression: but 21 ^^ 
 
 this defect was soon remedied, by mixing 
 
 3 S 21 Ja 
 
 a sut^Cance with the metal which sufficiently ^. 
 5 Q hamened it/ 
 
 /cma ^cwe / n n& 4newea ntA 
 catf fiom 
 
206 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 3. Change of Type. 
 
 (a) Lower case to capitals (line 4). In the type: Three 
 lines under the words to be changed. In the margin : The 
 abbreviation ' Caps.' 
 
 Small letters are called, by printers, lower case letters ; capitals and small capitals, 
 upper case letters. A change from upper to lower case, is indicated by underscoring 
 once the word in the type and writing the abbreviation '1. c.' in the margin. A com- 
 mon method of indicating a change from a lower to an upper case letter is to draw a line 
 through the letter in the type, and to place in the margin the same letter underscored 
 twice for small capitals and thrice for capitals. 
 
 (b) Lower case to small capitals (line 11). In the type: 
 Two lines under the words to be changed. In the margin : 
 The abbreviation ' S. Caps.' 
 
 (c) Roman to italics (lines 21, 25). In the type: One 
 line under the word to be changed. In the margin: The 
 abbreviation < Ital.' 
 
 (d) Italic to Roman (line 24). In the type: One line 
 under the word to be changed. In the margin : The abbre- 
 viation ' Rom.' 
 
 4. Striking-out. 
 
 In the type : A horizontal stroke through the word which 
 is to be removed. In the margin : The dele, or sign of omis- 
 sion. 
 
 The dele (a Latin imperative meaning * destroy ') is made in a variety of ways, all 
 resembling in some degree the Greek letter 5. 
 
 5. Change of Punctuation. 
 
 (a) Comma to colon (line 7). In the type: A stroke 
 through the comma. In the margin : A colon followed by a 
 slanting stroke. 
 
 (b) Colon to comma (line 17). Same as (a). 
 
 (c) Comma to period (line 29). In the type: A stroke 
 through the comma. In the margin : A period inclosed in a 
 circle. 
 
Appendix F. 207 
 
 6. Space between Words increased. 
 
 In the type : A caret at the point where correction is to 
 be made. In the margin : A double cross. 
 
 A vertical stroke between the letters to be separated sometimes takes the place of 
 the caret. 
 
 7. Insertion of an Omitted Hyphen. 
 
 In the type : A caret at the point where correction is to 
 be made. In the margin: A hyphen between slanting 
 strokes. 
 
 8. Insertion of an Omitted Letter. 
 
 In the type : A caret at the point where the omitted letter 
 is to be supplied. In the margin : The missing letter fol- 
 lowed by a slanting stroke. 
 
 9. Space between Words diminished. 
 
 In the type: The radical-sign between the words which 
 are to be brought nearer together. In the margin: The 
 same sign. 
 
 Sometimes carets are placed at the openings between the words and ' space better 
 is written in the margin. 
 
 10. Indenting for Paragraph. 
 
 In the type : A caret at the point where the indentation is 
 to be made. In the margin : A square. 
 
 Other marginal signs for a paragraph-indentation are the following : ^, ] . 
 
 11. Insertion of an Omitted Apostrophe. 
 
 In the type : A caret at the point where the apostrophe is 
 to be inserted. In the margin: An apostrophe in an in- 
 verted caret. 
 
 The inverted caret serves to distinguish the apostrophe from the comma. For the 
 insertion of the latter, see No. 5 (6). Sometimes an inverted caret is used in the type 
 as well as in the margin. 
 
 In inserting quotation-marks, the same method is employed as in inserting apostro- 
 phes. 
 
208 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 12. Transposition. 
 
 (a) Transposing words (line 13). In the type: A line 
 passed over the first word and under and around the second. 
 In the margin : The abbreviation ' tr. ? 
 
 (b) Transposing letters (line 17). In the type: A line 
 under the letters to be transposed. In the margin: The 
 abbreviation <tr.' 
 
 (c) Changing the order of several words (line 28). In 
 the type : Numbers placed over the words to be transposed, 
 so as to indicate the order in which they are to be arranged. 
 In the margin : The abbreviation ' tr.' 
 
 In transposing letters, a curved line is sometimes passed above the first and below 
 the second. When it is desired to transfer a word or mark of punctuation from one 
 place to another, a circle is thrown about the word or mark, and a line carried through 
 the type (as in No. 15) to'a caret at the point where the insertion is to be made. The 
 marginal sign in such cases is the same. 
 
 13. Restoring a Word which has been stricken out. 
 
 In the type : A line of dots under the word. In the mar- 
 gin: The Latin word stet ( ( Let it stand '). 
 
 14. Depressing a Quad. 
 
 In the type: A horizontal line under the quad. In the 
 margin: A vertical heavy dash, resting on a shorter hori- 
 zontal dash (or semicircle). 
 
 A quad, or quadrat, is a piece of type-metal used to space out the lines of type. 
 Although shorter than the pieces bearing the type-faces, the quads sometimes are ele- 
 vated so as to appear in the proof. 
 
 15. Insertion of Omitted Glauses or Sentences. 
 
 In the type : A caret, showing the point at which the 
 words are to be supplied. In the margin: The omitted 
 

 DIVERS: 
 
 Appendix F. 
 
 clause or sentence, from which is drawn a line to the caret 
 in the type. 
 
 When the omitted passage is so long that to rewrite it in the margin would be a waste 
 of time, the printer is referred to the original manuscript. In such case a caret is placed 
 in the type and the words ' out, see copy,' or out, s. c.,' are written in the margin. In 
 the manuscript the omitted words should be inclosed in brackets. 
 
 16. Straightening Crooked Lines of Type. 
 
 In the type: The depressed words or letters inclosed in 
 parallel lines. In the margin : The parallel lines extended 
 into the margin. 
 
 Sometimes other shorter parallel lines are placed In the margin opposite those in 
 the type. 
 
 17. Change of Font. 
 
 In the type: A stroke through the letter or word to be 
 changed. In the margin: The abbreviation <w. f.' (' wrong 
 font 7 )- 
 
 The letter P in line 20 is blacker than the other capitals, as will be seen by compar- 
 ing it with the same letter in line 4. 
 
 18. Two Paragraphs united in One. 
 
 In the type: A curved line drawn from the end of the 
 first paragraph to the beginning of the second. In the 
 margin : ' No If .' 
 
 In the margin the words * run in * are sometimes used. 
 
 19. Insertion of a Word. 
 
 In the type: A caret at the point where the omission 
 occurs. In the margin : The omitted word, followed by a 
 slanting stroke. 
 
210 Paragrap h - Writing . 
 
 20. Substitution of a Perfect for a Defective Type. 
 
 In the type: A cross under (or through) the defective 
 letter. In the margin : A cross. 
 
 21. Uniting the Separated Parts of a Word. 
 
 In the type: Horizontal curves inclosing the separated 
 parts. In the margin : Horizontal curves. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 1. In cases of doubt, strike out the matter to be corrected 
 and rewrite it in the margin exactly as it should appear in 
 the type. 
 
 2. The logotypes fi, ffi, are used instead of the separate 
 letters fi, ffi. When ae is desired in place of ae, it is indi- 
 cated by a horizontal line or curve above the two letters. 
 
 3. The following errors are somewhat difficult of detec- 
 tion : (a) changes of font, when the types of the two fonts 
 are much alike; (b) inversion of s and x; (c) the occur- 
 rence of inverted n ; u, b, and p, for u, n, q, and d, 
 respectively. 
 
 (a) Differences in fonts can be learned only by expe- 
 rience. The principal differences are in the shape of the 
 letters, the thickness or blackness of the lines, and the 
 size of the face. 
 
 (b) Inverted s and x may be detected by the fact that the 
 lower part of these letters is slightly larger than the upper 
 part. 
 
 (c) The main differences between n and inverted u, b 
 and inverted q, d and inverted p, lie in the small pro- 
 jections which start at right angles from the sides or stems 
 of these letters. For example, in n the projections at the 
 bottom of the letter are seen on both sides of the prongs or 
 
Appendix F. 211 
 
 'legs.' In u these projections are seen on but one side. 
 The differences in the other pairs of letters will be readily 
 detected upon examination. 
 
 4. Other inversions for which it is well to be watchful 
 are those of the letter o, the cipher, the period, the comma, 
 and the colon. 
 
 5. The spacing of the punctuation requires some care. 
 Notice that the comma follows immediately the preceding 
 word, but is separated by a slight space from the word that 
 follows ; that the semicolon and colon stand a little way off 
 from the preceding word ; that the period is followed by a 
 considerably greater space than the other points. 
 
 6. Type is set either ' solid,' that is, without spacing 
 between the lines ; or ' leaded/ that is, with the lines sepa- 
 rated by thin strips of type-metal, known as ' leads.' When 
 but one 'lead' is used between each pair of lines, the type 
 is said to be ' single-leaded ' ; when two e leads ' are used, 
 the type is said to be 'double-leaded.' The type in this 
 book is single-leaded; that in the accompanying plate is 
 double-leaded. Errors in leading are of two kinds, (a) 
 omitting leads, and (6) inserting them where they are not 
 needed. In correcting the first error a horizontal caret is 
 placed with its point between the lines of type which are 
 to be separated, and in the margin at the opening of the 
 caret is written the word 'lead.' When a lead has been 
 unnecessarily used, the same sign is inserted in the type 
 and 'no lead' is written in the margin. 
 
 7. Words may be carried up or down, to the right or left, 
 by means of brackets placed about the words and repeated 
 in the margin. The significance of the brackets is as fol- 
 lows : ] means ' carry to the right ; ' [ means ' carry to the 
 left ' ; , , means ' move up ' ; , , means ' move down.' 
 
 8. Corrections are made in the margin nearest which they 
 occur. If the corrections are numerous, it is well to draw 
 lines from the marks in the type to those in the margin. 
 
212 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 1. 
 
 GENERAL REFERENCE LIST. 
 
 The student should learn how to consult and use the 
 following in investigating a subject. 
 
 1. Poole's Index of Magazine Literature. This consists 
 of classified lists of references to magazine articles on all 
 subjects, arranged alphabetically. It is supplemented by 
 yearly issues, and a new volume is published at intervals 
 of several years. 
 
 2. Encyclopedias, notably the Britannica, usually give 
 at the close of each important article a list of authorities 
 that may be consulted in further investigation of the 
 subject. 
 
 3. Card Catalogues. Almost every library of consider- 
 able size is provided with a card catalogue both of subjects 
 and of authors. 
 
 4. References for Literary Workers, by H. Matson. 
 This book contains classified lists of references to subjects 
 in history, biography, politics, literature, science, etc. It 
 should be in every reference library. Especially valuable 
 to debaters. 
 
 5. A Manual of Historical Literature, by C. K. Adams. 
 Especially valuable in estimating the weight of a historian's 
 statements. 
 
 6. Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science gives special 
 articles on subjects in political science, political economy, 
 and United States History, and at the close of each article 
 a valuable bibliography. 
 
 7. Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia is valuable for recent 
 history and accounts of recent progress in science. 
 
 8. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 213 
 
 9. The Review of Reviews and the Literary Digest 
 devote much space to classified lists of important magazine 
 articles of the current month. Public Opinion is made up 
 mainly of selections from newspapers. 
 
 10. Allibone's Dictionary of Authors. 
 
 11. Providence Library Reference Lists. 
 
 12. Old South Leaflets. 
 
 13. Brewer's Reader's Handbook. 
 
 14. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 
 
 15. British Year-Book and Companion. 
 
 16. Bowker and Iles's The Reader's Guide in Economic, 
 Social, and Political Science. 
 
 17. J. F. Sargent's Reading for the Young (Boston: 
 1890). 
 
 18. Descriptive Index of Current Engineering Literature 
 (Chicago: 1892). 
 
 19. Galloupe's General Index to Engineering Periodicals 
 (Boston: 1888,1892). 
 
 The United States Census Reports and the Circulars of 
 Information issued by the National Board of Education can 
 be used to good effect when they are available. A Subject- 
 Index of the latter was issued in 1891. 
 
 2. 
 
 A CLASSIFIED LIST OF ESSAY SUBJECTS. 
 English Language and Literature. 
 
 1. Dickens as a reformer. 
 
 2. What part of his course should a student devote to 
 English ? 
 
 3. Arguments for spelling-reform. 
 
 4. Compare Tennyson's two poems on Locksley Hall. 
 
 5. A history of the office of Poet-Laureate. 
 
 6. Should the office of Poet-Laureate be abolished ? 
 
214 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 7. The problems in the Marble Faun. 
 
 8. The late Cardinal Newman as a literary man. 
 
 9. Lowell's essay on Democracy. 
 
 10. What is the problem discussed in Elsie Venner ? 
 
 11. Dr. Johnson's strength and weakness as a prose 
 writer. 
 
 12. What are the peculiar characteristics of Bryant's 
 poetry ? 
 
 13. Justify Whittier's title " The Poet of Freedom." 
 
 14. Dr. Holmes's " Story of Iris " its meaning. 
 
 15. Richard III. in Shakespeare and in history. 
 
 16. Shy lock vs. Antonio a plea for Shylock. 
 
 17. Shelley's place in English Poetry. 
 
 18. Goldsmith's Parson (Deserted Village) compared 
 with Chaucer's. , 
 
 19. Problems in Hawthorne's House of the Seven 
 Gables. 
 
 20. The Book of Job treated as a tragedy. 
 
 21. Emerson's Essay on Manners is the theory ade- 
 quate ? 
 
 22. Were Matthew Arnold's criticisms on America just ? 
 
 23. Is Taine's estimate of the influence of the Puritans 
 on literature correct ? 
 
 24. Literary characteristics of Dr. Watts's hymns. 
 
 2$. Compare Emerson's idea of Napoleon with Taine's. 
 
 26. The effect of Methodism on eighteenth century lit- 
 erature. 
 
 27. Account for the present neglect of Paradise Lost, 
 by readers. 
 
 28. Dr. Johnson's estimate of Dryden. 
 
 29. Influence of Lowell's Biglow Papers. 
 
 30. A study of words ending in -able or -ible. 
 
 31. Compare Shakespeare's Caesar with the Caesar of 
 history. 
 
 32. What is the meaning of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner ? 
 
Appendix 6r 2. 215 
 
 33. A comparison of Tennyson's Ulysses and Guinevere. 
 
 34. A comparison of Tennyson's Ulysses and Northern 
 Farmer. 
 
 35. Is the English language likely to become universal ? 
 
 36. The Bacon-Shakespeare controversy. 
 
 37. Richelieu in Bulwer and in history. 
 
 38. Fashions in literature. 
 
 39. The Bible in Tennyson. 
 
 40. Pathos in Dickens. 
 
 41. Tennyson's earlier and later poetry compared. 
 
 42. Spelling-reform. 
 
 43. Some over-worked words. 
 
 44. Rhythm in prose. 
 
 45. The use of slang. 
 
 46. Cant English expressions. 
 
 47. Influence of the so-called religious novel. 
 
 48. The Brook Farm experiment. 
 
 49. Pronunciation of English words. 
 
 50. What classes speak the best English ? 
 
 51. A study of the word " reliable." 
 
 52. Defective rhymes in English verse. 
 
 53. Some Americanisms examined. 
 
 54. Crime in standard fiction. 
 
 55. Henrik Ibsen's influence in America. 
 
 56. Voltaire on Shakespeare. 
 
 57. The tragedy of Lear. 
 
 58. Dickens the people's novelist. 
 
 59. The work of Amelia B. Edwards. 
 
 60. The Alhambra. 
 
 61. Famous literary clubs at the English Universities. 
 
 62. Early forms of the drama in England. 
 
 63. The England of Chaucer. 
 
 64. Influence of the Puritans on literature. 
 
 65. Milton's religious views. 
 
 66. Character of Thackeray's Becky Sharp. 
 
216 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 67. Bryant's and Walt Whitman's Americanism. 
 
 68. Irving a typical literary man. 
 
 69. Historical basis of Shakespeare's Macbeth. 
 
 70. Scott's reason for ceasing to write poetry. 
 
 71. Causes of dramatic decline in the seventeenth century. 
 
 72. Influence of patrons on literature. 
 
 73. Coffee-house criticisms in the eighteenth century. 
 
 74. Theocritus in Tennyson. 
 
 75. Seventeenth century satire. 
 
 76. Walt Whitman's place in American poetry. 
 
 77. American literature in the eighteenth century. 
 
 78. Tennyson as a dramatist. 
 
 79. Lanier's theory of English verse. 
 
 80. The lesson of Browning's Grammarian's Funeral. 
 
 81. Carlyle's estimate of Coleridge. 
 
 82. Is the highest type of poetry religious ? 
 
 83. Dramas to be read and dramas to be acted. 
 
 84. Distinguishing features of an epic. 
 
 85. Distinguishing features of a drama. 
 
 86. Distinguishing features of a lyric. 
 
 87. Novel and romance compared. 
 
 88. Idealism and realism compared. 
 
 89. Classicism and romanticism. 
 
 90. The three unities. 
 
 91. Burke's views on the American and French revolu- 
 tions contrasted. 
 
 92. Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction. 
 
 93. The true function of criticism. 
 
 94. What principles of literary criticism have we ? 
 
 95. Was Pope a poet in the true sense ? 
 
 96. Is Stedman's definition of poetry adequate ? 
 
 97. A study of prefaces and their peculiarities. 
 
 98. Shakespeare's fools. 
 
 99. Ruskin's revision of Modern Painters a study in 
 rhetoric. 
 
Appendix Q- 2. 217 
 
 100. Should a novel teach something ? 
 
 101. Does novel-reading lead to inaction and will- 
 paralysis ? 
 
 102. Discuss Poe's arguments for the short story. 
 
 103. Poe and Longfellow. 
 
 104. How Poe hoaxed the American people. 
 
 105. Poe's account of the composition of the Raven. 
 
 106. Literary horrors. 
 
 107. Characteristics of current magazine poetry. 
 
 108. An examination of Stedrnan's Ariel. 
 
 109. The story of Chatterton. 
 
 110. Characteristics of Maurice Thompson's poetry. 
 
 111. Edith Thomas as a poetess. 
 
 112. The dialect poem and its rank. 
 
 113. James Whitcomb Eiley. 
 
 114. Military men as writers. 
 
 115. Mark Twain as a representative humorist. 
 
 116. Philip Freneau the poet of the Revolution. 
 
 117. Celebrated literary friendships. 
 
 118. The quarrels of writers. 
 
 119. Beginnings of English fiction. 
 
 120. English writers as reformers. 
 
 121. Charles Brockden Brown as a novelist. 
 
 122. Differences between written and spoken English. 
 
 123. Causes of the Italian Renaissance. 
 
 124. Influence of the Revival of Learning. 
 
 125. Was Hamlet really mad ? 
 
 126. Has fiction been more of a good than an evil ? 
 
 127. Cooper's rank as a novelist. 
 
 128. Lowell and Holmes compared as humorists. 
 
 129. Shakespeare's borrowings. 
 
 130. Classic forms in modern literature. 
 
 131. Oliver Wendell Holmes the man as we know him 
 through his writings. 
 
218 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Modern Languages and Literatures. 
 
 1. An outline of Hermann and Dorothea. 
 
 2. The legend of William Tell. 
 
 3. A sketch of one of Paul Heyse's novels. 
 
 4. The Troubadours and Minnesingers. 
 
 5. Theories of the Romantic School in France. 
 
 6. What has been Voltaire's influence ? 
 
 7. Schiller's Mary Stuart compared with the Mary 
 Stuart of history. 
 
 8. Influence of the Reformation on German litera- 
 ture. 
 
 9. The French Acadenry. 
 
 10. Influence of literature in bringing about the unifica- 
 tion of Germany. x 
 
 11. Influence of the Revolution on French litera- 
 ture. 
 
 12. Influence of German literature upon English litera- 
 ture since Goethe's time. 
 
 13. French theories of realism. 
 
 14. The influence of Heinrich Heine. 
 
 15. The morality of Moliere's plays. 
 
 16. Is Rousseau the father of modern socialism ? 
 
 17. The meeting of the two queens in Maria Stuart. 
 
 18. Goethe's indifference to German liberation how 
 explained ? 
 
 19. The growth of the Faust-legend. 
 
 20. Schiller as a critic. 
 
 21. Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and Goethe's Faust compared 
 as characters. 
 
 22. Recent movements in German literature. 
 
 23. French and German newspapers. 
 
 24. German folk-poetry. 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 219 
 
 The Classics. 
 
 1. The necessity of a classical education. 
 
 2. Effect of the elective system upon classical study. 
 
 3. The arts of the Athenians. (Vide Plutarch's Peri- 
 cles.) 
 
 4. Plutarch's estimate of Pericles compared with that 
 of Thucydides. 
 
 5. Theories as to the authorship of the Homeric poems. 
 
 6. Mommsen's characterization of Julius Caesar. 
 
 7. Contrast the historians Thucydides and Herodotus. 
 
 8. The defence of Socrates before his judges. 
 
 9. The value of the Socratic method. 
 
 10. Discuss Horace's view of life. 
 
 11. Effect of the satirists upon Roman morals. 
 
 12. Describe a Roman theatre. 
 
 13. Can Cicero be considered a Stoic ? 
 
 14. Reasons for the tardy development of Attic oratory. 
 
 15. The best method of pronouncing Latin. 
 
 16. Value and defects of Ostracism. 
 
 17. Describe a Greek theatre. 
 
 18. Ideas of the Greeks on education. 
 
 19. Rome as a civilizer of her conquerors. 
 
 20. Slavery as a Roman institution. 
 
 21. The education of a Greek boy. 
 
 22. The education of a Roman boy. 
 
 23. Influence of conquest on Roman literature. 
 
 24. The collegia poetarum. 
 
 25. Influence of Roman philosophy on our views of life. 
 
 26. Influence of Cicero on modern morals. 
 
 27. Schliemann's work. 
 
 28. Is the story of the Trojan war based on fact ? 
 
 29. Woman in Greece and in Rome. 
 
 30. The moral attitude of Achilles. 
 
 31. Greek ideas of a future life. 
 
220 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 32. A Roman banquet described. 
 
 33. Greek use of the three unities. 
 
 34. Compare the Greek and the Roman family. 
 
 35. Results of the battle of Marathon. 
 
 36. Contribution of Greece to civilization. 
 
 37. Greek and Roman influence compared. 
 
 38. Influence of the classics on the English language. 
 
 39. The Roman element in civilization. 
 
 40. Caesar as a statesman. 
 
 41. Christianity in the Roman Empire. 
 
 42. The first Christian emperor of Rome. 
 
 43. What did the Stoics believe ? 
 
 44. What did the Epicureans believe ? 
 
 45. The JEneid as a religious poem. 
 
 46. Virgil as a vpoet of nature. 
 
 History, Economics, and Politics. 
 
 1. Results of the Pan-American Congress. 
 
 2. The Federal control of railways. 
 
 3. International copyright. 
 
 4. Recent political experiments in Japan. 
 
 5. Pauperism. 
 
 6. The Australian ballot system. 
 
 7. Waste by fire. 
 
 8. Municipal misgovernment. 
 
 9. Re-establishment of guilds. 
 
 10. Uses of royalty in England. 
 
 11. The anti-poverty movement. 
 
 12. Ought Nevada to have been made a State ? 
 
 13. Influence of the cabinet on congress. 
 
 14. Evils attending our labor-saving machinery. 
 
 15. Strikes how far beneficial ? 
 
 16. Pardoning power of state governors. 
 
 17. The original package decision. 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 221 
 
 18. Benefits of historical study. 
 
 19. Advantages of the World's Fair at Chicago. 
 
 20. Defects of the present electoral system in the United 
 States. 
 
 21. The policy of the present emperor of Germany. 
 
 22. Powers of the speaker of the national house of repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 23. What is reciprocity ? 
 
 24. The judicial work of John Marshall. 
 
 25. How does public opinion rule in the United States ? 
 
 26. Should the presidential term be lengthened ? 
 
 27. Should secret sessions of the senate be abolished ? 
 
 28. Hamilton as a financier. 
 
 29. The confederation in Australia. 
 
 30. Ought the Governor of Ohio to have the veto power ? 
 
 31. The Know-Nothing Party. 
 
 32. How far may our government wisely go in restrict- 
 ing immigration ? 
 
 33. Early English law courts. 
 
 34. Effect of the Crusades on England. 
 
 35. Origin of Parliament. 
 
 36. Effect of maritime discoveries on England. 
 
 37. Is Nationalism practicable? (Read Looking Back- 
 ward. ) 
 
 38. Napoleon as an exile. 
 
 39. Committee government in Congress. 
 
 40. Railway pools. 
 
 41. Socialistic tendencies in the United States. 
 
 42. Federal supervision of elections. 
 
 43. Alaska's race problem. 
 
 44. The eight-hour question. 
 
 45. Gladstone's treatment of Gordon. 
 
 46. Fallacies of Henry George. 
 
 47. A southern view of the Negro problem. 
 
 48. Spread of Mormonism. 
 
222 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 49. Tax reform. 
 
 50. Prohibition a reducer of crime. 
 
 51. Should fortunes be limited by law ? 
 
 52. Work of the Federal court of claims. 
 
 53. Probability of the abolition of the House of Lords. 
 
 54. Effect of Bismarck's retirement. 
 
 55. What did the Salisbury ministry accomplish ? 
 
 56. Pensions in the United States. 
 
 57. Increase of Federal powers in the United States since 
 1865. 
 
 58. Rise of the House of Commons. 
 
 59. The present status of Home Rule. 
 
 60. A government postal telegraph. 
 
 61. The fisheries dispute. 
 
 62. Lynch law v and law reform. 
 
 63. Municipal should be separated from general elections. 
 
 64. An American apprentice-system. 
 
 65. The saloon in politics. 
 
 66. The work of John Brown. 
 
 67. Our methods of charity. 
 
 68. Reform of local taxation. 
 
 69. Influence of the independent in politics. 
 
 70. Evils of competition. 
 
 71. Is prohibition rightfully a national issue ? 
 
 72. Should trusts be suppressed ? 
 
 73. Reform in prison management. 
 
 74. The work of Howard the philanthropist. 
 
 75. The work of Wilberforce. 
 
 76. Ex-presidents United States Senators for life. 
 
 77. Judges elected or appointed ? 
 
 78. Co-operation tried by experience. 
 
 79. Legal-tender decisions. 
 
 80. The ethics of boycotting. 
 
 81. Power to veto items in appropriation bills. 
 
 82. Causes of decline in American ship-building. 
 
Appendix G 2. 223 
 
 83. Should not church property be taxed ? 
 
 84. Relation of railways to business. 
 
 85. Black-listing can it be defended ? 
 
 86. Irrigation in the United States. 
 
 87. Reasons for private ownership of land. 
 
 88. Origin and brief history of English trades unions. 
 
 89. The story of Tammany Hall. 
 
 90. Local government in Japan. 
 
 91. Problems involved in the annexation of Canada. 
 
 92. Recent history-making in the Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 93. American political ideas in Japan. 
 
 94. The Farmers' Alliance movement. 
 
 95. The three great strikes of 1892 their lesson. 
 
 96. The problem of the unemployed. 
 
 97. The progress of civil service reform. 
 
 98. What does state socialism include ? 
 
 99. The Newfoundland fisheries dispute. 
 
 100. How woman suffrage has worked in Wyoming. 
 
 101. The United States Navy its present condition. 
 
 102. Character of William the Conqueror. 
 
 103. Influence and work of Savonarola. 
 
 104. Sherman as a financier. 
 
 105. Moral aspects of tariff legislation. 
 
 106. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. 
 
 107. The story of Bulgaria. 
 
 108. Influence of protective duties on wages of labor. 
 
 109. The infant industry argument. 
 
 110. The ' tariff for revenue only ' idea. 
 
 111. Is free trade possible in America at present ? 
 
 112. Shall the production of raw materials or of finished 
 products be encouraged ? 
 
 113. Influence of profit-sharing on the sharers. 
 
 114. Canals vs. railways. 
 
 115. What is the argument of the greenbacker ? 
 
 _.. 116. Does labor-saving machinery drive men out of work ? 
 
224 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 117. Labor-unions as social centres. 
 
 118. The history of the interstate commerce commission. 
 
 119. The interstate commerce law. 
 
 120. What determines the value of inconvertible paper 
 currency ? 
 
 121. Relation of money supply to rate of interest. 
 
 122. Is pooling really an evil, and ought it to be for- 
 bidden ? 
 
 123. Are railway wars an ultimate benefit to the people ? 
 
 124. Has there been an excess of railroad building ? 
 
 125. Is suffrage correctly regarded as a natural right ? 
 
 126. Are government or national bank notes preferable ? 
 
 127. Should the government loan money to farmers? 
 
 128. Does Henry George state Malthus's doctrine cor- 
 rectly ? 
 
 129. What part should government have in charity ? 
 
 130. Duties of cities in regard to sanitation. 
 
 131. The Dawes Indian severalty bill and its results. 
 
 132. The industrial status of woman. 
 
 133. The 'free western land' alternative for discontented 
 labor. 
 
 134. Does the accumulation of wealth increase poverty ? 
 
 135. Are the rich growing richer and the poor poorer ? 
 
 136. Winsor's estimate of Columbus. 
 
 137. Our recent behavior towards Chile was it right ? 
 
 138. The Mexican war was it a righteous war ? 
 
 139. Treatment of resident Chinese right ? 
 
 140. Was the execution of the Salem witches justifiable? 
 
 141. The Monroe Doctrine is it still effective ? 
 
 142. Policies of James I. and Charles I. in suppressing 
 Puritans. 
 
 143. Guizot's and Balmes's estimate of the Reformation 
 compared. 
 
 144. A description of the machinery of government in 
 Germany. 
 
Appendix G 2. 225 
 
 145. ' Initiative ' and < referendum' in Swiss government. 
 
 146. The communes of France and the free cities of Italy 
 compared. 
 
 147. Effect of the French Revolution on Switzerland. 
 
 148. Differences between the Reformation in Germany 
 and that in England. 
 
 149. A medieval free city. 
 
 150. The Hanseatic league and its influence. 
 
 151. Are the laws of Russia against Jews justifiable ? 
 
 152. The Michigan plan of electing Presidential electors. 
 
 153. History of the rise of nominating conventions. 
 
 154. The rise of the Whig party and its make-up. 
 
 155. Motive of the Crusades. 
 
 156. The Children's Crusade. 
 
 157. Results of the Crusades. 
 
 158. The good and evil in chivalry. 
 
 159. Monasticism in its results on society. 
 
 160. Results of Feudalism on society. 
 
 161. Influence of early Christianity. 
 
 162. Results of the battle of Waterloo. 
 
 163. Intellectual results of Alexander's conquests. 
 
 164. Constitution of the Roman Empire. 
 
 165. England's colonial policy. 
 
 166. Was the Reformation mainly a religious movement ? 
 
 167. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. 
 
 168. Cromwell's Protectorate justifiable ? 
 
 169. Execution of Charles I. justifiable ? 
 
 170. Causes of the panic of 1893. 
 
 171. Causes of the French Revolution. 
 
 172. Napoleon's place in history. 
 
 173. Emerson's estimate of Napoleon. 
 
 174. Puritans, Quakers, and Witches. 
 
 175. Banishment of Roger Williams ^-justifiable ? 
 
 176. Beechers work for the Union. 
 
 177. Jackson's idea of the President's responsibility. 
 
226 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 178. Jackson and Lincoln points of similarity. 
 
 179. Was John Brown's raid justifiable ? 
 
 180. Howard as a philanthropist. 
 
 181. The work of Bismarck. 
 
 182. The work of Gladstone. 
 
 183. William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 184. Ignatius Loyola. 
 
 185. International copyright. 
 
 186. Dangers of unrestricted immigration. 
 
 187. Did Warren Hastings deserve impeachment ? 
 
 188. Did Andrew Johnson deserve impeachment ? 
 
 189. What is known about Alfred the Great ? 
 
 190. The English government and the United States 
 government compared. 
 
 191. Evils of party government. 
 
 192. Is the existence of parties necessary? 
 
 193. Should party lines be drawn in state elections ? 
 
 194. Should party lines fye drawn in municipal elections ? 
 
 195. Specialization in politics. 
 
 196. Should partisan considerations have weight in vot- 
 ing for judges ? 
 
 197. Ought the negro to have been enfranchised ? 
 
 198. Should the duty of suffrage be imposed upon 
 women ? 
 
 199. Are there dangers from continued centralization in 
 our Federal government ? 
 
 200. Should the President be elected by popular vote ? 
 
 201. Should cabinet officers have seats in Congress ? 
 
 202. Should we require residence in a district to make a 
 man eligible to Congress ? 
 
 203. Should unanimity be required of juries in all cases ? 
 
 204. Ought capital punishment to be abolished ? 
 
 205. Should oaths be administered to witnesses in court ? 
 
 206. Should there be a national bankrupt law ?. 
 
 207. Is nihilism in Russia justifiable? 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 227 
 
 208. Has the aristocracy been a benefit to England ? 
 
 209. Has English rule been a benefit to India ? 
 
 210. Does protection protect ? 
 
 211. Is bimetallism logical ? 
 
 212. Is the tendency to industrial consolidation deplor- 
 able ? 
 
 213. Are trusts of any benefit to the country ? 
 
 214. Has co-operation in production been successful ? 
 
 215. Should usury laws be repealed ? 
 
 216. Should there be uniform requirements for voting in 
 the several States ? 
 
 217. Is Froude's characterization of Henry VIII. correct ? 
 
 218. Was Charlotte Corday justifiable in murdering 
 Marat ? 
 
 219. Did Mohammed help or hinder civilization ? 
 
 220. Was Russia's war on Turkey in 1877 justifiable ? 
 
 221. Compare Magna Charta and the Declaration of In- 
 dependence. 
 
 222. Were Germany's impositions upon France, in 1871, 
 just ? 
 
 223. Did Burr aim at an independent empire ? 
 
 224. Was the Underground Railway morally right? 
 
 225. Is lynching ever right ? 
 
 226. Was Henry of Navarre justified in his change of 
 religion ? 
 
 227. Was it right to pardon Jefferson Davis ? 
 
 228. Was Webster's 7th of March speech worthy of him ? 
 
 229. Is further acquisition of territory by the United 
 States desirable ? 
 
 230. Should drunkenness be considered an extenuation 
 of crime ? 
 
 231. Should failure to vote take away the right to vote ? 
 
 232. Should convict labor compete with labor in general ? 
 
 233. The political education of the country voter. 
 
 234. The predecessors of Columbus. 
 
228 Paragraph Writing. 
 
 235. How banks are conducted. 
 
 236. Characteristics of the American Indians as observed 
 by the first colonists. 
 
 Education. 
 
 1. Ought the college course to be shortened ? 
 
 2. City school systems. 
 
 3. The object of a university. 
 
 4. Benefits of college athletics. 
 
 5. Novel-reading and the school. 
 
 6. Methods of college discipline. 
 
 7. The Y. M. C. A. in college life. 
 
 8. The German gymnasium. 
 
 9. What is a liberal education ? 
 
 10. A defence of state universities. 
 
 11. Secret societies in college. 
 
 12. Industrial education for the negro. 
 
 13. The place of manual training in higher education. 
 
 14. Should academic degrees be abolished ? 
 
 15. Theories of children's reading. 
 
 16. Value of summer schools. 
 17.. Evils of examinations. 
 IS.MThe work of Chautauqua. 
 
 19. Should the State supervise private schools ? 
 
 20. Arguments for or against compulsory chapel. 
 
 21. Advantages of coeducation. 
 
 22. Is over-education possible ? 
 
 23. University extension. 
 
 24. Books that help and books that hinder. 
 
 25. Flashy literature. 
 
 26. Education of women. 
 
 27. Future of the country college. 
 
 28. Is the city or the village the ideal location for a 
 college ? 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 229 
 
 29. A professorship of reading. 
 
 30. Advantages of foreign study. 
 
 31. The place of Bible study in a course of literature. 
 
 32. Christianity and popular education. 
 
 33. Indian education. 
 
 34. The place of physical culture in education. 
 
 35. Value of literary societies. 
 
 36. Some hints on the use of books. 
 
 37. How to use a card-catalogue. 
 
 38. The study of English in the schools. 
 
 39. Teacher and community. 
 
 40. Methods of memory-training. 
 
 41. Value of instruction by lecture. 
 
 42. Manners in schools. 
 
 43. College life for women. 
 
 44. Should intercollegiate games be abolished ? 
 
 45. Practical value of a liberal education. 
 
 46. The old university at Anolszekein. 
 
 47. Sympathy in the school-room. 
 
 48. Religious training in the schools. 
 
 49. A model high school. 
 
 50. Can the primary and grammar school courses be 
 shortened ? 
 
 51. The American school at Athens. 
 
 52. Influence of vocal training on health. 
 
 53. The value of music as a school study. 
 
 54. Relation of education to crime. 
 
 55. The best education for women. 
 
 56. Has manual training properly a place in the univer- 
 sity ? 
 
 57. How may morality best be taught in the schools ? 
 
 58. Is specialism begun too early in our schools and col- 
 leges ? 
 
 59. Student life in the University of Paris in the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
230 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 60. The value of cooking and sewing as school studies. 
 
 61. Are large educational endowments beneficial to soci- 
 ety ? 
 
 62. Can the schools be expected to do more than train 
 the mind ? 
 
 63. Is training or information the object of education ? 
 
 64. Is there a distinction between culture studies and 
 other studies ? 
 
 65. Can an ordinary college course of study, not supple- 
 mented by reading, furnish an adequate education ? 
 
 66. Are there too many colleges ? 
 
 67. Should a university undertake the moral guidance of 
 students ? 
 
 68. Should gymnastics be compulsory in college ? 
 
 69. Should attendance at classes in college be compul- 
 sory ? 
 
 70. Should prospective ministers receive pecuniary aid 
 from college funds ? 
 
 71. Is ignorance productive of crime? 
 
 72. Are systems of self-government by college students 
 advisable ? 
 
 73. Are examinations a true test of scholarship ? 
 
 74. Should the study of Greek and Latin be compul- 
 sory ? 
 
 75. The school master of forty years ago. 
 
 The Sciences generally. 
 
 1. Results of Arctic exploration. 
 
 2. The cliff-dwellers. 
 
 3. The mound-builders. 
 
 4. Food adulteration. 
 
 5. Possible abuses of hypnotic power. 
 
 6. Natural gas and its uses. 
 
 7. The arrangement of leaves on the stems of plants. 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 231 
 
 8. To what extent and for what purpose should the 
 general student study physiology? 
 
 9. On what theory is vivisection justified ? 
 
 10. Use of the study of anatomy to the general student. 
 
 11. Advances in the science of chemistry since 1820. 
 
 12. The manufacture and properties of illuminating gas. 
 
 13. Needed improvements in electric lighting. 
 
 14. Polar expeditions. 
 
 15. Military ballooning. 
 
 16. Action of alcohol on the nervous system. 
 
 17. Conditions producing cyclones. 
 
 18. Kace types in America. 
 
 19. Weather wisdom. 
 
 20. The law of conservation of energy. 
 
 21. Modes of evolution. 
 
 22. Correlation of forces. 
 
 23. Cerebral localization. 
 
 24. Problem of the soaring birds. 
 
 25. The Thomson-Helmholz theory of matter. 
 
 26. Instinct and reason. 
 
 27. The Scientific Congress of the Catholics. 
 
 28. The radiation of the sun's heat. 
 
 29. Science and miracles. 
 
 30. The economy of nature in the forest. 
 
 31. What is the germ theory ? 
 
 32. Uses of microscopes. 
 
 33. How cannon fire-crackers are made. 
 
 34. Theories of the cause of geysers. 
 
 35. Peat-bogs. 
 
 36. Is phrenology a science ? 
 
 37. Science and the negro problem. 
 
 38. Dangers of hypnotism. 
 
 39. Value of hypnotism to medical science. 
 
 40. Effect of climate on race types. 
 
 41. Artificial methods of producing fire. 
 
232 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 42. How some rare elements were discovered by the 
 spectroscope. 
 
 43. History of dynamite manufacture. 
 
 44. Influence of Sir Humphrey Davy. 
 
 45. The aniline color industry. 
 
 46. The atomic theory. 
 
 47. Industries based on fermentation. 
 
 48. Diamond cutting. 
 
 49. Life and work of Bunsen. 
 
 50. History of photography. 
 
 51. The relative values of foods from cereals. 
 
 52. Antiquity of the human race. 
 
 53. The theory of natural selection. 
 
 54. Distinction between animal and plant life. 
 
 55. How were the fjords probably produced? 
 
 56. Probable cause of volcanic action. 
 
 57. Metamorphoses of insects. 
 
 58. Types of race structure. 
 
 59. Is alcohol a food ? 
 
 60. The conclusions of science as to tobacco. 
 
 61. Present status of economic entomology. 
 
 62. Treeless prairies how explained? 
 
 63. Causes of climatic change. 
 
 64. Rainfall in the glacial period. 
 
 65. Slaty cleavage how produced ? 
 
 66. Sudden appearance of fishes in the Silurian age 
 how harmonize this fact with the evolution hypothesis ? 
 
 67. Theories of storms. 
 
 68. The hypothesis of contraction of the earth's sur- 
 face. 
 
 69. The drying up of interior lakes how explained? 
 
 70. Tides in palaeozoic times. 
 
 71. Theories about tornadoes. 
 
 72. Formation of vegetable mould through the action of 
 worms, 
 
Appendix Gr 2. 233 
 
 73. Influence of geography on history. 
 
 74. Scientific results of Alexander the Great's conquests. 
 
 75. Conflict between science and religion. 
 
 76. Galileo's abjuration of truth. 
 
 77. The work of Agassiz. 
 
 78. Charles Darwin. 
 
 79. Work of Herbert Spencer. 
 
 80. Revelations of the microscope. 
 
 Mathematics and Astronomy. 
 
 1. Application of least squares to problems in physics. 
 
 2. Value of the study of geometry. 
 
 3. Short history of logarithms. 
 
 4. What conditions enter into observations with mathe- 
 matical instruments ? 
 
 5. How shall an observer test his observations ? 
 
 6. History of Taylor's formula and its applications. 
 
 7. Compare Euclid's idea of proportion with Legendre's 
 in geometry. 
 
 8. Of what sciences is mathematics the basis ? 
 
 9. Inhabitancy of planets. 
 
 10. Nebular hypothesis. 
 
 11. Meteoric hypothesis. 
 
 12. Photography as an aid to astronomy. 
 
 13. The spectroscope in astronomy. 
 
 14. Theories of sun spots. 
 
 15. The history of algebra. 
 
 16. Origin and nature of comets. 
 
 17. Theories of meteors. 
 
 18. The rings of Saturn. 
 
 19. Recent observations of Mars. 
 
 20. The canals of Mars. 
 
 21. Has the moon any influence on crops ? 
 
 22. The fourth dimension. 
 
234 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry. 
 
 1. Advantages of silo. 
 
 2. Recent experiments in rain-making. 
 
 3. Advantages of farmers 7 institutes. 
 
 4. Plans for a model barn. 
 
 5. Should experiment stations be dissociated from agri- 
 cultural colleges ? 
 
 6. Sheep-raising in this State. 
 
 7. Horse-racing at county fairs. 
 
 8. Requisites of an ideal grape. 
 
 9. Moral aspect of wine-making. 
 
 10. The establishment of a commercial apple orchard. 
 
 11. The germination of seed. 
 
 12. What is a 'seed? 
 
 13. The bud propagation of plants. 
 
 14. A study of an apple. 
 
 15. Best method of destroying weeds. 
 
 16. The value of weeds. 
 
 17. Essentials of a good shade-tree. 
 
 18. Necessity of tree-planting in this State. 
 
 19. Value of bees in fruit culture. 
 
 20. Preservation of forests. 
 
 21. American farming methods. 
 
 22. Hesiod's ideas of farming. 
 
 23. The fertilization of flowers. 
 
 24. Relation of plant life to soil formation. 
 
 25. Diseases of trees. 
 
 26. How a bushel of Dakota wheat gets to market. 
 
 27. The most profitable apple to raise in your State. 
 
 28. To what extent apply rotation in crops ? 
 
 29. Applications of electricity to farming. 
 
 30. A discussion of soils. 
 
 31. Seasons for grafting. 
 
 32. The care of farm machinery. 
 
Appendix G- 2. 235 
 
 33. Breeds of horses for farm work. 
 
 34. Value of education to the farmer. 
 
 35. Social life in agricultural communities. 
 
 36. How should the government protect forests ? 
 
 37. Does government seed-distribution pay ? 
 
 38. Success of the war against pleuro-pneumonia. 
 
 39. Oleomargarine and the dairyman. 
 
 40. Best means of securing good country roads. 
 
 41. Do forests affect rain-fall ? 
 
 42. Influence of forests on water-storage. 
 
 43. Causes of increase of floods in the Mississippi valley. 
 
 Engineering. 
 
 1. Relative value of iron and steel in truss construction. 
 
 2. Advantage of electricity over compressed air in min- 
 ing operations. 
 
 3. What place should be assigned Captain Eads as an 
 engineer ? 
 
 4. What part did Professor Henry have in Morse's 
 invention of the telegraph ? 
 
 5. What is the best type of high-masonry dams. 
 
 6. Comparative merits of cedar, brick, and stone as 
 street-pavement. 
 
 7. Effect on street railway traffic of the substitution of 
 electric power for horse power. 
 
 8. Effect of cable and electric railways in promoting the 
 growth of cities. 
 
 9. Comparative merits of cable and electric street rail- 
 way systems. 
 
 10. What obstacles must be overcome before electricity 
 can supplant steam on long-distance railways ? 
 
 11. Best means for providing for the sewerage of the 
 university grounds. 
 
 12. How can the local water supply be improved ? 
 
236 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 13. Characteristic differences between types of bridges. 
 
 14. Compare different sewerage systems. 
 
 15. What is the best method of sewage disposal ? 
 
 16. Influence of Stephenson on modern civilization. 
 
 17. Need of local sanitary improvements. 
 
 18. Advantages of national geodetic surveys. 
 
 19. Defend the Hennepin canal project. 
 
 20. Should an architect be a civil engineer ? 
 
 21. Should a civil engineer be a mechanical engineer 
 also? 
 
 22. How should the engineering corps of the United 
 States be made up ? 
 
 23. Modern methods of tunnel-building. 
 
 24. Flying machines. 
 
 25. A short history of metallurgy. 
 
 26. Light-house construction. 
 
 27. The Eads ship railway. 
 
 28. How is a suspension bridge constructed ? 
 
 29. Describe the method of producing silver from the 
 ores of the Comstock lode. 
 
 30. A short description of the Comstock lode. 
 
 31. History of silver mining in Virginia City. 
 
 32. Conditions affecting high speed of railway trains. 
 
 33. A description of the General Electric Co.'s Diamond 
 Drill. 
 
 34. Use of the sextant in sounding surveys. 
 
 35. Aerial Navigation. 
 
 36. Modern applications of electricity. 
 
 37. The manufacture of tile. 
 
 38. Improvements in locomotive construction during 
 twenty years. 
 
 39. Future uses of gas and electricity. 
 
 40. Best route for a ship-canal between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific. 
 
 41. Advantages of laboratory work. 
 
Appendix Gr 3. 237 
 
 42. Value of manual training in a liberal education. 
 
 43. On what problems are leading physicists working ? 
 
 44. Will laboratory work in physics be useful to a 
 lawyer ? 
 
 45. Contrast Faraday and Maxwell as to habits of thought. 
 
 46. How much work in physics should a student take 
 who purposes to study medicine ? 
 
 47. Influence of discoveries in physics upon commerce. 
 
 48. On what ground is elementary physics prescribed for 
 admission to most American colleges ? 
 
 49. What has been added to the general stock of physical 
 knowledge during the last ten years ? 
 
 50. The modern locomotive and its development. 
 
 51. Morse as an inventor. 
 
 52. Credit due to Joseph Henry. 
 
 53. The manufacture of steel. 
 
 54. The system of United States land surveys. 
 
 55. West Point and a general polytechnic school com- 
 pared. 
 
 56. Systems of house drainage. 
 
 57. The Mississippi levee system. 
 
 58. How to fire a boiler. 
 
 59. Old and recent methods of steam-engine practice. 
 
 60. What Edison has accomplished. 
 
 61. The building of the Cantilever bridge at Niagara. 
 
 62. Small motors. 
 
 3. 
 
 A MISCELLANEOUS LIST OF ESSAY SUBJECTS. 
 
 1. The Eiffel tower. 4. Journalists and news- 
 
 2. Importance of Foreign mongers. 
 
 and Home Missions 5. Sunday observance, 
 compared. 6. Eesults of Stanley's ex- 
 
 3. The United States Navy. plorations. 
 
238 
 
 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 7. The G. A. B. as a politi- 29. 
 
 cal force. 30. 
 
 8. The new talking ma- 31. 
 
 chines. 
 
 9. Social influence of 32. 
 
 churches. 
 
 10. China and modern ideas. 33. 
 
 11. Library architecture. 
 
 12. Social uses of the kieker. 34. 
 
 13. Executions by electricity. 35. 
 
 14. Influence of public libra- 
 
 ries. 
 
 15. American influence in 36. 
 
 China. 
 
 16. Heligoland. 4 
 
 17. The ideal newspaper. 37. 
 
 18. The map of Africa. 
 
 19. Materials for art in 
 
 America. 38. 
 
 20. A Chinese theatre. 39. 
 
 21. The Chinese in San Fran- 
 
 cisco. 40. 
 
 22. Methods of communica- 
 
 tion with inhabitants 
 of other planets. 
 
 23. Acoustics. 
 
 24. The history of the violin. 41. 
 
 25. Is Christianity thriving 42. 
 
 in Turkey ? 
 
 26. The utilitarian theory of 43. 
 
 morals. 44. 
 
 27. Egoism and altruism as 45. 
 
 moral principles. 46. 
 
 28. The moral aspect of alms- 47. 
 
 giving. 
 
 The divorce problem. 
 
 Morality and art. 
 
 The oratorio as a musical 
 form. 
 
 Gluck and Mozart com- 
 pared. 
 
 Martin Luther and 
 church music. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 The probable effect of 
 socialism on literary 
 activity. 
 
 Causes of England's dif- 
 ficulty in governing 
 Ireland. 
 
 How can better food be 
 secured to working- 
 men? 
 
 Remedies against floods. 
 
 Should inheritances be 
 taxed? 
 
 Should the amount of 
 money that may be 
 bequeathed to an in- 
 dividual be limited by 
 law? 
 
 Phonetic spelling. 
 
 Is art amenable to a 
 moral standard ? 
 
 Popular amusements. 
 
 Archery. 
 
 Boating. 
 
 Boat-races. 
 
 Prize-fights should be 
 prohibited. 
 
Appendix Gr 3. 
 
 239 
 
 48. The use and abuse of 74. 
 
 athletic sports. 75. 
 
 49. Yachting. 76. 
 
 50. Martin Luther. 
 
 51. Mahomet and his follow- 
 
 ers. 77. 
 
 52. The Huguenots. 78. 
 
 53. Confucius. 79. 
 
 54. Benvenuto Cellini. 80. 
 
 55. The Albigenses. 
 
 56. Hermits. 81. 
 
 57. The newsboy. 
 
 58. Beggars. 82. 
 
 59. Agriculture in England. 
 
 60. Agriculture in Italy. 83. 
 
 61. Progress in agriculture. 
 
 62. Knights of Labor. 84. 
 
 63. The Chicago Board of 85. 
 
 Trade. 
 
 64. Paper. 86. 
 
 65. The art of advertising. 87. 
 
 66. Curiosities of advertis- 88. 
 
 ing. 89. 
 
 67. Glass-making. 90. 
 
 68. History of brick-mak- 91. 
 
 ing. 92. 
 
 69. Has Prohibition been 93. 
 
 successful in Maine ? 94. 
 
 70. The American system 95. 
 
 of government. 96. 
 
 71. Shall Americans build 97. 
 
 ships ? 
 
 72. Our National Congress. 98. 
 
 73. Civil Service in Great 99. 
 
 Britain. 
 
 The schools of England. 
 
 The use of note-books. 
 
 A liberal education 
 should precede the 
 professional. 
 
 German universities. 
 
 Electricity and its uses. 
 
 Artesian wells. 
 
 Artesian wells in the 
 Great Sahara. 
 
 The history of teleg- 
 raphy. 
 
 The measurement of 
 time. 
 
 History of the steam- 
 boat. 
 
 The fixed stars. 
 
 The other side of the 
 moon. 
 
 Habits of ants. 
 
 Honey-making ants. 
 
 Animal intelligence. 
 
 Insects. 
 
 The intelligence of ants. 
 
 The coral animal. 
 
 Ants, bees, wasps. 
 
 Light. 
 
 Sound. 
 
 History of music. 
 
 Grecian music. 
 
 Michael Angelo as a 
 sculptor. 
 
 The Laplanders. 
 
 Is there an open polar 
 sea? 
 
240 
 
 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 100. Genghis Khan. 129. 
 
 101. Brigands of Sicily. 130. 
 
 102. Zuni Indians. 131. 
 
 103. The Japanese Constitu- 
 
 tion. 132. 
 
 104. Was Alaska a profitable 133. 
 
 investment ? 134. 
 
 105. The Northern Pacific 135. 
 
 Eailroad. 
 
 106. The romance of the sea. 136. 
 
 107. Stanley and Living- 
 
 stone. 137. 
 
 108. The Mammoth Cave. 138. 
 
 109. Depths of the ocean. 139. 
 
 110. The Rhine. , 140. 
 
 111. Cyprus. 141. 
 
 112. Greenland. 142. 
 
 113. History of Paris. 
 
 114. The Arabian Nights. 143. 
 
 115. The Fiji Islands. 144. 
 
 116. The Koman Emperors. 145. 
 
 117. Hannibal. 146. 
 
 118. The Olympic games. 147. 
 
 119. The Manilian law. 148. 
 
 120. Caesar's wars in Gaul. 149. 
 
 121. Social life in Greece. 150. 
 
 122. Old Greek education. 
 
 123. The Gracchi. 151. 
 
 124. The Homeric question. 152. 
 
 125. Ancient and Modern 153. 
 
 Greece. 154. 
 
 126. Thucydides. 155. 
 
 127. Socrates and the Soph- 156. 
 
 ists. 157. 
 
 128. Social life in Kome. 158. 
 
 Alexander and Caesar. 
 
 ^Eschylus. 
 
 A Greek naval fight, 
 by an eye-witness. 
 
 Nero. 
 
 The age of Pericles. 
 
 Xerxes. 
 
 Dr. Schliemann's dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 Pompeii, ancient and 
 modern. 
 
 A day in ancient Athens. 
 
 School life in Athens. 
 
 Rome and Carthage. 
 
 The Letters of Junius. 
 
 Greek literature. 
 
 The dress of the Greeks 
 and Eomans. 
 
 Charles Ste wartParnell. 
 
 Madame de Stael. 
 
 Charles James Fox. 
 
 Eosa Bonheur. 
 
 George Canning. 
 
 Benjamin West. 
 
 Paul the Apostle. 
 
 Longfellow's home and 
 home life. 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner. 
 
 Sir John Franklin. 
 
 Florence Nightingale. 
 
 William Pitt. 
 
 Horace Greeley. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant. 
 
 William Wilberforce. 
 
 Liszt. 
 
Appendix Cr 3. 
 
 241 
 
 159. Richard Brinsley Sheri- 185. 
 
 dan. 186. 
 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt. 187. 
 
 Edwin Booth. 188. 
 
 160. 
 161. 
 162. 
 
 163. 
 164. 
 165. 
 166. 
 167. 
 168. 
 169. 
 170. 
 
 171. 
 172. 
 
 173. 
 174. 
 175. 
 
 176. 
 177. 
 
 178. 
 179. 
 
 180. 
 181. 
 182. 
 183. 
 
 New England farms, 189. 
 
 past and present. 190. 
 
 Lord Olive. 
 
 The South-sea Bubble. 191. 
 
 Frederick the Great. 192. 
 
 The Tournament. 193. 
 
 William the Silent. 194. 
 
 The battle of Shiloh. 
 
 Alexander the Great. 195. 
 
 The battle of Water- 196. 
 loo. 
 
 The City of Mexico, an- 197. 
 
 cient and modern. 198. 
 
 The Civil Rights Bill 199. 
 
 and its effects. 200. 
 
 The study of history. 201. 
 
 Peter the Great. 
 
 The Missouri Com- 
 promise. 202. 
 
 The British Peerage. 203. 
 
 Witchcraft inNewEng- 204. 
 
 land. 205. 
 
 Chevalier La Salle. 206. 
 
 The character of Co- 207. 
 
 lumbus. 208. 
 
 Hernando Cortez. 209. 
 
 The dark ages. 210. 
 
 Charles the Great. 211. 
 
 The Northmen in Amer- 
 ica. 212. 
 184, Feudalism and chivalry. 213. 
 
 The Lion-hearted King. 
 
 Marlborough. 
 
 The Feudal system. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 Louis the Fifteenth. 
 
 The Seven Wonders of 
 the World. 
 
 The Ferris wheel. 
 
 Magna Charta. 
 
 The Flagellants. 
 
 Early social life in 
 New England. 
 
 Races of the Danube. 
 
 Social life of the Anglo- 
 Saxons. 
 
 American antiquities. 
 
 Louis the Fourteenth. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 The Norman Conquest. 
 
 The reasons for the 
 success of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution. 
 
 The Earl of Chatham. 
 
 The Thirty Years' War. 
 
 The French Revolution. 
 
 Zenobia. 
 
 Palmyra. 
 
 English in Egypt. 
 
 Emin Pasha. 
 
 The Eastern question. 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 Chile : its rise and 
 power. 
 
 Russians in Asia. 
 
 The Soudan. 
 
242 
 
 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 214. Slavery and the slave 241. 
 
 trade in Brazil. 242. 
 
 215. Prescott's Conquest of 243. 
 
 Mexico. 
 
 216. Almanacs. 244. 
 
 217. Old almanacs. 245. 
 
 218. The Faerie Queen. 246. 
 
 219. The British Museum. ; 247. 
 
 220. Longfellow's Songs of 248. 
 
 Hiawatha. 249. 
 
 221. Edmund Burke. 250. 
 
 222. Thomas Carlyle and his 251. 
 
 influence. 252. 
 
 223. Caliban. 253. 
 
 224. Hypatia. , 254. 
 
 225. Lowell's Among My 
 
 Books. 255. 
 
 226. King Arthur. 
 
 227. Eound Table of King 256. 
 
 Arthur. 
 
 228. Times of King Arthur. 257. 
 
 229. Legends of King Arthur. 258. 
 
 230. The prevailing thought 
 
 of the Tempest. 259. 
 
 231. The story of Euth. 260. 
 
 232. Dr. Arnold. 261. 
 
 233. Stanley's Through the 
 
 Dark Continent. 262. 
 
 234. S. T. Coleridge. 263. 
 
 235. Edmund Spenser. 264. 
 
 236. Beaumont and Fletcher. 
 
 237. Goethe's character. 265. 
 
 238. Our Mutual Friend. 
 
 239. The Pilgrim's Progress. 266. 
 
 240. Shakespeare's villains. 267. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Hero worship. 
 
 The Cotter's Saturday 
 
 Night. 
 
 Longfellow's Outre-Mer. 
 Joseph Addison. 
 Don Quixote. 
 The Koran. 
 
 Shakespeare's Tempest. 
 Washington Irving. 
 John Lothrop Motley. 
 Bret Harte. 
 Gil Bias. 
 Rip Van Winkle. 
 J. G. Holland's Mistress 
 
 of the Manse. 
 How to read periodi- 
 cals. 
 Longfellow's Tales of a 
 
 Wayside Inn. 
 Female novelists. 
 Dickens' humorous 
 
 characters. 
 The Kalevala. 
 W. D. Howells. 
 J. G. Holland's Bitter- 
 
 Sweet. 
 
 Shakespeare's heroines. 
 Little Dorrit. 
 Oliver Goldsmith's She 
 
 Stoops to Conquer. 
 Burnaby's Ride to 
 
 Khiva. 
 
 Last Days of Pompeii. 
 Childe Harold. 
 
Appendix Cr 3. 
 
 243 
 
 268. The Wandering Jew. 293. 
 
 269. The sources of the plot 
 
 of the Tempest. 294. 
 
 270. The power of oratory. 295. 
 
 271. A comparison of the 
 
 Tempest and Mid- 296. 
 summer Night's 
 Dream. 297. 
 
 272. Gulliver's Travels. 298. 
 
 273. National hymns. 
 
 274. Cervantes. 299. 
 
 275. T. B. Macaulay. 300. 
 
 276. A comparison of Dick- 301. 
 
 ens and Thackeray. 
 
 277. Was Thackeray a snob? 302. 
 
 278. The verse of the Tem- 
 
 pest. 
 
 279. Macaulay as an histo- 303. 
 
 torian. 
 
 280. Ariel and Puck. 304. 
 
 281. The motive of reading. 
 
 282. Longfellow's shorter 305. 
 
 poems. 
 
 283. Scott's Quentin Dur- 
 
 ward. 306. 
 
 284. Robert Southey. 307. 
 
 285. N. P. Willis. 308. 
 
 286. Tolstoi. 
 
 287. Ariel and Miranda. 309. 
 
 288. The English novel. 310. 
 
 289. Nicholas Nickleby. 311. 
 
 290. Apiculture. 
 
 291. How postage stamps 312. 
 
 are made. 
 
 292. The tulip mania. 313. 
 
 The philosophy of Benj. 
 
 Franklin. 
 
 National peculiarities. 
 Is the jury system a 
 
 failure ? 
 The character of the 
 
 Indian. 
 
 Teachers' Institutes. 
 Form and material of 
 
 ancient books. 
 The Grange movement. 
 A Roman library. 
 Some of my queer 
 
 friends. 
 The dangers of work 
 
 reflections of a lazy 
 
 man. 
 The advantage of being 
 
 small. 
 A day on the planet 
 
 Mars. 
 What I remembered 
 
 when I was drown- 
 ing. 
 
 Books that I like. 
 Three great failures. 
 The corner-grocery phi- 
 losopher. 
 Life in Utopia. 
 The art of forgetting. 
 How we are deceived 
 
 by our senses. 
 How to be happy though 
 
 rich. 
 The Anglornaniac. 
 
244 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 314. Elements of savagery in men derived from the 
 
 modern civilization. comic papers. 
 
 315. The horrors of peace. 319. Rambles in the diction- 
 
 316. On the rapidity of po- ary. 
 
 lite conversation. 320. At the primary. 
 
 317. A modern Aristides. 321. The unwritten law of 
 
 318. Impressions of great the campus. 
 
 CAPITALS, PUNCTUATION, ETC. 
 
 The rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc., given in 
 grammars and rhetorics are, of purpose, laid down some- 
 what dogmatically. In actual practice no such uniformity 
 can be found. Each publishing firm, each magazine and 
 each newspaper has its own rules, rules which its editors 
 follow and impose, so far as possible, on all who supply it 
 with manuscript. We shall first present the general rules 
 for capitals and for the six most common marks of punctua- 
 tion, and then shall show some of the variations from those 
 rules in actual practice, by means of extracts from the 
 6 cards ' of representative daily papers. 
 
 General Rules for Capitals. 
 The following words should begin with capitals : 
 
 1. The first word of every book, chapter, letter, and 
 paragraph. 
 
 2. The first word after a period; and, usually, after the 
 interrogation point and the exclamation point. 
 
 3. Divine names ; as, God, Jehovah, the Supreme Being. 
 
 4. Proper names of persons, places, rivers, oceans, ships ; 
 as, Franklin, Chicago, Mississippi, Atlantic, the Monitor. 
 

 Appendix Gr 4. 245 
 
 5. Adjectives derived from the proper names of places ; 
 as, English, French, Roman, American. 
 
 6. The first word of an exact quotation in a direct form ; 
 as, he said, ' There will be war.' 
 
 7. The pronoun I and the interjection ! 
 
 8. Terms of great historical importance ; as, the Refor- 
 mation, the Civil War, the Whigs, the Revolution. 
 
 General Rules for Punctuation. 
 
 The comma, semi-colon, and colon mark the three degrees 
 of separation in the parts of a sentence; the comma the 
 smallest degree, the semi-colon a greater degree, and the 
 colon the greatest degree. To illustrate : 
 
 Ehetoric is based upon Logic, Grammar, and ^Esthetics. 
 
 Rhetoric is based upon Logic, which deals with the laws 
 of thought; upon Grammar, which presents the facts and 
 rules of correct language; and upon ^Esthetics, which in- 
 vestigates the principles of beauty. 
 
 Rhetoric is based upon the following sciences : Logic, 
 which deals with the laws of thought; Grammar, which 
 presents the facts and rules of correct language ; and 
 ^Esthetics, which investigates the principles of beauty. 
 
 Rules for the Comma. 
 
 A comma is used in the following instances : 
 
 1. To separate grammatically independent elements from 
 the context ; as, ' Rejoice, young man ! ' 
 
 2. To separate intermediate, transposed, and parenthetical 
 elements from the context ; as, ' Even good men, they say, 
 sometimes act like brutes.' 
 
 3. To separate expressions in apposition from the con- 
 
246 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 text ; as, ' Washington, the first President, served two 
 terms/ 
 
 4. To separate contrasted words or phrases, and words 
 or phrases in pairs ; as, ( We live in deeds, not years. 7 
 ' Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my 
 hand and my heart to this vote.' 
 
 5. To mark the omission of words ; as, ' In war he was 
 warlike ; in peace, peaceable.' 
 
 6. Before short and informal quotations ; as, ' He shouted, 
 "Come in !"' 
 
 NOTE. It is quite possible to use the comma too frequently ; as, * It 
 is well known, that, when water is cooled, below a certain point, con- 
 traction ceases, and expansion begins.' Better: 'It is well known 
 that when water is cooled below a certain point, contraction ceases 
 and expansion begins.' 
 
 Mules for the /Semi-Colon. 
 
 A semi-colon is used in the following instances : 
 
 1. To separate members of a compound sentence, when 
 they are complex or loosely connected, or when they contain 
 commas. 
 
 2. To separate short sentences closely connected in mean- 
 ing. 
 
 3. To introduce an example, before as. 
 
 4. To separate clauses having a common dependence. 
 Illustrations of these rules: * Science declares that no 
 particle of matter can be destroyed ; that each atom has 
 its place in the universe ; and that, in seeking that 
 place, each obeys certain fixed laws.' 'When education 
 shall be made a qualification for suffrage ; when politi- 
 cians shall give place to statesmen; then, and not till 
 then, will the highest development of our government be 
 reached.' 
 
Appendix Gr 4. 247 
 
 Mules for the Colon. 
 
 The colon is used in the following instances : 
 
 1. To introduce several particulars complex in form, in 
 apposition to a general term, and separated from one another 
 by semi-colons. ^(Already illustrated.) 
 
 2. To introduce long formal quotations. If the quotation 
 begins a new paragraph a dash should be used instead of a 
 colon. 
 
 Rules for the Period. 
 
 The period is used in the following instances : 
 
 1. To mark the completion of a declarative sentence. 
 
 2. After abbreviations ; as, D.D., LL.D., Vt., Ala. 
 
 Rules for the Interrogation Point. 
 
 The interrogation point is used 
 
 1. After every direct question ; as, Will you come ? ' 
 ' You have been to Niagara ? ' * When was such a promise 
 made ? By whom ? ' 
 
 2. In parentheses to express doubt ; as, ' In the time of 
 Homer, 850 (?) B.C.' 
 
 Mules for the Exclamation Point. 
 
 The exclamation point is used 
 
 1. To express strong emotion ; as, i He is dead, the sweet 
 musician ! ' 
 
 2. To express doubt or sarcasm ; as, 'That man a poet ! ' 
 
 3. After interjections ; as < Oh ! ' ' my Country ! ' 
 
248 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 Variations from the Rules. 
 
 The explanation of the abbreviations used is as follows : 
 
 Trans. = Boston Evening Transcript. 
 
 Trib. = Chicago Tribune. 
 
 F. P. = Detroit Free Press. 
 
 Bl. = Toledo Blade. 
 
 C. G. = Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette. 
 
 P. D. = Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
 
 Varieties of Punctuation. 
 
 1. After an introduction to an extract or quotation, use a 
 colon if the voice naturally falls ; as, " He spoke as fol- 
 lows : " If the stop is not a complete one, use a comma, 
 except when the paragraph closes, when a dash should be 
 used. The following will illustrate : 
 
 A dispatch from Los Angeles says, "The yield of grapes," 
 etc. Says the editor [Trans.] 
 
 2. Omit comma in cases like the following : John Smith 
 of New York, Mr. and Mrs. Brown of Detroit, and Mr. Jones 
 of Chicago. In lists of names use only the comma after 
 the town, except in cases where phrases occur describing 
 the persons or their business, in which case use the comma 
 and semicolon. Thus: James Brown of No. 272 Wabash 
 Avenue, Chicago ; W. D. Ho wells, the popular novelist, of 
 Boston; and Labouchere, editor of London Truth, were 
 present. [Trib.] 
 
 3. Use comma before "and," "or," "nor," etc., when 
 they connect three or more nouns, adjectives, etc. ; as John, 
 James, and Henry leave town next week ; he was kicked, 
 and cuffed, and beaten. [Trib.] 
 
 4. Use the dash before and colon after viz., to wit, namely, 
 etc. [Trib.] 
 
Appendix G 4. 249 
 
 5. The name of the State in the following case should be 
 enclosed in parentheses: "The Jackson (Mich.) Pilot has 
 enlarged." [Trib.] 
 
 6. When two sentences compose a headline, use a dash 
 between them instead of a period. [F. P.] 
 
 7. In testimony, use semi-colon when sentences are in- 
 complete. [F. P.] "Went to the window; looked out; 
 saw the prisoner, etc." [Trib.] 
 
 8. In a run-in [not paragraphed] list of officers, use 
 comma and semi-colon. When paragraphed, use a dash 
 between title and name. [F. P.] 
 
 9. When the words cheers, applause, hear, laughter, or a 
 reference in a legal decision, occur without a break in the 
 sentence, use parentheses ; but when such interpolation 
 occurs at the end of a sentence, punctuate as a separate 
 sentence and inclose in brackets. [F. P.] 
 
 10. Use brackets to inclose interruptions in speeches, 
 and ail other interpolations ; as [Applause], [Laughter], 
 [Signed]; "The senator from Delaware [Mr. Saulsbury] 
 saw fit." [Trans.] 
 
 11. Use hyphen in such cases as first- and second-class 
 stocks, 8- to 6-100, etc. [Bl.] 
 
 Varieties of Capitalization. 
 
 12. Do not capitalize common names of grains, fruits, or 
 flowers. [F. P.] 
 
 13. Keep up [i.e., capitalize] pronouns referring to the 
 Deity or Savior. [F. P.] 
 
 14. Capitalize pronouns referring to the Deity only when 
 standing alone, without an antecedent noun. [Trans.] 
 
 15. Do not capitalize pronouns referring to the Deity. 
 [Trib.] 
 
 16. Capitalize all synonyms of the Deity, but not he or 
 him. [P. D.] 
 
250 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 17. All full titles of nobility, etc., to be capitalized, as 
 Prince of Wales, etc. ; but when standing alone, the words 
 duke, earl, etc., to begin with lower-case letter. Titles of 
 sovereignty to begin with a lower-case letter when followed 
 by the name of the country, etc., ruled over, but in caps 
 when followed by name of ruler ; thus grand duke of 
 Hesse, queen of England ; also, the king, the pope, etc. ; 
 but King Kalakaua, etc. In exception to this rule, capitalize 
 President and Vice-President, whenever they occur, whether 
 with the name or not, when referring to the United States 
 officers ; also Chief Magistrate, meaning the President. 
 [Trans.] 
 
 18. All titles of office to be capitalized when before the 
 name, but not when alone ; thus General Burrell, ex- 
 Mayor Stokley ; the general, the mayor, etc. Cases such 
 as the following, however, to be put as here given : pilot 
 Sayles, officer Tapley, baggage-master Bangs, lawyer Cross, 
 and the like. [Trans.] 
 
 19. Capitalize the names of national, state, county, city, 
 and town official bodies and departments of this and other 
 governments ; as Senate, Diet, House of Nobles, Coast 
 Survey, Life Saving Service (but not life saving station), 
 Civil Service Commission (but not civil service), Common 
 Council, but central precinct, police headquarters, fire de- 
 partment. [F. P.] Adjectives derived from these names 
 to begin with small letter. [Trans.] 
 
 20. In " College News " capitalize University, College, 
 Faculty, names of Classes, Professors and their Chairs 
 (Professor of Mathematics). [C. G.] 
 
 21. Lower-case [i.e., do not capitalize] departments in 
 universities, schools, W. C. T. U., etc. as, literary depart- 
 ment, grammar class, sailors' department. [F. P.] 
 
 22. In compound names of corporations, organizations, 
 official bodies, etc., the distinctive word or words are proper 
 adjectives or nouns, and are to be capitalized, but not the 
 
Appendix Gr 4. 251 
 
 remainder : the Lake Shore railroad company, the Young 
 Men's Christian association, First Congregational church. 
 There is a small class of compound names which are proper 
 names and need capitals the Boody House, House of 
 Refuge, Custom-house, Wheeler's Opera House. Never 
 capitalize these when used in the plural, or in a general 
 sense, but only when referring to a particular one. [Bl.] 
 
 23. All positions in the church up to Bishop (Presiding 
 Elder) are in lower case, such as rector, deacon, monk, etc. 
 
 [C, G.] 
 
 24. Do not capitalize Christian, church, any church 
 officers. [Trib.] 
 
 25. Capitalize committee, association, club, company, 
 etc., when name is given, as Finance Committee, Eureka 
 Insurance Company ; all other instances lower case. Names 
 of political parties, etc., are capitalized. [C. G.] 
 
 26. Keep up official titles of city, county, state, and 
 national officers, no matter how referred to, as Mayor, 
 Clerk (but not the Clerk's clerk or his chief clerk), Sheriff, 
 Receiver of Taxes, Consul General, Speaker (of a legislative 
 body), but not a consul, commercial agent, warden, alder- 
 man, constable, deputy sheriff, justice of the peace, inspector 
 of election, market clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper. 
 [F. P.] 
 
 27. A waved line under a head indicates it is to be set 
 in Nonpareil Title ; two dashes in SMALL CAPS. In double 
 heads, three dashes under first line, a waved line under the 
 second. [Bl.] 
 
 28. In headlines capitalize first and last words, all nouns 
 and important words, except short adjectives, prepositions 
 and conjunctions such as a, an, the, in, by, of, and, or, 
 nor, for. [F. P.] 
 
 29. Capitalize without quoting (on the principle that the 
 name or title is the proper name of the specific thing 
 mentioned) all the words of the name of a book, lecture, 
 
252 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 song, play, opera, picture, etc., excepting conjunctions, 
 prepositions, and articles. As, He read a paper on the 
 Theory of Gases ; I am reading The Mill on the Floss. 
 [P. D.J 
 
 30. Capitalize North, South, East, West, North-west, 
 etc., when referring to a section of the country; in other 
 cases use the lower case. [C. G.] 
 
 31. Capitalize the prefixes von, de, de la, etc., in foreign 
 proper names only when not preceded by title or Christian 
 name; as De Lesseps, M. de Lesseps. [Trans.] 
 
 32. When the titles M., Mme., Mile., Sig., or Mgr. 
 (Monsignor) precede "de" or "du," use small "d." When 
 a name of which "De" or "Du" forms a part is preceded 
 by Mr. or Mrs., use a capital " D." [Trib.] 
 
 33. In reports, of meetings in which papers are read, 
 capitalize the principal words, if the title is short ; but if 
 long put in lower case; as Papers were read on "The 
 Physician's Duties," and " Should the physician desire to 
 obtain a profit on articles prescribed for patients ? " But 
 the principal words in all titles of books to begin with 
 capitals invariably. [Trans.] 
 
 34. Do not capitalize esq., sr., jr., a. m., p. m., m. [BL] 
 
 Compounds. 
 
 35. Use hyphen with compounds of self-, semi- and anti-. 
 
 36. Make separate words of three or more words involv- 
 ing one idea. Thus : never to be forgotten time, commander 
 in chief. [P. D.] 
 
 37. Compound such words as well-to-do, commander-in- 
 chief, and all three word combinations ; other compounds 
 to be avoided as much as possible. [Trib.] 
 
 38. Make one word of all words formed by the addition 
 of "re/' "over/' "under," "sub," ["non"] and similar pre- 
 fixes. [Trib.] Ee-marked (pertaining to price). [P. D.] 
 
Appendix Gr 4. 253 
 
 39. Make two words of bondholder, snowstorm, and 
 similar words, in cases like the following : He is a stock 
 and bond holder; rain and snow storm; also, such words 
 as any one, every one. [Trib.] 
 
 40. Compound words are to be avoided as much as pos- 
 sible. Make one word of most of those in which a hyphen 
 is used. Instances in which a hyphen should be used : 
 After-life, co-education, commander-in-chief, good-by, half- 
 dozen, half-century, and the like (but half a dozen, half a 
 century), one-half (and all fractions), self-control (and 
 the like), under-estimate, twenty-odd years; the so-called 
 science (but the science, so called), a well-known merchant 
 (but a merchant well known for his integrity, etc.) ; up- 
 stairs, B-flat. [Trans.J 
 
 Quotations. 
 
 41. Quote names of papers and magazines when occurring 
 in headlines. [Trib.] 
 
 42. Do not quote a solid extract preceded and followed 
 by leaded matter. [P. D.] 
 
 43. Do not quote an extract in smaller type than the 
 main article. [P. D.] 
 
 44. In quoted matter of more than one paragraph, quota- 
 tion marks must be put at the beginning of every paragraph. 
 This does not apply to verses of poetry, however. [Trans.] 
 
 45. Quote names of books (but not of periodicals) ; names 
 of plays (but not of characters in them) ; and names of 
 statues and pictures. [Trans.] 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 46. "Sales by auction" in preference to "sales at auc- 
 tion." [Trans.] 
 
 47. Murderers are hanged, pictures are hung. [Trans.] 
 
254 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 48. Never say "this A. M., 77 or " p. M., 77 but "this 
 forenoon (morning)/ 7 or "this afternoon (evening)." 
 [Trans.] 
 
 49. Spell out the points of the compass ; as north-north- 
 east, not 1ST. N. E. [Trans.] 
 
 50. Dived is the past tense of the verb to dive, and not 
 dove. [Trans.] 
 
 51. He pleaded not guilty, not plead. [Trans.] 
 
 52. Sewerage, the system of drainage, sewage, the deposit 
 resulting from drainage. [Trans.] 
 
 53. Knights Templars. [Trans.] 
 
 54. The building was damaged $2,000, not $2,000 worth. 
 [Trans.] 
 
 55. Repeat the s after the apostrophe in the possessive 
 case of proper names ; as Jones's, Edmonds's, and the like ; 
 but not in the plural possessive of common nouns ; as the 
 Elks 7 benefit ; the Poncas 7 wrongs ; or after the words Jesus, 
 Moses, Parnassus. [Trans.] 
 
 56. Use farther when distance is meant ; as "a few 
 miles farther, 77 "farther on, 77 "farther down the lapse of 
 ages. 77 " And, further, I would say 77 ; " furthermore, 77 " the 
 further consideration of the subject. 77 [Trans.] 
 
 57. One 7 s self, and not oneself. [Trans.] 
 
 58. Don't erase and write over on the same space. Strike 
 out and rewrite. Interline as little as possible. Never 
 write up the side of the paper. [Bl.] 
 
 59. Never use " burglarize, 77 " jailed, 77 " Sundayed, 77 
 "cracked 77 (a safe). [BL] 
 
 60. Never use such expressions as "Rev. Smith next 
 spoke, 77 make it "Rev. Mr. Smith, 77 "Hon. C. H., 77 or "Hon. 
 Mr. Scribner. 77 [BL] 
 
 61. Put " the 77 before Rev. and Hon. when used before a 
 proper name ; as the Rev. Mr. Cheney, the Hon. Mr. Dis- 
 raeli, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bourget. [Trib.] 
 
 62. Omit the word " very 77 as ordinarily used. [Trib.] 
 
Appendix Gr 5. 255 
 
 63. Say "last ten years/' and not, "past ten years." 
 [Trib.] 
 
 64. Omit the word " on " before the days of the week, 
 and in the following cases : On the 10th of July ; the races 
 on the first day of the meeting ; on yesterday ; on to-morrow ; 
 not otherwise. [Trib.] 
 
 65. O, and not oh; without the comma when used thus : 
 O Lord ! Liberty ! Generally otherwise with the comma. 
 [Trib.] 
 
 66. Distinguish between and Oh. The former is used 
 only in addresses : ye people ! Heavens ! And with- 
 out any point ; the latter as an exclamation : Oh ! oh, for a 
 letter from home ! [BL] 
 
 67. Use "etc." instead of "&c." [BL] 
 
 68. Paragraphs must be marked plainly, either by deep 
 indentation, or the use of the mark H". Where copy is in 
 separate sheets, if a paragraph runs over from one to the 
 next, draw a diagonal line across the lower right-hand corner 
 of the first, and the upper left-hand corner of the one fol- 
 lowing. If a paragraph comes within a line or two of the 
 bottom of a page, begin on the next page. Avoid also making 
 one within a line or two of the top. [BL] 
 
 (,-; H, 4 A^J^ J'J^ 
 
 5 - tc/i^J 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN CORRECTING MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 The following system of abbreviations is intended to be 
 used by teachers in marking errors in the manuscripts of 
 students. The references accompanying the abbreviations 
 will enable the student to correct the errors thus pointed 
 out in his written work, before handing it back to his teacher 
 for the second reading. The references are to pages of this 
 book and other rhetorics. 
 
 P. = Scott and Denney's Paragraph-Writing. 
 K. = Keeler's English Composition. 
 
256 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 W. = Williams' Composition and Rhetoric (Rev. and En- 
 larged ed. 1891). 
 
 H. = A. S. Hill's Principles of Rhetoric (1891). 
 
 C. = Clark's Practical Rhetoric (1884). 
 
 D. = D. J. Hill's Elements of Rhetoric and Composition 
 (1884). 
 
 G. = Genung's Practical Elements of Rhetoric (1887). 
 
 MARKS USED IN CORRECTING. 
 
 a. In the MS. 
 
 The words, clauses, or sentences to which the marginal 
 corrections refer, are indicated by crossing out, by under- 
 scoring, or by inclosing in brackets or circles. A caret 
 shows the point at which something is to be supplied. An 
 inverted caret marts the omission of the apostrophe or of 
 quotation marks. 
 
 b. In the Margin. 
 
 Amb. Ambiguous. P. pp. 268-270; K. pp. 114-116. 
 
 (1) " Squinting construction." P. p. 267 ; K. p. 115 ; 
 
 G. pp. 120-122 ; W. p. 82 ; H. p. 42 ; C. p. 50 ; 
 D. p. 56. 
 
 (2) Participle for clause. P. p. 271 ; K. p. 115 ; G. 
 
 p. 116, 11 ; W. p. 82 ; C. p. 51. 
 
 Ant. Antecedent needs attention. P. p. 269 ; G. pp. 123- 
 127 ; W. p. 87 ; H. p. 72 ; C. p. 48 ; D. p. 56. 
 
 (1) Two or more possible antecedents. 
 
 (2) No antecedent. P. p. 270, 271 ; H. p. 35. 
 
 (3) Relative and antecedent do not agree. P. pp. 
 
 269-271 ; K. p. 37 ; H. p. 44. 
 
 (4) Repeat the antecedent. P. pp. 39, 40, 270, 271 ; 
 
 W. p. 88; H. p. 110-112; C. p. 52. 
 Cap. Capitalize. P. p. 244, 249 ; K. p. 201. 
 Cl. Not clear ; vague, obscure, indefinite. P. pp. 52, 53 ; G. 
 
 pp. 19-21 ; H. pp. 72-74 ; C. pp. 48-55 ; D. p. 54. 
 
Appendix Gr 5. 257 
 
 (1) Words necessary to the sense omitted. P. p. 
 
 272; W. p. 97; H. p. 107. 
 
 (2) Word or idea needs to be repeated. P. pp. 270, 
 
 272; G. p. 126, 23, 160; W. p. 139; H. p. 
 110 ; C. p. 49. 
 
 (3) Confusion of ideas. P. p. 270. 
 Cnst. Construction faulty. P. pp. 284, 285. 
 
 (1) Wrong construction. P. pp. 284, 285. 
 
 (2) Unexpected change of construction. P. p. 284 ; 
 
 G. p. 164; H. p. 137. 
 
 (3) Awkward construction. P. p. 284. 
 
 (4) Involved causes. P. p. 265; K. p. 116; W. p. 
 
 82 ; H. p. 139 ; C. p. 142 ; D. p. 60. 
 
 Con. Connection faulty. P. pp. 39-42, 273; K. pp. 24, 
 119 ; D. p. 64. 
 
 (1) Means of explicit reference (conjunctions, de- 
 
 monstratives, modifications of sentence-struct- 
 ure) not skillfully managed. P. pp. 16, 39- 
 42, 273; G. pp. 202-205; W. p. 147; H. p. 
 116 ; C. p. 29 ; D. p. 52. 
 
 (2) Wrong conjunction used. P. p. 273 ; K. p. 116 ; 
 
 D. p. 74. 
 
 (3) Connectives used where they can be omitted. P. 
 
 pp. 273, 275, 286; G. p. 206 ; H. p. 109; C. p. 66. 
 
 (4) Transitional sentence needed. P. pp. 12, 13, 
 
 33-36, 63, 67, 68. 
 
 (5) Illogical sequence. P. pp. 13-15. 
 
 Cond. Condense. P. pp. 11, 13, 68, 72, 286; G. pp. 154- 
 
 159 ; C. p. 54. 
 E. Bad English. P. pp. 261, 285. 
 
 (1) Diction impure, inaccurate, or unidiomatic. P. 
 
 p. 261 ; K. pp. 14-22 ; G. pp. 28^8 ; W. pp. 
 39-62 ; C. p. 107 ; D. p. 29. 
 
 (2) Construction borrowed from some other lan- 
 
 guage. P. p. 285. 
 
258 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 . Expand. P. pp. 24-32, 63, 271, 285 ; G. pp. 150-154. 
 
 (1) Importance of the idea demands fuller treatment. 
 
 (2) Connecting links omitted. (3) G-aps in the logic. 
 Fig. Error in the use of figurative language. P. p. 288 ; 
 
 K. pp. 99-105 ; G. pp. 85-107. 
 
 (1) Mixed metaphor. P. p. 288 ; H. p. 96 ; C. p. 221. 
 
 (2) Allusion obscure. P. pp. 7-9. 
 
 (3) Figure uncalled for. P. p. 288. 
 Gr. Bad grammar. 
 
 (1) Concord in number or tense not observed. P. p. 
 
 275; K. p. 33; G. pp. 110-112; W. p. 49; 
 H. p. 32 ; C. pp. 112, 113 ; D. pp. 45-47. 
 
 (2) Use of shall and will. P. pp. 276-278 ; K. p. 35 ; 
 
 G. pp. 113-115 ; W. p. 55 ; H. p. 39 ; C. p. 84 ; 
 
 D. p. 48. 
 Kp. Out of keeping. Tone of the essay not consistently 
 
 maintained. P. pp. 7-9, 260-262; G. p. 83; 
 
 W. p. 139. 
 
 1. c. Change capital to small letter. P. pp. 244, 249. 
 p. Bad punctuation. P. pp. 42-47, 245-249 ; K. pp. 204-208. 
 pos. Wrong position. P. pp. 265, 268, 269, 282 ; K. p. 117 ; 
 
 W. p. 82 ; H. pp. 141, 142 ; C. p. 65 ; D. p. 64. 
 (1) Related words separated. P. p. 268; G. pp. 
 
 117-119 ; C. p. 65. (2) Important words in 
 
 unemphatic positions. P. p. 283; W. p. 92. 
 
 (3) Unimportant words in emphatic positions. 
 
 P. p. 282 ; K. p. 117 ; G. pp. 117-122, 179-181. 
 22. _ Repetition to be avoided. P. p. 286; K. p. 118; W. 
 
 p. 139; H. p. 112; C. p. 87; D. p. 63. 
 Eel Relative pronoun at fault. P. pp. 274, 275; K. p. 
 
 115 ; H. pp. 43, 44. 
 (1) Co-ordinate for restrictive relative, or vice versa. 
 
 P. pp. 274, 275; G. pp. 127-131; W. p. 88; 
 
 H. p. 105 ; C. p. 48 ; D. p. 49. (2) Relative 
 
 may be omitted. P. p. 275 ; G. p. 131 ; W. p. 
 
 88 ; C. p. 63. 
 
Appendix Gf- 5. 259 
 
 Sent. Wrong form of sentence. P. pp. 15, 265, 279-281; 
 K. pp. 68-70. 
 
 (1) Periodic for loose sentence, or vice versa. P. 
 
 pp. 265, 279-281. 
 
 (2) Monotonous recurrence of same form of sentence. 
 
 P. p. 283 ; W. p. 169 ; D. pp. 73, 93-100. 
 81 Slang. 
 sp. Bad spelling. 
 tr. Transpose. 
 U. Unity violated. P. pp. 4, 12, 19, 41, 260-265 ; W. pp. 
 
 127-129 ; H. p. 183 ; C. p. 141. 
 (1) Sentence contains unrelated ideas or too many 
 
 ideas. P. pp. 262, 263 ; K. p. 116 ; GL p. 176 ; 
 
 C. p. 141 ; D. p. 60. (2) Clauses appended, 
 
 or not properly subordinated. P. p. 264 ; K. 
 
 p. 116; G. pp. 150, 176-179; C. p. 142; D. 
 
 p. 60. (3) Unity of paragraph violated. P. 
 
 pp. 4, 260; K. p. 70; G. p. 194; W. p. 149; 
 
 C. pp. 29, 30 ; D. p. 72. 
 W. Weak. P. pp. 278-288. 
 
 (1) Terms too general. P. pp. 13, 14, 286; K. p. 
 
 118 ; G. pp. 21, 22. (2) Anti-climax. P. p. 
 
 288; K. p. 104; G. pp. 105-107; H. p. 135; 
 
 C. p. 68 ; D. p. 90. (3) Hackneyed words or 
 
 phrases. P. p. 287 ; W. p. 120 ; C. p. 68. 
 IT Paragraph. P. pp. 10, 15, 96-101. 
 No 1. Do not paragraph. 
 g> Omit. 
 Xor ? Error, not specified. 
 
 c. At beginning or end of the MS. 
 
 One of the above marks placed at the beginning or end of 
 the manuscript warns the writer against a prevailing fault. 
 The general character of the manuscript is indicated by the 
 following letters : A excellent; B fair; C poor; D 
 very bad, rewrite. 
 
26 Paragrap h - Writing. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 THE RHETORIC OF THE PARAGRAPH. 
 (PRINCIPLES ANI> ILLUSTRATIONS.) 
 
 1. Method of Treatment. There are three prime charac- 
 teristics of every good paragraph: (1) Unity, or oneness, 
 by means of which the reader recognizes that some one, 
 particular, significant thing or idea, and nothing else, is 
 being presented ; (2) Clearness, or intelligibility, by means 
 of which he understands what is said of that one thing or 
 idea; and (3) Force, or emphasis, by means of which both 
 the thing or idea and what is said of it are firmly impressed 
 on his mind. We shall consider each of these three charac- 
 teristics, first in its application to the paragraph as a whole, 
 and secondly in its application to the component elements 
 of the paragraph ; namely, sentences, clauses, phrases, and 
 single words. We shall notice, also, some of the common 
 errors that hinder the attainment of Unity, Clearness, and 
 Force in writing, and shall deduce principles for guidance. 
 
 A. UNITY. 
 
 (a) UNITY OF THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE. 
 
 2. Two Kinds of Unity. In a good paragraph we notice 
 two kinds of unity, unity of idea and structure, and unity 
 of tone. Unity of idea and structure has already been dis- 
 cussed. (See pp. 4, 12, 23, 41.) Unity of tone requires 
 that the paragraph shall at no point vary perceptibly from 
 that level of thought or of feeling on which the paragraph 
 began. A commonplace or colloquial remark in a paragraph 
 whose prevailing tone is pathetic, a jest or a piece of slang 
 in a paragraph whose prevailing note is spiritual, are often 
 ruinous to the effect that would otherwise be produced ; and 
 
Appendix H. 261 
 
 a few words of bad English or a badly chosen figure of 
 speech, may work irreparable mischief in a paragraph which 
 would, but for that, be excellent in tone. For maintaining 
 unity of tone in a paragraph, a careful selection of appro- 
 priate details (see pp. 6-10, 30, 55-60), and of appropriate 
 words and images by which to express them, is needful. 
 Notice the paragraphs on pages 37, 40, 47, 57, 142 (middle), 
 143 (last), 158 (last), and 169 (last) ; decide in each case 
 what is the purpose and point of view ; then decide whether 
 the tone is purely intellectual, emotional, or spiritual ; and, 
 finally, mark the words which preserve this distinctive tone 
 throughout the paragraph, and words which in tone fall 
 below the level on which the paragraph begins. Choice of 
 appropriate words is the main consideration in preserving 
 unity of tone. 
 
 Judicious use of blunt idiomatic expressions should not 
 be mistaken for violation of unity of tone. In the following 
 selection the italicized words do not fall below the general 
 tone of the paragraph : ' This instinctive belief, confirmed 
 by every other kind of studious experience, that all serious 
 study must inherently tend toward isolated specialization, 
 seems to me the first difficulty that besets earnest pupils 
 who make a mess of their English in the secondary schools. 
 Clearly enough, a really intelligent teacher can explain it 
 away. The process may involve vexatiously tedious reiter- 
 ation of good sense; but such reiteration ought to do the 
 business. 9 
 
 3. Unity of Tone not Maintained. ' The sight oppressed 
 me with sorrow, my heart swelled into my throat, my eyes 
 filled with tears, / couldn't stand it any longer, and I left. 7 
 Better, 'I could no longer endure the painful scene, and 
 turned sadly away.' 
 
 ' He prays that his friends grieve not at his death/ Better, 
 ' will not grieve,' 
 
262 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 'My greatest difficulties in writing were organizing and 
 classifying material, formulating outlines, and adhering to 
 said (better, the) outlines.' 
 
 6 Again last year he w^as elected to that high office by such 
 a majority that his opponent did not know which end he 
 stood on.' Better, <by an overwhelming majority.' 
 
 ' The best side of the boy's nature was aroused by these 
 potent stimuli.' Better, ' influences,' or ' incentives.' 
 
 'The odor of the blossoms, or of the gum, or the height 
 of the place, makes me dizzy, (Omit) or I have become dizzy 
 from something else.' See also page 7 (bottom). 
 
 4. Construct and arrange sentences in a way to give unity of 
 structure ; choose and arrange words and images in a way to 
 give unity of tone,, 
 
 (6) UNITY OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH. 
 
 5. Division of the Subject. Each sentence must con- 
 tribute to the unity of the paragraph ; and each must have 
 a unity of its own, in the number and relationship of its 
 ideas (pp. 42-47), in the subordination of its parts (pp. 37, 
 41), and in its form as a whole (pp. 36, 38). The most 
 common violations of these three requirements are, (1) put- 
 ting too many ideas, or unrelated or insignificant ideas in 
 one sentence, (2) failing to keep prominent the main subject 
 or idea of a sentence, or failing to keep subsidiary details 
 subordinate, and (3) failing to adjust the form of the sen- 
 tence as a whole to the requirements of the paragraph. 
 
 6. (1) Too Many Ideas in One Sentence. ' The Church 
 and Parliament, always conservative when ftieir own privi- 
 leges are threatened (proofs of which fact may be found in 
 every chapter of English History), created a strong opposi- 
 tion to his claims, claims which to them appeared arro- 
 gant, so he pretended, for a time, to favor each, in order 
 
Appendix IT. 263 
 
 to weaken their hostility; but, at last, he threw off the 
 mask, and opposed them openly.' This sentence is correct, 
 but it attempts to say too many things. There is material 
 in it for three sentences. Omit the matter in parenthesis, 
 which is sufficiently indicated by the word always; put 
 periods after arrogant and hostility, and revise the three 
 sentences thus formed. 
 
 7. Unrelated Ideas in One Sentence. ' The new Congress- 
 man comes of good old New England stock, is in favor 
 of tariff-reform, and at present resides at Washington Court 
 House, the town which gained an unenviable notoriety last 
 year on account of the mob attack on the jail.' Omit the 
 last eighteen words; they are of no significance in giving 
 an idea of the new Congressman. Better, 'The new Con- 
 gressman is at present a resident of Washington Court 
 House. He comes of good old New England stock (insert 
 in this sentence another item or two, relative to his ances- 
 try, or stock-characteristics). He is in favor of tariff-reform' 
 (add to this one or two related particulars, in order to justify 
 separate sentence-statement). 
 
 ' The University was organized by Act of Legislature in 
 1837, and is a wonderful testimony to the efficiency of govern- 
 ment by the people and for the people.' Better, ' The Uni- 
 versity was organized by Act of Legislature in 1837. Its 
 rapid growth is a wonderful testimony,' etc. 
 
 8. The parts of each sentence, whatever its length or the 
 number of its details, should all bear a close relation to one 
 principal idea. 
 
 9. A long parenthetical statement should be omitted if not 
 clearly needed, If needed, it should either be organized into a 
 separate sentence, or be shortened and closely knit into the 
 subordinate texture of the sentence to which it belongs, 
 
264 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 10. (2) Subordination Badly Managed. ' This revolt, con- 
 ducted by Senara against the Empire of Brazil, resulted 
 in his being declared President of the Brazilian Republic.' 
 (The important fact is that a Eepublic was established.) 
 Better, 'This revolt, conducted by Senara against the Em- 
 pire of Brazil, resulted in the establishment of the Brazilian 
 Eepublic, of which Senara was declared President.' 
 
 ' In case the President should die while in office, a near 
 election might be an advantage ; for a man living in a 
 " doubtful " state like New York is frequently chosen Vice 
 President, not because he is a statesman, and should the 
 Presidency devolve on him, he would prove incompetent, 
 and hence an early opportunity to select another would be 
 desirable.' Better, ' In case the President should die while 
 in office, a near election might be an advantage. For the 
 Vice President, chosen, as he frequently is, not because he 
 is a statesman, but solely because he lives in a " doubtful " 
 state like New York, might prove to be an incompetent 
 President. In this event, an early opportunity to select 
 
 another would be desirable.' 
 
 <> 
 
 11. Subordinate details should be kept subordinate in form 
 of statement, 
 
 12. Appended Phrases and Clauses. ' At present, in the 
 House of Refuge, religious exercises are held without re- 
 gard to the classification, of the inmates with regard to 
 the sect of which they are adherents.' Better, 6 At present, 
 in the House of Refuge, religious exercises are held without 
 regard to the sectarian preferences of the inmates.' 
 
 'You will not find a more courageous President, among 
 those who have held the office of late years, at least.' 
 Better, ' Among all of our presidents, at least among those 
 who have held the office of late, you will not find a better 
 example of courage.' 
 
Appendix H. 265 
 
 ' Among the guests is one whose name is honored by all 
 luhose lives have been made better by Ms writings (see 14) 
 and whose presence affords us the greatest pleasure.' 
 Better, ( Among the guests is one whose name is honored 
 wherever lives have been made better by his writings. 
 His presence affords us the greatest pleasure.' 
 
 ' In the second panel we are shown at the right a small 
 palm-tree by whose side is another from behind which three 
 Indians are timidly peeping at Columbus and his followers 
 who have just landed.' Better, 'In this panel we are 
 shown the landing of Columbus and his followers. At the 
 right are two palm-trees ; from behind one of them three 
 Indians are timidly peeping.' 
 
 13. Appended phrases and clauses should be reduced to in- 
 conspicuous forms or transferred to inconspicuous positions, 
 
 14. A subordinate clause within a subordinate clause should 
 not be clothed in the same form of words as clauses of higher 
 rank, Beware of involved clauses, 
 
 15. (3) Loose for Periodic Sentence. ' Serfs were com- 
 pelled to pay for their land and shelter. They gave a 
 percentage of all they raised and of all the game they 
 might capture, to their lord, as part payment.' Better, 
 ' As part payment they gave to their lord a percentage 
 both of all they raised and of all the game they might 
 capture.' 
 
 16. Change a loose to a periodic sentence (see p. 16, top), 
 or vice versa, when the change will result in a closer continua- 
 tion of the thought of the preceding sentence, (Even when 
 clearness is attained by a certain ordering of parts, further 
 rearrangement will often better the unity both of the sen- 
 tence and of the paragraph.) 
 
266 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 B. CLEARNESS. 
 PERSPICUITY, OR CLEARNESS OP THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE. 
 
 17. Sow Perspicuity may be Secured. Each sentence in 
 a paragraph may be clear in meaning, and yet the paragraph, 
 as a whole, may lack clearness. This is true of the para- 
 graph on page 107 and of that at the bottom of page 109. 
 Clearness of the paragraph, as a whole, is more conveniently 
 and accurately called Perspicuity. Perspicuity depends upon 
 paragraph-structure (pp. 24-54), upon the order (pp. 13-15) 
 and connection (pp. 40-42) of sentences, and especially 
 upon the sufficient use of repetition (p. 25), definition (p. 26), 
 explanation, illustration, and details (pp. 28-31). Propor- 
 tion (p. 10, bottom), sequence and grouping (pp. 69, 73), 
 and careful planning (pp. 77-81) must be attended to by 
 the writer who would be perspicuous in style. 
 
 18. To secure perspicuity, observe the laws of sequence and 
 grouping, see that each thought is stated and illustrated with 
 sufficient fulness, and attend to the connection of related sentences. 
 
 CLEARNESS OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH. 
 
 19. Division of the /Subject. As in the paragraph, so in 
 the sentence, clearness is a problem of sequence, grouping, 
 and placing of parts, a problem of pointing out relations and 
 connections between parts, of using a sufficient number of 
 words and of using them accurately. When a qualifying 
 word, phrase, or clause is not so placed as to indicate, with 
 certainty, what word or words it qualifies, we have (1) the 
 squinting construction, or (2) ambiguity resulting from the 
 separation of words that ought to be close together. When 
 reference-words do not point out with unerring accuracy the 
 words to which they refer, (3) the antecedent is often hard 
 
Appendix H. 267 
 
 to detect, or when found is seen to be incommensurate with 
 the reference word. (4) The words of reference chosen may 
 be too vague and indefinite to suggest the antecedent, and 
 (5) confusion of ideas may result from the fact that no ante- 
 cedent is expressed to which the words of reference may 
 refer. When words are not employed in sufficient numbers, 
 a participle may be left without a word in the sentence to 
 which it may attach itself, in which event we may have (6) a 
 case of unrelated or of misrelated participle. The participle 
 carries with it several implications of meaning, hence it is 
 sometimes necessary (7) to expand a participle into a clause 
 in order to indicate the precise implication of meaning in- 
 tended. (8) Words have to be inserted or repeated in form 
 or substance when their omission would cause ambiguity. 
 (9) An infinitive of purpose, when used in connection with 
 an infinitive in another function, requires the insertion of 
 additional distinguishing words. When words are not used 
 accurately in pointing out relations between parts of a sen- 
 tence, lack of clearness is sure to result. Inaccuracies result- 
 ing in obscurity or ambiguity are most frequent (10) in the 
 use of connectives and (11) relative pronouns, (12) in the 
 use of number and tense and (13) in the use of will and 
 shall. We shall now consider in order these thirteen viola- 
 tions of clearness. 
 
 20. (1) Squinting Construction. When a phrase or clause 
 is so placed that it may equally well be understood to refer to 
 what precedes it and to what follows it, it is said to squint. 
 
 'He thought his choice of elective studies, at all events, 
 as good as the average. (Insert (1) was after studies, or 
 (2) at all events after good, or (3) after choice, or (4) before 
 He, according to the meaning.) 
 
 <A Senate of rich men holding their seats by bribing 
 legislatures, to tell the truth, will not longer be tolerated.' 
 Better (1) 'will not (to speak plainly) be tolerated any 
 
268 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 longer ' ; or (2) ( holding their seats (if the truth were known) 
 by bribing/ etc. 
 
 ' A literary education in the minds of some people seems 
 to be unnecessary.' (Place the italicized words first.) 
 
 21. Guard against the squinting construction, Place phrases 
 and clauses in unambiguous positions, 
 
 22. (2) Related Words Separated. ' He looked back upon 
 those years spent in wandering about Europe with regret. 7 
 Better, ( He looked back with regret upon/ etc. 
 
 'He speaks on too deep topics to be readily understood 
 by the ordinary man.' Better 3 'On topics too deep to be 
 readily understood/ etc. 
 
 ' It is not impossible that future ages may develop a means 
 of expressing thoughts and feelings to us unknown.' Better, 
 6 Future ages may express their thoughts and feelings by 
 some means to us unknown.' 
 
 ' During my junior year there was some work in composi- 
 tion in connection with the work in *English that continued 
 through the whole year.' Better, ' During my junior year, 
 in connection with the work in English, there was some 
 work in composition that continued/ etc. 
 
 ' Eed Cap would not shake hands with or even allow any- 
 one to touch him that he did not like.' Better, 'Red Cap 
 would not shake hands with anyone that he did not like, or 
 even allow such a person to touch him.' 
 
 ' He derives his power from, and should always hold him- 
 self responsible to, the people.' Better, 'He derives his 
 power from the people, and should always hold himself 
 responsible to them.' (Or, to the people.) See 24. 
 
 ' He only thought he could stay a few days.' Better, ' He 
 thought he could stay only a few days.' 
 
 'He only (use alone) was able to work the hard problems.' 
 
 6 To so act is foolish ! ' Better, 80 to act, or To act so. 
 See 26. 
 
Appendix H. 269 
 
 ' He put himself on the defensive, not against the whole 
 world, but against those whom he had found it necessary to 
 be on the defensive towards.' (Better, towards whom.) See 
 27. 
 
 6 They not only intend to pass another low-tariff bill, but 
 also a free-silver bill.' Better, 'They intend to pass not 
 only another low-tariff bill, but also a free-silver bill. 7 
 
 23. Bring related words as close together as possible, 
 
 24. Avoid the ' splitting of particles,' that construction by 
 which the emphasis is suspended upon a preposition and is de- 
 layed there until another preposition, referring to the same word, 
 is passed, 
 
 25. Distinguish between 'only' and 'alone,' Place a single- 
 word adverb (such as the word ' only ') immediately before the 
 word or expression that it modifies, 
 
 26. Do not separate the infinitive from its sign 'to,' 
 
 27. When possible, place the preposition immediately before 
 the word to which it refers, The prepositions that can best 
 stand at the end of a sentence are to, for, of, by, and these will 
 not bear a separation of more than two or three words from their 
 idea-word, even in idiomatic expressions, 
 
 28. Be careful to place 'not only but also,' ' either or,' 
 'both and,' immediately before the corresponding words to 
 which they refer, 
 
 29. (3) Antecedent needs Attention. *A brother of Gen- 
 eral Sherman* who was sitting near by, corrected the state- 
 ment.' Better, 6 General Sherman's brother, who/ etc., or, 
 ' A brother of General Sherman, while the General himself 
 was sitting near by/ etc. according to the meaning in- 
 tended. See 33. 
 
 Everybody found it best for their (their should be his) 
 health to shun the place.' 
 
270 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 ' The injured man with the whole circle of his relations 
 and friends rose in their (their should be his) fury to wreak 
 vengeance on the offender. 7 
 
 * He whispered that the enemy were all about us, which 
 would have terrified me under other circumstances.' See 
 35. (For which substitute an announcement that, or a 
 method of communication that, according to the meaning.) 
 
 30. (4) Ambiguous Words of Reference. ' Topography in 
 a broader sense may be represented approximately by hatch- 
 ings or by washes of color. Very beautiful effects may be 
 produced in this way. 7 (Better, by these methods.) See 36. 
 
 ' At that time Doctor and Master were synonymous, but 
 when an initiatory stage of discipline was prescribed, each 
 term became significant of a certain rank, and was called a 
 step or degree ; this was instituted by Gregory IX.' Better, 
 'this change/ or 'this distinction.' 
 
 ' Composition has always been hard for me, and I must 
 confess that the encyclopaedia has been in that connection 
 my closest friend.' Better, 'I must confess that in the 
 preparation of my essays the encyclopaedia,' etc. 
 
 ' There has been a small-pox scare, but it has been stamped 
 out entirely. At one time it looked as if it would spread 
 over the entire city, but it is over now.' (Substitute for the 
 first it, ' the disease ' ; for it looked as if it, ' we thought the 
 disease ' ; for the last it, ' the scare.') See page 40. 
 
 31. (5) Confusion of Ideas. ' A seven-year term would 
 cause the President to make his administration the best of 
 those who had held the office. 9 See 32. Better, 'A seven- 
 year term would enable the President to make his adminis- 
 tration better than any former administration.' 
 
 ( Where can you find a more enthusiastic crowd than a 
 body of college students ? ' Better, ' Where can you find 
 greater enthusiasm than in a crowd of college students ? ' 
 
Appendix H. 271 
 
 32. Guard against using a relative clause that has no antecedent, 
 
 33. Be sure that the antecedent to which a relative refers is 
 clear and unmistakable, 
 
 i 
 
 34. Singular antecedents require singular pronouns of reference ; 
 relative and antecedent should agree in number, 
 
 35. Eepeat an idea when the relative alone is not sufficient 
 for clearness. 
 
 36. Words of reference should denote accurately the number 
 and character of the antecedent, 
 
 37. (6) Misrelated and Unrelated Participle. ' Having 
 proved compulsory education necessary, it remains (add, for 
 us) to prove it beneficial and expedient.' 
 
 ' Accustomed from childhood to hearing incorrect speech, 
 systematic drill is needed in the schools.' ' Accustomed 
 from childhood to hearing incorrect speech, pupils need 
 systematic drill in the use of good English. 7 
 
 38. A participle usually requires that a word be expressed with 
 which it may agree, Supply the word when omission would cause 
 
 ambiguity. 
 
 1 
 
 39. (7) Participle for Clause. ' Eeduced to his last 
 dollar, he felt that he was ready for any emergency.' (Sup- 
 ply before reduced, When he was, If he were, Whenever he 
 was, Since he was, Though he was, Because he was, or After 
 he was, according to the meaning intended.) 
 
 'The skeletons in the vault, exposed to the air, turned 
 suddenly to dust.' Better, 'when they were exposed/ or 
 'if they were exposed.' 
 
 40. Supplant a participle by a clause whenever more than one 
 interpretation is possible, 
 
272 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 41. (8) Omission of Necessary Words. ' Republics are not 
 desirable (insert if, because, since, ivhenever, or wherever) 
 unaccompanied by intelligence.' 
 
 'He was generous to all who had aided him to acquire 
 wealth, and (insert to) his business partner especially. 7 
 
 ' When he came to his majority, after a long struggle with 
 poverty and hardship, and (substitute when) more prosper- 
 ous days began for him, and (insert when) he found himself 
 influential, he repaid all those who had helped him.' 
 
 'He said that he meant no offence and (repeat that he) 
 intended to repair the mischief.' 
 
 'He reported that there were two applicants for the 
 degree of Master in Pharmacy, (repeat a degree) for which 
 the University had not yet provided.' 
 
 'For many years we have been troubled with disputes 
 about the various fisheries, (repeat disputes) which might 
 be in large measure done away with by the appointment of 
 a commission/ 
 
 ' They could do nothing further until the war closed and 
 cooler counsels prevailed.' (Eepeat until before cooler, or 
 substitute so for and, according to the meaning intended.) 
 
 42. Kepeat a word when its omission would cause ambiguity, 
 
 43. (9) Infinitives in Different Offices. 'He loved to 
 give to the poor, to show them that he was their friend.' 
 The two offices indicated : ' He loved to give to the poor in 
 order to show them that he was their friend 5 ' or the mean- 
 ing may be, 'He loved to give to the poor, and, in other 
 ways, to show them that he was their friend.' 
 
 ' It is not every one who knows just how much tension 
 a brush needs (insert in order) to secure good contact.' 
 
 44. Make it plain whether an infinitive is co-ordinate with a 
 preceding infinitive or is dependent, Distinguish a subjective, an 
 objective, or a complementary infinitive from an infinitive of purpose, 
 
Appendix H. 273 
 
 45. (10) Connection Faulty. 'The Church and Parlia- 
 ment created a strong opposition to his claims ; and (better, 
 so) he pretended, for a time, to favor each, in order to 
 weaken their hostility. But at last he threw off the mask/ etc. 
 
 6 In Germany and England the military expenditure goes 
 on as before, and (better, while) in Italy the cost of the 
 army has bankrupted the country.' 
 
 'The snow had been falling for several days, and was 
 now nearly three feet deep; but (better, nevertheless) Mr. 
 Smith considered it necessary to go to the Zoological 
 Laboratory.' 
 
 6 Landor lacks the power of attraction which we find in 
 writers of great genius; (omit and) and though a classic 
 in the best sense, he will never be widely read.' 
 
 'The prospects of the team, against Harvard, are not 
 flattering, and (add even) against the smaller eastern col- 
 leges we cannot hope for much.' 
 
 ' Austria and Prussia and (better, together with) the whole 
 body of the German states, fell upon this feeble kingdom.' 
 
 ' Hawthorne, the author of ' Twice Told Tales,' and who 
 was a contemporary of Irving, speaks of Irving's humor.' 
 (Omit and.) See 48. 
 
 'His was a character of sterling integrity, and which 
 deserves to be imitated.' (Better, ' His was a character of 
 sterling integrity and worthy of imitation.') See 48. 
 
 ' It is often necessary to make a careful examination for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the exact form of the ground 
 and to construct a map that can be followed.' (Better, in 
 order to ascertain, etc., and in order to construct.) See 49. 
 
 ' They wanted to make the weekly meeting not so much 
 a social force, but, on the other hand, a means of cultivating 
 oratory.' Better, 'not so much a social force as a means,' 
 etc. 
 
 ' His manners were not acquired, but natural, but (better, 
 yet) he never felt awkward in society.' See 50. 
 
274 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 46. Distinguish different degrees and different kinds of con- 
 nection in such words as and, so, while, whereas, even, together 
 with, since, hence, because, for, etc, 
 
 47. Do not overwork the words and, of, etc, 
 
 48. And cannot be used with who or which unless a correspond- 
 ing who or which has been used in the same sentence, or has been 
 clearly implied, 
 
 49. Introduce by similar words, clauses or phrases which perform 
 similar functions, 
 
 50. In the same sentence do not use the word 'but' in two 
 functions, Distinguish between the larger and smaller contrasts 
 in a sentence by using different conjunctions, 
 
 51. (11) Relative Pronoun at Fault. The relative pro- 
 noun that is restrictive, and introduces a clause that closely 
 defines, limits, or qualifies the antecedent. A that-cl&use 
 affects the antecedent as an adjective would affect the 
 antecedent. Who and which are co-ordinating relatives, and 
 introduce, not a modifying thought, but an additional 
 thought of equal or greater importance. Who is equiva- 
 lent to a conjunction plus a personal pronoun, and may be 
 translated by the words and he, and they, though he, though 
 they, for he, since they, etc., which words may often be used, 
 with a gain to clearness, instead of who. Which is equiva- 
 lent to a conjunction plus the word it, this, these, those, and 
 may be translated by the words and this, and it, and these, 
 a fact that, a circumstance that, etc., which words may often 
 be used, with a gain to clearness, instead of which. Who 
 and which are sometimes used restrictively, without loss 
 of clearness, instead of the strictly correct that (1) when 
 the use of that would make a harsh combination, (2) when 
 the word that has already been used in another function 
 in the same sentence, and (3) when the use of that would 
 throw a preposition to the end of the sentence. 
 
Appendix ff. 275 
 
 The aid of punctuation may be called in to distinguish 
 restrictive from co-ordinative who or which. Since a comma 
 is usually inserted before a co-ordinate relative, the omission 
 of punctuation before ivho or ivhich will give to the clause 
 a restrictive force. 
 
 < He asked me who (whom, is correct) I expected.' 
 
 ' Whom (who, is correct) do you think would wear such 
 a thing ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing which (better, that) could add to their comfort 
 was forgotten.' 
 
 4 He gave up his law practice that (better, ( his law prac- 
 tice which ') he had built up only after years of hard work.' 
 
 'The society has twenty members that (or ' members 
 who') intend to make this their life-work.' (Who would 
 imply a total membership of but twenty. That implies a 
 larger membership.) 
 
 6 There is a saloon next door that (or, which) is a nuisance.' 
 (That implies that the saloon is a nuisance. Which implies 
 that its being next door is a nuisance.) 
 
 ' That man was the first that saw (better, to see) what 
 was needed.' 
 
 6 This is the town that you mentioned.' Better, ( This is 
 the town you mentioned.' 
 
 52. Distinguish between the restrictive relative that and the 
 co-ordinating relatives, who and which. 
 
 53. That may sometimes be omitted with a gain to clearness, 
 
 54. Eecast a whole sentence if necessary to avoid the use of 
 that in two functions, 
 
 55. (12) Lack of Concord in Number or Tense. ' No 
 one knew his age, but it would not have been difficult to have 
 guessed it.' (Corrected : to guess it.) See 56. 
 
 ' He said that honesty was the best policy.' (Better, is.) 
 See 57. 
 
276 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 'As civilization advanced, they began to feel that the 
 sweetest thing man possessed is liberty.' (Better, possesses.) 
 
 'He had never, put aside the old and narrow idea that 
 higher education was for men alone.' (Better, is.) 
 
 6 Sometimes we have been attracted by the melodies that 
 have floated towards us, and drew near to discover the 
 source.' (Better, ' have drawn near.') 
 
 'He came to the hill, and, watching his chance, slyly 
 creeps near the game; then he raised his gun.' (Either, came, 
 crept, raised; or, comes, creeps, raises.) See 58. 
 
 'Each of these men were great financiers.' (Both were, 
 etc. ; or, each was a great financier.) 
 
 ' There are (is) one of these rooms on each corner.' 
 
 'The beautiful location of the school, together with its 
 many historical associations, make it a delightful place to 
 visit.' (Make should be makes.) 
 
 ' Thus, through his avarice, his honor as well as his prop- 
 erty and business enterprises were gone.' (Were should be 
 was.) 
 
 'The number of co-educational colleges have increased.' 
 (Have should be has.) 
 
 56. In dependent clauses and infinitives reckon the tense rela- 
 tively to the tense of the principal verb, 
 
 57. According to the usage of most good writers, general truths 
 require the present tense, irrespective of the tense of the principal 
 verb, 
 
 58. Consistency in the tenses of the verbs of a sentence should 
 be maintained throughout, 
 
 59. The verb should agree with its subject in number* 
 
 60. (13) Witt, Shall, Would, Should. (1) In the simple 
 future, shall is used in the first person, and will in the second 
 and third persons ; thus, ' I, or we, shall enjoy reading the 
 
Appendix H. 277 
 
 book/ and 'You, he, or they will enjoy reading the book.' 
 
 (2) In sentences expressing determination, will is used in 
 the first person, and shall in the second and third persons ; 
 thus, ' I, or we, will obey ' and ' You, he, or they shall obey.' 
 
 (3) In questions, the same distinction between shall and will 
 as expressing simple futurity or determination is seen in 
 the following : ' Shall I, or we ? ' (simple future, or equivalent 
 to ' do you wish me or us to ? ') ; ' Will I ? ' (ironical) ; ' Shall 
 you subscribe ? ' (mere information desired) ; ' Will you sub- 
 scribe ? ' (I want you to) ; ' Shall he or they ? ' (Do you wish 
 him or them to ?) ; ' Will he or they ? ' (mere information 
 desired.) (4) In secondary clauses the reporter uses will, 
 if the speaker used or would have used will; shall if the 
 speaker used or would have used shall. Thus : Speaker, 
 6 1 shall enjoy reading the book ' ; Reporter, ' He says he 
 shall enjoy reading the book ' ; Speaker, ' I will not allow 
 it ' ; Reporter, ' He says he will not allow it ' ; Speaker, 
 6 You (or they) shall seek in vain for it ' ; Reporter, ' He 
 says you (or they) shall seek,' etc. (5) Should corresponds 
 to shall, and would to will, following corresponding rules. 
 Thus, in reporting the sentences just given, the correct 
 form would be, 'He said he should enjoy reading the book/ 
 'He said he would not allow it/ 'He said you (or they) 
 should seek in vain for it.' (6) In conditional clauses ex- 
 ceptional care is needed, though the same distinctions are 
 maintained. 
 
 'He tells me that he will be twenty-one years old next 
 month.' (No determination. Will should be shall.) 
 
 'We would be pleased to have you call.' (Should is cor- 
 rect. Would, implying determination to be pleased, is 
 impolite as well as incorrect.) 
 
 ' If he should come to-morrow, ivould you be surprised ? ' 
 (Should is correct.) 
 
 ' What would we do with Samoa if we would succeed in 
 annexing it ? ' (Use should in both cases.) 
 
278 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 61. With the first person, shall denotes simple futurity, and will 
 denotes determination, With the second and third persons, shall 
 denotes determination, and will denotes simple futurity, Should 
 follows the rule of shall and would follows the rule of will. 
 
 62. Keport what another has said, thought, known, or felt, by 
 using the verb that he, speaking in the first person, would have 
 used, If the dependence of tense requires, change his shall to 
 should, and his will to would. 
 
 C. FORCE. 
 (a) FORCE OF THE PARAGRAPH AS A WHOLE. 
 
 63. How Force may be Secured. Each paragraph carries 
 with it a certain weight and value for the reader. This weight 
 and value is due primarily to the character of the thought and 
 emotion with which the paragraph is freighted ; but, since 
 thought and emotion gain or lose according to the way in 
 which they are presented, the writer must take into account 
 style as an element of force. The style must correspond to 
 the character of the thought and emotion. Some thoughts 
 and emotions are by nature less forcible than others; the 
 attempt to overcharge with force a weak or commonplace 
 thought leads to bombast. A subject not in itself pic- 
 turesque or capable of exciting emotion will not be made so 
 by presenting it in highly figurative or impassioned diction. 
 The character of the thought as pathetic, humorous, witty, 
 ironical, or picturesque, will determine the language to be 
 used in expressing it. Some writers mistake effect for 
 force, and in striving after effect employ big words and 
 high-sounding phrases, or are guilty of over-niceness in 
 expression ( k fine writing '), forgetting that plain statement 
 is nearly always the most forcible. In general, whatever 
 contributes to Unity and Clearness, contributes to Force, 
 but a paragraph already unified and clear may sometimes 
 
Appendix H. 279 
 
 be improved in respect of Force (1) by a change of order in 
 the sentences (see pp. 13-15), (2) by the addition of partic- 
 ulars and applications (see pp. 30, 32), (3) by parallel con- 
 struction and repetition (see pp. 38-40), (4) by omission of 
 connectives (see p. 41), and (5) by condensing and short- 
 ening sentences (see p. 151. top). 
 
 A common violation of the principle of Force is over-use 
 of one kind of sentence. The student should guard against 
 this fault by familiarizing himself with the different kinds, 
 and by learning the advantage of each. Sentences are 
 sometimes classified as short sentences and long sentences, 
 terms which do not need to be defined ; and sometimes as 
 loose, periodic, and balanced. Each has its peculiar uses. 
 Short sentences arrest the attention more sharply than long 
 sentences ; hence they may be used for marking transitions, 
 for summarizing, and for announcing ideas that are to be 
 developed in succeeding sentences. Short sentences may 
 also be used to give quickness of movement and abrupt 
 emphasis. (See the selection from Thackeray, p. 140 ; the 
 selections from Emerson, pp. 145, 157 ; and Carlyle, p. 145 ; 
 the selection from Everett, p. 148. Notice the different use 
 which each author makes of the short sentence.) Long 
 sentences are useful to exhibit the relation of a principal 
 idea to several subordinate ideas within a single group, or 
 to show connectedly the development of an idea in its 
 details. Long sentences are often necessary to secure effects 
 of rhythm, antithesis, and climax. Employed in consider- 
 able numbers, they often give an impression of dignity and 
 grace. (See the selection from Morley, p. 142 ; from Haw- 
 thorne, p. 143 ; from Webster, p. 155 ; and notice the use 
 which each author makes of the long sentence.) 
 
 According to the second classification, sentences are loose, 
 periodic, or balanced. A loose sentence is one in which the 
 sense is fairly complete at one or more points before the end. 
 The following is an example : ' He expresses what all feel, 
 
280 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 but all cannot say ; (1) and his sayings pass into proverbs 
 among his people, (2) and his phrases become household 
 words and idioms of their daily speech, (3) which is tessel- 
 lated with the rich fragments of his language, (4) as we see 
 in foreign lands the marbles of Roman grandeur worked 
 into the walls and pavements of modern palaces.' If inter- 
 rupted at any one of the points indicated by numbers, this 
 sentence would still be fairly complete in sense. Loose 
 sentences resemble in structure those which we use in con- 
 versation ; hence they give an impression of ease and natu- 
 ralness. (See the selection from Holmes, p. 143; from 
 Bagehot, p. 144; from Dickens, p. 153.) A periodic sen- 
 tence is one which seems incomplete when interrupted 
 at any point before the close. Consider the structure of 
 the following sentence : ' A language in the condition in 
 which ours is at present, when thousands of eyes are jeal- 
 ously watching its integrity, and a thousand pens are ready 
 to be drawn, and dyed deep in ink, to challenge and oppose 
 the introduction into it of any corrupt form, of any new and 
 uncalled-for element, can, of course, undergo only the slow- 
 est and the least essential alteration.' The meaning of this 
 sentence is suspended until the very end. Interrupted at 
 any point before the end, it is grammatically incomplete. 
 Periodic sentences are used to maintain interest and to give 
 to style an impression of dignity and completeness. (See 
 the selection from Morison, p. 137 ; from Gibbon, p. 149 ; 
 from Arnold, p. 151.) A balanced sentence is one in which 
 different parts are made similar in form in order to bring 
 out parallelism in meaning. (See pp. 38, 39.) The follow- 
 ing is an example : ' On the third of November, 1640, a day 
 to be long remembered, met that great Parliament, destined 
 to every extreme of fortune, to empire and to servitude, to 
 glory and to contempt; at one time the sovereign of its 
 sovereign, at another time the servant of its servants.' 
 Sentences of this type are used to give force and point to 
 
Appendix H. 
 
 contrasted ideas. In form they are more impressive than 
 other kinds of sentences, and consequently are more liable 
 to abuse. A safe rule is to use the balanced sentence only 
 when it is demanded by a parallelism in the thought. 
 
 To use in successive paragraphs one length or one type 
 of sentences results in feebleness and monotony of style. 
 Over-use of the short sentence leads to scrappiness ; of the 
 long sentence, to diifuseness or obscurity. Loose sentences 
 are apt to be slovenly. Periodic sentences, especially if 
 long, require sustained attention and soon weary. A para- 
 graph composed solely of balanced sentences is almost 
 unreadable. The principle of Force requires a judicious 
 mingling of these various kinds. If the student inclines to 
 write short sentences, let him now and then introduce a 
 moderately long one. If he inclines to write long sentences, 
 let him introduce among them sentences that are brief and 
 pointed. A succession of periods should be interrupted by 
 looser forms, and in a succession of loose sentences a sus- 
 pended sentence should now and then appear. 
 
 64. Gauge force of expression by force of thought, 
 
 65. Avoid bombast and fine writing, 
 
 66. Depend for force mainly upon paragraph structure, order 
 and brevity of sentences, and condensation, 
 
 67. Avoid monotony by mingling sentences of various lengths 
 and of various kinds, 
 
 (5) FORCE OF SINGLE SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH. 
 
 68. Problems of Sentential Force. Force in the sentence, 
 as in the paragraph, presents two kinds of problems, 
 problems of position and structure of parts, and problems 
 of choice among words, sounds, and figures. (1) Important 
 words should be so placed that the reader cannot help em- 
 
282 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 phasizing them. (2) Unimportant words should be so 
 placed as to refuse emphasis when read. Emphasis is 
 secured to a word, phrase, or clause by placing it out of its 
 usual position in the sentence. The positions most natu- 
 rally emphatic in the sentence are at the end and at the 
 beginning. There is in every good sentence one point at 
 which the emphasis culminates ; that point should be occu- 
 pie^. by the most important expression. But emphasis 
 must be varied, or (3) we have monotony of structure. 
 When (4) an unexpected change of construction is made, 
 or (5) awkward constructions are introduced, there is loss 
 of force and of emphasis. (6) Since the end of the sen- 
 tence is a naturally strong position, it should not be surren- 
 dered to an unimportant phrase or clause. (7) Constructions 
 borrowed from another language, by violating the English 
 word-order, dissipate or divert the emphasis and weaken 
 the force of the sentence. (8) Condensation of clauses to 
 phrases, or of phrases to single words, will often strengthen 
 a sentence. Weakness results when (9) the terms employed 
 are too general, when (10) unimportant words are repeated, 
 when (11) there is an unintended jingle of sounds or a queer 
 combination of sounds. There are, also, (12) expressions 
 that are weak in themselves, from having been used loosely 
 or indefinitely for a long time. (13) Finally, faulty figures 
 are a source of weakness. We shall take up in order these 
 thirteen violations of Force-requirements. 
 
 69. Unimportant Words Emphasized. ' Washington en- 
 camped for the winter, with the remnant of his army, in a 
 small valley near the city in which his enemies swarmed ; 
 but the weather was so cold that he was in no danger of 
 attack.' Better, 'The small valley in which Washington 
 with the remnant of his army encamped for the winter, was 
 near the city in which his enemies swarmed; but the 
 weather/ etc. 
 
Appendix H. 283 
 
 ' This is not true of any other country.' Better, ' Of no 
 other country is this true. ? See 72. 
 
 70. (2) Important Words Unemphasized. ' It is remark- 
 able that although Washington had that excessive pride in 
 his high position which is shown in his portrait, he always 
 evinced the deepest interest in the humblest of his soldiers.' 
 Better, ' It is remarkable that, although Washington's pride 
 in his high position, as shown in his portrait, was excessive, 
 he always evinced/ etc. 
 
 ' Of course in America, where the names college and uni- 
 versity are applied indifferently to the same institution, the 
 term degree has lost its exactness and is but a seeming 
 parallel to the term as used originally in the older universi- 
 ties of Europe.' Better, ' And its identity with the term as 
 used originally in the older universities of Europe is only 
 apparent.' 
 
 'We see frankness and honesty in this face.' Better, 
 'What we see in this face is frankness and honesty.' 
 
 < His fall was sad.' Better, < How sad his fall ! ' 
 
 ' This will not be denied.' < Better, ' Will any one deny 
 this ? ' 
 
 71. Important words should occupy emphatic positions, 
 
 72. Emphasis is sometimes secured by inversion, See page 37. 
 
 73. Emphasis is sometimes gained by changing a declarative 
 to an exclamatory or an interrogative sentence, 
 
 74. (3) Monotonous Recurrence of the Same Structure. 
 'That Washington was a great general, we know; that 
 he was an honest statesman, we are certain; that he was 
 never moved by selfish ambition, history proves.' Better, 
 ' We know that Washington was a great general ; that he 
 was an honest statesman, we are certain; and history 
 proves that he was never moved by selfish ambition.' 
 
284 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 75. Vary the emphasis by varying the structure, 
 
 76. (4) Unexpected Change of Construction. ' The Indians 
 make signals by covering the fire until a sufficient quantity 
 of smoke is accumulated, and it is then allowed to ascend in 
 short puffs.' Better, ' And then allowing it to ascend/ etc. 
 
 'The young man's fists were impressing his arguments 
 on the radiator more forcibly perhaps than he will ever 
 be able to impress them in a less literal sense. 7 Better, 
 ' Than he will ever be able to impress them on the public. 7 
 
 ( She saw them striving to find the unknown and that 
 they never found it. 7 Better, ( But never finding it. 7 
 
 'The women 7 s parlors are admirably adapted for social 
 gatherings as well as a retreat for the weary. 7 Better, 
 * They are also a retreat for the weary. 7 
 
 'We know of his irreproachable character and that he 
 is not capable of such a deed. 7 Better, * We know that 
 his character is irreproachable and that he is not capable 
 of such a deed. 7 
 
 ' He saw his danger and that another step would be fatal. 7 
 Better, ( He saw that his position was dangerous and that/ 
 etc. ; or, ( He saw his danger and the fatality of another 
 step. 7 
 
 77. In similar parts of the sentence, use the same construction, 
 
 78. (5) Awkward Constructions. ' The building is of 
 brown-stone, having been erected two years ago. 7 Better, 
 ' The building is of brown-stone and was erected two years 
 ago. 7 See 79. 
 
 'There is no need of discussing the question of how it 
 happened. 7 Better, 'There is no need of discussing how 
 it happened. 7 
 
 ' I came in contact with creatures whose existence, as 
 possible, had never occurred to me. 7 Better, ' Creatures the 
 possibility of whose existence/ etc. 
 
Appendix H. 285 
 
 'The air becomes vitiated and without any life-giving 
 qualities.' Better, ' And loses its life-giving qualities.' 
 
 'The desks follow the shape of the wall, thus causing 
 them to assume the form of concentric curves.' Better, 
 ' Assuming the form of concentric curves.' 
 
 79. Do not subordinate an independent thought, 
 
 80. Avoid awkward constructions, 
 
 81. (6) Weak or Abrupt Ending. ' The change would 
 be of the greatest value to all students, that is, to those 
 who regularly study on Sunday, at least.' Better, 'The 
 change would be of the greatest value to all students, and 
 especially to those who regularly study on Sunday.' 
 
 'Let those who are ambitious to win place or power, 
 worry.' Better, ' Let those worry who,' etc. 
 
 82. Do not put a weak phrase at the end of a sentence, 
 
 83. An important thought at the close of a sentence requires a 
 volume of sound corresponding to the sense, 
 
 84. (7) Construction Borrowed from Another Language. 
 ' Under the then existing circumstances, nothing could 
 be done.' Better, 'Under the circumstances then existing, 
 nothing could be done.' 
 
 'The too great distance of the proposed field from the 
 campus is another objection. An admittedly by far better 
 location is on High Street.' Better, ' The proposed field is 
 too far from the campus. It is admitted that High Street 
 would afford a much better location.' 
 
 'We ran the entire gamut of our at that time possibilities.' 
 (Omit at that time.) 
 
 ' He, when he had put a white tie on, looked around for 
 his gloves.' Better, ' After putting on a white tie, he looked 
 around for his gloves.' 
 
286 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 85. A construction borrowed from another language requires a 
 change to the natural word-order of English, 
 
 86. (8) Condensation. ' The Church and Parliament 
 were opposed to his claims and created a strong opposi- 
 tion.' Better, < The Church and Parliament created a strong 
 opposition to his claims.' 
 
 4 Two green eyes glared at him through the darkness and 
 came nearer and nearer, and when he was about to call for 
 help he found that it was only a cat.' Better, < Two green 
 eyes glared at him through the darkness ; nearer and nearer 
 they came; he was about to call for help when he found 
 that it was only a cat.' 
 
 'The twenty-eight hundred students (omit) assembled 
 united in giving the University yell. 7 
 
 'If you will only coddle him, he will treat you well.' 
 Better, ' Coddle him, and he/ etc. 
 
 'When he had done the deed, he disappeared.' Better, 
 < The deed done, he disappeared.' 
 
 87. Force is gained by cutting out all words that may be dis- 
 pensed with, 
 
 88. The imperative and the participle are means of conden- 
 sation, 
 
 89. (9) Terms too General. ' An epidemic existed in 
 the interior; the inhabitants were dying in large numbers.' 
 Better, ( An epidemic was raging in the interior ; the people 
 were dying by thousands.' 
 
 90. lor strength use particular terms instead of general terms, 
 
 91. (10) Repetition to be Avoided. ' His person and 
 manner were ungracious enough, so that he prevailed only 
 by strength of his reason, which was enforced with con- 
 fidence enough.' 
 
Appendix H. 287 
 
 ' Near by are some shells thrown up by the waves in some 
 storm.' 
 
 'It is only comparative??/ recen% that it has been dis- 
 tinct^ seen by astronomers. 7 
 
 6 Certain characteristics are certain to offend/ 
 
 6 Letting our eyes fall once more to the surface of the 
 water, let us look more carefully at the scene. 7 
 
 6 His life went on on the peaceful lines which he had laid 
 down for himself.' 
 
 'A simple-hearted man with nothing to influence other 
 men with but goodness of heart.' 
 
 92. (11) Euphony Violated. ''Recall all the thrilling 
 incidents of that day. 7 Better, Recollect, etc. 
 
 ' He was proud of the learning he had got.' Better, which 
 he had acquired. 
 
 'The second tumbril empties and moves off; the third 
 comes up.' Better, approaches. 
 
 ' Suc/i changing scenes. 7 (' Such varying scenes. 7 ) 
 
 93. Avoid needless repetitions of the same word, 
 
 94. Avoid close repetitions of the same sound, 
 
 95. Avoid a succession of monosyllables, 
 
 96. Avoid harsh or abrupt endings, 
 
 97. (12) Weak and Hackneyed Expressions. If I may 
 be allowed to use the figure; Situated as it is, on Lake 
 Michigan, etc. ; very nice ; very happy ; as it were ; I 
 think; that is to say; this subject is very important; the 
 end is not yet ; suffice it to say ; etc. when used fre- 
 quently. 
 
 'Just beyond the laboratory is a storeroom, (omit) so to 
 speak, where chemicals and apparatus are kept. 7 
 
 'The Library is the best place, (omit) to be found for 
 collecting class-taxes. 7 
 
288 Paragraph - Writing. 
 
 'He seemed at times to mock at reason, defy judgment, 
 and lack (better, break througJi) all restraint. 7 
 ' Near the palace is (better, totters) the hovel. 7 
 
 98. Avoid trite and meaningless expressions. 
 
 99. A verb implying action is more forcible than a verb pas- 
 sive in sense, 
 
 100. (13) Figures Faulty or Uncalled for. ' He would 
 have given his all life itself, his hopes, his prospects 
 to blot out that deed. 7 (Anticlimax. Put life itself Sifter 
 prospects.) 
 
 6 The wildest excitement prevailed, and at two o 7 clock the 
 hungry eyes of the sailors feasted once more upon dry 
 land. 7 See 101. 
 
 ' In our Teachers 7 Association will be found many of the 
 wheel horses who teach the young idea how to shoot. 7 See 
 98 and 102. 
 
 <Life 7 s sunset is approaching. 7 Better, <Life 7 s sun is 
 setting. 7 
 
 ' The plan of representing the character of the surface by 
 contour lines has its advantages and disadvantages and, 
 (omit) like the Nebular Theory, has many supporters. 7 
 
 ' The teacher should be all that is noble and pure. The 
 children, (omit) those blossoms of love, are constantly look- 
 ing to the teacher for guidance.' 
 
 101. Beware of the mixed metaphor and the anticlimax, 
 
 102. Do not use a figure unless it brings strength to the 
 sentence, 
 
INDEXES. 
 
 I. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 [The numbers refer to the pages of the text. Names of authors whose 
 works are quoted and of periodicals from which extracts have been made, 
 are in SMALL CAPITALS.] 
 
 ABBOTT, 146. Abstracts, 85, 182-184. ALEXANDER, 147, 
 148. Amplifying Paragraphs, 63, 64, 189-191. Analysis, 137- 
 141, 191-202. Application, 32. A Priori Proofs, 88, 89. Argu- 
 ment, 87-92, 123, 124, 130, 135. Argument, Subjects for Essays in 
 (see Index II.). Argumentative Type, 48-54. ARNOLD, 139, 
 144, 151, 162, 186. Authority, 89. 
 
 BACON, 31, 146. BAGEHOT, 31, 34, 141, 142, 144, 160. BAIN, 
 44. Bain, 106. BIRRELL, 13. BOLINGBROKE, 189. BRYCE, 
 186. BUCKLE, 139. BUCKLEY, 8. Burden of Proof, 91. 
 
 BURKE, 35, 38, 50, 160, 188. 
 
 Campbell, 106. CARLYLE, 18, 57, 145. Carpenter, 106. 
 CENTURY, 3, 34, 160. CHANNING, 187. Character Sketches, 58. 
 CHICAGO HERALD, 30. CHRISTIAN UNION, 3. Clark, J. S., 106. 
 CLARKE, 63, 146, 150. Clearness, 266-278. Climax, 13, 14. CLAY, 
 34. Concluding Paragraphs, 61, 63, 185, 186. CONTEMPORARY 
 REVIEW, 147. Contrary, Presenting the, 27, 28. Correcting Manu- 
 scripts, Abbreviations for, 255-259. Criticism, 83-85. CURTIS, 53. 
 
 Deduction, 49, 102, 105. Definition, 52, 80. Definitive 
 
 Statements, 26. De Mille, 106. DE QUINCEY, 7, 41, 44. 
 Description, 55, 56, 65-70, 131. Description, Subjects for Essays 
 in (see Index II.). Developing, Means of, 24-36. DICKENS, 56, 
 153. Directive Paragraphs, 63, 187, 188. Division, 78, 125, 
 129. DRUMMOND, 26. DRYDEN, 4. 
 
 EARLE, 10. Editing, 202-203. ELIOT, GEORGE, 145. EMER- 
 SON, 11, 145, 147, 149, 156. Enforcement, 32. Essays, 64-92. 
 
 289 
 
290 Indexes. 
 
 EVERETT, 64. Examples, 88-90. Explanation, 28-30. Ex- 
 position, 75-87, 125-128, 130, 136. Exposition, Subjects for Essays 
 in (see Index II.). Expository Type, 48-54. 
 
 FARRAR, 30. FIELDS, 157. Force, 278-288. FROUDE, 143, 157. 
 
 GARDINER, 62. Genung, 106, 118, 119. GIBBON, 149, 159. 
 GOLDSMITH, 161. GRAHAM, 146. GREEN, J. R., 55, 58." GROTE, 37. 
 
 HAMERTON, 1, 20, 187. HAMILTON, 52. HARE, 162. HAR- 
 PER'S MAGAZINE, 163-165. HARVARD MONTHLY, 153. HAW- 
 THORNE, 143, 159. HIGGINSON, 163. Hill, A. S., 106. Hill, 
 D. J., 106. HOLMES, 29, 143. Hunt, 106. HUXLEY, 30. 
 
 Illustration, 28-30. Induction, 50, 90, 102-105. Introduc- 
 tory Paragraphs, 61, 63, 185-187. Introductory Sentences, 33, 34. 
 Inversion, 37. IRVING, 149. Isolated Paragraph, 2, 18. 
 
 JAMES, W., 54, 94. JOHNSON, 14, 150. 
 
 KlNGSLEY, 27. 
 
 LAMB, 35, 44. Length of Paragraph, 10. LEWES, 104, 156, 
 187. LIVERMORE, 185. Logical Type, 48. LONDON SPECTATOR, 
 21. LONDON TIMES, 32. LOWELL, 37, 62. LUCE, 186. 
 
 MCCARTHY, 24, 153. MACAULAY, 7, 9, 12, 13, 28, 43, 45, 46, 
 
 158, 188. McElroy, 106. MC^EILL, 155. MANN, 21, 32. 
 
 MATHEWS, 159. MERIVALE, 102. Method, 13. MILL, J. S., 
 
 27, 156. Minto, 106. MORLEY, 142, 162. MORISON, 137. 
 MURRAY, J. C., 144. MURRAY, J. O., 27. 
 
 Narration, 55, 56, 70-75, 132-134. Narration, Subjects for 
 
 Essays in (see Index II.). NEW YORK PRESS, 22. 
 
 Outlines of Essays, 119-137. 
 
 PAGET, 103. Paragraph Structure, Typical, 119. Parallel 
 Construction, 38, 123. Paraphrase, 85, 182-184. PARKER, 28. 
 Partition, 77. PATER, 139. Portrait Sketches, 56. Proof- 
 reading, 202-211. Proofs, 31, 88, 89. Proportion, 10. Punctu- 
 ation, 42-47, 244-255. 
 
 Reference, Explicit, 40. Reference List, 212, 213. Refuta- 
 tion, 90, 91. Related Paragraph, 2, 60-92. RENTON, 100. 
 Repetition, 39, 40 ; of Theme, 25, 26. Reporting, 202-203. Re- 
 productions, 180-182. Rhetoric of the Paragraph, 260-288. ROBERT- 
 SON, 151, 153. RUSKIN, 6, 22, 27, 33, 47, 55, 79, 148, 160. 
 
II. Index to Essay-Subjects. 291 
 
 SAINTSBURY, 9. Selection, 6. Sentence Structure, 36. Se- 
 quence, 13. SHAIRP, 189, 190. SHELLEY, 188. Signs, 88, 89. 
 SMILES, 158. SMITH, SIDNEY, 158, 161. SPENCER, 31, 49, 50, 140. 
 STEDMAN, 152, 185. Subject, General, 17 ; of Paragraph, 19. 
 Subjects of Essays, 213-244 (see Index II.). Subjects to be 
 narrowed, 110. Subordination, 40-42. Summarizing Sentences, 
 33-36. SWINBURNE, 26. 
 
 TAYLOR, 150. Ten-minute Themes, 172-179. THACKERAY, 
 151. Theme, 17. Theory of Paragraph, 93-106. Topic- 
 sentence, 19-24. Topic-sentences to be developed, 111-118. 
 Transitional Paragraphs, 63, 187-188'; Sentences, 33. Types of 
 Paragraph Structure, 47-54. 
 
 Unit of Discourse, 1, 2. Unity, 4, 16, 23, 260-265. 
 Variety, 15. VON HOLST, 185. 
 
 WALKER, 49. WEBSTER, 14, 155. Wendell, 106. WHIT- 
 NEY, 97, 154. 
 
 II. INDEX TO ESSAY-SUBJECTS. 
 
 [The figures (in bold-faced type) before the colon refer to the page; 
 the figure or figures after the colon refer to the number of the subject.] 
 
 Description. 214 : 8 ; 217 : 116, 131 ; 219 : 12, 17 ; 220 : 
 32, 42 ; 221 : 33, 34, 36, 38 ; 223 : 101, 102, 106 ; 225 : 149 ; 
 226 : 180, 183, 184 ; 228: 236 ; 229 : 46, 59 ; 23O : 75, 2, 3 ; 
 231:35,41; 233:80,18-20; 235:27-30,33,37; 237:1; 
 238 : 8, 16, 18, 20, 21, 32, 34 ; 239 : 50-58, 63, 84, 85, 87, 91, 92, 
 97, 98; 240: 100, 101, 102, 105, 107-112, 115, 117, 118, 121, 122, 
 125, 127-132, 134, 136, 138, 139, 142, 146, 148-151, 153, 155-158; 
 241 : 159-162, 166, 167, 169, 171, 174, 179, 180, 182, 185, 186, 188-191, 
 193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 202, 206, 208, 210 ; 242: 213, 219, 221-224, 
 226, 227, 232, 234-237, 241, 245,249-251,274,275,284-287,296-298, 
 301, 308, 313 ; 244 : 317, 318, 320. 
 
 Narration. 213: 5; 217: 117-119; 218: 1-3, 17; 219: 
 27; 221: 31, 34, 38; 223: 88, 89, 92, 94, 100, 103, 107; 
 224: 118; 225: 153, 154, 156, 167; 227: 234; 231: 14, 15, 
 27, 33 ; 232 : 42, 43, 49, 50 ; 233 : 76, 78 ; 234 : 3, 6, 15, 26 ; 
 
292 Indexes. 
 
 235 : 25, 31 ; 237 : 61 ; 238 : 24 ; 239 : 68, 81, 83, 86, 95 ; 
 240 : 106, 113, 116, 120, 123, 126, 129, 130, 132-135, 137, 143-145, 147, 
 152-155, 158 ; 241 : 160, 163-170, 174, 177, 178, 180-186, 188, 189, 
 193, 199, 200, 203-205, 207, 208, 211, 212 ; 242 : 215, 228, 229, 231, 
 245, 274, 275, 291, 292, 299, 304, 305, 307, 309. 
 
 Exposition. 213 : 12, 4 ; 214 : 7, 9-12, 14, 15, 17-20, 24-32 ; 
 215 : 33, 34, 36-66 ; 216 : 67-81, 83-94, 97-99 ; 217 : 102-115, 
 120-124, 127-130; 218: 4-15, 18-24; 219: 3-8, 10, 11, 14-16, 
 18-27, 29-31 ; 22O : 33-41, 43-46, 1, 4, 7-11, 17 ; 221: 18-25, 28, 
 29, 31, 33, 39-41, 43, 46, 47, 48; 222: 52, 55-59, 61, 62, 64-68, 
 73-75, 79, 80, 82 ; 223 : 84, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 103-105 ; 
 224: 117, 119, 121, 130-133, 136, 142-144; 225: 145-148, 152, 
 155, 157-165, 170-174, 176, 177; 226: 178, 181, 182, 185, 186, 
 189-191, 195; 227 : 221, 233 ; 228 : 235, 2-9, 12, 15, 18, 23-27 ; 
 229: 29-40, 42, 47-49, 51, 52, 57; 230 : 60, 1, 4-7; 231: 8, 
 10-13, 16-26, 28-32, 34, 37-40 ; 232 : 44-48, 51-58, 60-72 ; 233 : 
 73, 74, 77, 79, 1, 4, 1 7, 8, 10-14, 16, 17, 22 ; 234 : 1-4, 6-8, 10-25, 
 28-32 ; 235 : 33-36, 38-40, 42, 43, 1-8, 10-12 ; 236 : 13-18, 22-24, 
 26, 32, 34-36, 38-41 ; 237 : 42, 43, 45-60, 62, 2, 3, 4, 6 ; 238 : 9-12, 
 14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25-31, 33, 36-38, 43-46 ; 239 : 48, 49, 60-62, 
 64-67, 70, 72-75, 77-80, 82, 84-90, 93, 94, 96; 240 : 103, 114, 119, 
 121, 122, 124, 125, 128, 140, 141 ; 241 : 72, 173, 175, 176, 181, 184, 
 187, 192, 195, 197, 201, 209; 242: 214, 216-218, 220, 222, 225, 
 230, 233, 238-240, 242-244, 246-248, 252-267 ; 243 : 268-273, 276, 
 288-290, 293, 294,297, 302, 303, 306, 310-312; 244: 314-316, 319, 
 321. 
 
 Argument. 213: 3, 6; 214: 13, 16, 21-23; 215: 35; 
 216: 82, 95, 96; 217: 100, 101, 125, 126; 218: 10-12, 14-16; 
 219 : 1, 2, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 25, 26, 28 ; 22O : 35, 36, 38, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 
 9, 10, 12-16; 221 : 18, 19, 26, 27, 30, 32, 37, 42, 44, 45, 46 ; 222 : 
 49-51, 53, 54, 56, 60, 63, 69-72, 76-78, 80, 81 ; 223 : 83, 85, 108, 109, 
 110-116, 120, 122-129, 134-141; 225: 151, 166, 168, 169, 175; 
 226 : 179, 185-188, 192-194, 196-207 ; 227 : 208-220, 222-232 ; 
 228: 1, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19-22, 28; 229: 29, 41, 43-45, 
 50, 53-56, 58 ; 230 : 61-74 ; 231 : 9, 36 ; 232 : 59 ; 233 : 75, 
 9, 21 ; 234 : 5, 7, 9, 27 ; 235 : 37, 41, 9, 19, 20, 21 ; 237 : 44, 5 ; 
 238 : 13, 35, 39-42, 47 ; 239 : 69, 71, 76, 99 ; 240 : 104, 124, 140 ; 
 243 : 277-283, 287, 295. 
 
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